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Oil tumbled to the lowest level in nine months, pulling energy stocks down, amid growing concerns that OPEC-led output cuts are failing to ease a global supply glut.

Futures declined 2.2 percent in New York, entering a bear market for the first time since August, as investors focus on rising production from countries that are not part of OPECs deal.Libya is pumping the most crude in four years, and the amount of oil stored in tankers reached a 2017 high earlier this month. U.S. drillers have added oil rigs for 22 straight weeks. An industry report on a decline in American inventories didnt improve the mood.

We still have a lot of oil, Tariq Zahir, a New York-based commodity fund manager at Tyche Capital Advisors, said by telephone. Libya is coming on a little bit more than people expected. And the bottom line is that the glut thats here in the United States doesnt look to be slowing anytime soon, he said.

West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, dropped 21 percent from a close of $54.45 on Feb. 23, entering a bear market, which kicks in when settlement prices fall at least 20 percent from their peak.

Oil has stayed below $45 a barrel since last week as supplies in the U.S. remain plentiful and the oil rig count rises to the highest since April 2015. WTI for July delivery, which expires Tuesday, fell 97 cents to settle at $43.23, the lowest since mid-September. Total volume traded was about 35 percent above the 100-day average.

Futures were little changed from the settlement after the industry-funded American Petroleum Institute was said to report that U.S. crude stockpiles fell by 2.72 million barrels last week, while gasoline supplies rose by 346,000 barrels. The more-active August WTI contract traded at $43.42 a barrel at 4:42 p.m. after settling at $43.51.

Brent for August settlement slipped 89 cents to settle at $46.02 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of $2.51 to August WTI.

People are getting a little fatigued waiting for the production cuts to have effect, Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research in Winchester, Massachusetts, said by telephone. Traders are very nervous about the near-term prospects.

The S&P 500 Energy Index declined as much as 2.3 percent, with Hess Corp. slumping as much as 6.8 percent. Exxon Mobil Corp. slipped as much as 1.6 percent, while Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc both fell more than 2 percent.

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Another factor feeding trader angst is a rise in the number of drilled-but-uncompleted wells in U.S. oilfields. At the end of May, there were5,946 wells in this category, the most in at least three years, according to estimates by the EIA. In the last month alone, explorers drilled 125 more wells in the Permian Basin than they would open, meaning production could surge when they turn on the spigots.

U.S. crude inventories probably shrank by 1.2 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey before Energy Information Administration data Wednesday. Yet,American production climbed to 9.33 million barrels a day through June 9, near the highest since August 2015. Gasoline supplies probably rose 500,000 barrels last week, the survey showed.

Oil-market news:

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Oil Slips to Nine-Month Low on Signs Global Glut Will Persist - Bloomberg

Still wracked by conflict six years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya is split between two rival governments. In the west is Fayez al-Sarrajs Government of National Accord, based in Tripoli, and in the east a regional government under the control of General Khalifa Haftar, based in Tobruk. Sarraj enjoys the backing of the UN, while Haftar is supported by the Libyan National Army, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. Russia, too, is generally regarded as an unconditional Haftar ally but its not quite that simple.

General Haftar has been described as Putins man in Libya, and his visits to Russia, where he met Putins foreign and defence ministers, have bolstered that impression. But rather than simply backing one side, Russia appears to be facilitating talks between both political factions, or at least to be supporting others in their efforts to do so. The Kremlin even hosted Sarraj on an official visit to Moscow in March 2017.

But the reasons for Russias involvement in Libya have less to do with the dialogue between Libyas governments than with Russias very distinctive geopolitical motives.

Libyas political map is marked by large areas beyond government control some are under the sway of local armed groups, while others are partially filled by violent radical Islamist groups. The so-called Islamic State (IS) maintains cells in the coastal town of Sabratha, and controls swaths of territory south-east of Tripoli.

This means that by engaging the political leadership in the coastal cities, the Kremlin can claim to be fighting IS and its affiliates (which have attacked Russian targets before). Here, Moscow is presenting itself as part of a broader international effort to fight terrorism.

