The statement had already been prepared: "We are attaching the highest institutional importance to ensuring that this type of misconduct does not happen again," the chief executives of Deutsche Bank, Anshu Jain and Jürgen Fitschen, said in a statement shortly before midday on Wednesday. Minutes earlier, the European Commission in Brussels had slapped record fines totaling €1.7 billion ($2.3 billion) on six international banks. Deutsche Bank's share was the biggest by far at €725 million.

http://www.c.de/international/business/deutsche-bank-ordered-to-pay-big-fine-in-rate-fixing-scandal-a-937260.html

A partir du 3 janvier 2013, l’Etat Islamique en Irak et au Levant (EIIL), un groupe constitué essentiellement de combattants étrangers et mené par Abou Bakr al-Baghdadi, a été chassé d’une bonne partie de son territoire du nord de la Syrie par plusieurs autres factions rebelles. Cette éruption ne doit pas surprendre : elle n’est que la conclusion assez logique de près de six mois de tiraillements et de tensions entre une formation considérée comme étrangère au contexte syrien par bon nombre de groupes rebelles, même si certaines factions avaient toujours voulu maintenir le contact avec l’EIIL. Plus largement, l’affrontement nous en dit beaucoup plus sur l’état de la recomposition de l’insurrection syrienne et sur ses dimensions régionales et internationales, via les soutiens extérieurs.

http://alliancegeostrategique.org/2014/01/07/bas-les-masques-ce-qui-se-joue-derriere-le-combat-contre-leiil-en-syrie/

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Tuesday (7 January) vowed to block any British changes to EU laws that would prevent migrant workers from having access to welfare benefits. "If anyone, whether it is premier Cameron or anyone else, will want to change the European treaty to make this possible, Poland will veto it, today, tomorrow and forever," Tusk told reporters in Warsaw.

http://euobserver.com/political/122649

in its June 2012 Obamacare decision, the Supreme Court ruled that states aren’t obligated to expand Medicaid, and Texas is currently one of the 25 states that have chosen not to expand the program. In April, Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican, called Medicaid expansion “a misguided, and ultimately doomed, attempt to mask the shortcomings of Obamacare” and has resolutely refused to consider it.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/01/living-poor-and-uninsured-in-a-red-state/282881/

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21592666-parties-nationalist-right-are-changing-terms-european-political-debate-does?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/turningright

On Wednesday the Antisocial Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill reaches its report stage (close to the end of the process) in the House of Lords. It is remarkable how little fuss has been made about it, and how little we know of what is about to hit us. The bill would permit injunctions against anyone of 10 or older who "has engaged or threatens to engage in conduct capable of causing nuisance or annoyance to any person". It would replace asbos with ipnas (injunctions to prevent nuisance and annoyance), which would not only forbid certain forms of behaviour, but also force the recipient to discharge positive obligations. In other words, they can impose a kind of community service order on people who have committed no crime, which could, the law proposes, remain in force for the rest of their lives.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/06/law-to-stop-eveyone-everything?CMP=fb_gu

The NSA has spied on members of Congress, but acknowledging that would unnerve millions of Americans. That's why their official response to the letter was so evasive that CNN summed it up, "NSA won't say whether it spies on Congress." The NSA noted "procedures that protect the privacy of U.S. persons," and said that "members of Congress have the same privacy protections as all U.S. persons." Put differently, a program that collects data about virtually every phone call in America cannot help but include the phone numbers that members of Congress dial, as well as the numbers of those who telephone members of Congress.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/01/the-danger-of-nsa-spying-on-members-of-congress/282827/

The Maritime Self-Defense Force’s newest ship has a flight deck its entire length and is nearly the size of the Shokaku and Zuikaku aircraft carriers that took part in the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, yet Japan insists it is not an aircraft carrier.

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201401070039

Die Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) ist kein klassisches Freihandelsabkommen. Es geht nicht um die Abschaffung von Zöllen und Handelsschranken, weil es die zwischen Europa und den USA kaum noch gibt. Ziel ist vielmehr der Abbau von sogenannten nicht-tarifären Handelshemmnissen. Als Handelshemmnis können die Vertragspartner alles Mögliche definieren: Verbraucherschutz, Kennzeichnungspflichten, Datenschutz, Arbeitnehmerrechte.

http://www.carta.info/68646/angriff-auf-europas-demokratie/

La situation en Espagne pousse de nombreux jeunes à tenter leur chance ailleurs en Europe. Un jeune étudiant espagnol actuellement en échange à Lille revient dans un reportage mené dans son université sur les difficultés politico-économiques auxquelles doit faire face l’Espagne.

http://www.taurillon.org/la-jeunesse-espagnole-de-la-crise-au-mecontentement