Estonia 'e-residency' offers Brexit Brits EU loophole

Yahoo – AFP, Mike COLLIER with Mary SIBIERSKI in Warsaw, August 13, 2017

Taavi Kotka, Estonia's chief information officer, presents the e-residency IDs
project. As Brits brace for the upheaval that Brexit could bring, some are turning to
Estonia's e-residency digital ID programme to keep doing business across
the EU. (AFP Photo/RAIGO PAJULA)

Tallinn (AFP) - As Brits brace for the upheaval that Brexit could bring, some are turning to Estonia's e-residency digital ID programme to keep doing business across the European Union.

Using its knack for digital innovation to capitalise on the global explosion in e-commerce, the small cyber-savvy Baltic eurozone state became the first country to offer e-residency identification cards to people worldwide in 2014.

Touted as a "trans-national government-issued digital identity", e-residency allows users to open a business in the EU and then run it remotely with the ability to declare taxes and sign documents digitally.

It does not provide citizenship, tax residency, physical residency or the right to travel to Estonia. Applications can be made online via the www.howtostayin.eu website and cost 100 euros ($112).

Just over 22,000 people from 138 countries across the globe have become e-residents so far, including around 1,200 Brits and last year's Brexit vote triggered a boom in applications from the UK.

Before it, only three British citizens applied per week, but that shot up to over 50 in its aftermath. There was also a 75 percent spike in UK traffic on the website after Prime Minister Theresa May triggered the Article 50 EU exit clause in March.

A "soft Brexit" would mean that Britain could retain access to the European single market like non-EU member Norway. But the "hard Brexit" option that has prevailed so far would see Britain leave the European single market and the customs union, creating a nightmare scenario for UK businesses as there would no longer be free movement of goods and services.

"The UK may have chosen to leave the EU, but its entrepreneurs can still choose to remain inside the EU's business environment" through e-residency, programme director Kaspar Korjus told AFP.

E-residency spokesman Arnaud Castaignet explaind that if a British entrepreneur becomes an Estonian e-resident and establishes a company producing goods in Estonia then they "will have the same access to the EU market as any EU company."

So far the majority of companies established by e-residents are in consultancy services, IT programming, web developing, business support services.

'Insurance policy'

Winners of the Mayor of London's 2017 Entrepreneur competition say they signed up for e-residency to mitigate the risk Brexit poses for their business, a startup making environmentally-friendly wet wipes.

Ellenor McIntosh and Alborz Bozorgi both live in London but say they took up e-residency in order to be able to keep their company, Twipes, inside the EU's single market.

Billing Twipes as "the future of toilet paper", its owners say they have registered it both in the UK and Estonia to boost investor confidence.

"We had discussions with many investors from across Europe, Cyprus and Estonia in particular, and they view the uncertainty of Brexit as a huge risk," Bozorgi told AFP via email.

"We had to incorporate in both the UK and EU as a method of hedging risk," he added.

If Britain loses access to the single market, however, the company would need to source materials and produce Twipes inside the EU to keep duty free access to the bloc.

Brit Dirk Singer established his Rabbit digital marketing agency six years ago in the UK, but wary of Brexit he digitally relocated it to Estonia last year thanks to e-residency.

"I applied for e-residency shortly before the EU referendum last year. Essentially, I was not so optimistic that we would vote to stay and so I saw this as an insurance policy," Singer told AFP.

"Two of my five biggest clients are from the EU. I'm concerned that as a small UK service-based business, Brexit could start to make life difficult for me."

British writer Will Mawhood who runs the "Deep Baltic" culture website says he jumped at the opportunities and flexibility e-residency offers, especially having his company registered in a eurozone member.

"I split my time between the UK and Latvia, but since all my work is online, I often spend prolonged periods of time in other countries," he told AFP.

"People involved in my company are based in a variety of countries, so having to sign important documents in person would be unnecessarily time-consuming and complicated," he added.

Digital banking

An upgrade to the e-residency programme in May saw Finnish fintech company Holvi team up with Estonia to launch , eliminating the need for e-residents to travel to take care of business banking.

Korjus told AFP that there are signs that this uniquely Estonian digital innovation is catching on abroad.

"We've had interest from governments around the world who are keen to understand the programme and even introduce their own versions of e-residency."

He insists that safeguards are in place to prevent the programme from being abused for tax evasion or money laundering, including police checks of applicants.

