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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attends a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia September 9, 2021.
Mikhail Voskresensky | Kremlin Sputnik | via Reuters

Belarus has threatened to cut off its transit of gas supply to Europe if the EU imposes sanctions over a migrant crisis at its western border.

The bloc has accused Russian-backed President Alexander Lukashenko of weaponizing the thousands of people currently gathered in freezing camps at the border with Poland to undermine EU security and distract from domestic political pressures, an allegation Belarus denies.

With the EU reportedly preparing a fresh round of sanctions, Lukashenko said in an emergency cabinet meeting on Thursday that the country could cut off deliveries along the Yamal-Europe pipeline from Russia, mounting further pressure on European leaders as the continent remains afflicted by the international energy crisis.

“We heat Europe, and they are still threatening us that they’ll shut the borders,” the strongman leader, who has been in power since 1994, reportedly told cabinet ministers.

“And what if we cut off [the transit of] natural gas to them? So I would recommend that the leadership of Poland, Lithuanian and other brainless people to think before they speak.”

Natural gas prices spiked by almost 7% on Thursday following Lukashenko’s comments.

The majority of the migrants are from Syria, the Yemen and Iraq, and Belarusian state airline Belavia on Friday said it would stop allowing citizens from all three countries to board flights from Turkey to Belarus, at the request of the Turkish authorities.

Reports suggest that Belavia could be in line for EU sanctions, and questions have also been raised as to whether they could broaden to hit Russia’s Aeroflot or Turkish Airlines.

In a joint statement, the EU members of the U.N. Security Council along with the U.S., U.K. and Albania, condemned the “orchestrated instrumentalisation of human beings whose lives and wellbeing have been put in danger for political purposes by Belarus, with the objective of destabilizing neighbouring countries and the European Union’s external border and diverting attention away from its own increasing human rights violations.”

Brinkmanship or genuine escalation?

Experts are divided on whether Minsk’s defiant tone will translate into drastic policy action, with much hinging on the strategic priorities of Lukashenko’s long-time ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Timothy Ash, senior emerging market sovereign strategist at Bluebay Asset Management, said the situation “looks set to escalate further.”

“Putin would be quite happy to see energy transit through Belarus disrupted, as he could blame it on Lukashenko, while further piling the pressure on Europe,” Ash said in an email Thursday.

“It would also give him a pretext to formally intervene in Belarus itself — Russian planes already seem to be patrolling now to secure Belarus borders with NATO.”

BELARUS, Nov. 12 – Thousands of irregular migrants are facing desperate conditions as they continue waiting at the Polish-Belarusian border, hoping to cross onto EU soil.
Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Ash added that the current direction of travel “feels a bit like slow motion action to an actual conflict in Europe.”

Two Russian strategic bomber jets also flew over Belarus on a training mission on Thursday, the Belarusian defense ministry said.

“Let them scream and squeak. Yes, those are nuclear-capable bombers, but we have no other choice,” Lukashenko reportedly said Thursday.

He noted that the Belarusian Defense Ministry and border troops, along with its state security, have been deployed “to ensure control over the movement of troops of NATO and Poland.”

“You can already see 15,000 troops, tanks, armored vehicles, helicopters and planes brought to our border without any warning,” the president said, according to a Belarusian government readout.

However, Emre Peker, director of the Europe team at political consultancy Eurasia Group, said Lukashenko is “extremely unlikely” to follow through on the threat to disrupt gas flows to Europe, due to revenue constraints and likely Russian opposition.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reportedly told journalists on a conference call Friday that Moscow had not been consulted ahead of Lukashenko’s threats to cut gas supply to Europe.

“Russia relies on transit through Belarus to meet European contracts. Shutting down the pipeline would damage Gazprom’s long-term market position, reinforcing Russian gas-supply stability concerns,” Peker said.

“Halting gas flows would also cost Lukashenko some $300 million a year in transit revenues that Belarus can ill afford.”

Peker noted that this figure is comparable to the economic hit from EU sanctions in June on Belarus’s oil and potash exports, and would “greatly exceed the likely impact of fresh EU sanctions.”

He also suggested that diplomatic, commercial, and legal challenges would prevent the EU from targeting sanctions at Aeroflot and Turkish Airlines, but Brussels will likely hit Belavia to inflict quick punishment on Belarus.

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750W e-bikes in Europe? Discussions underway to update e-bike laws

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750W e-bikes in Europe? Discussions underway to update e-bike laws

The e-bike industry in the West has long been a tale of two territories. North Americans enjoy higher speeds and power limits for their electric bicycles while Europeans are held to much stricter (i.e. slower and lower) speed and power limits. However, things might change based on current discussions on rewriting European e-bike regulations.

New power levels are not totally without precedent, either. The UK briefly considered doubling its own e-bike power limit from 250 watts (approximately 1/3 horsepower) to 500 watts, though the move was ultimately abandoned.

But this time, the call for more power is coming from within the house – i.e., Germany. The Germans are the undisputed leaders and trend setters in the European e-bike market, accounting for around two million sales of e-bikes per year. Home to leading e-bike drive makers like Bosch, the country has yet another advantage when it comes to making – or regulating – waves in the industry.

