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It is déjà vu for major oil producers, who are again considering steeper production cuts. It took only a month after the Hamas attacks on Israel unleashed a punishing war for oil prices to fall below their pre-Oct. 7 level. The steep drop in oil prices last week, with Brent crude briefly dropping to $77 per barrel, led to speculation that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied producers (OPEC+) will decide to cut production at its next meeting. OPEC’s last-minute decision to delay the meeting, now scheduled for Nov. 30, will only add to the speculation. U.S....

On 13 February 2023, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of Equatorial Guinea declared an outbreak of Marburg virus disease (MVD) after suspected viral haemorrhagic fever deaths were reported between 7 January 2023 - 7 February 2023 and a case testing positive on 12 February 2023 for MVD.1 Six clinical experts from the Emerging Diseases Clinical Assessment and Response Network (EDCARN) were rapidly deployed to Equatorial Guinea to support the Ministry of Health in its response to the outbreak. The clinical experts in infectious diseases, critical care, and paediatrics were recruited through the Global Outbreak and Response Network (GOARN)....

Eight new confirmed cases of Marburg disease have been reported in Equatorial Guinea, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. This brings the total of laboratory-confirmed cases to nine and probable cases to 20 since the outbreak of the deadly disease similar to Ebola was declared in February. Twenty deaths have been reported. Of the eight new cases, two were reported from the Central African country's Kie-Ntem province, four from the Litoral province and two from Centre-Sur province, the WHO said in a statement.

BATA, Equatorial Guinea—Classified American intelligence reports suggest China intends to establish its first permanent military presence on the Atlantic Ocean in the tiny Central African country of Equatorial Guinea, according to U.S. officials. The officials declined to describe details of the secret intelligence findings. But they said the reports raise the prospect that Chinese warships would be able to rearm and refit opposite the East Coast of the U.S.—a threat that is setting off alarm bells at the White House and Pentagon. Principal deputy U.S. national security adviser Jon Finer visited Equatorial Guinea in October on a mission to persuade...

966 deaths are reported in the United States following COVID-19 vaccination... Mask burning protests across Idaho this weekend... Some 15-thousand demonstrators on the streets of Vienna, Austria Saturday to protest coronavirus controls... The President of the South American nation of Paraguay asking for resignations from all his cabinet... A strict lockdown ordered in the French South Pacific territory of New Caledonia... From Canada the story of coronavirus hotels places where travelers are forced to stay... An official fron the poltical party of the former democratic leader in Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, is dead after being arrested by law enforcement......

Qatar will leave the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries as of next month, its energy minister told media today, adding that the decision was part of a long-term strategy for growing its international presence on energy markets with a focus on gas. Qatar is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, but it has Australia breathing down its neck as well as emerging competition from the United States and other, smaller, producers. “Qatar has decided to withdraw its membership from OPEC effective January 2019 and this decision was communicated to OPEC this morning,” Saad al-Kaabi said, as quoted by...

Qatar will withdraw from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Qatar's Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi announced on Monday. The decision to quit the bloc of 15 oil-producing countries that account for almost half of the world's oil production was confirmed by Qatar Petroleum, the country's state oil company.

Many U.S. producers say they can turn a profit at $50 a barrel and even as low as $30 in the Permian’s most productive regions. Yet most OPEC members need prices ranging between $70 and $90 per barrel to balance their budgets. The cartel scaled back output in 2016, but shale producers roared back as prices recovered. *** Barack Obama, hilariously, is now claiming credit for the shale boom. “You know that whole suddenly America’s like the biggest oil producer . . . that was me, people,” he said last month at Rice University. But drilling leases on federal land...

Saudi Arabia has not only called the end of Russia’s prominence as a global oil behemoth, but anticipates that Russia’s oil exports “will have declined heavily if not disappeared” within the next 19 years, Mohammed bin Salman said in a recent interview with Bloomberg. When asked whether Russia and Saudi Arabia had made a backroom deal to increase oil production, MbS was more tight-lipped, saying only that Saudi Arabia was “ready to supply any demand and any disappearing from Iran.” With Russia out of the game, Saudi Arabia would have plenty of oil demand to service, according to MbS. MbS...

Russia is not the country you think it is. Its economy is smaller than South Korea’s. Its people are poorer than Kazakhstan’s. It trails Finland in technology. And it has a smaller military budget than Saudi Arabia... ...Russia hosted the Olympics, punched Georgia in the nose, took back the Crimea, invaded Ukraine, flew bombers through NATO airspace, built military bases in the Arctic, and generally flexed and posed like an oiled, aged, but still buff, body builder. And we’ve been paying increasingly rapt attention, not noticing the geriatric walker hidden just off stage. A closer look is almost shocking. According...

