Share prices slump after Athens orders banks shut until after Sunday's snap referendum, with stock exchange closed on Monday and ATM withdrawals limited to €60


Share prices slumped across Europe on Monday as Greece shuttered its banks for a week following a fateful weekend that has shaken Europe's single currency.

The Greek government decided on Sunday night it had no option but to close the nation's banks the following day after the European Central Bank (ECB) raised the stakes by freezing the liquidity lifeline that has kept them afloat during a six-month run on deposits.

In London the FTSE 100 tumbled by 150 points - more than 2% - when trading began at 8am BST. There were even sharper falls across Europe, with the French and German markets both tumbling by 4%. European banking shares were the hardest hit, suffering losses of up to 10%.

Overnight in Tokyo the Nikkei index had fallen almost 3% and in Hong Kong shares slid 2.5%.

"The Greek butterfly looks set to cause a tornado in financial markets," said Michael Hewson, chief markets analyst at CMC Markets UK. "In the process we could well also find out if this event turns out to be the equivalent of the butterfly flapping its wings in New Mexico, going on to cause a hurricane in China."

The Athens Stock Exchange will not reopen on Monday.. The dramatic move, after 48 hours of sensational developments in Greece's long-running battles with creditors, was sparked by the call on Friday night by country's prime minister, Alexis Tsipras , for a referendum on its creditors' demands. That prompted finance ministers of the eurozone to effectively put an end to his country's five-year bailout by the International Monetary Fund, the ECB and the European commission.

In a brief, televised address to the nation, Tsipras threw the blame on to the leaders of the eurozone. But he did not say how long the banks would remain shut, nor did he give details of how much individuals and companies would be allowed to withdraw once they reopened.

The Greek government has announced that banks will remain closed on Monday and restrictions on withdrawals will be introduced following the ECB refusal to provide additional Emergency Liquidity Assistance to Greece's banking system.

"The Eurogroup's decision prompted the ECB to not increase liquidity to Greek banks and forced the Bank of Greece to recommend that banks remain closed, as well as restrictive measures on withdrawals," Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told the nation in his Sunday night address.

Following the explosion at a chemical factory, the Ukrainian government has urged the OSCE to monitor the levels of radiation over Donetsk. The Ukrainian government urged the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) to monitor the level of background radiation after the explosion at the Donetsk factory of chemical products. The factory manages the disposal of ammunition, upgrade and repair of ammo. The factory also produces industrial explosives.

For a long time now the concentration of ammunition and explosives in the areas of the factory had reached almost critical level. For over a year the plant has been a threat to the entire region," read the Facebook statement posted by the headquarters of Kiev's special military operation in southeastern Ukraine.

It was earlier reported that an explosion that occurred at a Donetsk chemical factory on June 16 could have led to damages at the radiation storage site as it triggered the detonation of underground ammunition depots.

"This situation is causing great concern on the Ukrainian side, because there is a possibility of leakage of radioactive elements that are very dangerous to the health and life of a large number of civilians in the region," Ukrainian Maj. Gen. Andriy Taran was quoted as saying in a Facebook statement posted by the headquarters of Kiev's special military operation in southeastern Ukraine.

Mixed reactions followed the unveiling in Serbia of a statue to Gavrilo Princip, whose murder of the Austro-Hungarian crown prince triggered the World War I. Princip still divides the region, with some viewing him as a hero and others a terrorist.

Hundreds attended the unveiling of the monument on Sunday, happening on the 101 anniversary of the 1914 assassination, also the Serbian holiday of St. Vitus.

As we noted last night, for a whole lot of time nothing at all can happen under the guise of "containment"... and then everything happens all at once. Because not even two full days after Greece activated the "Grexit" emergency protocol, leading to capital controls, and a frozen banking system and stock market, moments ago the NYT reported that the default wave has jumped the Atlantic and has hit Puerto Rico whose governor Alejandro García Padilla, saying he needs to pull the island out of a "death spiral," has concluded that the commonwealth cannot pay its roughly $72 billion in debts, an admission that will probably have wide-reaching financial repercussions.

