News round-up Wednesday, 26 October 2022.
Conclusion of the day's news:
'Europe has gone from a gas shortage to overflow in less than three months'
Philippe Escande
While dozens of LNG tankers are queuing up in Spain and the UK, some people are questioning the need to increase fossil fuel storage and transport capacity in the midst of the fight against climate change.
Published by Le Monde on October 25, 2022 at 15h11, updated at 15h18 on October 25, 2022 Time to 2 min. Lire en français
The "Hellas Poseidon", loaded with liquefied petroleum gas, at the port of Tarragona (Catalonia), on October 20, 2022. PAU BARRENA / AFP
Energy news is so fluid that it regularly provides us with strange scenarios. The European Council for example, which met on Friday, October 21, struggling to find an agreement to cap the price of gas in Europe, while in the background dozens of cargo ships full of the same fuel were queuing in Spain or the United Kingdom to unload their precious cargo.
On October 17 and 18, the Bloomberg and Reuters news agencies counted more than seven LNG tankers anchored in Cadiz Bay, Andalusia, and two in Milford Bay, United Kingdom. More than 35 of them are currently circling in waters off the Spanish and Portuguese coasts. In less than three months, Europe has gone from a shortage to an overflow. As a result, prices on the spot market – i.e. for immediate delivery – have collapsed by 80% from their August peak. They are now lower than they were a year ago, before the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
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Mild weather has reduced the need for heating, the Chinese slowdown has reduced demand and European industry has reduced its consumption in the face of soaring prices this summer. Consequently, reserves are all full. We no longer know where to put them. Naturally, some significant deviations remain. For a delivery this winter, the price is twice as high, while gas remains two to three times more expensive in the Czech Republic than France or the United Kingdom. This situation is encouraging those who charter ships to wait in the sun for a while until the price rises again with the return of cold weather.
U.S. Officials Had a Secret Oil Deal With the Saudis. Or So They Thought.
After Saudi leaders pushed to slash oil production despite a visit by President Biden, American officials have been left fuming that they were duped.
President Biden arriving in Saudi Arabia in July. The administration thought it had secured a promise from the Saudis to keep oil flowing in a bid to stabilize prices.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
By Mark Mazzetti, Edward Wong and Adam Entous
Published Oct. 25, 2022Updated Oct. 26, 2022, 1:32 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON — As President Biden was planning a politically risky trip to Saudi Arabia this summer, his top aides thought they had struck a secret deal to boost oil production through the end of the year — an arrangement that could have helped justify breaking a campaign pledge to shun the kingdom and its crown prince.
It didn’t work out that way.
Mr. Biden went through with the trip. But earlier this month, Saudi Arabia and Russia steered a group of oil-producing countries in voting to slash oil production by two million barrels per day, the opposite of the outcome the administration thought it had secured as the Democratic Party struggles to deal with inflation and high gas prices heading into the November elections.
The move led angry Biden administration officials to reassess America’s relationship with the kingdom and produced a flurry of accusatory statements between the two governments — including a charge by the White House that Saudi Arabia was helping Russia in its war in Ukraine.
Lawmakers who had been told about the trip’s benefits in classified briefings and other conversations that included details of the oil deal — which has not been previously disclosed and was supposed to lead to a surge in production between September and December — have been left fuming that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman duped the administration.
Global health at mercy of fossil fuel addiction, warn scientists
Reliance on oil and gas worsening climate impacts and compounding food, energy and cost of living crises
Dead Rio Grande silvery minnows on the parched riverbed in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Stretches of the river went dry for the first time in 40 years in August. Photograph: Brittany Peterson/AP
Damian Carrington Environment editor
Tue 25 Oct 2022 23.30 BST
The health of the world’s people is at the mercy of a global addiction to fossil fuels, according to a study.
The analysis reports an increase in heat deaths, hunger and infectious disease as the climate crisis intensifies, while governments continue to give more in subsidies to fossil fuels than to the poorer countries experiencing the impacts of global heating.
The climate emergency is compounding the food, energy and cost of living crises, the report says. For example, almost half a trillion hours of work were lost in 2021 due to extreme heat. This mostly affected agricultural workers in poorer countries, cutting food supplies and incomes.
However, the report says urgent, health-centred action to tackle global heating could save millions of lives a year and enable people to thrive rather than just survive, with cleaner air and better diets.
The report, by the Lancet Countdown group on health and climate change, is titled Health at the Mercy of Fossil Fuels. It was produced by almost 100 experts from 51 institutions spanning every continent and published in the run-up the UN Cop27 climate summit in Egypt.
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“The climate crisis is killing us,” said the UN secretary general, António Guterres, responding to the report. “It is undermining not just the health of our planet, but the health of people everywhere – through toxic air pollution, diminishing food security, higher risks of infectious disease outbreaks, record extreme heat, drought, floods and more.”
Human health, livelihoods, household budgets and national economies were being pummelled, as the fossil fuel addiction continued to spiral out of control, he added. “The science is clear: massive, commonsense investments in renewable energy and climate resilience will secure a healthier, safer life for people in every country.”