Dutch grid operator moves forward with North Sea wind plan

DutchNews, March 8, 2017

Illustration: Tennet website

Dutch grid operator Tennet and Denmark’s Energinet have reached agreement on further developing a large renewable European electricity system in the North Sea. 

The plan, first unveiled in June 2016, will play an important part in meeting the 2050 climate goals formulated in the Paris Agreement (COP21), the partners said in a statement on Wednesday. Discussions with other potential partners are ongoing. 

The plan centres on the construction of one or more islands with interconnections to surrounding countries in the middle of the North Sea area of Dogger Bank. 

These hubs would be connection points for wind farms, allowing electricity to be distributed and transmitted over direct current lines to the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Norway and Belgium. 

The Dogger Bank area also has excellent wind conditions and the area is relatively shallow, making it cheaper to build the wind farms and the island, the consortium said. 

‘This project can significantly contribute to a completely renewable supply of electricity in northwest Europe,’ said Tennet CEO Mel Kroon.

ABN Amro to fund its online banking unit MoneYou for expansion

DutchNews, March 7, 2017

ABN Amro is to provide additional funding to expand its digital banking subsidiary MoneYou, the Financieele Dagblad said on Tuesday. 

The state-owned bank hopes to attract hundreds of thousands of new clients throughout Europe to add to its present customer base of 500,000, which is largely in the Netherlands.

‘We plan to make MoneYou into an online bank of European proportions,’  said Frank Verkerk, who as chief digital officer at ABN Amro is partly responsible for MoneYou. The online unit was mentioned only once in the bank’s last 80-page quarterly report. 

In eight years, MoneYou has accumulated 500,000 customers in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Austria with a total of €20bn in deposits. This represents about 25% of the savings deposited with ABN Amro itself, the FD said.

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Could e-residency offer a way around Brexit?

EU launches debit cards for refugees in Turkey

Yahoo – AFP, September 26, 2016

European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos
 Stylianides (L) delivers a speech next to Turkey’s EU Minister Omer Celik (R)
during a joint press conference following their meeting on September 26, 2016
(AFP Photo/Adem Altan)

Ankara (AFP) - The European Union on Monday launched a scheme worth almost 350 million euros providing mainly Syrian refugees in Turkey with pre-paid debit cards, the biggest project yet under a landmark deal between the bloc and Ankara.

EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Christos Stylianides, in Ankara for the start of the programme, said the debit cards will help give vulnerable refugees a "sense of normality" in their lives.

The refugees will be able to use the cards in shops or institutions to pay for food, education, housing and clothing or also to withdraw cash from ATMs.

Each card will be automatically topped up with 100 Turkish lira ($33.50) a month, giving people the chance to choose their own purchases.

Stylianides said the programme was an "unprecedented response" to an "unprecedented crisis".

"This (scheme) is, in our humanitarian field, a game-changer in the delivery of humanitarian aid. Refugees can choose what they spend money on."

Turkey is home to some three million refugees, most of them Syrian. The vast majority live in cities without direct support from non-governmental organisations and aid groups.

Supported with 348 million euros ($392 million) from Brussels and its member states, the scheme will be rolled out by Turkish Red Crescent and the UN World Food Programme supported by the Turkish authorities.

Applications will start in October for the scheme. Families who have children going to school will receive more cash. All refugees registered in Turkey, including Iraqis, are eligible to apply.

Stylianides suggested that the programme would also benefit Turks.

"The money will be spent in local shops, boosting local businesses and encouraging social cohesion between citizens and refugees."

The project is part of a six billion euro ($6.75 billion) deal struck in March between Brussels and Ankara to curb the migrant influx into Europe, which saw more than a million arrive in the EU last year.

There have been fears the deal could collapse with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan complaining that the promised money was not handed directly to Turkey.

In exchange for cutting the flow, Brussels also offered Turkey visa liberalisation for its citizens to visit EU countries in the Schengen area as well as accelerated membership talks.

But Ankara has threatened to withdraw from the agreement if Europe does not allow visa-free travel for Turks by next month, though the numbers coming to Europe have dropped significantly since March.

Could e-residency offer a way around Brexit?

Could Estonia's e-residency program offer a way out of Britain's Brexit bind? Kaspar Korjus, director of the country's program thinks that digital nomadism could be the way forward for Britons and British companies.

