1.
Vladimir Putin is given 'one last chance' as world fury mounts over flight MH17
The Observer, Saturday 19 July 2014
The MH17 crash site is controlled by armed pro-Russia militia, who are carefully supervising access to journalists and investigators. Photograph: Robert Ghement/EPA
Global leaders rounded on Vladimir Putin on Saturday night as armed separatists continued to block international inspectors attempting to identify and repatriate bodies at the Malaysia Airlines MH17 crash site in eastern Ukraine.
Amid reports that pro-Russia rebels accused of shooting down the plane had removed corpses themselves and were looting credit cards and other possessions belonging to some of the 298 victims, Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, said that Putin had "one last chance to show he means to help [rescuers recover the bodies]".
Rutte vented his anger following what he called a "very intense" conversation with the Russian president. Referring to allegations that bodies of the passengers, including 193 Dutch nationals, were being treated with contempt and allowed to rot at the scene, he said: "I was shocked at the pictures of utterly disrespectful behaviour at this tragic spot. It's revolting."
David Cameron called for the EU and the west to change its approach to Russia if Putin does not alter course on Ukraine following the tragedy. The prime minister said: "This is a direct result of Russia destabilising a sovereign state, violating its territorial integrity, backing thuggish militias, and training and arming them. We must turn this moment of outrage into a moment of action."
Following reports about attempts to use victims' credit cards, Dutch banks said that they were taking "preventive measures" and that any losses suffered by relatives of the dead would be paid back. The DeTelegraaf newspaper said: "The government must make clear to the world that we are beside ourselves with rage."
Speaking about the British government's priorities Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, said: "Our focus now is on securing the site so there is a proper international investigation to identify the cause and the perpetrators and bring them to justice, and making sure the victims are dealt with with proper dignity and respect."
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, also stressed in a phone call with the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, that investigators must get full access to the crash site.
The situation there descended into chaos on Saturday as "experts" of unknown provenance moved bodies decomposing in the baking heat from fields to the roadside, and used bags to collect body parts. A spokesman for the OSCE, Michael Bociurkiw, said: "Some of the body bags are open and the damage to the corpses is very, very bad – it is very difficult to look at."
2. Xi Jinping’s Latin American trip places trade ahead of ideology
Financial Times July 17, 2014
Washington fears over Chinese president’s visit are overblown
When Xi Jinping went to Latin America last year he visited US allies such as Mexico and Costa Rica – leading some in Washington to worry Beijing wanted to steal a march on the US in its own backyard.
This year it is the other way round. The Chinese president is on a week-long tour to countries often considered opponents of the US, such as Venezuela and Cuba, or with which it has lukewarm ties, such as Argentina and Brazil. Yet some in Washington now fear Beijing wants to rally its ideological enemies in the region.
In China, Mr Xi’s Latin America visits are often cast as heartwarming examples of distant and faintly barbarian republics queueing up to pay homage to the glorious Red Dragon. In fact China’s attention to resource-rich Latin American countries in part simply mirrors the remarkable growth in bilateral trade flows, which soared to $200bn in 2010 from almost nothing a decade before. Venezuela, for example, now accounts for 6 per cent of Chinese oil imports.
Beijing’s continued courtship of some Latin American countries also often says less about its ideological preferences than its ability to cut state-to-state deals – $100bn in loan commitments have been made since 2005 – and the problems that this has thrown up.
“With the exception of Cuba, I don’t see Beijing’s Latin American ties as primarily ideologically based – they have been about dealmaking,” says Margaret Myers, director of the China and Latin America program at the Washington DC-based Inter-American Dialogue. “But now Beijing’s thinking [on dealmaking] may be changing.”
The prompt for any rethink lies in potentially misspent loans made to Venezuela, dawdling economic reforms in Cuba and once-promising Argentine projects that have been as difficult for Chinese companies to develop as they have for others.
So while Mr Xi, who sets off for Argentina from Brazil on Friday, may well announce new commercial initiatives on his tour and extol the virtues of deepening South-South ties – especially after this week’s creation of a Shanghai-based “Brics” development bank – there will probably be some testy background conversations too.
That is likely to have been so in Brasília, which has long complained that cheap Chinese goods undercut local manufacturers even as Brazilian companies such as Embraer, the aircraft manufacturer, struggle to make inroads in China.
It is probable in Argentina, where in 2012 the government cancelled a rail concession in which a Chinese company had a stake, shortly after Wen Jiabao, former Chinese president, announced a $10bn loan facility from the China Development Bank.
