Free Republic

Skyrocketing gas prices are sparking major concerns in the UK, with households bracing for higher bills and food prices. The energy crisis has already hit millions of Brits, but is set to hit more still. The UK is highly dependent on consumer spending to generate output, indicating the economy could still be in the mire heading into the spring. A wave of concern over the swelling cost of living is sweeping across Britain. While households are bracing for higher tax bills and are already being stung by food prices leaping, it is swelling energy costs that will hit hardest in...

...Normally the Yamal-Europe, which is Europe's longest gas pipeline, transports Russian natural gas overland to Germany and Western Europe. However, in the past week, it has been redirecting gas from Germany to Poland to make up for a shortfall of fuel as temperatures drop to -10C and Russia cuts gas supplies. On Sunday, German network operator Gascade claimed Russia sent the fuel back to Poland for a sixth straight day – a huge blow to the EU, where gas prices have been skyrocketing. The ownership of Gascade — part Russian, part German — suggests the issues are the result of...

Germany’s new foreign minister heads to Washington this week for talks likely to be dominated by the Russia-Ukraine crisis, amid reports that her boss, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, is looking to reset strained relations with Moscow and plans to meet with President Vladimir Putin this month. Germany has just assumed the rotating presidency of the G7 for 2022, and any disunity within its three-party coalition government over confronting challenges posed by Russia or China could have far-reaching implications. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, co-leader of the Greens, favors a tougher approach to Moscow and Beijing than does Scholz of the center-left Social...

Germany will pull the plug on three of its last six nuclear power stations on Friday, another step towards completing its withdrawal from nuclear power as it turns its focus to renewables. The government decided to speed up its phasing out of nuclear power following Japan's Fukushima reactor meltdown in 2011 when an earthquake and tsunami destroyed the coastal plant in the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl 25 years earlier. The reactors of Brokdorf, Grohnde and Gundremmingen C, run by utilities E.ON and RWE, will be shut down on Friday after three-and-a-half decades in operation. The last three nuclear...

In Brendenburg, around 9,000 took to the streets in 16 locations on the Monday after Christmas. There were protests and riots across the country. Potsdam-In numerous cities in Brandenburg, critics of the corona measures and suspected vaccine opponents took to the streets Monday evening... Despite the cold and black ice, people also demonstrated in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: In Rostock, the officials counted 6500 participants at the top... In Schwerin according to the police, about 2,700 people marched through the city center in the evening. Above all, the legal obligation to vaccinate, which was considered by politicians because of the still inaedquate...

The Yamal-Europe pipeline that usually sends Russian gas to Western Europe was operating in a reverse mode for a fifth day on Saturday, shipping fuel from Germany to Poland, data from German network operator Gascade showed....Putin has also said that Germany was reselling Russian gas to Poland and Ukraine rather than relieving an overheated market....Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov told the NTV channel that the company was ready to supply additional gas within its long-term contracts, which would be cheaper than short-term deals concluded on European spot market.Reverse flows from Germany to Poland - and probably to Ukraine as well -...

Coal and nuclear energy made up 40% of the overall energy mix in Germany. Meanwhile, renewables fell to 41% of the mix. Still, Germany is stuck on kicking its coal and nuclear habit—coal because it’s dirty, and nuclear because of Fukushima. The decision to retire the latter was made shortly after the Fukushima disaster, but since then, coal use has risen to fill in the gaps left by nuclear. This year, Germany plans to shut down the Grohnde, Gundremmingen C, and Brokdorf nuclear plants, which will leave Germany with just three. Those final three will be retired by the end...

The European Union’s executive Commission is considering whether to include nuclear and natural gas in its “sustainable finance taxonomy”, a rulebook that will restrict which activities can be labelled as climate-friendly investments. “We are going to have most likely a discussion tomorrow in college, which then will lead… to approval next year,” EU environment commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius told a news conference on Monday, referring to the Commission’s weekly “college” meeting.

This past week, 2018 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad was the latest victim of the West’s cancel culture, as she was disinvited from a book event by Canada’s Toronto District School Board. Alongside colonialism, imperialism, and nation-building, “cancel culture” is the latest of toxic Western ideas to be foisted upon the Middle East. This past week, 2018 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad was the latest victim of the West’s cancel culture, as she was disinvited from a book event by Canada’s Toronto District School Board. This may sound trivial, but it’s a big deal. Murad is a member...

Saudi Arabia has started building its own ballistic missiles with China's help at a top secret base, US intelligence and satellite images have revealed. It is the first time the Gulf state has managed to manufacture its own weapons of the class, though it has purchased ballistic missiles from China in the past. The development is likely to threaten the balance of power in the Middle East cold war between Saudi Arabia and Iran and could derail negotiations to revive Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with the US. New satellite images dated between October 26 and November 6, 2021 show a...

