Europe News

17/08/2022

Finland limits tourist visas for Russians
Finnish foreign minister says decision comes amid influx of Russian tourists using Finland as a gateway to European holiday destinations.Finland will limit the number of visas issued to Russians to 10 percent of the current volume from September 1 due to rising discontent over Russian tourism amid the war in Ukraine, the government has said.

“Tourist visas will not stop completely, but their number will be significantly reduced, ” Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Tuesday in Helsinki, amid a rush of Russian visitors bound for Europe.Haavisto said the decision had come as an influx of Russian tourists began using Finland and its Helsinki-Vantaa airport as a gateway to European holiday destinations, after Russia lifted pandemic-related border restrictions a month ago.

Tourist visas from neighbouring Russia will be limited by restricting the allotted opening hours for tourism visa applications, as an outright ban based on nationality is not possible, Haavisto said.

“This means that other types of visas – visits to relatives, family contacts, work, study – will be given preference and more time,” the minister explained.Currently, Finland processes approximately 1,000 Russian visa applications a day, Haavisto told public broadcaster Yle separately.

Finland will also look into establishing a specific humanitarian visa category, which the country lacks.

“This could make the situation in certain circumstances much easier for journalists or NGO workers”, Haavisto said.

Just days after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Finland joined a string of Western countries in closing their airspace to Russian planes in response, making it difficult for Russians to travel to Europe.

The foreign minister also announced that Finland and the Baltics would together propose that the European Union discontinue a visa facilitation agreement with Russia. This would increase the price of tourist visas from 35 euros to 80 (from $35 to $81).Finland intends to raise the issue at the next meeting of European Union (EU) foreign affairs ministers in the Czech Republic on August 30.

The Nordic country has applied for NATO membership after political and popular support for the alliance soared following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but it remains Russia’s only EU neighbour without restrictions on tourist visas for Russian citizens.

“It’s not right that Russian citizens can enter Europe, the Schengen area, be tourists … while Russia is killing people in Ukraine. It’s wrong”, Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Monday.

While the numbers are still well below pre-COVID-19 levels, there were more than 230,000 border crossings in July – up from the 125,000 seen in June.

17/08/2022

Норвегия не может увеличить объемы поставок газа в Германию.
Норвегия обещает и далее поставлять Германии большие объемы газа, но предупреждает, что ее мощности не безграничны и уже на пределе. Об этом сообщил премьер-министр Норвегии Йонас Гар Стёре после встречи в Осло с канцлером ФРГ Олафом Шольцем.

Глава норвежского кабинета министров отметил, что после вторжения России в Украину производство уже увеличилось почти на десять процентов.

Шольц поблагодарил Норвегию за поставки максимально возможных объемов природного газа. "Это очень важно, чтобы снизить нашу зависимость от российского топлива" - сказал он.

16/08/2022

Ukraine says it can export 3 million tonnes of grain from ports next month
KYIV, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Ukraine can export 3 million tonnes of grain from its ports in September and may in the future be able to export 4 million tonnes from them monthly, Deputy Infrastructure Minister Yuriy Vaskov said on Tuesday.

16/08/2022

Ukraine's president condemns 'Russia's nuclear terrorism' in call with Macron
KYIV, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had discussed "Russia's nuclear terrorism" at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine during a call on Tuesday with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Zelenskiy, writing on Twitter, gave no further details of their discussions on the plant, which Russia seized in March following its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

On Monday, Zelenskiy urged the world to show "strength and decisiveness" to defend the nuclear power station, Europe's largest, following shelling in the vicinity of the plant which Kyiv and Moscow blame on each other.

16/08/2022

China takes steps to support some property developers, boost demand in economy.
HONG KONG, Aug 16 (Reuters) - China will guarantee new onshore bond issues by a few select private developers to support its embattled property sector, sources said on Tuesday, while the state planner said it would boost economic demand and speed up infrastructure projects.

News of the planned state support for some better-quality private developers saw the Hang Seng mainland properties sub-index rise by as much as 10% at one point, before profit taking pared gains.Policymakers have been trying to stabilize the sector that accounts for a quarter of the national GDP after a string of defaults among developers and a slump in home sales.

The property sector's troubles and weak consumption have weakened a nascent recovery in an economy that has been hobbled by strict COVID-restrictions.

16/08/2022

German manufacturers increasingly short of skilled workers, report says.
BERLIN, Aug 16 (Reuters) - German manufacturers of machinery and equipment are increasingly short of skilled workers, a constraint that adds to the shortages in materials and intermediate goods that they are also suffering, the Ifo economic institute reported on Tuesday.

The Munich-based Ifo said its survey of some 4,000 companies showed the skills shortage extends beyond trained engineers, mechanics, and IT specialists, with a shortage of low-skilled employees emerging as well.
In the July survey, Ifo found 43.0% of manufacturing companies that it polled reported shortages of skilled workers, compared with 38.7% in April.

