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Brussels asks EU states to slash gas use by 15% starting next month

Brussels has requested EU nations to chop their fuel use by 15 per cent and set out emergency plans forward of winter when it anticipates extreme disruption to fuel provides from Russia.
The European Fee on Wednesday stated the 15 per cent discount in fuel consumption ought to begin on August 1 till the top of March subsequent yr, in contrast with the typical in the identical interval over the previous 5 years.
The plan comes as Russian president Vladimir Putin, talking in Tehran, signalled that fuel would begin flowing once more by means of an important pipeline to Europe, however at a lowered price. The pipeline, Nord Stream 1, continues to be closed for upkeep till Thursday. Europe has been on tenterhooks ready to see whether or not Russia would restart flows of fuel by means of the pipeline as deliberate.
“Gazprom fulfils its obligations, has at all times fulfilled them and needs to proceed to fulfil them,” Putin stated late on Tuesday, in feedback reported by Interfax. However he added that relied on whether or not a significant turbine that had been serviced in Canada however was blocked by western sanctions is returned to Russia. If it didn’t arrive, Nord Stream 1’s throughput capability can be lowered. “Then there’ll solely be 30 million cubic metres a day,” he stated.
The pipeline can transport as a lot as 167mn cubic metres a day.
European Fee president Ursula von der Leyen stated on Wednesday that “the turbine is already in transit again so there is no such thing as a pretext to not ship fuel”.
Ought to the fuel provide state of affairs deteriorate, the fee put ahead proposals that may permit it to declare an “EU alert” which might make the proposed fuel cuts binding. EU capitals will probably be anticipated to report on their progress in the direction of the goal each two months and set out “nationwide emergency plans” by September to point out how fuel use will probably be lowered.
The EU stated it aimed to “safeguard provide to households and important customers like hospitals” and industries which are vital to cross-border provide chains. The plan additionally outlined that member states ought to prioritise switching fuels to renewables or coal, oil or nuclear energy if wanted and recommended that EU capitals might mandate limiting heating and cooling in public buildings.
Brussels has been working to safe non-Russian imports of fuel to offset additional cuts by Moscow, which supplied about 40 per cent of the EU’s fuel in 2021 and has already decreased fuel deliveries to not less than 12 EU nations.
Even earlier than the upkeep on Nord Stream 1 started, Russia had lowered the quantity of fuel it was pumping by means of the pipeline by 60 per cent, citing technical causes related to the absence of the turbine.

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Texas flood death toll rises as search continues for victims – UPI.com

A young girl carries a stuffed bear during a vigil for those lost in the Texas floods at the “Wall of Hope” fence memorial in Kerrville, Texas, on Friday. Photo by Dustin Safranek/EPA
July 12 (UPI) — More than 2,100 searchers from a dozen Texas Counties, other states and Mexico are continuing recovery efforts to find more victims of the deadly flash flooding in central Texas.
The confirmed-deaths toll rose to 129 with 170 still missing after officials in Travis and Kerr counties reported the recovery of more bodies, USA Today reported.
Most of the dead, 103, were found in Kerr County, including 36 children and 67 adults.
Among those missing is Volunteer Fire Chief Michael Phillips, whose rescue vehicle was swept away when flash flooding struck Burnet County.
Search crews later found the vehicle, but Phillips was not inside.
“Specialist teams and equipment continue to deploy into the search area and work themselves to exhaustion or until nightfall in the effort to find him,” the Burnet County Sheriff’s Office announced on Saturday, according to USA Today.
Many states and Mexico sent entire first responder teams, including Indiana, which deployed personnel from 15 fire and police departments to help the recovery effort, The New York Times reported.
Many volunteer groups also traveled to Kerr County, where most search efforts are focused.
“It’s overwhelming to see so many people come and help in the search,” Kerrville, Texas, resident Amy Vanlandingham told The New York Times.
“This is our town,” she said. “I do it so I can sleep.”
The Guadalupe River’s flash flooding during the early morning hours of July 4 decimated several local camps and other popular visitor destinations on one of their busiest days of the year.
The bodies of victims likely are situated in debris fields located along more than 100 miles of narrow and shallow valleys along the Guadalupe River in the mostly rural area of Texas Hill Country.
President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and others visited Kerr County on Friday to assess the situation and better gauge the need for federal assistance.
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'Helping every dang soul': Beloved camp director was among those lost in Texas flooding