Deutsche Welle, 25 Sep 2016

Since the referendum result in the UK and the impending Brexit, there’s been a rush of Britons trying to obtain residency within other EU countries so as to remain part of the EU. But the strict criteria often prevents many of them qualifying for an easy route. Now though, the Republic of Estonia might offer a way out of that bind. It has been offering e-residency permits for a couple of years as part of a wider program of e-government. This summer the country saw a jump in the number of Britons applying so they, or their companies, could continue trading as EU entities. DW talked to Kaspar Korjus, Estonia's e-residency program director.

Deutsche Welle: What exactly is e-residency?

Kaspar Korjus: E-residency in the larger context is the new nation state; we are building a whole new digital nation for global citizens. That means that every person on this planet can become an e-resident of this nation. By becoming an e-resident each person gets a digital identity, contained in a smart ID card. Once you get a smart ID card you can log in to the nation state services, you can digitally sign everything and you can be part of this new community.

Estonia has 13,000 e-residents currently
and hopes for 10 million by 2025

Why did Estonia decide to adopt this method? It's not just e-residency, but the whole thing is part of a wider program E-government.

Yes, so E-government has been in Estonia for the last 15 or so years. All Estonians have been voting on line, declaring taxes, getting e-prescriptions, signing all contracts, establishing companies; everything is done using that digital identity. Now we've just opened the borders to everyone else, so that everyone can be part of this.

The reasons are twofold: firstly, it's purely economic, so that Estonia can be bigger. Estonia has a population of just 1.3 million and the internal market compared to Germany for example is so small that we just need more customers outside of Estonia. Secondly, it doesn't add too much cost for us to open these things.

There are billions of people today all around the world who lack access to financial services or lack access to proper business services. For us to open these gates to them, it just doesn't cost us much extra. We already have the legal system, we already have the infrastructure and we already have the services, so we can just offer the same services to them also.

How many e-residents do you have at the moment?

KK: We have over 13,000 e-residents today, and we are still in a beta phase. To become an e-resident each person needs to pay 100 euros and apply online at e-resident.gov.ee and then have one face-to-face meeting at the Estonian embassy. This takes approximately two months and then a person could become an e-resident and access all the services.

Did you see the numbers shoot up after the referendum in Britain because of the threat of Brexit?

That's true, a few days after the Brexit referendum we had a ten times increase in applications from the UK. They were mainly from the start-up and entrepreneurship world. Many start-uppers were afraid of what Brexit could bring, whether they'd still be able to work with EU companies, whether they'd still be able to have employees from the EU. E-residency in that sense allows them and helps them to still run EU-based companies whilst living in the UK.

Britons can live in the UK and work
with companies in the EU via Estonian
e-residency and services

Because essentially it gives them EU membership?

It gives them an EU company, an EU bank account and EU regulations. So you don't need to apply to each separate EU country for a set of regulations as you would have the Estonian EU entity. Through that entity, you can sell all your services and regulations apply there. That means that none of the Brexit people need to move from the UK to Europe to deal with EU businesses, because they can stay living in the UK and deal with the EU through their e-residency and business in Estonia.

What do you expect from E-residents? Will there be any kind of tax burden?

E-residents usually pay taxes in the countries where they are living and creating value. E-residency does not mean tax residency. It means that e-residents can just use the platform and the business environment to facilitate their businesses.

So is that how you make sure that this doesn't become a kind of tax haven type scheme or a "letter box" company?

Yes, it is exactly the opposite. This is the opposite of something like Panama where people might have gone to try and hide their taxes and hide their companies; because e-residency is a transparent business. Each shareholder and manager is available as information to the public. We are also sharing the tax revenues with local countries and other governments. As everything is digital and so all the transactions leave digital footprints there is no way to hide, or protect any wealth you might have. That's why e-residents who join are those kinds of people who want to share transparency and show they can be trusted.

What do e-residents receive in return?

If a person is outside of the EU, from an emerging market, the main benefit is access to financial services, access to bank accounts, to online payment providers and access to crowd-funding sites etc. Most of the people today can't offer this kind of online business. The second thing is that through Estonia, people and companies have access to the EU business environment. Estonia makes all that very easy and convenient because it is all done digitally. So establishing a company takes just 10 minutes; you can open bank accounts online, everything can be signed digitally, all the contracts and taxes so it is pretty much cost free. The third reason why people apply is the freedom which an e-residency provides. Even if your country offers all the services and is pretty cost effective, people in today's world travel a lot. Sometimes those people's own countries might still require them to be physically present to sign something or declare something, but now people travel all around the world, digital nomadism is everywhere and e-residency helps run your business without having one fixed place of abode.

