Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro will auction Friday contracts to operate 12 airports, a measure which is expected to raise about US$921 million in [so-called] private investments.
The auction will be carried out at the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange and concession …
The post Brazil’s Bolsonaro Auctions 12 Airports to Private Operators appeared first on Global Research.
March 18, 2019
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Several people were shot, one possibly fatally, on Monday in a tram in the central Dutch city of Utrecht, in an incident police said may have had a “terrorist motive”.
Police said the suspected gunman was at large and authorities raised the terrorism threat to its highest level in Utrecht province. Schools were told to shut their doors and paramilitary police increased security at airports and other vital infrastructure. Security was stepped up at mosques.
“Several shots were fired in a tram and several people were injured. Helicopters are at the scene and no arrests have been made,” said police spokesman Joost Lanshage. He was not immediately able to provide further details.
Local broadcaster RTV Utrecht quoted a witness as saying he had seen a woman lying on the ground amid some kind of confrontation and several men ran away from the scene.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he was deeply concerned about the incident and convened crisis talks.
The incident comes after a lone gunman killed 50 people in mass shootings at two mosques in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, last Friday.
Utrecht, the Netherlands’ fourth largest city, is known for its picturesque canals and large student population. Gun killings are rare in Utrecht, as elsewhere in the Netherlands.
The Utrecht police said The October 21st square, a tram station stop outside the city center, had been cordoned off as emergency services were at the scene.
(Reporting by Toby Sterling and Anthony Deutsch; Writing by Gareth Jones; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
March 17, 2019
By Charlotte Greenfield and Tom Westbrook
CHRISTCHURCH (Reuters) – New Zealand police promised a high-profile presence as schools and businesses in Christchurch reopened on Monday after a gunman killed 50 people at two mosques in the city last week, and the prime minister said she would start work on tightening gun laws.
Families of victims were still waiting for bodies of those killed to be released after post mortems, with some of the dead to be taken overseas for burial.
Police Commissioner Mike Bush said police would be out in force to assure people as they returned to their weekday lives in Christchurch, with 200 extra police staff on duty.
Helicopters flew back and forth over the city on a grey, overcast Monday morning.
“You will see a highly visible police presence on the streets, around your businesses, around your schools, and even in the air, right across the country,” Bush said on Sunday.
“So you will feel safe to go about what you want to do.”
Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, a suspected white supremacist, was charged with murder on Saturday. Tarrant was remanded without a plea and is due back in court on April 5 where police said he was likely to face more charges.
Friday’s attack in Christchurch, which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern labeled terrorism, was the worst ever mass shooting in New Zealand.
Ardern’s cabinet will meet on Monday for the first time since the attacks, with a tightening of gun laws on the agenda.
“What we have a responsibility to pursue in the aftermath of this terrorist attack will include work around gun laws…there are other areas we will discuss as well,” she told One News.
Parts of the city, including schools, were put into lockdown on Friday after the shootings as authorities assessed whether there were further threats. Ardern said trauma support would be available at centers across the community and in schools.
Police said the airport in the southern city of Dunedin, had been reopened early on Monday after a suspicious item found on the airfield turned out to be a hoax object.
The airport had been closed on late on Sunday, with some flights diverted to other airports, after the object was found.
“The NZDF (New Zealand Defence Force) Explosive Ordinance team neutralized the hoax object, and the scene where it was found has been secured,” the police said in a statement.
“Enquiries are ongoing to establish who left the object.”
(Writing by John Mair; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
“This is opening the door to an extraordinarily more intrusive and granular level of government control.”
In March 2017, President Trump issued an executive order expediting the deployment of biometric verification of the identities of all travelers crossing US borders. That mandate stipulates facial recognition identification for “100 percent of all international passengers,” including American citizens, in the top 20 US airports by 2021. Now, the United States Department of Homeland Security is rushing to get those systems up and running at airports across the country. But it’s doing so in the absence of proper vetting, regulatory safeguards, and what some privacy advocates argue is in defiance of the law.
Source:
The explosions are floor-shaking. Rib-rattling. Bamboo “canons” (supersize firecrackers filled with calcium carbide) are the joy of teenagers in the run up to Nyepi — Balinese New Year. They might shake the leaves from the trees but they’re a mere rumble in the jungle compared with what’s to come. Live preparations for Bali’s biggest holiday festivities begin days ahead with rehearsals of clamorous percussive gamelan music drumming villages to sleep; temple tannoys singing out in cleansing ceremonies long before the cockerel the following morning.
It’s the cacophonous storm before the calm. Nyepi, New Year’s Day itself, is an annual day of silence that sees everything shut — airports, seaports, radio and TV stations, and many power grids. Although, as Nyepi follows the lunar-based Balinese saka calendar (which changes each year), the final date is ultimately decided upon by a power play of priests, and there are always tales of flight bookings having to be cancelled where travel agents on distant shores didn’t get the memo.
