FT.com / Europe - Goldman banker criticises Athens swaps

Labour abuse claims overshadow Guggenheim Abu Dhabi show - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/21a99dac-6342-11e4-9a79-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=crm/email/2014113/nbe/WorldNews/product&siteedition=intl#axzz3I8NiGnKz

But the Guggenheim, whose main museum in New York has also been targeted by demonstrations relating to its Abu Dhabi branch, has been criticised for failing to address protests against its expansion into the Middle East.
Gulf Labor, an international artists’ pressure group that includes Lebanese artist Walid Raad, has called on Abu Dhabi’s government to pay labourers working on the futuristic museum – designed by renowned US architect Frank Gehry – a living wage and allow them to form workers’ councils.
The artists’ body has also called on the company developing the museum on Saadiyat Island to award a one-off fee of $2,000 to help workers pay off onerous recruitment fees.
Mr Armstrong, during a preview of the exhibit to the press on Sunday, refused to answer questions about labour conditions in the UAE.
Criticism of inadequate labour standards throughout the oil-rich Gulf region has overshadowed its grandiose cultural and sporting projects. Neighbouring Qatar has come under intense pressure for the conditions faced by the labourers constructing stadiums for its controversial hosting of the World Cup in 2022, while Dubai has also faced sustained criticism for more than a decade over the working conditions of labourers, who are often from south Asia.

Israeli finance minister vetoed spending on Jewish settlements - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/f3787098-60df-11e4-894b-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=crm/email/20141031/nbe/WorldNews/product&siteedition=intl#axzz3HpSRgHYM

Israel’s finance minister said he vetoed new spending on infrastructure for Jewish settlements in the West Bank after an “angry meeting” at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, and criticised the timing of the recent announcements on building plans that have inflamed tensions with Palestinians and the US.
Yair Lapid, head of the centre-right Yesh Atid party in Mr Netanyahu’s coalition, said he had refused a funding request worth Shk200m to Shk300m ($53m-$79m) for roads and other projects deep inside the occupied West Bank that would have “caused an international crisis”

GCHQ chief accuses US tech giants of becoming terrorists ’networks of choice’
▻http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/nov/03/privacy-gchq-spying-robert-hannigan

Privacy has never been “an absolute right”, according to the new director of #GCHQ, who has used his first public intervention since taking over at the helm of Britain’s #surveillance agency to accuse US technology companies of becoming “the command and control networks of choice” [#cybernétique] for terrorists.

Robert Hannigan said a new generation of freely available technology has helped groups like Islamic State (#Isis #OEI) to hide from the security services and accuses major tech firms of being “in denial”, going further than his predecessor in seeking to claim that the leaks of Edward #Snowden have aided terror networks.

GCHQ and sister agencies including MI5 cannot tackle those challenges without greater support from the private sector, “including the largest US technology companies which dominate the web”, Hannigan argued in an opinion piece written for the Financial Times (03/11/2014) just days into his new job.
▻http://cryptome.org/2014/11/gchq-14-1103.pdf

#infoguerre #médias_sociaux Cf. ▻http://seenthis.net/messages/306729

France grapples with rising tide of homegrown jihadis - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d76783d8-53a3-11e4-8285-00144feab7de.html?ftcamp=crm/email/20141029/nbe/WorldNews/product&siteedition=intl#axzz3HZqOkv89

Some 360 French jihadis are estimated by the government to be engaged in combat; 36 are said to have been killed. Almost 200 have returned home, of whom more than 50 have been given jail terms, according to the official account.

Western female jihadis deploy ‘soft-power’ of Isis online - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/2d8b020c-5792-11e4-8493-00144feab7de.html?siteedition=uk#axzz3HZqOkv89

They may be yearning for the lifestyles of early Muslims, but their language is that of tech-savvy teenagers, with slang and emoticons interspersed with Arabic religious terms spelt out in English letters. Ms Havlicek describes it as “a kind of jihadi subculture cool”, with the Arabic words inserted to provide a sense of authenticity and being “part of the gang”.
Muhajirah Amatullah describes herself on Twitter as “just a random Muhajirah [emigree to the Islamic state] /wife/mother who has access to the internet. I pose no threat to your National Security: D Chillax!”

