World
Russia’s war idles some European mills as energy costs soar
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Italian paper mills that make all the pieces from pizza containers to furnishings packaging floor to a halt as Russia’s struggle in Ukraine has despatched pure fuel costs skyrocketing.
And it’s not simply paper. Italian metal mills, likewise, turned off electrical furnaces final week. And fishermen, dealing with enormous spikes in oil costs, stayed in port, mending nets as an alternative of casting them.
Nowhere greater than in Italy, the European Union’s third-largest financial system, is dependence on Russian power taking a better toll on business. Some 40% of electrical energy is generated from pure fuel that largely comes from Russia, in contrast with roughly one-quarter in Germany, one other main importer and the continent’s largest financial system.
WEAKENING PUTIN REQUIRES TARGETING RUSSIA’S OIL AND BOOSTING US ENERGY PRODUCTION
Over the previous decade, Italy’s dependence on Russian pure fuel has surged from 27% to 43% – a reality lamented by Premier Mario Draghi. It would take a minimum of two years to switch, his power transition minister says.
Even earlier than the struggle, Europe was dealing with a critical power crunch that drove up prices for electrical energy, meals, provides and all the pieces in between for folks and companies. Ever greater costs tied to fears that the battle will result in an power cutoff are hitting the continent a lot more durable than the U.S. as a result of it imports a lot of its oil and fuel from Russia.
European leaders assembly Friday in Versailles exterior Paris mentioned methods of easing the ache. Draghi pushed to diversify fuel sources, develop renewables and introduce a cap on pure fuel costs. He mentioned his international minister, who not too long ago visited Algeria and Qatar, was engaged on new fuel markets.
“We’re speaking about errors remodeled a few years,” mentioned Francesco Zago, CEO of the Veneto-based paper and packaging producer Professional-Gest. “We get an excessive amount of fuel from Russia. At school, they inform us we have to diversify the sources, in any other case there’s a hazard.”
Pure fuel costs had been on the rise final yr as reserves dwindled in Europe, however Zago mentioned his firm was in a position to stabilize costs and proceed working. That modified with the Russian invasion, when already excessive costs soared from 90 euros a megawatt hour to over 300 euros a megawatt hour.
“We discovered ourselves dealing with enormous losses,” Zago mentioned.
BIDEN CLAIMS ‘NOT TRUE’ HE IS HOLDING BACK US ENERGY, WARNS RUSSIAN OIL BAN WILL COST AMERICANS
To stay worthwhile, he mentioned they’d have needed to practically double costs from 680 euros a ton to 1,200 euros – not doable on {the marketplace}.
He suspended operations at six mills that recycle paper to provide one-third of all of Italy’s packaging wants, and he’s preserving a detailed eye on the power market to see when manufacturing can relaunch. For now, there’s nonetheless sufficient inventory to maintain open the corporate’s websites that make cardboard containers and different packaging, supplying industries from meals to prescription drugs to furnishings. However that might run out quickly.
Likewise, Acciaierie Venete shut three of its metal mills for a couple of days final week as costs spiked to 10 occasions above regular. The makers of high-quality metal for automotive and agricultural equipment had sufficient inventory to work on completed product, ready for costs to dip so they may reopen.
“By no means, ever has this occurred that we needed to shut down ovens,” mentioned Francesco Semino, an govt on the steel-making firm primarily based within the northeastern area of Veneto.
The urgency of Italy’s power state of affairs is trickling all the way down to shoppers within the type of greater heating payments, and extra not too long ago, rising costs on the pump, with gasoline topping 2 euros a liter this week, or practically $6 a gallon.
MANCHIN CALLS FOR BAN ON RUSSIAN ENERGY IMPORTS, ECHOES GOP CRIES FOR INDEPENDENCE AMID RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
Radio call-in reveals are soliciting concepts about tips on how to save power, reviving reminiscences of long-abandoned methods like ember-fueled bedwarmers. Italy’s state broadcaster has launched a marketing campaign with lists of tips on how to save power, together with turning off lights, decreasing thermostats and commonly defrosting fridges, below the motto “M’illumino di meno,” or “I mild up much less.”
Truckers who say they’ll’t afford greater gasoline costs are set to strike this coming week. Fishermen took the hit final week, deciding to not trawl the waters off Italy, with fishing boats alongside the complete peninsula moored in port.
At present costs, it prices 1,250 euros a day to run boats out of Fiumicino, leaving little room for earnings after plying the ocean for cod, sea bass, sea bream, octopus, squid and shrimp, mentioned Pasquale Di Bartolomeo, who runs certainly one of 22 boats out of the port close to Rome.
