Russia’s Gazprom finally acted on weeks of threats and hints overnight, cutting the already-reduced flow of gas through the Nord Stream One pipeline to just 20 per cent of its full capacity.
The move brought new worries to Germany, Italy and the other European countries that depend heavily on Russian gas piped from Vyborg, Russia to Germany’s Baltic coast.
But it also brought new questions for the government of Canada — which issued a controversial sanctions waiver that was supposed to enable Gazprom to restore normal flow to Europe, which had been reduced by about 60 per cent since June.
As of 3 a.m. ET Wednesday, the flow is reduced by 80 per cent — a rate that makes it virtually impossible for European countries that depend on Russian gas to fill their underground storage tanks for winter.
The Kremlin, which controls Gazprom, has been playing with the gas supply to Europe in an effort to weaken sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has argued that technical issues caused by sanctions were impeding normal deliveries.
The turbine dispute
At the centre of those arguments are half-a-dozen Siemens gas turbines that compress and propel gas through the undersea pipeline. Those turbines normally are removed from service on a regular, rotating schedule and refurbished in the Montreal workshops of Siemens Energy Canada.
But when Canada sanctioned Russia’s oil and gas sector, Siemens Energy was blocked from returning one of the turbines to Russia through Germany.
Russia warned that it would reduce the flow unless it got its turbine back. The government of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz asked Canada to make an exception to its sanctions regime to permit the turbine’s return.
“We were certainly under a lot of pressure from Germany and the European Union, and on the other side we were under pressure from the Ukrainian government,” Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson told CBC News on July 11, one day after his government granted a “temporary” and “revocable” sanctions waiver to allow the turbine’s return.
The Trudeau government’s decision was criticized harshly by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and by Ukrainian diaspora organizations in Canada.
Canada not signalling any change to waiver
Ukrainian officials told CBC News today that the cuts to supply proved that the sanctions waiver should not have been granted in the first place.
“This decision of waiving sanctions actually did not have any practical impact on helping the European countries, first of all Germany, to secure their gas supply,” said Yulia Kovaliv, Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada.
“Instead we see the next steps of Gazprom blackmailing their European consumers.”
Kovaliv pointed out that the sanctions waiver was presented as “revocable.”
“Gazprom, we believe, took all the steps to provide the evidence that this permission needs to be removed,” she told CBC News.
Natural Resources Canada, which granted the waiver, was heavily critical of the latest move by Gazprom.
“The Russian regime and its propaganda arms are clearly creating additional false pretexts to further and deliberately cause energy instability across Europe in an attempt to sow division amongst allies, as it continues to wage its unjustifiable war against Ukraine,” department spokesperson Keean Nembhard told CBC News.
“We see through their lies. The only thing that would prevent gas from flowing to Europe is (Russian President Vladimir) Putin.”
But neither Natural Resources Canada not Global Affairs Canada responded directly when asked whether the Trudeau government was considering revoking the waiver in response.
Calling the Kremlin’s bluff
No one can claim the reductions in flow came as a surprise to the governments of Germany or Canada — both of which have insisted they’re not naive about Russia’s intentions.
Wilkinson told CBC News after granting the waiver that his government was well aware that Russia was using the turbine as a pretext and might not restore the full flow.
Putin “was saying very publicly that unless the turbines were brought back, it would be our fault that Germany was losing access to Russian gas,” the minister said.
“That’s not to say that Putin may not shut it down on his own. But it’s quite a different circumstance from him being able to say that it was because of Canada’s unwillingness to assist our friends in Germany.”
WATCH: Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says sanctions waiver ‘not a gamble’
Return of turbines ‘not a gamble’ despite risk Russia could cut gas anyways: Minister
14 days ago
Duration 8:15
“We needed to take away the excuses that President Putin has as to why the Nord Stream pipeline could be shut down,” said Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson of Canada’s decision to return sanctioned Russian turbines, insisting the decision is not a gamble.
German leaders said that their country was determined to call Putin’s bluff over the turbine, knowing full well that he could still manipulate the flow based on political calculations.
“We’re delivering now in order to keep Russia from having the excuse that we are basically inflicting harm to ourselves,” Sabine Sparwasser, Germany’s ambassador to Canada, told CBC News.
“In many experts’ opinions, it’s a pretext, but we take away that pretext. We’re delivering the turbine and then we will see whether there is a weaponization of energy by stopping the delivery or not.”
Waiver called into question
As currently framed, the waiver would run for two years and allow numerous turbines to be cycled through Canada.
