BRUSSELS: The EU agreed Wednesday to impose sanctions on six people and one entity over the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny with a Novichok nerve agent, diplomats told AFP.
Ambassadors from the 27 EU countries approved sanctions after France and Germany proposed measures last week, saying Russia was responsible for the poisoning.
In line with usual EU practice, those targeted by the sanctions — travel bans and asset freezes — will not be named until the measures take legal effect on Thursday, but they are likely to be Russian officials.
Paris and Berlin said last week they wanted to target individuals “based on their official function” and an entity “involved in the Novichok program.”
European powers have repeatedly asked Moscow to investigate the poisoning, which took place on Russian soil, but in a joint statement last week the French and German foreign ministers said the Kremlin had come up with “no credible explanation.”
The move to punish Russia came after the UN’s chemical weapons watchdog OPCW confirmed Germany, France and Sweden’s finding that Navalny was poisoned by a nerve agent of the Soviet-developed Novichok group.
A poison from the same group was used to attack former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England in 2018 — an incident that prompted the EU to sanction four members of the Kremlin’s military intelligence.
The latest measures were signed off politically by EU foreign ministers on Monday, a move hailed by Germany’s Heiko Maas.
“I believe it is of paramount importance in the light of such a serious crime — a violation of international law and the chemical weapons convention — that the European Union shows unity, and it has done so today,” he said.
EU diplomatic chief Josep Borrell pressed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the Navalny case during phone talks on Tuesday.
Borrell’s office said he called for Moscow to “do its utmost to investigate this crime thoroughly in full transparency” and cooperate with the OPCW.
Lavrov on Wednesday criticized the measures, accusing the EU of bowing to US pressure and “replacing the art of diplomacy with sanctions.”
“Of course the current policy of the EU will not go without consequences,” Lavrov warned at a news conference in Moscow.
EU agrees Russia sanctions over Navalny poisoning
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EU agrees Russia sanctions over Navalny poisoning
- UN’s chemical weapons watchdog OPCW confirmed Germany, France and Sweden’s finding that Navalny was poisoned
- A poison from the same group was used to attack former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England in 2018
Merz says Germany will ‘do everything’ to prevent Nord Stream restart
“We will do everything in this context to ensure that Nord Stream 2 cannot be put back into operation“
BERLIN: Germany will “do everything” to make sure the damaged Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia will not resume deliveries of natural gas to Europe, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Wednesday.
“We will continue to increase the pressure on Russia,” Merz said at a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Berlin.
“We will do everything in this context to ensure that Nord Stream 2 cannot be put back into operation.”
The Nord Stream 2 gas link connecting Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea was damaged in September 2022 by huge underwater explosions, said to be an act of sabotage.
The explosions destroyed one of the two pipes of Nord Stream 2 and both branches of its controversial sister pipeline, Nord Stream 1.
While Nord Stream 2 never went into operation, Nord Stream 1 for years shipped cheap Russian gas to Europe via Germany.
Critics have argued the existence of the pipeline left Germany and the rest of Europe overly reliant on fossil fuel deliveries from Moscow.
German and British media have recently reported that Washington and Moscow had discussed the idea of reviving the Nord Stream 2 project during talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
Senior political figures in Merz’s own party had also expressed tentative support for restarting gas deliveries via the pipeline from Russia before the chancellor definitively ruled out the possibility.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said earlier this month the bloc was working on a new set of sanctions that would include measures against Nord Stream 1 and 2, pre-empting a restart.
Explaining the measures, EU spokeswoman Paula Pinho said, “the idea is to dissuade any interest, and notably interest from investors, in pursuing any activity on Nord Stream, also in the future.”
Andrew Tate and brother charged with rape: UK prosecutors
- Andrew Tate and his brother have been charged in the UK with several counts of rape, assault and trafficking
LONDON: Avowed misogynist and social media influencer Andrew Tate and his brother have been charged with several counts of rape, assault and trafficking, UK prosecutors said Wednesday.
The accusations, which date back to between 2012 to 2015, were authorized by the Crown Prosecution Service in January 2024, but have only been revealed now.
Former kickboxer Tate, 38, faces 10 charges in the UK including rape, actual bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution relating to three women.
His brother, Tristan, 36, has been accused of 11 similar charges against one woman.
“A European arrest warrant was issued in England in 2024, and as a result the Romanian courts ordered the extradition to the UK of Andrew and Tristan Tate,” prosecutors said in a statement.