Eating places, he mentioned, will make do with frozen seafood or farm-raised fish. He hopes the costs ease so he can return to work.
“The household must eat, there are bills,” Di Bartolomeo mentioned.
Italy decreased its fuel consumption from 2010 to 2014, because of the addition of sponsored wind and solar energy, however reliance on pure fuel pushed again up once more in recent times because it took polluting coal energy vegetation offline.
They’ve been substituted principally by pure fuel as renewables stalled, partly due to Italy’s notorious paperwork that has stored many buyers away, mentioned Matteo Di Castelnuovo, an power economist at Milan’s Bocconi College.
AS GAS, OIL COSTS SOAR, FOX NATION’S ‘ENERGY SHOCK’ ANALYZES MAGNITUDE OF RUSSIA’S INFLUENCE ON GLOBAL ENERGY
“Italy clearly underestimated the issue of accelerating its fuel consumption the previous couple of years, and with that, its dependence on Russian fuel,” he mentioned.
The federal government has pledged to simplify crimson tape, and this week accepted six new wind parks that may produce greater than 400 megawatts of power. Power transition minister Roberto Cingolani has floated the thought of next-generation nuclear to a reluctant inhabitants.
“Nuclear fusion is not going to save us from Russian fuel,″ Di Castelnuovo mentioned, referring to a expertise that’s nonetheless a long time away.
Italy’s dependence on Russian fuel can most rapidly and successfully be diminished by easy conservation strategies, he mentioned, given the time and investments it takes to transition to different power sources.
That may embrace such measures as enhancing dwelling insulation, utilizing home equipment that devour much less power and decreasing the thermostat.
“My warmth, my thermostat, is definitely paying for Putin’s missiles and bombs,” Di Castelnuovo mentioned. “It’s adequate for me to decrease it by 2 levels and put on a jumper as an alternative.”
World
As wildfires rage in Los Angeles, Trump doesn't offer much sympathy. He's casting blame.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As cataclysmic wildfires rage across Los Angeles, President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t been offering much sympathy. Instead, he’s claiming he could do a better job managing the crisis, spewing falsehoods and casting blame on the state’s Democratic governor.
Trump has lashed out at his longtime political foe Gov. Gavin Newsom’s forest management policies and falsely claimed the state’s fish conservation efforts are responsible for fire hydrants running dry in urban areas. Referring to the governor by a derisive nickname, Trump said he should resign.
Meanwhile, more than 180,000 people have been under evacuation orders and the fires have consumed more than 45 square miles (116 square kilometers). One that destroyed the neighborhood of Pacific Palisades became the most destructive blaze in Los Angeles history.
Trump v. Newsom: Round 2 was to be expected — the liberal Democrat has long been one of Trump’s biggest foils. But the Western fires are also a sign of something far more grave than a political spat or a fight over fish. Wildfire season is growing ever longer thanks to increasing drought and heat brought on by climate change.
Trump refuses to recognize the environmental dangers, instead blaming increasing natural disasters on his political opponents or on acts of God. He has promised to drill for more oil and cut back on renewable energy.
On Thursday, Trump said on social media that Newsom should “open up the water main” — an overly simplistic solution to a complex problem. “NO MORE EXCUSES FROM THIS INCOMPETENT GOVERNOR,” Trump said, adding, “IT’S ALREADY FAR TOO LATE!”
Standing on the street in a scorched subdivision as a home behind him was engulfed in flames, Newsom responded to the criticism when asked about it by CNN.
“People are literally fleeing. People have lost their lives. Kids lost their schools. Families completely torn asunder. Churches burned down, and this guy wants to politicize it,” Newsom said. “I have a lot of thoughts and I know what I want to say, but I won’t.”
In a post on his Truth Social media network, Trump tried to connect dry hydrants to criticism of the state’s approach to balancing the distribution of water to farms and cities with the need to protect endangered species including the Delta smelt. Trump has sided with farmers over environmentalists in a long-running dispute over California’s scarce water resources. But that debate has nothing to do with the hydrant issue in Los Angeles, driven by an intense demand on a municipal system not designed to battle such blazes.
About 40% of Los Angeles city water comes from state-controlled projects connected to northern California and the state has limited the water it delivers this year. But the southern California reservoirs these canals help feed are at above-average levels for this time of year.
Roughly 20% of hydrants across the city went dry as crews battled blazes, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said. Firefighters in Southern California are accustomed to dealing with the strong Santa Ana winds that blow in the fall and winter, but the hurricane-force gusts earlier in the week took them by surprise. The winds grounded firefighting aircraft that should have been making critical water drops, straining the hydrant system.