Ukraine, Russia and Europe’s bloody borders - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/2c168540-5dc3-11e4-897f-00144feabdc0.html

Somebody born in Lviv in 1914, who died in 1992 and never moved out of the city, would have lived in five different countries during the course of a lifetime. In 1914, Lviv, then called Lemberg, was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire; by 1919 it was part of Poland and became Lwow; in 1941 it was occupied by the Germans; after 1945, the city was incorporated into the Soviet Union; and then in 1991 it became part of newly independent Ukraine.
Most of these changes were accompanied by warfare and bloodshed. So when it was suggested last week that, a few years ago, Russian president Vladimir Putin had proposed to Donald Tusk, then Polish prime minister, that Ukraine should be partitioned once again – with Russia claiming the eastern territories, and Poland Lviv and other parts of western Ukraine – there was an uproar.
(…)
But there are other influential voices who think that even tacitly accepting that Europe’s borders can once again be redrawn by military force would be a disastrous mistake. Carl Bildt, who has just stepped down as Sweden’s foreign minister, puts it bluntly: “The borders of Europe are more or less all drawn in blood through centuries of brutal conflict.” Allowing these borders to be redrawn, he thinks, would be an invitation “for the blood to start flowing again”.
(…)
If the dismemberment of Ukraine began in earnest, others might be tempted to join in. Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, referred to in some other EU capitals as a “mini-Balkan Putin”, has made clear he regards the loss of two-thirds of Hungarian land after the first world war as a tragedy. Parts of historic Hungary now lie across the border in Ukraine – as well as in Slovakia, Serbia and Romania. If Ukraine really began to fall apart, even some Poles might be tempted by the idea of the return of Lviv.
(…)
The Russians argue that it is actually the west that started this dangerous process with Nato’s intervention in the Kosovo war of 1999, and the subsequent recognition in 2008 of Kosovo as an independent state. That process remains controversial, even within the EU. But Kosovo, unlike Crimea, was not incorporated into a neighbouring country. It was a province of the former Yugoslavia that sought independence. Within that process, the border between Serbia and Kosovo remained unaltered. The Kosovo war also took place in the context of the many years of fighting that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia.
However, the Balkan wars of the 1990s are relevant to Ukraine in one sense. They revealed how much blood can flow once Europe’s borders begin to crumble.

Éditorial de Gideon Rachman

lien du FT fourni par le copier/coller ▻http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2c168540-5dc3-11e4-897f-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz3HRrTsAIZ

Why inequality is just a drag on economy?

- Financial Time
C’est ici : ▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/8b41dfc8-47c1-11e4-ac9f-00144feab7de.html

Obama’s Faustian pact with the Saudis
By Edward Luce
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/bdae33de-44de-11e4-ab0c-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3EiyXfUdv

Mais toujours cet époustouflant crédit accordé aux dirigeants occidentaux qui décrédibilise l’ensemble de l’article : une association de #malfaiteurs est présentée comme une « erreur » de la part de la partie occidentale.

The Saudis are as hostile to Islamic democracy as they are to its secular variety. Both challenge the House of Saud’s legitimacy.

Yet signs of the Arab street’s alienation keep spreading. The Middle East leads the world in terms of its youth bulge. For growing democracies, such as India, armies of young workers offer a potentially huge dividend. But for stagnant economies, such as Egypt and Pakistan, they spell demographic nightmare. By continuing to suffocate freedom at home and next door, the Saudis only multiply the supply of recruits for groups such as Isis. This is a trade-off the west cannot afford.

#Saoud #Etats-Unis

‘War’ and ‘peace’ factions split Ukraine politics - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/37164582-3ce1-11e4-871d-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=intl

Since the ceasefire, two camps have materialised – a “party of peace” around President Petro Poroshenko, and the “party of war” associated with Arseniy Yatseniuk, prime minister, and Yulia Tymoshenko, the former premier.
The divisions may partly reflect competing ambitions ahead of the October 26 parliamentary poll, which is intended to sweep away remaining vestiges of the Yanukovich era.
Some even suggest Mr Poroshenko and Mr Yatseniuk are in a calculated “good cop, bad cop” act. They may aim to signal to Mr Putin, who is facing deepening western sanctions and a potential backlash over Russian soldiers’ corpses returning from Ukraine, that he is better to deal with Mr Poroshenko than allow the “war” faction to gain ground.
But the split became concrete last week after Mr Yatseniuk pulled out of talks to stand on the president’s party list in the elections. He unveiled his own “Popular Front” party, including commanders of some volunteer battalions in east Ukraine. These are composed partly of far-right activists who came to the fore when the winter protests turned violent.
Speaking separately at a weekend conference in Kiev, the two leaders differed sharply in tone. Mr Poroshenko admitted the peace process had its doubters. “But from day to day, more people start to believe that we will be successful [on] this very difficult [path],” he said.
Mr Yatseniuk said Ukraine could never trust a Russian president whose “goal is to take the entire Ukraine”.

Intéressante analyse. Une des clés pour expliquer le report de l’application de l’accord d’association avec l’UE ?

