Tag: Buildings
Rishi Sunak weaponizes net zero as election looms – POLITICO
Press play to listen to this article
Voiced by artificial intelligence.
LONDON — Rishi Sunak has rolled the dice on weaponizing net zero for electoral advantage. No one knows if it will pay off — and some say it’s already costing him dearly.
In a Downing Street speech on Wednesday — coincidentally on the very afternoon the UN hosted talks in New York on increasing climate ambition — the British prime minister took a red pen to some of his
With a return of Trump looming, Ukrainians ramp up homegrown arms industry – POLITICO
KYIV — Ukraine’s long-range Beaver drones seem to be making successful kamikaze strikes in the heart of Moscow, but Serhiy Prytula is coy about how much he knows.
“We are not sure whether we are involved in this,” he says with a charming but inscrutable smile, when asked about these mysterious new weapons.
Prytula rose to fame — just like President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — as an actor, TV star and comedian, but is now best known for his contribution to
Russian missiles strike Donetsk, killing at least seven – POLITICO
Russia struck the city of Pokrovsk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region with two ballistic missiles overnight, killing at least seven people, local officials said Tuesday.
At least 81 people were injured in the strikes, Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional military administration, said in a statement.
“Among the dead are five civilians, one employee of the State Emergency Service, and one soldier,” Kyrylenko said. Of the injured, four were soldiers, seven were from the State Emergency Service, 31 were
The Tory heartlands where Liz Truss’ name is mud and ‘Boris’ is a dirty word – POLITICO
ST ALBANS, England — For decades they were U.K. Conservative heartlands; the prim, middle-class shires of southern England which voted Tory come what may.
But such has been the ruling Conservatives’ slump in popularity following a prolonged period of chaos at Westminster that strategists believe this so-called Blue Wall of Tory seats may at last be about to fall.
“We’re in a situation where approval of the government’s performance, and views of the Conservative party as a whole, are so
Britain’s creaking energy grid isn’t ready for net zero – POLITICO
Press play to listen to this article
Voiced by artificial intelligence.
LONDON — The U.K.’s energy grid is just not ready for the shift to clean power.
That’s the stark finding of a year-long, government-commissioned review published Friday, which warns the country’s existing energy policies are “badly out of date” as a crucial decarbonization deadline looms and Britain eyes a future of electric cars in every driveway and heat pumps in every home.
Getting buy-in for the major changes needed
Banning burning of the Quran would not reduce freedom of expression – POLITICO
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen spoke out for the first time on the burning of the Quran in her country, saying that a potential ban on setting fire to the religious text would not limit freedom of expression.
“I don’t consider it a restriction on freedom of expression that you can’t burn other people’s books,” Frederiksen said in an interview published Thursday.
“It is not a slippery slope,” she added, referring to a debate triggered after the Danish government announced
Belarus helicopters entered Poland’s airspace as provocation, report says – POLITICO
The incursion into Poland by two Belarusian choppers was a deliberate move intended to provoke Warsaw, according to a report published Wednesday in Polish media outlet Onet.
Minsk’s taunt prompted Poland to send more troops to its border with Belarus.
At first, Warsaw denied rumors of airspace violations by helicopters on Tuesday, but later explained that the border crossing took place in the area of Białowieża at a very low altitude, which made it difficult for radar systems to detect.
Romania accuses Russia of war crimes over Danube grain port bombing – POLITICO
Romania’s president has condemned Russia’s attacks on ports on the Danube as unacceptable and war crimes.
On Wednesday morning, Russia attacked Ukrainian grain ports at Izmail on the River Danube, a short distance from Romania. A grain warehouse, a passenger building and an elevator for loading grain were damaged, the BBC reported. No casualties were reported.
The attacks were “unacceptable,” Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said on social media. “These are war crimes and they further affect UA’s [Ukraine’s] capacity
Château Breton! French commissioner has bought a castle – POLITICO
Thierry Breton, the internal market commissioner, has bought a castle in the French countryside, his team told POLITICO on Wednesday, confirming local media reports.
Located in the verdant central French village of Gargilesse-Dampierre — ranked among the prettiest places in France — along the Creuse river, Gargilesse Castle was built by the Counts of Gargilesse in the 8th century.
Breton purchased the building from a local painter, Annick Thévenin, who had bought the castle in 1998 to use as an
A Defense of the Ugliest Building in Paris
The sole skyscraper in central Paris celebrated its fiftieth anniversary recently, though “celebrate” may not be le mot juste. When the city’s official Twitter account wished the Tour Montparnasse (“Montparnasse Tower”) a happy birthday, the responses were hostile even by the standards of that platform, ranging from “Quelle horreur” to “La pire chose qui soit arrivée à Paris depuis les Nazis” (“The worst thing to happen to Paris since the Nazis”) to simply “Non