Dr Marina Romanello, the head of the Lancet Countdown and at University College London (UCL), said: “We are seeing a persistent addiction to fossil fuels. Governments and companies continue to favour the fossil fuel industry to the detriment of people’s health.”
The report tracks 43 health and climate indicators, including exposure to extreme heat. It found that heat-related deaths in the most vulnerable populations – babies under a year old and adults over 65 – increased by 68% over the past four years compared with 2000-04.
“Heatwaves are not only very uncomfortable, they are lethal for people that have increased vulnerabilities,” Romanello said.
Revealed: how climate breakdown is supercharging toll of extreme weather
Extreme heat also led to people being unable to work, with 470bn labour hours lost globally in 2021. “This is about a 40% increase from the 1990s and we estimate the associated income and economic losses at about $700bn,” she said. About 30% more land is now affected by extreme drought events, compared with the 1950s.
These impacts are leading to growing hunger, the report says. Hot periods in 2020 were associated with 98 million more people unable to get the food they needed, compared with the average from 1981-2010, and the proportion of the global population enduring food insecurity is also rising. “The largest driver of this is the changing climate,” Romanello said.
Pump jacks in New Mexico. The strategies of the 15 biggest oil and gas companies remain sharply at odds with ending the climate emergency, the report says. Photograph: Paul Ratje/AFP/Getty Images
Prof Elizabeth Robinson at the London School of Economics said: “This is particularly concerning given that global food supply chains have this year once again been revealed to be highly vulnerable to shocks [such as the war in Ukraine], manifesting in rapidly increasing food prices.”
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The report also recorded the impact of the climate crisis on infectious diseases, finding that the periods when malaria could be transmitted became 32% longer in upland areas of the Americas and 15% longer in Africa over the past decade, compared with the 1950s. The likelihood of dengue transmission rose by 12% over the same period.
The Lancet report also tracks the fossil fuel system. It found that 80% of the 86 governments assessed were subsidising fossil fuels, providing a collective $400bn in 2019. These subsidies were bigger than national health spending in five countries, including Iran and Egypt, and more than 20% of health spending in another 16 countries.
“Governments have so far failed to provide the smaller sum of $100bn per year to help support climate action in lower income countries,” the report notes.
The report says the strategies of the 15 biggest oil and gas companies remain sharply at odds with ending the climate emergency, “regardless of their climate claims and commitments”.
Prof Paul Ekins at UCL said: “Current strategies from many governments and companies will lock the world into a fatally warmer future, tying us to the use of fossil fuels that are rapidly closing off prospects for a liveable world.”
Rapidly cutting fossil fuel burning would not only reduce global heating but deliver immediate health benefits, Romanello said, such as preventing a million or more early deaths caused by air pollution a year.
A move to more plant-rich diets in developed countries will halve emissions from red meat and milk production and prevent up to 11.5 million diet-related deaths a year, the report says.
“The world is at a critical juncture. We must change, otherwise our children face a future of accelerated climate change, threatening their very survival,” said Prof Anthony Costello, the co-chair of the Lancet Countdown. “A health-centred response to the current crises would still provide the opportunity to deliver a low-carbon, resilient, healthy future.”
There can be no more hiding, and no more denying. Global heating is supercharging extreme weather at an astonishing speed, and it’s visible in Sweden and beyond. Guardian analysis recently revealed how human-caused climate breakdown is accelerating the toll of extreme weather across the planet. People across the world are losing their lives and livelihoods due to more deadly and more frequent heatwaves, floods, wildfires and droughts triggered by the climate crisis.
At the Guardian, we will not stop giving this life-altering issue the urgency and attention it demands. We have a huge global team of climate writers around the world and have recently appointed an extreme weather correspondent.
Our editorial independence means we are free to write and publish journalism which prioritises the crisis. We can highlight the climate policy successes and failings of those who lead us in these challenging times. We have no shareholders and no billionaire owner, just the determination and passion to deliver high-impact global reporting, free from commercial or political influence.
And we provide all this for free, for everyone to read. We do this because we believe in information equality. Greater numbers of people can keep track of the global events shaping our world, understand their impact on people and communities, and become inspired to take meaningful action. Millions can benefit from open access to quality, truthful news, regardless of their ability to pay for it.
ion, a likely recession and exploding energy prices: Germany is expecting tough years ahead with diminishing prosperity, a shrinking middle class and growing inequality. This is uncharted territory for the government and society, and both are facing some difficult choices.
The Long Arm of the MullahsHamburg Mosque Reportedly a Hotbed for Iranian Propaganda
The Hamburg Islamic Center is considered the most important outpost of the Iranian regime in Germany. But since it is also reportedly used to spread the mullahs’ propaganda across Europe, calls are growing for its work to be restricted.
By Maik Baumgärtner, Katrin Elger und Ann-Katrin Müller
25.10.2022, 15.39 Uhr
Christian Charisius / picture alliance / dpa
On a Tuesday morning, there isn’t much going on at the Hamburg Islamic Center (IZH) located at a prime address on Alster Lake. Two elderly men sit on a wooden bench and converse in Farsi. Another man stands in front of the mosque’s small bookstore and peers at the treatises laid out on the table in several languages and featuring titles like "They Will Be Done – The Most Beautiful Islamic Prayers" and "The Family in Islam."
