Swiss news site The Local reports that new laws taking effect this month will make it even more difficult for immigrants to obtain citizenship. 

It has apparently been established law for some time that immigrants collecting social benefits are barred from naturalization. The new law, however, now also prohibits naturalization if an applicant has accepted social benefits at any time during the previous three years. 

CNBC reports that “US jobless claims increase for fourth straight week”:

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, hitting their highest level in more than three months, likely as a cold snap kept some workers at home.

It’s been a bad few months for Steve Bannon. He was fired from his White House job in August. Then he supported Roy Moore and other political dead ends in an attempt to put himself forward as the leader of “Trumpism.” Bannon then decided to provide a variety of juicy quotations denouncing Donald Trump in order to help Michael Wolff with his anti-Trump expose. Shortly thereafter, Bannon backtracked and apologized. After that, Bannon lost one of his most prominent sources of funding — the wealthy Mercer family.

A few days ago my wife and I watched a fascinating program on PBS. The long running Nova series featured the history and accomplishments of the Hubble Space Telescope. The program was titled Invisible Universe Revealed. This episode was composed of three parts.

Oil seems immune to what in the past — artificially, effectively and quickly — caused a surge in its prices.  Recent OPEC cuts have had little (or no) effect on the market. The sanctions from Saudi Arabia (and other countries in the Persian Gulf) on Qatar were barely noticed. Unlike all NYSE indexes, that show a steady post-crisis growth, crude oil benchmarks have not taken off, showing a bear market behavior. Forecasting trends and prices brings up an important question: Will geopolitics alone be able to influence the oil and gas market as it did in the past?

The Hill reports today that the Vermont Senate has voted to approve the legalization of recreation marijuana for users over 21 years of age.

With its passage in the Senate, the law proceeds to the governor’s desk where he is expected to sign. 

A decade ago, Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, launched one of the geopolitical world’s greatest marketing coups: an annual list of key global risks.

 2018 version is finely balanced to generate maximum interest among the consultancy’s global banking, defence and government sector clients. China, Russia, North Korea and Iran all figure highly, as do terrorism, Islamic- and cyber- threats.