Qatar sheikh in UAE flies to Kuwait

A controversial member of Qatar’s royal family who accused the United Arab Emirates of detaining him has flown to Kuwait, his family said Tuesday.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali Al-Thani, who emerged as a key figure in the dispute between Gulf states in the weeks after Riyadh and Abu Dhabi cut ties with Doha last June, left the UAE with his daughters.

“My father is on his plane to Kuwait with his two daughters,” said his son Ali bin Abdullah Al-Thani.

“After arriving in Kuwait and checking his health, he will decide to return to Qatar or travel abroad for treatment.”

Sheikh Ali added that his father’s health was “not stable” and he was suffering from heart disease and diabetes.

Sheikh Abdullah, seen by some as a potential challenger to the Qatari leadership, had posted a video online on Sunday saying he was detained in the UAE and “afraid something could happen to me that will be blamed on Qatar”.

The UAE denied Sheikh Abdullah was being held against his will, with state news agency WAM reporting he was in the country “at his own behest”.

It also said he was “free to leave”.

In August, Sheikh Abdullah met powerful Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to mediate on reopening a land border to allow Qatari pilgrims to perform the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.

It was the first public high-level encounter between the two nations since the diplomatic crisis erupted.

The spat over Sheikh Abdullah was the latest row in the ongoing political crisis between rival Gulf states.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain severed ties with Qatar on June 5 over allegations it supported Islamist extremists and had close ties to regional rival Iran.

Doha denies the accusations.

Kuwait is one of the Gulf states to remain outside the conflict and has acted as a mediator during the eight-month long dispute.

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Trump denies he’s a racist as Americans honor King

Americans remembered civil rights hero Martin Luther King on his holiday Monday, a day after US President Donald Trump vehemently denied he is a racist amid an uproar over a reported slur.

The denial late Sunday came three days after Trump was quoted as calling African nations and Haiti "shithole countries," setting off a storm of condemnation that threatened to derail a bipartisan compromise on immigration.

"I'm not a racist. I am the least racist person you have ever interviewed," Trump told reporters as he arrived at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida for dinner with Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

Trump also denied, once again, making the offensive remarks attributed to him -- despite the insistence of at least one senator that the president used the words repeatedly during a White House meeting on immigration Thursday.

The furor showed little sign of abating Monday, placing America's troubled history of racism center stage -- and not for the first time in Trump's year-old presidency -- on a national holiday honoring King.

Trump himself marked the day with a videotaped speech posted on Twitter that alluded to King's celebrated "I Have a Dream" speech.

"Dr. King's dream is our dream. It is the American dream," Trump said.

African American leaders, however, expressed deep concern about the direction of the nation.

Dr King's example

The president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Cornell Brooks, evoked "the eloquence of Dr. King's example" in a tweet.

"While this is the first #MLKDay with an unrepentant & unreconstructed racist in the White House, we are neither intimidated by insult nor tweet — we are prayerful not fearful," he said.

"I think this man, this president, is taking us back to another place," said John Lewis, a Georgia congressman who marched with King in the 1960s.

"I think he is a racist," he said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

Basketball star LeBron James said Trump's example emboldened people with racist views.

"The guy in control has given people and racism... an opportunity to be out and outspoken without fear. And that's the fearful thing for us because it's with you, and it's around every day," James said.

Marches around the US to commemorate King, which take place annually, took on special significance this year following Trump's alleged slur against African countries and Haiti.

"Our president has shown exactly who he is by what he's saying and, you know, people are not ignorant. You have to use your own mind, your own judgment as far as how you feel that he is," said Michelle Toyer, who was marching in Washington.

Aiyi'nah Ford was more blunt: "I think he's the epitome of racism, homophobia, so many things. He's a problem."

Similar sentiments were expressed at marches in New York and Los Angeles while a small group of demonstrators waving Haitian flags faced off with Trump supporters in West Palm Beach.

Trump has sought to move off the defensive by accusing Democrats of sabotaging a bipartisan bid to reach a deal on immigration reform.

"We are ready, willing and able to make a deal but they don't want to," he said in a tweet Monday, quoting his own comments to reporters the night before.

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the country illegally as children -- so-called "Dreamers" -- face deportation unless a compromise can be reached that would grant them rights to stay.

Deal on 'Dreamers'

A bipartisan deal to resolve the Dreamers issue in return for changes demanded by Republicans in the way visas are allocated collapsed in acrimony Thursday over Trump's remarks.

