EU Nations Call for Simplifying, Delaying Deforestation Rules
The regulation in its current form does not sufficiently take into account countries with effective forest protection laws and a negligible risk of causing deforestation, according to a letter from 18 of the 27 member states, including Austria, Finland, Luxembourg, Hungary, and Sweden, addressed to the European Commission on Monday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch says Josef Fritzl case made her ‘reject God'
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has revealed the case of Austrian sex offender Josef Fritzl caused her to lose faith in God. Mrs Badenoch said she was 'never that religious' while growing up but 'believed there was a God' and 'would have defined myself as a Christian apologist'. But this changed in 2008 when she read reports that Fritzl had imprisoned and repeatedly raped his daughter, Elisabeth, in his basement over 24 years. Mrs Badenoch, whose maternal grandfather was a Methodist minister, told the BBC: 'I couldn't stop reading this story. And I read her account, how she prayed every day to be rescued. 'And I thought, I was praying for all sorts of stupid things and I was getting my prayers answered. I was praying to have good grades, my hair should grow longer, and I would pray for the bus to come on time so I wouldn't miss something. 'It's like, why were those prayers answered and not this woman's prayers? And it just, it was like someone blew out a candle.' But she insisted that while she had 'rejected God', she had not rejected Christianity and remained a 'cultural Christian', saying she wanted to 'protect certain things because I think the world that we have in the UK is very much built on many Christian values'. During her interview, which is due to be broadcast on Thursday evening, Mrs Badenoch also said her tenure as Conservative leader was going 'well', adding her job was to 'make sure that people can see that we are the only party on the centre-right'. In an apparent dig at Nigel Farage's Reform UK, she said: 'There are pretenders. We're the only party on the centre-right, and we're the only ones who still believe in values like living within our means, personal responsibility, making sure that the government is not getting involved in everything so it can focus on the things it needs to look at, like securing our borders.' She went on to defend previous comments saying the fact she had worked at McDonald's made her working class, saying: 'I had to work to live. 'That, for me, is what being working class is. It's the lifestyle that you have. You have to work, to survive.' And she argued that parents who were 'worried about their children getting stolen or snatched' had created a younger generation that lacked the 'resilience' to deal with problems in life. Responding to figures suggesting a quarter of people aged 16-24 said they had a mental disorder, Mrs Badenoch said: 'I think they think they have a mental disorder, I don't think they all have a mental disorder.' She added: 'I'm not a medical expert so it is not my expertise on exactly what we need to do to get them into work, but we should be trying to get them into work.'
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Fritzl case led Badenoch to ‘reject God', says Tory leader
The case of Austrian sex offender Josef Fritzl caused Kemi Badenoch to lose her faith in God, the Conservative leader has said. In an interview with the BBC, Mrs Badenoch said she was 'never that religious' while growing up but 'believed there was a God' and 'would have defined myself as a Christian apologist'. But this changed in 2008 when she read reports that Fritzl had imprisoned and repeatedly raped his daughter, Elisabeth, in his basement over 24 years. Mrs Badenoch, whose maternal grandfather was a Methodist minister, said: 'I couldn't stop reading this story. And I read her account, how she prayed every day to be rescued. 'And I thought, I was praying for all sorts of stupid things and I was getting my prayers answered. I was praying to have good grades, my hair should grow longer, and I would pray for the bus to come on time so I wouldn't miss something. 'It's like, why were those prayers answered and not this woman's prayers? And it just, it was like someone blew out a candle.' But she insisted that while she had 'rejected God', she had not rejected Christianity and remained a 'cultural Christian', saying she wanted to 'protect certain things because I think the world that we have in the UK is very much built on many Christian values'. During her interview, which is due to be broadcast on Thursday evening, Mrs Badenoch also said her tenure as Conservative leader was going 'well', adding her job was to 'make sure that people can see that we are the only party on the centre-right'. In an apparent dig at Nigel Farage's Reform UK, she said: 'There are pretenders. We're the only party on the centre-right, and we're the only ones who still believe in values like living within our means, personal responsibility, making sure that the government is not getting involved in everything so it can focus on the things it needs to look at, like securing our borders.' She went on to defend previous comments saying the fact she had worked at McDonald's made her working class, saying: 'I had to work to live. 'That, for me, is what being working class is. It's the lifestyle that you have. You have to work, to survive.' And she argued that parents who were 'worried about their children getting stolen or snatched' had created a younger generation that lacked the 'resilience' to deal with problems in life. Responding to figures suggesting a quarter of people aged 16-24 said they had a mental disorder, Mrs Badenoch said: 'I think they think they have a mental disorder, I don't think they all have a mental disorder.' She added: 'I'm not a medical expert so it is not my expertise on exactly what we need to do to get them into work, but we should be trying to get them into work.'
E&E News
3 hours ago
- E&E News
Interior fast-tracks Utah coal leasing using GOP megabill
The Interior Department said Wednesday it had completed the first fast-tracked review of a federal coal lease in Utah under a provision in the GOP megabill. The Bureau of Land Management issued a final environmental impact statement for the Skyline Mine project in central Utah, a project that's been mired in past legal challenges focused on its climate impacts. BLM said the final EIS analyzes the proposed Little Eccles lease and the Flat Canyon lease modification that Canyon Fuel Co. submitted. The company has operated the Skyline Mine since 1981. Advertisement 'This is a critical step in unleashing the full economic potential of our coal resources and delivering reliable, affordable energy to American families,' Adam Suess, Interior's acting assistant secretary for lands and minerals management, said in a statement. Interior said the approval marks the first expedited coal leasing action under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which includes language that allows the agency to accelerate federal coal leasing. The agency also said the move aligns with an executive order that Trump signed calling for 'Reinvigorating America's Beautiful Clean Coal Industry.' The approval marks yet another project the Trump administration is advancing in the face of legal challenges while relying on newly introduced permitting procedures. Interior said its decision fulfills obligations tied to a 2023 legal settlement between the agency and environmental groups that sued the agency in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah for its approval of the project. That settlement stemmedfrom a 2015 lawsuit brought by WildEarth Guardians and the Grand Canyon Trust. The groups in that case argued that the government violated the National Environmental Policy Act when issuing a lease to expand the Skyline Mine in the Manti-La Sal National Forest. The suit argued Interior relied on a previous 2002 environmental analysis that failed to account for climate damages of the mine's expansion. The BLM in its final EIS for the project included an estimated social cost of carbon to comply with the settlement agreement but said that such estimates are 'misleading, strongly discouraged, and not required by law,' noting that the Trump administration has moved to scrap such requirements. The BLM in a release said it plans to open a public comment period on the fair market value and maximum economic recovery of the federal coal contained in the proposed lease area. The agency is also planning an in-person public meeting about the final EIS.