Nyepi (this year on March 7), is a time to cleanse the spirit, meditate, and stargaze (wet season weather allowing, you can expect seriously dark skies with the island shut down). Absolutely no one is allowed on the streets, everyone stays home — the most orthodox families blacking out windows, not cooking, working or creating any noise or light; a scene that last year’s blockbuster thriller, A Quiet Place, surely took inspiration from. The occasional stray tourist will be returned promptly to their lodgings by watchful pecalang (community police).
But the day comes in with a big bang. On Nyepi Eve villages stage Ngrupuk parades: towering convoys of Ogoh-Ogoh — 16ft papier-mâché ‘monster dolls’ — accompanied by the insistent hammering of gamelan orchestras. In places like Jasri on the beautiful rice-paddy-fringed shores of less developed eastern Bali, peripheral festivities include barong dances and Ter Teran — one-on-one “fire battles” with palm torches.
Pride of villagers, Technicolor Ogoh-Ogoh giants start appearing from under wraps, roadside and in temple courtyards a day or so before Nyepi eve, enjoying a little bit of last-minute hair and make-up before the big show. Not wholly faithful to demons of the Hindu pantheon, modern Ogoh-Ogoh monsters err towards a Conan The Barbarian meets Incredible Hulk aesthetic. They are nonetheless terrifying for it, most striking a war pose, giant feet and fists raised with a fee-fi-fo-fum ferocity, and all suffering from a paucity of personal grooming — metres of long matted witchy hair, fetted tombstone teeth bared in a screaming grimace, and talon black toenails the nadir of any pedicurist’s career.
Intended to rouse the island’s demons from dormancy, these ostentatious ogres are the centre of a monster New Year’s Eve party which climaxes in their cremation — the work of months going up in sky-high columns of flame and smoke — before the island plays dead the next day, ostensibly to bore the evil spirits back to sleep for another year.
Bali’s Nyepi “silent day” is island-wide, with a curfew running for 24 hours from 6am on March 7 2019.
New Year’s Eve parades take place in most villages across the island but celebrations in the less-developed east retain a homemade charm, and are supremely quiet for Nyepi Day itself.
Some hotels in this area offer special access to the Ogoh-Ogoh parades, such as Alila Manggis in Candidasa: alilahotels.com/manggis
For specialist Bali cultural packages try carrier.co.uk
March 6, 2019
By David Milliken
LONDON (Reuters) – Ireland’s police service said on Tuesday it was helping British colleagues investigate who mailed three small bombs to two of London’s airports and a major rail station on Tuesday.
No one was injured by the devices, one of which caused a small fire in an office building at Heathrow Airport, Europe’s busiest air hub.
The packages were posted from the Republic of Ireland, according to a senior European government source, and Ireland’s police service confirmed it was helping British police to investigate.
“The Met Police Counter Terrorism Command is treating the incidents as a linked series and is keeping an open mind regarding motives,” London’s police force said, declining to comment immediately on a possible Irish link.
Conflict over the British-ruled province of Northern Ireland claimed thousands of lives from the late 1960s until the Good Friday peace agreement in 1998, mostly in Northern Ireland but also in mainland Britain and the Republic of Ireland.
Small groups opposed to the Good Friday Agreement have remained active since.
The United Kingdom is on its second-highest level of terrorism alert, with security services seeing an attack by international terrorists as “highly likely”.
In 2017, five attacks in London and Manchester killed a total of 36 people.
However, the risk of Northern Ireland-related terrorism in mainland Britain was graded as “moderate”, meaning an attack was viewed as possible but not likely.
London police received the first report of a suspicious device, at Heathrow, at 0955 GMT after staff opened a package which caught fire.
Later, a similar package was identified in the post room of London’s busiest rail station, Waterloo, and a third was found in an office at London City airport in east London.
Flights were unaffected, though a light rail line linking London City with central London was temporarily suspended.
(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball and Graham Fahy in Dublin; editing by Stephen Addison and Gareth Jones)
February 13, 2019
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgian airports canceled almost all flights on Wednesday as a national strike over pay and working conditions halted activity at ports, hit public transport and led to factory blockades.
Air traffic control body Skeyes shut Belgian airspace for 24 hours from 10 p.m. (2100 GMT) on Tuesday because it could not guarantee enough staff would turn up.
Belgian airspace is at a crucial intersection between major airports in London, Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt and is among the busiest in Europe.
Brussels Airport, the country’s busiest hub, said it had planned to handle 591 passenger and cargo departures and arrivals and that the strike would hit some 60,000 travelers.
Just one passenger flight, to Moscow, would depart late on Wednesday, with a few late arrivals and some cargo flights, Brussels Airport said.
Planes can still travel over Belgium, under guidance from Eurocontrol, but only above 24,500 feet (7,500 meters). Its operations website showed that Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport was suffering moderate to high delays due to the Belgian strike.
National rail operator SNCB said about half of its train services were running. High-speed Thalys, running to Amsterdam and Paris, said it should be running normal services, though catering might not be available on all trains. Some Eurostar trains to London were canceled due to maintenance.