The more people and countries connected, the higher the value of the network

Have other countries enquired about whether or not they could offer a similar kind of program?

Yes we are actually helping many other governments to adopt this. We don't see this as a competition but rather a partnership because the more governments which offer this kind of services, the more players will be on the network and then the more value it brings to the network. We know that Lithuania is about to adopt it, we are helping Singapore, Japan and the Netherlands. Once a country starts serving its own citizens digitally as Estonia has been doing for the last 15-17 years then there is really no reason why you can't start serving other citizens too who want to take part in your business environment.

Kaspar Korjus is director of Estonia's e-residency program. If you are interested in applying for e-residency, you can go online to e-resident.gov.ee

Swiss say 'no thanks' to basic income for all

Yahoo – AFP, Nina Larson, June 5, 2016

A giant poster promoting the basic income for all initiative in Switzerland was
laid out in May in Plainpalais Place in Geneva (AFP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini)

Geneva (AFP) - The Swiss on Sunday flatly rejected a radical proposal to provide the entire population with a basic income.

Final results in the referendum showed 76.9 percent of voters opposed the initiative to provide an unconditional, basic income (UBI) to each Swiss national, along with foreigners who have been legal residents for at least five years.

Supporters had argued that such an income would help fight poverty and inequality in a world where good jobs with steady salaries are increasingly hard to come by.

If the Swiss people vote in favor, the 

government would pay every Swiss

resident about $2,500 each month.

The group behind the initiative had suggested paying 2,500 Swiss francs ($2,500/2,300 euros) a month to each adult and 625 francs for each child.

Such a sum, however, would hardly cover basic living costs in Switzerland, which is one of the world's priciest nations where the median income is above 6,000 francs a month.

The idea, which stirred up debate both in Switzerland and abroad, was embraced in a few counties in the cantons of Jura and Vaud, while several neighbourhoods of Geneva and Zurich voted in favour.

But overall, the response from the 46 percent of eligible voters who cast their ballots was a resounding "no", in line with the recommendation from the government and nearly all political parties.

The scheme to dish out an income to people whether they work or not was controversial from the start in Switzerland --a country where craftmanship and work ethic are highly valued.

'Marxist dream'

Andreas Ladner, a political scientist at Lausanne University, told RTS the Swiss were "realistic" in their assessment of the UBI plan.

Accepting that people can "be paid without having to work would have been a very big step" for the industrious Swiss, he said.

Critics condemned the initiative as "a Marxist dream", warning of sky-high costs and people quitting their jobs in droves, causing economic chaos.

Authorities have estimated an additional 25 billion francs would be needed annually to cover the costs, requiring deep spending cuts or steep tax hikes.

That argument likely hit home with the Swiss who have previously turned up their nose at initiatives that would have ushered in a minimum wage and increased paid holidays from a minimum four to six weeks, fearing they would hurt competitiveness.

But supporters of the UBI initiative were not cowed by the resounding defeat, insisting that their main objective had been to get people talking about the idea.

"We are very happy," Ralph Kundig, one of the lead campaigners, told the ATS news agency.

Supporters threw a party in Lausanne to celebrate the 23 percent of votes they had garnered.

"One out of five people voted for the unconditional basic income, so that is a success in itself," Sergio Rossi, an economics professor and backer of the initiative, told ATS.

Europe-wide debate

The idea of a basic income has been bouncing around in more radical circles for centuries, but it has recently entered mainstream thinking.

Projects to introduce some variation of the UBI, albeit at a lower level than the Swiss proposal, are underway in a range of countries, including in Finland and the Dutch city of Utrecht.

Sunday's referendum came after reformers mustered more than the 100,000 signatures required to hold a popular vote, a feature of the Swiss system of direct democracy.

While the UBI initiative was clobbered, several other contentious issues put to the vote Sunday sailed through.

A full 66.8 percent of voters and all 26 cantons embraced a government push to speed up the country's asylum process, despite harsh opposition from the populist rightwing Swiss People's Party.

The aim is for most cases to be handled within 140 days or less, compared to an average of around 400 days at the moment.

