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world news Diahuebs 4 augustus 2022

Cold showers, no lights: Europe saves as Russian gas wanes

(AP) — Fanning out like “Everyone can have a posi- harbinger of worse to come if
urban guerrillas through tive impact at their own level, Russian gas supplies are com-
Paris’ darkened streets by adopting good practices, pletely severed and stay off
well after midnight, the by doing the right things to through 2023, said France’s
anti-waste activists shinny reduce their overall energy minister overseeing energy,
up walls and drain pipes, footprint,” the 30-year-old Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
reaching for switches to Ha said on a recent night of
turn off the lights. light-extinguishing on the “If gas deliveries are cut by
Champs-Élysées boulevard. the end of the year, that will
Click. Click. Click. mean we’ll have a full year
The stakes are high. If Rus- without Russian gas, so the
One by one, the outdoor sia severs the supplies of gas following winter could be
lights that stores had left on it has already drastically re- even harder,” Pannier-Ru-
are extinguished. It’s one duced, authorities fear Eu- nacher told French senators.
small but symbolic step in a rope risks becoming a colder,
giant leap of energy saving darker and less-productive Hence the mounting appeals
that Europe is trying to make place this winter. It’s impera- — already familiar to exas- by 2 degrees to 20 Celsius (68 weekly Der Spiegel he has
as it rushes to wean itself off tive to economize gas now so perated parents of wasteful Fahrenheit) this winter. Ber- slashed the time he spends
natural gas and oil from Rus- it can be squirreled away for teenagers everywhere — for lin City Hall, the Jewish Mu- showering.
sia so factories aren’t forced burning later in homes, fac- Europeans to take shorter seum, two opera houses and “It will be a demanding, stony
to close and homes stay heat- tories and power plants, of- showers, switch off power the landmark Victory Col- road, but we can manage it,”
ed and powered. ficials say. sockets and otherwise do umn with panoramic views he said.
what they can. are among about 200 sites in
Engineer Kevin Ha and his “Europe needs to be ready,” the German capital that will With a campaign dubbed
equally nimble friends had said European Commission Germany had been getting no longer be lit at night. “Flip the Switch,” the Neth-
been acting against waste- President Ursula von der about a third of its gas from erlands’ government is urg-
ful businesses in Paris long Leyen. “To make it through Russia, making the EU’s big- Saunas are closing in Mu- ing showers of no more
before Russia started cutting the winter, assuming that gest economy and most pop- nich’s municipal swimming than five minutes, using sun
energy supplies to Europe in a there is a full disruption of ulous nation conspicuously pools, which have chillier shades and fans instead of air
battle of wills over Moscow’s Russian gas, we need to save vulnerable. Energy saving is water now, too. There’ll only conditioning, and air-drying
invasion of Ukraine. As such, gas to fill our gas storages in full swing, with lights go- be cold showers at public laundry.
the campaigners were pre- faster. And to do so, we have ing off, public pools becom- pools in Hannover, part of a
cursors of the energy econ- to reduce our gas consump- ing chillier and thermostats plan by the northern city to Under a law passed Monday
omy drive becoming all the tion. I know that this is a big being adjusted. cut its energy use by 15%. in often-sweltering Spain, of-
rage in France, Germany and ask for the whole of the Eu- fices, stores and hospitality
elsewhere. Their message — ropean Union, but it is nec- The glass dome of the Reich- “The sum of all the contribu- venues will no longer be al-
that everyone can contribute essary to protect us.” stag, the parliament building tions will help us get through lowed to set their thermostats
— is almost word-for-word in Berlin, is going dark after this winter and be prepared below 27 degrees Celsius (81
what public officials from And although Europe is it closes to visitors at mid- for the next one,” said Rob- degrees Fahrenheit) in sum-
cabinet ministers to mayors scrambling to get energy night, and two facades will ert Habeck, Germany’s vice mer, nor raise them above 19
are saying now, too. from elsewhere, any diffi- no longer be lit. Legislators’ chancellor and economy degrees Celsius in winter.
culties this winter could be a office temperatures will drop minister. He also told news

Inspectors OK 1st Ukraine grain ship but no sign yet of more

(AP) — The first grain Lebanon. Ukraine said 17 Odesa on Monday carry- past 48 hours and no explana-
ship to leave Ukraine and other vessels were “loaded A joint civilian inspec- ing Ukrainian corn, a U.N. tions have been given for that
cross the Black Sea under and waiting permission tion team spent three hours statement said. delay.
a wartime deal passed in- to leave,” but there was checking the cargo and crew
spection Wednesday in Is- no word yet on when they of the Sierra Leone-flagged The Joint Coordination A U.N. statement said in-
tanbul and headed on to could depart. ship Razoni, which left Center team included offi- spectors “gained valuable
cials from Ukraine, Russia, information” from the Ra-
Turkey and the United Na- zoni’s crew about its voyage
tions, who signed deals last through the Black Sea mari-
month to create safe Black time humanitarian corridor
Sea shipping corridors to ex- and the coordination cen-
port Ukraine’s desperately ter was “fine-tuning proce-
needed agricultural prod- dures.”
ucts as Russia’s war upon its
neighbor grinds on. The Turkish Ministry of Na-
tional Defense tweeted a pic-
Ukraine is a major global ture of an inspector reaching
grain supplier but the war into the Razoni’s hold and
had blocked most exports, touching some of its 26,527
so the July 22 deal aimed to tons of corn for chicken feed.
ease food security around The Razoni’s horn rang out
the globe. World food prices as the inspectors left the ship,
have been soaring in a crisis and then it headed off to Leb-
blamed on the war, supply anon.
chain problems and COV-
ID-19. The checks seek to ensure
that outbound cargo ships
Although U.S. Secretary of carry only grain, fertilizer or
State Antony Blinken called food and not any other com-
Razoni’s journey a “signifi- modities, and that inbound
cant step,” no other ships ships are not carrying weap-
have left from Ukraine in the ons.