Free Republic

https://twitter.com/zerohedge/status/609341858045497344 https://twitter.com/TraderStef/status/609355146842275840 https://twitter.com/JAFF3/status/609343992803774464 https://twitter.com/russian_market/status/609341880623591424 The bank runs (and capital controls) begin. Macedonia Central Bank Governor Bogov states: *GREEK BANKS IN MACEDONIA CAN’T WITHDRAW CASH: BOGOV*MACEDONIAN BANKS PROTECTED IN CASE OF GREXIT: BOGOV How long before the rest of Europe follows suit and a bank holiday is declared Monday to "Cyprus" depositors? He further added: *MACEDONIAN CENTRAL BANK SEES MAJOR RISKS FROM POLITICAL CRISIS http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-12/macedonia-central-bank-blocks-greek-bank-withdrawals-case-grexit Macedonia Central Bank blocks Greek bank withdrawals FXStreet (Córdoba) - Macedonian Central Bank's Governor Dimitar Bogov has stated that Greek banks are not able to withdraw cash. According to Bogov, this withdrawal halt is protection against...

Brazilian substitute headmaster José Fernando Schlosser has forced all Jewish students and teachers to sign a document to identify all Jews among them. The names will be given to the Solidarity with Palestine Committee.

  Israel Bloom from Portugal’s blog AMIGO DE ISRAEL (Friend of Israel) sent me this. It’s 1938 all over again. Difficult times are here again for us.In Brazil, Mr. José Fernando Schlosser [photo above], substitute headmaster of Federal University of Santa Maria, forced all Jewish students and teachers to sign a document to identify the Jews among them.The document was inspired on President Dilma Roussef politics of condamnation of Israel «crimes» against «Palestiniana People» and the names will be delivered to a Comitee of Solidarity With «Palestine».A few articles, with pictures of the complete document: http://veja.abril.com.br/blog/reinaldo/geral/atencao-judeus-e-humanistas-de-todas-as-origens-um-ato-explicito-de-antissemitismo-na-universidade-federal-de-santa-maria-e-ai-vai-ficar-por-isso-mesmo/ http://veja.abril.com.br/blog/reinaldo/geral/atencao-judeus-e-humanistas-de-todas-as-origens-um-ato-explicito-de-antissemitismo-na-universidade-federal-de-santa-maria-e-ai-vai-ficar-por-isso-mesmo/http://veja.abril.com.br/blog/rodrigo-constantino/religiao/judeofobia-na-universidade-federal-de-santa-maria/http://veja.abril.com.br/blog/rodrigo-constantino/religiao/judeofobia-na-universidade-federal-de-santa-maria/http://amigodeisrael.blogspot.pt/2015/06/recomecou.html - See...

Saudi Arabia has terminated its contract with the Portuguese airline Hi Fly after it flew an empty jumbo jet marked with the logo of the kingdom’s national carrier, Saudia, to Ben-Gurion Airport for repairs. The announcement was reported in the Twitter feed of a Saudi news agency. The arrival of the jet with the logo to Ben-Gurion Airport overnight Tuesday generated a stir in the Israeli media on Wednesday after surprised airport workers spotted the plane. The plane in question, an Airbus A330-300 devoid of passengers, arrived from Brussels to Tel Aviv for routine maintenance work with the Bedek Aviation...

In looking over the history of the past 500 years, four nations stand out for having completely and massively altered world civilization in a way that no others have, before or after: England, Spain, France, and Portugal. No other empires even come close. The Muslim conquests were landbound except for island hopping. Chinese and Mongolian conquests were landbound. Even in ancient times, Greek, Roman, and Persian conquests were essentially land operations, except for river fording. Yes, they all had navies, but were not defined by them. What separates the English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish was that these nations had vast...

In looking over the history of the past 500 years, four nations stand out for having completely and massively altered world civilization in a way that no others have, before or after: England, Spain, France, and Portugal. No other empires even come close. The Muslim conquests were landbound except for island hopping. Chinese and Mongolian conquests were landbound. Even in ancient times, Greek, Roman, and Persian conquests were essentially land operations, except for river fording. Yes, they all had navies, but were not defined by them. What separates the English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish was that these nations had vast...

Greece is drawing up drastic plans to nationalise the country's banking system and introduce a parallel currency to pay bills unless the eurozone takes steps to defuse the simmering crisis and soften its demands. Sources close to the ruling Syriza party said the government is determined to keep public services running and pay pensions as funds run critically low. It may be forced to take the unprecedented step of missing a payment to the International Monetary Fund next week.

Greece’s finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has spelled out the negotiating strategy of the Syriza government with crystal clarity. “Exit from the euro does not even enter into our plans, quite simply because the euro is fragile. It is like a house of cards. If you pull away the Greek card, they all come down,” he said. “Do we really want Europe to break apart? Anybody who is tempted to think it possible to amputate Greece strategically from Europe should be careful. It is very dangerous. Who would be hit after us? Portugal? What would happen to Italy when it discovers...

Greece's pleas to stop the "fiscal waterboarding" of its devastated economy are substantively no different from President Obama's repeated warnings to Germany to stop bleeding the euro area economy with excessive fiscal austerity. Sadly, the president's reportedly more than a dozen phone calls to the German Chancellor Merkel in 2011 and 2012 urging supportive economic policies in the euro area fell on deaf ears. These calls were not just brushed aside; they were plainly ridiculed as Chancellor Merkel kept telling the media that "it made no sense to be adding new debt to old debt." But -- worrying about one-fifth...

