The United States and Libya are probing a suspected scheme in which eastern Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar is allegedly paying Nicolas Maduro’s regime in Venezuela U.S. dollars in exchange for gold, The Wall Street Journal reported, quoting Western and Libyan security officials. Libya’s government, against which Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) and affiliated factions are fighting in the civil war, has been tracking the commander’s private jet, which appears to have traveled to Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. According to the investigations reported by the Journal, the plane is suspected of loading…
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Marathon Petroleum Restarts Texas Refinery
Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE: MPC) began restarting its 585,000 bpd refining complex in Galveston Bay that has been shuttered for more than a month now, according to Reuters sources. The complex—America’s second-largest refinery after Motiva–was shut on May 23rd as part of a massive overhaul. Marathon did not confirm the plans to restart, but the sources indicate that its 225,000 bpd Pipestill 3B crude distillation unit will be back in production sometime early next week. Pipestill 3B is one of two units tasked with breaking down crude oil into feedstocks…
Read MoreGazprom’s Hold On European Gas Market Slips
The record stockpile of natural gas in northwest Europe and Italy is eating into the regions’ thirst for Gazprom’s product, according to Reuters, and the Russian gas giant has lost more ground in terms of sales to the area compared to its competitors. Gazprom’s falling natural gas exports to the region have caused Gazprom’s share of the natural gas market to fall by 4 percentage points in the first half of 2020, according to data compiled by Reuters and Refinitiv—from 38% a year ago to 34% now. Sales from Gazprom’s…
Read MoreRs30bn subsidy allocated to Naya Pakistan housing scheme, announces PM Imran
ISLAMABAD: A sum worth Rs30 billion has been allocated to the Naya Pakistan housing scheme, Prime Minister Imran Khan announced in a live televised address on Friday, in line with helping the underprivileged class build their own homes. Addressing the nation after chairing a meeting of the National Coordination Committee on Housing, Construction, and Development, PM Imran said the scheme was aimed at the “working class, the welder, the small shop owner, who do not have a lot of money to build their own houses”. “The goal of the Naya…
Read MoreHagia Sophia: Turkey turns iconic Istanbul museum into mosque
The world-famous Hagia Sophia museum in Istanbul – originally founded as a cathedral – has been turned back into a mosque. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the decision after a court annulled the site’s museum status. Built 1,500 years ago as an Orthodox Christian cathedral, Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest in 1453. In 1934 it became a museum and is now a Unesco World Heritage site. Islamists in Turkey long called for it to be converted to a mosque but secular opposition members…
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