Certain Republicans have rallied behind Trump, casting doubt on what he said at the meeting with Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

Senator David Purdue, a Republican from Georgia who attended the session, called charges that Trump is racist "ridiculous" and insisted reports on his remarks were a "gross misrepresentation."

Purdue and another Republican participant, Senator Tom Cotton, had said previously they did not specifically recall Trump making the comments attributed to him.

Senator Dick Durbin, a Democratic sponsor of the bipartisan deal on the Dreamers who was present at the meeting, said Trump made the quoted "shithole countries" remark not once, but repeatedly.

Trump issued a fresh denial on Monday, saying: "Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting. Deals can't get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military."

DACA refers to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program which has given legal status to Dreamers and protected them from deportation.

Senator Lindsey Graham, another Republican participant, told fellow South Carolina Senator Tim Scott the media reports of the comments were "basically accurate," according to The Post and Courier.

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British lawmakers resume debate on key Brexit law

British MPs resumed discussions Tuesday on a landmark piece of legislation allowing Britain to leave the European Union, on the eve of a vote on the draft law.

The EU (Withdrawal) Bill is intended to transpose EU regulation into British law and will repeal the legislation enshrining Britain’s EU membership.

The bill, which also sets the date and time for Brexit on March 29, 2019, at 2300 GMT, is expected to be approved by the House of Commons on Wednesday despite trenchant opposition from pro-EU MPs.

Prime Minister Theresa May faced a setback last month when 11 of her own Conservative MPs voted with the main opposition Labour Party for an amendment to have a meaningful vote on the terms of Brexit.

Following pressure from pro-EU Conservatives, the government has also changed the bill to allow for the date and time of Brexit to be altered in case negotiations continue beyond March 29, 2019.

But the bill’s passage through the House of Lords in the coming weeks could be far harder because the upper chamber is dominated by the pro-EU opposition.

Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, a leading Brexit campaigner, warned that the House of Lords could face fundamental reform if it hampered Brexit.

“If the Lords in their wisdom — and a lot of them are very pro-European — decide to try and frustrate, then the Lords will, as an institution, get into difficulties,” Rees-Mogg said.

In a podcast on the website of the ConservativeHome political blog, Rees-Mogg also urged members of the House of Lords not to push for a second referendum.

“A second referendum would be very dangerous territory for the Lords because it would be seen as the characteristic European hatred of democracy, so if you vote the wrong way, you get made to vote again until you vote the right way,” he said.

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Trump allegedly calls Africa ‘shithole’, orders 259,000 immigrants out of US

President Donald Trump has allegedly questioned why the US would want to have immigrants from Haiti and African nations, referring to some as “shithole countries”.

This is contained in a new Reuters report, weeks after alleged similar comment by Trump triggered outrage.

In December, New York Times reported that Trump, in reaction to the rising number of migrants in the US, said “Nigerians never return to their huts after seeing America and Haitian immigrants to the United States all have AIDS”.

Trump’s latest remarks allegedly made in the White House, came as Democratic Senator Dick Durbin and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham briefed the president on a newly drafted immigration bill being touted by a bipartisan group of senators.

The lawmakers were describing how certain immigration programs operate, including one to give safe haven in the United States to people from countries suffering from natural disasters or civil strife.

Reuters quoted one of the sources who was briefed on the conversation said that Trump said, “Why do we want all these people from Africa here?

“They’re shithole countries…We should have more people from Norway.”

The second source familiar with the conversation, said Trump, who has vowed to clamp down on illegal immigration, also questioned the need for Haitians in the United States.

Many Democrats and some Republican lawmakers slammed the president for his remarks.

Republican U.S. Representative Mia Love, a daughter of Haitian immigrants, said the comments were “unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation’s values”.

Love called on Trump to apologise to the American people and to the countries he denigrated.

Another Republican Representative, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who was born in Cuba and whose south Florida district includes many Haitian immigrants, said: “Language like that shouldn’t be heard in locker rooms and it shouldn’t be heard in the White House.”

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, a frequent Trump critic, said the president’s comment “smacks of blatant racism, the most odious and insidious racism masquerading poorly as immigration policy.”

In an apparent response to his critics, Trump took to Twitter late on Thursday night.

Trump tweeted: “The Democrats seem intent on having people and drugs pour into our country from the Southern Border, risking thousands of lives in the process.

“It is my duty to protect the lives and safety of all Americans. We must build a Great Wall, think Merit and end Lottery & Chain. USA!”

The programme that was being discussed at the White House is called Temporary Protected Status.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration decided to end the status for immigrants from Haiti and Nicaragua.

