Mont Blanc, France's tallest mountain, has shrunk by over two metres over the past two years. Researchers measured the Alpine peak at 4,805.59 metres.

The rocky peak measures 4,792 metres above sea level, but its thick covering of ice and snow varies in height from year to year depending on wind and weather.

Researchers measure it every two years to garner information about the impact of climate change on the Alps.

https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2023/1005/1409117-mont-blanc/

#France #Alps #MontBlanc #Mountain #ClimateChange

https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/111/183/141/589/243/933/original/0b06a4fd66e8defc.jpg 

 Excavations at a rock shelter have revealed that humans lived in high and remote regions of what is now Spain during the coldest part of the last glacial period, between 21,400 and 15,100 years ago.

High-altitude regions are colder and more challenging than low-lying zones, but even so, the plateau probably “hosted a relatively dense human settlement”, says Manuel Alcaraz-Castaño at the University of Alcalá in Spain.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2395924-humans-lived-on-spanish-plateau-during-earths-last-cold-snap/

#Spain #Science #Archaeology #Prehistoric #Humans 

 Switzerland's annual battle with rising health insurance costs.

In a country with no social security, citizens by law must purchase private health insurance, whose yearly costs have surged to the extent that one-third of households now rely on state aid to afford it.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/10/01/switzerland-s-yearly-battle-with-rising-health-insurance-costs_6142135_4.html

#Switzerland #HealthInsurance #SocialSecurity #CostOfLiving 

 Billionaire Xavier Niel is on track to place more than 40% of Le Monde in an independent foundation, the newspaper’s chief executive said days after he bought out Czech tycoon Daniel Křetínský’s stake in France’s biggest national daily.

The issue of media independence is acute in France where major outlets including biggest private broadcaster TF1, newspaper Le Figaro and news channel BFM are owned by billionaire industrialists.

https://www.ft.com/content/3fb0513a-1dcb-4ab2-937a-6b369ad84b6d

#France #LeMonde #Media #Newspapers

https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/111/159/706/041/841/844/original/5a4d975d3a16de7f.jpg 

 Norway wants Facebook behavioural advertising banned across Europe.

Norway has told the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) it believes a countrywide ban on Meta harvesting user data to serve up advertising on Facebook and Instagram should be made permanent and extended across Europe.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/29/norway_facebook_behavioral_ads/

#Europe #Norway #EU #EuropeanDataProtectionBoard #EDPB #Facebook #Meta #Advertising #Privacy 

 Spain's center-right Popular Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo on Friday failed to win a second vote on his bid to form a government.

Just as they did when an initial vote was held Wednesday, a majority of Spanish lawmakers rejected the conservative boss’s candidacy, with 177 voting against him and 172 in favor.

King Felipe VI is now expected to ask the Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez to attempt to form a government.

https://www.politico.eu/article/spanish-lawmakers-reject-alberto-nunez-feijoo-second-bid-become-pm-election-pedro-sanchez/

#Spain #Politics #Elections #Sanchez #Feijoo 

 Voters in Slovakia are being inundated with misinformation from home and abroad in the run-up to the country's parliamentary elections on Saturday.

The vote could determine whether the country of 5.4 million moves closer to Moscow or not, with much of the false information coming from Russia.

Slovakia, part of the EU and NATO, has been the target of disinfo campaigns for years.

https://www.euronews.com/2023/09/29/pro-russia-disinformation-floods-slovakia-ahead-of-crucial-parliamentary-elections

#Slovakia #Russia #Misinformation #Disinformation #Politics #Elections 

 ‘Dramatic’ acceleration: Switzerland has lost 10% of its glaciers in the last two years.

Glaciers across the entire country were affected, with those in southern and eastern Switzerland melting almost as much this year as in the record year 2022.

The biggest decline since measurements began was seen in 2022, followed by the second biggest this year, the Swiss Academy of Sciences and Glacier Monitoring Switzerland announced today.

https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/09/28/dramatic-acceleration-switzerland-has-lost-10-of-its-glaciers-in-the-last-two-years

#Switzerland #Glaciers #ClimateChange 

 A hearing over climate inaction against 32 countries opens at a European court.

Six young people from Portugal will take on 32 countries in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) today for not doing enough to stop global warming.

The unprecedented hearing is the world’s largest climate legal action to date.

https://www.rfi.fr/en/international/20230927-hearing-over-climate-inaction-against-32-countries-opens-at-european-court

#Europe #Portugal #EuropeanCourtOfHumanRights #ECHR #ClimateChange #Climate #Legal #Court 

 With the plethora of legitimate streaming options available today, you’d be forgiven for thinking pirated TV shows were a thing of the past. But a new study by the EU’s Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) shows that after a multi-year decline, online piracy is on the up.

The study points to lack of legal options and income inequality as drivers for increase in consumption of illegal content.

https://thenextweb.com/news/eu-online-piracy-increasing

#Europe #EU #EUIPO #Streaming #Piracy #Content #TV #Movie #Films #Music 

 Welcome to Britain, where an elected member of parliament openly rages against “crime against humanity” COVID vaccines and a £12.50-a-day pollution charge is a “trojan horse” for government “control.”

