1 BP boss sees oil low for three years (BBC) The
boss of oil giant BP's boss Bob Dudley has said that oil prices could remain
low for up to three years. He added that could send UK petrol prices below £1
per litre. He said BP was planning for low oil prices for years to come.
That is expected to lead to job losses and falling
investment in the North Sea oil industry and elsewhere, curbing supply and
eventually forcing the price back up. Italian oil group Eni has said the next
spike could be around $200 a barrel. Eni's chief executive, Claudio Descalzi,
said the oil industry would cut capital spending by 10-13% this year because of
slumping prices.
From 2010 until mid-2014, oil prices around the
world were fairly stable, at around $110 a barrel. However, since June prices
have more than halved. Brent crude oil is around $48 a barrel, and US crude is
around $47 a barrel.
Sustained low oil prices are also likely to cause
"stress" on oil producing countries such as Norway, Russia,
Venezuela, Scotland, Nigeria and Angola, he said. "All these countries are
really going to feel it," he said. "I think Scotland is going to be
under some stress because of these low oil prices," he said. Globally, BP
and the rest of the energy industry were likely to see "significant workforce
reductions," he added.
2 A look at Greece’s debt before the polls (San
Francisco Chronicle) Greece goes to the polls Sunday with voters given a tough
choice over how to handle the country's debt after six years of recession badly
weakened its economy.
Greece’s national debt topped 320 billion euros ($369
billion) last year — equivalent to nearly 30,000 euros ($34,600) for each Greek
resident. Although Greece reached a major restructuring deal with private
creditors three years ago, its economy has shrunk by a quarter during the
recession to an annual output of 188 billion euros ($217.5 billion), making
debt repayment more difficult.
Conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' term
should expire in mid-2016 but he was forced to call elections when opposition
parties refused to back his candidate for president. Samaras is trailing the
left-wing Syriza party in opinion polls and has failed to narrow the gap as
voters face hardship from austerity measures imposed during the bailout.
Syriza's charismatic 40-year-old leader, Alexis
Tsipras, is calling for a eurozone debt conference. The party argues that
insistence on full repayment under current terms would only crush the Greek
economy and be counterproductive. The party is seeking short-term help with a
freeze on interest payments and longer-term aid with restructured bailout debt
and repayment levels tied to domestic economic growth.
Senior Syriza economic planner Giorgos Stathakis
believes a new debt deal could be possible by the end of 2015. But he added a
Tsipras government would no longer talk with negotiators from the
"troika" of the International Monetary Fund and European Union and
central bank, but instead deal directly with governments.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/A-look-at-Greece-s-debt-debate-before-elections-6030163.php
3 The great wall of Saudi Arabia (Alexander Lacasse
in Christian Science Monitor/Khaleej Times) Saudi Arabia has been constructing
a 600-mile East-West barrier on its Northern Border with Iraq since September. The
main function of the barrier will be keeping out Daesh militants, who have
stated that among their goals is an eventual takeover of the Muslim holy cities
of Makkah and Madina, both of which lie deep inside Saudi territory.
The Saudi “Great Wall”, will be a fence and ditch
barrier that features soft sand embankments that is designed to slow down
infiltrators on foot and are too step to drive a tired-vehicle up, according to
the Telegraph of London. It will have 40 watchtowers and seven command and
control centers complete with radar that can detect aircraft and vehicles as
far away as 22 miles as well as day and night camera installations. The
600-mile structure will be patrolled by border guards and 240 rapid response
vehicles.
But it’s not the first Saudi border wall. Since
2003, in fits and starts due to Yemeni opposition, the Saudi government has
been working on a less costly barrier along the 1,100 mile border with Yemen on
the Kingdom’s southern border.
And Saudi Arabia is not the only country that has turned
to a physical barrier to keep its enemies or illegal immigrants out. The
Saudi’s wall is designed to function as the modern equivalent of the Great Wall
of China, which was completed in 206 B.C. The Great Wall was intended to force
attacking armies to have to circumnavigate the 5,500-mile structure.
In the modern history of wall building, the Soviets
militarised the border with Western Europe and separated East and West Berlin
with the 87-mile Berlin Wall to stop would-be defectors from escaping to the
West through the divided city that had an open border up until 1961. The US
government started constructing a 700-mile border-fence on the Mexican border
in order to stem the flow of illegal immigrants back in 2006 that President
Barack Obama claimed in 2011 was, “now basically complete,” according to
Politifact.com.
According CBS News, Daesh wants to unite the entire
Levant, which includes land in Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, and Iraq. Jordan
has sent more tanks and rocket launchers to the border with Iraq and its forces
remain on “high alert,” as was reported in a BBC story, and Kuwait’s border
with Iraq has been relatively quiet because Iraq’s Shia population lives in the
areas north of Kuwait, according to the same report.
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