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told his Russian counterpart Monday that Washington is ready to engage in diplomacy through multiple channels, including bilateral engagement, the White House said in a statement. Sullivan told Yuriy Ushakov, foreign policy adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, that "any dialogue must be based on reciprocity and address our concerns about Russia's actions," the White House said.

BERLIN (AP) — Members of Germany's biggest opposition party, the center-right Christian Democratic Union of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, have chosen prominent conservative Friedrich Merz as its new leader, the party said Friday. Merz's election with a strong mandate appears to mark at least a symbolic break with the Merkel era. Making his third run for the CDU's top post, he took 62.1% support in a ballot of the party's membership to beat two centrist contenders. A party convention next month will have to sign off officially on the membership vote, but that should only be a formality. Armin Laschet,...

Russia upped the ante Monday in its dangerous standoff with Ukraine, openly warning of military action if President Biden and America’s NATO allies ignore a list of demands Moscow announced late last week — a far-reaching list that some key U.S. lawmakers have dubbed a “pretext to war.” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said his country is fully prepared to respond through “military-technical means” if Western powers fail to address those demands. He said NATO must not expand to include Ukraine or Georgia and the U.S. must not base additional military assets in former Soviet republics in Central Asia....

Rostock-In several cities, people protested against the federal government's corona policy on Monday evening. According to the police, up to 10,000 demonstrators gathered in Rostock to protest against corona measures and mandatory vaccination. At first there was no demonstration. Several hundred people came together on the market square and asked Mayor Claus Rueh Madsen (non-party) to show up. It was unclear whether he was in the town hall at all. Later, up to 10,000 demonstrators at the city harbor moved back into the city center. The police announced through loudspeaker announcements that this was an unauthorized event. There were minor...

If US-led bloc refuses Moscow's proposal, 'regional conflicts would increase' By Yang Sheng Published: Dec 19, 2021 10:29 PM Updated: Dec 19, 2021 10:37 PM The intense situation around Ukraine between Russia and NATO is unlikely to ease, as it is almost impossible that NATO will accept the security guarantee proposed by Moscow due to entrenched hostility to Russia, Chinese analysts said, adding that the US-led bloc will not give up expansion to the east, and Russia will definitely take action to retaliate. They noted that although China hopes the two sides can resolve the situation peacefully, the two sides...

Our Troops Rock! Thank you for all you do! For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces. Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today! ~ Hall of Heroes ~ The Berlin Airlift Part 3: Operation Little VittlesAll info and photos from this website. Link to Part 1 Link to Part 2 "DER SCHOKOLADEN FLIEGER" OPERATION LITTLE VITTLES 40K JPEGGeneral Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force is shown presenting the 1948 Cheney Award to 1st Lieutenant Gail S. Halvorsen, USAF, former...

Justice may be delayed, but it will not be denied,” is the strap-line of a video from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs that now has millions of views from across the world. The startling speech in the clip attached (below) is part of a new Chinese Communist Party effort to undermine the United States on the world stage, taking advantage of an increasingly weak Biden regime. No such wild sabre-rattling came from China during the Trump administration. They didn’t dare. But with Biden and Harris at the helm for less than a year, the world is now witnessing a rush...

PA libel: Israel “exported” Coronavirus to the PA Israel “used the virus as a new weapon” to destroy the PA Abbas’ advisor: “Allah is liable to bring down punishment on everyone, on all the people who are silent facing injustice, agree with injustice, and defend the oppressors… I think that today we are seeing the realization of this… All of humanity… is being included in one punishment, in this disaster [of the Coronavirus]… Is there a greater injustice than the injustice directed against us?”

MOSCOW, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Russian natural gas deliveries to Germany through the Yamal-Europe pipeline dropped sharply on Saturday, data from German network operator Gascade showed, adding pressure to an already tight European gas market as it heads into peak winter demand. It was not immediately clear why flows were down through the pipeline, one of the major routes for Russian gas exports to Europe and which traverses Belarus. Russian gas exporter Gazprom did not immediately reply to a request for comment. European gas prices have surged this year as demand spiked globally in the post-pandemic recovery. Russia, Europe's key...

LONDON (AP) — Nations across Europe are moving to reimpose tougher measures to stem a new wave of COVID-19 infections spurred by the highly transmissible omicron variant, triggering calls for protests from Paris to Barcelona. As case numbers escalated, alarmed ministers in France, Cyprus and Austria tightened travel restrictions. Paris canceled its New Year’s Eve fireworks. Denmark closed theaters, concert halls, amusement parks and museums. Ireland imposed an 8 p.m. curfew on pubs and bars and limited attendance at indoor and outdoor events. But the moves are causing anger. Crowds protesting British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s latest coronavirus restrictions flooded...