Turk, a lawyer who has worked for the United Nations for decades in major offices such as Geneva and field locations including Kosovo, finishes his first four-year term in October

International News via Reuters:

United Nations Human Rights chief Volker Turk, an outspoken critic of Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s conduct in Gaza, faces opposition from both countries to a second four-year term ahead of a vote on Friday, diplomats told Reuters.

Turk, a lawyer who has worked for the United Nations for decades in major offices such as Geneva and field locations including Kosovo, finishes his first four-year term in October.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has worked closely with Turk in the past and steps down in December, has proposed another full term for the Austrian.

However, Russia has submitted a counter-proposal to extend his term by just over two months to the end of 2026, according to a copy seen by Reuters. Three diplomats said Israel also opposed a four-year extension and that Washington had raised doubts, turning what had been expected to be a consensus reappointment into a contentious vote.

Others have also privately said Guterres’ successor should have a say.

U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF IS DEFENDER OF FREEDOMS

Asked to comment, Russia’s U.N. mission in New York agreed.

“Mr Turk’s reappointment for four years deprives the new secretary-general of the opportunity to make his/her own choice for such an important post for a long period,” it said. “It is an arbitrary idea given the sensitivity of the human rights architecture and its role in the United Nations in general.”

The mission said the view was shared by “many” U.N. states and added: “We’ll see tomorrow how many of them will be ready to openly state their position without fear of reprisals.”

Since the vote is in the U.N. General Assembly, the veto powers held by Russia and the other four permanent members of the U.N. Security Council – China, the United States, Britain and France – do not apply.

No previous human rights chief has served two full four-year terms. Jordan’s Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, in post from 2014-18, said that remaining longer risked muting his advocacy and compromising his independence.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson called the move to reappoint Turk a “process foul” and said it “is another example of the UN’s inherent corruption and incompetence by rushing this vote and preventing adequate debate and oversight by member countries.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry called Guterres’ re-proposal of Turk a “moral failure” on X and said the choice should be left to his successor. 

Asked about Turk’s reappointment this week, a spokesperson for his office said: “I believe the High Commissioner is ready to serve.”

The post, created in 1993, plays a critical role in speaking out against erosion of freedoms at a time when autocracies are gaining influence at the expense of democracy.

AFRICAN BACKING FOR TURK

Some early critics of Turk’s appointment had assumed he would adopt a quieter approach. Instead, he has repeatedly criticised governments ranging from Russia and Israel to the United States.

He has accused Russia of severe violations of human rights and international humanitarian law since its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, allegations Moscow denies.

He has called for investigations into deaths in U.S. immigration custody and denounced hostilities between the United States and Iran. Washington has defended its standard of care in custody.

Turk has also condemned Israel’s “mass killing” in Gaza, although some including his own staff regret that he did not call the killings a genocide – an allegation Israel categorically denies.

The Russian mission rejected suggestions that Moscow was opposing a four-year extension because of Turk’s criticism of Russia’s actions in Ukraine. It said its considerations included the wish to preserve the U.N.’s institutional integrity and respect procedures.

Diplomats said Guterres has been consulting governments for months about the proposal – a process meant to garner consensus and ward off last-minute surprises such as Russia’s motion. 

Turk enjoys strong backing from European states and many Latin American ones, they said. A diplomatic memo from the African Union seen by Reuters showed “no objection” to the proposed four-year reappointment. 

No other known candidates are known to be under consideration for the position. 

“The Secretary-General is following the resolution and following the rules,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in New York on Thursday.

“… the Secretary-General has very much appreciated the work that Volker Turk has done in his term as High Commissioner for Human Rights.”

Reporting by Emma Farge; Additional reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani, Lincoln Feast, Kevin Liffey and Nick Zieminski

More than 50% of licensed aerospace engineers are older than 50 in Britain; fewer than 10% are under 30, a March report by the Royal Aeronautical Society showed

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For Hassan Butt, a 17-year-old British student volunteering at the Farnborough airshow this week, there was nothing cooler than watching the planes and thinking about the physics that kept them airborne. 

“Everyone when they’re kids, they look up, they see the planes flying and they think, damn…” he said as he fielded questions from passersby at a stand. His dream was to pursue a career in aerospace and engineering with a focus on missiles.  

Looking across the hall, there was no shortage of stalls and displays and aerospace recruitment campaigns seeking to tap into that enthusiasm and lure him and other potential recruits from Generation Z and Alpha.

Butt was a perfect candidate, but industry bodies and companies said there were not enough like him out there. The UK aerospace and defence sector is facing a shortage of around 10,000 specialized engineers a year — with AI and other newer technologies sucking up talent.

More than 50% of licensed aerospace engineers are older than 50 in Britain; fewer than 10% are under 30, a March report by the Royal Aeronautical Society showed. The UK sector has grown 31% in the last decade, but the talent pipeline has not kept pace, trade group ADS said.

“We in the aerospace industry have been experiencing a shortage of skilled workers for some time … despite the industry growing year on year for the past 10 years,” Kevin Craven, chief executive of aerospace and defence trade group ADS, said.

He added that innovations in flying taxis and sustainability could help to coax younger engineers into signing up.

CONTESTS AND TOP GUN DISPLAYS LURE RECRUITS

The sector faces a record order backlog. Aerospace giants including Boeing and Airbus are working hard to crank out more planes, but are watching their expert engineers inching towards retirement.

Many companies in the sector scrapped feeder apprenticeship programmes that support longer-term careers in cost-saving measures a few years ago. Those have largely been replaced by entry-level jobs or graduate schemes, many of them pushed by the stalls and campaigns at this week’s event. 

