Headlines:
- Extending the Oil Cut
- Nuclear Hypocrisy
- Media in full swing after London Terrorist Attack
- US-led coalition kills 150 civilians in Mosul
Extending the Oil Cut
Major oil producers are considering extending their recent cuts to output in a fresh bid to boost prices. The initial reduction in oil supply began in 2017, which pushed the price of oil to approximately $50 a barrel. However, a group of ministers in OPEC have decided to review extending these cuts by six months; the price of Brent crude peaked at over $57 a barrel in January, before slipping back to below $51 a barrel in recent weeks. This was after OPEC unveiled a surprise rise in global crude stocks in February, and US oil producers – who are not part of the cuts – started to increase production again. Abhishek Deshpande, an oil analyst, reported that the price had fallen after oil traders became “jittery” about the market. In particular, they were uncertain about the commitment of Russia and Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s biggest member, to the cuts, Mr Deshpande said. These oil countries now need to show “discipline” and cut back on production in the coming months because stocks are still too high, he said. “The chances remain high for an extension to the supply cuts, as long as there are more stockpile withdrawals,” he added.
Nuclear Hypocrisy
The United States, Britain and France are among almost 40 countries boycotting talks on a nuclear weapon’s ban treaty at the United Nations, according to Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the world body. According to Haley, the countries skipping the talks “would love to have a ban on nuclear weapons, but in this day and time we can’t honestly say we can protect our people by allowing bad actors to have them and those of us that are good trying to keep peace and safety not to have them.” Ironic considering the only nation to have used nuclear weapons was the US and that too in a war which was already won, putting into question Haley’s remarks on peace and safety. Haley also discussed North Korea, “We have to be realistic. Is there anyone who thinks that North Korea would ban nuclear weapons?” Haley said. “North Korea would be the one cheering and all of us and the people we represent would be the ones at risk.” The US justifies its defence expenditure on the premise of multiple threats that harm its national security, North Korea is one such nation, as such it serves the interests of the US to allow them to continually test their weapons.
Media in full swing after London Terrorist Attack
It has been a torrid week in the UK. In just a week a terrorist attack took place in the UK on the countries parliament. The knives came out straight away despite no one knowing anything about the attacker. Islam was linked to the event immediately, with one news channel even making up who the terrorist was, eventually he proven to still be in prison, no apology was ever provided. The media began to pick on anything they could find about the individual concerned. Muslims in the UK were ordered to apologise and state where they stood with regards to the attack. Some Muslims came out and condemned the attacks, despite not knowing who the attacker was or his motivations.
After 5 days of police investigating the Westminster attack concluded that the attacker acted entirely alone. The deputy assistant Metropolitan police commissioner Neil Basu said: “We still believe that Masood acted alone on the day and there is no information or intelligence to suggest there are further attacks planned.”
US-led Coalition kills 150 Civilians in Mosul
This week saw two major events occur internationally where the death of 4 individuals took the world by storm whilst the death of 150 civilians in Mosul fell on deaf ears. The US, who present themselves as bastions of human rights and civil liberties have been blasted by human rights activists for their indiscriminate killings over the past week. In response to this, Lt Gen Stephen Townsend told a Pentagon news briefing “My initial assessment is that we probably had a role in these casualties”. After attempting to shift the blame on to ISIS and their holding of civilians, most of the evidence suggests to be no evidence pointing to the holding of hostages. It seems that any action, including the death of civilians can be justified nowadays when it is used to stop “terrorism.”