Autumn in the garden

Two people were inside the mosque when the arsonists set it on fire but they managed to escape unharmed

Six weeks ago, I picked up a year-old tawny owl with a broken leg off the main road near our home and dropped him off at our nearest vet. After a few days, I received one of the most bizarre phone calls I’ve ever had, asking “So when are you coming to pick up your owl?” 🧵

Can’t believe they didn’t give it to Taylor Swift

Door of the 12th-century church of St-Gervais and St-Protais, Savonnières, near Tours, France #adoorableThursday

11 months now since anti-govt protests began in 🇷🇸 "Authorities in the past weeks moved to crush the anti-government movement with riot police breaking up rallies and detaining and beating protesters. Scores of people reported losing jobs or facing financial or other pressure for protesting." #serbia

More drones spotted where they shouldn't be, this time over critical infrastructure (power plant, hospital, shipyard) in northern Germany. This is becoming a regular occurrence

Pigs' heads found near mosques in France and Germany - 11 arrested in Serbia on suspicion of acting on the instructions from an unnamed foreign intelligence service. Previous destabilising incidents have been linked to Russia (e.g. Paris war memorial daubed with red paint in May 2024)

NATO in a bind. “If they intercept (and potentially engage) the intruders, they risk providing Russia with valuable insights about NATO’s reaction times and engagement procedures. If they ignore them, it risks inviting ever-escalating Russian violations of allied airspace,” Loss from @ecfr.eu said.

Micromobility - Tours, France

Whether it wants to or not, the EU is quickly being drawn into a mode of needing to contribute to the security of its members. Here we have von der Leyen proclaiming that "We" will respond to every provocation and signaling the further investments in the EU's & NATO's Eastern flank:

First drones in Poland, now planes in Estonia. 3 Russian fighter aircraft entered Estonian airspace without permission Friday and stayed there for 12 minutes, the foreign ministry said apnews.com/article/brit...

We are hiring at The Economist. This is not just any internship. You will be a paid staff member and writer for 6 months. www.economist.com/finance-and-...

The Royal Mint - a business which literally has a licence to print money - has reported a loss for 2024-25.

Sometimes international action works. The hole in the ozone layer is healing 🌍

Some black and white photos from a morning walk around Clissold Park. Very autumnal #blackandwhitephotography

One of those stories that sounds dry and technical but is actually massive. Shipping companies have agreed on a climate levy on greenhouse gas emissions. Opposed by the Trump administration, but shipping cos want certainty. China's powering ahead. Now goes to the IMO meeting in London next month

Tanks on the streets of Belgrade this week, ahead of a military parade on 20 Sept. If it becomes a flashpoint for unrest, protesters fear the military could remain on the streets. Vucic is under pressure and has warned of a harsher response to protests. @apnews.com explainer 👇🏼 #serbia

Difficult for Nato to defend against drone incursions. Missiles are expensive, drones cheap, but the damage a drone strike can do (to an energy plant, say) far outweighs even the cost of a missile. Analysis from @eburrows.bsky.social for @apnews.com

Denmark close to wiping out leading cancer-causing HPV strains after vaccine roll-out www.gavi.org/vaccineswork... "Before vaccination, the prevalence of HPV was between 15 & 17%, which has decreased in vaccinated women to less than one percent by 2021." #VaccinesWork

Poland formally asks for Article Four consultations. “Tusk later announced that the consultations with the allies had already taken on the form of a formal request to launch art. 4 NATO. - This is our joint recommendation - the head of gov’t pointed out.” www.fakt.pl/polityka/ros...

"What is new, in the worst sense of the word, is the direction the drones came from. This is the 1st time in this war that they did not come from Ukraine as a result of errors or minor Russian provocations. For the 1st time, a significant portion of the drones came directly from Belarus," Tusk said

This is a big big test for both NATO and EU. Ursula Von der Leyen, who just visited the Polish border region last week and said "This is the border we must protect". What will she say on this in her state of the Union speech in an hour?