Dock workers were not loading or unloading ships in the port of Antwerp. Blockades stopped work at factories across Belgium.
Brussels’ metro, tram and bus operator ran just a handful of lines. The situation was the same in the rest of the country.
Unions are calling for wage increases, an improved work-life balance and better pensions in talks with employers. Some see the strike as political action against the center-right federal government ahead of a parliamentary election.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said talks needed to resume by Thursday and added that companies had created 219,000 jobs in the past four years thanks to the government’s policies.
Belgium’s Central Council of the Economy, composed of worker, employer and consumer representatives, has advised that the maximum pay hike for 2019 and 2020 should be 0.8 percent. Michel’s office said that, including wage indexation, this meant an effective pay increase of up to 4.6 percent.
(Reporting by Clare Roth; editing by Philip Blenkinsop, Alexandra Hudson and Alexander Smith)
CNN is force-fed to the public in airports, schools and other public spaces.
A large number of TSA employees are facing life in prison after abusing their positions to smuggle over 100 million dollars of cocaine into the U.S. from Puerto Rico.
Twelve members of the cocaine ring, including TSA baggage screeners and security personnel are facing charges of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute.
Aol.com reports: Authorities say as much as 20 tons of cocaine over an 18 year period was smuggled in.
They claim A baggage handler in the ring picked up cocaine filled suitcases at check-in counters and put them into TSA X-Ray machines that another suspect cleared.
After, the baggage handler took them to their respective flights, making sure no police or K-9 units intervened.
According to reports, up to five smugglers were used in each flight, each carrying as much as 33 pounds of the illegal substance at a time.
This comes in the heels of a homeland security report that found many of the major U.S. airports do not have full employee screenings.
Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,
Hard as it is to believe, airline travel recently became even more unpleasant. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees being required to work without pay for the duration of the government shutdown resulted in many TSA workers calling in sick. The outbreak of “shutdown flu” among TSA employees forced some large airports to restrict the number of places mandatory TSA screenings were performed, making going through screening even more time-consuming and providing one more reason to shut down the TSA.
Airline security should be provided by airlines and airports. Private businesses, such as airlines, have an incentive to ensure their customers’ safety without treating them like criminal suspects or worse. Security personnel hired by, and accountable to, airlines would not force a nursing mother to drink her own breast milk or steal a stuffed lamb from a wheelchair-using three-year-old and subject the child to such an intensive screening that she cries “I don’t want to go to Disneyworld.” Those who claim that the TSA is necessary to keep us safe should consider that the Department of Homeland Security’s own studies show that TSA’s screenings and even the intrusive pat-downs are ineffective at discovering hidden guns, explosives, and other weapons.
TSA employees have no incentives to please, or even care about the well-being of, airline passengers. Instead, their jobs depend on pleasing politicians and bureaucrats. If we have learned anything since 9/11, it is that most politicians are more concerned with appearing to be “doing something” about security than actually reducing the risk of terrorist attacks. That is why politicians’ response to 9/11 was a series of actions — such as creating the TSA, passing the PATRIOT Act, and invading Iraq — that trade our real liberties for phantom security. Sometimes, pro-TSA politicians will bemoan the TSA’s “excesses” and even call for “reforming” the agency in order to pretend they care about their constituents’ rights.
Restoring responsibility for providing security to private businesses will encourage the development of new and innovative ways to more effectively provide security. In a free market, airlines and airports could compete for business on the basis that their flights are safer or their screening is less unpleasant then that of their competitors. If airlines were able to set their own security policies, they would likely allow pilots to carry firearms.
Private companies also strive to be consistent in providing services. Therefore, a company providing private security would never inconvenience its customers because of a “temporary shutdown.”
Because government operations are funded by coercive taxation rather than voluntary choices of consumers, federal officials cannot rely on the price system to inform them of whether they need to increase or decrease spending on airline security. In the private sector, businesses that charge more for security — or any other good or service — than individuals are willing to pay lose customers. Also, if businesses do not spend enough on security, people concerned about safety will be unwilling to use their services. Privatizing airline security is the only way to ensure that the “correct” amount of resources is being spent on airline safety.
In the 18 years since Congress created the TSA, the agency has proven itself incapable of providing real security, but more than capable of harrying Americans and wasting taxpayer dollars on security theater.
Congress should permanently close the TSA and return responsibility for security to private businesses.
This article was originally published by Ron Paul at the Ron Paul Institute
Hard as it is to believe, airline travel recently became even more unpleasant. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees being required to work without pay for the duration of the government shutdown resulted in many TSA workers calling in sick. The outbreak of “shutdown flu” among TSA employees forced some large airports to restrict the number of places mandatory TSA screenings were performed, making going through screening even more time-consuming and providing one more reason to shut down the TSA.