And 62.4 percent of voters and all but three half-cantons supported a call to allow genetic testing of embryos before they are inserted in the uterus in cases of in vitro fertilisation where either parent carries a serious hereditary disease.

No screening would be permitted for elements like gender, hair and eye colours, but that has not stopped opponents from dubbing the initiative the "eugenics law". 

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UEFA's approves new technology as Infantino vows FIFA win

Yahoo – AFP, Ben Simon, January 22, 2016

UEFA is to allow goal-line technology starting from Euro 2016 (AFP Photo/

Adrian Dennis)

Nyon (Switzerland) (AFP) - UEFA on Friday approved the use of goal-line technology (GLT) for its competitions, as the body's acting chief Gianni Infantino vowed to win FIFA's upcoming presidential vote.

The greenlight for GLT, which has been expected, was given the final nod at UEFA's executive committee meeting, with the technology to be introduced at the France-hosted Euro 2016 championship.

Meanwhile, with the campaign heating up to replace Sepp Blatter as the head of world football's scandal-tainted governing body, UEFA's executive committee unanimously backed Infantino's candidacy for FIFA's February 26 vote.

"We are certain he is the right man to take FIFA forward now,” an executive committee statement said.

Infantino, UEFA's secretary general who entered the race following the suspension of European football's fallen president Michel Platini, voiced confidence of an election win.

UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino smiles during a press conference closing

 an UEFA Executive meeting at the European football body’s headquarters on 

January 22, 2016 in Nyon (AFP Photo/Alain Grosclaude)

Asked how many votes he expected to get from the 209 FIFA member-associations who will pick the body's next leader, Infantino said: "at least 105, which is the number needed to become the president of FIFA."

UEFA's national associations have also "overwhelmingly" backed Infantino's candidacy, but each nation will disclose its individual endorsement "in due course," the executive committee statement said.

Goal-line technology

Infantino said the decision on goal-line technology was ultimately made because the game did not benefit from uncertainty over goals.

"We looked at it seriously," he said. GLT "will dispel any doubt about whether a goal has been scored."

UEFA's top body approved use of the technology for this summer's continental championship and then for the 2016/17 Champion's League, with GLT expected to ultimately extend to all UEFA competitions.

The technology is already used in the English Premier League, Italy's Serie A, the German Bundesliga and Ligue 1 in France. FIFA also brought it in for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil after a series of successful trials.

"The system will work alongside additional assistant referees who will continue to monitor all activity in and around the penalty area," UEFA said.

No vote to replace Platini

UEFA also said that it will not hold a vote to replace Platini until the Frenchman's appeals against his ban have been exhausted.

A general view of the interior of the Stadium in Toulouse, southern France, is

 pictured on January 13, 2016, ahead of its official inauguration, following several

 months of renovation for the upcoming UEFA Euro 2016 European football

 championship (AFP Photo/Pascal Pavani)

Platini was initially suspended from football by FIFA in October over a 2 million Swiss franc ($2 million/1.8 million euros) payment that Blatter authorised for him in 2011.

In December, FIFA judges banned him for eight years.

Platini, who had been the favourite to win FIFA's presidency, has denied wrongdoing and vowed to appeal his ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.

UEFA said "there will be no presidential election scheduled" until sports appeals bodies have ruled on Platini's case.

The French football legend withdrew from the FIFA presidency race on January 7.

The 'football' candidate

Infantino is facing tough competition from four rivals in the contest to become the most powerful man in football.

But, he said, those clamouring for an end to the scandals and allegations that have tarnished the game should have confidence in his leadership, dismissing the notion that he was a regional candidate.

"I am not the UEFA candidate. I am not the European candidate...I am the football candidate," he said.

A giant screen in the stadium shows a replay of France's Karim Benzemas shot 

using new goal line technology during a football match between France and 

Honduras in Porto Alegre during the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil on June 15, 

2014 (AFP Photo/Franck Fife)

Thirty-nine people have been charged by the United States with corruption in football going back decades, while Swiss prosecutors have also opened investigations targeting Blatter and the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, won by Russia and Qatar respectively.

Top corporate sponsors of the World Cup like Visa and Coca-Cola have demanded sweeping change in global football's management.

"They know me," Infantino said when asked if he had made contact with these corporations during his campaign. "They know how I work. They know who I am."

FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali bin al Hussein of Jordan has already sounded an alarm over impropriety in the campaign.

