Another day and another billions of dollars fine for a bank and other news and views for Tuesday 1 July
- BNP pleads guilty to sanctions violations and faces $8.9bn fine
- A Grieving Father Pulls a Thread That Unravels BNP’s Illegal Deals – “A bus bombing two decades ago — and a New Jersey father’s quest for justice — inadvertently set off a chain of events that led American prosecutors to accuse some of the world’s biggest banks of transferring money for nations like Iran. On Monday, that crackdown culminated with the guilty plea of BNP Paribas, which admitted to doing billions of dollars in deals with Iran and other countries blacklisted by the United States and agreed to pay a record $8.9 billion penalty to state and federal authorities. The trail that ultimately led to BNP began in 2006, when the Manhattan district attorney’s office came upon a lawsuit filed by the father, who blamed Iran for financing the Gaza bus bombing that killed his 20-year-old daughter. Buried in the court filings, prosecutors found a stunning accusation: a charity that owned a gleaming office tower on Fifth Avenue was actually a “front” for the Iranian government, a claim that the prosecutors ultimately verified.”
- Warming threat to emperor penguins - “Climate change is likely to cut Antarctica’s 600,000-strong emperor penguin population by at least a fifth by 2100, a study suggests.”
- Jokowi confident of victory despite squandering poll lead
- After the Trees Disappear - Ash Forests After Emerald Ash Borers Destroy Them
- How much your meat addiction is hurting the planet
- France’s Former President Sarkozy Taken Into Custody – “Just two years after leaving the presidency, former French leader Nicolas Sarkozy turned himself in to police this morning as part of an inquiry into a cover-up of suspected illegal campaign fundraising. Sarkozy, 59, is reportedly France’s first former president to be taken into formal custody.”
- Minimum prices for alcohol should work – “Addicts may not respond to price incentives as we would expect. This problem, combined with the fear of disproportionally taxing the poor, makes it difficult to address the consumption externalities caused by addictive substances. This column reviews recent literature showing the efficacy of minimum pricing on alcohol, and the curious result that alcohol consumption now seems to be increasing in household income.”
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