It gave the approximately 59,000 Haitian immigrants who had been granted the status until July 2019 to return home or legalise their presence in the U.S.

Nicaraguans were given until January 2019.

On Monday, Trump moved to end the status for immigrants from El Salvador, which could result in 200,000 Salvadorans legally in the United States being deported, beginning in September of 2019.

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Hurricane-hit Puerto Rico launches new drive for US statehood

Hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico on Wednesday launched a new drive to become the 51st US state, with the island’s governor demanding an end to “second-class” treatment of its citizens.

Puerto Rico’s more than three million residents are US citizens, with no obstacles to living and working on the mainland.

Yet the US commonwealth in the Caribbean has just a non-voting delegation in the US Congress in Washington, and Puerto Rico residents cannot vote for US president.

“It is time to end Puerto Ricans’ second-class citizenship, and statehood is the only guarantee for that to happen,” Governor Ricardo Rossello told a press conference in Washington.

In June, Puerto Ricans voted overwhelmingly to embrace statehood in a non-binding referendum, but turnout was extremely low.

The island, which is grappling with public debt of $73 billion and a stuttering economy, was devastated by Hurricane Maria in mid-September.

Authorities are still struggling to restore power and clean drinking water to all citizens, and many homes and businesses need to be rebuilt.

US President Donald Trump’s government has faced criticism over its response to the deadly tragedy, with many insisting more federal help would have been forthcoming for a state in a similar situation.

Congress ultimately decides whether or not to grant statehood.

If the territory were a regular US state, it would have two senators plus at least five representatives in the US House of Representatives, according to mathematical formulas based on its population.

What is new in this effort is the form of the drive, which is copying how some former US mainland territories became regular US states, such as Tennessee.

Puerto Rico has chosen a shadow Congressional delegation of five representatives and two senators to demand recognition in Washington and lobby for statehood.

One of the shadow representatives is Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez.

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Trump embraces role as negotiator in chief on immigration

President Donald Trump took command of a high-profile White House meeting on immigration Tuesday, coaxing Republican and Democratic lawmakers toward a compromise on the fate of undocumented migrants who came to the United States as children.

Trump also signaled he was open to more comprehensive immigration reform to address millions of other undocumented people living in the shadows, but did not give ground to Democrats over his plans for a border wall.

“It should be a bill of love,” Trump said of a measure under negotiation that would protect hundreds of thousands of so-called “Dreamers” from deportation.

“But it also has to be a bill where we’re able to secure our border. Drugs are pouring into our country at a record pace. A lot of people are coming in that we can’t have,” Trump added, urging lawmakers to “put country before party” and strike a quick solution.

Trump, seated at a long table with some two dozen lawmakers from the House and Senate, presided over the bipartisan talks, allowing journalists rare access to nearly an hour of the meeting.

The president said he would “take the heat” politically if lawmakers were to move toward broader action that would provide a pathway to citizenship for about 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

“You are not that far away from comprehensive immigration reform,” he told Senator Lindsey Graham, after the Republican lawmaker floated the idea of more sweeping legislation.

“You created an opportunity here, Mr President, and you need to close the deal,” Graham told him as TV cameras rolled.

Trump’s position appeared at odds with his 2016 campaign, when his platform focused largely on border security and immigration curtailment, and many of his core supporters raged at the prospect of legalizing millions of undocumented immigrants.

The image of Trump presiding over such sensitive negotiations appeared tailor-made for the White House to push back against a narrative — fueled by a recent explosive West Wing expose — questioning Trump’s mental fitness, with aides were doubting his ability to govern.

Lives ‘in the balance’

In September, Trump said he was scrapping the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, but then delayed enforcement to give Congress six months — until March — to craft a lasting solution.

So-called “Dreamers” were protected from deportation under the policy enacted during Barack Obama’s presidency.

On Tuesday, Trump said a “permanent” solution was needed for Dreamers, but also insisted on the importance of border security, especially with Mexico.

“We need a wall,” Trump said.

Any deal, he added, would need to be accompanied by money for a border wall, measures that limit immigrants from bringing family members into the country in the future — a policy known as “chain migration” — and an end to the green card lottery system.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the group had agreed to negotiate legislation that accomplishes “critically needed reforms” in the above areas, as well as DACA.

But a path through Congress remained unclear. The two parties were at odds over whether to pass the measure as a stand-alone bill, as Senate Republican leadership wants, or attach it to a federal spending package that must pass by January 19 in order to avert a government shutdown.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he will bring up a narrow, DACA-related measure unattached to budget issues or broader immigration reforms.

