Europe braces for gas crisis as Russia halts some supplies
CNN
Russia has started to turn off the supply of natural gas to Europe, making good on a threat to halt deliveries to "unfriendly" countries that refuse to make payments in rubles.
On Wednesday, state energy giant Gazprom said it had suspended natural gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland after they rejected President Vladimir Putin's ultimatum to pay in rubles, rather than euros — part of a broader effort to prop up Russia's currency as its economy buckles under the weight of Western sanctions.
The move marks a significant escalation in the economic conflict between Russia and the West, and the most serious response yet by Moscow to several rounds of European sanctions announced since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February.
An image of Pope Francis wearing a stylish white puffer jacket went viral last year, prompting a flurry of comments about the pope’shis choice of clothes and even questions about whether he had a stylist. But there was a problem: the image was a “deep fake” and created by using artificial intelligence.