In other words, first Greece, and now Puerto Rico may be in a state of Schrodingerian default. Why the ambiguity? Because while Greece is not technically in default until July 1, Puerto Rico does not even have an option to declare outright default. But that doesn't mean that the commonwealth will service it. Quoted by the NYT, García Padilla said "The debt is not payable." He added that "there is no other option. I would love to have an easier option. This is not politics, this is math."

Lord Janner will stand trial over alleged historical child sex abuses, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has announced.

The decision overturns a previous ruling which saw the 89-year-old peer exempt from criminal proceedings due to the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

In a statement, the CPS confirmed the Director of Public Prosecutions (DDP) Alison Saunders would pursue "criminal proceedings against Greville Janner for child sex offences."

The decision to reverse Janner's immunity came through the "recently introduced" Victim's Right to Review scheme "which allows victims to have their cases looked at again, no matter who in the CPS made the original decision not to prosecute."

Janner is expected to stand trial on August 7 at Westminster Magistrate's Court.

This trial will mark the first time Janner has faced any criminal proceedings for the 22 alleged offences which took place between 1969 and 1988.

The total charges against the peer include 14 indecent assaults on a male under the age of 16, four counts of gross indecency with a male under the age of 16, two counts of indecency and two further counts of gross indecency.


He was suspended in 1997 after the CPS produced evidence against him.

You can tell a lot about people by what they believe in. Money. Art. Jesus. Bingo. All roadmaps to the soul.

Stephen Harper has built his government and his career on information control and marketing. The nerd nobody liked is getting even; he now edits reality full-time.

As we begin the bumpy descent towards the October election (assuming it will be called), there is only one question to be answered: can Harper (assuming he runs) market his way to victory in the most important election in the country's history?

Back in 1959, President Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Khrushchev took a break from their summit and walked in the woods around Camp David. Khrushchev, in his memoirs, relates a conversation in which the president complains of how hard it is to resist the military's demands for more money. Military leaders, said Eisenhower, invariably insist the US will fall behind the Soviet Union unless he gives them the money for this or that weapon system. "They keep grabbing for more, and I keep giving it to them." He asked Khrushchev if that was also the case in the USSR. "It's just the same," said Khrushchev, who went on to describe virtually the same script. "Yes," said the president, "that's what I thought."

Congress members are very much a part of the military-industrial complex, which is why someone (Tom Hayden?) long ago suggested that the more accurate term is MAGIC: the military-academic-governmental-industrial complex. Most people elected to Congress, and certainly any among them who serve on the armed services committee of either house, think two things when it comes to national security: the more weapons produced, the more secure we are; and the more money allocated to "national defense," the better. These folks never met a weapons system they didn't like. And when, in relatively lean times, they have to decide between social well-being and the Pentagon's wish list, well, they don't have to think twice.

These days Congress members, mainly on the Republican side, are busy finding clever ways to hide stuffing the Pentagon's stocking with strategically senseless, duplicative, exceedingly expensive weapons and related items. Remember sequestration in 2013? It was supposed to cap military and other spending in order to help bring the overall budget back to balance. Clearly, in the minds of the military-firsters, this effort was never meant to apply to the Pentagon, as evidenced by the much larger budget hit that social welfare programs took compared with the military, and by the little publicized Overseas Contingency Operations fund, which is not subject to sequestration. Yes, military spending has gone down over the last three years (see the chart below); but at over $600 billion (not counting veterans' benefits and interest on the national debt from past wars), it's around 54 percent of all US government discretionary spending and still close to 40 percent of global military spending.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, right, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, center, and Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Hamad Al-Sabah, left, stand together prior to a group photo before a US- Gulf Cooperation Council forum at the Gulf Cooperation Council Secretariat in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Saturday, March 31, 2012.

Hillary Clinton hopes feminist voters will ignore her support for the oppression of women abroad and make her the first female president of the United States.

In the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton wants to make history as the first female president of the United States. But just as the election of the first black president hasn't left black people better off eight years later, can the world's women really count on Clinton's support?

