Âu

[Triển]

Germany, EU hit out at US over US sanctions on Russian gas pipeline

Berlin (AFP)

Germany accused the US of interfering in its internal affairs on Saturday, in an increasingly angry spat over Washington's decision to impose sanctions on companies involved with a major project to supply Western Europe with Russian gas.

Moscow and the European Union also issued statements criticising the sanctions, a day after President Donald Trump signed off on asset freezes and visa restrictions on those involved in the Nord Stream 2 project.

US lawmakers are seeking to stymie what they regard as an increasing reliance on Russian energy in Western Europe by targeting the project, which aims to double deliveries of Russian natural gas to Germany via a pipeline under the Baltic Sea.

The sanctions target contractors working to lay pipes for Nord Stream 2 -- a 10-billion-euro ($11-billion) project expected to be completed in early 2020 -- and another Russian gas project, TurkStream.

In the first sign that the sanctions were beginning to bite, Swiss contractor Allseas suspended its Nord Stream 2 activities while it awaited clarification from the US authorities on the detail of the measures.

- 'Particularly incomprehensible' -

Although US Congress overwhelmingly backed the sanctions, there was some criticism among lawmakers of a move that in effect punishes NATO allies such as Germany.

While an EU spokesman criticised "the imposition of sanctions against EU companies conducting legitimate business", the German government said Berlin rejected "these sorts of extra-territorial sanctions".

"They will hit German and European companies and constitute an interference in our internal affairs," said Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the United States of pushing an ideology that hindered global trade, adding on her Facebook page: "Soon they will demand that we stop breathing."

But the United States is not the only nation to question the project -- Ukraine, Poland and some of the Baltic nations have also expressed doubts.

Ukraine had worried that the new pipeline would cut it out of the gas supply business and allow Russia to ratchet up pressure over other issues.

US lawmakers had cited support of Kiev as part of their justification for imposing sanctions.

But Demmer said this rationale was "particularly incomprehensible" because Moscow and Kiev reached an agreement in principle last week that will regulate the transit of Russian gas to Ukraine from 2020.

More than 80 percent of the undersea pipeline has been completed for the project -- half-financed by Russia's state-owned Gazprom, with the other half paid for by five European companies.

© 2019 AFP


/* src.: https://www.france24.com/en/20191221...n-gas-pipeline

[Triển]

Đức Dalai Lạt Ma Tây Tạng có nói:
"....
Arms trade - you make some money, you make some profit, at expense of innocent people's lives
..."

Nói khác đi thì người buôn bán vũ khí không thể nói chuyện hòa bình được.

Cũng phải, các cố gắng dàn xếp hiệp ước Minsk với Nga giữa Đức - Pháp và Nga

chỉ làm cho có lệ. Làm thật quá mai kia không còn ai mua vũ khí!

---

German arms exports shoot to record high, Hungary biggest buyer

Three years of falling weapons and military hardware exports have gone into reverse,
reaching almost €8 billion in 2019. The figures have been criticized as proving that controls
on weapons deliveries are not working.



/* src.: https://www.dw.com/en/german-arms-ex...ndH_I0F9SC_BYk

[Triển]

Khi gặp chuyên gia khai thuế, điều đầu tiên họ nói tiết kiệm tiền
thuế bằng cách .... "bỏ đạo". Đức có thuế nhà thờ hơi cao cho
"dân có đạo". Vì vậy hội thánh Đức giàu thấy bà cố. Hồi xưa có
nhiều người tị nạn Việt Nam sang đây chân ướt chân ráo, phần
vì để tri ân các hội xứ đạo từ thiện mà khai man là "có đạo" ... Chúa.
Lúc có việc làm họ hỡi ôi vì bị quất thuế nhà thờ.
Mấy chục năm sau đùng một cái thống nhất nước Đức. Ai ai cũng
vui vẻ reo hò. Hai năm sau đùng một cái có cái "thuế đoàn kết".
Người người méo mặt vì trừ bớt 5,5% lương. Bây giờ với "tổ hợp chính trị"
mới, diễn cho hay ho là chính phủ liên minh đảng trị ký kết với nhau bắt đầu
từ năm 2021 sẽ giảm đến 90% thuế đoàn kết. Vậy là tương lai dân
chúng Tây Đức bớt ghét người dân Đông Đức rồi.

Eastern German solidarity tax to be abolished for almost all taxpayers

Under the scheme, people pay a subsidy to support the former East, which still lags behind the West economically. The solidarity tax will be mostly abolished from 2021.

[ốc]

"Có đạo" thì phải đóng thêm thuế cũng đúng thôi vì "đạo" gây ra nhiều phí tổn và tai họa, tai hại cho xã hội. Có thuế mới vực được đạo.

[Triển]

"Có đạo" thì phải đóng thêm thuế cũng đúng thôi vì "đạo" gây ra nhiều phí tổn và tai họa, tai hại cho xã hội. Có thuế mới vực được đạo.

Không phải chỉ có thuế mới vực được đạo đâu: Các điều "vực được đạo" còn có tình dục và tham lam.

German churches could lose half of members over coming decades: Study


Church membership is in decline. Photo: DPA


A new study has come to a dramatic conclusion about the decline of Germany’s churches in the coming decades. But it also argues that churches have the power to turn back the tide.

