Tag: Libya

The Story: President-elect Biden has named Susan Rice to chair his Domestic Policy Council. The choice is both expected and unlikely. It is expected because...

West Texas Intermediate futures gained 12 cents, bringing their gain this week to 0.2 percent. A Purchasing Managers’ Index, which measures private-sector activity in the euro area, unexpectedly slid in April, and German factory numbers came in lower than forecast. FUEL FIX: Get your energy, oil, and gas news updates delivered to you each weekday Oil has climbed about 40 percent in New York this year as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies cut supplies, which have been further squeezed by crises in OPEC members Venezuela and Iran, which are both subject to American sanctions. But the rally has lost steam amid fears about global economic growth, which the International Monetary Fund forecasts will this year be the weakest in a decade. “Oil bulls are in a dire need for further impetus apart from geopolitical developments that are fully priced in now,” said Tamas Varga, an analyst at PVM Oil Associates Ltd. in London. WTI for May delivery was 22 cents higher at $63.98 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 12:30 p.m. London time. The contract dropped 29 cents to $63.76 on Wednesday after U.S. data showed a gain in total stockpiles of crude and refined products. Both WTI and Brent won’t trade on Friday due to Easter holidays. Deposit placed on the Treemont, her new address will be 2501 Westerland Dr C-311, Houston, TX 77063 ... they had one available that was exactly what she wanted. The small 1 bedroom, overlooking the courtyard.“Investors are taking a wait-and-see stance ahead of events in May, including the expiry of waivers on U.S. sanctions on Iran and the OPEC meeting,” said Kei Kobashi, a senior analyst at Sumitomo Corporation Global Research Co. “It will remain difficult to make bets until May because there is so much uncertainty.” --With assistance from James Thornhill and Tsuyoshi Inajima.

Aa Aa Populist flop? Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has launched his movement to unite populist leaders across Europe. The kick-starting event held in Milan was noticeably missing some of the biggest faces of Europe’s far-right, including Marine Le Pen of France’s National Rally and Hungarian President Viktor Orban of the Fidesz party. Last-minute sell Prime Minister Theresa May will travel to Berlin and Paris on Tuesday for talks with European leaders Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron ahead of the Wednesday’s EU summit. UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told his counterparts in Luxembourg that the UK still hasn’t given up on finding a Brexit solution. The UK is set to exit the EU on April 12 unless another extension is given this week. 'Great Debate' The results of French President Emmanuel Macron’s “Great Debate” were released on Monday after 10,000 hours of town hall discussions and 1.5 million online contributions were gathered in response to the yellow-vest protests. The French government had set out on a nationwide listening tour earlier this year, with hopes of quelling protests that evolved into anger over the cost of living and wages, which have rattled the country for months. Libya lawlessness Civil unrest in Libya escalated over the weekend as forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar — a former general under then-leader Muammar Gaddafi — continued a violent push to take the nation’s capital city of Tripoli. The UN-backed government led by Fayez al-Sarra has reported that 25 people were killed and 80 others injured in the fighting.

Christopher Livesay: The city of Sirte. Colonel Ibrahim Bin Rabaa is the commander of Libyan counter-terrorism forces in Sirte. ISIS killed him. Christopher Livesay: So far this year in Libya there have already been more than twice the number of ISIS attacks. But we ask and we hope for help from other countries. Christopher Livesay: That's largely because ISIS isn't Libya's only problem. Christopher Livesay: And take this border crossing, between Libya's rival governments in the East and West. When ISIS was around, trafficking was at its peak. Sometimes they would even put terrorists on the migrant ships to Europe. Christopher Livesay: The two cousins eventually met in battle.

A jump in crude oil prices leads this week's edition of Futures File, our weekly commodities wrap-up. Oil market on fire Petroleum prices exploded to a three-year high over $74 per barrel on Friday morning on supply fears spanning the globe. Political unrest in Libya and Venezuela are restricting exports from those nations, while a major Canadian production facility is offline as well. More dramatically, the Trump administration announced that it wants to stop U.S. trading partners from buying Iranian crude oil by November as part of the reimposed sanctions against Iran. The Middle Eastern nation is the world's fifth-largest producer of oil, and cutting off the flow of its petroleum to Europe, Japan, South Korea and India will force officials there to find new sources, further boosting prices. Many had been hoping that global demand could be met by a jump in production from Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). However, the cartel announced last week that it was only increasing production by about 600,000 barrels per day, an increase that will likely leave the world hungering for more. This was likely OPEC's desire, as they historically restrict supply to benefit from more profitable prices. These sharply higher oil prices will translate into higher prices for gasoline, diesel fuel, propane and jet fuel, ultimately hitting consumers on numerous fronts. Grain prices rally On Friday morning, the U.S. Department of Agriculture updated its estimates of this year's planted acreage for corn, wheat and soybeans.

Spain’s foreign minister has described his government’s decision to take in the hundreds of refugees and migrants aboard the Aquarius rescue ship as a “highly symbolic act” intended to jolt Europe out of its “ostrich politics” on the issue of migration. The 629 people, including children and pregnant women, were rescued by the French NGO SOS Méditerranée from waters off the coast of Libya on Saturday, and the Aquarius was caught in a standoff over the weekend in which both Italy and Malta refused to allow it to dock. Spain’s new prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, stepped in on Monday and said the ship would be welcome in the port of Valencia, insisting his country had a duty to help avert “a humanitarian catastrophe”. “This is a shared problem and it has to be treated as a shared problem,” he said. “This is a victory for the people who are on the boat,” he said. “They’re the ones who have won because we don’t know where they’d be without Spain.” He also dismissed suggestions that the move could bring more people across the Mediterranean, saying demographics and economics had already made Europe “a magnet”. Spain rescues hundreds of migrants from Mediterranean Read more MSF applauded Sánchez’s offer of safe harbour but said the priority had to be the immediate disembarkation of the rescued migrants. “However, this would mean already exhausted people rescued at sea would have to endure four more days exposed to the elements on the deck, in an overcrowded boat already well over maximum capacity and in deteriorating weather conditions. The Valencia regional government said it was expecting the migrants to arrive by the end of the week. Italy cannot accept hypocritical lessons from countries that have always preferred to turn their backs when it comes to immigration,” Conte’s office said.

In spite of the best efforts of the U.N. Special Envoy for Libya Ghassam Salame and his talented team, there remains no political solution to stabilize and unite the country—bifurcated between a U.N.-backed government in Tripoli (the Government of National Accord), and another in Tobruk (the House of Representatives). Adjusting to the Fragmented Reality For almost seven years, the United Nations has sent special envoys to Libya that have sought to help Libyans form a strong central government. Specifically, Libyan political leaders and their international partners should take seriously the possibility of building a federal system of governance in Libya. Looking at Libya and at its particular arrangement, perhaps there could be a similar approach: Three city-states (Tripoli, Sebha, and Benghazi), which represent the three historical regions and a number of provinces. The Implementation In the face of near-hopeless fragmentation today, strong decentralization can be a tactical solution as Libya works toward improved stability and governance. The devolution of powers would give considerable independence to the municipalities, leaving to the federal state the management of national defense related to border security and the coast guard; the distribution of oil revenues (which must be shared to serve Libya—not a particular faction or some national strongman); the treasury; and foreign affairs. One central issue would be needing to change citizens’ expectations around oil rents and paying little or no taxes. The solution for Libya is not top-down—rather, it is bottom-up and it is based on different (and in many cases centuries-old) local realities. In Europe, for example, federalist systems developed over centuries. That said, Libyans must ask themselves what kind of country they want, and whether this approach could help them eventually get there.