“There are a number of moving parts here that need to be dealt with,” McConnell told reporters after the meeting, but DACA “will not be a part of any overall spending agreement.”

McConnell nonetheless expressed optimism that a DACA fix could be complete before the March deadline, when the grants of legal status begin expiring.

Senate Democrat Dick Durbin, a leading proponent of codifying immigration protections, noted that about 1,000 people per day will lose their DACA status beginning March 5.

“Lives are hanging in the balance,” said Durbin, who was seated next to Trump. “We’ve got the time to do it.”

Not all lawmakers were optimistic about a solution.

“I don’t think they’re closer,” said Republican Senator John Kennedy, who was not at the talks.

“The problem is that the Democrats, they want all the dessert and they don’t want to eat any spinach,” he added. “They’re just dying to give amnesty to somebody.”

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Jerusalemites show a leg for worldwide ‘No Pants’ ride

Tram passengers in Jerusalem stripped down to their underwear Sunday for the worldwide annual “No Pants Subway Ride”, drawing embarrassed smiles and dumbfounded stares from fellow travellers.

In bracing 10 degree Celsius (50 Fahrenheit) weather, around 20 young men and women met up at an open-air tram stop on the city’s central Jaffa Street and boarded carriages for the 20-minute ride to Mount Herzl.

“The goal of this event is simply to have fun, to do something strange for the people, so when they board the tram suddenly something strange happens with people taking off their pants,” one man who declined to give his name told AFP.

Another, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said friends had voiced concerns that the show of flesh could bring trouble in a “powder keg” of a city where Orthodox Jewish and Muslim sensibilities are acute.

“But every year this proves to be wrong,” he said. “Every year we meet again people who are smiling where they weren’t supposed to smile.”

The offbeat flash mob stunt originated in New York in 2002 and has since spread around the world.

It was the third year running that it has happened in generally conservative Jerusalem.

The idea is that participants behave exactly like normal commuters — just without skirts or trousers.

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Tillerson says he never doubted Trump’s mental fitness

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared Friday he has never had any reason to question President Donald Trump’s mental fitness and intends to continue in office.

Tillerson’s comments came in an interview to CNN in the aftermath of a bombshell book that cited White House aides questioning the president’s ability to serve.

“I’ve never questioned his mental fitness, I’ve had no reason to question his mental fitness,” Tillerson said.

Anecdotes in the controversial book about Trump’s alleged inability to follow briefings or read notes recalled reports last year that Tillerson once called the president a “moron.”

The State Department denied that claim, but ever since Tillerson has been dogged by reports that White House officials close to Trump are scheming to oust him.

But Tillerson told CNN that Trump has never sought to push him out and that he himself plans to remain.

“I intend to be here for the whole year,” he said. Asked whether the president had given him any indication that he wants him to step down, Tillerson said: “None whatsoever.”

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U.S. military warns against getting hopes over North Korean overture

The head of United States (U.S) forces in Seoul warned yesterday against raising hopes over North Korea’s peace overture amid a war of words between the U.S. and the reclusive North over its nuclear and missile programs.

In a New Year address, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he was open to dialogue with U.S. ally South Korea and could send a delegation to the Winter Olympics to be held in the South in February.

Kim also warned that he would push ahead with “mass producing” nuclear warheads, pursuing a weapons program in defiance of United Nations (UN) Security Council sanctions.

In response, Seoul on Tuesday proposed high-level talks at a border village and on Wednesday, the two Koreas reopened a border hotline that had been closed since February 2016.

“We must keep our expectations at the appropriate level,” the chief of United States Forces Korea (USFK), Vincent Brooks, was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying in an address to a university in Seoul.

President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have exchanged a series of bellicose comments in recent months, raising alarm across the world, with Trump at times dismissing the prospect of a diplomatic solution to a crisis in which North Korea has threatened to destroy the United States, Japan and South Korea.

Trump has mocked Kim as “Little Rocket Man” and again ridiculed him on Twitter this week, raising some eyebrows at home.

“Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!” he wrote.

The White House on Wednesday defended the tweet, saying, in answer to a question, Americans should be concerned about Kim’s mental fitness, not their president‘s.

American officials have responded coolly to North Korea’s suggestion of talks and the State Department said Pyongyang “might be trying to drive a wedge” between Washington and Seoul.

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Bannon insists he backs ‘great man’ Trump

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is heaping new praise on Donald Trump, after the president scathingly dismissed him as insane and irrelevant for disparaging his family in published remarks.