Membership of the Catholic and Protestant churches is set to drop by 22 percent by 2035 and by 49 percent by 2060, the study by Freiburg University found. That would mean that under 23 million members of the main Christian denominations would live in the country in comparison with the 45 million who are alive today.

The authors said that two main factors were causing the drop in the number of Christians in the country. The first was that church members were dying at a considerably higher rate than babies were being baptized.

Secondly, large numbers of people in their twenties and thirties were deciding to leave the church.

The report is sure to make gloomy reading for Germany’s two major churches, which finance themselves through the church tax that their members pay.

But it also came to the conclusion that demography plays a much smaller role than people leaving the church.

"The probability of leaving is so high that this probably explains between half and two thirds of the loss of members, while demographics account for at most one third to one half,” lead author Bernd Raffelhüschen told broadcaster ARD.

Raffelhüschen said that the churches had it within their own power to change attitudes to the church among young members who were considering leaving and, therefore, could guard against a dramatic drop in membership.

The study identified several scandals that have hit the churches in recent years, including sexual assault cover-ups and abuse of finances, as contributing to disillusionment among members.

Bernd Jünemann, finance director of the Catholic church in Berlin, said that the findings of the study came as a surprise to him.

"What surprised us is to what extent we can influence this, so that this development does not have to happen at all," he said.


/* src.: https://www.thelocal.de/20190502/ger...-decades-study

[Triển]

Anh hề tổng Ukraine chắc bớt than vãn rồi.

---

Russia, Ukraine sign gas transit deal ahead of deadline

Ukraine's Naftogaz and Russia's Gazprom have signed a deal that will keep natural gas flowing to Western Europe. The accord builds on a number of diplomatic steps this month between Moscow and Kyiv.




Russian and Ukrainian gas companies have reached a deal to ensure the flow of Russian natural gas through Ukraine to Europe for the next five years, the two sides said Monday.

Ukraine is set to collect more than $7 billion (€6.25 billion) in gas transit fees by 2024 under the new deal with Gazprom, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday evening.

The accord means "energy security and prosperity for Ukrainians," Zelenskiy wrote on Facebook. It is also a positive signal for businesses in the European Union dependent on the reliable delivery of natural gas from Russia.

"Europe knows that we will not fail when it comes to energy security," Zelenskiy added.

Kyiv and Moscow have repeatedly clashed on gas prices and transit fees in the past, leaving consumers in Europe occasionally cut off from a key energy source.

The two sides had been pushing to reach a new accord before the previous one expires on December 31, potentially interrupting gas supplies to Europe.

Gazprom Chairman Alexey Miller said the accord would go into force on Tuesday.

"After five days of uninterrupted negotiations in Vienna, definitive decisions have been made and final deals have been reached," he said in a statement.

Earlier this month, Gazprom agreed to pay some $2.9 billion to Ukraine's Naftogaz in order to settle a long-running dispute on transit fees.



/* src.: https://www.dw.com/en/russia-ukraine...ine/a-51841576

[ốc]

Anh hề tổng Ukraine chắc bớt than vãn rồi.

Chả biết anh ấy có bị ép buộc phải điều tra đối thủ của Putin để đổi lấy cái hợp đồng này không?

[Triển]

Chả biết anh ấy có bị ép buộc phải điều tra đối thủ của Putin để đổi lấy cái hợp đồng này không?

Có thể phải chịu lép để cho Putin cắt mấy giây ảnh
làm hề vai phụ khi chiếu phim ảnh bên Nga.

[ốc]

Có thể phải chịu lép để cho Putin cắt mấy giây ảnh
làm hề vai phụ khi chiếu phim ảnh bên Nga.

Oh no! That's censorshit.

[Triển]

Germany shuts down atomic plant as nuclear phase-out enters final stretch

The Philippsburg power station is one of the only plants still operating in the southern state of Baden-Württemberg. Germany has vowed to start decommissioning every nuclear power facility by the end of 2022.





Operators began shutting down the Philippsburg nuclear power plant in southern Germany on Tuesday, as the country puts into motion its plan to begin decommissioning all 17 of its atomic energy facilities by the end of 2022.

After 35 years on the grid, Block 2 of the Philippsburg station was fully turned off. Neckarwestheim 2, the other remaining nuclear plant in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, is not set to be turned off until the end of the nuclear phase-out plan.

Philippsburg had previously supplied 6% of Baden-Württemberg's energy. However, nuclear power has long been unpopular in the region, which has a Green party leader in State Premier Winfried Kretschmann.

The 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan led to widespread anti-atomic-power protests across Germany. Two months after the accident, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that all plants would be closed over the next decade, making Germany the second country after Italy to shut down all of its atomic energy stations.

The German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND) welcomed the news. A BUND spokesman said the group hoped to see the end of nuclear power being "conjured up again and again as a supposed healing charm and climate savior."

However, Wolfram König, who heads the German government's office for the nuclear phase-out, warned that the country still faced the great "challenge" of trying to phase out both coal and atomic energy at the same time.

es/rc (dpa, AFP)


/* src.: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-shuts-...tch/a-51845616