The world’s two first hydrogen-powered trains have begun service in Germany. The trains, which operate in between northern German towns, are a step away from traditional diesel power. According to a press release from Alstom, the trains’ French parent company, they are are “equipped with fuel cells which convert hydrogen and oxygen into electricity. Source Popular Mechanics
Renewable
The North Sea may be a prime spot for wind parks, but Estonia is betting it can build and maintain turbines for less. The small nation is pushing ahead with ambitious plans for an offshore wind park in the Baltic Sea. Source: DW
A senior Indian negotiator says his country will cut back its use of coal, if sufficient cash for renewables emerges from a Paris deal. Dr Ajay Mathur said coal would be restricted if there was help to pay for “more expensive” green energy. Source: BBC
Bill Gates has pulled together a multinational band of investors to put billions into clean energy. The Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist is set to announce his latest endeavor, the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, at the climate change summit in Paris alongside President Obama and French President Francois Hollande. Source: CNN Money
China, the world’s biggest carbon emitter, wants a legally binding agreement to be reached at a world climate summit in Paris that begins on Nov. 30. China hopes the summit will prove to be “monumental” for climate change, said Xie Zhenhua, the nation’s special representative on climate change. Source: Bloomberg
The U.K. government will make keeping the lights on the top priority with natural gas and nuclear power playing a central role in that goal, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd is expected to say in a major speech later Wednesday setting out a new energy policy for the country. Source: WSJ
EDP Renewables, Mitsubishi, Chiyoda, Engie and Repsol entered into an agreement to implement a floating offshore wind farm off the coast of Northern Portugal, known as the WindFloat Atlantic project. The project, located 20km off the Portuguese coast, is planned to be operational in 2018. Source: Offshore Engineer
Several hundred health workers took to the streets of Paris on Thursday afternoon to protest against conditions in French hospitals, as the number of new coronavirus cases surges across the country. Source France24
Since a new decree went into effect in Italy this summer, 220,000 migrants have applied to get temporary papers, according to Deputy Interior Minister Matteo Mauri. Meanwhile, he also said that the exploitation of undocumented farmworkers in the Foggia region had to be stopped. Source Info Migrants
‘An armed attack on Sweden cannot be ruled out,’ said Swedish Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist as he presented the country’s future military strategy. Sweden said Thursday it would boost military spending by 40 percent over the next four years as it seeks to ramp up defence capabilities in the face of European tensions. Source The Local
The global aviation industry will take at least two years to recover from the coronavirus pandemic and for mass travel to return, Singapore’s Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung has said, stressing the importance of developing a widely available and effective vaccine to help countries open their borders. Source JapanTimes
Compared to the Trump administration’s sweeping revocation of visas for “high-risk” students and researchers with suspected ties to the Chinese military, Japan’s response to campus spying has largely been muted.
But even “spy heaven,” as the nation is often dubbed due to its lack of a comprehensive anti-espionage law, can no longer remain complacent. Source JapanTimes
Local media on Wednesday (Oct. 15) reported that Taiwanese F-16 fighter jets outmaneuvered a Chinese Sukhoi-30 (Su-30) fighter jet over the Taiwan Strait and drove it out of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) last month. Source Taiwan News
Greece started building a new fence across its northeastern border with Turkey, a project aimed at avoiding a repeat of the tensions last March when thousands of migrants attempted to scale the fence and enter into EU soil. Source Ekathemirini
A Greek court sentenced the leadership of the extreme-right Golden Dawn party to 13 years in prison Wednesday, imposing the near-maximum penalty for running a criminal organization blamed for numerous violent hate crimes. Source Ekathimerini
Ten people, including a senior operations manager at Uber in Italy, are under investigation over the alleged exploitation of vulnerable migrant workers by the company’s food-delivery arm, prosecutors have said. Source The Guardian
Germany’s foreign minister on Tuesday criticized Turkey for “unilateral steps” in the eastern Mediterranean that are undercutting efforts to de-escalate tensions with Greece and Cyprus over sea boundaries and drilling rights. Source Ekathimerini
At around 10 p.m., the firefighters were called in for a dustbin fire on rue du Barrois. When they arrived, a waste container was burning in the middle of the road.
During their intervention, around thirty masked and hooded individuals, aged between 16 and 20, approached, some armed with baseball bats . They tried to surround the vehicles. The firefighters decided to pack up, back up about fifty meters and alert the police. Source ActuFr
Investors queued up to buy Italy’s new three-year bond on Tuesday, even though they will get nothing back until early 2024.
The sale of Rome’s first benchmark government bond with a zero coupon, meaning it offers no interest payments, is the latest sign of red-hot demand for riskier eurozone debt, as investors bet that the European Central Bank will scale up its asset-purchasing programme. Source FT
- Central bank is developing its own e-yuan as it seeks to hasten the transformation of China’s economy
- Digital currency being used for transactions ranging from bill payments to government services in pilot tests Source South China Morning Post
Denmark gave the green light Thursday to the Russia-led Nord Stream 2 consortium to operate its Baltic Sea gas pipeline in Danish waters, the country’s energy agency announced.
“Nord Stream 2 AG has been granted an operations permit for the Nord Stream 2 pipelines on the Danish continental shelf,” the energy agency said via a statement. “The permit has been granted on a number of conditions to ensure a safe operation of the pipelines.” Source Deutsche Welle
he Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA) raised 487.5 million euros on Wednesday through the auction of 26-week treasury bills at a uniform yield of -0.10%. Source Ekathimerini
About 40,000 workers in the airline industry are facing layoffs on Thursday unless Congress comes up with another aid package Source ABC
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts notified the Florida unemployment department Tuesday of impeding layoffs across the theme park’s properties that includes nearly 10% of its employees across the state. Source Click Orlando
U.S. and European oil majors’ commitment to moving away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy threatens oil supplies and prices, Russia’s state-run oil giant Rosneft has said, according to the Financial Times. Source Moscow Times
Royal Dutch Shell announced on Wednesday plans to cut up to 9,000 jobs, or over 10% of its workforce, as part of a major overhaul to shift the oil and gas giant to low-carbon energy.
Shell, which had 83,000 employees at the end of 2019, said that the reorganization will lead to annual savings of $2 billion to $2.5 billion by 2022. Source Shell
The German finance minister has kicked off days of debate over the 2021 budget, arguing for more debt to support the economy during the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s a really, really” large sum, admitted Scholz. Source Deutsche Welle
The world’s largest group of shipping insurers will not insure vessels involved in the Russian-led Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream gas pipeline projects because of the threat of U.S. sanctions. Source Reuters
Italy expects debt to rise to about 160% of gross domestic product by the end of this year despite a smaller-than-forecast contraction of the economy, officials familiar with ongoing budget talks said. The new figures, which are provisional and still subject to change, see the economy expanding 6% in 2021, the officials said, asking not to be named discussing confidential deliberations. Source Bloomberg Quint
