The News Journal

Europe is a “few years” away from overcoming its current energy deficit triggered by the loss of Russian gas supply, according to Alfred Stern, chief executive of Austrian energy group OMV. The continent is in the middle of its worst energy crisis after Russia, the region’s biggest natural gas supplier, curtailed exports sharply in response to EU sanctions over its military offensive in Ukraine. However, the crisis has been a few years in the making. Spending on new oil and gas projects has nearly dried up amid pressure from investors, who have adopted more pro-renewable energy strategies in recent years. This issue is “bigger than Europe” and is a result of underinvestment in the energy sector, as well as from “thinking that we could magically move to renewable energy overnight”, Mr Stern told The National at the Adipec energy summit in Abu Dhabi. “Fixing this up will require significant investments, and typically, our industry is one that has very long investment cycles,” he said. Up...

Global trade dipped 1 per cent in May from the previous month as container shipping congestion and delays stretched to European ports in the North Sea, according to Kiel Trade Indicator data. For the first time since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, container ships are now also jammed in the North Sea off the ports of Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy said in its monthly report. Currently, just under 2 per cent of global cargo capacity is stuck in the area and can neither be loaded nor unloaded. “Overall, May trade is rather restrained and continues the sideways movement of recent months. However, international trade is again suffering more from the congestion and delays in container shipping, which have now also reached the North Sea,” Vincent Stamer, head of Kiel Trade Indicator, said. The pandemic highlighted significant challenges in the logistics sector, with many cargo customers struggling to find shipping containers amid labour...

Iran’s seizure of two Greek-flagged oil tankers in Gulf waters is “a serious violation of international law”, France’s foreign ministry said on Sunday, calling for the immediate release of the ships and their crews. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized the Greek tankers on Friday, days after Athens confirmed it would deliver to Washington Iranian oil it had seized from a Russian tanker. “We call on Iran to immediately release the crews and vessels,” a French foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement. Read More : https://www.khaleejtimes.com/world/france-denounces-irans-seizure-of-two-greek-tankers

Britain’s Home Secretary Priti Patel has stood by her plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda despite being urged to change course in talks with the United Nations refugee agency. Ms Patel defended the scheme at a meeting in Geneva with UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi, Rwanda’s Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta and other diplomats, insisting she was trying to save lives by deterring dangerous English Channel crossings. But Mr Grandi, who said his agency was proposing “concrete alternatives” to Ms Patel, did not back down on his criticism of a plan which he and some activists consider a potential breach of international refugee law. “Shifting asylum responsibilities is not the solution,” he said after the talks ended with no sign of the two sides seeing eye-to-eye. Ms Patel, who overruled concerns from her department’s top official to announce the Rwanda plan last month, promised to work with UN agencies but maintained that the deportations would not break human rights laws. The partnership with...

 Ukraine and its allies are bracing for an urgent Russian onslaught in the eastern Donbas region to deliver a military and propaganda triumph for the Kremlin in time for a prestigious annual parade on May 9. The Victory Day celebrations in Moscow, marking the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War, are a symbolic annual show of national pride and are typically attended by President Vladimir Putin in Red Square. This year’s parade will come in the shadow of a Russian offensive in Ukraine which, after seven weeks of fighting, has so far failed to deliver the kind of swift victories that analysts believe Mr Putin was seeking. Amid reports of heavy losses and low morale among Russian troops, the invasion suffered another embarrassing setback on Thursday when Russia admitted the sinking of its flagship missile cruiser Moskva . Ukraine says Russia has turned its attention to the Donbas in an offensive that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an overnight address was bein...

  Chemical weapons warning: US President Joe Biden has warned that Russian President President Putin’s “back is against the wall” and he may be preparing to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine. “Putin’s back is against the wall. He wasn’t anticipating the extent or the strength of our unity. And the more his back is against the wall, the greater the severity of the tactics he may employ,” Mr Biden told American business leaders in Washington DC on Monday evening. Mr Biden also said Russia’s claims about the US having biological and chemical weapons in Europe – a claim which he dismissed – is a “clear sign” of his intensions. “That’s a clear sign he is considering using both of those,” the Democrat president said. A Ukrainian soldier stands guard with his gun next to barricades at the beachfront near Lusanivka in the southern city of Odesa. Putin's distraction tactics: Moscow is likely using nuclear-based hypersonic missiles against Ukrainian targets to detract from its s...