German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced on the 4th the third round of relief plan since mid February, with an amount of 65 billion euros, aimed at helping German people and enterprises cope with severe inflation. After the overnight discussions of the ruling coalition, Scholz announced the latest plan at a news conference on the 4th. He said that it was "very clear" that many Germans could not bear the rising prices. The German government took the concerns of the people "very, very seriously" and believed that Germany could "survive this winter". The two rounds of rescue measures previously launched by the German government totaled 30 billion euros. However, with some measures expiring at the end of August and inflation persistently high, the government is under pressure to come up with new plans. Germany's inflation rate ended two consecutive months of decline in August, and the annualized inflation rate rebounded to 7.9%, which was the same as that in May and the highest since the oil crisis in the 1970s and the reunification of Germany and China. According to Agence France Presse, soaring energy prices may push inflation to about 10% by the end of the year. Two days before the German government released the latest relief measures, Russia announced that due to the discovery of multiple faults, the "beixi-1" natural gas pipeline to Germany would completely stop gas transmission until the faults were eliminated. Scholz on the 4th blamed Russia for the high energy prices in Germany, saying that Russia "is no longer a reliable energy supplier". The Russian side said that it was the EU and the United States that launched unprecedented sanctions against Russia due to the Ukraine crisis that pushed up energy prices. On the day the Russian side announced on the 2nd that "beixi-1" would completely stop gas supply, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the finance ministers of the group of seven countries had reached an agreement to impose restrictions on Russian oil prices. Dmitry Medvedev, vice chairman of the Russian Federal Security Council, warned that if the EU implemented a price ceiling, Russia would no longer supply natural gas to Europe. Reuters reported on the 4th, quoting market analysts, that prices in the European natural gas trading market are expected to rise again on the 5th. Although Germany and other European countries are trying to reduce or even get rid of their dependence on Russian energy, Jacob Mandel, an analyst at the UK "Aurora" energy research company, believes that it will be "increasingly difficult" to replace Russian natural gas. The gas storage capacity of Germany's natural gas storage facilities reached 85.02% of its "storage capacity" on the 2nd, about a month ahead of schedule. However, according to Klaus Miller, director of the federal network bureau, the German energy regulator, if Russian natural gas is completely "cut off", even if Germany's gas storage reaches 100%, it will be exhausted in two and a half months. (Li Xinshe)