Voters understandably look to Clinton to support women's rights in the U.S. at a time when many feel these rights are under attack, and she's been happy to deliver feminist-friendly rhetoric. In April, she offered a rousing pro-woman speech at the Women in the World conference in April. New York magazine's Daily Intelligencer reported:

"[Clinton] said it was 'unthinkable' that mothers in the United States weren't entitled to paid leave, that child-care benefits were nearly nonexistent, and that women and men alike are forced to work inflexible hours that make being a parent impossible. She mentioned a path for citizenship for immigrants, and last week's strike for a living wage for fast-food workers. She slammed Hobby Lobby for not paying for its employees' contraception, and Senate Republicans for delaying Loretta Lynch's ascendancy to the top of the Justice Department."

Yet a study of Clinton's record paints a different picture. Donors from Saudi Arabia gave millions to the Clinton Foundation, a nonprofit operated by Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, despite Saudi Arabia's appalling record on women's rights. In return for their financial support, Hillary Clinton helped Saudi Arabia obtain billions in military equipment from the U.S.

In Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to hold political office or drive cars, and four princesses from the royal family were imprisoned and tortured for speaking out in favor of equality. Saudi forces have also been instrumental in suppressing the pro-democracy movement in Bahrain, where female leaders of the movement like Maryam al-Khawaja face imprisonment or exile.

As secretary of state, Clinton supported U.S. military intervention throughout Africa and the Middle East, from aiding the Israeli oppression of Palestinian civilians to supporting the violent destabilization of Libya. According to a 2014 report from Whatever It Takes, a blog that tracks the candidate's human rights record, the latter hurt women's rights not just in Libya but throughout the region:

"Clinton planned and pushed for the illegal Obama war to support Al Qaeda factions against Libya, which is now a failed state ruled by jihadist militias who kill unarmed protesters. The support, including weapons, given to Al Qaeda by the USA spilled over into empowering other Al Qaeda linked terrorist groups, including Boko Haram, which ... kidnapped hundreds of young women."

Even domestically, a look at some of her top donors suggests Clinton favors the rights of Wall Street over that of American women. During her 2008 presidential campaign, Clinton's top donors included finance and investment industry giants like JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, and Citigroup — some of the same corporations that caused a massive global financial crash in 2007 that led to an unprecedented wave of job losses and home evictions. Women and children suffered most from the poor economy, according to a 2013 article from Mercedes White, a reporter for Deseret News:

"Eviction is a problem that disproportionately affects America's poor, especially poor women with children. It is so common in urban poor neighborhoods that in some ways it has become part of the texture of life. In an analysis of eviction in Milwaukee, Harvard sociologist Matthew Desmond found that minority women with low incomes are disproportionately impacted: Black women account for 13 percent of Milwaukee's population but make up 40 percent of those evicted."

"As you know, the modern world, especially the Western world, is highly monopolised and many Western countries - whether they want to hear this or not - have voluntarily given up a considerable part of their sovereignty. To some extent, this is a result of the politics of blocs. Sometimes we find it very difficult to come to terms with them on geopolitical issues. It is hard to reach an agreement with people who whisper even at home for fear of being overheard by the Americans. This is not a joke or a figure of speech." - Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin denounces, more and more explicitly, the servility of France and Europe towards the United States, whether in the case of wire-tapping French leaders or that of Mistral ships.

The publication by WikiLeaks of documents establishing the wire-tapping by the United States of three French Presidents was an open secret known since the revelations of Edward Snowden. Far from protesting against the flagrant violation of French sovereignty that the espionage of its top leaders constitutes, our government bravely hastened to hush up this scandal, as was expected by Lavrov and Putin.

Let us remind that France prided herself in 2013 upon rejecting asylum for Edward Snowden, and that it is illusory to believe that these revelations could change anything : official France cannot but turn down flat Julian Assange's calls.

By refusing the delivery of two helicopter carriers ordered and paid for by Russia, France is both disgraced and discredited internationally as a reliable economic partner and military supplier.

The inept pretext of the Ukrainian crisis and alleged Russian interference, invoked by a country that involved itself in the Syrian crisis by arming Al-Nosra terrorists (of which it is apologetic) and calling for the overthrow (even murder) of the legitimate Syrian leader, reveals the extent of the hypocrisy and indecency of the French government and its subjection to American diktats.

Especially since this same government then concluded huge arms sales contracts with the barbaric regimes of Qatar and even Saudi Arabia, engaged in an illegal and criminal war in Yemen.