US oil groups feel Russia sanctions freeze more than Europeans
Russian President Vladimir Putin this month made an emotional tribute to Christophe de Margerie, the former boss of France’s Total who was killed in an accident in 2014. At the launch of a new gas tanker named after Mr de Margerie, Mr Putin declared him a “great friend of our country”, a s…
As U.S. Adds Troops in Afghanistan, Trump’s Strategy Remains Undefined
When President Trump made his first major decision on the war in Afghanistan, he did not announce it in a nationally televised address from the White House or a speech at West Point. Instead, the Pentagon issued a news release late one afternoon last week confirming that the president had given…
Start-Up Palestine: How to Spark a West Bank Tech Boom
For decades, Israeli and Palestinian politicians have pursued a political solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, only to see their hopes dashed again and again. Today, the prospects for a comprehensive peace agreement remain dim. Policymakers must therefore start looking for other ways to …
Glencore Can Snatch Rio’s Coal, but Might Regret It
Knowing when to go in with cannons blazing and when to hold your fire is essential for all businesses, but especially for big miners. That makes Glencore’s gambit to poach Rio Tinto’s Australian coal assets from rival Chinese suitor Yancoal for $2.55 billion an interesting case. Glencore’s bid is ty…
Meet the Two Princes Reshaping the Middle East
The dramatic and sudden effort to isolate Qatar, like the fateful intervention before it in Yemen, sprang from the shared vision of two princes. Depending on your point of view, they may be the harbingers of a new and better Middle East—or reckless architects of disaster. Indeed, the region’s most i…
Excess oil inventories to last until 2018 – IEA
Oil demand should outpace supply in the second half of this year but excess inventories will persist well into 2018, dealing a blow to global crude producers enacting output cuts to bring down stubbornly high stockpiles. The forecast from the International Energy Agency comes as higher than expected…
Xi Jinping’s Marco Polo Strategy
Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping presided over a heavily orchestrated “Belt and Road” forum in Beijing. The two-day event attracted 29 heads of state, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and 1,200 delegates from over 100 countries. Xi called China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) the “project…
What Brexit Means
For decades, the United Kingdom has had an ambivalent and sometimes contentious relationship with the European Union. London has kept its distance from Brussels’s authority by negotiating opt-outs from some of the EU’s central policies, including the common euro currency and the border-free Schengen…
How Muslim Extremists Exploit European Liberalism
Coming on the heels of the Manchester terror attack targeting British youth, the recent terrorist act in London is the last in a series of attacks across Europe that displayed the eerie savagery of violence carried out in the name of Islam. The Islamic State claimed credit and proclaimed t…
Shadowy rebels extend Myanmar’s wars
he stirring soundtrack of the video ‘Dream in Our Heart’ is accompanied by statements of defiance by ethnic Rakhine soldiers, male and female, of the Arakan Army (AA) from their mountain redoubt in Myanmar’s northern Kachin State. Army commander Major General Twan Mrat Naing (aka Tun Myat Naing) spe…