Vilnius, Lithuania (REUTERS) – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said on Sunday they had successfully synchronized their electricity systems to the European continental power grid, one day after severing decades-old energy ties to Russia and Belarus

Planned for many years, the complex switch away from the grid of their former Soviet imperial overlord is designed to integrate the three Baltic nations more closely with the European Union and to boost the region’s energy security.

“We did it!,” Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said in a post on social media X.

After disconnecting on Saturday from the IPS/UPS network, established by the Soviet Union in the 1950s and now run by Russia, the Baltic nations cut cross-border high-voltage transmission lines in eastern Latvia, some 100 meters (328 feet) from the Russian border, handing out pieces of chopped wire to enthusiastic bystanders as keepsakes.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, herself an Estonian, earlier this week called the switch “a victory for freedom and European unity.”

The Baltic Sea region is on high alert after power cable, telecom links and gas pipeline outages between the Baltics and Sweden or Finland. All were believed to have been caused by ships dragging anchors along the seabed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia has denied any involvement.

Poland and the Baltics deployed navy assets, elite police units and helicopters after an undersea power link from Finland to Estonia was damaged in December, while Lithuania’s military began drills to protect the overland connection to Poland.

Analysts say more damage to links could push power prices in the Baltics to levels not seen since the invasion of Ukraine, when energy prices soared.

The IPS/UPS grid was the final remaining link to Russia for the three countries, which re-emerged as independent nations in the early 1990s at the fall of the Soviet Union, and joined the European Union and NATO in 2004.

The three staunch supporters of Kyiv stopped purchases of power from Russia following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but have relied on the Russian grid to control frequencies and stabilize networks to avoid outages.

Israel completed its withdrawal from the Netzarim Corridor on Sunday, a key road that splits Gaza in half, as part of its commitments under a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

Palestinians have been filing through the area by foot, car and in some cases, by donkeys video footage showed, although those traveling must navigate a checkpoint and the destruction wrought by months of fighting in Gaza.

“I was displaced a long time ago. I have seen people arriving on this road, sometimes even sleeping on it while waiting for the Israeli army to withdraw,” said Osama Saleem, who was waiting for his vehicle to be inspected.

“I hope the Israeli army withdraws from all of Gaza and that life returns to normal,” he added.

Hamas said in a statement that Israeli forces had fully withdrawn from the corridor, a six-kilometer strip of land that separates the north of the strip from its south and stretches from the Israel-Gaza border to the Mediterranean Sea.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had occupied the corridor since the early days of its war in Gaza.

“The withdrawal of the Zionist occupation army from the Netzarim axis is a victory for the will of our people,” a Hamas statement issued Sunday said.

Israel had used the corridor as a zone of occupation during its 15-month assault on the strip. Its troops began withdrawing from Netzarim Corridor two weeks ago as part of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced in the south have been able to cross Netzarim to return to their homes in the heavily bombarded north of Gaza.

Israel retains its presence along Gaza’s borders with Egypt and Israel.

A checkpoint run by Egyptian and Qatari officials – countries which play a mediator role between the warring sides – remains at Netzarim.

Israel’s complete withdrawal from Netzarim is part of its commitment to the fragile ceasefire and hostage agreement, which on Saturday saw the release of another three hostages – bringing the number released so far to 16 out of a total of 33 people promised to be released at staggered intervals during this stage.

Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy – all taken captive during the Hamas-led October 7 attack – were freed in return for 183 Palestinian prisoners, although their frail and gaunt appearances drew condemnation from Israel.

Negotiations on the agreement’s second and third phases are still in doubt.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been deeply wary of phase two of the deal, which would see the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the return of the remaining hostages there. His finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has pledged to quit the government if the ceasefire continues.

Khader Al-Za’anoun of Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, contributed reporting.

The Aga Khan IV was laid to rest on Sunday at a private ceremony in Aswan, Egypt.

The death of Prince Karim – the 49th hereditary imam of the Shiite Ismaili Muslims – was announced Tuesday by the Aga Khan Development Network and the Ismaili religious community. His son, 53-year-old Rahim Al-Hussaini, has been named as the Aga Khan V, the spiritual leader of the world’s millions of Ismaili Muslims, in according with his father’s will.

On Saturday, a private funeral service took place at the Ismaili community center in Lisbon attended by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Spain’s King Emeritus Juan Carlos and Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

The Aga Khan is considered by his followers to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and is treated as a head of state.

The governor of Aswan welcomed Prince Karim’s family at the southern Egyptian’s provinces airport on Saturday.

“When his will was opened, it was found that he had requested to be buried in Aswan near his grandfather, Sultan Muhammad Shah, and his grandmother, Om Habiba,” said Maj. Gen. Ismail Kamal.

Ismaili mourners marched as bells rang during the burial ceremony in the country’s southern Aswan province, as Prince Karim’s body was taken in a van.

They carried his body, draped in a white shroud, and placed it on a yacht on the Nile River.

Prince Karim, 88, was given the title of “His Highness” by Queen Elizabeth in July 1957, two weeks after his grandfather, the Aga Khan III, unexpectedly made him heir to the family’s 1,300-year dynasty as leader of the Ismaili Muslim sect.