Sur les copains d’extrême-droite de Iatseniouk, voir la jolie brochette pointée hier ►http://seenthis.net/messages/293493

Saudi Arabia arrests 88 over ‘imminent attack’ - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/80bcd8bc-32ab-11e4-a5a2-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=crm/email/201493/nbe/MiddleEast/product&siteedition=intl#axzz3CIUWNJGX

Saudi Arabia has arrested 88 people suspected of planning what the interior ministry says was an “imminent attack” amid rising concerns over the threat from Sunni jihadis in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.
The arrests of the suspected al-Qaeda affiliates, which had been planned for many months, were announced on the same day that it emerged a gas pipeline had been set alight in a clash between security forces and gunmen near the Shia town of Awamiya in the country’s eastern province.

Frilosité

Le président de la banque HSBC, M. Douglas Flint, a identifié un nouveau péril qui menacerait l’industrie financière. Financial Times, 5 août.
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/5160331a-1bb9-11e4-adc7-00144feabdc0.html (#paywall)

Le président de HSBC a mis en garde contre le « danger croissant » que représente la réticence des employés à prendre des risques par crainte d’être sanctionnés pour leurs erreurs. (...) Ses commentaires, qui reflètent une inquiétude largement répandue dans le secteur quant aux effets de la réglementation sur la performance des entreprises, constituent l’une des rares prises de position publiques d’un dirigeant sur cette question délicate. Auparavant, des banquiers avaient déjà critiqué l’environnement réglementaire, souvent sans grand succès. En 2011, le président-directeur général de Barclays, M. Bob Diamond, avait déclaré devant une commission parlementaire britannique que le temps « des remords et des excuses » était révolu ; moins d’un an plus tard, il était congédié dans le cadre du scandale de la manipulation du Libor.

Jordanian lender faces Hamas funding claims in NY trial - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/163f9e54-1f30-11e4-9689-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=crm/email/2014811/nbe/MiddleEast/product&siteedition=intl#axzz39yrsweqV

When the arguments begin, likely to be later this week, the trial is expected to focus on transactions performed by Arab Bank for charities in the Middle East and what their link was to the attacks for which Hamas claimed responsibility.
One particular charity is the Saudi Committee, which the plaintiffs argued in a court document in 2004 was part of “the backbone of the donor base and operational budgets of Hamas”.
Saudi government officials have repeatedly said that the country does not support terrorism and in 2002 the Saudi embassy in the US rejected Israeli criticism of its charities, saying that it did not finance suicide bombers but helped ordinary Palestinians. A Saudi government spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

The modern jihadi is a Wahhabi on steroids. His main grievance with the House of Saud is that it deviates

Saudis have lost the right to take Sunni leadership - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ab1b61c4-1cb6-11e4-b4c7-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=crm/email/201488/nbe/MiddleEast/product&siteedition=intl#axzz39yrsweqV

The House of Saud, facing a potentially wrenching succession to the ailing Abdullah at a time of upheaval across the Arab world, is in a delicate position. As custodian of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, it is the closest modern equivalent to the old Islamic caliphate. It thus abominates the violent presumption of Isis as much as it abhors the rival brand of pan-Islamic fundamentalism of the Muslim Brotherhood. Yet the kingdom still spews out the corrosive poison that helps fuel religion-based fanaticism. The Isis rampage of destruction of shrines and mosques, for instance, continues the two centuries-old record of Wahhabi iconoclasm. Nor should it be forgotten that the House of Saud used Wahhabi zealots as its shock troops in the last century to unite by force most of the religiously diverse Arabian peninsula – won by the sword in 52 battles over 30 years. There are no churches in Saudi Arabia, and permits to build Shia mosques are rarer than desert rain.

Digital trade : Data protectionism - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/93acdbf4-0e9b-11e4-ae0e-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=uk#axzz39VQH2nf7

Un article intéressant, qui dévoile les dessous des négociations sur les flux transfontières de données. Avec bien évidemment le penchant néolibéral du Financial Time.

Juste en passant une remarque sur ce paragraphe (enfin, le second, le premier étant là pour donner le contexte).

Russia’s parliament recently passed a bill requiring technology companies such as Google to keep their Russian users’ data within the country. Brazil last year proposed doing the same but subsequently backed down. And at least two provinces in Canada require public contractors to keep personal data in the country.

The US, as it tries to repair the damage caused by the Snowden leaks, is using existing talks in an attempt to prevent other countries from adopting similar measures to block the free trade in data.

Ce qui est drôle, c’est la formule « réparer les dommages créés par Snowden », qui est devenu une phrase toute faite, que l’on retrouve souvent, y compris en français... alors que les dommages sont ceux créés par les pratiques de surveillance de la NSA et de ses compères... que Snowden a dévoilés pour empêcher qu’ils ne deviennent plus grands encore et obèrent toute confiance dans le monde numérique.

