Following last week's unchanged oil rig count - breaking a 21-week streak of declines - as the rig count inflected perfectly with lagged oil prices. However, despite a rise in lagged oil prices, the oil rig count declined 2 to 316 this week - new lows since Oct 2009. Total rig count dropped to 404 - a new record low. Crude traders appear to have left for the day as there was no visible reaction to this data.
David Cameron announced that the UK is sending a Royal Navy warship to the Mediterranean to stop arms smuggling and people trafficking along Libya’s coast. The British Prime Minister told the G7 summit in Japan that the UK was ready to take on a more “active leadership role” in Libya. The BBC reports: The UK already has a survey vessel, HMS Enterprise, operating in the area. Officials are to seek UN approval for the new warship to seize boats taking arms to so-called Islamic State.
The Netherlands has rejected calls by Israel to declare the international campaign calling for the boycott of Israeli products, illegal. On Thursday the Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said that the Dutch government had told Tel Aviv that joining the campaign was an issue of free speech, to which the Dutch people are entitled. Press TV reports: Netherlands is the second country in the European Union to have announced its support for people’s right to join the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
There was much surprise, as well as accusations of outright voter fraud, when on Monday the Austrian presidential race - which was set to be won by the candidate of the right wing Austria Freedom Party much to the humiliation of Brussels - Norbert Hofer, was handed to his competitor, Green party candidate Alexander Van der Bellen, with postal votes tipping the final result in the favor of the former despite Hofer winning the outright vote by a solid margin. In retrospect, there may have been reason for the skepticism.
Philip Klein discovers that Rubio is unreliable:
But to actually say that he would be “honored” by the chance to speak on Trump’s behalf at the GOP convention, and to downplay his previously stated problems with Trump as mere “policy differences,” is to prove the Rubio skeptics right.
That is, far from being an inspirational moral leader, Rubio has shown himself to be more of an opportunistic politician with his finger to the wind.