Darker and Colder: Europeans Warned of ‘Unprecedented’ Power Failures This Winter as Russia Cuts Off Natural Gas Pipeline

Europeans are being warned of ‘unprecedented’ power failures this winter as the energy crisis brings a foreseeable future that will be colder and darker. “There is an increased risk of a lack of power this winter,” Klaus Winther, deputy director at Energinet, the Danish national transmission system operator for electricity and natural gas, told TV2. After a 3-day halt, Russian energy giant Gazprom was expected to resume critical supplies of nat gas to Europe via Nord Stream 1 tomorrow, but it appears that Putin who is enjoying the game of cat and mouse a little too much, had other plans and as a result, Russian gas flows toward Europe won't be coming back any time soon, as moments ago Gazprom announced that it had "completely halted" transport of gas to Nord Stream until a previously undetected oil leakage is rectified. That could takes hours, days... or months. The "shocking development" is a massive blow to Europe, which is scrambling to fill up its gas storage ahead of winter and which has been trying to guess Moscow’s next steps in the energy war for weeks. As Bloomberg puts it, "it marks a dramatic escalation in Europe’s energy crisis -- and comes just as prices were easing. If the shutdown persists, it puts households, factories and economies at risk, weakening Europe’s hand as it backs Ukraine in the war against Russia." Said otherwise, millions of virtue signalers will be cold, hungry and in the dark this winter but at least they will have an Ukraine flag in their twitter bio.

Panic in Europe: Russia Stops Gas Flow on “Force Majeure” as Biden Admin Temporarily Prevents Rail Strike

In two major headline stories today on Monday, July 18th, there was some bad news for Germany and Europe, but some potentially good news for the U.S. This is not a good time to be dependent on public utilities if you live in Europe, especially Germany, as Russian natural gas supplier Gazprom reportedly declared a force majeure today on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline into Europe, stating that “extraordinary” circumstances outside its control would not allow them to reopen it. Meanwhile in the U.S., disaster was averted today, at least for now, as it was announced that the Biden Admin has set up an emergency "National Mediation Board" and signed an executive order that prevents any work stoppage for 60 days. Any "good" news for the short-term is temporary, of course, as the planned collapse of the world's financial system is now inevitable. Charles Hugh Smith reminded us all of the Economics 101 lesson in a recent blog post at of two minds.com that when your society is built on debt that cannot be paid back, there is only one solution: DEFAULT. Gazprom won't be the first force majeure or bankruptcy that we will be reading about in the news in the days ahead....