World
Europeans ‘must lower thermostats to prepare for total gas supply cut’
![Europeans ‘must lower thermostats to prepare for total gas supply cut’ Europeans ‘must lower thermostats to prepare for total gas supply cut’](https://static.euronews.com/articles/stories/07/07/47/02/1000x563_cmsv2_f67f7b1c-af98-57a5-8926-38848aafd301-7074702.jpg)
Heating turned down and boilers adjusted — these are the measures Europeans must take to arrange for Russian fuel provides being fully reduce, based on a report.
The EU faces “unprecedented dangers” of fuel shortages this winter after Russia axed most pipeline shipments amid its struggle in Ukraine, the Worldwide Vitality Company mentioned.
The Paris-based group mentioned householders want to show down thermostats in emergency energy-saving measures to assist cut back Europe’s fuel utilization by 13% in preparation for a complete fuel cut-off.
“The entire shutdown of Russian pipeline fuel provides to the European Union can’t be excluded forward of the 2022/23 heating season – when the European fuel market is at its most susceptible,” the IEA wrote in its quarterly fuel report on Monday.
The IEA mentioned the EU should concentrate on getting underground fuel reserve ranges to 90% of capability in case of a whole Russian provide shut-off. The EU’s storage is at present round 88% of capability — above its purpose of 80%.
It additionally warned Europe it should guarantee fuel reserves don’t drop under 33% this winter so it has sufficient vitality if there’s a sudden spell of chilly climate.
Family energy-saving measures — together with turning down thermostats by 1°C and dropping boiler temperatures — would assist increase Europe’s fuel storage ranges, the IEA mentioned.
These measures needs to be coordinated with minimising fuel burning within the EU’s energy sector and reducing fuel use in buildings, the group mentioned.
“Our evaluation signifies that sustaining sufficient storage ranges till the tip of the heating season — at 33% of their working storage capability at the least — can be essential for a secure and safe winter,” the IEA wrote.
“Storage ranges under this threshold may not be adequate to sort out a chilly spell occurring on the finish of the heating season, just like the one Europe confronted in March 2018.”
Russian fuel provide cuts
Only a trickle of Russian fuel continues to be arriving in pipelines by way of Ukraine to Slovakia and throughout the Black Sea by way of Turkey to Bulgaria. Two different routes, beneath the Baltic Sea to Germany and thru Belarus and Poland, have shut down.
European leaders say the cutback in Russian fuel is blackmail aimed toward pressuring governments over their help for Ukraine and sanctions towards Moscow.
The Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which carries fuel from Russia to Europe, was shut down indefinitely earlier than quite a few leaks had been present in it within the Baltic Sea.
The undersea pipeline was broken in underwater explosions that European governments say are sabotage. Russia has denied any accountability.
Leaks had been additionally discovered on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which was resulting from come on stream this 12 months however by no means did after Germany refused to certify it.
Moscow has hinted at threats to chop off what’s left of its pure fuel provides to Europe.
Final Tuesday, Gazprom — Russia’s state-owned vitality agency — mentioned it might impose sanctions on Ukraine’s state fuel firm over a authorized dispute, which might probably end in provides being shut off.
European governments and companies have made up a lot of the Russian shortfall by buying costly provides of liquefied pure fuel, which comes by ship from international locations such because the US and Qatar.
They’ve additionally obtained elevated pipeline provide from Norway and Azerbaijan.
On Saturday, Bulgaria opened a pure fuel hyperlink with Greece that was hailed by European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen.
“This pipeline modifications the vitality safety scenario for Europe. This mission means freedom,“ von der Leyen mentioned.
The European Fee dedicated almost €250 million to finance the mission, she added.
Europe’s energy-saving winter
Final week, EU vitality ministers accredited a package deal of emergency measures to curb hovering electrical energy payments and coordinate member states’ responses to the vitality disaster.
The package deal, negotiated in lower than a month, contains obligatory energy financial savings, a cap on extra market revenues and a levy to seize surplus company earnings.
The settlement got here as inflation within the eurozone hit double digits – 10% – for the primary time within the historical past of the one foreign money, primarily pushed by skyrocketing vitality payments.
The three measures are all time-limited and canopy:
- An EU-wide plan to introduce energy financial savings: a compulsory 5% goal throughout peak hours, when fuel performs an even bigger function in price-setting, and a voluntary 10% discount in total electrical energy demand.