“The president of the United States is a great man,” the executive chairman of right-wing news website Breitbart told SiriusXM late Wednesday.

“You know I support him day in and day out, whether going through the country giving the Trump Miracle speech or on the show or on the website.”

Trump reacted with outrage after the release of explosive excerpts from a new book in which Bannon described Trump’s eldest son’s meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.”

“Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind,” the Republican president said in a statement.

Bannon was one of the main architect of Trump’s upset victory in 2016 presidential elections, and the president’s chief White House strategist for six months.

A Trump lawyer, Charles Harder, has sent Bannon a cease-and-desist letter accusing him of violating a non-disclosure agreement by speaking to the author of the book.

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Indonesia police make huge New Year’s Eve marijuana bust

Indonesian authorities have seized 1.3 tonnes of marijuana and arrested six people in a major drug bust on New Year’s Eve, police said Thursday.

Authorities confiscated the drugs at a port near Lampung, on the southern tip of Sumatra island.

The bricks of tightly-wrapped cannabis — which were displayed at a press conference Thursday — were found hidden inside several vehicles waiting to cross to West Java, local media reported.

Six people were arrested in connection with the haul, but police have not provided a street value for the seized drugs.

West Jakarta police chief Idham Aziz said drug-related cases in West Java — Indonesia’s most populous province — were increasing.

“Narcotics cases between 2015-2017 are up 11.8 percent and the victims are mostly children and teenagers,” Aziz said at a press conference.

Indonesia has some of the toughest anti-drugs laws in the world, including capital punishment for traffickers.

Authorities, including President Joko Widodo, have declared the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country is in the grips of a “narcotics emergency”, although accurate data on drug use is notoriously difficult to find.

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Mali president names new PM after surprise government resignation

Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita named a new prime minister Saturday, a day after the government resigned in a surprise move just months ahead of presidential polls.

A public decree disseminated on Twitter said Keita named former defence minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga to replace Abdoulaye Idrissa Maiga, who resigned unexpectedly on Friday.

Boubeye Maiga is considered close to Keita despite his having to resign as defence minister in 2014 after the Malian army suffered a string of setbacks against Tuareg rebel groups in the country’s restive northern region.

The north is still a theatre of unrest almost six years after a French-led military operation chased Islamic extremists linked to Al-Qaeda from a region they had taken control of in early 2012.

Mali’s army, French soldiers and a UN mission (MINUSMA) still have little control over large tracts of the country, which regularly come under attack in spite of a peace accord signed with Tuareg leaders in May and June 2015 with the aim of isolating the jihadists.

The spread of the unrest this year prompted the G5 regional forum, which also includes Mauritania and Chad, to step up peace efforts with French support.

Mali’s presidential election is set to take place next year with Keita seeking re-election.

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South African court rules parliament failed to hold Zuma to account over scandal

South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled on Friday that parliament failed to hold President Jacob Zuma to account over a scandal related to state-funded upgrades to his home and must launch proceedings that could remove him from office.

The ruling is the latest judicial setback for the scandal-plagued Zuma, who has faced widespread public demands to step down as president of Africa’s most industrialized economy before a general election in 2019.

It was not immediately clear what steps parliament would take.

“We conclude that the assembly did not hold the president to account ..

“The assembly must put in place a mechanism that could be used for the removal of the president from office,” Judge Chris Jafta said, handing down the judgment, which was supported by a majority of the court, and shown on live television.

“Properly interpreted, Section 89 implicitly imposes an obligation on the assembly to make rules specially tailored for the removal of the president from office.

“By omitting to include such rules, the assembly has failed to fulfill this obligation.”

The ultra-left Economic Freedom Fighters and other small opposition parties had taken the issue to the court.

Zuma, 75, is in a weakened position after Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was narrowly elected leader of Zuma’s ruling African National Congress, although Zuma’s faction still retains key positions in the party, and he has already survived no-confidence votes.

“The ANC will study the judgment and discuss its full implications when the National Executive Committee meets on the 10th January 2018,” the party said in a statement.

NAN reports that in March 2016, the court ruled that Zuma pay back some of the roughly $15 million in state money spent upgrading his private home.

The unanimous ruling by the 11-judge court said Zuma had failed to “uphold, defend and respect” the constitution by ignoring the findings of former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, whose office is an anti-graft watchdog with a strong constitutional mandate.

Zuma has since repaid 7.8 million rand (631,000 dollars), the sum determined by the Treasury as the “reasonable cost” he should bear, while also surviving a no-confidence motion in parliament where members of own his party voted to oust him.