Then there are the commercial interests of Russian oil and gas companies and weapons manufacturers. Russia has cited losses of US$4 billion in Libyan arms contracts since Gaddafi was toppled in 2011, and it is keen to start making money in the country again. The Russian oil company Rosneft signed a crude oil purchasing agreement with Libyas National Oil Corporation (NOC) in February 2017. And the fact that Haftar controls the bulk of Libyas oil resources raises the possibility of lucrative contracts with a future national government provided Haftar wields substantial influence.

Russia has been a vocal critic of UN efforts in Libya, its complaints mainly relate to questions of power-sharing and military command structures. Moscow criticised the UN-brokered Libyan Political Agreement of December 2015 and voiced its dissatisfaction with Martin Kobler, the head of the UN Support Mission in Libya, for favouring the Tripoli government, ignoring Haftar, and thereby stalling the reconciliation process.

But perhaps above all, Russias approach to Libya has to be seen as a direct reaction to the mechanisms of Gaddafis ouster in 2011.

At the centre of things is United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which was passed in March 2011 to authorise a no-fly zone over Libya. In the Security Council, the Russian government abstained, passing up the opportunity to unilaterally veto it.

The Kremlin has come to regret this. As it read the resolution, the mandate was written exclusively for the purposes of civilian protection, but was used by Western powers as a pretext to help remove Gaddafi from power. As the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, sourly observed: By distorting the mandate obtained from the UN Security Council to secure a no-fly zone, NATO simply interfered in the war under the flag of protecting the civilian population.

In Russias view, the resolution and its aftermath set a nefarious precedent for externally enforced regime change via the back door. Russia vowed that the same thing would not happen again in Syria, and duly vetoed eight draft Security Council resolutions condemning Assads Syrian government.

Still, Russias desire to stamp its imprint on Libyas future rather than bowing to foreign policy decisions made elsewhere doesnt mean its preparing a military intervention. For all the US medias alarm at an alleged Russian build-up in western Egypt, close to the Libyan border, Russia knows its military interventions are only useful insofar as they can be translated into political leverage.

In Syria, for example, the strengthening of Assads control over previously rebel-held areas, aided by Russian air sorties, created the conditions for the start of a peace process, as Putin noted as he ordered a retreat of Russian forces in March 2016. This peace process, to be sure, was meant to be led by Russia, as the ongoing peace talks in Kazakhstan have shown.

It seems highly unlikely that Russia will offer comparable military support for either faction in Libya, as Moscows diplomatic initiatives towards both Libyan governments have made clear. Any deliveries of Russian arms to either side are prohibited by a UN weapons embargo, as Russias ambassador to Libya has himself stressed.

If Libyas two governments reach some kind of settlement thanks to Russias involvement, the Kremlins lost billions in contracts might return. But perhaps more importantly, Russias role in Libya and Syria since 2011 has made it a key actor in international security at large. So just as Libyas political future hinges to no small extent on Russian foreign policy, Moscow has a great deal invested in that future as well.

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Russia has a serious stake in Libya's uncertain future - The Conversation UK

A Nigerian human trafficker known as Rambo has been arrested in Italy on charges of torturing and killing migrants held captive in Libya, Italian police said Tuesday.

The suspect named John Ogais, 25, was traced to a reception centre in Calabria in southern Italy and clapped in cuffs on charges of belonging to a transnational smuggling ring, specialising in human trafficking, murder and rape.

Detectives in Agrigento in Sicily have pulled together witness testimony from migrants who accuse Ogais of torturing people held captive in a makeshift prison, with at least two men reportedly dying at his hands.

Many of those rescued from flimsy dinghies in the Mediterranean as they try to make the perilous trip to Europe bear torture scars and tell rescuers they had no choice but to flee for their lives from the crisis-hit African country.

While I was inside that ghetto, where it was impossible to escape, I heard that a man who called himself Rambo had killed a migrant, one of the witnesses said according to the police statement. My cousin and others tried to escape but they were caught and tortured nearly to death.

Another said: Once I saw Rambo the Nigerian kill a migrant he had gagged and tortured for a long time.

A third witness said he saw Rambo beat an underage boy and a man to death.

Extortion, murder

Ogais was found staying at a reception centre in Isola di Capo Rizzuto, one of the largest such centres in Italy, and the scene of mass arrests last month over a mafia scandal which capitalised on asylum seekers.

