World
Europe’s gas prices have broken a new record. How high can they go?
There isn’t any stopping Europe’s fuel payments.
On Wednesday, future fuel costs on the Title Switch Facility (TTF), the continent’s main buying and selling hub, reached €292 per megawatt-hour, a stratospheric determine in comparison with the €27 set a 12 months in the past.
The brand new all-time excessive follows a stunning announcement by Gazprom, Russia’s state-controlled power large, who final week stated it could quickly shut down Nord Stream 1 — which pipes fuel from Russia to Germany — for a three-day upkeep operation, carried out alongside Siemens.
Gazprom argues the pipeline should be checked for cracks, dents, leaks and different potential glitches.
European politicians have repeatedly accused the corporate of weaponising power flows and exploiting technical questions as an excuse for piling stress on nations at Vladimir Putin’s will.
“Upon the completion of upkeep operations, supplied that no malfunctions are recognized, fuel transmission might be resumed on the price of 33 million cubic metres per day,” Gazprom stated.
The speed barely represents 20% of the pipeline’s capability to hold as much as 167 million cubic metres each day. The dwindling flows have compelled Germany, Nord Stream’s foremost recipient, to set off the second part of its power emergency plan and bail out Uniper, an importer of wholesale Russian fuel.
However even earlier than Gazprom took the sudden resolution, fuel costs throughout Europe had begun a brand new regular rise. By late July, the earlier document excessive achieved in early March, shortly after Russia launched the invasion of Ukraine, was shattered.
Up to now, August has seen a seemingly unstoppable rise in fuel costs, bringing the continent dangerously near the €300 per megawatt-hour barrier.
A warmer-than-usual summer season and a subsequent improve in air con use have additionally fuelled the upward pattern, along with a extreme drought that has shrunk hydropower and restricted exercise in nuclear crops.
On the similar time, governments are dashing to replenish their fuel storage forward of the winter season, as fears of widespread discontent develop by the day. The procuring spree has inevitably swollen costs, with capitals keen to foot the costly invoice.
“The subsequent 5 to 10 winters might be tough,” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo has warned.
Whereas storage performs a key function within the safety of provides, it’s removed from being a panacea for the EU’s a number of power woes: the bloc has a capability to retailer over 100 billion cubic metres (bcm) of fuel – 1 / 4 of its annual 400 bcm consumption.
Aware of those shortcomings, member states have already established a plan to voluntarily cut back fuel demand by 15% earlier than subsequent spring. The unprecedented effort is supposed to cushion the influence of a complete cut-off of Russian flows, a drastic state of affairs that has in latest months gone from distant to doubtless.
As fuel costs proceed to climb, a urgent query emerges: simply how excessive can they go?
“In concept, there isn’t any restrict. The market, because it all the time does, is factoring within the worst circumstances, the worst interpretation,” Jonathan Stern, a analysis fellow on the Oxford Institute for Power Research, instructed Euronews.
“If Nord Stream 1 would not resume flows after the three-day upkeep, there isn’t any option to say how unhealthy costs can go. A minimum of, till we see how chilly winter is – that is most likely when costs will peak.”
‘Severely provide constrained’
Hypothesis is an inherent a part of Europe’s power market.
The system is as we speak liberalised and responds to the elemental dynamics of provide and demand. In the course of the worst months of the pandemic, when financial exercise just about floor to a halt, future fuel costs on the TTF fell under the €10 per megawatt-hour, main producers to very large losses.
This was not all the time the case: earlier than the 2000s, most fuel contracts have been primarily based on a long-term perspective and linked to the value of one other essential fossil gasoline: oil. The indexation provided certainty and stability however proved too inflexible and synthetic to take care of the challenges of the brand new millennium.
The market steadily moved to shorter contracts primarily based on real-time financial developments, which resulted in decrease and extra aggressive costs for each trade and customers. This flexibility was deemed important to spice up transparency and accommodate the inexperienced transition.
The swap, nevertheless, left Europe extra uncovered to cost volatility: as demand for fuel rose, so did the payments.
Till 2022, the ups and downs have been manageable. The spike skilled in late 2021 within the midst of the financial restoration obtained a middle-of-the-road reply from policy-makers: tax cuts, vouchers for weak households and subsidies for struggling firms.