Elsewhere at the show, there were engine-building exercises and Top Gun-like flying displays, all designed to draw young recruits in.

The competition to attract them is fierce. Other sectors requiring similar engineering skills have a lower barrier to entry and often pay higher salaries, especially in technology, experts say.

“If you’re an engineer coming out of Purdue or MIT or any other of the premier aerospace engineering programmes, you might say maybe I’ll go to Anthropic or OpenAI as opposed to Boeing or Airbus,” said Jerrold Lundquist, consultant and managing director of advisory firm The Lundquist Group.

The UK government is hoping renewed investment in defence, tied to the war in Ukraine, can help boost the appeal of joining the sector, as it develops unmanned drones such as BAE Systems’ Brontanax. 

ADS said the aerospace, defence and security sectors added 46.8 billion pounds ($62.4 billion) to the UK economy last year.  

Another 17-year-old at the event, Molly Haydon, was just as keen as Hassan Butt to join in. But she said more needed to be done outside of the airshow to attract students, in particular young women like her.

“I think they need to educate more young people on it and to get them more knowledge that there are still jobs available in the sector for everyone,” she said. 

($1 = 0.7506 pounds)

Reporting by Joanna Plucinska, Shivansh Tiwary, Tim Hepher and Cassell Bryan-Low; Editing by Andrew Heavens

Both Brent and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude have rallied this week as the U.S. and Iran exchanged missile strikes, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell to a trickle and Yemen’s Houthis attacked shipping in the Red Sea

International News via Reuters:

Crude oil futures prices were more than 4% lower on Friday as traders booked profits and after sources said that China had initiated a push to resume stalled peace talks between the United States and Iran, but remained on track for hefty weekly gains. 

Both Brent and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude have rallied this week as the U.S. and Iran exchanged missile strikes, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell to a trickle and Yemen’s Houthis attacked shipping in the Red Sea.

Brent futures pared earlier losses of more than 5% to stand $4.41, or 4.38%, lower at $96.28 a barrel at 11:01 a.m. CDT (1601 GMT), having settled above $100 in the previous session for the first time since May. The contract remained on course for more than a 7% gain this week. 

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were down $3.61, or 3.92%, at $88.58 a barrel, on track for a 7% weekly rise.

Energy markets were in a precarious state on Friday, said Phil Flynn, senior analyst with Price Futures Group.

“Overall stocks remain pretty tight – and that situation could turn on a dime, so it’s worth keeping a close watch as things develop,” he said. 

U.S. President Donald Trump promised “major military punishment” for Iran and its Houthi allies after the strikes on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea. 

Iran had been pressing the Houthis to close the Bab el-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea if the U.S. continued to attack Iranian power infrastructure. It is the second most important route for energy shipments after the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf.

Additionally, the Houthis declared on Monday that they were imposing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, which had been diverting its oil via pipeline to get around Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

 Daily vessel transits through the Strait of Hormuz were steady at three for each of the past three days, preliminary ship-tracking data from Kpler showed. Another two ships — including empty very large crude carrier Noble — entered the Gulf via the strait on Thursday.

Meanwhile, at Bab el-Mandeb, commodity vessel transits totalled 32 on July 23, up from 26 the day before, Kpler data showed, with two crossings for July 24 so far.

“In the right seas, ships are still moving… so it’s not a complete blockade as some might have feared,” said Giovanni Staunovo, a UBS analyst.

Analysts at JPMorgan said in a note that each additional month of disruption to oil supply would add around $7 to $8 a barrel to Brent, lifting monthly average prices to around $114 a barrel if disruptions extend to three months.

Elsewhere, Russia said on Friday that its forces had struck three Ukrainian ports overnight targeting infrastructure — including loading and unloading facilities and fuel reserves — which supported Kyiv’s armed forces.

On Thursday, Kazakhstan’s energy ministry said oil companies temporarily reduced production after suspected Ukrainian drone attacks forced the country’s main Black Sea export terminal to close. 

Reporting by Erwin Seba, Seher Dareen. Colleen Howe, Siyi Liu; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle, Kirsten Donovan

The ECB left interest rates unchanged on Thursday but offered plenty of hints that more policy tightening will be needed and economists and traders are overwhelmingly betting on a rate hike in September

International News via Reuters:

The European Central Bank still considers the current inflation shock to be medium-sized, which requires some policy action but not aggressive moves, and it will get price growth back to 2% in the next year or so, ECB chief economist Philip Lane said.

The ECB left interest rates unchanged on Thursday but offered plenty of hints that more policy tightening will be needed and economists and traders are overwhelmingly betting on a rate hike in September.

“What we’re saying is, we will make sure that we will guide inflation back from where it is now — 3% — back to 2%, over let’s say the next year or so,” Lane said in a podium discussion in Donegal, Ireland, on Friday.

While Lane did not discuss what measures may be coming in September, he said the ECB would be closely watching whether surging energy costs generate second-round price or wage impacts, which could threaten to perpetuate inflation.

The ECB has not seen such effects so far but has argued that the longer energy prices stay high, the more likely it was for second round effects to become evident.

Lane nevertheless argued that the current inflation overshoot is still a moderate shock, which requires a measured response from the central bank.

“It’s not for now the kind of red alert level where you have to move quickly as we did (in 2022), so it’s a medium-sized shock, and we’re looking every meeting to say exactly what is the right level of interest rates to make sure it remains medium-sized and doesn’t persist, doesn’t become red,” Lane said.

Financial markets expect at least two more rate hikes from the ECB, with moves fully priced in by October and March.

Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; editing by Philippa Fletcher