Germany has urged businesses and public institutions to heat their offices no higher than 19 degrees Celsius (66.2 degrees Fahrenheit) this winter to help reduce the country's consumption of natural gas.

Saturday's plea from Economy Minister Robert Habeck comes as the country is trying to wean itself off using natural gas from Russia in response to Moscow's attack on Ukraine.

He is also proposing banning the heating of non-commercial private pools; switching off heating in common areas of public buildings, such as foyers; and switching off the lights on public billboards between 10pm and 6am.

Habeck said while the EU's 27 countries have pledged to cut their gas use by 15% from August compared to the previous five-year average, Germany needs to reduce its consumption by 20%.

Germany uses more Russian gas imports than many other EU nations.

Russian gas embargo

Russia has already cut off gas exports to several EU nations, and officials fear Moscow will use the gas exports as a political weapon to get sanctions against Russia reduced.

The country might even cut the exports to Europe off altogether in the winter, when demand is the highest.

In case of such an embargo, the International Monetary Fund had warned that Germany's gross domestic product would shrink over 1 percent even if the country could access alternative energy sources and lower consumption.

The IMF also predicted deep recessions in Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Italy unless countries can cooperate more to share alternative supplies.

Source: agencies

Two more ships carrying sunflower seed and corn have sailed from Ukrainian ports, Türkiye's National Defence Ministry has said.

The Barbados-flagged ship FULMAR S, carrying 12,000 tonnes of corn, left the Chornomorsk port on Saturday for Iskenderun, Türkiye.

The other ship, Marshal Islands-flagged THOE, sailed from the same port with 3,000 tonnes of sunflower seed, for Tekirdag, northwestern Türkiye.

On July 22, Türkiye, the United Nations, Russia and Ukraine signed a landmark deal in Istanbul to reopen three Ukrainian Black Sea ports for exporting Ukrainian grain stuck due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which is now in its sixth month.

To oversee the process, a Joint Coordination Centre in Istanbul was officially launched on July 27, comprising representatives from the three countries and the UN. It enables safe transportation of commercial foodstuffs and fertilisers by merchant ships.

The first ship left Ukraine on August 1 under the Türkiye-brokered deal.

Source: AA

Tropical storm Meari has unleashed heavy rains on Japan's main Honshu island, heading northward toward capital Tokyo, according to Japanese weather officials.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said that Meari made landfall in Shizuoka Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, on Saturday afternoon, bringing sudden heavy rains and blasting winds, and prompting warnings about mudslides and flooding.

More than 72,000 people in the area's main city of Shizuoka were told to evacuate due to possible landslides.

Meari, packing sustained winds of up to 72 kilometres (45 miles) per hour, passed over Shizuoka and was traveling at a speed of about 20 kilometres (12 miles) an hour and was expected to continue northward before veering eastward, swinging over the Pacific Ocean by early Sunday.

The Tokyo area was hammered by periodic downpours starting   late morning. Warnings on high waves in coastal areas were issued for Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, and other nearby areas.

The authorities warned against going near rivers or other water bodies, as the levels may rise suddenly. Rainfall was expected to worsen in Tokyo and areas north of Tokyo in the evening, they said. Warnings on flooding, strong winds and heavy rainfall were issued for the Tokyo area.

Disruptions

Japanese media reports showed video of rivers rising perilously, almost reaching bridge decks, as rain splashed down on homes and people scurried in the streets, clinging to their umbrellas.

Japan is in the middle of the Bon summer holidays, and vacationers are traveling in droves but some have had to cancel or change plans.

The Rock in Japan Festival 2022, which began a week ago in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, canceled the event for Saturday, the final day of the outdoor festival, and promised ticket refunds.

All Nippon Airways has canceled some local flights in response to the storm. Low-cost carrier Skymark Airlines also canceled some flights. Bullet train services were delayed, and speed limits in tunnels in Shizuoka were temporarily lowered as a cautionary measure. Sections of the Tomei Expressway, which connects Tokyo with Nagoya, were temporarily blocked off because of the heavy rainfall.

Northern Japan has had some heavy rainfall lately, and worries were growing about landslides. Rainfall was forecast to subside by early Sunday in the Tokyo area, but then it will hit northeastern Japan.

The world’s third largest economy has often seen deaths and injuries caused by seasonal storms and torrential rainfall that damage dams, blow off rooftops and bring down power lines.