Opposition parties have argued that parliament has not done enough, given the gravity of the court’s findings.

Zuma has denied wrongdoing over many of the corruption allegations that have swirled around his presidency.

On Dec. 23, he sought leave to appeal a court ruling ordering him to set up a judicial inquiry into influence-peddling in his government.

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Opec exit strategy, electric vehicles to set energy tone for 2018

Oil markets can see light at the end of the tunnel in 2018. A year of production cuts by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, and its allies has reduced global stockpiles and revived prices. A barrel of Brent crude is now worth almost a fifth more in value than it was 12 months ago. Stronger demand should help continue the upward trend. But the New Year also brings with it some familiar risks. US oil output is surging and longer term the growth of electric vehicles presents a challenge for fossil fuels. For the majority of producers in the Middle East, 2018 will be about restraint and agreeing on an orderly exit from their production cut deal. Saudi Arabia – the world’s largest exporter of crude – has held its pact with Russia together against the odds. Both nations agreed last month, along with OPEC and their partners outside the group, to extend 1.8 million barrels a day worth of cuts for another year. Despite concerns over compliance, both nations have led by example. The kingdom’s output dropped to a four-month low of 9.97 million bpd last month, while compliance among the 12 OPEC countries with quotas under the extended cuts agreement reached 108 percent. Moscow is also sticking to its side of the bargain, despite pressure to open the spigots. Output is expected to remain constant in 2018 at just under 11 million bpd. Higher prices help support Russia’s economy ahead of presidential elections in March, which are expected to see Vladimir Putin retain power in the Kremlin. After that, attention may turn to how Russia extricates itself from the deal with OPEC without causing a fresh surplus to build up in the market. Concerns over the exit strategy will hang over the market until OPEC’s next meeting in June. “The next important OPEC discussion will be an exit strategy from the production cuts, which will likely be the primary topic at the June OPEC meeting,” wrote investment bank Jefferies in a research note earlier this month. The bank has raised its price forecast for Brent crude to US$63 per barrel for 2018 from a previous estimate of $57 partly due to the OPEC extension and a stronger outlook for demand. Stronger demand could be the final piece of the puzzle for oil markets in 2018. Economies in the G7 industrialized nations are expected to continue to grow steadily over the next 12 months, which will support oil markets. Jefferies has raised its oil demand growth forecast for 2018 to 1.7 million bpd from 1.5 million bpd. But stronger demand also brings risks. With OPEC and its allies restraining production, US drillers have increased output. US production has soared close to 10 million bpd, and is expected to continue to grow into next year. The Energy Information Administration now expects US output to grow by a further 780,000 bpd next year. But the pace of growth could be tempered by tougher financial realities now being imposed on drillers, which may have to focus more on profitability instead of production increases. “Concerns still remain with respect to the response of US Shale oil to higher oil prices,” said Chris Midgley, global head of analytics, S&P Global Platts. “However, the shale hype seems to be over, with CEOs and management teams being held strongly accountable to deliver positive cash flow over production growth even with oil prices above $60.” International oil companies (IOCs) may also start to invest in new capacity again in 2018. The collapse in oil prices, which began in 2014, saw dramatic cuts in capital expenditure across the industry. But IOCs have now re-geared their businesses to be profitable with prices even below $50. Jefferies forecasts a 6 per cent increase in capital expenditure by IOCs next year as more major projects gain approval. “Planned capital investments across oil over the next couple of years of around $300bn show that the industry is not under investing; and is on target. However, these new projects will not emerge until well into the 2020s,” said Mr. Midgley. Finally, 2018 could be a turning point for electric vehicles (EVs). Battery prices are decreasing and major auto manufacturers are ramping up investment into the sector. Toyota – the world’s biggest car maker – said this month that it would pour $10bn over the next decade into the development of EVs and plans to have electric versions of all its vehicles by 2030. The company is targeting 1 million EV sales by the end of the next decade. “Fears in the media about demand destruction from EVs in the short term are misplaced; and despite impressive growth figures and annual sales likely to head above 1m new EVs a year, this has to be put into perspective with the 80m new cars sold every year,” said Midgley. Although the growth of EVs won’t immediately turn into demand destruction momentum behind the industry is building. A far bigger concern for oil markets in 2018 will be how Opec and Russia disentangle themselves without triggering another price war. Source: Reuters.

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Macron under fire over plan to tighten joblessness monitoring

French President Emmanuel Macron came under fire Wednesday over his policy on jobless benefits after a press leak pointed to plans to tighten monitoring of people on the dole.

