Source: Reuters
Security & Justice
Southern Lebanon Endures Massive Damage: 40,000 Homes Leveled Across 37 Towns
Israeli forces have systematically destroyed entire neighborhoods in southern Lebanon, leveling more than 37 towns and wiping out over 40,000 residential units, according to Lebanon's National News Agency.
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Gaps in Coastal Radar Enabled Israeli Raid in Batroun, Army Commander Says
Lebanon’s army chief, General Joseph Aoun, detailed to Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati how Israeli forces likely exploited gaps in the country's coastal radar system during the recent raid carried out in Batroun. The briefing comes as Lebanese officials seek answers on how Israel’s elite Shayetet 13 unit carried out the landing undetected.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Opinion
The Emptying of Baalbek Is a Moment to Take Stock
“Large numbers of people continue to flee their homes every day, as Israel’s military operations in Lebanon have been going on unabated.” These disturbing words could be from almost any news report about Israel’s invasion of its northern neighbour over the past month. However, they can be found in a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre issued on July 27, 2006.
Saturday, November 2, 2024
A Future Without Hezbollah
At the end of September, when Israel’s campaign to destroy Hezbollah was reaching its height, I met one of the group’s supporters in a seaside café in western Beirut. He was a middle-aged man with a thin white beard and the spent look of someone who had not slept for days. He was an academic of sorts, not a fighter, but his ties to Hezbollah were deep and long-standing.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Sports
FC Barcelona Fears First Team Star Will Be Banned From Playing, Reports SPORT
FC Barcelona is concerned that one of its main first-team stars will be banned from playing at the turn of 2025 because of issues related to his registration and Financial Fair Play (FFP) limits according to SPORT, which cited anonymous sources.
Friday, November 1, 2024
Tottenham Forward Son Heung-min Crowned Asia’s International Player of the Year
Tottenham forward Son Heung-min was crowned as Asia’s International Player of the Year for the fourth time by the Asian Football Confederation at its annual awards ceremony Tuesday.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Tuesday 14 March 2023 16:10:43
Oil Prices Continue Slump in Fallout from SVB Shutdown
Oil prices fell more than $2 a barrel on Tuesday to their sessions lows, extending the previous day's slide, as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank rattled equities markets and sparked fears of a fresh financial crisis.
Brent crude futures were down $1.11 or 1.3% to $79.66 a barrel by 1256 GMT, having earlier touched a low of $78.76. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) were down $1.24 or 1.6% to $73.56 a barrel, off a low of $72.69.
On Monday, Brent and WTI fell to their lowest since early January and December respectively. Oil prices dropped alongside a continued slide in equities markets.
Commerzbank analysts forecast high volatility in the energy markets in the coming days.
"We see Monday’s developments around the regional U.S. banks as more noise than news for commodity markets, and it should not have any meaningful medium- to longer-term impact," said UBS analyst Carsten Menke.
The sudden shutdown of SVB Financial (SIVB.O) triggered concerns about risks to other banks resulting from the U.S. Federal Reserve's sharp interest rate hikes over the last year.
Traders now no longer expect a 50-basis point (bps) rate hike next week, with projections currently suggesting a 25 bps rise.
A softer hike could mean the dollar weakening , which in turn is a bullish signal for oil prices. The Federal Reserve's next two-day meeting starts next Tuesday.
U.S. consumer prices increased 0.4% in February as expected, which would lower the year-on-year increase in the CPI to 6.0% in February and mark the smallest year-on-year rise since September 2021.
Meanwhile, consumer inflation in China, the world's biggest oil importer, slowed to the lowest rate in a year in February.
In a monthly report, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) further raised its forecast for Chinese oil demand growth in 2023, although it left the global total steady.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) will publish its monthly report on Wednesday. IEA/S
On the supply side, the American Petroleum Institute is expected to release industry data on U.S. oil inventories at 1630 ET/2030 GMT.
Six analysts polled by Reuters estimated on average that crude inventories rose by about 600,000 barrels last week.