And while there aren’t any pending law changes, the largest German trade organization ZIV (Zweirad-Industrie-Verband), which is highly influential in achieving such changes, is now discussing what it believes could be pertinent updates to current EU electric bike regulations.

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Some of the new regulations involve creating rules maxing out power at levels such as 400% or 600% of the human pedaling input. But a key component of the proposed plan includes changing the present day power limit of e-bikes from 250W of continuous power at the motor to 750W of peak power at the drive wheel.

The difference includes some nuance, since continuous power is often considered more of a nominal figure, meaning nearly every e-bike motor in Europe wears a “250W” or less sticker despite often outputting a higher level of peak power. Even Bosch, which has to walk the tight and narrow as a leader in the European e-bike drive market, shared that its newest models of motors are capable of peak power ratings in the 600W level. That’s still far from the commonly 1,000W to 1,300W peak power seen in US e-bike motors, but offers a nice boost over an actual 250W motor.

Other new regulations up for discussion include proposals to limit fully-loaded cargo e-bike weights to either 250 kg (550 lb) for two-wheelers or 300 kg (660 lb) for e-bikes with more than two wheels. As road.cc explained, ZIV also noted that, “separate framework conditions and parameters must be defined for cargo bikes weighing more than 300 kg (see EN 17860-4:2025) as they differ significantly from EPACs and bicycles in their dynamics, design and operation.” Such heavy-duty cargo e-bikes, which often more closely resemble small delivery vans than large cargo bikes, are becoming more common in the industry and have raised concerns about cargo e-bike bloat, especially in dedicated cycling paths.

It’s too early to say whether European e-bike regulations will actually change, but the fact that key industry voices with the power to influence policy are openly advocating for it suggests that new rules for the European market are a real possibility.

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China overhauls EV charging: 100,000 ultra-fast public stations by 2027

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China overhauls EV charging: 100,000 ultra-fast public stations by 2027

China just laid out a plan to roll out over 100,000 ultra-fast EV charging stations by 2027 – and they’ll all be open to the public.

The National Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) joint notice, issued on Monday, asks local authorities to put together construction plans for highway service areas and prioritize the ones that see 40% or more usage during holiday travel rushes.

The NDRC notes that China’s ultra-fast EV charging infrastructure needs upgrading as more 800V EVs hit the road. Those high-voltage platforms can handle super-fast charging in as little as 10 to 30 minutes, but only if the charging hardware is up to speed.

China had 31.4 million EVs on the road at the end of 2024 – nearly 9% of the country’s total vehicle fleet. But charging access is still catching up. As of May 2025, there were 14.4 million charging points, or roughly 1 for every 2.2 EVs.

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To keep the grid running smoothly, China wants new chargers to be smart, with dynamic pricing to incentivize off-peak charging and solar and storage to power the charging stations.

To make the business side work, the government is pushing for 10-year leases for charging station operators, and it’s backing the buildout with local government bonds.

The NDRC emphasized that the DC fast chargers built will be open to the public. This is a big deal because a lot of fast chargers in China aren’t. For example, BYD’s new megawatt chargers aren’t open to third-party vehicles.

As of September 2024, China had expanded its charging infrastructure to 11.4 million EV chargers, but only 3.3 million were public.

Read more: California now has nearly 50% more EV chargers than gas nozzles


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Two charged in $650 million global crypto scam that promised 300% returns

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Two charged in 0 million global crypto scam that promised 300% returns

A U.S. Justice Department logo or seal showing Justice Department headquarters, known as “Main Justice,” is seen behind the podium in the Department’s headquarters briefing room before a news conference with the Attorney General in Washington, January 24, 2023.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

Federal prosecutors have charged two men in connection with a sprawling cryptocurrency investment scheme that defrauded victims out of more than $650 million.

The indictment, unsealed in the District of Puerto Rico, accuses Michael Shannon Sims, 48, of Georgia and Florida, and Juan Carlos Reynoso, 57, of New Jersey and Florida, of operating and promoting OmegaPro, an international crypto multi-level marketing scheme that promised investors 300% returns over 16 months through foreign exchange trading.

“This case exposes the ruthless reality of modern financial crime,” said the Internal Revenue Service’s Chief of Criminal Investigations Guy Ficco. “OmegaPro promised financial freedom but delivered financial ruin.”

From 2019 to 2023, Sims, Reynoso and their co-conspirators allegedly lured thousands of victims worldwide to purchase “investment packages” using cryptocurrency, falsely claiming the funds would be safely managed by elite forex traders, the Department of Justice said.

Prosecutors said the pair flaunted their wealth through social media and extravagant events — including projecting the OmegaPro logo onto the Burj Khalifa, Dubai’s tallest building — to convince investors the operation was legitimate.

A video posted to the company’s LinkedIn page shows guests in evening attire posing for photos and watching the spectacle in Dubai.

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In reality, authorities allege, OmegaPro was a pyramid-style fraud.

When the company later claimed it had suffered a hack, the defendants told victims they had transferred their funds to a new platform called Broker Group, the DOJ said. Users were never able to withdraw their money from either platform.

The two men face charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The Justice Department, FBI, IRS-Criminal Investigation, and Homeland Security Investigations led the multiagency investigation, with help from international partners.

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