RUSSIA - A plunge in oil below $60 and the failure of an emergency interest rate rise to stabilise Russia's rouble sent another shock through global financial markets on Tuesday, adding to a growing sense of crisis in a volatile end to 2014. Moscow's main stock exchanges fell by 5 and 9 percent respectively .MCX10 .IRTS and those in Europe's big developed markets fell as much as half a percent in response. Crude prices fell again, by nearly 3 percent. Brent crude LCOc1 was under $60 for the first time in more than five years after OPEC said again it would not cut output despite fears of oversupply. UAE Oil Minister Suhail Bin Mohammed al-Mazroui said there was no need for OPEC to hold an emergency meeting, reinforcing the idea that major Gulf producers are ready to wait out lower prices.
GERMANY - Israel is buying four ships from Germany with a total value of one billion euros, German newspaper Bild am Sontag reported Sunday, claiming possession of a leaked official memo, and Berlin will contribute a significant amount of funding. The project will be funded largely by Israel, but the German government plans to invest 115 million euros in the construction project. The ships are being built at the ThyssenKrupp shipyard in the northern port city of Kiel, the newspaper said. It was previously reported that Navy ships are securing Israel's offshore gas facilities, for fear that this strategic installation will be the target of an attack.
GERMANY - Its members have been dubbed the “pinstriped Nazis” and they refer to their demonstrations as “evening strolls” through German cities. But on Monday night, an estimated 15,000 people joined Pegida, or Patriotic Europeans Against Islamisation of the West, in a march through Dresden carrying banners bearing slogans such as “Zero tolerance towards criminal asylum seekers”, “Protect our homeland” and “Stop the Islamisation”.
USA - President Barack Obama’s goal of closing the Guantanamo Bay prison complex in Cuba has met heavy resistance from lawmakers in Washington, and now the White House is turning to a higher authority for help: the Vatican. During an hour-long meeting with Cardinal Pietro Parolin on Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry asked the Vatican to help the United States find “adequate humanitarian solutions” for inmates currently being held at Guantanamo. Pope Francis himself has stressed that all prisoners should be treated humanely and with dignity.
GERMANY - The EU and the USA are having little success in inducing friendly nations to join their sanctions against Russia. Following a visit by the EU's Foreign Policy Representative, Federica Mogherini, Ankara announced, Monday, Turkey will not support these measures, but rather continue its cooperation with Moscow. In India, as well, one hears in the lead-up to Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit - which begins today - that cooperation will be continued, because of common interests, for example to defuse Cold War-like tensions. India, along with other countries previously particularly close to the West - such as South Africa and Brazil - have a differentiated view of the Ukrainian conflict, a view, which does not exclude the West's role.
GERMANY - The year began with the announcement by senior government politicians that Germany would have to take more responsibility in foreign policy. As the end of 2014 approaches, the intention is now to launch in Iraq a military operation that would violate all the constitutional restraints on such a move and serve as a precedent for the unrestricted use of German armed forces throughout the world.
USA - The Afghanistan war, the longest overseas conflict in American history, has cost the US taxpayer nearly $1 trillion and will require spending several hundred billion dollars more after it officially ends this month, according to Financial Times calculations and independent researchers. Around 80 per cent of that spending on the Afghanistan conflict has taken place during the presidency of Barack Obama, who sharply increased the US military presence in the country after taking office in 2009.
MIDDLE EAST - Opec's most influential producers are willing to allow oil prices to fall to $40 per barrel before discussing whether the cartel should hold an emergency meeting to discuss cutting output. According to Suhail al-Mazrouei, energy minister of the United Arab Emirates and a high profile delegate of the cartel: "We are not going to change our minds because the prices went to $60, or to $40."
JAPAN - The warning came as Mr Abe won a sweeping victory in Japan’s snap elections over the weekend, consolidating his power in the Diet and giving him a further mandate for deep reforms. HSBC has warned that Japan’s barely-disguised attempt to drive down the yen is becoming dangerous and may spin out of control, leading to an exchange rate crisis next year and a worldwide currency storm.
UK - On Tuesday [16th], the Bank will release the results of its inaugural stress tests, its examination of whether the banks would still be afloat if interest rates spike, property prices collapse, and the stock market goes haywire. The financial crisis showed that the banking sector was woefully unprepared for any downturn, resulting in tens of billions of pounds of taxpayer money being used to bail it out. As a result, the banks have been forced to shore up their finances.
USA - Months after the formation of new financial institutions like the $100 billion BRICS Bank and the China-led Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said Friday that the organization is ready to discuss IMF voting reforms without the United States to give BRICS and emerging countries greater voting power.
GERMANY - In Germany, where hard work is prized, one day of the week remains sacred for rest. While neighbor France this week announced plans to loosen restrictions on Sunday work, Germany is tightening regulations on the few businesses that had been allowed to open.
GERMANY - German police have noted a significant rise in far-right extremism and attacks targeting foreigners, a news report said Sunday, amid national debate about a new Islamophobic movement. The trend is seen as a backlash against a sharp increase in refugees arriving in Germany, Europe's biggest economy and top destination for asylum-seekers and other migrants. "We're seeing a significant nationwide increase in xenophobic offences," Federal Criminal Police Office chief Holger Muench told an interior ministers conference last week, the Welt am Sonntag reported, citing participants. In the latest attack, three buildings reserved to house asylum seekers were set ablaze in the southern town of Vorra last Thursday, with Nazi swastikas and racist slogans scrawled on the walls.
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Norah O'Donnell is called an "anchorwoman," defined as "a television reporter who coordinates a broadcast to which several correspondents contribute." However, would she not vet the material before airing erroneous contributions, or is there intentional complicity?
UK - One of the BBC’s top presenters has admitted the corporation ignored mass immigration because it feared critics would say it was racist. Radio 4 Today programme interviewer John Humphrys accused his employer of being ‘soft’, ‘complacent’ and ‘institutionally nervous’ about tackling the story or questioning multiculturalism. And he said BBC employees are unable to understand the concerns of ordinary people because they typically have ‘sheltered’ middle-class lives and are overwhelmingly ‘liberal Oxbridge males’.