Known for its colourful shampoo bars and fruity bath bombs, UK-based cosmetics brand Lush has opened the doors of its new Green Hub as part of efforts to expand its in-house circular recycling.. Recognisable by the strong fruity smells of its stores with market-like stalls, Lush sells two-thirds of its products "naked", without packaging, among them handmade soap bars and henna hair dye blocks.
A wind farm in northeastern Brazil sounds like a welcome climate-friendly energy solution, but it is causing controversy over another kind of environmental worry: the impact on the endangered Lear's macaw.. "The potential environmental and social impacts have already been dealt with exhaustively," Voltalia's country manager for Brazil, Nicolas Thouverez, told AFP. The impact studies required by state authorities have shown the turbines "in no way endanger the conservation" of the Lear's macaw, he said.
TikTok on Monday filed suit in US federal court to stop the state of Montana from implementing an overall ban on the video sharing app.. Five TikTok users last week filed a suit of their own, calling on a federal court to overturn Montana's ban on the app, arguing that it violates their free speech rights.
President Joe Biden and Republicans in Congress have resumed crunch talks aimed at averting a damaging US debt default, which Treasury officials recently warned could come as early as June 1.. During a similar debt ceiling stand-off in 2011, Treasury officials drew up contingency plans to prevent a default on Treasury securities, and to ensure the Treasury would continue to pay interest on those securities as they come due.
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday commissioned an oil plant billed as Africa's largest oil refinery, after years of delays and a week before stepping down from office.. Buhari -- who steps down on May 29 after eight years in office -- described the project as "a notable milestone" and "a game changer for the downstream petroleum products market, not only in Nigeria but for the entire African continent."
Eight EU member states including France, Italy and Poland urged Brussels to scrap its planned vehicle emissions limits, warning they risked hurting investment in a document seen by AFP Monday.. "We oppose any new exhaust emission rules (including new testing requirements or new emission limits) for cars and vans," the countries -- Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania and Slovakia -- wrote.
The French government unveiled a plan on Monday to accelerate cuts to its greenhouse gas emissions, targeting a reduction of 50 percent by 2030 compared with 1990 levels.. The United States has committed to cut greenhouse gases 50-52 percent by 2030 below 2005 levels, while Germany has set a 65 percent reduction target compared to 1990.
The European Union rolled out its mammoth data privacy regulation five years ago this week, and has since handed down billions in fines.. The Irish privacy watchdog has been reluctant to hand down big fines but said in a statement on Monday that the EU's central authorities had ordered it to collect 1.2 billion euros from Meta.
Facebook owner Meta has been fined a record 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) for transferring EU user data to the United States in breach of a previous court ruling, Ireland's regulator announced Monday.. EU regulators have already hit Meta with fines of hundreds of millions of euros over data breaches by its Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook services.
Extreme weather caused by climate change has damaged food production across Europe.. In April, French Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau expressed his concerns over what he called Europe's "delay", arguing there should be a push to allow biotechnology that gives Europe the tools to deal with climate change by producing more resistant seeds.