Airline security should be provided by airlines and airports. Private businesses, such as airlines, have an incentive to ensure their customers’ safety without treating them like criminal suspects or worse. Security personnel hired by, and accountable to, airlines would not force a nursing mother to drink her own breast milk or steal a stuffed lamb from a wheelchair-using three-year-old and subject the child to such an intensive screening that she cries “I don’t want to go to Disneyworld.” Those who claim that the TSA is necessary to keep us safe should consider that the Department of Homeland Security’s own studies show that TSA’s screenings and even the intrusive pat-downs are ineffective at discovering hidden guns, explosives, and other weapons.
TSA employees have no incentives to please, or even care about the well-being of, airline passengers. Instead, their jobs depend on pleasing politicians and bureaucrats. If we have learned anything since 9/11, it is that most politicians are more concerned with appearing to be “doing something” about security than actually reducing the risk of terrorist attacks. That is why politicians’ response to 9/11 was a series of actions — such as creating the TSA, passing the PATRIOT Act, and invading Iraq — that trade our real liberties for phantom security. Sometimes, pro-TSA politicians will bemoan the TSA’s “excesses” and even call for “reforming” the agency in order to pretend they care about their constituents’ rights.
Restoring responsibility for providing security to private businesses will encourage the development of new and innovative ways to more effectively provide security. In a free market, airlines and airports could compete for business on the basis that their flights are safer or their screening is less unpleasant then that of their competitors. If airlines were able to set their own security policies, they would likely allow pilots to carry firearms.
Private companies also strive to be consistent in providing services. Therefore, a company providing private security would never inconvenience its customers because of a “temporary shutdown.”
Because government operations are funded by coercive taxation rather than voluntary choices of consumers, federal officials cannot rely on the price system to inform them of whether they need to increase or decrease spending on airline security. In the private sector, businesses that charge more for security — or any other good or service — than individuals are willing to pay lose customers. Also, if businesses do not spend enough on security, people concerned about safety will be unwilling to use their services. Privatizing airline security is the only way to ensure that the “correct” amount of resources is being spent on airline safety.
In the 18 years since Congress created the TSA, the agency has proven itself incapable of providing real security, but more than capable of harrying Americans and wasting taxpayer dollars on security theater. Congress should permanently close the TSA and return responsibility for security to private businesses.
February 2, 2019
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Frankfurt airport operator Fraport expects no hit to its business due to Britain’s departure from the European Union, Chief Financial Officer Matthias Zieschang told German daily Boersen-Zeitung.
“Even in the event of a hard Brexit we expect that there would be pragmatic solutions for the logistics business and the transport of people,” he told the paper’s Saturday edition.
Flights to Britain account for only five percent of Fraport’s business and even if all trips to and from Britain were canceled due to a hard Brexit the impact of Fraport would be manageable, he said.
Separately, Fraport reiterated that it remains interested in buying a 35-year concession to run the airport in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia, despite repeated delays.
Bulgaria delayed the deadline for bids to run Sofia’s airport for a fourth time to April 3, the transport ministry said on Friday, after potential bidders asked for more time.
“We are also looking at more airports in Brazil. We want to grow our international business through acquisitions”, Zieschang said, adding that Fraport aims for its international business to contribute at least 50 percent of profits in the long-term.
Brazil has embarked on a privatization drive and wants to sell at least $20 billion in assets of state-owned companies this year.
Fraport will hike the payouts to shareholders for 2018, Zieschang said.
“We want to increase the dividend by an amount that means we do not run the risk of falling below a 40 percent payout ratio next year (if we kept the 2019 dividend stable),” he said.
(Reporting by Arno Schuetze, editing by Louise Heavens)
Extreme weather, merciless cold in the Midwest United States, snow squalls bringing near-whiteout conditions to the Northeast, nine dead, schools and postal service in many states canceled, and airports closed — an “act of God” as they say, yet MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow still found a way to make it all about Putin.
She breathlessly reported Wednesday evening that life-threatening cold weather in the US could be weaponized by Russia. Maddow invoked a recent intelligence assessment which speculated over Russia and China’s abilities to launch cyber-attacks on critical US infrastructure, including natural gas pipelines. Running with this “what if” scenario, she launched into her now well-known conspiracy theorizing and fear-mongering, saying “It is life-threatening! And it is like negative 50 degrees in the Dakotas right now.”
You’ll never guess who is seizing on life-threatening cold weather in the U.S. to fear-monger about… Russia! pic.twitter.com/deo2H4SBBQ
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) January 31, 2019
Maddow told her MSNBC audience:
We’re relying on their [Russia and China’s] good graces that they’re not [attacking us]. It is life-threatening. And it is like negative 50 degrees in the Dakotas right now. What would happen if Russia killed the power in Fargo?
Posing more questions that perhaps rival Condoleezza Rice’s infamous “mushroom cloud” statement when it was Iraq and not Russia as the media’s latest boogeyman, she continued:
What would happen if all the natural gas lines that service Sioux Falls just poofed on the coldest day in recent memory and it wasn’t in our power whether to turn them back on? What would you do if you lost heat indefinitely as the act of a foreign power?