The exact location of the turbine already returned under the sanctions waiver is unclear. Russian media reported on July 18 that it was on its way from Germany to the Russian Portovaya compressor station.
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed that it had still not reached Russia. “We hope that it will happen… sooner rather than later,” he said.
“The situation is critically complicated by the restrictions and sanctions, which had been imposed against our country.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, listens to Alexei Miller, head of Russia’s gas monopoly Gazprom, during a meeting in Moscow on Sept. 16, 2020. (Mikhail Klimentyev/The Associated Press)
But Siemens Energy told CBC News that the only obstacle to the turbine entering Russia was the Russian government’s own failure to provide an import permit.
“The German authorities provided Siemens Energy with all the necessary documents for the export of the turbine to Russia at the beginning of last week. Gazprom is aware of this,” a Siemens spokesperson said. “What is missing, however, are the customs documents for import to Russia. Gazprom, as the customer, is required to provide those.”
Germany’s nuclear option
Germany has faced heavy criticism since the Ukraine war began for allowing itself to become dependent on Russian energy (against the warnings of allies) and for deepening its energy problems by choosing to close its nuclear power plants — a long-standing goal of governing coalition member the Green Party.
That decision required Germany to replace low-carbon nuclear with lignite, the dirtiest and most carbon-intensive form of coal. It also deepened its dependence on Russian energy.
Wilkinson defended Germany’s right to shut down functioning capacity even as it asked Canada for a sanctions waiver because of feared shortages.
But today, Germany’s energy inspector told the Bild newspaper that Germany is looking at cancelling the proposed closure of three nuclear plants this December and may also reopen plants that were already closed.
A RWE AG nuclear power plant in Lingen, Germany on March 18, 2022. (Martin Meissner/Associated Press)
Ukraine makes a new offer
Ukrainian officials told CBC News they have made a new offer to Germany to supply it with electricity.
The power would come from Ukraine’s own nuclear, hydro and renewable generating capacity — in spite of the difficult wartime conditions Ukraine faces that include the occupation by Russian troops of its Zaporizhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest.
The electricity on offer, Ukraine said, would be equivalent to five billion cubic metres of natural gas and would help Germany and its western European neighbours reduce their dependency on Russia.
Olga Bielkova speaks for Ukraine’s state gas company. She said the overnight reductions in Nord Stream are “not a surprise at all.”
“I would want to say I told you so, but I was trained not to say so.”
Bielkova said that reporting on western and central European energy woes often overlooks the catastrophic energy situation that Ukraine itself faces.
Before the war, Ukraine was one of Europe’s largest producers of natural gas, pumping out 20 billion cubic metres per year. But it has seen pipelines damaged, its facilities attacked, a large part of its territory occupied and much of its industrial base destroyed.
Bielkova said it is time for European nations to face a reality that Ukraine has already accepted.
“It is very probable that at some point they will put us all in a very difficult situation by stopping this supply, regardless of which routes, be it Nord Stream One, the Ukrainian route, or TurkStream. And Europe as the largest consumer of Russian gas should exercise some power as a customer.”
VANCOUVER – Air traffic control audio shows a Boeing 767 cargo jet reported a “flight control problem” involving a mechanism on its wings used to slow the aircraft just before it skidded off a runway at Vancouver’s airport at high speed.
Conversations between the pilots on the Amazon Prime Air jet and air traffic control reveal that the plane was experiencing a problem with its “leading edge slats,” and was carrying about 10,000 kilograms of fuel.
In other recordings the tower tells awaiting emergency responders that the jet was “coming in fast,” while data from the Flightradar24 database shows the plane was travelling at a ground speed of about 200 km/h when it left the runway.
The Transportation Safety Board said it’s investigating after the flight went off the end of the north runway at about 1:45 a.m. on Tuesday.
None of the three-person crew was hurt, but the airport said the north runway will remain closed for about two days as the jet sits in a grass field, nose down, with engines on each of the mud-splattered wings touching the ground.
Vancouver airport CEO Tamara Vrooman says there was “no risk” at any point of the plane breaching the runway’s “secure” perimeter, which separates it from the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet shopping mall and its parking lot.
Vrooman says that all flights originally scheduled for the day were moved to the south runway, and only about 5 per cent of flights experienced any disruptions due to the move.
Flightradar24, a global flight tracking database, says the plane operated by Cargojet Airways left Hamilton, Ont., just after midnight eastern time and its flight path shows it continued 500 metres past the end of the runway in Vancouver before coming to a stop.
