Category: General

Oil prices increased on Monday as investors are closely following the G7 meeting for decisions on Russian oil exports and a revival of the Iran nuclear deal.

International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $109.57 per barrel at 0720 GMT for a 0.43% increase after closing the previous session at $109.1 a barrel.

American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was at $108.02 per barrel at the same time for a 0.37% gain after the previous session closed at $107.62 a barrel.

Fear of lower demand due to a global economic slowdown and worry over lost Russian oil supply amid sanctions are pushing oil prices higher.

The leaders of the G7 countries on Sunday discussed a price cap on Russian oil to tackle inflation and reduce dependence on Russia.

By setting a limit on the price Russia can charge for its oil, Western countries hope to curtail Moscow’s revenues while at the same time allowing more oil supply to reach the global market.

At the summit, the leaders are also expected to discuss the negotiations on the Iran nuclear deal. Markets expect that Iran will start oil exports again.

Meanwhile, markets are focused on Thursday’s meeting by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, and the OPEC+ group, which consists of some non-OPEC producer countries.

In its last meeting, the OPEC+ group decided to increase production by 648,000 barrels in July and August, instead of 432,000 barrels per day as expected.

Source: Anadolu Agency

English Premier League club Chelsea confirmed the departure of Technical and Performance Adviser Petr Cech on Monday.

“Chelsea Football Club today announces that Petr Cech, Technical and Performance Advisor, will leave his role effective 30 June,” Chelsea said in a statement.

“Since his appointment three years ago, Cech has provided advice and guidance on all football and performance matters throughout the Club, while strengthening the links between our men’s and Academy teams,” it added.

Cech, 40, is a former Chelsea goalkeeper who moved to the London club from France’s Rennes in 2004.

The Czech regular played for Chelsea from 2004 to 2015.

During his 11-year spell at Chelsea, Cech won the UEFA Champions League title in 2012 and the UEFA Europa League title in 2013.

He also helped Chelsea win four English Premier League titles in 2005, 2006, 2010 and 2015.

Cech retired as a player at Arsenal in 2019.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The Colorado Avalanche beat the Tampa Bay Lightning late on Sunday to lift the NHL Stanley Cup for the third time in franchise history and the first in more than two decades.

Colorado, which previously won the title in 2001 and 1996, denied Tampa Bay a third successive championship with a 2-1 victory in Game 6 of the final.

Artturi Lehkonen scored the decisive goal that dethroned the two-time defending champions on their home turf, while goaltender Darcy Kuemper saved 22 out of 23 shots to secure the win.

Colorado’s Cale Makar picked up the 2022 Conn Smythe Trophy, the annual award for the most valuable player.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Italy’s center-left Democratic Party snatched most of the cities up for grabs in a set of local election run-offs, according to results published on Monday, defeating the center-right in key centers and boosting the strength of the coalition government led by Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

The vote held on Sunday was the last electoral test for Italian parties ahead of the much-awaited national elections set for next year, when Italians will decide who will head the new government after Draghi.

The head of the Democratic Party, Enrico Letta, hailed the election result, calling it “extraordinary,” and said it also “strengthens us in view of the future, in building a center-left bloc that will be a winner also on a national level, at next year’s political elections.”

Italian citizens voted across the country in 65 cities, including 13 provincial and regional capitals, even though less than half of the eligible voters cast their ballots in a hot summer weekend.

The Democratic Party’s candidates prevailed in the northern cities of Parma, Alessandria, Monza, as well as the southern city of Catanzaro.

In the traditionally conservative city of Verona – a long-time bastion of the center-right – Rome’s former soccer player Damiano Tommasi, who was backed by the Democratic Party and the 5-Star Movement, won against most predictions, exploiting divisions within the center-right bloc.

The center-right had won 10 of the 26 provincial and regional capitals voting in the first round of the elections on June 12.

The rightist coalition – formed by Matteo Salvini’s League, Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia – has been recently weakened by internal divisions, also due to the unstoppable rise of Meloni’s popularity, which is raising questions over Salvini’s leadership.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Leaders of NATO’s member countries and key partners are set to meet in Madrid to discuss issues facing the alliance during a three-day summit beginning on Tuesday.

Russia’s war against Ukraine has shattered peace in Europe as it caused far-reaching energy and food crises by shaking the rules of the international order since it began on Feb. 24.

As NATO became a more indispensable platform for transatlantic cooperation on security and defense, allies will continue to make decisions to keep the alliance ready against any threat at the summit.

Strengthening NATO’s long-term deterrence and defense, sustaining support for Ukraine, launching NATO’s 2022 Strategic Concept, reinforcing partnerships and maintaining an open door, adapting to threats and challenges from any direction, and transatlantic unity and alliance solidarity will be on the agenda for the member states to discuss.

Some “important” topics to be discussed by members and partners include how has Russia’s military operation in Ukraine and the new security reality in Europe affected the alliance’s approach to deterrence and defense; what is NATO doing to address challenges like China’s growing influence or security consequences of climate change and what to include in the next Strategic Concept.

To protect and defend allied territory amid the current security reality, NATO has more than 40,000 troops under direct command, backed by air and naval assets.

The alliance also doubled the number of battlegroups to eight, extending from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south.

NATO leaders will “significantly strengthen the Alliance’s posture for the long term, with more presence, capabilities and readiness,” according to the alliance, which will require adequate resources and continued investment in defense.

Support for Ukraine

Noting that allies “significantly stepped up with billions of euros’ worth” of additional lethal and non-lethal aid to help Ukraine after Russia launched its war in February, NATO said it builds on the years of NATO training and assistance since Moscow’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Leaders of member countries will meet with Ukraine to agree to step up and sustain support for the “longer-term” at the summit.