The investigative weekly Canard Enchaine, citing an internal memo, said those receiving jobless benefits would be required to submit a monthly report on their job-hunting efforts.

Politicians both to the left and the right of the centrist president assailed the idea of a monthly reporting requirement, with the Socialist Party tweeting that it was first mooted by the head of the employers’ federation, Pierre Gattaz.

But Macron defended the plan in an interview with French radio LCI.

“If there are no rules, things cannot move ahead. That doesn’t mean that we’ll chase everyone,” the 40-year-old said Wednesday evening.

Macron, elected in May on a pro-business platform, repeatedly pledged on the campaign trail to overhaul unemployment insurance — along with his landmark labour reforms — with a view to reining in unemployment.

Employers regularly point to the unemployment benefit system, seen as among Europe’s most generous, as one of the main reasons for France’s chronically high joblessness.

Some five weeks of negotiations on the sensitive issue are set to begin on January 11.

Alexis Corbiere of the radical left France Unbowed party told news channel BFMTV: “All this bureaucracy around unemployment has only one goal: to strike people (off the rolls) and then be able to say, ‘Look, thanks to us unemployment is down’.”

Far-right National Front spokesman Jordan Bardella questioned a policy of “generalised suspicion” towards the unemployed, saying the government should instead focus on rooting out “notorious cheaters”.

Under the plan, those who refuse two job offers deemed “reasonable” or who refuse training will have their benefits halved for two months compared with the current 20 percent cut, said the Canard, which combines biting satire with regular investigative scoops.

If they fail to step back into line the benefits will be totally withdrawn for the next two months, it said, citing a confidential labour ministry memo.

– Macron eyes ‘major results’ –
Thanks to the comfortable parliamentary majority enjoyed by Macron’s LREM party, the president has been on a legislative roll, notably pushing through his overhaul of France’s complex labour code in September.

On Wednesday the former investment banker told the Spanish daily El Mundo he expected the labour reforms to produce “major results within 18-24 months” for the employment situation.

Since Macron’s election, unemployment has dipped to around 9.6 percent — still about twice that of Britain or Germany and well above the European average of 7.8 percent.

“The first year of one’s term is crucial,” Macron told El Mundo. “That’s why I wanted to move fast.”

Joblessness was a constant thorn in the side of Macron’s Socialist predecessor Francois Hollande, who failed to move the needle much below 10 percent during his single term in power.

His short tenure saw massive, sometimes violent street protests against proposed labour reforms.

Macron’s reforms are designed to give employers more flexibility to negotiate pay and conditions with their workers while making it easier and less costly to shed staff.

Unemployment is expected to stabilise at around 9.4 percent by mid-2018, its lowest level since early 2012.Also on Macron’s frenetic agenda — and just as sensitive as the overhaul of unemployment insurance is pension reform.

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U.S. Blames North Korea for ‘Cowardly’ WannaCry Cyberattack

The U.S. blamed North Korea for the WannaCry ransomware attack that affected hundreds of thousands of computers globally this year.

Homeland security adviser Tom Bossert attributed the May attack to the Pyongyang regime in a Wall Street Journal article late Monday. WannaCry crippled parts of the U.K.’s state-run National Health Service and compromised companies such as FedEx Corp. and Nissan Motor Co.

After WannaCry began infecting computers powered by Microsoft Corp.’s Windows via the internet on May 12, users had 72 hours to pay $300 in bitcoin, or pay twice as much. Paying didn’t unlock their computers, Bossert said.

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"It was cowardly, costly and careless," he wrote . "The attack was widespread and cost billions, and North Korea is directly responsible."

He called on governments and companies around the world to cooperate to mitigate cyber risk, and said the U.S. should lead the effort.

"Mr. Trump has already pulled many levers of pressure to address North Korea’s unacceptable nuclear and missile developments, and we will continue to use our maximum pressure strategy to curb Pyongyang’s ability to mount attacks, cyber or otherwise," he wrote.

North Korea has been developing cyber capabilities as trade sanctions and a debilitated domestic economy make it difficult to invest in conventional military capabilities, said Tom Uren, a visiting fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s International Cyber Policy Centre.

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"Having a formal report gives more weight to negotiations when the U.S. approaches China, or Russia or anywhere else that might be providing North Korea with internet services," Uren said. "It gives them something else to bring to the table."

Read more about North Korea’s hacker army

The U.K. government in October blamed North Korea for the attack on the NHS. Kim Jong Un’s regime denied any connection. Until now, the U.S. hadn’t publicly named Pyongyang as being behind the attack.