The audio recordings of air traffic control in Vancouver show the crew reported problems with the plane’s control systems about 20 minutes before landing, with one crew member requesting time to run a checklist to try to resolve the issue.
An air traffic controller said they wanted to keep the plane “close to the airport,” while the crew tried to find a solution, but control also asked if emergency responders should be ready.
“Yeah, we can bring out the fire trucks just for precaution,” a crew member told air traffic control.
The crew also confirmed to air traffic control that it had no dangerous cargo on-board, other than the fuel.
According to the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Beginner’s Guide to Aeronautics, slats and flaps on an aircraft’s wings are deployed to both slow a plane for landing as well as generate lift.
At the time the jet slid off the runway, Environment Canada’s weather station at the airport showed light rain and snow had been falling for about 90 minutes.
The safety board’s website says runway overruns can damage planes and, in the worst cases, lead to injuries or deaths.
The board says the consequences can be particularly serious when there isn’t enough room at the end of a runway or a suitable system to stop planes.
“This closure will have an impact on YVR operations and flight schedules, but aircraft continue to arrive and depart on our south runway,” the airport said in an updated statement Tuesday.
“We encourage passengers to check with their airlines for current flight schedules and status before heading to YVR.”
Vrooman did not offer a specific timeline for the removal of the jet, but she said that cargo would be removed before crews build some sort of roadway through the grassy area where the plane came to a stop in order to pull it out of its current location.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2024.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For two weeks, Donald Trump has welcomed Elon Musk into his world. On Tuesday, it was Musk’s turn to play host to the president-elect.
Trump flew to South Texas to watch as Musk’s SpaceX launched a Starship rocket near the Mexican border. Trump listened intently as the world’s richest man explained how the test would work and demonstrated with a model. And then Trump squinted into the bright sky to watch liftoff.
It didn’t go perfectly -– the reuseable booster did not return to the launch pad as it had done on a previous test last month. Instead, the booster was directed to a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
But Trump’s presence at the launch was a remarkable display of intimacy between the two men, one with implications for American politics, the government, foreign policy and even the possibility of humans reaching Mars.
Musk spent around $200 million to help Trump beat Democrat Kamala Harris in the presidential race, and he’s been given unparalleled access. He’s counseled Trump on nominees for the new administration, joined the president-elect’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and been tapped to co-chair an advisory panel on cutting the size of the federal bureaucracy.
In addition to political influence, Musk could benefit personally as well. SpaceX, his rocket company, has billions of dollars in government contracts and the goal of eventually starting a colony on Mars. He’s also CEO of Tesla, which manufactures electric vehicles, and has battled with regulators over safety concerns involving autonomous driving.
“Trump has the biggest possible regard for people who break the rules and get away with it,” said William Galston, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank. “Musk has demonstrated extraordinary accomplishment in doing that.”
To top if off, Musk owns the social media company X, formally known as Twitter, which he has harnessed as an influential perch to promote Trump and his agenda.
“Stop the Swamp!” he wrote on Tuesday as he shared a warning that entrenched Washington interests are trying to undermine Trump before his inauguration.
Before the election, Musk rejected the idea that he was expecting any favors in return for supporting Trump in the presidential race.
“There is no quid pro quo,” he posted on X in September. “With a Trump administration, we can execute major government reform, remove bureaucratic paperwork that is smothering the country and unlock a new age of prosperity.”
However, Trump has not gone anywhere without Musk in the two weeks since beating Harris. Musk joined Trump at a meeting with House Republicans in Washington and sat next to him at an Ultimate Fighting Championship match in New York. The trip to Texas for the rocket launch was just Trump’s third time outside Florida since the election.
Much of Trump’s activity is happening with little public access for the press. Unlike his predecessors, he has opted against regularly making his travel plans or events open to journalists.
The relationship between Trump and Musk was not always so close.
Two years ago, Trump was mocking Musk in stump speeches and Musk was saying it was time for Trump to “hang up his hat & sail into the sunset.”
“Trump would be 82 at end of term, which is too old to be chief executive of anything, let alone the United States of America,” Musk wrote on social media.
But Musk swiftly endorsed Trump after the former president survived an assassination attempt in July. He quickly became a central figure in Trump’s orbit, appearing at times more like his running mate than Ohio Sen. JD Vance.
