New sanctions to be prepared in case the alleged ‘Russian invasion’ in Ukraine happens, Britain’s Foreign Secretary says
The British government is expected to introduce new legislation to expand the scope of sanctions London can apply to Russia in the event of a hypothetical war with Ukraine, according to UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.
“What the legislation enables us to do is hit a much wider variety of targets. So there can be nobody who thinks that they will be immune to those sanctions,” Truss said in an interview with Sky News.
The secretary has previously refused to rule out probable personal sanctions against Russia’s President Vladimir Putin if Russia were to invade Ukraine.
The US, along with several Western allies including Britain, has threatened to announce a wide range of new financial and economic sanctions against Moscow. The threats of crippling penalties have been voiced since November, when Washington raised the issue of Russia’s probable military assault in Ukraine for the first time. Since then, the speculation has been persistently fueled and spread by Western media outlets as well as by European officials.
“Any company of interest to the Kremlin and the regime in Russia would be able to be targeted so there will be nowhere to hide for Putin’s oligarchs, for Russian companies involved in propping up the Russian state,” Truss, who is expected to visit both Ukraine and Russia in the coming weeks, explained.
“Nothing is off the table,” she said, when asked whether the new legislation could allow seizing property in London.
The official rhetoric on new sanctions comes amid global hype over Moscow’s recent amassing of troops in its regions bordering neighboring Ukraine, which has been treated by the US and the allies as evidence of Russia’s aggression towards Kiev and a preparation for an invasion.
The Kremlin, however, has repeatedly stressed that no such intentions exist and that movement of a country’s troops within its borders should not concern outsiders.
On Saturday, the UK authorities said it was considering making a major NATO deployment as part of a plan to strengthen Europe’s borders in response to the massing of Russian troops.
Meanwhile, Britain has provided lethal weapons to Ukraine to help it defend itself, as well as a small number of military personnel to provide training.
According to Truss, however, it is “very unlikely” British combat troops would be sent to fight in Ukraine.
Rock legends yanked their songs from streaming service after accusing Rogan of spreading misinformation on Covid-19 vaccines in his podcast
The market capitalization of streaming services provider Spotify dropped some $2.1 billion within three days after folk-rock legends Neil Young and Joni Mitchell voiced their protest against its most popular podcast ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ demanding to delete the show from the streaming platform over spreading fake pandemic information.
The outcry came in response to Rogan’s December 31 program featuring Robert Malone, a doctor and the “inventor” of mRNA vaccines. Malone had earlier been banned from Twitter for circulating anti-vaccine misinformation, while YouTube deleted a recording of the Rogan podcast shortly after it was uploaded to the website by a third party.
“I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform. They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not both,” Young posted, in a since-deleted message to his management team and record label.
The audio-streaming giant took down the songs of the folk-rock star, who had 2.4 million followers and over six million monthly listeners on Spotify.
Joni Mitchell, a Canadian-born songwriter who rose to acclaim in the folk-rock scene in the late 1960s and 1970s, announced she would join Young’s effort, becoming the first prominent musician supporting the move.
“Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives,” Mitchell said Friday, in a message posted on her website. “I stand in solidarity with Neil Young andthe global scientific and medical communities on this issue.”
Spotify reportedly paid $100 million for rights to The Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2020. The program is the top podcast on Spotify, and is reportedly downloaded almost 200 million times a month.
Shares in Spotify declined 6% in three days through January 28. They have dropped 25% since January 1, washing $2.1 billion from its market cap. The company’s stock grew to $173 per share at the end of last week, but plummeted again, after Mitchell joined the protest.
The decline was exacerbated after music-streaming platforms Apple Music and Tidal voiced their support for Neil Young’s music. Young’s songs will now be streamed exclusively on SiriusXM and, amid the furor, the rocker’s greatest hits album rocketed into the top five on Apple Music.
Last month, 270 scientists and medical professionals sent Spotify an open letter, calling for a rapid adoption of a misinformation policy after an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience’ promoted what they said were “baseless conspiracy theories” about the pandemic.
Spotify is the number one audio-streaming service in the US, capturing 31% of total subscribers in the country, followed by Apple Music at 15%, Amazon Music and Tencent tied at 13%, while YouTube Music rounds out the top five at 8%.
Since digital media continues its rapid growth, the latest scandal may go unnoticed against the background of Spotify’s commercial success. The company’s paid subscription streaming revenues increased by 18.5% in 2020. That number is widely expected to come in even higher for 2021, according to IFPI’s latest Global Music Report.
