Month: June 2020

The generals are back in control in Pakistan — unofficially that is. There’s now more than a dozen former and current military officials in prominent government roles, such as running the state-owned air carrier, the power regulator and the National Institute of Health, which is leading the country’s pandemic response. Three of those appointments happened in the last two months. PAKISTAN-AFGHANISTAN-UN-REFUGEESImran Khan Photographer: Aamir Qureshi/AFP via Getty ImagesThe military’s heightened profile comes as Prime Minister Imran Khan sees his influence and popularity dwindle due to a slowing economy, high consumer…

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The era of the U.S. dollar’s “exorbitant privilege” as the world’s primary reserve currency is coming to an end. Then French Finance Minister Valery Giscard d’Estaing coined that phrase in the 1960s largely out of frustration, bemoaning a U.S. that drew freely on the rest of the world to support its over-extended standard of living. For almost 60 years, the world complained but did nothing about it. Those days are over. Already stressed by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. living standards are about to be squeezed as never before.…

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Leadership may be hard to define, but in times of crisis it is easy to identify. As the pandemic has spread fear, disease and death, national leaders across the globe have been severely tested. Some have fallen short, sometimes dismally, but there are also those leaders who have risen to the moment, demonstrating resolve, courage, empathy, respect for science and elemental decency, and thereby dulling the impact of the disease on their people. The master class on how to respond belongs to Jacinda Ardern, the 39-year-old prime minister of New…

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ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar on Monday said Karachi city would receive additional 1400MW electricity by 2023.He said this while chairing a special meeting here to review the future electricity demand-supply outlook of Karachi.The meeting deliberated upon the possible measures to supply additional electricity to Karachi through the national grid to meet the future requirements. The meeting was informed that the electricity demand in Karachi was expected to rise to almost 4100MW by 2023, and thus, would require additional 1300MW to meet the future requirements.…

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Oil and gas companies currently have assets for sale with recoverable reserves of more than 5 billion barrels of liquids and 7.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of natural gas, Rystad Energy estimates. While some of these planned divestments were announced before the Covid-19-related oil price crash, more were added in reaction to the pandemic and its aftermath. Our estimates look at divestment opportunities that exclude unconventional and US onshore assets, announced since the fourth quarter of 2019.The majority of resources on offer are in the producing phase, followed…

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