ANZEIGE
DER SPIEGEL 43/2022
The article you are reading originally appeared in German in issue 43/2022 (October 22nd, 2022) of DER SPIEGEL.
In the latter, readers learn that "homosexuality, sodomy and adultery are diseases of modernity." In addition to information about this "swamp of sexual dysfunction," it also contains instructions for husbands. For example, in the chapter titled "Obedience or Slavery?," it says, "According to religious regulations, the wife must ask her husband’s permission if she wishes to leave the house." It also states that, no matter what kind of operation he runs, it is the boss’s job to monitor the comings and goings of his staff and to monitor whether they are fulfilling their duties.
ANZEIGE
This kind of misogynistic and homophobic exegesis of the religion alone would be reason enough to be bothered by the Blue Mosque, as the center is also known. But this isn’t the only reason. According to reports, the IZH is also used by Iran’s mullah regime to spread its propaganda and exert influence over Shiite Muslims.
The parliamentary group of the center-right Christian Democrats recently introduced a resolution in Germany’s federal parliament, the Bundestag, to support the Iranian protest movement. Among other things, the resolution calls for closing the IZH and prohibiting the organization from working with German government agencies in any capacity.
A "Significant Center of Propaganda"
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which is charged with keeping tabs on all forms of extremism, has been observing the IZH community for many years and describes it, besides the Iranian Embassy, as "Iran’s most important representation in Germany and a significant center of propaganda" in Europe. Officials there claim that, with the help of the IZH, Iran is seeking to "bind Shiites of different nationalities to it and to spread the basic social, political and religious values of the Iranian state in Europe." Behind the center is the Islamic Community of the Shiite Communities in Germany (IGS), an umbrella organization that claims to represent 150 mosque communities.
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For many exiled Iranians who once fled the brutal Islamists, it is intolerable that the German government hasn’t taken action against the Blue Mosque. Many suspect that the government is afraid to make any such move because it might worsen its diplomatic relations with Iran.
On its website, the Iranian Community in Germany, a secular organization, calls for the European Union – and the German government, in particular – to "monitor and legally prosecute the agents and religious institutions acting here on behalf of the regime." At solidarity rallies, "there are often regime informers spying on us and photographing those participating in the demonstrations."
ANZEIGE
Active Agents in Germany
Iranian agents in Germany are thought to be particularly active. Sources in German security circles in Berlin say that the "handling of opposition figures is a prioritized goal of Iranian intelligence services." In some cases, it is done in a highly professional manner. The Quds Brigade, the elite foreign unit of the Revolutionary Guards, "don’t only rely on their own countrymen" for its activities in Germany. According to information obtained by DER SPIEGEL, they also try to recruit Shiites from other countries.
Demonstrations are currently being held in a number of German cities. And demonstrators have also repeatedly protested in front of the Blue Mosque. Last week, dozens of immigrant associations, academics and politicians from various parties jointly wrote an open letter to the parliament of the city-state of Hamburg. In it, they wrote: "Cooperation with an extremist institution is an affront for a democratic urban community and a threat to domestic security." They added that IZH should not remain a partner of the city.
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The organization is still a member of Schura, the council of Islamic communities in Hamburg. Schura works together with the city and helps to shape religious education in the schools. At the moment, an arbitration committee is "deliberating on the further course of the IZH and whether it can remain a member," sources at Schura said.
Umbrella Organization Denies All Allegations
Susanne Schröter, director of the Frankfurt Research Center on Global Islam (FFGI) at the University of Frankfurt, also signed the protest letter. "According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, there has been evidence for years that the center is not only anti-Semitic, anti-democratic and misogynistic, but also that it has ties to the terrorist Hezbollah militia," she says. "I have little understanding for the fact that people aren’t setting boundaries here."
The IGS umbrella organization, on the other hand, feels unfairly treated and is denying all accusations. "Our members are mosques and congregations that exclusively deal with religious matters," it stated in a press release. "As we have laid down in our statutes, we are committed to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany." It adds, "For us, as the umbrella organization, Iranian politics are not relevant." The IZH itself also writes: "Our only connections abroad are with the offices of the great scholars of the Islamic world."
"Repression and Disregard for Human Rights"
Despite these denials, authorities at Hamburg’s state Interior Ministry have taken action against one of the IZH’s top officials. The deputy head, whom the security authorities accuse of maintaining contacts with the Islamist Hezbollah organization, has been ordered to leave Germany. If he doesn’t do so on his own accord, he will face deportation.
On Thursday afternoon, the city’s deputy mayor, Katharina Fegebank of the Green Party, also expressed her opposition to the center. "As I see it, the IZH’s participation in the city’s contracts with the Islamic religious communities is no longer imaginable," she told DER SPIEGEL. "The IZH is the antithesis of our free and democratic basic order. In Iran, you can see every day what the mullahs’ regime stands for: repression and disregard for human rights."