Libya has long been a stepping stone for migrants seeking a better life in Europe and people smugglers have stepped up their lucrative business in the chaos which has engulfed the country since its 2011 revolution.

People rescued at sea have described harrowing ransom situations in which captors lock up migrants and demand their families send money to buy their freedom. Those who fail to comply are executed.

Reports have also emerged of ruthless traffickers burying people alive on the beaches of Libya if they refuse to board unseaworthy dinghies and overcrowded boats.

Despite the dangers, many of those arriving in Libya fleeing conflict or poverty find it almost impossible to get out again, if not by sea.

According to the UNs International Organization for Migration, there are between 700,000 and one million people in Libya awaiting their chance to cross.

Over 77,000 people have tried to cross the Mediterranean to Europe since the beginning of the year, the UNs refugee agency said Tuesday, while close to 2,000 people have died trying.

AFP

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Italy arrests Nigeria's 'Rambo' for torturing, killing migrants in Libya - The Punch

A once-inhabitated apartment block, ridden with bullet holes, stands abandoned in Tawergha on February 21, 2013.

(Geneva) The Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) has ratified an agreement that allows for the return of the displaced population of the city of Tawergha and should implement it swiftly, Human Rights Watch said today. Some Tawerghan families intend to commence the effort to return home starting on June 22, according to activists involved in the efforts.

In 2011, militias mostly from the coastal city of Misrata ransacked Tawergha, demolishing and burning many buildings in that city, which is situated 50 kilometers south of Misrata. They have since prevented the return of the citys population, which fled en masse before their arrival. The displacement came in apparent retaliation for the support Tawerghans gave to then-leader Muammar Gaddafi during the 2011 conflict, and for crimes they allegedly committed in Misrata.

Tawerghans have been scattered for six years, far from home and often living in abject conditions, said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. Now that Libyas Government of National Accord has finally confirmed an agreement between the factions, it should waste no time to make concrete arrangements for the people of Tawergha to return home and resume their lives safely.

On June 19, the Presidential Council of the GNA announced that it had ratified a United Nations-brokered agreement between representatives of the towns of Misrata and Tawergha on settling their conflict and allowing for the return of Tawerghans to their homes. Mohamed Ishtewa, the mayor of Misrata said that further discussions would be held in coming days with our brothers in Tawergha during which the final arrangements will be made before their return to their city.

In 2016, UNSMIL helped launch a reconciliation process between the people of Tawergha and Misrata with the aim of ending the displacement and compensating victims. The two sides signed an agreement on August 31, which stipulated as a main condition for the return home of Tawerghans the establishment of a fund by the UN-backed GNA to compensate victims of the 2011 uprising.

In April 2017, representatives of Misrata requested modifications to substantially increase the payments to seemingly benefit mostly Misratan victims. A second demand, to prevent compensation for any pro-Gaddafi fighters or sympathizers, would mostly affect Tawerghans.

The agreement includes a sole provision on justice: The Libyan State shall take all necessary legal action to prosecute those accused of crimes.

Libyan courts have yet to establish a measure of accountability. They have prosecuted only crimes attributed to Tawerghans, convicting them mostly for killings and unlawful possession of weapons, handing out prison and even death sentences. No Libyan court has yet prosecuted anyone for the forced displacement of Tawerghans, or for acts committed by militias, mostly from Misrata, against Tawerghans, including long-term arbitrary detention, torture, and enforced disappearance.

About 40,000 people from Tawergha live displaced around Libya, many in makeshift housing, camps or schools, prevented by civil and military authorities in Misrata from accessing their homes and lands.

Factions in Misrata, including the civilian administration and armed groups allied with it, control the area between Misrata and Tawergha, and have been physically preventing Tawerghans from returning to their hometown, insisting that the GNA and local Misrata authorities first approve a comprehensive compensation package for those killed, detained, harmed, or missing during the 2011 uprising.

In the aftermath of the 2011 uprising militias, mostly from Misrata, who had displaced Tawerghans then arbitrarily detained, tortured, disappeared, and harassed them with impunity. Although about 350 detainees have been freed since 2016, about 160 remain detained, some without charge, and 300 others are missing, according to Mohamed Radwan, the head of the Tawerghan association for families of missing and detained.

