Mexico may be winding up to pass a bill that will allow foreign companies to drill for oil and gas. A major problem is that the oil is being defined in the bill as "strategic" which allows State control. It remains to be seen if foreign companies will be able to live with oil and gas at the whimsy of Mexican bureaucrats. Corruption runs deep in Mexico. For example, several months ago, a drug cartel seized a port, and it took the Mexican Navy - the least corrupted government entity- to seize it back.
Another bill, this time in the U.S., is moving through Congress to criminalize retribution against victims of sexual abuse in the Armed Forces. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand also proposes that military commanders should no longer have the power to decide if assault cases can proceed. She rightly argues that the military prosecutors should decide that. Unfortunately, she has been unable to find political support. However, criminalizing retaliation is a major step forward for the military if it passes.
Both Israel and the U.S. are pushing the Germans to be quicker and more open in restoring art stolen by the Nazis from the Jews during World War ll.
Germany has a well-deserved reputation of slow-walking and being uncommunicative about current claims on stolen art that has been found. This is odd in that Germany has historically been eager to shed its National Socialist (Nazi) past and to aid the Jews who survived the Holocaust.
The commentaries are based upon news found in the Wall Street Journal, America's most trustworthy national newspaper.
Peter Nickerson
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