Day: December 10, 2022

“If Europeans can have any chance of solving its energy security problems, we have to remember that it’s energy security challenges didn’t begin with the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” said Brenda Shaffer, research faculty member at the Energy Academic Group and US Naval Post Graduate School.

Shaffer’s comments came during a discussion about the importance of climate mitigation commitments in a session titled, “The Energy Crisis and Climate Change: Time to Turn Crisis into Opportunity?” as part of the TRT World Forum 2022.

“The EU intended not to renew coal and gas and make more room for renewables. Natural gas has zero impact on air pollution. Energy security affects everything,” said Shaffer.

She noted that “with the attack on Nord Stream 2, the normalization of attacks on energy structures will be the norm.”

Russia had previously been accused of being behind the explosions that damaged the gas pipelines Sept. 26, causing large-scale ruptures in Nord Stream 1 and 2, with gas visibly leaking to the surface. The Russian Defense Ministry, however, accused the West and blamed British navy personnel of blowing up the pipeline.

She pointed out the West’s energy policies benefit Beijing, adding: “The West has stopped all public finance for fossil fuels. African nations are picking up the slack. Our policies on energy are empowering China.”

Alongside Shaffer were Zaur Gahramanov, CEO of SOCAR Türkiye and Karim Elgendy, associate fellow at the Environment and Society Programme of Chatham House.

Gahramanov said if Europe wants to keep on track for net-zero emissions by 2050, the current investment is not enough. “The world needs to have a balanced approach,” he said.

“From all of our acts in the past years, we’ve saved on water, gas, and steam consumption. Whatever one company is doing is not enough; it should be a joint effort between the state and the company,” he said.

Elgendy said the EU is in a tight spot and it reduced its dependence on carbon bombs.

The Ukraine war exacerbated the situation, said Elgendy, who said in the long term, the EU may double down on climate agreements.

The TRT World Forum 2022, a two-day annual event, started Friday in Istanbul.

The gathering, which is held under this year’s theme of Mapping the Future: Uncertainties, Realities and Opportunities, brings together academics, journalists, intellectuals, politicians and members of civil society from around the globe.

Nearly 100 speakers and more than 1,000 participants from nearly 40 countries are attending the forum, according to Mehmet Zahid Sobaci, director general of TRT, Türkiye’s public broadcaster.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Peruvians woke up Friday with several roads blocked and protests around the country led by supporters of the ousted President Pedro Castillo.

Dina Boluarte, who was sworn in as Peru’s first female leader, appeared on national television Friday in her first official event as head of state trying to reassure the country after a series of dramatic events.

While some and political opponents are demanding the new president call for elections, Boluarte, who was Castillo’s vice president, said she should be allowed to hold the office for the remaining three-and-a-half years of his term.

She asked for a “truce” to allow her to fight corruption, of which the outgoing president was accused.

Castillo was removed from office on Wednesday after he tried to dissolve Congress hours before facing an impeachment vote.

While Congress voted overwhelmingly, 101 to six, in favor of removing Castillo, his car was stopped by his bodyguards while he was seeking refuge at the Mexican Embassy in Lima.

Castillo was taken to the police station and is in the custody of authorities in the South American country.

Peru’s attorney general said Castillo is being investigated on allegations of “rebellion” and “conspiracy”.

Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, shared a copy Thursday of Castillo’s legal request for asylum in Mexico.

Ebrard wrote on Twitter that Mexican Ambassador to Peru, Pablo Monroy, met Castillo in Lima and the two countries are discussing the issue.

Peru has had five presidents since 2016, including Castillo, who was elected to serve from 2021 – 2026.

During his time in office, he was accused of corruption, which he has denied.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkish security forces have “neutralized” around 4,000 terrorists in operations at home and abroad in 2022, the defense ministry said Friday.

National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar underlined the importance of the operations by security forces while addressing the General Assembly of the Turkish parliament.

Türkiye to date has neutralized 4,500 Daesh/ISIS terrorists, he said.