In Ireland, taking the name of Israel means becoming a war criminal. A popular Dublin restaurant, The Exchequer, no longer stocks Israeli goods. In the Irish town of Kinvara, retailers, restaurants and pharmacies operate a boycott of Israeli goods. The leading Irish supermarket chain SuperValu removed the Israeli carrots from its shelves. And I have mentioned just a few examples of the new Irish anti-Semitism. It is the same everywhere in Europe: Israel is disappearing from European shelves. Practically and symbolically. The material cancellation of Israeli goods from Europe's shelves anticipates Israel's physical suppression. The French city of Lille suspended...

Portugal’s parliament on Friday adopted a resolution calling on the government to recognize the Palestinian state, following a growing number of similar votes around Europe. Parliament’s motion, filed jointly by the ruling center-right majority and the opposition Socialist party, proposed “recognizing, in coordination with the European Union, the state of Palestine as independent and sovereign,” according to AFP. However, Portugal’s Foreign Minister Rui Machete said after the vote the government “will choose the moment best suited” to recognize the Palestinian state. …

From Times OnlineOctober 26, 2007 Putin warns Europe over Iran and Kosovo at EU summit (Miguel A Lopes//EPA) Vladimir Putin at the EU-Russia Summit at Mafra Palace, near Lisbon, today Jack Malvern and agencies Tensions between Russia and the West over sanctions against Iran will be laid bare today as President Vladimir Putin attends a summit with EU leaders in Portugal. The Russian leader described supporters of tough policies as "mad people wielding razor blades" after the US imposed economic sanctions on the Islamic republic yesterday in an attempt to curb its nuclear programme. Mr Putin, who is at the...

The nation held up by the Liberal Democrats yesterday as a shining example of how to win the war on drugs is far from the unqualified success story they make out. For the number of children using drugs in Portugal has more than doubled since the country’s laws were liberalised, the latest figures show. A decade after the law was relaxed, nearly a fifth of 15 and 16-year-olds use drugs – well over twice the number in the years before decriminalisation. The controversial Home Office report commissioned by the Liberal Democrats states: ‘It is clear that there has not been...

The debate over Germany’s insistence on eurozone austerity has flared anew as an ailing France continues to demand economic stimulus. The European Central Bank may now be siding with Paris, leaving Merkel looking increasingly alone. […] Berlin is particularly alarmed by the stance taken by ECB head Mario Draghi. At the annual conference of top central bankers from around the world at Jackson Hole, Wyoming in August, Draghi surprised those present by saying “there is leeway to achieve a more growth-friendly composition of fiscal policies.” It was a comment that came close to the kind of debt-fueled growth stimulus measures...

Brazil's once humdrum presidential race now resembles one of the country's famed soap operas, with a newcomer thrust into the spotlight by a plane crash and the longtime favorite reeling from a one-two punch of bad news. With just over a month to go before the Oct. 5 vote, President Dilma Rousseff awoke to newspaper headlines Saturday announcing that Brazil's long-sputtering economy had officially entered recession for the first time in more than five years.

Today in horrific news, a Polish couple vacationing in Portugal fell to their deaths while taking selfies on a cliff. The couple and their children had been visiting cliffs at Cabo da Roca when the tragic incident occurred, WILX 10 reports. They fell from the cliff top into the Atlantic Ocean, where rescue workers were eventually able to retrieve their bodies. The couple’s children are now reportedly in the care of Polish diplomats, and have visited with psychologists. Sadly, this isn’t the first time a selfie has turned fatal. Earlier this month, we reported on the man in Mexico who...

What’s really important in today’s troubled world? One might think the answers are obvious: the disturbing war between Hamas and Israel that threatens to spread into something much larger, out-of-control spread of Ebola in Africa, corporate and sovereign defaults in Portugal and Argentina, Chinese military aggression in South Asia and whatever else we may have left out. But to Democrats, the focus is on Operation Change The Subject 2014, as partisans shift blame for presidential inaction away from Obama just as he heads to Martha’s Vineyard for yet another extended holiday.

The mother of Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has admitted that she drank alcohol and ran until she ‘dropped’ in an attempt to abort him while she was pregnant. Dolores Aveiro revealed the story in a biography called Mother Courage, which was released in Portugal today. In the book, Mrs Aveiro admitted that she tried to abort Ronaldo – who is the youngest of four children – by drinking warm beer and running ’till she dropped’ following the refusal of doctors to carry out the procedure. She said: ‘I wanted to abort but the doctor didn’t support my decision.’ Mrs...

Following this morning's farce of huge investor demand and then Bank of Portugal's Costa 'hoping' for demand from investors willing to pile more money on losing money into Espirito Santo, it appears things have escalated rapidly... *ESPIRITO SANTO INTERNATIONAL SAYS IT CAN'T MEET OBLIGATIONS *ES INTERNATIONAL APPLIES FOR `CONTROLLED MANAGEMENT' REGIME *ES INTERNATIONAL APPLIES FOR REGIME UNDER LUXEMBOURG LAW The "controlled management" application is the equivalent of declaring a breakup or controlled bankruptcy process (as we explained here). ESI is the ultimate HoldCo in the Banco Espirito Santo family.

Twelve EU countries have warned investors not to do business with Israeli settler entities, amid a security crisis in Israel and Palestine. The group includes: Austria; Belgium; Croatia; Denmark; Finland; Greece; Ireland; Luxembourg; Malta; Portugal; Slovakia; and Slovenia. Portugal published its statement on Wednesday (2 July) and the others came out on Thursday. France, Italy, and Spain put out similar communiques earlier this week. Germany and the UK already did it months ago. Poland is expected to publish a warning shortly. The Irish foreign ministry said the action “has been coordinated at EU level”. …