Author: Steven Sahiounie

Washington has accused Beijing of encroaching on Hong Kong’s freedom by moving to enforce a new national security law in the city and US President Donald Trump has threatened to revoke Hong Kong’s special trading status. Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of the Chinese newspaper Global Times, has compared US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Goebbels in a row over Hong Kong. Pompeo said on Saturday, the D-Day anniversary, that China’s actions regarding the city are reminiscent of the Third Reich’s occupation of Europe during WW2. Hu Xijin replied on Twitter: “You are inciting radical hostility and ripping the world apart. You aren’t like…

Brent crude prices creeped up past $40 per barrel this week for the first time since mid-March following April’s historically unprecedented nose dive to negative spot prices. Prices collapsed in the wake of the global halt in economic activity due to the coronavirus, as well as the failure of major oil exporting nations to agree on cuts. The OPEC+* group of nations led by Saudi Arabia and Russia has tentatively agreed to extend oil production cuts for another month, an OPEC source has told Reuters. According to a draft of the declaration, the 9.7 million barrel per day (bpd) output…

The Western and Turkish-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) announced that it had reestablished full control over Tripoli last week, with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi announcing a new Cairo-backed peace initiative to settle Libya’s long-running civil war for good. Libya’s massive El Sharara oil field restarted production on Saturday after forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) switched allegiances following a string of GNA victories, S&P Global has reported, citing sources said to be familiar with the situation. Situated in the Murzuq Desert in southwestern Libya, the El Sharara oil field has the capacity to produce about…

In times of economic volatility, people are driven to put their money into something solid. The fact that 80 percent of all the $100 bills in circulation are currently held outside the United States is perceived as a sign of recognition that the US dollar is the de facto the global reserve currency. The US dollar, which marks its 235th birthday on 6 June, has been reigning supreme as the main global reserve currency. A spate of analysts have weighed in on the reasons for the persistent dominance of the “greenback”, while mulling the chances of digital currencies in helping countries wean themselves of…

This comes as more protests against police aggression and racial discrimination are expected to take place in the city on Sunday. US President Donald Trump took to Twitter to announce his decision over the presence of the National Guard in Washington, DC. The US president’s decision to withdraw the National Guard from Washington DC comes as more protests are expected to take place in the area later on Sunday, with people going to continue to demonstrate their outrage over the death of George Floyd in police custody.​ On Saturday, Trump thanked Washington police and the National Guard for their work…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator A thousand protesters gathered in Pittsburg on May 30 to demonstrate against the May 25th killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.  Antifa was blamed for turning a peaceful protest into a violent riot by Pittsburg Police Chief Scott Schubert.  President Trump and Attorney General William Barr blamed antifa for nationwide violent protests in May and June.  On May 31, Barr described the actions of Antifa and other similar groups as “domestic terrorism”, and Trump tweeted that “the United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization”. “Antifa has adopted the ways…

China’s crude oil imports jumped by 13 percent from April to near record-highs of 11.11 million bpd in May, due to favorable spreads of the Shanghai-traded yuan-denominated oil futures and a ramp-up in refinery throughput. There has been a steady recovery in Chinese refinery crude processing rates in recent weeks to warrant higher imports, but at least some of the increased crude intake can be attributed to the Shanghai INE crude futures trading at a premium over other deliverable grades, oil analytics firm OilX said. Since April, Chinese hedge funds have been betting big on an oil price recovery on…

As tensions between the world’s two biggest economies seep into the financial markets, Beijing has warned that pressure from Washington on its companies would severely harm the US economy. China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang accused Washington of making hasty generalizations about Chinese companies’ accounting practices, Reuters reported, citing the official’s regular press briefing. The statement comes as the Trump administration seeks ways to crack down on Chinese companies, making it harder for them to trade on foreign exchanges. On Thursday, President Donald Trump accused China of benefiting from US capital markets “without complying with critical protections” and ordered regulators to come…

Brent crude broke the $41 per barrel threshold for the first time since early March, while US crude benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was up almost two percent on Friday ahead of a meeting of leading oil producers. Friday’s rally signaled that both key global oil benchmarks are on track for a sixth week of gains. Apart from slowly recovering global demand for the commodity, the prices were also boosted by massive output cuts, introduced by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allied major oil producers led by Russia, together known as the OPEC+ group. While the production…

The US labor market has made an unexpected rebound in contrast to earlier gloomy forecasts, with the economy gaining 2.5 million jobs as the country started lifting coronavirus lockdowns. The federal unemployment rate dropped to 13.3 percent in May from 14.7 percent a month earlier, according to figures released by the Department of Labor on Friday. This is much better that analysts predicted as it was feared that the US could have extended April’s record losses, with another 8 million jobs lost and the unemployment rate expected to spike to 20 percent. “These improvements in the labor market reflected a…