Source: AP

Myanmar's ruling junta has moved to restrict political parties from meeting foreigners or international organisations ahead of an election expected next year.

The junta-stacked Union Election Commission said on Friday that the country's 92 registered political parties would have to ask for permission if they wished to meet foreign organisations or individuals.

"Political parties need to respect the law. If they fail to do so their party's registration will be dissolved," the commission said in a statement.

The body also accused foreign embassies and international non-governmental organisations of interfering in the 2020 polls resulting in fraud.

Earlier this month, the junta extended a state of emergency by six months saying elections could only take place when the conflict-wracked country was "stable and peaceful".

It has previously said elections would be held and the state of emergency lifted by August 2023, extending the initial one-year timeline it announced days after the coup.

'Neither free nor fair'

The Southeast Asian nation has been plunged into turmoil and its economy is in tatters since a February 2021 coup which ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's government.

The military alleged widespread voter fraud during November 2020 polls which Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party won, although international observers said the election was largely free and fair.

Political parties in Myanmar were scathing of the new edict. Former NLD lawmaker Soe Thura Tun said it was undemocratic and did not respect the right to freedom of association.

Ko Ko Gyi, chair of the People's Party, said the announcement was unprecedented and did not bode well for the prospects of Myanmar's next election being a genuine exercise in democracy.

"We believe that their action will cause major damage to the Myanmar people and international community's trust in the upcoming election and democratic system," he said on Saturday.

Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the international community to reject the junta's "sham elections" planned for next year.

"They can be neither free nor fair under present conditions," he said at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers' meeting in Phnom Penh, from which the junta's top diplomat was excluded over its failure to negotiate with its opponents.

Last year, the junta cancelled the results of the 2020 polls, saying it had uncovered more than 11 million instances of alleged voter fraud.

Source: AFP

The United States has expressed concern to India that its ship was used earlier this year to export fuel made from Russian crude to New York through high-seas transfers, a top Indian central banker said.

US sanctions on Russia for its February attack on Ukraine prohibit imports to the United States of Russian-origin energy products including crude oil, refined fuels, distillates, coal and gas.

"You know that there are sanctions against people who are buying Russian oil, and this was reported to us by the US Treasury," Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Michael Patra told an audience of government officials and figures in finance and banking.

"It turns out, an Indian ship met a Russian tanker in mid-seas, picked up oil in the mid-seas, came to a port in Gujarat, it was processed in that port and converted into a distillate which actually goes into making single-use plastic," Patra said at the event in Odisha state, held to celebrate 75 years of India's independence.

"The refined output was put back on that ship and it set sail without a destination. In the mid-seas it received the destination so it reached its course, went to New York. So that's the way war works. It works in strange ways."

Trades still going strong

Patra did not name the ship or give any other details.

The US embassy in New Delhi had no comment.

India, the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer, has become one of the biggest importers of Russian oil since the assault on Ukraine, having bought very little of it previously.

Russia is traditionally India's biggest supplier of military hardware, and New Delhi has not condemned Moscow's aggression towards Ukraine, though it has called for an end to violence.

Source: Reuters

Greece: Zeybek requests the impeachment of Athanasiou for the reference to the minority MPs

Xanthi SİRİZA MP Huseyin Zeybek issued a statement after the 2nd Vice President of the Greek Parliament, Haralambos Athanasiu, stated that the elected deputies of the Turkish minority could be heard.

Zeybek’s statement is as follows:

“Unfortunately, once again the Vice-President of the Parliament, Mr. Athanasiou, unpleasantly surprises us, once again targeting the minority and particularly the elected minority MPs.

In his attempt to justify the necessity (!) of wiretapping on behalf of the New Democracy Government, he took the unprecedented step of adopting the theory that minority MPs are national underdogs and internal enemies, introducing discrimination even within the Parliament.

Let me remind you that such opinions were heard institutionally in the past, only from the Golden Dawn. As it seems, however, fascist perceptions have not disappeared, even from the Greek Parliament. The baton of their reproduction has now been taken over by the New Democracy party and, in fact, by its prominent officials.

The minimum that New Democracy must do is to expel Mr. Athanasiou from its parliamentary group, as well as from the office of the Vice-President of the Parliament. At the same time, the Government must immediately account for the wiretapping issue, as well as clarify whether the words of Mr. Athanasios contain any dose of truth.”