…On the same day the temperature in your backyard matched the temperature in Antarctica… What would you and your family do?
This was enough for journalist Glenn Greenwald to request that the network scrub the absurdly embarrassing segment from the internet altogether. “I’m not even joking. I have so much work to do and I can’t stop watching this,” he said. “MSNBC often removes its most embarrassing debacles from the internet. Someone please do that here so I can get to work.”
I’m not even joking. I have so much work to do and I can’t stop watching this. MSNBC often removes its most embarrassing debacles from the internet. Someone please do that here so I can get to work pic.twitter.com/sdNn20XBv4
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 31, 2019
He followed by posing a serious question for liberal media in 2019: “For anyone who prides themselves on being a rational, fact-based person who shuns fear-mongering and unhinged conspiracies, please answer honestly – I’m genuinely interested in your answer: do you feel any embarrassment at all while you watch this???“
Flashing extreme temperatures on the screen while Vladimir Putin is the commentary…
Sadly we expect the answer to by and large be “no” — but at least this will bring more future hours of news coverage unhinged-conspiracy-fearmongering-as-entertainment TV watching.
THE TERRORISTS – I mean: RUSSIA!!! – are coming to take away the heat from you and your American families during winter!!! What will you do?!?!?!? This is the brain poison liberals feed on every night: https://t.co/9XSIyVrlc0
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 31, 2019
Sergey Lavrov just hacked my boiler and unplugged my refrigerator.
— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) January 31, 2019
However, as independent journalist Aaron Maté points out, this is also serious business given the way Maddow is manipulating a truly dangerous extreme weather situation.
“I generally argue that Russiagate conspiracy and fear-mongering distracts us from serious issues,” Maté said. He concluded, “This is a good example of Russiagate peddlers like Maddow not ignoring, but using serious issues like life-threatening cold weather for conspiracy and fear-mongering.”
In the days after the UK’s chaotic no-deal Brexit, as companies scramble to re-engineer supply chains to account for time-consuming customs checks on goods entering the country from the EU, air travelers leaving the UK (passport in hand) can rest assured that, even if their flights linger on the runway for hours, at least they will have a tasty in-flight meal to enjoy as they lash out at Theresa May and her government on Twitter.
That’s because the world’s biggest caterer of airplane meals, snacks and beverages has already stockpiled enough supplies to last about ten days in a warehouse in Peterborough, England, Bloomberg reports.
Following the historic defeat of her Brexit withdrawal deal last week, Theresa May has apparently reasoned that winning over intransigent Tories and members of the DUP would be her best shot at winning support for a “Plan B” deal, which she is expected to introduce on Monday (to be sure, “Plan B” is expected to include only minor differences from “Plan A”).
With the way forward as muddled as ever, May has little choice but to keep fostering scary headlines about the possible fallout from a ‘no deal’ Brexit – a strategy we have dubbed “Project Fear” – in the hope that, once their backs are against the wall and their alternatives have been whittled down to ‘her deal or no deal’, MPs will do the “sensible” thing and back May’s deal.
And now, Gate Gourmet, an airline services company that supplies 10 airports in the UK, has filled warehouses across the country with enough supplies to give them a 10-day buffer following a hard Brexit, which the company’s executives fear could be disruptive to their supply chain.
Gate Gourmet, which serves 20 airlines at 10 U.K. airports, is accumulating enough pizza, ice cream and roast duck (for business class) to see passengers through about 10 days of disruption. Chilled items are being held at a warehouse in Peterborough, England, while mountains of snack boxes, peanuts and toilet rolls are piling up at a room-temperature facility in London.
“Companies could be in difficulty if they haven’t prepared themselves and ensured a continuity of supply,” Stephen Corr, the Zurich-based firm’s managing director for Western Europe, said in an interview. “We’ve been gradually increasing inventory levels of products from the European Union to ensure that any initial disruption at the U.K. border can be covered.”
Companies across the UK are already stockpiling everything from autoparts, plane wings, newsprint, beer and cancer drugs at specialist warehouses. Gate Gourmet produces most of its meals in Spain and Germany, which could create problems if the trading relationship between the UK and the EU suddenly reverts to WTO rules. Because of this pre-Brexit Day rush, one of the warehouses used by Gate Gourmet is already 98% full.
That means using the Calais-Dover sea crossing that’s expected to become a pinch-point following the introduction of time-consuming customs checks if Britain exits the EU without a deal. Before being sent to the airport for reheating aboard the plane, the cooked food is stored in Peterborough.
The site, run by a Chiltern Cold Storage, is now 98 percent full with everything from frozen meat for restaurants to vegan meals and dog food, as suppliers the length and breadth of Britain call on its services, according to Operations Director Tom Lewis.
With Brexit Day just 75 days away, more companies are triggering their ‘hard Brexit’ contingency plans. And with May about as close to passing a deal as she was last summer (that is to say, not close at all), we can’t help but wonder if all of this stockpiling could create some distortions in the UK’s PMI numbers if Brexit Day comes and goes without a catastrophe.
