Putin Takes Advantage

MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin has remained poker-faced as Britain voted to exit the European Union, but the Russian leader stands to gain significantly from the British departure, which would weaken the EU and create new tensions in the bloc.


With Britain facing a long and messy divorce with the EU, both London's role and, consequently, U.S. influence over EU foreign policy will wither, helping Russia-friendly bloc members in their efforts to mend a rift with Moscow over the Ukrainian crisis.


In the long term, Putin can expect new opportunities for Russia to raise its clout on the continent. The outcome of the British referendum has emboldened euroskeptic parties across the EU, and the rising economic and political uncertainty will only strengthen their positions further.


And even though the financial storm caused by the British departure could raise economic risks for Russia by affecting oil prices and battering Russian stocks, potential political dividends for Moscow from the EU's crumbling would far outweigh the mid-term economic damage.


"From Russia's viewpoint, Britain's exit makes Europe healthier, more continental and easier for Russia to deal with," wrote Alexander Baunov of the Moscow Carnegie Center think tank. Read more:

German Wages

The German parliament has approved the country's first minimum wage, in a vote in the Bundestag on Thursday.

The wage will be set at 8.50 euros (£6.80) per hour, which is higher than the equivalent in the US and UK.

Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats approved the new policy as part of a power-sharing deal with the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Germany has previously relied on trade unions and business groups to fix minimum pay instead.

At the moment, the country is one of seven in the 28-nation EU without a minimum wage level.

The minimum wage has been the subject of much controversy in Germany, with business leaders warning that it would result in fewer jobs, or force companies to move production facilities to other countries, where labor is cheaper.

Lobbyists have also claimed that the policy would make Germany less competitive.

However others have been angered by concessionary measures, including a two-year grace period for some employers to phase in the policy.

Additionally, the wage does not cover minors, interns, trainees or long-term unemployed people for their first six months at work.

For the rest of Germany's employers, the regulations will come into effect on 1 January 2015. The wage will be reviewed annually from 1 January 2018.

Regardless of the outcome of Thursday's vote, the policy will still need to be passed by Germany's upper house, the Bundesrat.

Other European countries have been adjusting their minimum wage policies.

In March, the UK government announced a 19p increase to the national minimum wage, bringing it to £6.50 per hour.

In May, Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to introduce what would have been the highest minimum wage in the world, in a referendum.

Under the plan, employers would have had to pay workers a minimum 22 Swiss francs (about $25; £15; 18 euros) an hour.

BEWARE:  Any time, no matter where, a government raises the minimum wage, prices sometimes gradually, sometimes abruptly start to increase.  Companies raise their prices to the consumer in order to compensate for the increased wage requirement.  Eventually, the worker is not better off than they were before…

Dead BEES

A new study covering 17 EU countries says that far more honeybees are dying in the UK and other parts of northern Europe than in Mediterranean countries.

The European Commission says it is Europe's most comprehensive study so far of bee colony deaths.

Winter mortality was especially high for bees in Belgium (33.6%) and the UK (29%) in 2012-13. But in spring-summer 2013 France was highest with 13.6%.

Bumblebees and other wild bees were not studied, nor were pesticide impacts.

The study, called Epilobee, described 10% as an acceptable threshold for bee colony mortality - and Greece, Italy and Spain were among the countries with rates below that threshold.

The mortality percentages are national estimates based on representative samples. All 17 countries applied the same data collection standards, the report says.

The survey covered almost 32,000 bee colonies.

But there is also much concern about death rates among wild bees, which are vital pollinators too.

Last year the EU introduced a ban on four chemicals called neonicotinoids which are used in pesticides.

They are believed to be linked to the collapse of bee colonies across Europe, though there is a heated scientific debate over the chemicals' impact and many experts say further studies are needed.

The Commission wanted pesticide impacts to be included in the Epilobee study, but it was overruled by member states' governments.

Bee stress map below:

Bee expert Dr. Reese Halter explains the importance of bees for pollinating crops, producing beneficial honey and other medicinal food substances, and most importantly for sustaining the world's natural life cycle. 

