Europe

Germany raises gas alert level after Russia dwindles supply

  FRANKFURT, Germany (AFP) — Germany said Thursday it would raise the alert level under its emergency gas plan to secure supply following the recent reduction of pipeline supplies from Russia. “Gas is now a scarce commodity in Germany,” Economy Minister Robert Habeck told reporters. Triggering phase two brings Germany a step closer to the third and final stage that could see gas rationing in Europe’s top economy. Russia was using gas “as a weapon” […]

Russian gas threat revives German nuclear power debate

  FRANKFURT, Germany (AFP) — Germany should extend the lifetime of its nuclear plants to avoid an “extreme scenario” in which a Russian gas stop could wipe 12 percent off the economy, a government advisor said Thursday. Prolonging the operational lifetime of Germany’s remaining reactors could “create some breathing space”, Veronika Grimm, a member of the government’s council of economic advisors, told the Funke media group. Germany turned its back on nuclear energy following the […]

Monkeypox vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic ready to meet demand

by Camille Bas-Wohlert Agence France-Presse COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) — As the lone laboratory manufacturing a licensed vaccine against monkeypox, Danish company Bavarian Nordic has seen its order book fill up as the usually rare disease spreads around the world. “The approval we got in 2019, when we only sold maybe a few hundred doses, all of a sudden became very, very relevant for international health,” the company’s vice president Rolf Sass Sorensen says with a […]

EU debates Ukraine candidacy as Russia makes life ‘hell’ in east

by Benoit Finck, with Anna Malpas in the Donbas Agence France-Presse KYIV, Ukraine (AFP)  — EU leaders will gather in Brussels Thursday to discuss calls to formally grant war-torn Ukraine “candidate status” to join the bloc, as Russian forces slowly advance in the eastern Donbas region despite fierce resistance from Kyiv’s military. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had been conducting a “telephone marathon” on his country’s behalf in the run-up to the meeting, making […]

Turkish ship leaves Ukraine’s Mariupol after grain talks with Moscow

ISTANBUL, June 22, 2022 (AFP) – A Turkish cargo ship on Wednesday left Ukraine’s Russian-occupied port of Mariupol after a round of “constructive” grain talks with Moscow, Turkey’s defence ministry said, without specifying if it was carrying wheat. “The meeting in Moscow gave its first concrete result,” the Turkish ministry said in a statement. “Just a few hours after the end of the long meeting, the Turkish dry cargo ship, which had been waiting for […]

Covid subvariants cast shadow over European summer

PARIS, June 22, 2022 (AFP) – by Isabelle Tourne, Isabelle Cortes and AFP European bureaus A resurgence of Covid-19 cases in Europe, this time driven by new, fast-spreading Omicron subvariants, is once again threatening to disrupt people’s summer plans. Several Western European nations have recently recorded their highest daily case numbers in months, due in part to Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5. The increase in cases has spurred calls for increased vigilance across a continent […]

Denmark offers fourth Covid vaccine dose to over-50s

COPENHAGEN, June 22, 2022 (AFP) –  Denmark’s government said Wednesday the country will begin offering a fourth dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to risk groups next week and all over-50s after the summer, amid the emergence of a new variant. “Authorities believe the new variant is more infectious than the previous one, which is why we are acting now… to protect the most vulnerable and the elderly”, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters. She said […]

Russian oil refinery says hit by Ukraine drone strike

MOSCOW, June 22, 2022 (AFP) – An oil refinery in southern Russia said Wednesday it was struck by a drone attack from Ukraine, starting a fire at the plant and forcing it to suspend operations. The Novoshakhtinsk refinery is located in Russia’s Rostov region, a few kilometres from the border with Ukraine’s separatist region of Lugansk. “As a result of terrorist actions from the western border of the Rostov region, two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) […]

Key Ukrainian city under ‘massive’ Russian bombardment

KYIV, Ukraine, June 22, 2022 (AFP) –  by Benoit Finck, with Anna Malpas in the Donbas Ukrainian forces are facing “massive” and relentless artillery attacks in a battleground eastern city, Kyiv warned, as Russian troops gained ground throughout the Donbas region. Moscow’s troops have been pummelling eastern Ukraine for weeks and are slowly advancing, despite fierce resistance from the outgunned Ukrainian military. With President Vladimir Putin’s forces tightening their grip on the strategically important city […]

US calls Russia’s threat against captured Americans ‘appalling’

WASHINGTON, June 21, 2022 (AFP) – by Sebastian Smith The United States on Tuesday called it “appalling” for the Kremlin to suggest that two US citizens captured while fighting for Ukraine against the Russian invasion could face execution. “It’s appalling that a public official in Russia would even suggest the death penalty for two American citizens that were in Ukraine,” John Kirby, a White House spokesman, told reporters after the Kremlin spokesman said the two […]

US embassy in Moscow gets new address, named after Ukraine separatists

MOSCOW, June 22, 2022 (AFP) – Authorities in Moscow said on Wednesday that they have changed the official address of the US embassy building in the Russian capital to one named after pro-Kremlin separatists in Ukraine. “The United States embassy in Russia has a new official address,” Moscow city hall said in a statement, saying it had named a previously unnamed open area in front of the embassy’s main entrance. It said the embassy is […]

France monkeypox count rises to 277, one woman infected

  PARIS, France (AFP) — France has detected 277 cases of monkeypox, health authorities said Tuesday, including the first case in the country of a woman contracting the virus. The case numbers have risen steeply since the last official figure of 183 cases five days earlier. But there have been no deaths in France attributed to monkeypox. The normal initial symptoms of monkeypox include a high fever, swollen lymph nodes and a blistery chickenpox-like rash. […]