The effects of similar controversies on Netflix, which faced outrage in 2020 over the controversial ‘Cuties’ series and over Dave Chappelle’s comedy special, had a negligible impact on its stock.
Storage facilities in Europe are more than half-empty, data shows
Gas reserves in Europe nosedived to historically low levels this month. According to data by Gas Infrastructure Europe, consumption from storage facilities this January is one third more than the average for the previous five years.
Experts have been raising concerns about the risk of full supply disruption to the EU if tensions between Moscow and Kiev escalate. The European Union receives roughly 40% of its gas via Russian pipelines, several of which run through Ukraine.
Statistics showed that storage facilities were 39.65% full of gas as of January 27. This is the first time that inventories dropped below the 40% mark. The level is 15.6 percentage points below the five-year average.
Typically, Europe’s gas inventories don’t fall even to half until about early-to-mid February. During some mild winters, the inventories don’t sink below midpoint until early March.
This month, the weather was very mild in Europe, but stockholders decided to use reserves to protect against high prices. In many contracts with suppliers, an exchange index “for a month ahead” is used, and now the price of its execution is at an all-time high. On average, gas was traded at $1,310 per thousand cubic meters last month at the TTF hub, with a maximum value of up to $2,138. Under such conditions, buying gas on the spot market at $976 per thousand cubic meters on average looks like a good solution, experts say.
The defensive behavior of importers has also seriously reduced the physical import of gas to Europe. In the first half of January, Gazprom’s exports to non-CIS countries fell by 40%. However, analysts note that export volumes may change as early as February as prices stabilize.
According to the experts, the arrival of liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargos in Europe has alleviated the energy crunch. Last week, Europe’s gas transportation system received approximately 434 million cubic meters, a record for that date.
The budget carrier posted quarterly loss of over $107 million
Europe’s low-cost airline, Ryanair, reported missing its target of 11 million passengers in December, instead carrying 9.5 million, due to “media hysteria” over the Covid-19 Omicron variant.
The company’s loss for the final three months of 2021 amounted to €96 million ($107 million), although this was a significant improvement over the €321 million ($359 million) loss in the same period in 2020.
Customer numbers, at 31.1 million, were more than three times higher, and revenues of €1.47 billion ($1.6 billion) were 331% up on 2020 levels.
“The sudden emergence of the Omicron variant and the media hysteria it generated in December … forced European governments to reimpose travel restrictions in the run-up to Christmas,” Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary explained. That had “significantly weakened” peak last-minute bookings and fares over Christmas and new year, cutting December traffic and load factors, he added.
The company has warned of a “hugely uncertain” financial outlook, saying that the first three months of 2022 would require “significant price stimulation at lower prices” to attract customers.
The airline also said it hopes the roll-out of booster jabs and evidence about Omicron being less virulent than other variants will lead to easing of restrictions and restoration of consumer confidence ahead of Easter. Ryanair sees capacity this summer topping pre-pandemic levels.
Doha is exploring opportunities for long-term gas supply contracts with the bloc instead of spot market agreements
The world’s second-biggest producer of liquified natural gas (LNG), Qatar, has reportedly requested that the European Union restrict the reselling of its gas outside the bloc, if it is to provide emergency shipments in the event of a disruption of deliveries from Russia.
“Qatar’s supply wouldn’t be conditional on requests. But the issues need to be dealt with to ensure long-term and short-term solutions for Europe’s LNG crisis,” unnamed sources briefed on the talks said, as quoted by Reuters.
The news comes amid the continued speculation fueled by the US that Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine. In the event of a military conflict, Moscow has been threatened with severe economic sanctions that may target the country’s energy exports.
Russian gas supplies account for nearly 40% of Europe’s consumption. Any interruption will inevitably exacerbate the existing energy crunch amid the rapid recovery of major economies after the pandemic-related slowdown.
Although Qatari producers lack enough spare gas, Doha has pledged to divert some volume from its Asian consumers with mediation from Washington. However, sources told Reuters that no such request has so far been made.
Qatar also wants the EU to conclude a 2018 investigation into the country’s long-term contracts, which the European Commission had said might be inhibiting the free flow of gas in Europe and its single gas market.
“That will ensure the EU can enter into long-term contracts with Qatar and others, instead of more costly spot contracts or searching for short-term solutions during a crisis,” the source said, as quoted by the agency.
Doha is also asking for guarantees that EU member states will divert any surplus LNG only within the bloc.
“If not implemented, emergency shipments to the EU could be resold as spot shipments for a profit out of the EU, basically prolonging the energy shortage in the EU,” the source said.
