Month: June 2022

Austria releases oil stocks after refinery malfunction

A technical issue at oil giant OMV’s Schwechat refinery on Saturday forced the government to release strategic gasoline stocks while OMV considers what to do about its investments in Russia.

The government announced a release of 112,000 tonnes of petrol and 56,000 tonnes of diesel. The release will cover a period of about 14 days, while OMV had so far not been able to determine for how long the refinery’s “technical malfunction”, which has damaged the main distillation unit for crude oil, would last.

Turkey’s Nordic demands spark Western Balkan déjà vu

Turkey’s move to pressure Sweden and Finland into extraditing alleged “terrorists” they harbour is a method Ankara used for several years against countries in the Western Balkans, including EU candidate countries, under the idle gaze of Brussels.

While Turkey wields investment and aid as a sword of Damocles over the heads of poorer, less powerful countries, when it comes to the Nordic duo, it is their NATO application filed in May that hangs in the balance.

SOS: Is The Pentagon Losing the U.S. to China?

“We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years. Right now, it’s already a done deal; it is already over in my opinion.” — Nicolas Chaillan, former first Chief Software Officer for the Air Force, who resigned in protest over the Pentagon’s slow pace of technological development, citing China’s fast advancements in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and general capabilities in cybersecurity, Financial Times, October 10, 2021

When Politics Is Local In The Middle East

As the old adage has it, all politics is local. That might seem a quaint idea in an age of social media and global connectivity. And yet, as a study co-led by an MIT political scientist finds, it may describe Middle East politics more accurately than many people realize.

Food Security Now Top Priority For G20 Cooperation

In just over two months, the world food situation has gone from bad to worse. Calls to not panic fell on deaf ears, even as the Ukrainian military put up stiff opposition to the Russian onslaught. If Ukraine somehow wins the war, it will be decades before its economy and agricultural exports return to their previous levels.

UN extends searches on high seas off Libya for illegal arms

The U.N. Security Council approved a resolution Friday extending the authorization for countries and regional organizations to inspect vessels on the high seas off the coast of Libya suspected of violating the U.N. arms embargo on the troubled north African nation.

Huge Europe-Morocco Migration Begins after COVID Hiatus

Morocco on Sunday begins welcoming an influx of its citizens living in Europe after the pandemic led to a halt in what has been called one of the world’s biggest cross-continental migrations.

The last such effort in the summer of 2019 saw 3.3 million people and more than three quarters of a million vehicles cross the Gibraltar Strait.

EXCLUSIVE: The Ethiopian border town left in ruins as a ceasefire takes hold

‘The main thing we need is to return home, but we don’t know if we can. Everything there is destroyed.’

There’s almost no one left in Abala, a once-bustling town on the border of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray and Afar regions. Its streets are empty, given over to stray dogs and troops of baboons that scavenge undisturbed among the abandoned houses.

West African Leaders Put Off Sanctions on 3 Juntas

West African leaders Saturday failed to agree what action to take against military juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, postponing a decision for a month, insiders at the meeting said.

They decided to wait until the next ECOWAS summit July 3, a senior source in the Ghanian presidency told AFP, asking to remain anonymous.