“However, the domestic criminal matters in Romania must be settled first.”
Andrew Tate is facing legal action in several countries, including some cases where he is accused alongside his brother.
In Romania, the Tate brothers face separate allegations of trafficking minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering.
Both men, who have dual British-US nationality, have denied all charges against them.
Andrew Tate, the figurehead of the online masculinist movement, traveled to Florida with his brother in February, marking the first time they had left Romania since their 2022 arrest.
Romanian prosecutors allege that the brothers and two women set up a criminal organization in Romania in 2021 and sexually exploited several victims.
In a separate civil case in the United Kingdom, four British women have accused Andrew Tate of rape and coercive control.
Tate moved to Romania years ago after first starting a webcam business in Britain.
He leapt to fame in 2016 when he appeared on the “Big Brother” UK reality television show, but was removed after a controversial video emerged.
He then turned to social media platforms to promote his often misogynistic and divisive views on how to be successful.
Tate is followed by more than 10.7 million people on the social network X, where he shares his angry vision of masculinity and often homophobic and racist posts.
Extremist violence and coups test West Africa ECOWAS bloc at 50
- Extremist violence has surged this year in Nigeria and the Sahel region, including Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger — nations that have recently seceded from ECOWAS
- Established on May 28, 1975, ECOWAS aimed to promote regional economic integration, security cooperation, human rights, and democratic governance
LAGOS: The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) faces growing threats of terrorism, climate change, military coups, and poverty, its most senior official said on Wednesday as leaders marked 50 years since the bloc’s formation in Nigeria.
Extremist violence has surged this year in Nigeria and the Sahel region, including Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger — nations that have recently seceded from ECOWAS in protest over sanctions following military coups.
“We are confronting the greatest challenges we face today, terrorism, climate change and unconstitutional change of government, poverty and economic disparities,” ECOWAS Commission President Omar Alieu Touray said, expressing confidence in overcoming the challenges.
Established on May 28, 1975, ECOWAS aimed to promote regional economic integration, security cooperation, human rights, and democratic governance.
However, five decades later, military juntas in founding member states Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have disassociated from the bloc, saying it no longer serves their interests.
The countries have formed their own Alliance of Sahel States and a confederation, cut military and diplomatic ties with Western powers and sought closer cooperation with Russia.
Touray said ECOWAS would continue trying to cooperate with the three countries.
Security and political analysts said curbing insecurity was crucial for ECOWAS to fulfill its promise of prosperity and lift millions from poverty.
Beverly Ochieng, senior analyst at Control Risk in Dakar, Senegal, said: “If you don’t have security, then of course it means that you cannot guarantee a robust economy in the region.”
Analysts also criticized ECOWAS for its silence when leaders controversially amend constitutions to extend their rule, leading to citizens applauding military coups.
They cited the recent example of Togo’s leader Faure Gnassingbe, who was granted the influential new role of President of the Council of Ministers with no fixed term limit — a move opposition parties labelled a constitutional coup potentially extending his rule indefinitely.
Power outage hits Gabonese capital
- SEEG said it had managed to restore power to around half of its customers in the capital
- For several months last year, electricity supply was disrupted due to significant infrastructure problems
LIBERVILLE: Gabon’s capital Libreville was without electricity for several hours Wednesday following a “major technical incident,” the national energy supplier said.
The early morning power outage “resulted in the loss of all production facilities in the Libreville Interconnected Network (RIC),” the Gabonese Water and Energy Company (SEEG) said without giving further details.
SEEG said it had managed to restore power to around half of its customers in the capital “by early morning,” adding its teams were working to find and analyze the fault, which AFP reporters said also cut Internet and mobile phone coverage.
On Monday, the Gabonese presidency had announced the end of an interim administration of SEEG started in August on the back of a slew of supply cuts.
As of Wednesday, “management of SEEG will be fully transferred” and it will return to its majority shareholder, the Gabonese Strategic Investment Fund (FGIS), the company stated.
For several months last year, electricity supply was disrupted due to significant infrastructure problems.
A rotating load shedding system was established leading to supply cuts in entire neighborhoods for hours at a time, to enable power supply for other parts of the city.
A protocol signed between the Gabonese government and Turkish firm Karpowership for supply of 70 megawatts via two floating power plants to cover greater Libreville saw the situation improve in recent months.