January 21, 2019
By Anthony Boadle and Jake Spring
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s government will announce the privatization of southern airports, including Curitiba, in the second quarter of this year, according to Adalberto Vasconcelos, head of the PPI government program tasked with luring private investment in the country’s infrastructure.
Vasconcelos told Reuters on Monday that the Ferrograo and FIOL railway projects serving the central grain belt would be ready for bidding this year or early in 2020. Miner Vale S.A. and logistics company Rumo S.A. are also expected to sign early renewal of rail concessions this year, involving a commitment to new investments, he said.
Chinese investment would be “very well received” in Brazilian infrastructure projects, Vasconcelos said.
Brazil’s new right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro criticized China for “buying up” Brazil during the election campaign last year. But Vasconcelos clarified that he was referring to strategic assets and “means of production” such as farm land.
Bolsonaro, who took office three weeks ago, is boosting the Investment Partnerships Program started in 2016 by the previous government to speed up improvements in deficient infrastructure that adds to the cost of exporting Brazilian soy and other food.
To improve air travel across the vast country for tourism, farming and the oil industry, 20 airports will be auctioned on March 15 as planned in three regional blocs.
Vasconcelos said one or two more blocs of airport concessions will be announced after March, including Curitiba, but not the coveted busy airport of Congonhas in Sao Paulo and Santos Dumont in Rio de Janeiro. These will not be on the auction block for now because they are key to funding Infraero, the government agency that manages airports.
The government plans to reduce Brazil’s heavy reliance on road transport for moving cargo to markets and ports by building more railways and getting current operators to invests in expansions as they sign renewal of their concessions.
By 2025, it hopes to double the share of cargo moved by rail to 31 percent from 15 percent, Vasconcelos said.
Vale, the world’s second largest mining company and top iron ore exporter, and Rumo have already agreed and their contracts only need approval by the federal audits court TCU, he said.
The Ferrograo grain railway will take 10 years to build, he said, and run from Sinop in Mato Grosso state to Miritituba on the Tapajós river from where barges will carry crops for transshipment on the Amazon and out to world markets.
The FICO and FIOL railways will connect the farm belt to the North-South line and Atlantic ports, with a capacity to move out 8 million tonnes of grains a year.
Control of Brazil’s largest utility Eletrobras will pass into the hands of private investors via a huge new share sale under a previously announced model, after separating two strategic subsidiaries, nuclear power generation unit Eletronuclear and the massive Itaipú Binacional, which straddles the Brazil-Paraguay border.
The PPI program run by Vasconcelos will be responsible for handling concessions and privatizations of state companies, though the sale of their assets or subsidiaries will be handled by the divestment office at the Ministry of Economy.
(Reporting by Anthony Boadle, Jake Spring and Brad Haynes; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Leaders focus on airports, highways, railroads
This article was originally published by Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge
As President Trump orders 46,000 federal employees back to work without pay (while signing a bill to compensate all federal employees going without pay after the shutdown ends), the word around the water cooler at the TSA is that, six days after federal employees missed their first paycheck since the shutdown began, more of the airport security agency’s screeners and other employees are citing financial hardship as a reason for calling out of work as the shutdown enters its 27th day.
Though it hasn’t released data about absenteeism witnessed since the shutdown, in a news release Wednesday about checkpoint operations (released as airports around the country cut down on security lines or, like Houston Airport, close whole terminals, the agency said “many employees are reporting that they are not able to report to work due to financial limitations.”
TSA Administrator David Pekoske said that most employees who call out have been honest about their reasons, and the most common excuse he hears is financial hardship – like, for example, employees being unable to afford child care or transportation (i.e. no gas in the car).
#breaking @TSA_Pekoske confirms to @cbsnews the increase in @tsa sick calls is from officers calling out for financial reasons. It’s not a sick out, officers aren’t pretending to be sick. They are saying they cannot afford to work for free any longer. #shutdown
— Kris Van Cleave (@krisvancleave) January 16, 2019
TSA spokesman Michael Bilello confirmed this in a statement.
“We are hearing from our workforce that many of them are calling out not because they are sick but because they are unable to make it to work for financial reasons,” Bilello said.
There are no plans to punish workers who call out, the agency said. The TSA employs some 51,000 federal security workers who earn roughly $41,000 a year.
As of Tuesday, callout rates had roughly doubled from the same day a year earlier, with 6.1% of security officers absent, compared with 3.7% the year prior.
And now that Trump is ordering more airport security workers to return to work, expect this number to rise as the shutdown has no end in sight.
January 15, 2019
By Tracy Rucinski
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Delta Air Lines Inc <DAL.N> and United Airlines <UAL.O> kicked off fourth-quarter earnings reporting for the sector on Tuesday with profits that beat Wall Street expectations, but the rippling effects of a government shutdown could take a toll on the current quarter and beyond.