- A cap on the surplus revenues made by energy crops that don’t use fuel to supply electrical energy, reminiscent of photo voltaic, wind, nuclear, hydropower and lignite. The cap can be uniform and set at €180 per megawatt-hour. All revenues that exceed the barrier can be collected by governments.
- A solidarity mechanism to partially seize the surplus earnings made by fossil gasoline firms (crude oil, fuel, coal and refinery). Authorities will be capable of impose a 33% levy on the earnings made by these firms within the 2022 fiscal 12 months – however provided that the earnings characterize a 20% enhance in comparison with the typical since 2018.
EU leaders have promised to introduce additional energy-saving measures to cope with decrease fuel provides.
“Immediately the EU managed to ship,” mentioned Jozef Síkela, the Czech Republic’s minister for business and commerce, who holds the EU Council’s rotating presidency.
“We accomplished one other a part of the puzzle however positively not the final one,” Síkela added. “That is an instantaneous patch.”
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World
Brad Pitt and George Clooney Dance to 4-Minute Standing Ovation for ‘Wolfs’ During Chaotic Venice Premiere
![Brad Pitt and George Clooney Dance to 4-Minute Standing Ovation for ‘Wolfs’ During Chaotic Venice Premiere Brad Pitt and George Clooney Dance to 4-Minute Standing Ovation for ‘Wolfs’ During Chaotic Venice Premiere](https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/GettyImages-2169776610-1.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1)
Brad Pitt and George Clooney hugged and danced at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday night as the two megastars’ latest film, “Wolfs,” received a polite four-minute standing ovation.
The premiere itself was delayed by more than 30 minutes as fans crowded into Venice’s Sala Grande in an attempt to catch a glimpse at Pitt and Clooney. When the duo finally arrived inside, the sound — and general vibe — in the theater could only be described as carnal. Both actors took to different sides of the carpet, signing autographs and taking selfies, before being whisked away to their seats by security.
As the two stars entered the theater, they greeted the eager crowd with a booming “Buonasera!,” prompting some fans to shout back in hopes of being noticed. Even as the film began rolling, the chaos continued, with those without tickets scrambling to find any empty seats. Some were ejected during the early scenes in the film as latecomers entered.
When the credits rolled on the crime romp, Pitt and Clooney hugged it out before grooving to Sade’s “Smooth Operator.” Clooney then turned to his wife Amal, and the two shared a sweet kiss. He and Pitt then walked down the stairs, from the balcony of the theater where they were seated, to greet the cheering fans.
The four-minute ovation was perhaps not as long as one may have expected given Pitt and Clooney’s star power, but it seemed that festival officials were keen on getting audience members out of the theater given the premiere’s late start time and unruly energy.
Pitt landed in Venice only two days after his ex Angelina Jolie debuted her latest movie “Maria” here, to an eight-minute standing ovation and Oscar buzz. Neither mentioned their long pending divorce, and Pitt wasn’t asked at a press conference on Sunday about court documents that allege “a history of physical abuse of Jolie” in their marriage. (The hashtag #BradPittIsAnAbuser trended on the social media platform X shortly after “Wolfs” premiered.)
Written and directed by “Spider-Man” helmer Jon Watts (who had to miss the premiere after testing positive for COVID), the Apple Original Films action-comedy stars Pitt and Clooney as two professional fixers who prefer to work alone, but must come together after being hired for the same job. “Wolfs” also stars Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams and Poorna Jagannathan. A sequel to the film is already in development with Watts and the two stars attached, Apple announced earlier this month.
“Wolfs” marks Pitt and Clooney’s first time co-headlining a film since the Coen Brother’s 2008 black comedy “Burn After Reading.” Prior to that, the two were co-stars in the “Ocean’s” franchise from 2001 to 2007. Both actors have graced the Lido before, with Clooney attending in 2009 for Grant Heslov’s “The Men Who Stare at Goats” and Pitt having premiered David Fincher’s “Fight Club” in 1999 and earning the Volpi Cup for best actor with Andrew Dominik’s “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” in 2007.
In a recent cover story for GQ, Pitt and Clooney discussed their longtime friendship and the state of Hollywood today. “They haven’t developed stars the way the studio system used to,” Clooney said. “We kind of were at the very end of that, where you could work at a studio and do three or four films, and there was some plan to it. And I don’t think that’s necessarily the case anymore. So it’s harder for you to sell somebody something on the back of a star.”
After its Venice premiere, “Wolfs” will release in theaters for a limited time starting Sept. 20 before debuting on Apple TV+ on Sept. 27.