Just after the summer session ended in late June, Heart O’ the Hills camper Sydney Sutton sent this photo to the camp’s director, Jane Ragsdale, who was killed in the July 4 flooding in Kerr County, Texas.
Erika Sutton
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Erika Sutton
Jane Ragsdale spent her summers by the Guadalupe, the very river that killed her a week ago today in the catastrophic July Fourth flood. Mention her name in Kerrville, Texas, this week, and folks tend to do two things: tear up and smile.
“I mean I can’t tell you how many people, acquaintances of mine say, ‘My dear, dear friend died.’ And then they said, ‘Did you know Jane Ragsdale?’ and I say, ‘Yeah, I did,’ ” said Karen Taylor, who lives in nearby Hunt, Texas. For her, Ragsdale was West Kerr County personified.
“Everybody’s friendly here, but she embodied that friendliness and generosity and love for others. I just can’t imagine life without her,” Taylor said.

Ragsdale, who was in her late 60s, did a lot of things, but she’s best known as the owner and director of Heart O’ the Hills camp for girls. She was born into the business.

Jane Ragsdale ran the Heart O’ the Hills camp for girls in Kerr County, Texas. The camp was between sessions when the deluge hit. The only person killed there was Ragsdale.
Kerrville Daily Times
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Kerrville Daily Times
Her family bought a boys’ camp, Camp Stewart in 1966, the year Ragsdale turned 9. They bought Heart O’ the Hills about a decade later. Ragsdale helped run it from the start. By 1988, she was in charge.
Unlike Camp Mystic, the girls camp where at least 27 perished when the deluge hit, Heart O’ the Hills was between sessions. The only person killed there was Ragsdale.

“I’ve never in my life met someone like Jane,” said Kathy Simmons, who was a good friend of Ragsdale’s.
Simmons was at Heart O’ the Hills picking up her granddaughter just the week before the flood, on the last night the camp was open.
“We had a candlelight service on the river at 9 p.m., and it was so beautiful. There were prayers and there were songs,” Simmons said. “Jane always led the children in songs. And every one of those girls and those counselors absolutely idolized her.”

After Heart O’ the Hills camper Sydney Sutton sent a photo of herself to Jane Ragsdale, the camp director wrote this letter back to Sydney.
Erika Sutton
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Erika Sutton
The summer camps on the Guadalupe River in Kerr County are institutions. Generations of girls and boys go through them, often forming life-long attachments. Simmons considered Ragsdale the heart and soul of her camp, both spiritual leader and educator.
“I mean, Jane taught these girls how to change a tire, how to ride a horse, how to swim, how to shoot a gun, archery, cooking. I mean, the necessities of life,” Simmons said.
In the off-season, when she wasn’t running the camp, Ragsdale often traveled to Guatemala, where she volunteered as an interpreter and a project organizer. It was mission work she started doing when she was 19 and studying journalism. She was a badass. But she was also about the sweetest person in town.
“Jane was one of the most genuine, kind, honest people and very intelligent, very warm,” recalls Mindy Wendele, president and CEO of the Kerrville Area Chamber of Commerce. “She had a smile that you knew Jane Ragsdale was smiling at you.”
Wendele grew up with Ragsdale, who she describes as a real go-getter: deeply involved in the Chamber of Commerce, a board member of the local liberal arts college, a class leader in high school.
“Anytime that we were out with Jane and her family at Heart O’ the Hills, we had just a fabulous time, just fabulous memories out there,” Wendele said.
Now, with some of the camps and almost all of the riverfront in ruins, Kerr County faces a monumental clean-up and rebuilding effort.
Another reason to miss Jane Ragsdale.
“Oh, she would be out there volunteering. She would be out there clearing property,” Simmons said. “She would have her boots on, her gloves on, she would be helping every dang soul that needed to be helped.”
So the flood took one of Kerr County’s most capable citizens, but Ragsdale’s influence on the community and the girls who came through Heart O’ the Hills camp is going to last a long time.
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Video: Clashes After Immigration Raid at California Cannabis Farm

new video loaded: Clashes After Immigration Raid at California Cannabis Farm
transcript
transcript
Clashes After Immigration Raid at California Cannabis Farm
Federal agents fired crowd control munitions at protesters who blocked a road outside of the farm. Some demonstrators threw objects at the agents’ vehicles.
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Please make a path for emergency vehicles or chemical munitions will be deployed.
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