2022 Strategic Concept

Serving as a blueprint for future adaption, strategic concepts give the alliance the ability to respond to current security challenges and guide political and military developments for the challenges of tomorrow.

In Madrid, leaders will endorse a 2022 Strategic Concept, which will set out NATO’s joint positions, including on Russia and emerging challenges, and will address China for the first time.

“The Madrid Strategic Concept will reflect the new security environment, recommit to our values, and reaffirm our unity, ensuring that our Alliance is fit for the future,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said of the new concept.

The concept has been reviewed and updated approximately every 10 years since the end of the Cold War. The last one was adopted at the Lisbon Summit in 2010.

Reinforcing partnerships, maintaining an open door

Finland and Sweden’s NATO bids will belong to the main agenda points of the summit as part of the alliance’s Open Door policy.

Sweden and Finland formally applied to join the alliance last month, a decision spurred by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

But Türkiye, a longstanding member of the alliance, has voiced objections to the membership bids, criticizing the countries for tolerating and even supporting terrorist groups.

Stoltenberg has constantly said that Türkiye has “legitimate concerns related to their fight against the PKK a group and other organizations,” and that the PKK is considered a terror organization by NATO, the EU, Finland, and Sweden.

However, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares recently said the host country hopes to sign with Finland and Sweden at the summit as parties could get closer in talks during the one-week window.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people.

NATO will step up support to Georgia and other partners to build their capabilities and strengthen their resilience during the summit.

The leaders of four Asia-Pacific partners — Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea and New Zealand will be part of a NATO summit for the first time.

Adapting to threats, challenges

Member countries are set to make decisions to maintain NATO’s technological edge, “including through the new Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic and a billion euro Innovation Fund, to support start-ups and develop cutting-edge solutions to security challenges,” according to the alliance.

Terrorism, cyberattacks, China’s “coercive” policies, disruptive technologies and the security impact of climate change are among the topics that the alliance will focus under threats and challenges title.

Regarding climate change, leaders will agree on a new methodology to map military greenhouse gas emissions and a target to help NATO contribute to the goal of net-zero emissions.

As NATO faces “the most serious security situation in decades,” the decisions leaders make in Madrid will ensure that NATO continues to preserve “peace, prevent conflict and protect our people and our values,” according to the alliance.

The summit has special importance for Spain as the country is hosting on the 40th anniversary of Madrid’s accession to NATO.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The world’s seven largest economies have agreed to use money collected from higher trade tariffs on Russia to help Ukraine, according to a statement issued by the White House on Monday.

On the second day of the Group of Seven summit in Germany, leaders make new commitments to hit the Russian economy further and “ensure that Russia pays for the costs of its war,” said the statement.

“The US will implement a higher tariff rate on more than 570 groups of Russian products worth approximately $2.3 billion to Russia,” it underlined.

It also noted that all members will commit to helping Ukraine in covering its short-term budgetary funding shortfalls, including a $7.5 billion commitment from the second supplemental from the US.

“Leaders will also make an unprecedented, long-term security commitment to providing Ukraine with financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support as long as it takes,” it said.

The new support will include maintaining “Ukraine’s credible military readiness and defense, including through the timely provision of modern defense equipment and advanced weapons systems.”

Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will call on world leaders to take urgent action to get essential food supplies out of Ukraine at the G-7 summit.

The government plans to repair vital railways in order to transport grain out of the country by rail.

“The UK is in close discussion with the Government of Ukraine about how to maximize their rail capacity and keep both trains and grain moving,” an official statement said on Monday.

Since the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine, the first in-person gathering of the world’s seven leading economies kicked off in Germany on Sunday with leaders discussing the war-driven food and energy crises.

The three-day event is taking place at Schloss Elmau in the Bavarian Alps, with its agenda considered more urgent than ever as the war in Ukraine continues.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The World Health Organization has confirmed that monkeypox has not yet reached the status of a global health emergency.

The organization stated, according to “Reuters”, that the number of confirmed cases of monkeypox reached 3,200, and one death was reported in the past six weeks from 48 countries.

The classification of “global emergency” currently applies only to the coronavirus pandemic, and to ongoing efforts to eradicate polio.

The Speaker of the Arab Parliament, Adel bin Abdul Rahman Al-Asoumi, warned once again of the imminent catastrophic risks of leaking, sinking or exploding the oil tanker (Safer) anchored off the city of Hodeidah in Yemen, carrying 1.14 million barrels of oil on board, as a result of continued intransigence. The Houthi coup militia and its refusal to enter a UN team to maintain and unload it for 6 years.

He pointed out that the continuation of this threatens the occurrence of the largest environmental, humanitarian and economic catastrophe, the effects of which go beyond the Republic of Yemen, and constitute a serious threat to the security and environmental safety in the countries bordering the Red Sea.

He stressed the need for immediate and urgent international action to exert more pressure on the Houthi militia to stop its manipulation of the file and its use as a material for pressure and political blackmail, and to deal with it as a hostage, and to allow the UN team to board the tanker, assess its technical condition, and unload the tanker, which has become a real threat to international shipping.

The Speaker of the Arab Parliament called on the United Nations to urgently take the necessary measures to ensure the prevention of oil leakage and transfer it to a safe place or benefit from it for the benefit of the Yemeni people, calling on the international community to make an urgent contribution to support this initiative, and to work hard to save the crisis situation that threatens a catastrophe.

A wildfire that broke out in Türkiye’s southwestern resort town of Marmaris earlier this week has been brought under control, the country’s agriculture and forestry minister said on Saturday.

Speaking to reporters, Vahit Kirisci said that efforts are being made to cool the area affected by fire, adding that restoration efforts will begin soon.

Kirisci said the fire has been brought under control in less than 72 hours.

Source: Anadolu Agency