Trump started boasting about Musk’s accomplishments at campaign rallies, such as when Starship’s reusable rocket booster returned to the launch tower on a previous occasion and was caught by mechanical arms.
“Those arms grab it like you grab your baby, just like you grab your little baby. And it hugged it and just put it down, and there it was,” Trump said.
Musk was with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort on election night and has spent much of the two weeks since there. Trump’s granddaughter Kai Trump posted a photo of her with Musk at one of Trump’s golf resorts, writing that Musk was “achieving uncle status.”
Last week, Musk appeared in a golden ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, seated in the center of the room as a guest of honor at an event. Trump, in his remarks at the black tie event, said Musk’s IQ is “about as high as they can get” and praised him as “a really good guy.”
“He launched a rocket three weeks ago and then he went to Pennsylvania to campaign because he considered this more important than launching rockets that cost billions of dollars,” Trump said.
He joked about Musk’s constant presence at Mar-a-Lago, saying, “He likes this place. I can’t get him out of here.”
He added, “And you know what, I like having him here.”
Musk said of the election results: “The public has given us a mandate that could not be more clear.”
Images that depict the faces of girls with nude bodies have led to the departure of leaders from a private school in Pennsylvania, prompted a student protest and triggered a criminal investigation.
A juvenile suspect was “removed from” Lancaster Country Day School and his cellphone was seized by investigators in August, Susquehanna Regional Police Department Detective Laurel Bair said Tuesday.
It’s the latest example of how the use of artificial intelligence to create or manipulate images with sexual content has become a concern, including within school settings.
U.S. law enforcement has been cracking down on graphic depictions of computer-generated children as well as manipulated photos of real ones. The Justice Department says it’s pursuing those who exploit AI tools and states are racing to enact laws to address the problem.
A new Pennsylvania state law that takes effect late next month explicitly criminalizes making or disseminating AI-generated child sexual abuse material.
And police in South Korea are on a seven-month push to combat explicit deepfake content, with tougher penalties, expanded use of undercover officers and increased regulation of social media. Concerns in South Korea deepened after unconfirmed lists of schools with victims spread earlier this year.
As part of the police investigation into what the Lancaster Country Day School describes as “disturbing AI generated photographs,” a search warrant was used this summer to obtain an iPhone 11 linked to a 15-year-old, according to court records. The records do not identify the teen.
A woman told police that her daughter said a fellow student had been “taking photographs of students and using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to portray the female juvenile students as being nude,” according to a probable cause affidavit used to apply for the search warrant.
Matt Micciche, then the head of the school, told police the school had received a complaint about the photos in November 2023 through the Safe2Say Something program but the suspect, identified by his initials, denied the allegations, according to Bair’s affidavit.
When some parents became aware of the photos in May, Bair wrote, they also learned that the “AI nude photographs” had been posted in a chat room.
Bair, leading the investigation because the suspect lives in the Susquehanna Regional Police Department’s territory, said there has been shock at the school “that this is even occurring and that it happened within their small community.” She declined to say how many girls had been shown in the images but added that more information about the case will likely be made public in the coming two weeks.
Erik Yabor, a spokesperson for Lancaster District Attorney Heather Adams, said Tuesday that Lancaster County prosecutors had no comment about the ongoing investigation.
A spokesperson for Attorney General Michelle Henry’s office said the agency was not able to talk about specific tips or reports made to the Safe2Say Something platform, which fields anonymous reports from students and others about safety threats.
“Generally speaking, our team intakes the tips and sends them to the respective law enforcement or school personnel for review,” Brett Hambright said. “We have confirmed that was done regarding the matter you inquired about.”
LNP in Lancaster reported that most of Lancaster Country Day’s high-school age students held a walkout on Friday, Nov. 8, marching around the campus and chanting, “Hear us. Acknowledge us. See us.” School was canceled on Monday.
LNP said the school indicated on Friday that it had “parted ways” with Micciche and that board president Angela Ang-Alhadeff had stepped down. The Associated Press left phone messages seeking comment with both of them on Tuesday. A letter addressed to the school community Monday by the Lancaster Country Day Board of Trustees said it was working to replace them and was “still in the process of finalizing the resolution to the case.”
“What we can say is that over the course of the past week the board was made aware of information that led us to the decision to resolve the matter,” the board wrote, including acting “in the best interests of the girls who have been impacted and in the best interest of the school long term.”
The school said counseling has been offered to students and the institution is reviewing reporting procedures, safety practices and other policies regarding student safety.