The late Aga Khan evolved over decades into a business magnate and a philanthropist, moving between the spiritual and the worldly with ease.

He was a defender of Islamic culture and values, but also widely regarded as a builder of bridges between Muslim societies and the West.

The Aga Khan Development Network deals mainly with issues of health care, housing, education and rural economic development.

It says it works in over 30 countries and has an annual budget of about $1 billion for nonprofit development activities.

Ismailis lived for many generations in Iran, Syria and South Asia before also settling in east Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East, as well as Europe, North America and Australia more recently.

They consider it a duty to donate up to 12.5% of their income to the Aga Khan as steward.

Polls have closed and votes are now being counted in Ecuador’s general election, where 16 candidates are vying for the presidency, including incumbent Daniel Noboa and his main political rival Luisa González.

According to Ecuador’s Constitution, a candidate needs more than 50% of the vote to win the first round outright, or 40% with a margin of at least 10 percentage points over the next closest candidate.

If these conditions are not met, the two candidates with the most votes will face each other in a second round, which is provisionally scheduled for April 13.

Sunday’s vote will decide if the country will stick with Noboa’s tough crackdown on crime or seek an alternative voice in González.

Noboa, who won the 2023 snap election to finish the term of his predecessor Guillermo Lasso, has presided over a series of crises in his term.

He has declared numerous states of emergency, deployed military units to tackle gang activity in the country’s streets, and began construction on a new maximum-security prison after an infamous criminal leader escaped from custody last year.

González, who was the runner-up in the 2023 race, is a close confidante of former leftist President Rafael Correa, a dominant figure in Ecuador’s politics.

Running on a campaign to “Revive Ecuador,” González has pledged to tackle the drug trade just as vigorously as Noboa.

The main challenges the next government will face when it takes office in May are security, the economy, a nationwide energy crisis and international relations.

For a man who’s spent his career battling to make France more pro-business, Europe’s prospects on artificial intelligence are worrying: an oversight that could cost the bloc dearly.

“We need an AI agenda,” he said, “because we have to bridge the gap with the United States and China on AI.” The French leader added that he fears Europe becoming merely an AI consumer, losing control over the future direction and development of the technology.

That’s part of the impetus behind this week’s AI summit in Paris — the latest effort by Macron to put France at the heart of the debate and decision-making on international questions of the day.

Macron regularly touts the prospects of Paris-based company Mistral, widely considered OpenAI’s European competitor, which launched a new app on Thursday.

The company boasts of its ability to rival its US competitors, by getting the same results with less computing power needed, although the surprise arrival of lower-cost Chinese competitor DeepSeek has put pressure on the French firm.

Europe ‘must do much better’ on financing

With its nuclear-heavy energy portfolio making France a net energy exporter, the country is in an enviable position for the creation of power-ravenous data centers.

France is set to unveil what its government boasts is Europe’s largest supercomputer by fall 2025, outside Paris.

The Mont Valerien site will be a military facility, bringing AI capabilities at scale to help solve design and engineering questions, like the architecture of France’s next aircraft carriers. AI will also be used to improve future military technologies and practices, like anti-drone jamming, according to the French Ministry of Defense.

That’s the exception. With Europe holding a mere 3-5% of global computing power, Macron said he hopes this surplus power will open doors to Europe’s AI future. He has his sights on building 20% of the world’s data centers.

But financing — especially from the United States and the Gulf Arab states — will be key, according to Macron.

It’s where Europe “must do much better,” Macron said.

Finding cash within the continent could be an unwitting boon if President Donald Trump’s tariff threats against European allies come to a head.

“From the standpoint of America, the EU treats us very, very unfairly, very badly,” Trump told the World Economic Forum in January, later threatening to levy tariffs against the bloc after slapping — and then rescinding — stiff import taxes on Canada and Mexico.

Trump’s 10% across-the-board tariffs on China still went into effect, and the president said he will announce new so-called reciprocal tariffs next week that could hit all corners of the world.

Trump has railed against the US trade deficit with the European Union, which increased by $26.9 billion to $235.6 billion in 2024, according to US government figures.

Macron pushed back against this, arguing the trade deficit ignores Europe’s significant spending on digital services, which is often excluded from such calculations.

In response to potential tariffs, Macron said Europe must look to protect producers against American and Chinese competition and, crucially, ease regulation on investments to stem the “leaking” of European savings to the United States. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen mirrored that resolute stance last week.

Staying in the race

“I will fight for AI,” he said, calling for a business environment that makes Europe more competitive. “I will fight for more defence and security answers as Europeans. And I will fight for the maximum level of ambition on all these issues.”

February and March will bring announcements and a roadmap of reforms around AI startup regulations, Macron said, in an effort to rival the United States and China’s AI agenda.

“We have to focus on killing some crazy regulations, simplification of the current environment,” Macron said. “Europe has to simplify its rules, make it much more business friendly and synchronize with the United States.”

He hopes, for AI at least, this week’s summit will be a “wake up call” for Europe.