Miftah Almabrouk, who represents families of detainees from Tawergha held in prisons in Misrata and communicates with the prison authorities on behalf of the families, met with Human Rights Watch in Tripoli. He said that only some of the remaining 160 detainees from Tawergha have been convicted by civil and military courts in Misrata, while many remained in precharge detention. Human Rights Watch documented serious due-process violations of detainees held in Misrata, including men from Tawergha.

Although there had been fewer attacks on Tawerghans living in camps for displaced people in Tripoli in recent years, their situation is precarious. Militias guarding the Janzour camp for displaced Tawerghans in Tripoli fired shots on May 31 after disagreements with residents, although there were no injuries reported. On May 26, clashes between militias injured one resident of al-Fallah II camp in Tripoli, according to the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).

The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement provide that displacement of people needs to be limited in time and should not last longer than required by the circumstances. International law further stipulates that civilians who were forcibly displaced from their homes during a conflict should be allowed to return home as soon as possible without conditions.

In June 2013, residents attempted to return to Tawergha without an agreement with Misrata groups. Local and international actors, including UNSMIL, cautioned against it after armed groups in Misrata issued threats against Tawerghans planning to return. Authorities in the eastern city of Ajdabiya turned back a convoy of Tawerghans trying to make the journey from Benghazi.

Certain abuses committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population, including torture, arbitrary detention, and forced displacement, may constitute crimes against humanity. The UN International Commission of Inquiry on Libya concluded in its March 2012 report that Misrata militias had committed crimes against humanity against Tawerghans and that the deliberate destruction of Tawergha has been done to render it uninhabitable.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Libya since February 15, 2011. The prosecutor of the ICC has not started an investigation nor announced the intent to investigate crimes against Tawerghans.

While the priority is to end the six-year-old collective punishment of people from Tawergha, the victims from both sides should also see justice for the crimes they have suffered. Goldstein said.

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Libya: Ensure Safe Return of Displaced Tawerghans - Human Rights Watch

Black activists held events in 40 cities on June 19, a day that celebrates the end of slavery.

Photo from Juneteenth #40acres40cities action in Atlanta, GA. (Credit: Twitter @ATLisReady)

This Q&A is part of Sarah Jaffes series Interviews for Resistance, in which she speaks with organizers, troublemakers and thinkers who are doing the hard work of fighting back against Americas corporate and political powers.

Juneteenth is not a federal holiday but many believe it should be. Its the day on June 19, 1865, that news of emancipation reached the last group of enslaved people in Galveston, Texas. That was two-and-a-half years after President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation, which made slavery illegal.

To mark the day, and its unfulfilled promises, a group of organizers planned a day of action on Monday, June 19. In 40 acres across 40 cities, black people took nonviolent direct action to occupy and reclaim spaces such as abandoned schools and vacant lots, with the goal of bringing these spaces back to the community.

The action makes reference to Union General William T. Shermans 1865 field order named 40 acres and a mule the unkept promise that newly freed slaves receive 40 acres of land, and a mule to work it, per family, to be taken from confiscated Confederate land.

On Monday, from Atlanta to Oakland, Chicago to New Orleans, anchored by the BlackOUT Collective and Movement Generation, black Americans reclaimed vacant lots and abandoned buildings, bringing communities together to discuss the issues of land, liberation and reparations. Chinyere Tutashinda, co-director of the BlackOUT Collective, talked to Sarah Jaffe about his organizations goals for this years Juneteenth.

Sarah Jaffe: For people who dont know about Juneteenth, can you tell us, first of all, the history of the day?

Chinyere Tutashinda: Juneteenth is a very interesting and sad story all wrapped in one. It celebrates and commemorates the day when a group of enslaved black folks in Texas found out that slavery was officially over and they could be a part of the Union army [and fight against the Confederate Army during the Civil War.] It wasnt to the benefit of slaveholders to actually communicate that black people had been emancipated. So, it took months and months of networks of enslaved folks to be able to get that message to them.

SJ: Tell us about the actions that are taking place and the significance of the plan that you guys went forward with.