Hussein said a development deal agreed between the Asian and African confederations looked like a scheme to secure Africa's backing for Asian football chief and FIFA presidential candidate Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al Khalifa of Bahrain.

Asked about fears of vote buying, Infantino said "he had no concerns at all with regards to this election."

Meanwhile, Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko confirmed his backing for Infantino to win the FIFA vote.

"Undoubtedly we have a candidate of Europe -- Infantino. He is our candidate. Europe is acting as a united front. Therefore we support him as the candidate of Europe," Mutko told R-SPort news agency by phone.

"Infantino has been in UEFA for 15 years, he is the secretary general, a respected person."

Related Articles:

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Goal-line technology tweak after France-Honduras confusion

Report: Arms maker sued Germany over Saudi Arabia exports license

An investigation by German media has uncovered a lawsuit filed by Heckler & Koch against a subordinate office of the economy ministry. The arms maker complained about the lack of export licenses for Saudi Arabia.

Deutsche Welle, 29 Oct 2015

The G36 Heckler & Koch assault rifle has been used in several conflicts

German public broadcasters NDR and WDR, in collaboration with the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" newspaper, on Thursday published a report detailing a lawsuit filed against the federal government by arms maker Heckler & Koch.

Waffenhersteller verklagt Bundesregierung, weil die Export von Teilen des G36 nach Saudi-Arabien verweigert https://t.co/JKmdb6coLj

— Süddeutsche Zeitung (@SZ) October 29, 2015

"The weapons manufacturer Heckler & Koch sued the federal government," the report said.

The arms maker's lawsuit reportedly filed a complaint against the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control's (BAFA) apparent decision to stop authorizing export permits for components of the G36 assault rifle.

The report cites government sources as saying Heckler & Koch are seeking the restitution of tens of millions of euros.

In 2008, Saudi Arabia built a G36 assault rifle production plant outside the country's capital Riyadh, the report said.

However, BAFA, a subordinate office of Germany's Federal Ministry of Economy, ceased reviewing export license applications by the arms dealer, after a decision was taken "at the political level."

The report added that Heckler & Koch have been unable to deliver necessary components to Saudi Arabia for the manufacturing of the G36 assault rifle.

According to German law, a company can sue federal authorities when an application "has not been decided, [and] without sufficient reason, in an objectively reasonable time."

Germany's Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel has been criticized for seeing small arms exports to non-EU and non-NATO countries triple under his watch.

In February, Germany reauthorized some weapons exports to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt, countries which have been criticized for being human rights abusers.

ls/mm (NDR, WDR, SZ)

Related Article:

"The Biggest Filter" - July 18-19, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“..  War - Nobody Sees What is Coming

Let's talk about war. Let's discuss something that very few are considering. What you expect next is completely and totally out of perspective of what's actually coming, because you only have one kind of knowledge about war. Your war has advanced over history with bigger explosions, higher yields and weapons that fire faster. Nuclear, laser, sound - all are far more efficient ways to terminate life. That's how war has evolved. However, there hasn't really been anything called anti-war devices, have there?

I'm going to give you an invitation for discovery, and some are already in the postulation stage of this. Multidimensional fields change 3D reality. Period. I've told you that lurking in your future are discoveries that will help you with every aspect of your life, mainly due to the discovery of what makes basic physics do what it does at the atomic level. If you fully understand multidimensionality, you can manipulate the formula for mass and create massless objects. You can even do it with the tools you have right now.

There is physics possible that can create certain kinds of fields - listen to me - certain kinds of heretofore unseen multidimensional fields that are harmless to your biology, but will alter some attributes of 3D. These fields are designer fields, and they are isolated and specifically designed for one purpose. When in the field, conventional explosive reactions can't happen. Can you imagine putting a field within rooms of a building so that no matter what weapon is fired, whether it's a machine gun or a pistol, it simply won't work! What about targeting an airplane when it drops a bomb and it won't explode? This is pure physics. The alteration of 3D reality through multidimensional designer fields, both small and large, is coming. I know you don't believe it, but just wait. As you start to discover multidimensional physics and the ability to control it, you will discover that there is a "benevolent attitude" of this kind of physics. You can't "weaponize it" as easily as you can 3D. It is an entirely different kind of reality.