It is almost certain to be true in Havana, where China is impatient with Raúl Castro’s dawdling economic reforms that Beijing once thought would mimic its own speedy economic rise.
But it is especially certain in Caracas, which has taken almost $50bn in oil-backed loans since 2007. In 2011, Beijing reportedly dispatched inspectors to Venezuela’s ministries to study how its loans had been spent.
“President Xi’s trip . . . [is] less about deepening already healthy ties with strong regional allies than seeking to mitigate deep anxieties about its commercial and diplomatic relations with dysfunctional friends,” suggests Matt Ferchen, analyst at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Centre for Global Policy.
3. Violent passions of Israeli-Palestinian conflict echo across the world
CNN July 17, 2014
Pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian supporters staged separate demonstrations in Los Angeles this week.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
While missiles fly in Mideast, tensions soar outside the region
Hatred, even violence, erupts at demonstrations in France and United States
People on both sides of the issue talk of death threats
The battle is also being waged in venomous words on social media
(CNN) -- A mob, wielding baseball bats, broken bottles and knives, swarms a Paris synagogue. Violence erupts at a pro-Israel rally in Los Angeles after a demonstrator reportedly stomps on a Palestinian flag. Phone calls and text messages threaten a Palestinian-American who organized a protest in Atlanta. A trending Twitter hashtag says Hitler was right.
As missiles and rockets fly in the Middle East, tensions are boiling over around the world between activists at demonstrations on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Plenty of protests have been peaceful, but not all of them.
On Monday, the Anti-Defamation League warned Jewish institutions to step up security in light of violence and anti-Semitic expressions at what it described as anti-Israel rallies across the United States and around the world. An ADL website tracking recent protests listed events in New York; Washington; Dallas; Portland; and Tempe, Arizona.
"The tenor at some of the anti-Israel rallies has been extreme," the ADL said, "with protesters chanting 'Death to Israel' and other hateful messages and slogans."
In France, where anti-Semitism has flared up in recent years, some warn that hostilities have entered a different realm.
"The level of danger is very new," said Serge Benhaim, who was trapped for hours inside a Paris synagogue on Sunday. "Today and tomorrow for the Jewish people in France is fully different from what it was yesterday."
In the United States, too, Aysha Abdullatif says she's sensed something is changing.
After organizing a pro-Palestinian protest in Atlanta this month, Abdullatif said she started getting threatening phone calls, text messages and social media posts accusing her of supporting terrorism. It's the first time she's felt personally targeted after years of activism.
"People are getting really fanatical. ... I've never seen it get this ugly," Abdullatif said.
4. America's Move to Soy Hobbles Dairy
Dean Foods Suffers as Consumers Sour on Cow Milk
The Wall Street Journal July 18, 2014
Shoppers' zeal for healthier foods and beverages has turned the tables on a small soy-milk supplier and its former parent, America's largest milk processor.
A little over a year ago, Dean Foods Co. , a nearly 90-year-old dairy giant, spun off its Silk plant-based milks and Horizon-brand organic milk into a separate company, The WhiteWave Foods Co. In the past 12 months, WhiteWave shares have jumped 62% while Dean's are off 17%.
WhiteWave's profit and sales are climbing as U.S. consumers embrace plant-based milks. Dean has churned out losses on falling domestic demand and higher costs for raw milk. Today, WhiteWave's revenues are just a third of Dean's, but its market value is more than three times its former parent.
Getting drinkers back in the barn won't be easy. "It is going to be tough to buck the trend of declining consumption of [cow] milk in the U.S.," says Ryan Oksenhendler, an analyst with Arlon Group LLC, a New York-based fund manager that owns WhiteWave shares. He says shoppers quitting cow milk and embracing soy, almond and coconut milks are feeding WhiteWave's gains.
Dean executives aim to reverse its profit decline by cutting costs and expanding sales of flavored milks and higher-protein drinks, two niche products that are outperforming conventional, white milk. Dean shut eight of its roughly 80 plants last year and plans to close three more this year in an effort to navigate what its executives call the toughest industry conditions in memory.
"It's uncharted waters," Dean Chief Executive Gregg Tanner told analysts in May. Mr. Tanner declined to be interviewed for this article.
Dallas-based Dean won cheers from Wall Street in 2012 when it staged an initial public offering for WhiteWave to draw more value from investors for the fast-growing unit. Gregg Engles, who ran Dean for 18 years and built it through acquisitions, left to run the offshoot. Dean also sold its Morningstar Foods division, which made creamers, iced coffee and cottage cheese, to Canada's Saputo Inc. in January 2013 for $1.45 billion, before completing the WhiteWave spinoff that May.
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