Conspiracy theories are not a new force in British politics. But there’s mounting concern that, on a host of issues, once-fringe ideas are increasingly being ushered into the mainstream — with a little help from politicians.

https://www.politico.eu/article/conspiracy-theories-covid-vaccines-are-rife-in-british-politics/

#UK #Politics #ConspiracyTheories #Covid #ULEZ 

 The 870 km Rail Baltica project, which is due for completion in 2030, will connect the capitals of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia with Warsaw and the rest of Europe, allowing trains to run uninterrupted.

However, the project is symbolic as well as physical.

For the EU, it’s a statement about the Baltic states’ return to Europe and their decoupling from their Soviet past.

https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/09/16/the-high-speed-railway-thats-uncoupling-the-baltic-states-from-russia-and-their-soviet-pas

#Europe #Lithuania #Latvia #Estonia #Poland #Baltics #Rail #HighSpeedRail #RailBaltica

https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/111/081/227/655/536/483/original/10eff9b052056b3c.jpg 

 The latest iteration of the EU's Critical Raw Materials Act establishes that 15% of domestic demand should be met by recycling by 2030, and 50% processed within the EU.

But the plenary text warned that "deep sea mining will most likely result in damage to ecosystems and a permanent loss of biodiversity," calling for a moratorium on deep-sea mining since the impact on marine ecosystems has not been researched.

https://euobserver.com/green-economy/157425

#EU #EuropeanParliament #DeepSea #Mining #Marine #Ecosystems 

 Francesco Lollobrigida, one of the most radical ministers in Italy's hard-right government, told a youth convention “We need immigration”.

And how. The number of births in Italy last year was the lowest ever recorded. Already, a big gap has opened up: a survey of employers found they expected to have 531,000 vacancies this month, but thought almost half could remain unfilled, largely because of a lack of applicants. That in turn slows growth.

https://www.economist.com/europe/2023/09/14/italy-needs-more-migrants-but-has-trouble-admitting-it

#Italy #Migration #Economy 

 The European Parliament on Thursday urged member states to promote the so-called “Swedish model” to combat prostitution — which punishes the client and not the person, usually a woman, who solicits.

The Strasbourg plenary session approved a non-binding report that promotes the ‘decriminalisation of prostituted persons, especially women’.

https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-09-15/european-parliament-urges-member-states-to-adopt-swedish-model-targeting-clients-not-prostitutes.html

#EU #EuropeanParliament #Sweden #Politics #Prostitution #Women 

 Six young people are preparing to appear at the European court of human rights to try to compel 32 nations to rapidly escalate their emissions reductions in the world’s largest climate legal action to date. They argue that a lack of adequate action is a breach of human rights.

The six Portuguese claimants say they were driven to act by their experiences in the wildfires that ripped through the Leiria region in 2017.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/14/young-people-to-take-32-european-countries-to-court-over-climate-policies

#Europe #ECHR #ClimateChange #Climate #LegalAction

https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/111/063/881/041/321/829/original/46ef7f4b6c3ba897.jpg 

 In Ukraine with the minesweepers: 'At times, it took me four days to clear 150 metres, there was no other option'.

The counteroffensive launched by Kyiv's forces in June was made particularly dangerous given the extent to which Russian defensive positions were mined. Mine-clearing teams operate step by step, at night, in small units.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/europe/article/2023/09/07/in-ukraine-with-the-minesweepers-it-took-me-four-days-at-times-to-clear-150-meters-there-was-no-other-option_6127932_143.html

#Ukraine #WarInUkraine #Mines #LandMines 

 A night train linking Berlin and Paris will return in December, nine years after the service was cancelled, the Austrian rail operator ÖBB has announced.

ÖBB will make Mannheim a hub for night trains, with its Brussels-Vienna and Paris-Vienna services also making stops in the city.

ÖBB has been a pioneer in bringing back night trains as Europeans look for low-carbon travel options.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/06/night-train-between-berlin-and-paris-to-return-after-nine-years

#Berlin #Paris #OBB #Strasbourg #Mannheim #Trains #Rail #NightTrains

https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/111/023/912/847/582/307/original/2b2108d212a99a85.jpg 

 Britain will rejoin two of the EU’s science funding projects in a major post-Brexit shift.

The UK government announced Thursday that it will associate to both Horizon Europe, the bloc’s multibillion-euro research funding scheme, and Copernicus, its earth observation program, under a “bespoke new agreement unlocking unparalleled research opportunities, and also the right deal for British taxpayers.”

https://www.politico.eu/article/britain-rejoins-eus-horizon-science-scheme/

#UK #EU #Brexit #HorizonEurope #Copernicus #Science #Research 

 There are few places that tell Berlin’s—and modern Germany’s—story better than Tempelhof Airport.

Born just before the horrors of the Nazi regime, and later occupied by both the Russians and the Americans, Tempelhof sits quietly today, as far as its original purposes go.

The airport now offers a safe haven to refugees and everyday Germans.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/09/02/berlin-tempelhof-airport-germany-nazi-refugees/

#Germany #Berlin #Tempelhof #Airport 

 The Black Sea's role in Russia's war on Ukraine.

The Black Sea was once a geopolitical afterthought in Europe. But that has changed since Russia began its war against Ukraine. Now, many interests are colliding on the inland sea between Europe and Asia.

https://www.dw.com/en/the-black-sea-plays-a-key-role-in-russias-war-on-ukraine/a-66517223

#Europe #BlackSea #Russia #Ukraine #Turkey #Bulgaria #Romania #Georgia #WarInUkraine