Again, I tell you that when you understand how mass is created at the atomic level, you'll learn how to create massless objects. By the way, that has another name. You call it anti-gravity, but there is no such thing. It's just the ability to finally control the formula that creates gravity with mass. You understand that this is simple physics, don't you? And it's very easy to manipulate for benevolent uses through other fields that you do know about. Just like you have learned to control certain kinds of physics that are 3D, you can also control multidimensional physics. Imagine a planet where it doesn't matter what war device you had, it wouldn't work anymore! What do you think about that? Imagine physics having the ability to shatter the molecules of a biological weapon. Do you think that would change world politics? It's happening, it's going to happen. It's in the laboratory today. You're broaching the discovery of multidimensional physics. Being able to control that which you don't think is controllable is what you are doing. It's going to make such a difference to the Human race!

You don't believe it, since your knowledge of how things work just doesn't allow for such a thing. This is your filter.  ….”

Dutch, French to jointly buy rare Rembrandts for 160 mn euros

Yahoo – AFP, Jan Hennop, 30 Sep 2015

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam houses a large collection of Dutch art through

the centuries, including many Rembrandts (AFP Photo/Robin van Lonkhuijsen)

The Hague (AFP) - The Netherlands and France will jointly buy two rare Rembrandts for 160 million euros, the Dutch culture minister said Wednesday after the two states defused a potential bidding war.

The 17th-century paintings, which currently belong to the wealthy French Rothschild banking family and have rarely been seen in public, will alternate between the Rijksmuseum and the Louvre, Jet Bussemaker said in a letter to the Dutch parliament.

"We believe these two rare portraits should always be allowed to be admired together, alternately between the Rijksmuseum and the Louvre, so they are accessible to the broader public, both young and old," she said, adding that the deal was cemented by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and French President Francois Hollande at the United Nations this week.

"A few months ago it still seemed unthinkable," Rijksmuseum director Wim Pijbes told Dutch radio. "But now two beautiful portraits will be together in the public domain, in two museums of world fame."

Wrangling over the two full-length portraits of a young couple painted by the Dutch master around their wedding in 1634 had threatened to sour relations between the two European allies.

Visitors looks at Rembrandt's "The Night Watch" in the Rijksmuseum in

Amsterdam, on May 17, 2015 (AFP Photo/Robin van Lonkhuijsen)

Bussemaker on Friday said the Dutch government was willing to stump up half the 160 million euro ($180 million) price tag, with the remaining 80 million euros to be found by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

But her French counterpart Fleur Pellerin had said the day before that Paris had submitted an offer to acquire one of the portraits for the Louvre, and that the paintings would alternate between the two museums.

After "intensive" discussions with Paris over the last few days, the Dutch cabinet decided to agree with France to share the costs "given our combined interests", Bussemaker said.

Details of the agreement -- including insurance and responsibility for restoration -- still need to be worked out, Bussemaker said.

Rarely displayed

The affluent Amsterdam couple Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit commissioned Rembrandt to paint the highly detailed separate portraits on the occasion of their wedding, and the two paintings have always been treated as a single unit, media reports said.

Dressed fashionably in black, Soolmans is depicted holding a glove in his left hand, while Coppit holds an ostrich feather fan and wears a four-row pearl necklace as well as other fine jewellery.

The artnet website said the canvases have been viewed publicly only once in the past 150 years, and Bussemaker has already stressed the importance of finally putting them on public display.

According to the Dutch daily paper NRC, the paintings were reportedly sold to the Rothschilds in 1877 for 1.5 million guilders, despite attempts by the Dutch government at the time to keep them in The Netherlands.

The 17th-century Rembrandt paintings bought jointly by the Netherlands and France

 will alternate between the Louvre in Paris (pictured) and the Rijksmuseum in 

Amsterdam (AFP Photo/Miguel Medina)

The Rothschild family first indicated it wanted to sell the paintings in 2013, NRC added.

'Pair of shoes'

The Rijksmuseum's Pijbes said it was a new concept "in the museum world for two countries to work together to obtain works from a private collection."

He said each country would own half of each of the two paintings, which were "like a pair of shoes, never to be separated".

French Minister Pellerin and Bussemaker in a separate statement issued in Paris also welcomed the deal.

The solution "meets the common cultural and political objective" the countries set for themselves, namely "to keep the paintings on European soil and show them to a large audience."

Louvre president Jean-Luc Martinez called the agreement an "innovative solution" with a "happy outcome that will allow the two masterpieces be seen in public in two major European museums."

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Netherlands and France to share Rembrandt wedding portraits