“This is unlike anything I’ve seen in my 25 years on the fire department,” Los Angeles Fire Capt. Adam VanGerpen told CBS This Morning.
Janisse Quiñones, head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said the ferocity of the fire made the demand for water four times greater than “we’ve ever seen in the system.”
Hydrants are designed for fighting fires at one or two houses at a time, not hundreds, Quiñones said, and refilling the tanks also requires asking fire departments to pause firefighting efforts.
President Joe Biden, who was in California for an environmental event that ended up being canceled as the fires raged, appeared with Newsom at a Santa Monica firehouse on Wednesday and quickly issued a major disaster declaration for California, releasing some immediate federal funds.
But any additional federal response will be overseen by Trump, who has a history of withholding or delaying federal aid to punish his political enemies.
In September, during a press conference at his Los Angeles golf course, Trump threatened: “We won’t give him money to put out all his fires. And if we don’t give him the money to put out his fires, he’s got problems.”
Trump’s support in California has increased in recent years, which could further embolden him in his tussles with Democratic leaders there. In 2024, he improved on his vote share in Los Angeles and surrounding areas hit by the fires by 4.68 percentage points. And while he still lost the state overall, he grew his overall margin by 4 points compared to the 2020 election.
As for the impact of the fires on Californians, Trump said areas in Beverly Hills and around it were “being decimated” and that he had “many friends living in those houses.” He framed the losses as a potential hit to the state’s finances.
“The biggest homes, some of the most valuable homes in the world are just destroyed. I don’t even know. You talk about a tax base, if those people leave you’re going to lose half your tax base of California,” Trump said.
___
Associated Press Writer Maya Sweedler contributed to this report.
World
Thousands of Venezuelan opposition supporters take to the streets ahead of Maduro's third inauguration
- Venezuelan opposition parties and their supporters protested around the country on Thursday in a last-minute effort to put pressure on President Nicolás Maduro, one day before he is due to be sworn in for his third six-year term.
- Maria Corina Machado, Venezuela’s most popular opposition leader, made an appearance for the first time since August when she went into hiding at an unknown location.
- Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, 62, has been in power since 2013.
Venezuelan opposition parties and their supporters – including leader Maria Corina Machado, who had been in hiding – protested around the country on Thursday in an eleventh-hour effort to put pressure on President Nicolás Maduro, one day before he is due to be sworn in for his third six-year term.
The opposition and the ruling party are locked in an ongoing dispute over last year’s presidential election, which they both claim to have won.
The country’s electoral authority and top court say Maduro, whose time in office has been marked by a deep economic and social crisis, won the July vote, though they have never published detailed tallies.
VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER MARÍA MACHADO HAS URGENT MESSAGE FOR PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP
The government, which has accused the opposition of fomenting fascist plots against it, said it will arrest opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez should he return to the country and has detained prominent opposition members and activists in the lead-up to the inauguration.
The opposition says Gonzalez, 75, won in a landslide. It has published its own vote tallies as evidence, winning support from governments around the world, including the United States, which consider Gonzalez the president-elect.
Machado, who is the country’s most popular opposition leader but who was barred from running in 2024, joined a protest in Chacao in eastern Caracas at around 2:20 p.m. local time (18:20 GMT), dressed in a white shirt and blue jeans and waving a Venezuelan flag from the top of a truck.
“They lost the streets, which are ours, they are barricaded in Miraflores (presidential palace),” Machado told the crowd. “From today we are in a new phase.”
Her appearance marked her first public outing since August when she went into hiding at an unknown location.
Machado, 57, urged protesters to peacefully flood the streets and repeatedly asked members of the police and military – who guarded polling stations during the election – to back Gonzalez’s victory.
“I’m not afraid, I lost my fear a long time ago,” said 70-year-old Neglis Payares, a retired central bank worker, as she gathered with other opposition supporters in western Caracas in the morning.
“We don’t know how many of them have their heart on our side,” she added, gesturing at security forces who had gathered near the protest.
2 AMERICANS ARRESTED IN VENEZUELA ON EVE OF MADURO INAUGURATION OVER ‘TERRORISM’ CLAIMS
Reuters witnesses estimated some 7,000 people had gathered in Caracas by around 2:20 p.m. local time. In the days after the election, thousands also took to the streets.
Maduro, 62, has been in power since 2013. He has the vociferous support of leaders in the armed forces and the intelligence services, which are run by close allies of powerful Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.
“I am convinced nothing will happen,” Cabello said on state television on Monday. “But that doesn’t mean we will lower our guard.”