If we are talking about freedom in this country, then we also need to be having a concrete discussion about whats owed to people who have a history of enslavement.

CT: Movement Generation approached us [to collaborate] and we decided to focus some of our work on black liberation and what that entails. This includes thinking about black liberation tied to land and to reparations. If we are talking about freedom in this country, then we also need to be having a concrete discussion about whats owed to people who have a history of enslavement.

SJ: Talk a little bit more about the actions and the places where these are taking place.

CT: Actions are going to take place across the country in a variety of different ways. Some people are looking at long-term occupations and creating community spaces. Some are day-long actions where people are holding conversations about the intersection of reparations, land and black liberation. Theyll all be different, but the goal is to be able to take up space, build communities and have good relationships with each other and with the community at large.

SJ: There were a few spaces held like this last summer in Chicago and in Los Angeles.

CT: Yes, there were. We helped with the freedom actions last summer that were in response to the murder of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man who was killed by Baton Rouge police in July 2016.

One of the actions was in Chicagos Freedom Square by the Black Youth Project and other organizations around the idea: What does it mean to hold space? They held the event at the place where a group of black people had been tortured and imprisoned decades ago by Chicago police. Last year, they won their case and were awarded reparations.

SJ: In a time when Donald Trump is president it can seem like everything is short-term resistance. Talk about doing radical actions and making radical demands in this moment.

CT: There has been a huge upheaval in this country around the results of the election and people going, What to do? and What does it mean? There are hundreds of thousands of newly activated people. It is really critical that we continue to remember that the struggle is long and that it is one that requires us to not only react to things happening at the federal, state or local government level, but also requires us to really think about how we are in relationships with each other and with the land around us, with a clear understanding of our countrys history of oppression. This is one of the reasons why the Juneteenth actions in particular are not just about the current moment, but are rooted in history and rooted in land.

Over the course of two-and-a-half years we have trained almost a thousand black people in direct action tactics.

SJ: Tell us a little bit more about the work of the BlackOUT Collective.

CT: We started in 2014, literally in front of the Ferguson Police Department. We were a group of trainers some from the Ruckus Society, which is a nonviolent direct action training group, and some from the Center for Story-based Strategy. We were sitting there and as we were trying to come together as a group of black trainers, realizing that wed reached out to a lot of people we knew who had done direct actions, but there werent that many who identified themselves as direct action trainers as black people. We wanted that to change drastically. And understanding that, as black people, we have been using direct action tactics for hundreds of years fighting for our own liberation.

So, we started there and have continued to grow. Over the course of two-and-a-half years we have trained almost a thousand black people in direct action tactics. We are slowly growing and building our network through our action practitioners and are going to have our first all-black practitioner camp and visioning session this summer. We have also worked really closely with leadership at the Movement for Black Lives.

SJ: What do you think has changed in terms of the Movement for Black Lives in a world where Trump is president?

CT: There are a lot of people who are out on the streets I think there is a lot of interest and a lot of people who have been newly politicized and woken up to the fact that Trump is our president. But, when I think around what has been going on within the Movement for Black Lives and organizations that are part of that constellation because this is not new for us and because a lot of folks, particularly those in the South, have been living under conditions very similar to the ones that Trump is trying to enact nationally there was just a different level of What does that mean for us?

People have been really focusing on strengthening their organizing, strengthening their base building and trying to build and implement strategy in different ways. People are noticing there are less people on the streets, but there are not necessarily less people in our organizations or less people doing local work. I think as organizations are building and slowly growing, the work that you will see come into fruition will be in the next year or so.

SJ: How can people keep up with you and the BlackOUT Collective and find out more information on the Juneteenth actions?

CT: There are a couple of ways. We have our website, BlackOUTCollective.org. We are also on Twitter @blackoutcollect and on Facebook its the BlackOUT Collective. People can also check out the Black Land and Liberation Initiative.

Interviews for Resistance is a project of Sarah Jaffe, with assistance from Laura Feuillebois and support from the Nation Institute. It is also available as a podcast on iTunes. Not to be reprinted without permission.

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Rethinking Juneteenth in the Age of Black Lives Matter - BillMoyers.com