However the resolution of Russia, the EU’s foremost power provider, to invade Ukraine has stretched the liberalised system to its most excessive limits. Hypothesis surrounding Gazprom’s subsequent transfer is rife and dictates the market’s wild ebbs and flows.
Households now grapple with impossibly costly electrical energy payments, factories slash their manufacturing hours in a bid to avoid wasting energy and governments draft plans for the dreaded chance of fuel rationing. In the meantime, power drives inflation to document highs, central banks rush to hike rates of interest, the euro reaches parity with the greenback and a deep recession looms over all the continent.
“In case of a recession, our lives might be more durable in some ways, however simpler when it comes to power. Fuel demand will drop and produce costs manner from the place they’re now,” stated Professor Stern.
“Nevertheless, we can’t see ‘regular’ costs anytime quickly – not for a minimum of for 3 to 4 years,” he added, downgrading De Croo’s ominous warning.
The continent, Stern stated, stays “critically provide constrained,” no matter latest offers with the USA, Egypt, Israel, Algeria, Azerbaijan and Canada geared toward diversifying power suppliers.
The most recent information reveals Europe imported document quantities of liquefied pure fuel (LNG) from America, to the detriment of the Asian area, a standard purchaser, as China undergoes a pointy financial slowdown.
However not even this excellent news has been sufficient to pacify fuel costs. The concentrated push in favour of LNG, which affords better selection than pipelines however entails excessive prices to construct coastal terminals, is excepted to take a number of years to completely materialise and simmer Europe’s rattled power market.
World
Jay-Z’s Accuser Can Remain Anonymous, Judge Criticizes His Lawyer’s ‘Relentless’ Filings
The woman accusing Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexually assaulting her when she was 13 can proceed anonymously (“at least for now”) in her lawsuit against the rappers, a judge ruled Thursday.
New York Judge Analisa Torres also condemned the legal team representing Jay-Z (real name Shawn Carter) for the “relentless filing of combative motions containing inflammatory language and ad hominem attacks [on accuser’s lawyer, Tony Buzbee],” according to a court order obtained by Variety. “Since Carter’s attorney first appeared in this case seventeen days ago, he has submitted a litany of letters and motions attempting to impugn the character of Plaintiff’s lawyer [Buzbee].”
Judge Torres continues, calling the complaints “inappropriate, a waste of judicial resources, and a tactic unlikely to benefit his client [Jay-Z].”
Jane Doe, who filed her original lawsuit against Combs in October, and re-filed it with Carter’s name in early December, will remain anonymous at this early stage of the litigation. She could still be required by the court to reveal her identity.
Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Carter, recently asked the judge to dismiss the entertainer from the woman’s lawsuit. He cited a report from NBC News that revealed the accuser had admitted to some “inconsistencies and outright impossibilities” in her allegations. His team has also issued public statements referring to Buzbee as a “1-800 lawyer” who is “in the pursuit of money and fame.”
Judge Torres denied Carter’s request to dismiss the case. Representatives for Carter did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.
In the last few weeks, Buzbee issued his own lawsuit against Roc Nation, the entertainment company owned by Carter, claiming they are using “shadowy operatives” to bribe his former clients into filing “frivolous” complaints against him. Carter has also sued Buzbee for defamation.
Jane Doe, who alleges she was 13 when Combs and Carter raped her in 2000, says she encountered the pair at an afterparty for the MTV Music Video Awards.
Carter responded to the allegation almost immediately. “You have made a terrible error in judgment thinking that all ‘celebrities’ are the same,” Carter wrote in a letter addressing Buzbee. “I’m not from your moral world. I’m a young man who made it out of the project of Brooklyn. We don’t play these types of games. We have very strict codes and honor. We protect children, you seem to exploit people for personal gain. Only your network of conspiracy theorists, fake physics, will believe the idiotic claims you have levied against me that, if not for the seriousness surrounding harm to kids, would be laughable.”
Combs has been held in a Brooklyn jail since September. He will remain there until his trial is scheduled to begin in May.
