Good Morning, Australia! – Can Greek’s PM get his parliament to accept draconian austerity as demanded by the EU? – Yanis Varoufakis fears history is repeating itself – Nigeria’s new president cleans house to fight Boko Haram – A killer collapse in Russia – And much more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Wednesday will try to get his parliament to pass the awful, terrible, horrible deal struck with the European creditors in Brussels. To do so, he will probably have to count on the votes of centrist and right-wing MPs instead of members of his own Syriza, which has showed signs of splitting over the issue. Certainly the Greek Left feels stabbed in the back. The Europeans are demanding that pensions be cut, labor laws be weakened, and VATs be increased – something that will hurt the poorest consumers (also known as "little old ladies who want to eat").
But perhaps most egregious is the demand that Athens put 50 Billion Euros worth of public assets – ports, utilities, what have you – into a fund from which they will be privatized. And Greece gives up some of its sovereignty, because that fund will be “managed” by Athens, but “directed” from Europe. Instead of filling Greece’s coffers for things like healthcare, education, and pensions, formerly-public assets in the fund will be sold off at bargain prices to multinationals. And then there's the problem that, by some estimates, Greece doesn't have public assets with that much value – 17 Billion Euros is closer to the truth.
Former Economy Minister Yanis Varoufakis is likening this awful, terrible, horrible deal between Greece and the EU to the Treaty of Versailles – a humiliating deal that ended World War I but led Germany into naziism and the horrors of World War II. Speaking with the ABC’s Late Night Live, Yanis said the European creditors are crushing Greece to get at Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. “The troika have made sure that they will make him eat every single word that he uttered in criticism of the troika over the last five years. Not just these six months we’ve been in government, but in the years prior to that,” said Varoufakis. “This has nothing to do with economics. It has nothing to do with putting Greece on the way to recovery. This is a new Versailles Treaty that is haunting Europe again, and the prime minister knows it. He knows that he’s damned if he does and he’s damned if he doesn’t.” Yanis calls it a “coup d’etat” that used banks instead of tanks.
Meanwhile in Vienna, there’s no deal to end Iran’s nuclear program, but negotiators aren’t going anywhere just yet.
Hungary has commenced construction of a wall on its Serbian frontier to keep out migrants coming from the Middle East and Africa.
The Yasur volcano on Vanuatu’s Tanna Island goes “boom!”
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari just sacked and replaced his four top military officials in charge of the fight against Boko Haram. “President Buhari thanks the outgoing service chiefs and national security advisor for their services to the nation and wishes them well in their future endeavors,” read the statement from Buhari’s office. This comes after the Islamist group killed hundreds of civilians in a series of attacks – the latest of which crossed the borders into Cameroon, where Buhari is to visit in the coming weeks.
Two Islamic State leaders were reportedly killed in an airstrike in northeastern Syria on 13 July. But, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights cannot determine if Abu Osama al-Iraqi and Amer al-Rafdan were killed by a Syrian attack or US airstrike.
Russian officials are looking into shoddy repair work as the likely cause of the barracks collapse that killed 23 soldiers near the Siberian city of Omsk. This happened as the paratroopers-in-training were just settling down to sleep; one official said it appeared the wall collapsed, taking with it parts of the second, third, and fourth storeys as well as a big chunk of roof. Some of the 19 injured were so badly hurt that they had to be flown all the way to specialists in Moscow for treatment.
Myanmar President Thein Sein appears to be preparing to step aside. He’s not running in the November parliamentary elections, which will make him ineligible for a second term as president. The National League for Democracy party led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will take part in the elections, marking the first time in 25 years the people will actually have a reasonable choice of candidates.
Dragnets, highway checkpoints, and the closure of an international airport have failed to lead authorities to escaped Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. An American network is reporting that the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) knew since December that Guzman’s family and associates were planning to bust him out – but Mexican officials repeatedly dismissed those concerns about corruption, turned down extradition requests to a more secure US prison, and promised Guzman could not get out.