South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said the ruling African National Congress must initiate a parliamentary process to enshrine in the constitution a proposed amendment, paving the way for land grabs without compensation. Source: RT
Social Policy
Spain said Saturday it had rescued more than 1,200 migrants from the sea in two days as the country’s interior minister called for a European-wide solution to illegal immigration. Source: The Local
Libya rejects a European Union’s plan to establish migrant centers there to stop asylum seekers arriving in western Europe and it will not be swayed by financial inducements, Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj said. Source: Reuters
The first families of Boers, descendants of Dutch settlers in South Africa, could soon be moving to Russia to escape rising violence against farmers. Some 15,000 Boers want to leave South Africa and become farmers in Russia. Source: RT
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte wants a new EU agency to oversee the distribution of migrants picked up at sea. Last weekend, he struck an ad-hoc deal with six EU states to take more arrivals from Africa. Source: Deutsche Welle
The European Commission’s legal request could lead to the EU’s top court imposing financial sanctions against Hungary. Brussels has also opened a new infringement procedure against Hungary’s “Stop Soros” laws. Source: Deutsche Welle
A Spanish judge on Thursday dropped European and international arrest warrants for deposed Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and other separatist leaders who fled abroad, the Supreme Court said, which means they no longer face extradition. Source: The Local
OPEC+ headed for a clash with the U.S. as more members rejected President Joe Biden’s call for the group to raise oil production faster and help reduce gasoline prices. On Monday, Kuwait said the cartel should stick with its plan to increase output gradually because oil markets were well-balanced. That followed similar statements from other key members in recent days, including Iraq, Algeria, Angola and Nigeria. Source Al Jazeera
“If a state buys (weaponry) from us, it’s no longer a Turkish product. It might be manufactured in Turkey, but it belongs to Ukraine,” Cavusoglu told reporters after meeting his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on the margins of the G20 summit in Rome. “Turkey cannot be blamed for this,” he said. Source The Defence Post
Bulgaria has sent 350 additional military personnel to its border with Turkey amid rising migration levels. Defense Minister Georgi Panayotov told Bulgarian media that the troops were arriving to “support the border police”. Source EuroNews
Russia is warning Turkey over arms sales to Ukraine after a Turkish-made drone attacked Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine.
A Kremlin spokesman has warned that Turkey’s ongoing arms sales to Ukraine threaten to destabilize the region. Source VOA
A police patrol was attacked by three individuals this Wednesday evening in a street east of Lille (North). The perpetrators managed to escape. Was a Lille police crew the victim of an ambush around 8:40 p.m. Wednesday evening? The police were called for three hooded individuals who were stealing tires in the rue Massenet. Once there, they found no one. Source Actu17
Police officers were targeted by gunfire in Lyon this Monday evening, in the district of La Duchère. There are no injuries to deplore. The author (s) are actively sought. The police from the RAID branch are on site as reinforcements. Source Actu17
France: Night of urban violence in the district of Perseigne in Alençon (Orne). About fifteen vehicles were set on fire. The police and firefighters came under firework mortar fire and projectile jets. Source Actu17
Poland must pay daily fines of €1 million over its controversial judiciary reforms, the European Union’s Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled. The penalty is believed to be the highest ever imposed on a member state. The punitive measures will be in place until Warsaw agrees to comply with an ECJ ruling issued back in July that ordered the immediate suspension of the disciplinary chamber of judges of the Supreme Court and the reversal of the decisions it had already taken on the lifting of judicial immunity. The chamber can punish magistrates according to the content of their resolutions. Source Euronews
Maréchal, who runs the Institute of Social, Economic and Political Sciences in Lyon, claims that Kosovo has been colonized by Albanian Muslims for years. Commenting on the great arrival of Muslims in France, from the countries that were once occupied and ruled by France. Maréchal said that it could change history. Source B92
Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia said their EU-wide initiative to expand the bloc’s military units was inspired by recent events in Afghanistan. Source DW
The Israeli Air Force will begin practicing for a strike on Iran’s nuclear program beginning next year, having set aside funding and updated its training schedule for the mission, The Times of Israel has learned. Source Times of Israel
The answer is not easy. Bill Gross, the founder of Pimco and “king of government bonds”, predicts that the yield on US 10-year bonds will rise to 2% next year. This would mean the 3% loss for investors at the current inflation rate. The dynamics of demand and supply also point to the further fall in the prices of US government bonds (rise in yield). Today, the FED is buying 60% of all US bonds as part of its quantitative easing, but will soon have no choice but to reduce the scale of US bond purchases in the face of inflation. At the same time, China, Russia are massively dumping these debt securities. So should one invest in equities? Now, when their prices are shooting through the roof? After all, shares can turn out to be rubbish if companies’ profits don’t want to rise as they have in recent years. With today’s inflation, it’s not worth holding cash either. The situation is becoming dramatic.
If you want to learn more, if you are looking for tips for your investments, please read recommendations and warnings for investors in our bulletins.
President Vladimir Putin told Gazprom PJSC to turn to refilling European gas-storage facilities next month, signaling that long-awaited additional Russian supplies could be on the way. The move will “create a more favorable situation on the European energy market,” Putin said at a meeting broadcast on state television Wednesday. Source Al Jazeera
The chaos in gas and electricity markets is set to hit one group of people the hardest this winter: the four million households that use prepayment meters (PPMs).
While most people pay their bills monthly for energy they have already used, PPMs require people to pay for energy before they use it. PPMs take whatever money is in the meter and supply energy to the household. Source Open Democracy
Russia’s Gazprom has damped hopes for additional gas exports to Europe next month as the continent struggles with record prices, despite recent hints from President Vladimir Putin that more could be forthcoming.
UK and European gas prices surged as much as 18 per cent on Monday after a keenly awaited pipeline capacity auction showed no increase from Russia either through the Ukrainian pipeline system or lines passing via Poland to north-west Europe. Source FT
As of Sunday, the national price of a litre of Diesel was €1.555, according to the European motor association ADAC. This is just above the previous record price of €1.554 per litre set on August 26th, 2012. Source The Local
French ministers floated the possibility of petrol vouchers for low-income households on Monday, as President Emmanuel Macron’s government seeks to limit the damage from surging energy prices to his economic record six months from a presidential election. Source France24
Skoda started a two-week cut in output on Monday as the Czech brand contends with the global shortage of chips and other components, the company said. The Volkswagen Group unit wants to complete 10,000 unfinished cars during the outage, which will leave only one production line running, a spokesman said. Source Automotive News
“What is happening today in the energy markets of Europe is, to a certain extent, a man-made result of short-sighted policy,” the Russian President added Source TASS
India is facing an impending energy crisis as several states saw coal-fired power plants shut down due to a coal shortage. Major cities such as the capital New Delhi experienced electricity cuts that ran for hours over the weekend. Source DW
India is grappling with an escalating crisis as stockpiles of coal, the fuel used to generate about 70% of the nation’s electricity, dwindle to the lowest in years just as power demand is set to surge. Source EconomicTimes
Soaring gas prices are forecast to drive a switch to oil and put more energy suppliers in Britain out of business, while industry groups called on Thursday for government action to ensure there is no supply interruption this winter. Source GCaptain
