EU climate chief criticises China, India and Saudi pushback on carbon tax
Petrostates becoming ‘more assertive’, Wopke Hoekstra tells FT
Source: Financial Times
WORLD
Taiwan
Taiwan’s Opposition Leader, Once for Independence, Turns Toward China
She says Taiwan must embrace its Chinese heritage to avoid war. Her critics say she wants to steer the island into Beijing’s orbit.
Source: NYT
Europe & World
‘It moved … it was hopping!’ One man’s search for a wild wallaby in the UK
Reports of escaped wallabies are on the rise, especially in southern England. But how easy is it to spot these strange and charismatic marsupials – and why would a quintessentially Australian creature settle here?
It was about 9.30 or 10 on a dark, late November night; Molly Laird was driving her pink Mini home along country lanes to her Warwickshire cottage. Suddenly, the headlights’ beam picked up an animal sitting in the road. “I thought it was a deer at first,” Molly tells me. “But when it moved, its tail wasn’t right, and it was hopping. It took me a while to realise, but I thought: that’s a kangaroo!”
Molly’s next thought was: “I’m going insane,” closely followed by, “No one’s going to believe me.” So she got out her phone and filmed it. Later, she posted the video on social media, where she was told it was likely to be not a kangaroo, but its smaller cousin, the red-necked wallaby.
Source: The Guardian
Europe & World
The snail farm don: is this the most brazen tax avoidance scheme of all time?
Terry Ball – renowned shoe salesman, friend to former mafiosi – has vowed to spend his remaining years finding ways to cheat authorities he feels have cheated him. His greatest ruse? A tax-dodging snail empire
It is a drizzly October afternoon and I am sitting in a rural Lancashire pub drinking pints of Moretti with London’s leading snail farmer and a convicted member of the Naples mafia. We’re discussing the best way to stop a mollusc orgy.
The farmer, a 79-year-old former shoe salesman called Terry Ball who has made and lost multiple fortunes, has been cheerfully telling me in great detail for several hours about how he was inspired by former Conservative minister Michael Gove to use snails to cheat local councils out of tens of millions of pounds in taxes.
Source: The Guardian
Europe, Europe & World, Iceland
How an invasion of purple flowers made Iceland an Instagram paradise – and caused a biodiversity crisis
Nootka lupins, introduced in the 1940s to repair damaged soil, are rampaging across the island, threatening its native species
It was only when huge areas of Iceland started turning purple that authorities realised they had made a mistake. By then, it was too late. The Nootka lupin, native to Alaska, had coated the sides of fjords, sent tendrils across mountain tops and covered lava fields, grasslands and protected areas.
Since it arrived in the 1940s, it has become an accidental national symbol. Hordes of tourists and local people pose for photos in the ever-expanding fields in June and July, entranced by the delicate cones of flowers that cover the north Atlantic island.
Source: The Guardian
Europe, Europe & World, France
Rockets, gold and the Foreign Legion: can Europe defend its frontier in the Amazon? | Alexander Hurst
It borders Brazil, but French Guiana is now a remote outpost of the EU. It is home to Europe’s only spaceport, some of the most biodiverse forest on the planet and a military mission that is testing the limits of western power
Above me, a ceiling of rough wooden branches and tarp. To my right, an officer in the French Foreign Legion types up the daily situation report. In front of me a French gendarme named David is standing in front of a table full of large assault rifles, pointing out locations on a paper map. A generator hums. All around us, splotches of forest dot the hundreds of islands that make up the archipelago of Petit-Saut, a watery ecosystem three times the size of Paris.
Except Paris is 7,000 kilometres away from where I am, in Guyane, or French Guiana, a department of France in South America, just north of the equator.
Source: The Guardian
Travel & Tourism Europe
Bulgaria Joins Poland, Romania, Hungary, Albania, and More to Dominate Europe’s Budget Travel Scene in 2025 – You Won’t Believe the Deals! – Travel And Tour World
Bulgaria Joins Poland, Romania, Hungary, Albania, and More to Dominate Europe’s Budget Travel Scene in 2025 – You Won’t Believe the Deals! Travel And Tour World
WORLD
Macron gets in touch with China to help finish war in Ukraine, rebalance profession
The French head of state met with Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday to strengthen their partnership, talk profession and address the issue of the war in Ukraine and China’s potential role in a ceasefire.
Source: Le Monde
Military & Defense Europe
Europe warns the US: concessions to Putin threaten the security of all Europe – 112.ua
Europe warns the US: concessions to Putin threaten the security of all Europe 112.ua
Crime & Law Europe
EU lists Russia as ‘high-risk’ country due to ‘strategic deficiencies’ in its anti-money laundering framework – Anadolu Ajansı
EU lists Russia as ‘high-risk’ country due to ‘strategic deficiencies’ in its anti-money laundering framework Anadolu Ajansı