World
China unveils world's largest amphibious warship
China has launched the first of its new line of amphibious assault ships and its biggest warship yet, strengthening what is already the world’s largest navy.
The Sichuan, a type 076 new-generation amphibious assault ship, was put into the water at a launch and naming ceremony on Friday.
With a full load displacement of 40,000 tons, the warship ranks among the world’s largest amphibious assault ships, featuring a dual-island superstructure and full-length flight deck, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) said in a statement.
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China Bugle, an news outlet associated with the PLAN’s news media center, reported the ship will play a key role in transforming and developing the Chinese navy and enhancing its combat capabilities in the far seas.
The Sichuan is capable of launching fighter jets and unmanned drones from an electromagnetic catapult. It is designed to carry ground troops in landing craft with air support.
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The ship also features “arrester technology” that Chinese researchers boast will allow fighter jets to land on its deck, similar to an aircraft carrier.
China launched its first amphibious assault ship, a type 075 class warship called the Hainan, in 2019.
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The PLANmi has been working on modernizing its forces for more than a decade, with the aim of being able to operate globally rather than being restricted to waters near the Chinese mainland. China first managed to launch fighter jets with the new electromagnetic technology on its homemade aircraft carrier, the Fujian, which launched two years ago.
The Sichuan will now undergo additional tests at sea.
China has the largest navy in the world and is consistently trying to upgrade its fleet. Recently, researchers found that the country is working on designing a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which would allow it to deploy its ships in distant waters without needing a base to refuel.
The U.S. Navy currently has 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers deployed in strategic locations globally, including in the Asia-Pacific.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
World
Health worker displaced by Israeli attacks in Gaza dies of ‘extreme cold’
Many people in Gaza lack adequate shelter and are malnourished after more than a year of Israeli attacks and blockades.
A Palestinian healthcare worker has died due to “extreme” weather conditions, according to a statement by the enclave’s Ministry of Health, as severe cold compounds the hardship faced by people displaced by Israel’s relentless attacks.
The body of Al-Hakim Ahmed al-Zaharneh, who worked at the European Gaza Hospital, was found inside his tent in al-Mawasi area, west of the city of Khan Younis, southern Gaza, the ministry said on Friday.
“This incident comes in light of the difficult humanitarian conditions that displaced citizens are experiencing, as the suffering of Gaza residents increases due to low temperatures and the lack of heating means in tents,” the ministry said.
The ministry said earlier that four Palestinian babies have died in tents in recent days amid the cold weather and widespread malnutrition.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said that the number of casualties in vulnerable groups is increasing due to worsening weather conditions.
“For 14 months now, people here have been lacking basic necessities to help them survive these difficult conditions – even in summer,” he said.
“Now in winter, the temperature has dropped very low, [and] people in tent camps feel the cold as being [colder] than the actual levels.”
He said that mothers often lack the strength or ability to breastfeed as they are malnourished and unwell.
“The conditions are worse for vulnerable groups like babies and, in the absence of [humanitarian aid], it is natural that deaths will happen.”
The vast majority of the Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million residents have been displaced at least once since war broke out with the Palestinian group Hamas on October 7, 2023, with many people living in tents that offer little protection from the cold, rain and flooding.
The United Nations and other organisations have repeatedly decried the worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza, as Israeli attacks and blockades severely curtail access to food, water, medicine and other supplies.
A leading United States government organisation monitoring food crises around the world withdrew a new report this week warning of imminent famine in north Gaza under what it called Israel’s “near-total blockade,” after the US asked for its retraction, US officials told The Associated Press.
The move follows public criticism of the report from the US ambassador to Israel.
The report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) had warned that a “famine scenario” was unfolding in northern Gaza where Israel launched a renewed offensive in early October.
Meanwhile, on Friday, the director of Gaza’s Health Ministry told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces stormed the Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of the few remaining medical facilities in north Gaza, and forced the 350 people there to evacuate, including all the patients and staff. He said contact with the hospital had been lost.
Israel’s war in Gaza has killed at least 45,436 Palestinians and wounded 108,038 since October 7, 2023, according to figures released on Friday by Gaza’s Health Ministry.
An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks that day and more than 200 were taken captive.
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