The profit beats boosted airline shares in after-hours trading, with United Continental Holdings up nearly 6 percent, while Delta rose 1 percent. Shares of American Airlines Group <AAL.O> and Southwest Airlines Co <LUV.N> also rose, up 2.4 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.
However, No. 2 U.S. carrier Delta warned of a fall in revenue growth in the current quarter due to lost government business and of difficulties in introducing new aircraft because of the U.S. government shutdown that has dragged into a fourth week.
United said it had placed orders for four Boeing 777-300ER aircraft and 24 737 MAX planes, though the commercial use of new planes could be delayed as non-essential work at the Federal Aviation Administration, which is responsible for certifying new aircraft, remained on hold due to the shutdown.
The FAA said on Tuesday it is calling back 1,700 aviation safety inspectors, but does not have immediate plans to recall employees who handle certifications of new aircraft.
“There continues to be growing concerns around the macro environment with the government shutdown and slowing economies in Europe and Asia,” Cowen and Company analyst Helane Becker said.
Delta Chief Executive Ed Bastian said the shutdown will cost about $25 million per month due to reduced government travel and related effects. He said the company has not seen any impact on corporate travel or bookings, which overall look healthy through the U.S. spring break period.
Delta operates about 86 daily flights out of Washington area airports.
United, with a hub at Washington Dulles, could be more exposed to a prolonged shutdown, operating about 264 Washington area flights per day in January.
Chicago-based United also warned that revenue per mile flown could fall in the first quarter. Its management will discuss earnings and forecasts on a conference call on Wednesday.
In the fourth quarter, United’s adjusted earnings per share rose to $2.41 from $1.99 a year earlier, topping analysts’ average forecast by 37 cents, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
United attributed fourth-quarter growth to a strategy launched last January to expand its domestic network by adding flights and more options for connections through its seven main hubs, with a particular focus on Chicago, Denver and Houston.
Delta reported adjusted profit of $1.30 per share for the fourth quarter, beating analysts’ estimates by 3 cents.
Delta also forecast first-quarter earnings between 70 cents and 90 cents per share, while United said it expects full-year adjusted earnings of $10.00 to $12.00 per share.
(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru and Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
The fact that a lone drone (possibly two drones) managed to shut down Europe’s eighth biggest airport for roughly 36 hours during the peak of the holiday travel season – with UK authorities appearing surprisingly helpless when it came to tackling such a seemingly benign threat – is one of the biggest embarrassments in UK aviation history.
And the owners of London’s Gatwick and Heathrow airports are determined to make sure that it never happens again. ‘
After bringing in an unidentified military-grade anti-drone system to handle the drone threat, the airports have reportedly invested millions of pounds in purchases of anti-drone equipment – though they declined to specify exactly what they purchased (it’s widely suspected that the system is similar to the Israeli-developed “drone dome” tech which scrambles the signals that guide the drones, causing them to fall out of the sky).
The airports reportedly expressed significant interest in drone dome. According to the BBC, the UK ministry of defense purchased one of the units last year, though this hasn’t been confirmed, and it’s unclear whether this system was used at Gatwick.
Last year it was reported that the MoD had ordered the Drone Dome system developed by Israeli company Rafael.
The system has a range of several miles and uses four radars to give 360-degree detection to identify and track drones.
However, it is understood the MoD is still waiting to receive the system and alternative technology was in use at Gatwick.
According to the Guardian, the new systems were purchased and installed roughly one week ago. And on Wednesday, the Ministry of Defense said it had withdrawn its personnel from Gatwick, though its troops “stand ever ready to assist should a request for support be received.”
UK Transportation Secretary Chris Grayling reportedly chaired a meeting on Thursday morning at which defense personnel, UK police and officials from the Home Office discussed future plans for dealing with the threat that drones pose to vital infrastructure.
And next week, Liz Sugg, parliamentary undersecretary of state for transport, is due to meet the heads of all major airports in the UK to discuss their own defenses, as well as their plans for beefing up security. Edinburgh Airport in Scotland has also indicated that it’s taking its starting foot patrols and expanding some no-fly zones around the airport as additional precautions against any future “drone attacks.”
Source: Glenn CHAPMAN
Will flying cars take off at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show?
Well, sort of.
The prototypes won’t be soaring over the Las Vegas Strip during the technology extravaganza which runs from January 8-11.
But a number of flying car designs will be on display, portending what many see as an inevitable airborne future for short-range transport with vertical takeoff and landing, or VTOL.
NFT Inc. co-founders Maki and Guy Kaplinsky, a couple developing a flying vehicle in Israel and California, will have their vision on display at show, with a media session on Sunday.
“We believe we have a winning design that will enable us to make the Model T of flying cars — a low-cost production model,” Guy Kaplinsky told AFP in a Silicon Valley office park where a prototype model was being assembled.
A doorway to the rear of the NFT office in Mountain View opened onto large blue tarps hung from the ceiling to hide the workshop.
A team of veteran aviation engineers is focused on research at the startup’s facility in Israel, and the founders plan to expand the staff of 15 people.
