“The main installations have been completed, the shut-off valves have been installed, so we can assume that the project will be completed by the end of 2019,” said project spokesman Jens Müller. Source: The Local Deutschland
Trade Cooperation
Austria has mulled over the possibility of new sanctions against Russia due to the detention of three Ukrainian Navy vessels that sailed toward the Kerch Strait in what Moscow has described as an unequivocal provocation committed in violation of international law. At a secret meeting of the Political and Security Committee in Brussels on Tuesday, French and German diplomats spoke out against stepping up existing EU sanctions against Russia in light of the growing rift between Moscow and Kiev over the Kerch Strait incident. Source: Sputnik
Kosovo Prime Minister says taxes on imports from Serbia and Bosnia will rise from 10 to 100 per cent immediately – a day after Serbia hailed the failure of its bid to join Interpol. Source: Balkan Insight
Russia may launch settlements with Iran in national currencies in order to continue bilateral cooperation despite the US sanctions against Tehran, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview with the Anadolu news agency on Sunday. Source: TASS
Tehran has expressed hope that the Iran nuclear deal can be saved despite the US pulling out of the agreement. Iran’s statement came during a visit of the British foreign minister to Iran. Source: Deutsche Welle
China said it will continue pursuing negotiations with Canada on a free-trade deal after assurances that a recently settled North American trade agreement would not stop Ottawa from signing deals with other countries. Source: South China Morning Post
The nation’s lawmaking body approved the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership on Monday, following Australia’s ratification on October 31. Source: South China Morning Post
Another night of urban violence in the Yvelines, especially in Chanteloup-les-Vignes. An official was seriously injured by a pavement throw to the head. Three police crews, including one from the canine brigade, went to rue des Quertaines in Chanteloup-les-Vignes around 10:50 p.m. this Sunday evening, to secure the intervention of the firefighters who were taking action. charges a person causing discomfort in his home. Source Actu17
Leaders in education, politics and other areas gathered in suburban Evanston Sunday to ask that the Illinois State Board of Education change the history curriculum at schools statewide, and temporarily halt instruction until an alternative is decided upon. Source NBC
Nearly half of the roughly 11,000 migrants who landed in Italy last week had left Tunisia, and most of them were Tunisian citizens, according to official figures. The others had embarked, in their majority, from Libya. ” The EU must take up this issue immediately ” and distribute the new arrivals, ” especially during this phase of high health risk, ” Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on his Facebook account on Wednesday. Source Le Figaro.
Food insecurity for U.S. households last week reached its highest reported level since the Census Bureau started tracking the data in May, with almost 30 million Americans reporting that they’d not had enough to eat at some point in the seven days through July 21. Source Bloomberg
On Thursday, the Ministry of National Defense of the People’s Republic of China has reported that the Chinese military is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to the U.S. sending military personnel to Taiwan for exercises and exchanges. Source defence-blog
The victim was on the sidewalk opposite the station with a satchel in hand, when she was assaulted by two individuals. One hit him twice with a machete. The young man had a severed hand and was hit in the thigh. The second attacker fired twice with a handgun according to testimonies collected by the radio. The perpetrators then fled. Source Actu17
The Egyptian military is embroiled in a deadly standoff with Islamic State group militants in the Sinai peninsula, with at least three soldiers killed and dozens of civilians displaced after the insurgents occupied four villages last week. Source The New Arab
The far-right essayist Alain Soral was referred Thursday, July 30 in the afternoon to the Paris court for the opening of a judicial investigation, after being arrested and placed in police custody on Tuesday. Source Nouvelob
Turkey has said it will suspend research for oil and gas exploration off a Greek island amid tensions in the eastern Mediterranean. Source Al-Jazeera
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah carried out an infiltration attempt along the Lebanese-Israeli frontier on Monday, disputing the Iranian-backed Shiite group’s denial of any involvement in the incident. Source France 24
Hezbollah wants to attack Israel from the sea and is developing capabilities that will allow it to do so in a future conflict, warns outgoing commander of the Israeli Navy’s Haifa base, Brig. Gen. Gil Aginsky, who last week retired after 32 years of military service. Source The Algemeiner
Fitch Ratings, one of the world’s major credit-rating companies, revised its outlook on the U.S. credit score to negative from stable Friday “to reflect the ongoing deterioration in the U.S. public finances and the absence of a credible fiscal consolidation plan.” Source South Florida Times
French automaker Renault reported its biggest half-year loss ever on Thursday, with revenue slashed by a third as dealerships worldwide were emptied by the coronavirus crisis. The dire results underscored the challenges facing CEO Luca de Meo, who was brought in this month to revamp a company reeling from strategic missteps and the ousting of former boss Carlos Ghosn last year on financial misconduct charges. Source France24
The U.S. economy shrank at a dizzying 32.9% annual rate in the April-June quarter — by far the worst quarterly plunge ever — when the viral outbreak shut down businesses, throwing tens of millions out of work and sending unemployment surging to 14.7%, the government said Thursday. Source Franse24
China should prepare for potential U.S. sanctions by increasing use of its own financial messaging network for cross-border transactions in the mainland, Hong Kong and Macau, according to a report from the investment banking unit of Bank of China. Source Reuters
Schlumberger is cutting more than 21,000 jobs as the global coronavirus pandemic quashes demand for energy and oil prices are routed. The company will pay more than $1 billion in severance benefits. The job cuts announced Friday, about a quarter of its entire workforce, puts the number of people employed by the world’s largest oilfield services company close to where it was at the start of the oil and gas fracking boom that upended global energy markets and put the U.S. on top. Source Wag MTV
Baker Hughes BKR, -1.91% on Friday reported that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil edged up by 1 to 181 this week. That marked the first increase since the week ended March 13. The total active U.S. rig count, meanwhile, fell by 2 to 251, according to Baker Hughes. Source Houston Chronicle
BJ Services Company, one of the pioneers of the fracing techniques behind America’s shale revolution, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday morning amid a severe downturn in oilfield services demand. The company had been in discussions to sell its cementing business, and a portion of its fracing operations. Source World Oil
Under a proposal submitted to European Union leaders on Monday afternoon, the EU’s economic recovery package to lift the bloc out of a Covid-19-induced recession includes 390 billion euros of grants and 360 billion euros of loans, a document showed. Source Ekathimerini
The US oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, fell by five to an all-time low of 253 in the week to July 17, according to data on Friday from energy services firm Baker Hughes Co going back to 1940. Source Energy World
The United States is trying to exert pressure on European creditors of the Nord Stream 2 project, threatening to impose retroactive sanctions on them. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanded that Shell, Engie, Uniper, Wintershall and OMV should leave immediately or otherwise all their assets in America will be frozen. The new threats come amid Gazprom’s revved-up efforts to complete the project. However, it still remains unclear how the companies, which allocated 4.7 bln euro for Nord Stream 2 in loans, could avoid sanctions, Kommersant business daily writes. Source Tass
Tens of thousands of Bulgarians kept protesting for the fifth day in a row on July 13, demanding the immediate resignation of the government and the chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev, accusing them of widespread corruption and shielding the interests of alleged criminals who, they claim, control the state authorities Source BNE