While North Korea allows internet access to only a small portion of its population, it began to train its techno soldiers in the early 1990s, according to South Korea’s Defense Security Command. The country probably employs 1,700 state-sponsored hackers, backed by more than 5,000 support staff, according to ASPI.

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North Korea has grown increasingly adept at breaking into computer systems around the world for financial gain and strategic benefit. This year, his cyber warriors have been linked to stolen U.S.-South Korean military plans and the alleged theft of $60 million from a Taiwan bank.

The hackers drew international headlines in 2014 when they allegedly broke into Sony Corp.’s movie business as it was preparing to release “The Interview,” a Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy about meeting the North Korean leader.

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British embassy worker found murdered in Lebanon

A British woman employed at the UK embassy in Lebanon has been found murdered, a senior official said Sunday, adding that the crime did not appear to be political.

“Our first impression is that it’s not politically motivated,” the official, who is involved in the investigation, told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He confirmed that the victim’s name was Rebecca Dykes but could not elaborate on the exact circumstances of her death.

A statement from the Foreign Office and the family provided no further details.

“We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Rebecca. We are doing all we can to understand what happened,” the family said in a statement passed on by the Foreign Office.

According to her social media profiles, she was employed by the UK Department for International Development (DFID).                                                                                The Lebanese official said her body was found “on the side of the Emile Lahoud road” just north of Beirut.

Her body was found on Saturday evening.

He said investigators were looking into reports that Dykes had been sexually assaulted.

“The whole embassy is deeply shocked and saddened by this news. Our thoughts are with Becky’s family, friends and colleagues for their tragic loss,” British Ambassador to Lebanon Hugo Shorter said in a statement.

“We are providing consular support to Becky’s family and working very closely with the Lebanese local authorities who are conducting the police investigation,” he said.

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Egypt opens Gaza border for four days

Egypt opened its largely sealed border with Gaza on Saturday for only the second time since the Palestinian Authority took control of the crossing from the territory’s Islamist rulers Hamas.

The Hamas-run interior ministry, which was organising departures from the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis, said the crossing would stay open for four days but, in the Egypt direction, for humanitarian cases only.

Those include people needing medical treatment unavailable in Gaza as well as students enrolled at Egyptian universities and Gazans with jobs abroad.

There were tearful scenes at the makeshift departure point as families said their farewells.

Rafah is Gaza’s only border crossing not controlled by Israel.

Hamas handed control of the Gaza side to the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority on November 1 as the first part of an Egyptian-brokered reconciliation deal designed to end a bitter decade-long split.

That was supposed to have been followed by the handover of full civil control in Gaza by December 1.

But the target date was missed amid differences over the future of tens of thousands of civil servants recruited by Hamas since it seized control of the territory in 2007.

Egypt opened the border for three days last month — the first time it had done so since the reconciliation deal.

Prior to that the crossing had been open for just 14 days this year, according to the Hamas-run interior ministry.

Up to 20,000 Gazans have applied to enter Egypt, far more than are able to cross during the brief openings.

Some 200 people passed through on Saturday morning, 10 of them medical cases, the ministry said.

Both Israel and Egypt have maintained blockades of Gaza for years, arguing that they are necessary to isolate Hamas.

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Myanmar not yet safe for Rohingya refugee return, says UN

Conditions for Rohingya refugees to safely return to Myanmar from Bangladesh are not in place, the UN said Friday, a day after the two countries announced repatriation would begin in two months.

“UNHCR has not yet seen the details of the agreement”, the UN refugee agency said in a statement, referring to the deal inked Thursday between Myanmar and Bangladesh, where an estimated 620,000 Rohingya refugees are now living in squalor.

 

“At present, conditions in Myanmar’s Rakhine State are not in place to enable safe and sustainable returns,” UNHCR added.

“Refugees are still fleeing, and many have suffered violence, rape, and deep psychological harm… Most have little or nothing to go back to, their homes and villages destroyed.”

“It is critical that returns do not take place precipitously or prematurely”, the statement said.

Myanmar has faced mounting international criticism over alleged abuses committed against its minority Muslim community since the August launch of a military crackdown in Rakhine state, which is home to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya.

Impoverished and overcrowded Bangladesh has won international praise for allowing the refugees into the country, but has imposed restrictions on their movements and said it does not want them to stay.

Dhaka said the deal agreed with Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi would see refugees begin returning home in two months.

UNHCR underscored that all returns must include “the informed consent of refugees.”

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