A conservation biologist who has traveled the globe studying bees, Dr. Reese offers unique insights into where bees originally came from, how they function, and how certain human interventions are disrupting their normal activity and even killing them off.

"To begin to tantalize the wonderment of this critter ... the next time any one of us takes a hearty teaspoon of honey, would you believe that that's 6,000 miles, 10,000 kilometers, that a dozen bees have spent their entire foraging lives - three weeks, seven days a week working - to make that one teaspoon," says Dr. Reese.

You can listen to Dr. Reese's full interview with host Russell Scott here:
http://youtu.be/UIKnLqK8g_4

EU Monitors Earth

A Soyuz rocket has launched from French Guiana with the first satellite in the European Union's new multi-billion-euro Earth-observation program.

The Sentinel-1a spacecraft has been put in orbit on a mission to map the planet's surface using radar.

It will be followed by a fleet of other satellites - also called Sentinels - over the next five years.

Brussels is describing its Copernicus programme as the biggest ever effort to characterize our world.

When the full satellite system is operational, it will be producing daily some eight terabytes of data to detail the state of Earth's land surface, its oceans and its atmosphere.

European nations have so far committed 7.5bn euros (£6.2bn; $10.3bn) to the project. But the vision for Copernicus is that it is unending - that every Sentinel satellite is replaced at the demise of its mission, ensuring there is continuity of information deep into this century.

"Once all the Sentinel satellites have been launched, the Copernicus program will be the most efficient and fullest Earth-observation program in the world," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

"This investment will allow Europe to establish itself at the forefront of research and innovation in a cutting-edge sector - namely, space. Many skilled jobs have been created and many more are yet to come."

The Soyuz carrying the first radar observer lifted clear of the Sinnamary launch pad on the Guianese coast at 18:02 local time (21:02 GMT; 22:02 BST).

The ride to an altitude of 699km took 23 minutes. A signal confirming a clean separation for Sentinel-1a from the rocket was received shortly afterwards.

Controllers at the European Space Agency's (Esa) operations center in Darmstadt, Germany, must now commission the spacecraft.

The first hours will be spent sending commands to the satellite to get it to unpack its solar wings and the panels of its radar instrument.

These were all folded to fit inside the Soyuz. The task should be complete by early morning on Friday, European time.

Formal entry into service is expected in about three months' time, although it is likely that the platform will start imaging the Earth as early as next week to begin the process of instrument calibration.

Radar has myriad uses, from monitoring shipping lanes for pollution or icebergs, to mapping land surfaces to track deforestation or the performance of rice production.

However, a key use for Sentinel-1a will be in disaster response.  Read more:

Animal Tested Cosmetics Banned in Europe

BRUSSELS — The European Union banned the sale of new cosmetic products containing ingredients tested on animals with immediate effect Monday.

"This is a great opportunity for Europe to set an example of responsible innovation in cosmetics without any compromise on consumer safety," said Tonio Borg, the EU's top official on health and consumer issues.

Animal rights groups were quick to cheer the measure, but Cosmetics Europe, a trade body representing the EU's (EURO)71 billion ($93 billion) industry, said the ban "acts as a brake on innovation."

While the industry's rabbits, mice or guinea pigs used in testing will now be spared, consumers are unlikely to notice immediate changes because products containing ingredients that were tested on animals before the ban can remain on the shelves.

The 27-country bloc's executive arm, the European Commission, claimed the decision "is in line with what many European citizens believe firmly: that the development of cosmetics does not warrant animal testing."

The EU has banned animal testing of finished cosmetic products since 2004. The ban on cosmetics containing animal-tested ingredients was first decided four years ago but initially left loopholes for certain tests following resistance from cosmetics companies.

At the moment, neither the U.S. nor Asian markets have similar bans in place. While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration prohibits the sale of unsafe cosmetics, it doesn't require that animal tests be conducted to show that the cosmetics are safe.

Animal rights groups such as Humane Society International cheered the EU's decision on the full ban as a major step in stopping animals' suffering, saying the bloc has now become "the world's largest cruelty-free cosmetics market."

The group also said it hopes the course taken by the EU - whose nations combined form the world's biggest economy - will soon be replicated by the global cosmetics industry.