EU vows to protect energy systems after 'sabotage' on Russian gas pipelines

The Reuters Daily Briefing Wednesday, September 28, 2022 by Linda Noakes Hello Here's what you need to know. Millions are urged to evacuate as Florida braces for Hurricane Ian, the Bank of England seeks to stem market turmoil, and why Putin's nuclear warnings have the West worried Today's biggest stories Gas bubbles from the Nord Stream 2 leak in the Baltic Sea near Bornholm, Denmark, September 27, 2022. RUSSIA & UKRAINE Any deliberate disruption to the EU's energy infrastructure would meet a "robust and united response", its top diplomat was quoted as saying after several states said two Russian gas pipelines to Europe were attacked. As gas continued to spew into the Baltic Sea, it remained far from clear who might be behind the leaks or any foul play, if proven, on the Nord Stream pipelines that Russia and European partners spent billions of dollars building. Russian-installed officials in four occupied regions of Ukraine reported huge majorities of votes in favor of joining Russia as the United States planned a U.N. resolution condemning the referendums as shams and Russia remained defiant. Entire villages are emptying out as Ukrainians flee from Russian annexation, while on Russia's borders there is desperation as Russian men attempt to escape President Vladimir Putin's military draft. Putin's latest warning that he is ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia amid the war in Ukraine has made a troubling question much more urgent: Is the former KGB spy bluffing? Here's what you need to know about the Russia-Ukraine conflict right now People gather at Key West pier as Hurricane Ian approaches, Florida, September 27, 2022 U.S. Florida Gulf Coast residents emptied grocery shelves, boarded up windows and fled to evacuation shelters as Hurricane Ian churned closer, lashing the state's southern tip with tropical storm-force winds hours before it was forecast to make U.S. landfall. Ian pummeled Cuba yesterday and left the entire Caribbean island nation without power. The Senate voted to move forward with a stopgap funding bill that would avoid a government shutdown on Saturday, after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer cut a controversial energy-permitting provision from the critical spending bill. Fueled by the COVID pandemic, the economic toll of the opioid addiction and overdose crisis on the United States reached nearly $1.5 trillion in 2020 alone and is likely to grow, a Congressional report seen by Reuters shows. President Joe Biden's public approval rating edged higher this week, though he remains deeply unpopular, with just six weeks to go before the November 8 midterm elections, a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll found. The trial of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four associates in connection with the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol heard some prospective jurors express fears that reliving that day would be too traumatic for them to be impartial. WORLD North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast, the South's military said, just a day before U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is set to arrive in Seoul. Iranian riot police deployed in Tehran's main squares to confront people chanting "death to the dictator" as nationwide protests over the death of young Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in police custody piled pressure on authorities. Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz named his son and heir Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as the kingdom's prime minister and his second son Prince Khalid as defense minister, a royal decree showed. The reshuffle kept another son, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, as energy minister. Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has widened his lead over incumbent Jair Bolsonaro to 13 percentage points less than one week ahead of the presidential election, a Genial/Quaest poll showed. We look at how Lula is challenging Bolsonaro's grip on the evangelical vote. The number of asylum-seekers entering Canada between formal border crossings has surged to the highest point since the government started tracking them in 2017, as dropped pandemic restrictions enable more travel and conflict and catastrophe displace people in many parts of the world. People wait outside a currency exchange office in London, September 27, 2022 MARKETS The Bank of England sought to quell a fire-storm in the British bond market, saying it would buy as much government debt as needed to restore financial stability after chaos triggered by the new government's fiscal policy. The pound whipsawed after the BoE stepped in. Some of the world's major economies still hold at least part of their rainy-day savings in sterling and British government bonds - raising questions about whether long instability in both will keep them doing so. Reuters columnist Mike Dolan explains. The European Central Bank may need to raise interest rates by another 75 basis points at its October meeting and move again in December to a level that no longer stimulates the economy, policymakers said. If the long-touted 'Fed put' - a perceived tendency to run to the aid of financial markets - isn't dead, it has been put in deep hibernation, with U.S. officials making clear in recent days they are looking beyond both the sea of red on Wall Street and the avalanche of concern overseas that the U.S. central bank may be pushing the world to the brink of recession. A decade ago, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda won praise for ending a debilitating spike in the yen with his "bazooka" stimulus. Now the currency's slide is putting him under siege and forcing him to reluctantly concede that once he leaves next April, the bank may start relaxing its policy that caps bond yields. Porsche's landmark listing is defying market turmoil giving a welcome boost to a battered pipeline of share sales but the deal is unlikely to open the floodgates, bankers and analysts say, with European listings facing their worst year since 2009. Quote of the day "If you can slow a disease by almost 30% that's fantastic. This is what we have been looking for." Dr. Jeff Cummings Director of the Chambers-Grundy Center for Transformative Neuroscience Alzheimer's drug succeeds in slowing cognitive decline Video of the day How the Inuit adapt to melting Arctic ice Rex Holwell has spent his life on the sea ice that forms each winter off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada. Like other Inuit, he learned to hunt seals and fish over the sea ice 'highways'. But he fears climate change is about to upend it all. And finally… Chinese snap up used Rolexes and Birkins to satisfy luxury cravings China's coronavirus-driven economic slowdown is proving to be a boon for Zhu Tainiqi, the Shanghai-based founder of second-hand luxury goods marketplace ZZER, who is now scouting for shop space to expand the business. 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