Revamping the network is a top priority for Gabon’s leader Brice Oligui Nguema, a general who overthrew the Bongo dynasty and won 94.85 percent of the vote in April’s election, 19 months on from his August 2023 coup.
Earlier this month he vowed to provide “universal access” to drinking water and electricity.
UN says strong chance average warming will top 1.5C in next 4 years
- The planet is therefore expected to remain at historic levels of warming after the two hottest years ever recorded in 2023 and 2024
- “We have just experienced the 10 warmest years on record,” said the WMO’s deputy secretary-general Ko Barrett
GENEVA: The United Nations warned on Wednesday that there is a 70 percent chance that average warming from 2025 to 2029 would exceed the 1.5 degrees Celsius international benchmark.
The planet is therefore expected to remain at historic levels of warming after the two hottest years ever recorded in 2023 and 2024, according to an annual climate report published by the World Meteorological Organization, the UN’s weather and climate agency.
“We have just experienced the 10 warmest years on record,” said the WMO’s deputy secretary-general Ko Barrett.
“Unfortunately, this WMO report provides no sign of respite over the coming years, and this means that there will be a growing negative impact on our economies, our daily lives, our ecosystems and our planet.”
The 2015 Paris climate accords aimed to limit global warming to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels — and to pursue efforts to peg it at 1.5C.
The targets are calculated relative to the 1850-1900 average, before humanity began industrially burning coal, oil and gas, which emit carbon dioxide (CO2) — the greenhouse gas largely responsible for climate change.
The more optimistic 1.5C target is one that growing numbers of climate scientists now consider impossible to achieve, as CO2 emissions are still increasing.
The WMO’s latest projections are compiled by Britain’s Met Office national weather service, based on forecasts from multiple global centers.
The agency forecasts that the global mean near-surface temperature for each year between 2025 and 2029 will be between 1.2C and 1.9C above the pre-industrial average.
It says there is a 70 percent chance that average warming across the 2025-2029 period will exceed 1.5C.
“This is entirely consistent with our proximity to passing 1.5C on a long-term basis in the late 2020s or early 2030s,” said Peter Thorne, director of the Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units group at the University of Maynooth.
“I would expect in two to three years this probability to be 100 percent” in the five-year outlook, he added.
The WMO says there is an 80 percent chance that at least one year between 2025 and 2029 will be warmer than the current warmest year on record: 2024.
To smooth out natural climate variations, several methods assess long-term warming, the WMO’s climate services director Christopher Hewitt told a press conference.
One approach combines observations from the past 10 years with projections for the next decade (2015-2034). With this method, the estimated current warming is 1.44C.
There is no consensus yet on how best to assess long-term warming.
The EU’s climate monitor Copernicus believes that warming currently stands at 1.39C, and projects 1.5C could be reached in mid-2029 or sooner.
Although “exceptionally unlikely” at one percent, there is now an above-zero chance of at least one year in the next five exceeding 2C of warming.
“It’s the first time we’ve ever seen such an event in our computer predictions,” said the Met Office’s Adam Scaife.
“It is shocking” and “that probability is going to rise.”
He recalled that a decade ago, forecasts first showed the very low probability of a calendar year exceeding the 1.5C benchmark. But that came to pass in 2024.
Every fraction of a degree of additional warming can intensify heatwaves, extreme precipitation, droughts, and the melting of ice caps, sea ice and glaciers.
This year’s climate is offering no respite.
Last week, China recorded temperatures exceeding 40C (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas, the United Arab Emirates hit nearly 52C (126F), and Pakistan was buffeted by deadly winds following an intense heatwave.
“We’ve already hit a dangerous level of warming,” with recent “deadly floods in Australia, France, Algeria, India, China and Ghana, wildfires in Canada,” said climatologist Friederike Otto of Imperial College London.
“Relying on oil, gas and coal in 2025 is total lunacy.”
Davide Faranda, from France’s CNRS National Center for Scientific Research, added: “The science is unequivocal: to have any hope of staying within a safe climate window, we must urgently cut fossil fuel emissions and accelerate the transition to clean energy.”
Arctic warming is predicted to continue to outstrip the global average over the next five years, said the WMO.
Sea ice predictions for 2025-2029 suggest further reductions in the Barents Sea, the Bering Sea, and the Sea of Okhotsk.
Forecasts suggest South Asia will be wetter than average across the next five years.
And precipitation patterns suggest wetter than average conditions in the Sahel, northern Europe, Alaska and northern Siberia, and drier than average conditions over the Amazon.
