Oil resumed its slump as attention returned to an unprecedented glut in U.S. crude inventories. Futures fell 1.6% in New York and 2.6% in London. Crude advanced the most in more than two weeks on Wednesday as the U.S. Federal Reserve cut its estimates for interest rates, reducing the value of the dollar and bolstering the appeal of commodities as an investment. U.S. crude supplies and output rose to the highest levels in more than 30 years, Energy Information Administration data showed.
U.S. supply shows no sign of slowing, even as the number of active oil rigs dropped to the lowest since 2011. OPEC will maintain its production to keep market share, Kuwait Oil Minister Ali Al-Omair said. Saudi Arabia, the group’s largest producer, won’t interfere in the market, according to Prince Turki Al-Faisal, a former intelligence chief of the kingdom.
“Excess global supply seems to be the main driver of the market right now,” Gene McGillian, a senior analyst at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Conn., said by phone. “The reaction to the Fed statements was brief. They haven’t changed the oil supply outlook.”
West Texas intermediate crude for April delivery dropped 70 cents to settle at $43.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. A settlement at $42.82 or lower would be 20% below this year’s peak, meeting a common definition of a bear market. The more-active May oil contract slid $1.12 to $45.53. The volume of all futures traded was 7.3% above the 100-day average at 2:50 p.m.
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TRIAL OF ACADEMICS: Presiding Judge: I Cannot Deal With Rogatory
Click to read the article in Turkish
One academic, who has been charged with “propagandizing for a terrorist organization” for signing the declaration “We will not be a party to this crime” prepared by the Academics for Peace, had her first hearing at 37th Heavy Penal Court in İstanbul Çağlayan Courthouse.
Research Assistant Esra Demir Gürsel, who has been discharged from the Faculty of Law at Marmara University, could not attend the hearing as she has been continuing her academic work abroad.
Her attorney Benan Molu has requested that her client give her deposition in the country where she currently is and the deposition be sent to the court (regatory); the case at 37th Heavy Penal Court be joined with the case at 13th Heavy Penal Court and a permission be received from the Ministry of Justice as per the Turkish Penal Law No. 301. Her requests have been rejected. Next hearing has been adjourned to October 16, 2018 at 10 a.m.
The hearings against signatory academics started on December 5, 2017. As of March 27, 165 people had their first hearings and 30 of them had the second. Three academics were sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison, and the sentences were suspended.
The members of the court board were as follows:
Presiding Judge: Erdoğan Şimşek,
Members: Serkan Baş, Kadir Alpar,
Prosecutor: Can Tümer Keriş
What happened?
On January 10, 2016, 1,128 academics published a declaration entitled “We will not be party to this crime” on behalf of the Academics for Peace initiative.
On March 10, 2016, Asst. Prof. Dr. Esra Mungan, Asst. Prof. Dr. Muzaffer Kaya, Assoc. Prof. Dr Kıvanç Ersoy and Asst. Prof. Dr. Meral Camcı read out the press statement at a press conference that was was held on behalf of the Academics for Peace/Istanbul group regarding the developments which had occurred since the declaration was first shared with the public.
The first three of these academics were arrested on the charge of “terrorist propaganda” on March 15, 2016, and the last, Camcı, who was abroad at the time, was arrested on March 31 when she returned to Turkey. The four academics were released on April 22, 2016 upon their first hearing, in which the prosecutor of the trial changed the charges pressed against the academics to the crimes regulated under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (insulting Turkey, the Turkish nation, or Turkish government institutions) and applied for authorization from the Ministry of Justice to hold the trial under the new article.
Another bill of indictment was prepared in October 2017 regarding at least 148 academics who signed the declaration. The academics were charged with “terrorist organization propaganda” under Article 7/2 of the Turkish Anti-Terror Act (#3713) in the bill of indictment prepared by Prosecutor İsmet Bozkurt. The first hearings were held on December 5, 2017.
As of March 27, 165 people had their first hearings and 30 of them had the second. Three academics were sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison, and the sentences were suspended. (BK/SD)
Esra Mungan, Can Dündar Run For Sakharov Prize
Click to read the article in Turkish
Cumhuriyet daily’s Editor in Chief Can Dündar and academic Assist. Prof. Dr. Esra Munfgan who had also signed the peace declaration of the academics; “We will not be a party to this crime”, have been nominated from Turkey as candidates for this year’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought run by the European Parliament.
Dündar on his Twitter account has posted that he had been nominated a as a candidate together with Esra Mungan.
Also Rebecca Harms, the president of The Greens–European Free Alliance group in the European parliament has announced Dündar’s and Mungan’s nomination on her Twitter account.
Sven Giegold, European Parliament Spokesperson from the Greens Party has posted on Twitter that they have nominated Can Dündar and Esra Mungan who were their allies in Turkey for the Sakharov Prize. (EA/DG)
Sakhorov Prize
The Sakharov Prize, officially known as the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and named after Russian scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, was established in December 1988 by the European Parliament as a means to honour individuals and groups of people who have dedicated their lives to the defense of human rights and freedom of thought.
The first prize was awarded jointly to South African Nelson Mandela and Russian Anatoly Marchenko.
Source: Wikipedia