World
UN chief slammed for not condemning Hamas terrorists in statement on murdered US and Israeli hostages
![UN chief slammed for not condemning Hamas terrorists in statement on murdered US and Israeli hostages UN chief slammed for not condemning Hamas terrorists in statement on murdered US and Israeli hostages](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/American-hostage-Hersh-Goldberg-Polin-5-others-brutally-murdered-by-Hamas-right-before-rescue-IDF.png)
JERUSALEM – The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, is facing a barrage of criticism for failing to explicitly condemn the Hamas terrorist movement for its murders of one American and five Israeli citizens on Saturday.
Israel Defense Forces were looking to rescue the six hostages held by Hamas, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, in the tunnel system below Gaza’s Rafah city, but instead found all six murdered at the hands of the terror group. The Times of Israel, quoting Israel’s ministry of health, reported that the hostages had been murdered between Thursday and Friday morning.
Guterres wrote on X, “I will never forget my meeting last October with the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin and other hostage families. Today’s tragic news is a devastating reminder of the need for the unconditional release of all hostages and an end to the nightmare of war in Gaza.”
ISRAEL SHARES DOSSIER SPELLING OUT ALLEGATIONS AGAINST 12 UN EMPLOYEES ALLEGEDLY INVOLVED IN HAMAS ATTACK
Guterres’ post on X sparked criticism from Israel’s former U.N. ambassador Gilad Erdan for playing down the severity of the murders by labeling the news as merely “tragic” and not condemning Hamas outright.
Guterres’ spokesman did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital press query.
“You are shredding the UN charter” says Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan while speaking during a special session of the UN General Assembly regarding the Palestinian bid for full membership to the UN, at UN headquarters in New York City on May 10, 2024. A veto from the United States during an April 18, 2024 UN Security Council meeting previously foiled the Palestinians’ drive for full UN membership. (Photo by Charly TRIBALLEAU / AFP) (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)
Erdan, who only left his role as ambassador last month, told Fox News Digital , “The Secretary General not only has Israeli blood on his hands, but he has American blood on his hands too. Since his “fig leaf” meeting with the hostage families, he has done ZERO to help them. He could have demanded visits from the Red Cross, he could have condemned Hamas and held them to account, but instead he spent his time criticizing the law-abiding democracy of Israel instead of the ISIS-like terrorists.”
Erdan continued “This is a new low, even for the Secretary General. Even today, he wouldn’t condemn the evil Hamas terrorists, but of course, you can’t condemn what you support. Hamas terrorists can rely on a morally bankrupt Secretary General for their survival whose only actions are meaningless photo-ops with hostage families, and criticism of Israel, while innocent hostages are being executed in cold blood.”
![Thousands of Israelis gathered in Ra'anana to pay their final respects to Almog Sarusi. Hamas abducted the 26-year-old sound and light technician from the Nova Music Festival and killed him in captivity. Israeli soldiers recovered his body along with five others on Saturday.](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/1200/675/Hostage-Funeral.jpeg?ve=1&tl=1)
Thousands of Israelis gathered in Ra’anana to pay their final respects to Almog Sarusi. Hamas abducted the 26-year-old sound and light technician from the Nova Music Festival and killed him in captivity. Israeli soldiers recovered his body along with five others on Saturday. (Yossi Zeliger/TPS-IL)
Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and the president of Human Rights Voices, told Fox News Digital that “U.N. Secretary-General Guterres despicably now turns the cold-blooded murder of Israeli hostages by Palestinian terrorists into a win for the terrorists. He refuses to name the perpetrators. And equates their horrible deliberate execution with Israel’s effort to release them.”
![A Palestinian fighter from the armed wing of Hamas takes part in a military parade](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/1200/675/Palestinian-Hamas.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
A terrorist from Hamas takes part in a military parade. Three Palestinian migrants caught at the southern border were detained after they were allegedly found to have terrorist ties. (Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/File Photo)
She added “The United Nations top apparatus – its Security Council, General Assembly, and Human Rights Council – has never specifically condemned Hamas. U.N. denial of the right of Israeli self-defense and its promotion of violence against the people of Israel has never been more clear. No amount of U.N. photo-ops with hostages or their families will erase the reality of the U.N.’s insidious role in the nightmare of war in Israel for seven decades.”