“PKK/YPG/PYD are all the same. We are determined to save our country and our noble nation from the scourge of terrorism, regardless of their name or whoever supports them,” he said. “The largest, most comprehensive, and most effective land and air operations of the last period, including Operation Claw-Sword” are carried out against terror organizations in northern Iraq and Syria, he said.

In the operation, many shelters, bunkers, caves, tunnels and warehouses were destroyed, he said, adding that 364 terrorists were neutralized.

Last month, Türkiye launched Operation Claw-Sword in northern Iraq and Syria — a cross-border aerial campaign against the PKK/YPG terror group — which has illegal hideouts across the Iraqi and Syrian borders where they plan and sometimes execute attacks on Turkish soil.

Turkish authorities use the term “neutralize” to imply the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US and EU — has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. The YPG is the terror group’s Syrian offshoot.

Source: Anadolu Agency

US stocks closed lower Friday as the Dow recorded its worst weekly performance since September.

The blue-chip index plummeted 305 points, or 0.9%, to finish at 33,476. It lost 2.8% for the week.

The S&P 500 lost 29 points, or 0.73%, to close at 3,934. It declined 3.4% for the week.

The Nasdaq was off 77 points, or 0.7%, to end the session at 11,004. The tech-heavy index posted a weekly loss of 4%.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq had closed higher Thursday as they ended days of declines due to worries of a steeper Fed rate hike.

Those fears, however, were renewed before the market opened Friday, when producer inflation showed an annual gain of 7.4% in November, exceeding estimates of 7.2%.

The VIX volatility index, also known as the fear index, was up 2.6% at 22.87. The 10-year US Treasury yield increased 2.4% to 3.578%.

The dollar index rose 0.1% to 104.91, while the euro fell 0.2% to $1.0530 against the greenback.

Precious metals were up, with gold adding 0.3% to $1,795 per ounce and silver jumping 1.5% to $23.42.

Crude oil prices were in positive territory. Global benchmark Brent crude was trading at $76.63 per barrel for an increase of 0.6%. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude was around $71.50, up 0.1%.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Electricity prices in Denmark rocketed to as high as 83% in the past year, Danish utility regulator, Forsyningstilsynet, said in a statement Friday.

Forsyningstilsynet said electric prices for households and small commercial units marked a steady rise from the second to the third quarter by 15%. As the increases commenced in the third quarter, an increase of 83% has been observed by authorities.

“The new statistics show that the electricity price accounted for approximately 49 per cent of the average price in Quarter 3 of 2022. This is an increase of 6 percentage points from Quarter 2 of 2022, when it amounted to approximately 43%. Compared to Quarter 3 of 2021, the same share increased by 25 percentage points from around 24% in Quarter 3 of 2021,” it said.

The statement said in addition to the price of electricity, the total bill also takes into account subscription payments, payments to the grid company and Energinet as well as electricity tax and VAT.

Gas and electricity prices are closely linked in Denmark as the market is regulated by the most expensive energy source, hence the rising cost of gas influenced electricity prices.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Leaders from southern EU states agreed at the EU-Med9 summit on Friday to unite around energy and created a joint proposal to present at the upcoming EU energy meeting.

“We’ll have a basket of technical measures that will allow us to limit the volatility of energy prices and avoid speculation,” said French President Emmanuel Macron.

The meeting in the Spanish city of in Alicante brought together leaders from Croatia, the Greek Cypriot administration, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who hosted the meeting, said there was “a clear consensus” around reducing energy prices, including through a cap on the price of natural gas.

“The EU proposal needs adjustments, and we agreed to work on that together so at next week’s meeting, we can agree upon a dynamic and truly effective price cap on gas,” he said.

Spain’s energy minister previously called the EU’s proposed price cap “a joke in bad taste,” and many other EU leaders slammed the draft.

The leaders also mentioned collective EU natural gas purchases, reforming the pricing system, and including a solidarity mechanism.

“We are sending a firm message. We’ve managed to present a solution together. We hope the other states will agree,” said Slovenia’s Prime Minister Robert Golob.

EU energy ministers will meet on Dec. 13 in Brussels to try to strike a deal over their next move in response to the energy crisis.

