News
China’s cheap electric cars flood Europe’s streets ‘destroying jobs or saving the planet?’ – a long, uncomfortable story that splits workers, greens, and politicians right down the middle
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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On a damp Tuesday morning in Lyon - the sort of day when scooters spray water off the tarmac -...
News
Retirement disaster: how a well?meaning pensioner who lent his field to a local beekeeper now faces a crushing agricultural tax bill ‘I’m not making any money from this at all’ – a story that tears communities apart
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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On a mild spring afternoon, under a thin sunlight that seems to brighten every shade, John Walker stood by the...
News
Beekeeper’s burden: a retiree who lent land for free must pay agricultural tax ‘I’m not making any money from this’ – a bureaucratic sting that pits small landowners against the taxman
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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On a mild spring morning, with the air already alive with movement, Michael-a 71‑year‑old pensioner-paces the thin strip of land...
News
Is France in industrial decline? This French company is about to break a world record in the strategic subsea cable race
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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While arguments in France swirl around deindustrialisation, one of the country’s flagship industrial groups is quietly preparing something most nations...
News
When a retiree’s “harmless favor” for a struggling beekeeper mutates into a crushing farm tax bill that rips open class resentments, pits hardline “rule of law” purists against compassion-first neighbors, and forces a country to decide whether bureaucratic loyalty is nobler than mercy for those whose only crime was letting a few bees live on their land
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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The old Renault rattled up the dirt track as though it could do it with its eyes shut. Michel, 72,...
News
“I became a regulatory documentation lead, and my income reflects the expertise”
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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The promotion email arrived on a Tuesday, wedged neatly between a meeting invite about safety labelling and an automated nudge...
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2,500 km without recharging : carbon batteries change the game for electric cars and drones
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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Engineers are beginning to treat carbon fibre as more than a structural champion: it is being reimagined as an energy...
News
The United Kingdom breaks offshore wind record with 22.7 GW and more than half its power from wind
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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On a raw, gusty evening in mid-November, Great Britain’s offshore wind fleet slipped past a landmark that would have been...
News
German-style refuelling: the simple trick that cuts your fuel bill
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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Across Germany and France, motorists are increasingly discovering that the place and moment you buy fuel can influence the cost...
News
French nuclear power is living a true “golden age” as a third company files a reactor with the safety regulator
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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In the space of only a few months, three young firms have moved their small and advanced reactor plans from...
News
As China flaunts its giant skyscrapers a new class of human elevator is born paid almost nothing to scale endless stairs so the wealthy never touch a button
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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The first time you witness it, you’re left slightly baffled. In the polished foyer of a brand-new high-rise in Shenzhen,...
News
Elon Musk’s father was right about his son the billionaire has taken his new role too seriously and his companies are suffering
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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The room was almost pitch-black, lit only by the wash of three monitors-each one serving up a different Elon Musk...
News
“I work as a night dispatcher, and shift premiums changed my monthly income”
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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At 02:17, the phones tend to ease off. The city drops into a peculiar half-quiet, and the fluorescent lighting in...
News
While we install turbines on land China just made one fly at 1500 meters high and Europe looks totally ridiculous
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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Europe is still trudging through permits for ever-taller towers, while China has already lifted a wind turbine to 1,500 metres...
News
Retirement ruined or tax justice served as a landowner who lent fields to a beekeeper is ordered to pay agricultural levies despite claiming he earned nothing, igniting a bitter nationwide debate over whether goodwill should be punished or profitable loopholes finally closed
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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On a dull Tuesday morning, Gérard takes his usual slow walk along the boundary of his field, hands buried in...
News
Replacement turbine blades arrive at one of Australia’s oldest wind farms
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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Just after dawn, a B-double lorry inched along a tight rural lane in western Victoria, carrying a load that seemed...
News
Petrol and diesel pumps swapped, dozens of cars left stranded
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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Within a matter of hours, recovery vehicles were in constant demand and garages were fielding bewildered calls. What seemed like...
News
When generosity becomes ‘agriculture’: how a retiree who lent land to a beekeeper ended up branded a farmer and sparked a bitter nationwide fight over whether good deeds should be punished with tax bills
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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The morning the envelope landed, the pensioner was out in his vegetable patch, hands buried in the earth as he...
News
A massive underground network of fungi in Canada began emitting heat pulses measurable on the surface and ecologists are alarmed
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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Thermal cameras first picked up the lightest shimmer of warmth, then watched it spread into gentle, circular patches you could...
News
This French giant, the fourth largest construction group in Europe, is making a serious move into Germany by acquiring a renowned engineering firm.
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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A major French construction group-already a heavyweight in the European league tables-has decided to make a decisive, highly targeted push...
News
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates import millions of trees annually to fight desert heat after mega-city expansion
Harriet L. Whitcombe
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The first thing that hits you isn’t the temperature. It’s the green. Out on the fringes of Riyadh, where beige...