"Manufacturers of machinery and equipment are feeling the effects of layoffs they carried out before and during the coronavirus pandemic," said Ifo industry expert Nicolas Bunde. "Now these companies are desperately seeking suitable staff."

16/08/2022

Apples are baking on branches and hosepipe bans hit millions as England falls into drought.
Chelmsford and Edenbridge, England (CNN)The Taylors have been growing apples in the English county of Essex for more than a century. But 2022 has been a particularly tough chapter in the family's history.

Walking through their orchard on Lathcoats Farm, the apples on many trees have been visibly scorched, their skin browned in parts, the flesh underneath turned corky. A significant proportion of the farm's harvest this year has been unsellable.
A record-breaking heat wave in July literally baked the apples on their branches, but Philip Taylor, who runs the farm with his nephew, now has bigger things to worry about. The soil under the trees is cracking with dryness -- they've had such little rain this spring and summer. Even this past winter, when rainwater typically stores up in the soil to keep it moist for months, just wasn't wet enough.
The UK's Environment Agency on Friday announced that huge swaths of England had officially descended into drought, raising food security concerns and making more hosepipe bans, potentially for tens of millions of people, an inevitability.
England last month had its driest July since 1935, and the southern part of the country, including Lathcoats Farm, received just 17% of its average rainfall for the month, according to the UK Met office. No meaningful amount of rain is on the horizon either.
Water levels in reservoirs are dropping fast and rivers are drying up. Even the River Thames that flows through London has shrunk, its first 5 miles dried and disappeared. Thirteen rivers that the Environment Agency monitors are at their lowest levels ever recorded.
The climate crisis, driven by burning fossil fuels, is making hot weather, drought and flooding more frequent and intense in the UK, and the hotter the planet gets, the worse these impacts will be.
But for farmers of thirsty crops like apples, there is no replacement for rain straight from the sky.
"Growing apples is not going to work if we have summers like this every year," Taylor told CNN at his farm, a 40-mile drive northeast of London. "Our access to water at the moment is purely from the mains. To give apple trees enough water to produce a decent crop would be way too expensive."
Luckily, Taylor has other means of income. His family has transformed the farm into an attractive place to visit, with a café and a farm shop that sells juice made from Lathcoats' apples, fresh produce, organic bread and cakes. People also come here to pick their own fruit, making for a fun day out, for young children in particular.He and his nephew sell soft fruits as well, like berries and plums, which can be watered with irrigation. But even that water is becoming scarce, and they can't afford to put in some of the measures bigger farms do to shield from extreme weather.
"So as far as what we're doing about it, well, we're just sort of worrying," Taylor said. "It may be that we just go away from growing apples. Certainly, we will consider which varieties we might plant going forward. Some would be more resilient in these temperatures than some of the traditional English ones that we grow now."

16/08/2022

UK becomes first nation to approve Covid-19 vaccine targeting both Omicron and original strain
The United Kingdom has become the first country to approve an updated version of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine booster that targets two coronavirus variants: the Omicron strain and the original virus from 2020.

"An updated version of the COVID-19 vaccine made by Moderna that targets two coronavirus variants (known as a "bivalent" vaccine) has today been approved for adult booster doses by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) after it was found to meet the UK regulator's standards of safety, quality and effectiveness," read an official government release Monday.
Half of the booster, called "Spikevax bivalent Original/Omicron," targets the original coronavirus strain while the other half targets Omicron, it said.
The UK government said that the decision to grant approval for the shot was endorsed by the MHRA, the government's independent expert scientific advisory body, after carefully reviewing the evidence.
It was approved following the results of a clinical trial, where Moderna reported that its booster targeting Omicron showed a stronger immune response against the variant. The company said its updated booster also showed a "potent" response against the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants.
The side effects were described by the MHRA as being the same as for the original Moderna booster dose and found to be "typically mild and self-resolving."
"No serious safety concerns were identified," the UK government release said.

As Covid-19 continues to mutate, MHRA Chief Executive Dr. June Raine said that the new Moderna booster will help keep communities protected.
"The first generation of COVID-19 vaccines being used in the UK continue to provide important protection against the disease and save lives. What this bivalent vaccine gives us is a sharpened tool in our armoury to help protect us against this disease as the virus continues to evolve."
It is not yet clear who will be offered the booster or when. The UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) will advise on the vaccine's rollout.
Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna, said on Twitter he was "delighted" the vaccine had been approved.
"This represents the first authorization of an Omicron-containing bivalent vaccine, this bivalent vaccine has an important role to play in protecting people in the UK from Covid-19 as we enter the winter months," he said.
Moderna is not the only vaccine maker updating its Covid-19 vaccines.
In June, Pfizer and BioNTech tested two Covid-19 vaccine boosters to target the Omicron variant. The companies said that preliminary results show a substantially higher immune response than the current Covid-19 shots.

16/08/2022