The startup is designing hardware and software, while enlisting original equipment manufacturers to crank out products at scale.
“We learned from Tesla that Elon Musk spent too much time on the production side,” Guy Kaplinsky said.
“We are spending our time on the technology side and will partner with companies on assembly.”
The NFT vehicle with a projected price tag of $50,000 will function as a car, but be able to take off or land vertically and fly on auto-pilot.
– Regular Joes ? –
Several companies, including Uber and start-ups backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, are working on people-carrying drones or similar flying vehicles.
In Japan, volunteers in a “Cartivator” group are out to build a “Skydrive” flying car and have set their sights on using one to light the flame at the opening of the Olympic games in Tokyo in 2020.
The crowdfunded effort has gotten backing from Japanese auto giant Toyota, where some Cartivator members work.
A scaled-down replica of “Toyota’s flying car” is to be shown at CES.
“Our team consists of people with diverse professional backgrounds and is working hard every weekend towards developing the flying car,” the group said at a cartivator.com website.
“We aim to build a prototype, establish theory of flight control, as well as form alliances with major corporations to make mass production of the flying car a reality.”
– Door-to-door solution –
NFT is working to marry a plane with a car, meaning no airports or heliports would be needed.
“We believe door-to-door is the solution,” Kaplinsky said.
“Our approach is more for the mom and three kids; you load everyone in the car one time and get where you need to go.”
A smartphone mapping application could be paired to a navigation center hosted in the internet cloud, routing drivers to takeoff points and providing instructions to auto-pilots in cars.
The electric powered NFT vehicle is targeting ranges of 310 miles flying (500 km) and 60 miles driving (100 km).
Kaplinsky said the startup seeing US Federal Aviation Administration approval as early as 2024.
He expected to have a drive-fly vehicle ready to demonstrate late next year.
Kaplinsky felt it likely that, in the long run, flying cars would be part of ride-sharing fleets to make better use than those owned by individuals.
Gartner automotive analyst Mike Ramsey says autonomous flying vehicles are coming, but won’t disrupt the way people travel.
Ramsey said cost, regulation, and battery life are just a few of the hurdles for flying vehicles.
“There still has to be a limit to the number of these things that can be in the air at once,” he said/
While one person with a flying car may be amazing, 500 people in a city darting about in flying cars could bode airborne mayhem.
“It’s really cool, and it will have applications, but they are unlikely to be regular Joes like you and me jumping over all the traffic,” Ramsey said.
The analyst said flying vehicles could catch on as lower cost options to medical helicopters, military transport, or accessing rugged rural areas.
“I do think the technology will happen,” Ramsey said.
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The TSA is running a surveillance program called “Quiet Skies” that involves monitoring people in airports who have not committed a crime or who are not on any watch list, but who are acting suspiciously.
Just wait until you hear the criteria and how unsuccessful the program has been.
Lets give it a Reality Check.
The post TSA Secretly Tracking Travelers Like Terrorists appeared first on Ben Swann’s Truth In Media.
Be sure to check out our sponsor SmartCash at http://smartcash.cc
The TSA is running a surveillance program called “Quiet Skies” that involves monitoring people in airports who have not committed a crime or who are not on any watch list, but who are acting suspiciously.
Just wait until you hear the criteria and how unsuccessful the program has been.
Lets give it a Reality Check.
The post TSA Secretly Tracking Travelers Like Terrorists appeared first on Ben Swann’s Truth In Media.
TSA security agents to be deployed in UK airports for Olympics [Insert eye-roll *here.*] 18 Jul 2012 The US Transport Security Administration has reportedly prepared its personnel to be deployed in UK airports for the Olympic Games. The US agents will apply their skills to help their UK colleagues bolster security during the event. TSA personnel are to arrive at UK air hubs a week before and stay a week after the London Olympics, according to a newly reached agreement between UK’s Department of Transport and the US Transportation Security Administration, Sky News reports.
U.S. Security Expands Presence at Foreign Airports 14 Jun 2012 An ocean away from the United States, travelers flying out of the international airport here on the west coast of Ireland are confronting one of the newest lines of defense in the war on terrorism: the United States border. In a section of this airport carved out for the Department of Homeland Security, passengers are screened for explosives and cleared to enter the United States by American Customs and Border Protection officers before boarding. …By placing officers in foreign countries and effectively pushing the United States border thousands of miles beyond the country’s shores, Americans have more control over screening and security executing the false flags.
U.S. Security Expands Presence at Foreign Airports 14 Jun 2012 An ocean away from the United States, travelers flying out of the international airport here on the west coast of Ireland are confronting one of the newest lines of defense in the war on terrorism: the United States border. In a section of this airport carved out for the Department of Homeland Security, passengers are screened for explosives and cleared to enter the United States by American Customs and Border Protection officers before boarding. …By placing officers in foreign countries and effectively pushing the United States border thousands of miles beyond the country’s shores, Americans have more control over screening and security executing the false flags.
