Coming Up This Week

• Armenia and Azerbaijan are planning to meet on Wednesday for UN-mediated talks.
• Wednesday is also the end of UN human rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet's four-year term, which means it's also her deadline for releasing a long-awaited report on China's mistreatment of its Uighur minority. Bachelet's critics say she's been too soft on China and don't expect a scathing report from her.

Commodity Prices

• Aluminum: $2,494/ton
• Antimony (ingot min. 99.65% fob China): $13,550/ton
• Cobalt: $51,955/ton
• Copper: $8,161/ton
• Gold: $1,723/toz
• Lead: $1,986/ton
• Natural Gas (Nymex): $9.53/MMbtu
• WTI Crude Oil (Nymex): $93.91/barrel
• Zinc: $3,566/ton

Ukraine

• Ukraine said Russia has intensified its artillery strikes around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, casting doubt on whether international inspectors will be able to visit the site "in the next few days" as negotiated.

Russia

• The EU said it would suspend tourist visa facilitation with Russia in order to "send a signal to the Russian population that this war is not OK." Russians will still be able to get EU visas - including tourist visas - but the process will take longer and cost more than it did under the facilitation program.

Libya

• Militias loyal to rival PMs Dbeibah and Bashagha engaged in their fiercest clashes in two years in Tripoli, leaving at least 32 dead. Bashagha's supporters have since withdrawn from the capital, which returned to a tense calm.

China

• Two U.S. warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait yesterday, to China's consternation. The U.S. Navy said it was a routine sail-by, but they don't happen all that often.
• New data showed that China's industrial profits fell in the first seven months of 2022 vs. the same period last year. Analysts blamed COVID lockdowns and bad weather.

Venezuela

• Colombia and Venezuela restored diplomatic relations after a three-year gap, and will probably reopen their 1,400 mile (2,200 km) shared border - which has been mostly closed since 2015. An estimated 1.7 million Venezuelans have fled into Colombia, despite the border closure.

DRC

• This weekend saw another spate of attacks in eastern DRC: suspected CODECO rebels decapitated six gold miners in Ituri, Mai-Mai militiamen assaulted an army post in Butembo, and Islamic State-linked Allied Democratic Forces jihadists killed six civilians in North Kivu.

Crypto

• Singapore plans to add "frictions" to deter retail investors from trading cryptocurrencies over concerns that amateur investors are "irrationally oblivious" to the risks of crypto trading. The plans may entail new customer suitability tests or restrictions on lending for speculative trading.

Other News

• France's Pres. Macron visited Algeria and announced a plan to finalize a natural gas deal that could expand Algerian gas supplies to France by 50%, partially replacing Russian gas supplies. France currently only gets around 8% of its gas from Algeria.
• Germany is making good progress filling its gas storage tanks ahead of winter: it may reach its October target of 85% of the tanks' capacity a month early.
• Pakistan is facing heavy monsoon rain and flooding that have already killed at least 1,000 people and ruined lots of crops. Pakistan's minister for climate change called the flooding a "climate-induced humanitarian disaster of epic proportions," and its foreign minister pleaded with the IMF for financial support.