BREAKING Police investigating shooting outside of Drake's Bridle Path mansion: source
Toronto police are investigating a shooting that took place outside of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion early Tuesday morning, a source tells CP24.
Russia will cut off natural gas to Finland after the Nordic country that applied for NATO membership this week refused President Vladimir Putin's demand to pay in rubles, the Finnish state-owned energy company said Friday, the latest escalation over European energy amid the war in Ukraine.
Finland is the latest country to lose the energy supply, which is used to generate electricity and power industry, after rejecting Russia's decree. Poland and Bulgaria were cut off late last month but, along with Finland, were relatively minor customers who had prepared to move away from Russian natural gas.
Putin has declared that "unfriendly foreign buyers" open two accounts in state-owned Gazprombank, one to pay in euros and dollars as specified in contracts and another in rubles. Italian energy company Eni said this week that it was "starting procedures" to open a euro and a ruble account.
The European Commission, the European Union's executive arm, has said the system does not violate EU sanctions if countries make a payment in the currency listed in their contracts and then formally signal that the payment process is concluded. But it says opening a second account in rubles would breach sanctions.
That has left countries scrambling to decide what to do next. Analysts say the EU stance is ambiguous enough to allow the Kremlin to keep trying to undermine unity among the 27 member countries -- but losing major European customers like Italy and Germany would cost Russia heavily. It comes as Europe tries to reduce its dependency on Russian oil and gas to avoid pouring hundreds of millions into Putin's war chest each day but build enough reserves before winter from scarce worldwide supplies.
Finland refused the new payment system, with energy company Gasum saying its supply from Russia would be halted Saturday.
CEO Mika Wiljanen called the cutoff "highly regrettable."
But "provided that there will be no disruptions in the gas transmission network, we will be able to supply all our customers with gas in the coming months," Wiljanen said.
Natural gas accounted for just 6% of Finland's total energy consumption in 2020, Finnish broadcaster YLE said. Almost all of that gas came from Russia. That pales in comparison to big importers like Italy and Germany, which get 40% and 35% of their gas from Russia, respectively.
According to Finland's Gasum, Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom said in April that future payments in its supply contract must be made in rubles instead of euros.
The cutoff was announced the same week that Finland, along with Sweden, applied to join the NATO military organization, marking one of the biggest geopolitical ramifications of the war that could rewrite Europe's security map.
The gas cutoff "has more to do with the sanctions and the fact that they want to be paid in rubles" than Finland's application to NATO, said Charly Salonius-Pasternak, an analyst with the Finnish Institute of International Affairs in Helsinki.
"Russia uses its energy as a weapon as part of its geopolitical thinking," he said. "It will have little impact on Finland, which has been diversifying its energy (sources) in recent years."
The government in Helsinki said Friday that it had signed a 10-year lease for a floating liquefied natural gas terminal in the Gulf of Finland and that necessary port structures will be built along the coasts of the Nordic country and Estonia, Economy Minister Mika Lintila said in a statement.
It "will play a major role in securing gas supplies for Finland's industry," Lintila said. The vessel should be ready to operate by next winter.
Finland and Estonia have been cooperating on renting the LNG terminal ship, which will provide enough storage and supply capacity to allow Russian gas to be abandoned in the neighbouring countries, said Gasgrid Finland, the transmission network company. A gas pipeline between the neighbours will make it possible to import gas from the Baltic states instead of Russia.
Meanwhile, Italian company Eni said Tuesday that it was moving to follow Putin's decree "in view of the imminent payment due in the coming days" but did not agree with the changes.
------
AP writer Colleen Barry contributed from Milan
____
Do you have any questions about the attack on Ukraine? Email dotcom@bellmedia.ca.
Toronto police are investigating a shooting that took place outside of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion early Tuesday morning, a source tells CP24.
Sporting mullets, Canadian Armed Forces officer cadets placed second in an annual military skills competition in the U.S.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Movement is movement, right? Not exactly. Here’s what your body is looking for in addition to your morning walk or yoga session, according to experts.
The Met Gala and its fashionista A-listers on Monday included Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya and a parade of others in a swirl of flora and fauna looks on a green-tinged carpet lined by live foliage.
Quebec is looking at tightening the regulations around sperm donation in the province following the release of a documentary that revealed three men from the same family fathered hundreds of children.
The rumours are true: Vegetables aren't real — that is, in botany, anyway. While the term fruit is recognized botanically as anything that contains a seed or seeds, vegetable is actually a broad umbrella term.
Noelia Voigt, who was crowned Miss USA in November 2023, has announced she is resigning from her role, saying the decision is in the best interest of her mental health.
Sure, she was a royal princess and all. But there’s no way Sleeping Beauty — either before or after her nap — ever had quite the fabulous wardrobe that’s been assembled at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.