Europe can withstand a winter recession
Hello from Beirut, where I’m working for a few days while I visit family. Our newsroom has been busy trying to answer the question: can Europe break its dependency on Russian energy? The obstacles appear to be insurmountable. Dry weather has left hydropower reservoirs in Norway, a key electricity exporter to the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, with historically low water levels. The government said it would?curb electricity exports to Europe, just when the continent needs it most.
Central Europe’s continued reliance on Russian oil, meanwhile, was exposed when the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline stopped pumping, threatening to leave Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic without energy. A Hungarian energy company paid the transit fees to Ukraine on behalf of a Kremlin-controlled group to restart the flows.
There are tough times ahead. But we’re not providing only doom and gloom. I urge you to read this refreshingly optimistic column by economics editor Chris Giles. He argues that Europe can withstand a winter recession, explaining?what it will take for countries to wean themselves off Russian energy. So long as Europe ensures that its economies survive the cold season, he writes, Russia’s blackmail will have failed.
My choices this week
1.?Beijing fired missiles over Taipei last week, simulating an assault on the island after Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen met US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Taipei correspondent Kathrin Hille?profiles the softly spoken and bureaucratic leader who has drawn China’s rage.
2.?“If you are seen as leftwing and want to be seen as moderate, it is not enough to behave moderately.” In his column, Janan Ganesh explains?why Keir Starmer will have to do more than purge the hard left?to win the next general election.
3.?Private equity groups such as Blackstone and Apollo are increasingly?teaming up with their rivals on corporate dealmaking. As the private equity club grows in clout, regulators are starting to take notice, writes private capital correspondent Antoine Gara.
4.?A group of FBI agents raided Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s residence in Florida, on Monday, provoking fury among Trump supporters across the US. Washington bureau chief James Politi tots up?the litany of legal troubles that have engulfed Trump?since he left office.?(Free to read)
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5.?As our planet gets warmer, fires are becoming more frequent and more intense, not least in drought-stricken California. But?can wildfires be prevented??San Francisco correspondent Dave Lee heads to Napa Valley to meet firefighters and local businesses working to mitigate the risk.?(Free to read)
6.?When was the last time you were truly, painfully bored??In her column this week Jemima Kelly explains why, in our ultra-connected world, creating space in the mind for the possibility of boredom is vital.?
Thanks for reading,
Roula
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1 年Im fire fighter in pakistan
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2 年The FT is really going downhill. The boosterism piece relies on Europe accumulating gas stocks, redistributing between nations and it's industry moving rapidly from using gas for heavy industry to electricity, which isn't even technically possible in a lot of instances.
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2 年https://longlivelatvia.org/arm-ukraine-now/
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2 年Thank you for sharing this article !??
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2 年Energy carriers must first of all be cheap, permanent and efficient. This is the key to the development of any economy. Therefore, it does not matter whether they are Russian, American or Arab. If you do not have energy sources that meet these requirements, your economy will not develop, and beautiful fairy tales about green energy will simply lead the economy to collapse after a while. This is now happening in some countries. Look for cheap, permanent and efficient energy sources. Experiments with new technologies - do it in parallel.