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has rejected advice to cancel the second Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, over fears of the spread of the Ebola virus. Erdoğan has insisted on going ahead with the scheduled summit in order to display solidarity with the host country, Foreign Ministry officials told the Hürriyet Daily News. The Turkish president will attend the summit in Malabo on Nov. 20-21. Following the launch of Turkey’s “opening up to Africa" strategy, the country has transited to the phase of “partnership with Africa” since 2013, according to officials. Around 200 business leaders and...

A veteran State Department diplomat and longtime Pakistan expert is under federal investigation as part of a counterintelligence probe and has had her security clearances withdrawn, according to U.S. officials. The FBI searched the Northwest Washington home of Robin L. Raphel last month, and her State Department office was also examined and sealed, officials said. Raphel, a fixture in Washington’s diplomatic and think-tank circles, was placed on administrative leave last month, and her contract with the State Department was allowed to expire this week. Two U.S. officials described the investigation as a counterintelligence matter, which typically involves allegations of spying...

"President Barack Obama drew the diplomatic line somewhere at the first ever U.S-Africa summit at the White House this week by not inviting Zimbabwe’s brutal dictator Robert Mugabe. But the guest list still included several other African leaders with only slightly better human rights records. The White House promoted the summit as the largest-ever gathering of African leaders in the United States, with more than 50 countries represented. The red carpet was rolled out for Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who shot or jailed virtually all his political opponents, Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh, who threatened to ‘cut off the head’...

More than 500 years after the Spanish Inquisition, the Spanish government has voted to facilitate the naturalization of Jewish families of Spanish descent, without demanding they give up their other citizenship. Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain must be rolling in their graves: The government in Madrid on Friday approved legislation that would allow descendents of Jews who were exiled from Spain to be naturalized in the country without having to give up their former citizenship, which had been the law until now. Spanish Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon said that Spain "is indebted to Spanish Jews for spreading the...

Israel, only 'free' country in the region, ranks 65th in the world for press freedoms Freedom House Report: Israel maintains 'free' status, though just barely By Hillary Zaken and AP May 1, 2012, 12:07Global media freedom showed no overall decline for the first time in eight years, according to Freedom House's annual survey of freedom of the press, released Tuesday. Israel was ranked the only Free country in the Middle East and North Africa, with a rating of 30.The rating ties it with Greece and makes it the 65th most free country in the world for press freedoms.As decades-old authoritarian...

"Democracy is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequal alike" Plato (BC 427 - 374BC). Open rigging and clinging brazenly to power have become common features of emerging democracies in the world today especially in Africa. Many Countries in Africa have become accustomed to "sit-tight dictators" or military style of leadership, with democracy being propelled by the West for their replacement. This is at the centre of the on-going conflict in many emerging democratic nations. Democratization of the world today as being championed by United States of...

In November of 2007, then-Senator Barack Obama introduced a Senate resolution stating that President Bush did not have Congressional authorization to use military force against Iran. The resolution was drafted in response to an amendment passed in the senate in September of 2007 which designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. Obama argued that the amendment could be used by President Bush to justify war with Iran. Joe Biden's spokeswoman, Elizabeth Alexander, said at the time that Mr. Biden also believed the amendment could be used to justify military action against Iran. The spokeswoman added, "[Sen. Biden] has also...

JOHANNESBURG – The son of Equatorial Guinea's dictator of 30 years commissioned plans to build a superyacht costing $380 million, nearly three times what the country spends on health and education each year, a corruption watchdog said Monday. The statement from Global Witness said that German company Kusch Yachts has been asked to build the yacht, housing a cinema, restaurant, bar and swimming pool, though construction has not yet started. Global Witness has been urging Washington to institute sanctions against Teodorin Obiang, whose extravagant lifestyle currently includes a $35 million-dollar mansion in Malibu, California, a $33 million jet and a...

Equato Guinea seeks South Korean corvettes: report Written by defenceWeb Thursday, 18 November 2010 13:34 The government of oil rich but authoritarian Equatorial Guinea is reportedly negotiating the purchase of up to three corvettes worth an estimated price of $90 million from South Korea. The Defence Professionals website, defpro.com quotes the Yonhap news agency as saying a South Korean official confirmed Equatorial Guinea’s interest in buying three corvettes. According to Yonhap, negotiations began after Equatorial Guinea's President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, met his counterpart, Lee Myung-bak, in mid-August during a visit to Seoul. Park Young-june, a vice minister in South...

Starting in the late 1990s, China's presence on the African continent experienced a phenomenal expansion. Far more profound changes, however, have been underway and may only become apparent in the next decade. These changes are likely to transform the regional economic landscape of the African continent in ways never seen before. Chinese experts apparently believe that Africa is entering an era of relative stability and that the time to explore its untapped resources has arrived [1]. Chinese policymakers see in Africa possible solutions to some of China's most pressing problems, for instance, Beijing's need to secure access to energy resources...