North and South Korea and the U.N. Command agreed on Monday to withdraw firearms and guard posts in the demilitarized zone village of Panmunjom this week, Seoul’s defense ministry said, the latest move in a fast-improving relationship. Source: Reuters
Military Cooperations
President Donald Trump said Washington will exit the Cold-War era treaty that eliminated a class of nuclear weapons due to Russian violations, triggering a warning of retaliatory measures from Moscow. Source: Cyprus Mail
Meeting in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi, the Russian and Egyptian presidents have signed what officials describes as a strategic cooperation treaty designed to increase trade, military, and other ties between the two nations. Source: Radio Free Europe
Officials from South Korea, North Korea and the United Nations are scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss disarming the tensely guarded inter-Korea border as the two countries look for ways to ratchet down military tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Source: Bloomberg
Jordan on Monday reopened its main border crossing with war-torn Syria, a key Middle East trade route, after a three year closure, an AFP photographer reported. Source: France 24
Russian and Uzbekistani Defense Ministers Army General Sergei Shoigu and Major-General Abdusalom Azizov have signed an agreement on the mutual use of the airspace by military aircraft. Source: TASS
About 50,000 troops from 31 countries will participate in NATO’s Trident Juncture 2018 exercise in Norway from Oct. 25 to Nov. 7, the Norwegian Armed Forces said on Wednesday. Source: Xinhuanet
Serbia has raised the combat readiness of its troops on the border with Kosovo as a four-day flare-up over mutual recognition of state authority bedevils the Balkan neighbors, with Serbia’s president suggesting there are limits to what Belgrade will “tolerate.” Source Radio Free Europe
Pipeline gas supplies from Russia to Europe in 2021 reached historic highs, Gazprom increased gas production year-on-year by 18.4%. The accusations that Gazprom is not supplying gas to Europe are absurd, Head of Contract Structuring and Price Formation Directorate for Gazprom Export Sergey Komlev said in his article for Gazprom corporate magazine. Source TASS
Sweden’s government and Public Health Agency confirmed that it will definitely go ahead with the fourth and penultimate stage of its re-opening plan next week, with a firm warning for unvaccinated people. Source The Local
China sent 24 fighter jets toward Taiwan in a large display of force Thursday, after the self-governing island announced its intention to join an 11-nation Pacific trade group that China has also applied to join. Source Military.com
France’s defence minister has warned Mali that hiring paramilitaries from Russian private-security firm Wagner would isolate the country internationally, during a visit to the Sahel state. Florence Parly told reporters on Monday that if Mali hired the firm, at a time when international partners fighting jihadism in the Sahel “had never been so numerous, such a choice would be that of isolation”. Source France24
- Six former Treasury secretaries urged Congress in a letter to take quick action to raise or suspend the U.S. debt ceiling or else risk “serious economic and national security harm.”
- The six warned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that even flirting with a first ever U.S. default could spook markets and raise concerns about the country’s credit.
- The letter was signed by former Treasury Secretaries Henry Paulson, Timothy Geithner, Larry Summers, Jack Lew, Robert Rubin and Michael Blumenthal.
- Steven Mnuchin, who served as Treasury secretary under former President Donald Trump, did not sign the letter. Source CNBC
A volley of shots has been fired at a car carrying a principal aide of Ukraine’s president, in what a senior official called an assassination attempt. More than 10 bullets hit the car during Wednesday’s attack near the village of Lesnyky, about five kilometres (three miles) outside the capital Kyiv, a police statement said. Source Al Jazeera
As France’s submarine row with the US, the UK and Australia turns into a full-blown diplomatic crisis, French President Emmanuel Macron dialled PM Narendra Modi on Tuesday to talk about strengthening cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and also boost, as Macron’s office said in a statement, India’s strategic autonomy. Source Times Of India
A lack of CO2 used to stun farm animals before slaughter is the result of fertiliser factories, of which they are a by-product, shutting down because of a spike in gas prices. Britain’s meat processors will start running out of carbon dioxide (CO2) within five days, forcing them to halt production and impacting supplies to retailers, the industry’s lobby group warned on Monday. Source Sky News
Britain’s energy industry could be headed for a significant shake-up, industry insiders have warned, as countries all over Europe grapple with an unprecedented crisis in the power sector. Wholesale gas prices have spiked across the region, with the U.K. being hit particularly hard. Source CNBC
The “punishing” price of wholesale electricity is making it uneconomical to make steel at certain times, an industry body has said.
Director General of UK Steel Gareth Stace said wholesale prices had quadrupled to upwards of £1,000/MWh. Source BBC
Britain, which faces soaring natural gas prices, has been forced to run coal-fired power stations in order to secure energy supplies, electricity generation company Drax said on Thursday. Source France24
Two more energy firms have ceased trading as rocketing wholesale gas and electricity prices push the majority of the UK’s smaller energy suppliers to the brink. Avro Energy and energy firm Green have both collapsed today putting hundreds of thousands of customers into limbo. Ofgem has reassured people affected that their energy supplies will continue. Source Wales Online
Russian gas giant Gazprom has turned down an option to maximize gas shipments to Europe as the continent faces a looming energy crisis amid surging natural gas prices. Gazprom did not book any of the additional capacity available in transit pipelines running through Ukraine in auctions for October, the state-run Interfax news agency reported Monday. The company also reserved only a third of the space it was offered on the Yamal gas pipeline, which goes through Poland. Source The Moscow Times
At least four of the smaller UK energy companies are expected to go bust next week amid soaring wholesale gas prices. Industry sources have told the BBC that four firms have asked larger players to bid to take over the supply to one million customers. Source BBC
-European gas prices surged more than 10% as Russia is keeping its grip on the market, opting to cap additional flows to the continent. Gazprom PJSC opted not to flow more gas to Europe via Ukraine in October, according to the results of an auction on Monday. There were also signs Russian flows via the key Yamal-Europe pipeline will remain limited, with traders booking just a fraction of the capacity offered to flow gas next month into Germany via the Mallnow compressor station. Source World Oil
The troubled Chinese property group Evergrande has edged closer to a government-engineered restructuring which could see bondholders take huge losses as Beijing’s price for saving millions of homeowners from financial ruin. Source The Guardian
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned the US government will run out of money next month. She called on Congress to raise the debt limit in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Source DW
he last section of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline has been welded into place, its operator said on Monday, meaning the two long stretches of the pipe can now be joined to complete the Baltic subsea link. Source Reuters
Gazprom is finalizing startup on the first string of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to begin supplies and is close to completion of second string laying, a top manager of the company said on Tuesday at a teleconference. Source Tass
Carmakers made only 53,438 vehicles, down 38% from a year ago and the lowest for the month of July since 1956, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said Thursday. Similar issues plagued auto manufacturers in June, when they had their second-worst showing for that month since 1953. Source Detroit News
A company which supplies food to care homes and restaurants says it is taking “drastic action” to try to get round the shortage of UK lorry drivers. The boss of Country Range said the group was buying smaller vans in the face of “significant” problems caused by a lack of qualified HGV drivers. Managing director Coral Rose said the issue was “going to get worse” as schools and offices return to normal. Source BBC
