10/12/20

[Maik]

For seasoned EU watchers, Brexit trade talks look uncannily like Grexit
Analysis: While there are similarities with the 2015 clash between Athens and Brussels, there are also key differences

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/dec/09/eu-brexit-trade-talks-grexit-athens-brussels

[Maik]

UK holidaymakers barred from EU after 1 January under Covid rules
European commission indicates Britons will face ban on nonessential travel at end of Brexit transition

British holidaymakers will be barred from the European Union from 1 January under current Covid-19 safety restrictions, with the EU commission indicating there will be no exemption for the UK.

Only a handful of countries with low coronavirus rates are exempt from rules that prohibit nonessential visitors from outside the EU and European Economic Area (EEA) – with the UK included only until the end of the Brexit transition period.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/dec/09/uk-holidaymakers-could-be-barred-from-visiting-eu-under-covid-safety-rules

[Maik]

Mosaic discovery sheds fresh light on England’s early medieval history
New discovery suggests pockets of Roman civilisation survived even after collapse of Imperial Roman authority in Britain

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/mosaic-chedworth-gloucestershire-roman-britain-national-trust-b1768780.html

[Maik]

Google fined £91m over ad-tracking cookies

Google has been fined 100 million euros (£91m) in France for breaking the country's rules on online advertising trackers known as cookies.

It is the largest fine ever issued by the French data privacy watchdog CNIL.

US retail giant Amazon was also fined 35 million euros for breaking the rules.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55259602

[Maik]

Travel after Brexit: How will it affect my holidays to the EU?
Rules on travelling to and from European Union countries will change on 1 January 2021.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46627083

[Maik]

Decomposing mink in Denmark 'may have contaminated groundwater'
Nordic country culled 15 million mink after discovering mutated version of coronavirus

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/10/decomposing-mink-in-denmark-may-have-contaminated-groundwater

[Maik]

Bison recovering but 31 other species now extinct, says red list
Three frog and one shark species have vanished, and Amazonian dolphin and oak trees are threatened

Europe’s biggest land mammal, the European bison, is beginning to recover in numbers thanks to conservation efforts and breeding programmes, according to an update on threatened species.

By the early years of the last century, the once abundant European bison could be found only in captivity in a few places, and it was only after the second world war that animals were reintroduced into the wild in small numbers. By 2003 there were 1,800 in the wild, and by last year the number had more than tripled to a population of more than 6,200 in 47 free-ranging herds in Poland, Belarus and Russia.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which compiles a regularly updated record of species at risk, has upgraded the outlook for European bison from its previous classification of vulnerable to the less serious grading of “near threatened”.

A small release of European bison is now being planned for the UK in 2022, which would be the first time the species has been seen in the wild in the country for 6,000 years.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/09/bison-recovering-but-31-other-species-now-extinct-finds-red-list

[Maik]

Children hatch 12 chicks from box of Marks & Spencer quail eggs

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/children-hatch-eggs-marks-spencer-quails-b1769144.html

[Maik]

Sounds as though Skala is in line for a make-over along the coast road to Poros with improvements to the pedestrian walkway included in the plan. The proposed floating jetty for Poros old port, accommodating upto 40 yachts, may be a reality this summer - there again, it may not. But the bridge is being worked on.