The mysterious Nord Stream pipeline explosions sent methane levels in the Baltic Sea rocketing to 1,000 times higher than normal, a new study has revealed, as fears grow over underwater sabotage linked to Russia.
Deep-sea blasts rocked the Russia-to-Germany gas pipelines in 2022, releasing what scientists say were “unprecedented amounts” of methane into the water and atmosphere. The new findings, made with an underwater robot known as a glider, reveal the gas spread far across the Baltic Sea, with the fallout stretching from the Danish coast to the Polish port of Gdansk.
Ocean currents carried the methane into 23 protected marine areas, say researchers at the University of Gothenburg and Swedish foundation Voice of the Ocean. More than 14 per cent of the entire Baltic Sea was affected while detectives in Denmark, Sweden and Germany made unsuccessful efforts to find the culprit against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.
Before the pipeline was built the chance of Nord Stream being ruptured had been rated as an “extremely unlikely”, once-in-20,000-years event. However, a spate of incidents involving Baltic Sea infrastructure means “impact assessments for subsea pipelines must be adapted to the current geopolitical context”, the scientists wrote in a paper published on Wednesday.
Nato's top generals were holding talks in Brussels on Wednesday as Baltic states deploy drones and warships to monitor the sea for cable saboteurs. The military chiefs were told by Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte that hostile actions by Russia “are accelerating” in the form of “cyber attacks, assassination attempts, acts of sabotage and more”.
“We used to call this hybrid. But these are destabilisation actions and campaigns,” Mr Rutte said. “Russia is hard at work to try to weaken our democracies and chip away at our freedom.”
Russia denied involvement in the Nord Stream blasts, dismissing the idea it would damage an export route to Europe for state-owned gas giant Gazprom. Others suspected a Kremlin ploy to cause a gas shortage in Europe or send a warning to the West, but none of Ukraine's allies have come forward with concrete evidence against Moscow.
Theories that Ukrainian or US operatives were involved have also been put forward and it was revealed last year that German prosecutors were seeking the arrest of a Ukrainian diving instructor. Ukraine and the US both denied any role in what would have been a high-risk act of sabotage in the waters of western allies.
Scientists said their new findings were the “most robust estimates to date” of the environmental fallout of the explosions. They said methane levels in the Baltic Sea were as high as 1,000 times above normal after the 2022 explosions, with unusual concentrations measured in some areas even several months later.
The "major environmental impact" came from increased greenhouse gas emissions, but shock waves from the explosion are also feared to have affected endangered porpoises. Eight Baltic states said warned of a “significant risk to the marine environment” from undersea sabotage in a joint statement on Tuesday.
Researchers “feel confident that we have a really good picture of how the methane spread in the Baltic Sea, both across time and space”, said Bastien Queste, an oceanographer at the University of Gothenburg. “We now know the areas where the methane emission may have had an impact,” he said. “It will be easier to determine whether a future problem in the Baltic Sea ecosystems, for example, is related to the Nord Stream leak or not.”
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The Vile
Starring: Bdoor Mohammad, Jasem Alkharraz, Iman Tarik, Sarah Taibah
Director: Majid Al Ansari
Rating: 4/5
EA Sports FC 26
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
Salah in numbers
€39 million: Liverpool agreed a fee, including add-ons, in the region of €39m (nearly Dh176m) to sign Salah from Roma last year. The exchange rate at the time meant that cost the Reds £34.3m - a bargain given his performances since.
13: The 25-year-old player was not a complete stranger to the Premier League when he arrived at Liverpool this summer. However, during his previous stint at Chelsea, he made just 13 Premier League appearances, seven of which were off the bench, and scored only twice.
57: It was in the 57th minute of his Liverpool bow when Salah opened his account for the Reds in the 3-3 draw with Watford back in August. The Egyptian prodded the ball over the line from close range after latching onto Roberto Firmino's attempted lob.
7: Salah's best scoring streak of the season occurred between an FA Cup tie against West Brom on January 27 and a Premier League win over Newcastle on March 3. He scored for seven games running in all competitions and struck twice against Tottenham.
3: This season Salah became the first player in Premier League history to win the player of the month award three times during a term. He was voted as the division's best player in November, February and March.
40: Salah joined Roger Hunt and Ian Rush as the only players in Liverpool's history to have scored 40 times in a single season when he headed home against Bournemouth at Anfield earlier this month.
30: The goal against Bournemouth ensured the Egyptian achieved another milestone in becoming the first African player to score 30 times across one Premier League campaign.
8: As well as his fine form in England, Salah has also scored eight times in the tournament phase of this season's Champions League. Only Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, with 15 to his credit, has found the net more often in the group stages and knockout rounds of Europe's premier club competition.
Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
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MATCH INFO
Al Jazira 3 (O Abdulrahman 43', Kenno 82', Mabkhout 90 4')
Al Ain 1 (Laba 39')
Red cards: Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain)
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
