BALKANS — SKIRMISHES AT SERBIA-KOSOVO BORDER; NATO READY TO INTERVENE: Ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo engaged in skirmishes with police and blocked roads, protesting new rules requiring them to use Kosovo license plates on their cars. The rules would have affected around 50,000 people and had been due to come into effect today. The Kosovo government has agreed to delay the rules if all protester roadblocks are removed. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić hyped up the situation in a nationally televised address and claimed Kosovo authorities have no right to implement the rules (though Serbia imposes a similar system on its side of the border). The NATO-led Kosovo Force peacekeeping mission issued a statement that it is "prepared to intervene if stability jeopardized." Notable: Russia can't weigh in for Serbia this time. Russia's military is tied up in Ukraine and blocked from European airspace. GERMANY — COULD IT REALLY DEINDUSTRIALIZE? That's the fear of the conservative premier of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer . With Germany recording its first trade deficit since 1991, he claims that the risk of a Russian gas shut-off will push energy-intensive industries either to move to lower-cost countries, or those with better access to gas, oil and renewable energy. " Our economic system is in danger of collapsing ," Kretschmer told Die Zeit. RUSSIA — GAS SHIPMENTS TO LATVIA HALTED: Russian gas provider Gazprom on Saturday announced it was stopping deliveries to Latvia for an alleged breach of contract terms. U.N. — PEACEKEEPERS OPEN FIRE IN D.R. CONGO: Peacekeepers opened fire "for unexplained reasons" during an incident in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on the Uganda border on Sunday. U.N. Secretary General António Guterres was "saddened and dismayed" to learn of the shooting, per a U.N. statement. "The Secretary-General stresses in the strongest terms the need to establish accountability for these events ," the U.N. said. CLIMATE — U.S. LEGISLATIVE DEAL GETS A COOL GLOBAL REACTION: Other governments have been here before. They'll believe U.S. climate action when they see it . By the numbers: Rich countries under-delivered on their climate finance promises. An OECD report released Friday found they fell short by almost $17 billion in the deadline year, corroborating last year's estimates . Donor countries aren't expected to meet the $100 billion target until 2023. CONGRESS MEETS WORLD PUSH FOR MORE PACIFIC EMBASSIES: A bipartisan group of senators is introducing legislation to establish three new embassies in the Pacific Islands region to strengthen America's relationships there and counter China's growing influence. The " Pacific Islands Embassy Act " from Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.), first reported by my colleague Alex Ward, would establish new U.S. missions in Vanuatu, Kiribati and Tonga. The measure, co-sponsored by Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), requires the secretary of State to inaugurate the missions no later than two years after the bill is signed into law. The Fiji embassy is currently delegated to cover Kiribati and Tonga, while the Papua New Guinea embassy covers Vanuatu. "We must immediately establish a robust physical diplomatic presence in these strategic island nations," Ossoff said in a statement, calling the lack of investment as "malpractice." REALITY CHECK: There are still 52 empty U.S. ambassador chairs including Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Tonga, Tuvalu, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Micronesia and Timor Leste. Ann Marie Yastishock is waiting for a hearing to go on to serve in Port Moresby and Marie Damour is likewise waiting for a hearing to serve in Suva. The only Pacific Island nations actually served by U.S. ambassadors today are Marshall Islands (Ambassador Roxanne Cabral was confirmed during the Trump administration) and Samoa, which is served by Tom Udall, but from Wellington, New Zealand. The lesson: The U.S. could do with more embassies. It could also do with filling up the embassies it already has. WHERE'S THE AMBASSADOR TO COLOMBIA? Luis Gilberto Murillo takes up his post as Colombia's ambassador in Washington on Saturday, becoming the first Afro-Colombian to hold the post . It's a big year for Colombia, which pitches itself as America's closest ally in Latin America: 2022 marks the 200th anniversary of diplomatic relations with the U.S. What a contrast between that engagement and Washington's failure to nominate — let alone confirm — an ambassador to Bogotá. The big question: How does the U.S. propose to outflank China's global diplomatic and infrastructure investments, when the U.S. often doesn't even nominate ambassadors to work with some of its top allies — and even when nominations are forthcoming, appointees languish for months waiting for Senate hearings?
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