Oil prices

PLUNGING crude oil prices are costing oil exporting nations hundreds of billions of dollars.

Two years of falling prices have fuelled economic discontent in Venezuela, changed Russia’s economic and political calculations, and dampened Iranian leaders’ hopes of a financial windfall with the lifting of sanctions next year.

‘‘Cheap oil hurts revenues for some of our foes and helps some of our friends,’’ said Robert McNally, energy director for former president George W Bush and now head of a consulting firm.

“Should Iran come out of sanctions, they will face a very different market from the one they left in 2012,’’ said Amos Hochstein, the State Department’s special envoy and co-ordinator for international energy affairs.

‘‘They were forced to recede in a world of over $100/barrel for oil and sanctions will be lifted at $36/barrel for oil.’’ INSPIRED by the Rhodes Must Fall movement, whose campaign resulted in the Cecil John Rhodes statue being removed from UCT, a group of Oxford University students in the UK are making headway to have a Rhodes statue removed from their campus.

Oxford University management and students under the Rhodes Must Fall Oxford banner have agreed to start discussions for the statue’s removal from Oriel College campus.

Oxford management is also set to remove a Rhodes plaque in King Edward Street on Oriel-owned property, pending the local council’s approval.

Oriel College released a statement to clarify its stance after it had received a petition signed by more than 2 300 students.

The college’s management agreed that while Rhodes’ scholarships catered for nearly 8 000 students, his colonialist values stand in contrast to the ethos of the programme and to the values of a modern university.

“We affirm, as we have in our previous statements on this issue, that the college does not share Cecil Rhodes’ values or condone his racist views or actions. We agree that the representation and experience of black and ethnic minority students and staff in the university need to improve,” the statement read.

University management said the statue and the building at which it was situated, was identified by Historic England as being of particular historical interest partly because of the controversy surrounding Rhodes.