All deliveries of Russian gas through Ukraine were halted yesterday in a deepening of a crisis between Moscow and Kiev that risks depriving European consumers of gas amid freezing weather.
At least 11 European states, including Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, have now reported complete halts of Russian gas supplies amid freezing temperatures of almost minus 25˚C.
Among the worst hit is Bulgaria, which has asked the public to cut back on gas usage and ordered heating in all public transport in Sofia to be turned off.
Romania declared a state of emergency.
The Czech EU presidency called for an “urgent solution” to the row while the European Commission proposed sending observers to Ukraine to measure the flow of natural gas arriving from Russia.
In Prague, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country holds the EU’s presidency, warned that the EU would toughen its response to the gas crisis if supplies were not restored by today.
“If the supply is not restored by tomorrow we will see a stronger intervention from the [EU] presidency and the EU as such,” he told journalists.
He did not say what form the tougher action would take.
Ukraine accused Russia of cutting off the gas to Europe while Russian energy giant Gazprom blamed Kiev for shutting the last remaining pipeline. Neither disputed that supplies of Russian gas across Ukraine had been halted.
“Russia stopped all transit through Ukraine” at 7:44am, said Valentin Zemlyansky, the spokesman for Ukraine’s state gas company Naftogaz. “Russia has left Europe without gas.”
Gazprom vice president Alexander Medvedev accused Ukraine of cutting all gas deliveries to Europe, warning of “very serious technical problems” if pipelines stay closed.
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
South Korea yesterday said that it was removing loudspeakers used to blare K-pop and news reports to North Korea, as the new administration in Seoul tries to ease tensions with its bellicose neighbor. The nations, still technically at war, had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung. It said in June that Pyongyang stopped transmitting bizarre, unsettling noises along the border that had become a major nuisance for South Korean residents, a day after South Korea’s loudspeakers fell silent. “Starting today, the military has begun removing the loudspeakers,”
CHINA’s BULLYING: The former British prime minister said that he believes ‘Taiwan can and will’ protect its freedom and democracy, as its people are lovers of liberty Former British prime minister Boris Johnson yesterday said Western nations should have the courage to stand with and deepen their economic partnerships with Taiwan in the face of China’s intensified pressure. He made the remarks at the ninth Ketagalan Forum: 2025 Indo-Pacific Security Dialogue hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prospect Foundation in Taipei. Johnson, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time, said he had seen Taiwan’s coastline on a screen on his indoor bicycle, but wanted to learn more about the nation, including its artificial intelligence (AI) development, the key technology of the 21st century. Calling himself an
RSS