The United States expects Germany to put a halt to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. But the Americans are not mentioning the fact that they themselves import plenty of oil from Russia.
-Analysis-
BERLIN — On his return flight from his inaugural visit to Washington on Monday evening, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was half-jokingly asked to say “Nord Stream 2”, so that he would have uttered the irritant word at least once on his trip. Scholz did it. In all his public statements, he had consistently avoided mentioning the controversial gas pipeline by name.
Americans, both the politicians and the media, tried hard to pressure the Chancellor into making a clear statement that a shutdown of Nord Stream 2 could be part of sanctions against Russia if Vladimir Putin orders his troops to march towards Ukraine.
There was anger in the U.S. media at Scholz’s silence. But the Americans did not want to talk about their own supply of raw materials from Russia. The question of whether the U.S. intends to stop importing Russian oil in the event of a conflict was not answered by U.S. President Joe Biden. With good reason. Because Russia is an important energy supplier for the United States.
U.S. oil imports from Russia
The U.S. imports by far the largest quantities of oil from Canada. But Russia is becoming increasingly important as a source of oil for the U.S. In 2021, Russia replaced Mexico as the second most important exporter of oil and petroleum products to the U.S. for certain months, according to figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Therefore, the U.S. government has no interest in raising the issue of halting oil imports from Russia as a sanction tool — while at the same time urging the German government to threaten a Nord Stream 2 blockade.
Scholz is silent on this. Like Biden, he is keen to emphasize unity among allies, because that is precisely what Putin wants to undermine. But in Germany, the U.S. strategy is certainly being questioned.
U.S. president Joe Biden and German chancellor Olaf Scholz meeting in Washington on Feb. 7
“The question of whether Russia’s extensive oil deliveries to the United States shouldn’t be part of a sanctions package is legitimate,” Michael Roth, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the German parliament, tells die Welt. “We have agreed that in the case of Russian aggression, all options can be on the table. So, if everything is on the table, nothing is beside or under the table,” Roth said.
But the question of what concrete effects this could have on U.S. oil imports should be clarified in confidential talks. In order to keep Putin in the dark as much as possible about possible sanctions, Berlin and Washington are keeping quiet about whether a U.S. blockade of Russian oil could be part of the countermeasures.
Russia’s main goal with Nord Stream 2 is to eliminate Ukraine from gas transit to Europe
Nils Schmid, a member of parliament with the Social Democratic Party (SPD), demands that it should be. “When you start talking about individual points like Nord Stream 2, you also have to talk about other individual points like U.S. oil imports from Russia,” says Schmid, who is the foreign policy spokesman for his parliamentary group. “After all, the Russians have yet to earn a cent from the new pipeline, while oil exports pour billions into Putin’s coffers.”
The opposition in the Bundestag is also urging the U.S. to openly acknowledge the possibility of an embargo on Russian oil. “All conceivable sanctions against Russia in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine must be borne jointly by Europe and the U.S. This includes not only the shutdown of Nord Stream 2, but also a ban on imports of Russian oil to America,” said Mark Helfrich, member of parliament with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and energy policy expert.
Wider criticism of the U.S. stance
Criticism of the U.S. government’s actions also comes from other factions within the opposition. “The U.S. is proving to be duplicitous when referring to Europe’s dependence on Russian gas, while at the same time massively increasing its own oil imports from Russia,” says Left Party politician and chair of the Bundestag Committee on Climate Protection and Energy, Klaus Ernst.
And Tino Chrupalla, co-chairman of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, explains: “The fact that the U.S. wants to force Germany to import expensive and environmentally damaging fracking gas from America, while they themselves obtain inexpensive oil from Russia, is unfair on the allies. The German government must act in Germany’s interest and not accept this without any objections.”
CDU foreign policy expert Roderich Kiesewetter, however, points out that gas deliveries via Nord Stream 2 cannot be compared to U.S. oil imports from Russia. “Russia’s main goal with Nord Stream 2 is to eliminate Ukraine from gas transit to Europe, and it opens the possibility for Moscow to increase political and military pressure on Ukraine without jeopardizing gas trade with Western Europe. This is not the case for the U.S. imports,” Kiesewetter said. “In this respect, it is understandable that the U.S. weighs Nord Stream 2 primarily as a political project and not in connection to its own economic relations.”
Wild boars in Rome, big cats in Colombia cities, polar bears in Russian towns: a series of factors, including climate change and urbanization, is creating unlikely encounters between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom.
Wild boars jogging down the street, pumas sauntering through the neighborhood, coyotes patiently waiting for the traffic light to turn green… This isn't the stage set for a new Jumanji or Ace Ventura movie, but an increasingly common sight in residential areas around the world. In recent decades, deforestation, changing agriculture and livestock practices, global warming and the rapid expansion of urban areas into the natural habitats of animals have forced a growing number of species to adapt to life in the city.
And with no sign of urbanization slowing down, some experts suggest that we have entered into a new era where city dwellers must get used to sharing their space with four-legged neighbors.