UN, HUMAN RIGHTS, MEDIA GROUPS RELY ON HAMAS DEATH TOLL IN ‘SYSTEMATIC DECEPTION’: EXPERT
![Guterres](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2023/12/1200/675/GettyImages-1833212930.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
TOPSHOT – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting on Gaza, at UN headquarters in New York City on December 8, 2023. Guterres said on December 8, 2023, that Hamas’ brutality could never justify “collective punishment” of Palestinians as Israel presses its campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by YUKI IWAMURA/AFP via Getty Images)
In October, Erdan urged Guterres to resign after he claimed that the head of the world body had suggested that Israel was to blame for Hamas’ October 7 massacre that resulted in the murders of nearly 1,200 people, including more than 30 American citizens, and the kidnapping of over 250 people. Guterres came out to refute Erdan’s charges, but the United Nations has long been seen by critics as a bastion of antisemitism and anti-Israel bias.
![Nir Oz bloodied hand](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2023/10/1200/675/israel_wall_blood_handprint.png?ve=1&tl=1)
A bloodied handprint stains a wall in a Nir Oz house after Hamas terrorists attacked this kibbutz days earlier near the border of Gaza. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
On Guterres’ watch, a number of U.N. agencies have been embroiled in scandals where they showed sympathy for Hamas. The scandal-plagued United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is facing a lawsuit in Manhattan for its alleged role in aiding the terrorist movement Hamas’ slaughter on October 7.
Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch, lambasted Guterres’ decision to not name the perpetrators of the mass murder of the six people. “Hamas just murdered six Israeli and American hostages by shooting them in the head. Why can’t you say so? Why can’t you condemn them?,” wrote Neuer in a post on X.
Hamas is not on the United Nations’ list of terrorist organizations. Fox News Digital sent press queries to Israel’s current U.N. ambassador and the country’s foreign ministry.
World
Poland marks 85th anniversary of Nazi German invasion
![Poland marks 85th anniversary of Nazi German invasion Poland marks 85th anniversary of Nazi German invasion](https://static.euronews.com/articles/stories/08/69/40/70/1200x675_cmsv2_089bec5e-93bc-58f1-9ac1-9f7354c12ec7-8694070.jpg)
In more than five years of brutal German occupation during WWII, the central European country lost 6 million citizens, or a sixth of its population, of which 3 million were Jewish.
Poland held solemn ceremonies early on Sunday, marking the 85th anniversary of German Nazi forces invading and bombing the central European country’s territory at the start of World War II.
Sirens wailed and a memorial bell tolled as Polish President Andrzej Duda and deputy ambassador of Germany, Robert Rohde, attended an observance in the town of Wielun, the first civilian target of German bombing in the small hours of 1 September 1939 in Europe.
Some 1,200 people were killed in the attack.
“We can say that we have forgiven even though we remember, even though the pain is persisting, and even though there are still tens of thousands of those who have been directly hurt by the Germans,” Duda said. He also called on Berlin to make amends.
Meanwhile, at a monument on the Baltic Sea’s Westerplatte peninsula, where a military outpost was shelled by a German warship just minutes after Wielun was attacked, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz laid wreaths and attended a memorial roll call for fallen soldiers.
At the time, the outpost’s outnumbered troops fought for seven days before surrendering to the Germans, becoming a symbol of heroism and patriotism.
Tusk said war was present again in the region as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2022, grinds on.
He said, in a clear reference to Germany, it wasn’t enough to speak about “reconciliation” or to “bend your head in a sense of guilt,” adding that the best sign of lessons learned from the past is “the readiness to organise the entire western world, Europe, and NATO for the defence against aggression that we are witnessing today in the battlefields of Ukraine.”
“Today we will not say ‘never again’. Today we must say ‘never again alone’,” the prime minister said. Tusk also said Poland was building “the most modern army in Europe, one of the strongest in Europe” to actively contribute to the unity and strength of the NATO defence alliance and the European continent, “to defend our civilisation,” and “never again expose our homeland to any risks”.
In more than five years of WWII and brutal German occupation, Poland lost 6 million citizens, or a sixth of its population, of which 3 million were Jews.
Poland’s previous right-wing government demanded $1.3 trillion (€1.17tr) in damages from Germany. Tusk’s current cabinet has toned the demand down to some form of compensation that could serve to strengthen the ties between the two neighbours.
The country also suffered huge losses to its infrastructure, industry, and agriculture.
Germany insists the matter is closed because it paid damages to the Moscow-led East Bloc after the war. Warsaw says it did not receive any share of it.
However, addressing attendees at the Wielun observance on Sunday, Duda said: “Forgiveness and the admission of guilt are one thing, but compensation for the damage caused is another thing. And this issue has not been settled yet.”
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