The World Blog by humble servant.

Saudi Arabia declared on Monday that it “won’t bear any responsibility” for surging oil prices or contracting supply following a series of attacks on a refinery and other energy facilities by Houthi rebels a day earlier. In a statement acknowledging that the attacks could have “serious consequences” for energy markets already reeling from the conflict in Ukraine, the kingdom called on the international community to oppose the Houthis for the sake of safeguarding the world’s oil supply. “The kingdom stresses the importance of the international community realizing the gravity of Iran’s continued behavior of equipping the terrorist Houthi militias with the technology… [to] target the kingdom’s production sites,” the statement by the Saudi Foreign Ministry read. Members of the Houthi rebel movement struck facilities belonging to the Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company – a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and the China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) – and other energy compani...

Factory gate costs in Germany saw a record surge in February, soaring by 25.9% year-on-year mostly due to energy prices, according to the latest data revealed by the Federal Statistics Office (FSO). Data shows that the unprecedented growth in production costs, which is commonly a leading indicator for consumer prices, was the biggest since 1949. The latest figures continued a stretch of never-seen increases since the office began records, having outpaced December and January’s numbers of 24.2% and 25% respectively. Producer prices also registered a jump of 1.4% from the previous month. According to the FSO, the latest report did not take into account the effects of the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Heating costs double in Europe’s biggest economyREAD MORE: Heating costs double in Europe’s biggest economy Energy prices were up 68% from February 2021, the report says, adding that, stripping out energy costs, producer prices rose 12.4% year-over-year. Germany and othe...

A Moscow court on Monday banned Facebook and Instagram in Russia as extremist organizations, after the platforms, owned by US-tech giant Meta, allowed online hate speech against the country’s nationals. The judge had rejected a request by Meta’s lawyers to stop or delay the proceedings against the social media giant. The case correspondence, which was read out in court, suggested that Instagram had ignored around 4,600 demands to remove false content about Russia's military operation in Ukraine, and 1,800 demands to delete calls for illegal protest. The Federal Security Service (FSB) has fully backed the ban on Meta, the agency's representative saying in court that the tech giant's actions “were aimed against Russia and its armed forces.” He called on the judge to outlaw the US company and to "immediately" implement the decision. Meta clarifies policy on calls for assassinating heads of state Read more Meta clarifies policy on calls for assassinating heads of ...

A convoy of truckers deliberately blocked traffic in Hamburg, Germany over the weekend, as part of a protest against high fuel prices. Police reported that around 250 vehicles were involved in the demonstration, while the hauliers disputed the figure, claiming up to 350 vehicles took part. Banners attached to the trucks declared “Systemically relevant truckers need fair diesel prices” and “Diesel rip-off: Without us, this country would be on the ground,” as the truckers moved from Hamburg-Allermohe towards the city center. The protests created traffic delays for a second weekend in a row, with a protest the previous weekend having seen 500 participants moving through the city to create chaos on the roads. The German Fishing Association also claimed on Tuesday that the price of marine diesel has doubled in recent weeks. Higher fuel costs have hit truck drivers in Hamburg, causing operational issues for drivers and companies that rely on the vehicles to transport produce across Germ...

Thousands of farmers and hunters marched through Madrid on Sunday in a mass demonstration dubbed “20M Rural,” protesting against the government’s inability to curb rising prices amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The agricultural workers, waiving Spanish flags and whistling, marched through the streets accompanied by tractors blowing their horns. The demonstrators were protesting against rising prices on fuel, energy and food, and called on the government to help the sector, to stop speculation, and adopt new laws to regulate supply chains. “The countryside has come to say ‘Enough of the government pimping us and putting the food and work of many people at risk,’” said Pedro Barato, head of the agricultural employers’ association ASAJA, adding that if the protesters’ demands were not met, it would demonstrate the “irresponsibility” of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. “Today is the start of looking for solutions… Enough is enough, let the head of government stop traveling and s...

President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized Israel for not doing enough to help Kiev battle Russian forces during an address to the country’s parliament on Sunday. His attempt to evoke the specter of the Holocaust and draw comparisons with the Russian offensive in Ukraine triggered a harsh pushback from Israeli lawmakers. In a video address to the Knesset, Zelensky claimed that the time had come for the people of Israel to make a clear choice whether they support Ukraine or Russia. The president apparently referred to the position of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who has expressed his readiness to facilitate the talks between Kiev and Moscow but, unlike many Western leaders and some of its allies, refrained from imposing harsh sanctions on Moscow or providing military assistance to Kiev. Earlier this week Bennett said that Israel would “continue to act to prevent bloodshed and bring the sides from the battlefield to the conference table.” “Mediation can be between states, not ...

Russian soldiers captured by a Ukrainian volunteer medic unit will all be castrated, its founder and commander declared on national television on Sunday. The combat medic, whose volunteer team has been described as “medical angels” by the Western media, said “cockroaches” don’t deserve the right to procreate. The shocking confession came from Gennadiy Druzenko, a constitutional lawyer-turned-volunteer frontline medic in Ukraine. Speaking to Ukrainian media in a live interview, he condemned the US for its reluctance to go to war with Russia on Ukraine’s behalf, before commenting on the Russian military. “Trust me, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s military hardware burns well. The corpses of ‘putinoids’ may stink, but they become unthreatening,” he said. Druzenko said that, during the conflict, he had diverged from the principle that requires an injured enemy combatant to be treated as a regular patient. I gave my doctors … a very strict order to castrate all men, because they a...