The military’s financial interests make loyalty shifts unlikely, said BancTrust, a London investment bank, in a note. “A limited military rebellion would entail significant risks for those involved, thus diminishing incentives to participate,” it wrote.
‘WE HAVE NO WORK’
Security forces set up checkpoints around the country.
In the western oil city of Maracaibo, an opposition protest of dozens of people was quickly dispersed by motorcycle-mounted security forces by late morning. In central Valencia, protesters gathered at another location after initially being met with tear gas.
Opposition supporters also gathered in San Cristobal, near the border with Colombia, in the western city of Barquisimeto and in eastern Puerto Ordaz.
“I’m here because we need to get rid of this government. We have no money, we have no work,” 62-year-old housewife Roisa Gomez said at a protest in the central city of Maracay. “I’m fighting for my vote, which I cast for Edmundo Gonzalez. They cannot steal the election.”
Soon afterward, security forces used tear gas to disperse the Maracay protesters.
Many of the demonstrators were of retirement age and said they wanted change so their migrant children and grandchildren would return to the country. More than 7 million Venezuelans live abroad.
The ruling party was holding rival marches nationwide, images of which were broadcast on state television.
“We’ve come out to show that there is a democracy. On this side are the patriots who will be sworn in with Nicolas (Maduro), on the other side are fascists who want (foreign) intervention, war, to sell their country,” said 50-year-old Caracas motorcycle taxi driver Manual Rincon.
Gonzalez, who has been on a tour of the Americas this week and met with U.S. President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump’s national security advisor, has repeatedly pledged to return to Venezuela but given no details about how.
An arrest warrant was issued for Gonzalez for alleged conspiracy, prompting his September flight to Spain.
Machado is being investigated by the attorney general in at least two cases, but no warrant for her has been made public.
The government has detained several high-profile politicians and activists, including a former presidential candidate. This week, the attorney general’s office said it had freed more than 1,500 of the 2,000 people, including teenagers, detained during post-election protests.
Venezuelans living abroad also held protests, including in Madrid, where Gonzalez’s daughter Carolina Gonzalez spoke to hundreds of demonstrators.
“My dad sends a hug to all of you, glory to the brave people of Venezuela,” she said, her voice breaking.
World
Ramstein: Germany pledges tanks, missiles, and air defence for Ukraine
The German Defence Minister has pledged additional military aid to Ukraine at today’s meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Ramstein.
At today’s Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting in Ramstein, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has confirmed that Germany will continue its support for Ukraine even after the federal elections in February.
“Ukraine can count on Germany, regardless of the outcome of the election on February 23”, Pistorius said.
Speaking at a press conference after the meeting, Pistorius highlighted Germany’s contribution to protecting the largest logistics hub supporting Ukraine. “In the coming weeks, we will deploy two Patriot missile units and a total of 200 soldiers to Poland”, he announced. The Bundeswehr soldiers are expected to remain in Poland for six months as part of a NATO mission.
While Pistorius did not unveil a large-scale aid package for Ukraine, he pledged to provide the Ukrainian armed forces with three additional IRIS-T SLM and SLS air defence systems, along with 13 more Gepard tanks.
He also intends to supply additional missiles for the IRIS-T systems in the near future. These missiles are part of ongoing production and were originally allocated for the German Bundeswehr.
Contact Group to continue under Trump Presidency
Another key topic at the meeting was the impending Trump presidency in the United States. Pistorius emphasised the importance of continuing the Ukraine Contact Group meetings in Ramstein under Trump’s leadership.
But whether these meetings will actually persist, remains uncertain. However, should the new U.S. administration choose to discontinue the format, “it will need to continue in another form”, Pistorius asserted.
Zelenskyy places hope in Trump Presidency
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed his expectations for the incoming U.S. President, who is set to take office on January 20.
In light of the leadership transition, Zelenskyy also called for strengthened cooperation. “With Trump’s inauguration on January 20, we enter a period where we must work more closely together and achieve better results as a team”, he said during today’s Ukraine Contact Group meeting.
Speaking on a podcast with Russian-American host Lex Fridman earlier this week, Zelenskyy described Trump as a pivotal figure in the effort to stop Putin.
Tymofiy Mylovanov, former Ukrainian Minister of Economic Development and president of the Kyiv School of Economics, told Euronews he believed there will be a serious effort by the Trump administration to get a peace deal without selling out Ukraine. “The aid will continue as a part of strengthening leverage over Putin and enforcement of the deal”, he predicted.
According to Mylovanov, the EU and Germany will at the same time have to step up after Trump assumes office: “Trump has made it clear that Ukraine is the EU’s problem and Germany is the key power in the EU no matter how the local politics looks at the moment.”
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