Last night in Poland we saw the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began, and indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental. I am in contact with NATO Secretary General Rutte and Poland FM Sikorski. The EU stands in full solidarity with Poland. (1/2)

Tusk has now confirmed that the drones which entered Polish airspace overnight were Russian. Says those that posed a direct threat were shot down

Breaking News: Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton graduate student taken hostage in Iraq, has been freed after more than two years of captivity.

Want the low down on what's happening in France. Read the new piece by the man I like to call the French John Curtice, Bruno Cautres: ukandeu.ac.uk/francois-bay...

one morning, when gregor samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a very hungry caterpillar

Tear gas in Novi Sad. Protests focused on a university building taken over by police and Vucic loyalists last week #serbia

So people leaving isn't necessarily good for wildlife. In Spain, heavy rain created lush vegetation, which dried out in the drought and turned to fuel for fires. Animal enclosures, grazing plots and veg patches used to serve as firebreaks but now the fires can spread unobstructed

10 months on, protesters in Serbia are marching again. Vucic, meanwhile, is in China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting

The world's largest sand battery just launched in Finland! Developed by Polar Night Energy, this is a massive step for clean energy. It stores 100 MWh of thermal energy in sand, providing cost-effective alternative to LI batteries for long-term heat storage. www.pv-magazine.com/2025/08/28/w...

Von der Leyen's plane landed safely at Plovdiv after suspected Russian jamming of its GPS

If the Norwegian assessment is correct then so is this important assessment from @shashj.bsky.social “The first ever successful & impactful cyber-physical attack on European critical infrastructure outside of Ukraine”. I’d only add “attack by a nation state” - the criminals have done healthcare

Nice.

Two key documents from the Trump administration aimed at revoking the long-standing finding that climate change is dangerous were filled with errors, bias and distortions, according to dozens of scientists surveyed by The Associated Press. apnews.com/article/clim...

Beware of pseudonymous accounts with AI profile pics that tell you something you want to hear with no actual sourcing

Random memory of Spike Milligan sending an increasingly paranoid Peter Sellers a telegram saying “IGNORE FIRST TELEGRAM”.

Not everything in the world is terrible - this is great

EU fire data was updated this morning. Here's the total area burnt across the bloc this year so far. A record for this time of year. forest-fire.emergency.copernicus.eu/apps/effis.s...

A senior French source has described tomorrow’s DC meeting to me as the “most consequential for peace and security in Europe” since the fall of the Soviet Union. Brief thread later.

“Unless we undertake tougher steps it is a question of days when they (protesters) will kill someone,” Vucic said. “I am saying this for history.” #serbia #protest

More violent protests in Serbia. SNS party offices set on fire in Valjevo, windows smashed at the SRS office. Russia has offered its support to Vucic. Foreign ministry statement: "We cannot remain unresponsive to what is happening in brotherly Serbia."

Noticed the sky isn't as blue today? Smoke from wildfires in Spain & Portugal, plus Saharan dust, has drifted over the UK Expect enhanced sunsets & sunrises in the coming days — deeper reds & oranges thanks to light scattering 🔥🌄

According to a senior European official on call with Trump: ‘Putin allegedly wants all of Donetsk & Luhansk’ regions; for Ukraine to withdraw troops & then may agree to freeze along current battle lines in Kherson & Zaporizhzhia. That would give Russia MORE territory than it now occupies in Ukraine

There will be more protests in Serbia tonight. A video circulating on social media apparently shows several young detainees kneeling with their faces to the wall as police officers stand behind them. Some of the apparent detainees had bloodstains on their backs.

Protests now escalating in Belgrade and other cities around Serbia. In Novi Sad, protesters attacked the offices of Vucic's SNS party, shouting, "He is finished," the same cry that rallied anti-Milosevic demonstrators 25 years ago

"The announcement by Norwegian police marked the first time since 2022 that officials have publicly suggested pro-Russian hackers may have successfully targeted critical water infrastructure in Europe."

Novi Sad, Kraljevo, Kragujevac, Cacak and Nis. And Belgrade. Unrest spreading in Serbia after yesterday's clashes between anti-government protesters and supporters of the Vucic govt backed by police

Serbia protests flaring up again: clashes in Vrbas, Backa Palanka and Novi Sad. Dozens injured