But while some animals have demonstrated an impressive ability to adapt to urban ways, others are struggling both to survive and become accepted by human residents. From New York to Berlin to Manizales, here's how cities around the world are affected by urban wildlife — and vice-versa.
Video of boar family in Rome neighborhood
Boars roam streets of Rome
In Rome, wild boars are increasingly seen strutting around the gardens and busy streets of the city. As late as last month, a dozen boars were filmed walking alongside the traffic on Via Trionfale, a busy road in the northern suburb of Monte Mario.
While boars have been invading Roman suburbs for some time, they're recently becoming more brazen, moving deeper into urban areas where they rummage through piles of rubbish. Some are even waiting for residents to take their trash out, while others have adopted more thuggish ways, as this gang of porkers stealing a lady's shopping bags outside a supermarket in Formello.
While similar videos have spurred comic remarks on social media, like the suggestion that Rome should introduce "wild boar lanes" instead of cycle lanes, residents of Italy's capital see the multiplying herds as another sign of their city's decay — from the rubbish-riddled streets to the unkempt parks and graffitied houses.
In fact, wild boars have even become a hot political topic as elected officials bicker over who is to blame for the influx, Italian daily La Repubblica reports. In the month that lead up to Italy's municipal election on October 3, now former mayor of Rome Virginia Raggi even suggested that the presence of boars in the city has been weaponized by her party's opposition.
Berlin's viral boar chase
Further north, German boars are also warming up to big city life. Especially after dry summers and autumns, when food has been scarce for the boars, well-groomed city lawns and parks offer plenty of acorns and insect larvae to gorge on before the frost sets in. In January 2019, around 25 Wildschweine were even caught on camera racing down a street in Kleinmachnow, a suburb on the outskirts of Berlin. It's worth noting that wild boars can run at a speed up to 25 miles per hour.
While few attacks have been reported in Berlin — dubbed the wild-boar capital by local media due to the 3,000 swine estimated to reside within the city's borders — locals have been expressing worries over the safety of their kids, ransacked gardens and traffic interruptions.
Some experts also point out that while boars are naturally shy, a more urban lifestyle risks spreading diseases like swine flu. They can also be aggressive, especially if accompanied by piglets. In 2019, German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported that a sow and her two piglets had been filmed stealing a bag containing the laptop computer of a nudist bather.
Wildcats in Colombia
Jaguars and pumas in Colombia
In Colombia, where the expansion of urban areas into the countryside is encroaching on the traditional habitats of animals, wildcat sightings are becoming more common in cities.
Last week, a puma entered a residential complex in Manizales at night, Colombian daily El Tiemporeports. According to the regional director of the Panthera South America organization, Dr. Esteban Payán, these encounters will become more even more regular as jungles, forests, moors, mangroves and plains are being cut down and the food supply of great cats like jaguars and pumas are diminished.
"As there is less and less to eat, cougars have to adapt and will start to eat rats; they will start to eat garbage," says Payán.
Another contributing factor to their urbanization is the size of jaguars and pumas, which make them more likely to adapt to interaction with humans. Payan predicts that wild cats will appear more frequently in residential areas in the vicinity of their habitats, such as the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta area and the country's southwest — near the cities of Popayán, Cali, Armenia and Manizales.
U.S. mountain lions
As the mountain lion population grows in the United States — mostly a result of more restrictive hunting regulations introduced in the 1960s and 1970s — these 150-pound cats are becoming a more common sight in urban areas ranging from New Mexico to Texas to California.
As lions slowly reclaim habitats they have occupied for thousands of years and also expand their range, conservation efforts in the 1980s and 1990s for deer and elk have also increased the food source. Deer and elk typically congregate in south and west-facing mountain slopes in the winter — the very same areas where humans like to build their homes.
Looking at the numbers, mountain lions aren't a much greater threat to humans than coyotes, with less than two dozen people killed by mountain lions in North America in the last century. But experts worry that as interactions become more frequent, news of isolated attacks could have a negative effect on our perception of these animals, and potentially lead to overhunting.
That was the case in May 2018, when a biker was killed by a mountain lion in North Bend, some 30 miles outside Seattle. The attack triggered a renewed lack of tolerance for wild mountain lions, with politicians introducing new legislation increasing hunting limits — in defiance of recommendations by state biologists. According to an analysis in Deseret News, this is a course of events that has repeated itself across the West after someone is killed or attacked by a lion, as "states react swiftly and definitively against the lions." The article also adds that decisions to relax regulation neglect the evidence suggesting that there is actually more conflict between humans and mountain lions in the areas where hunting is the heaviest.
As the U.S. mountain lion population moves increasingly West and also spreads to the East, another issue is that these large cats venturing into urban areas limit themselves to much smaller areas than their habitual 960 square miles. Male mountain lions risk getting stuck and hemmed in by increasing city development; unable to find mates and unaccustomed to close quarters, they tend to get in fights and kill one another. In addition, there are reports of mountain lions being killed by cars and from eating rat poison.
