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Lobbying Fight Over Iran Nuclear Deal Centers on Democrats

Photo President Obama played golf last week in Martha’s Vineyard, but he has also been calling members of Congress, an official said. Credit Steven Senne/Associated Press WASHINGTON — From his rented vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard with sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean, President Obama has been making phone calls to Democratic members of Congress, trying to rally support for the nuclear deal with Iran that faces a vote next month. “If you support the deal, we’d like you to make that clear,” he tells the lawmakers, according to a White House official who would describe the private calls only on condition of anonymity. “And if you still have concerns, we want to be able to answer those questions.” The personal appeals from the president are part of an orchestrated lobbying effort by the White House, supported by a coalition of antiwar and progressive organizations, aimed at persuading Democrats […]

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Kurdistan presidency controversy deepens

KRG President Masoud Barzani gives an interview in Erbil on June 2, 2013. (AZAD LASHKARI/Reuters) Kurdistan’s political crisis over the tenure and powers of President Massud Barzani is deepening, with the head of Parliament vowing to press ahead with new legislation that would reconfigure how the region is governed.Barzani’s final term in office expires midnight Wednesday. Kurdistan’s regional Parliament has scheduled a final reading that day of a draft law that, if passed, would strip Barzani of much of his power and make the president electable by MPs.The legal picture clouded… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Saudi Growth to Slow as Kingdom Adjusts to Cheaper Oil, IMF Says

Economic growth in Saudi Arabia is set to slow this year and next as the government is forced to reduce spending to compensate for lower oil prices, the International Monetary Fund said on Monday. Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product will grow by 2.8 percent this year and 2.4 percent in 2016, the IMF said in e-mailed statement at the conclusion of its regular country consultation. That compares with 3.5 percent growth last year. Growth may expand to 3 percent in the “medium term,” it said. The world’s largest oil producer turned to the bond market this year for the first time since 2007 after oil prices fell by over 50 percent. The resulting budget deficit, which the IMF projects at 19.5 percent of GDP, may force Saudi rulers to abandon the kingdom’s traditional largess. Saudi Arabia needs “comprehensive energy price reforms, firm control of the public sector wage bill, […]

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Saudi-led coalition bombs Yemen ‘aid port’ Hodeida

Jets from a Saudi-led coalition targeted rebel Houthi positions in Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hodeida early on Tuesday, port officials said, destroying cranes and warehouses at a main import hub for critical aid supplies to the country’s north. There were also clashes further south overnight in Yemen’s third city, Taiz, Arab television stations reported, as local groups opposed to the Houthis attempted to consolidate recent advances to take the city. As well as retaining a foothold in Taiz, the Houthis and allied army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh control the northern highlands and Red Sea coastal plain as far south as Ibb, where coalition-backed forces advanced last week. Ibb is around 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Taiz and 200 kilometers southeast of Hodeida. The port, which lies almost due west of the capital Sanaa, has become a focal point of Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, which […]

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Strong Dubai crude oil trades skew Asia price benchmark

Oil tanks are seen at a Sinopec plant in Hefei, Anhui province, May 31, 2009. Record trading of Dubai crude by two Chinese state companies this month on a decades-old oil pricing system has pushed the benchmark higher, even as other grades are being pressed lower by a global glut. The strong Dubai trade has forced Middle East producers to raise official selling prices (OSPs), driving Asian buyers to seek cheaper oil elsewhere or cut refinery runs due to low margins. Chinaoil and Unipec, trading units of PetroChina and Sinopec, respectively, traded record volumes of crude in early August on pricing agency Platts’ market assessment process. This pushed up prompt physical Dubai prices against future months, creating a backwardated market structure usually associated with supply shortages. In contrast, a global oil glut has kept Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures in contango this year, and most analysts […]

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ISIL ‘brutally’ quells rebellion in Libya’s Sirte

ISIL fighters crushed the revolt by the rival group and armed residents trying to break its grip on the city of Sirte. [Al Jazeera] The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has brutally quelled a rebellion in the Libyan city of Sirte by citizens who took up arms to try to push back the armed group, residents have said. Witnesses said the group was now calling on residents to pledge allegiance over loudspeakers from its main mosque and desecrating bodies of their adversaries. Sources in the city told Al Jazeera on Monday that clashes broke out five days earlier between ISIL and armed residents in the city’s Number Three neighbourhood, before ISIL besieged it and began shelling it with heavy weaponry. By Monday, the neighbourhood was under the full control of ISIL, the sources said. Cleric Khalid Awad said that ISIL had killed some of their prisoners […]

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Israel opening offshore gas doors

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu praises vote that would clear the way toward full exploitation of nation’s offshore natural gas reserves. File Photo by UPI Photo/Debbie Hill. JERUSALEM, Aug. 17 (UPI) — An Israeli decision to exploit offshore natural gas reserves is an important milestone for the nation’s economy, the country’s prime minister said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed support after members of government cleared the way toward full development of offshore natural gas reserves. "We need to extract the gas from the sea," the prime minister said in a statement. "The gas will be extracted from the bottom of the sea and will reach Israeli citizens, Israeli industry and the Israeli economy – for the benefit of the citizens of Israel." The Israel Antitrust Authority had ruled that Israeli energy company Delek Group and its partners at Noble Energy, which has headquarters in Texas, control all of the […]

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Algeria Calls for Non-OPEC Output Cut to Stop Oil Price Slump

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries can do little to halt the oil price decline on its own and needs producers from outside the group to help in reducing global supplies, Algeria’s Energy Minister said. “A supply reduction by OPEC alone cannot really guarantee a return to oil market stability,” Salah Khebri said at an event in Algiers, according to Liberte newspaper. As the 12-member group of crude producing nations accounts for 40 percent of the world’s supply, “there should be steps taken within OPEC and with non-OPECs.” Khebri called earlier this month for an OPEC emergency meeting because of the continued decline in oil prices, which dropped by half from a year ago amid rising production from the U.S. Oil and gas sales account for about 60 percent of Algeria’s budget revenue and 95 percent of its export income, according to the International Monetary Fund. Algeria’s initiative to […]

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Nigeria’s Crude Oil Exploration, Production Hit Record Low

The nation’s crude oil exploration and production activities may have hit a record low, going by the latest report from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Specifically, only Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and Addax carried out exploration/drilling activities during the month of March, according to available data from NNPC’s monthly report obtained by The Guardian yesterday. The country has been recording low production activities since November last year, as several oil and gas firms began scaling down production due to the uncertainties surrounding the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and the declining crude oil prices. Many oil and gas firms have also been recording losses, which made them to resort to cancelling or deferring projects. According to OPEC in its monthly oil market report, among member countries, Nigeria recorded the second sharpest drop in rig counts in March with production of 1.69mbpd in the month compare to the 2.21mbpd […]

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Exclusive: U.S. graft probes may cost Petrobras record $1.6 billion or more – source

A fuel storage tank is seen at the company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, in Sao Caetano do Sul, near Sao Paulo July 24, 2015. Brazil’s Petrobras may need to pay record penalties of $1.6 billion or more to settle U.S. criminal and civil probes into its role in a corruption scandal, a person recently briefed by the company’s legal advisors told Reuters. State-run Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as the company is formally known, expects to face the largest penalties ever levied by U.S. authorities in a corporate corruption investigation, according to the person, who has direct knowledge of the company’s thinking. The settlement process could take two-to-three years, this person said. To date, the largest settlement of corporate corruption charges with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was a 2008 agreement with Siemens AG, the German industrial giant. It agreed to pay the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple