The Amsterdam appeals court on Tuesday ruled that a group of British expats were unable to continue with a case aimed at securing their rights after Brexit. The group had hoped to argue they had acquired independent rights as European Union citizens by living in the Netherlands for so long, but the court ruled the case was inadmissible in its current form.
The expats, some of whom have lived in the Netherlands for decades, maintained that they should retain rights and freedoms, such as theright to free movement and residence.
However, the court agreed with the Dutch government, which had argued at a hearing in April that the case was "inadmissible" and "groundless."
German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen promises US significant defense budget increase
Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday reaffirmed Germany's commitment to significantly increasing its defense budget.
Germany announced earlier this month that it will increase its defense spending to 1.5 percent of GDP by 2024, but will fail to meet its NATO spending obligation of 2 percent of GDP.
Speaking in Washington after meeting with US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, von der Leyen said Germany still has the NATO spending target firmly in its sights. She added that the German government has covered "a part of the stretch" towards this goal.
"We know in Germany that we have to take on our share of the burden to defend our democracies and our values," von der Leyen said. "We're willing and committed to doing so. We've come a long way. There's still a lot to do."
Bloomberg
White House Split Over Hardline Response to China Trade War
Some White House officials are trying to restart talks with China to avoid a trade war before U.S. tariffs on Chinese products take effect July 6, three people familiar with the plans said, setting up a battle with others in the administration who favor a harder line.
Staff of the National Economic Council have contacted former U.S. government officials and China experts in recent days to gauge chances for high-level talks in the next two weeks, the people said on condition of anonymity to discuss the inquiries. One idea NEC staff floated was inviting Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan before the tariff deadline, they said.
The outreach signals a willingness by some U.S. officials to seek a truce before $34 billion in Chinese products are hit with tariffs rather than trigger a trade war between the world’s two largest economies. Still, the chances of such negotiations happening in the near term are slim as long as opponents inside the administration favor penalizing Beijing. President Donald Trump has shown no signs of backing down.
Paul Manafort Ordered by Judge to Be Held Away From Other Prisoners
Paul Manafort will be kept away from other prisoners while he’s in jail after allegedly tampering with potential witnesses ahead of his trial, a federal judge in Washington said Thursday.
Manafort’s bail was revoked on June 15 after prosecutors accused him of obstructing justice by contacting witnesses. He’s currently at the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Virginia. In ordering him to be held apart, Judge Amy Berman Jackson also said Manafort should “be afforded reasonable opportunity” to consult with his lawyer and be accompanied by a federal marshal on his trips to court.
Jackson didn’t explain her reasons for separating him, saying only that “the defendant shall be confined in a corrections facility separate, to the extent practicable, from persons awaiting or service sentences or being held in custody pending appeal.”
China Just Handed the World a 111-Million-Ton Trash Problem
Few people consider used plastic to be a valuable global commodity. Yet China has imported 106 million tons of old bags, bottles, wrappers and containers worth $57.6 billion since 1992, the first year it disclosed data. So when the country announced last year that it finally had enough of everybody else's junk, governments the world over knew they had a problem. They just didn’t know exactly how large it was.
Now they know. By 2030, an estimated 111 million metric tons of used plastic will need to be buried or recycled somewhere else—or not manufactured at all. That's the conclusion of a new analysis of UN global trade data by University of Georgia researchers.
Everyone's bottles, bags and food packages add up. Factories have churned out a cumulative 8.3 billion metric tons of new plastic as of 2017, the same Georgia team reported last year. Even 1 million metric tons, the scale that this material trafficks in every year, is hard to visualize in the abstract. It's 621,000 Tesla Model 3s. It's 39 million bushels of corn kernels. The world’s 700 million iPhones make up roughly a tenth of a million metric tons.
Ars Technica
Get ready for more sales taxes on online purchases
State governments may require online retailers to collect sales taxes even in states where the retailers have no physical presence, the US Supreme Court ruled in a decision issued today.
The 5-4 ruling could clear the way for more states to require collection of sales taxes on products ordered online from out-of-state retailers.
The case, South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., Et Al., involved a South Dakota state law "requiring out-of-state sellers to collect and remit sales tax 'as if the seller had a physical presence in the State,'" the decision noted. Online retailers argued that the law was unconstitutional, and the State Supreme Court agreed, but the US Supreme Court overturned the state court ruling. South Dakota expects to collect another $48 million to $58 million in taxes a year because of this ruling.
China-based hackers burrow inside satellite, defense, and telecoms firms
An advanced hacking campaign originating in China has spent the past year infiltrating satellite operators, defense contractors, and telecoms companies in the US and Southeast Asia, researchers from Symantec said.
The attackers specifically looked for and infected computers one target used to monitor and control satellites, Symantec researchers reported in a blog post published Tuesday. A hack on a second target in the geospatial industry zeroed in on the software-development tools it used. The focus on the operational sides of the unnamed companies suggests that the hackers sought the ability not just to intercept but possibly to also alter communications traffic sent by businesses and consumers.
“Espionage is the group’s likely motive, but given its interest in compromising operational systems, it could also adopt a more aggressive, disruptive stance should it choose to do so,” Symantec researchers wrote.
Report: World trending to hit 50% renewables, 11% coal by 2050
Bloomberg New Energy Finance released a new report this week that estimates how electricity generation will change out to 2050. The clean energy analysis firm estimates that in a mere 33 years, the world will generate almost 50 percent of its electricity from renewable energy, and coal will make up just 11 percent of the total electricity mix.
Add in hydroelectric power and nuclear energy, and greenhouse-gas-free electricity sources climb to 71 percent of the world's total electricity generation. The report doesn't offer a terribly bright future for nuclear, however, and after a period of contraction, the nuclear industry's contribution to electricity generation is expected to level off.
Instead, falling photovoltaic (PV), wind, and battery costs will cause the dramatic shift in investment, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) notes. "PV and wind are already cheaper than building new large-scale coal or gas plants," the 2018 report says. In addition, BNEF expects that more than $500 billion will be invested in batteries by 2050, with two-thirds of that investment going to installations on the grid and one-third of that investment happening at a residential level.