Source: Anadolu Agency

A judge in the US state of Michigan dismissed charges against former Gov. Rick Snyder on Friday in the Flint water crisis.

The crisis led to the deaths of nine people and exposed tens of thousands more to dangerous levels of toxicity in the city’s water supply.

“The charges against (Snyder) were not properly brought and must be dismissed at this time,” Genesee County Judge F. Kay Behm said in the ruling, according to multiple media reports. The ruling came months after the state Supreme Court said indictments returned by a one-person grand jury were invalid.

Snyder, who left office in 2019, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of misconduct in office, becoming the first person in Michigan history to be charged for alleged crimes related to service as governor.

The Flint crisis began in 2014 when the water supply became tainted with lead after city managers, appointed by Snyder, began using the Flint River to save money while a new pipeline to Lake Huron was built.

The water was not treated to reduce its corrosive qualities, contaminating the water supply with lead and other toxic materials for more than a year.

The tainted water was blamed for nine deaths and linked to an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease. Tens of thousands of residents were exposed to toxic materials in the water causing many to become sick.

Flint residents complained about the water’s smell, taste and appearance, raising health concerns and reporting rashes, hair loss and other health problems.

Snyder did not acknowledge that lead was a problem until 17 months after the crisis began, in the fall of 2015, when he finally pledged to take action.

The Michigan Civil Rights Commission said the crisis was the result of systemic racism, doubting that the water switch and dismissal of complaints in the majority-Black city would have occurred in a white, prosperous community.

Snyder was the eighth person to have a Flint water case thrown out after the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in June.

The Michigan Attorney General’s office has desperately tried to keep the cases alive but has lost every one brought forth.

Only one case is pending in the water scandal.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Belarus will allow, “without preconditions,” Ukrainian grain to transit its territory for export to global markets, a top Belarusian diplomat told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Ambrazevich told Guterres “that Belarus will accept, without preconditions, the transit of Ukrainian grains through its territory for export from Lithuanian harbors,” Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

“The Deputy Foreign Minister reiterated the requests from his government to be able export its own fertilizer products, which are currently subject to sanctions,” added Dujarric.

Belarus is a close ally of Russia and has aided the Kremlin in its ongoing offensive against Ukraine, which has decimated large swathes of the country and led to mass deaths and displacement. The land-locked eastern European country sits to the north of Ukraine.

A landmark deal this summer brokered with Türkiye’s and the UN’s assistance allowed for the resumption of grain exports through Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, which helped alleviate a global food crisis that had sent prices of agricultural goods soaring worldwide. Tens of millions of tons of grain have since departed Ukraine’s ports after having been halted for months following Russia’s war.

Last month, days before the scheduled expiration of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the grain deal signed in Istanbul in July by Türkiye, the UN, Russia and Ukraine, was extended for another 120 days, beginning Nov. 19.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The shutting down of the Keystone Pipeline after the largest oil spill in a decade could lead to a crude supply shortage in the US, experts said Friday.

The pipeline carries crude oil to the US from Alberta, Canada and US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced Friday it was shut down Wednesday after leaking 14,000 barrels into a creek in the American state of Kansas.

“We are monitoring & investigating the Keystone Pipeline leak first detected (Wednesday) night,” Buttigieg wrote on Twitter. He said an order was issued “requiring a shutdown of the affected segment, analysis of the cause, and other safety measures.”

TC Energy of Canada owns the pipeline and the company provided no timeline as to when it could be restarted. It could lead to shortages at two US oil refineries.

The pipeline carries more than 600,000 barrels of crude oil a day to refineries in the US Gulf Coast.

TC Energy said the leak has been pinpointed and the oil was contained by barriers.

Any lengthy disruption will lead to depleted crude supplies for the US at a time when the supply situation has roiled markets, BNN Bloomberg reported.

Stockpiles are already low at the largest US crude oil hub in Cushing, Oklahoma.

No cause for the leak has been given but US federal regulator Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is investigating, the agency confirmed to Bloomberg.

Source: Anadolu Agency