Vladimir Putin : Collision course - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1af3068c-1348-11e4-84b7-00144feabdc0.html

L’article expose les états d’âme du milieu des affaires, recourt à l’analyse du langage corporel…

Mr Putin does not like the choice with which he is confronted. When he addressed the nation on the downing of MH17 in a video message recorded in the early hours of Monday, he stepped nervously from one foot to the other, his face sweaty and rigid, his eyes blinking heavily and an eyebrow twitching.

… et fait des comparaisons stylistiques.

A group of men sit in a Kamaz truck – one of those big Russian 4x4s that regularly wins the Dakar rally – speeding down a highway. Some of them sense that they are going the wrong way fast but nobody dares do anything.

http://im.ft-static.com/content/images/94c90194-13fe-11e4-b46f-00144feabdc0.img#.jpg

Je parlais ici de Flurry, cette boîte pas très connue qui brasse beaucoup de #data et de #publicité sur #mobile : ▻http://seenthis.net/messages/197683

Eh bien elle vient d’être rachetée par #Yahoo :

Yahoo has bought #Flurry, an app analytics company, as part of a push to grow its mobile business to catch up with competitors such as Google and Facebook.

The deal, for an undisclosed sum, is thought to be the company’s largest acquisition since it bought blogging platform Tumblr in 2012.

(...) The Flurry acquisition follows similar moves by other internet companies to buy mobile advertising technology companies to lure marketers to their own ads and generate revenue from ads on other company’s #apps.

Last year Twitter bought MoPub, a mobile advertising exchange, while Facebook acquired the Atlas Advertiser Suite from Microsoft and Parse, a cloud-based platform for mobile app developers. Yahoo has also previously bought other advertising technology companies such as AdMovate, which specialised in automated mobile ad buying.

Yahoo buys Flurry app analytics company (FT.com 21/07/2014)
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1523de48-111d-11e4-94f3-00144feabdc0.html

Le casse du siècle par ISIS, qui aurait volé 400 millions de dollars dans les banques de Mossoul, serait une invention. Avec les empreintes de Ahmed “WMD” Chalabi.

Biggest bank robbery that ‘never happened’ – $400m Isis heist
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0378d4f4-0c28-11e4-9080-00144feabdc0.html

Reports that Isis had stolen 500bn Iraqi dinars ($430m) from Mosul financial institutions as the Islamist group and its Sunni insurgent allies seized control of the city more than a month ago raised alarm bells in the west and throughout the region, amid concern over the ambitions and growing capacity of extremist Islamists.

Iraqi officials, including one-time CIA asset and lawmaker Ahmed Chalabi, described the alleged bank heist in comments cited by Iraqi and international media.

But Atheel al-Nujaifi, governor of Nineveh province, which includes Mosul, rejects the stories of vast sums of money being taken away by militants.

“Nobody until now has confirmed that story,” he said in a telephone interview from Erbil.

#Google to create European venture capital arm (Murad Ahmed, FT.com, 10/07/14) ▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/cb19852a-0783-11e4-b1b0-00144feab7de.html

The move adds to the capital that has started to flood into the European tech scene. In June, Index Ventures launched a €400m fund dedicated to early-stage technology companies in #Europe. In 2013, the London offices of Silicon Valley group Accel Partners unveiled a similar fund worth $475m. Google Ventures said the initial investment of $100m could rise over time depending on its success.

#startup

Airbus staff quizzed in SFO probe into alleged Saudi corruption - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c930e308-06ba-11e4-b0d3-00144feab7de.html?ftcamp=crm/email/201479/nbe/MiddleEast/product&siteedition=uk#axzz36zpbxOct

The UK Serious Fraud Office has made arrests and questioned six individuals in connection with its long-standing investigation into alleged corruption in Saudi Arabia by a subsidiary of Airbus, the European aerospace and defence group.

Supreme Court enshrines privacy of smartphones (FT.com, 25 juin 2014) ▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/543dc0da-fc91-11e3-81f5-00144feab7de.html

US #police must obtain a warrant to search a suspect’s #smartphone after the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that constitutional #privacy protections apply to the often extensive data people keep on the devices in their pockets.

The fourth amendment bans “unreasonable searches and seizures” but police are usually allowed to search the personal belongings a suspect is carrying. Lower courts had been divided on whether to ban searches of smartphones without a warrant.

Ca semble dérisoire mais ne l’est sans doute pas. #droit #Etats-Unis

“Modern cell phones are not just another technological convenience. With all they contain and all they may reveal, they hold for many Americans ‘the privacies of life’,” he wrote Chief Justice John Roberts. “The fact that technology now allows an individual to carry such information in his hand does not make the information any less worthy of the protection for which the Founders fought.”