Raccoon dogs come out of Shanghai shadows
Residents of Shanghai are struggling to adapt to a growing population of raccoon dogs sharing the public space. Most Chinese would have heard about these nocturnal creatures from the proverb 丘之貉," or "raccoon dogs of the same hill" — a Chinese equivalent to "birds of a feather."
But it's only in the last few years more people have learned what these shy animals actually look like. A relative of the fox, raccoon dogs are native to the Yangtze River Delta — the triangle-shaped megalopolis comprising the Wu Chinese-speaking areas of Shanghai. According to experts, they are now moving from the outskirts to the city due to extreme weather conditions caused by climate change.
As raccoon dogs hibernate during the cold season, a prolonged winter postpones the mating — causing pups to be born later and shortening the time to build up fat reserves before the next frost returns. As this last winter was the coldest Shanghai has experienced in 35 years, raccoon dogs moved to the city where temperatures are higher than nearby rural areas.
With forestry authorities last year estimating that there are more than 2,000 raccoon dogs in the city, not all Shanghai residents are happy. In a recent interview with Beijing-based broadcaster CGTN, a resident from one particularly invaded neighborhood complained about the scavengers: "I have to be extra careful when taking the garbage out, with my phone's flashlight on. It's scary. They just dashed out of the bush, at least 20 or 30 of them, their eyes are like little light bulbs."
However, with the steady trickle of similar complaints in the last year, municipal authorities have pointed out that locals' lack of knowledge about raccoon dogs often leads to distorted and exaggerated news, adding that these animals' normal reaction to stress or danger is to flee rather than attack.
Polar bears surround Russian village
Climate change changes bear habitats in Canada and Russia
In the 900-strong Canadian town of Churchill, located some 1,600 kilometers north of Winnipeg, polar bears in search of food are becoming more frequent visitors. Every year, some 900 bears in the western Hudson Bay area must be airlifted out of the town.
While bears can be seen in the region all year long, the majority enter Churchill around Halloween as they start their migration from south to the northwest shores where the ice needed for seal hunting is formed earliest in the year.
While the residents of Churchill, baptized the polar bear capital of the world, have adapted to living in proximity to the large carnivores,. Authorities nowadays receive 250 alert calls annually compared to the 20 or 30 they used to get when the "polar bear alert program" was started in the 1980s.
The reason: Climate change. As temperatures increases, the sea ice sometimes melts away as soon as July and takes longer to freeze back during the autumn and winter. The result is that the polar bears have less time on the ice to hunt the food needed to build up fat reserves for the warmer season.
With the community of Churchill built on a peninsula bordering the Hudson Bay coastline and the Churchill River, hungry polar bears often get distracted by the town's sounds and smells on their way north.
As polar bears are forced to adapt to a world that is melting away under their paws, similar reports have come out of other cities in the last few years, including the Russian town of Ryrkaypiy that made international headlines when 50 bears entered in 2019.
History happened instantly before our eyes 20 years ago on September 11, 2001 — and the global press was there to offer a first view on a day that continues to live in infamy. Here are 31 newspaper front pages and magazine covers.
By the time United Airlines Flight 175 sliced into the second tower, news reporters and editors around the world knew they were facing the most monumental story of their lifetime. The Sep. 11 attacks forever changed the world, and put the powers of modern journalism, from real-time video coverage to deep news analysis (on deadline), to the test like never before.
With events unfolding on that Tuesday morning in New York and Washington, newspapers around the world could go to print that evening with special editions for Sep. 12 that offered the proverbial "first draft of history" on their respective front pages. News magazines followed suit with tragically iconic covers. TIME magazine's lead writer Nancy Gibbs
recently recalled the unique pressure of producing a special issue in 24 hours.
"It was a test of speed as much as anything else," Gibbs recalled. "It was a complete all-hands. Normally we would have a formal system whereby people sent files into a central information management system; everyone just emailed me. I probably had a thousand emails. It was the writing equivalent of putting a jigsaw puzzle together. Everyone had a different piece of the puzzle."
In France,
Le Monde's top editor Jean-Marie Colombani penned a front-page editorial echoing JFK at the Berlin Wall, which declared that in the face of such a heinous attack: Nous sommes tous américains. ("We are all Americans.")
For a left-leaning, U.S.-skeptic French daily, it captured the spirit connecting the whole world that fateful day. Here below are images of front pages and magazine covers around the world that carries us back to that collective moment of horror turned to grief, newfound wells of courage mixed with a deep and sudden vulnerability:
U.S. - The New York Times
The New York Times - 12/09/2001
The Washington Post
The Washington Post - 12/09/2001
USA Today
USA Today - 09/12/2011
The San Francisco Examiner
San Francisco The Examiner - 09/12/2001
The Post-Crescent
The Post-Crescent - 09/12/2001
TIME Magazine
TIME - 09/14/2001
The New Yorker
The New Yorker - 09/24/2001
France - Le Monde
"America struck, the world terrified" Le Monde - 09/13/2001
