EU’s 2035 petrol and diesel car ban will be watered down, says senior MEP
The EU’s outright ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2035 is poised to be watered down, a senior European parliament politician has said.The decision, expected to be announced by the European Commission on Tuesday in Strasbourg, would be a divisive move, angering environmental campaigners who argue it would amount to the “gutting” of the EU’s flagship green deal.The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said on Friday he “supported” such a climbdown, having advocated strongly for changes to the rules on the end of the combustion engine for months.“The reality is that there will still be millions of combustion engine-based cars around the world in 2035, 2040 and 2050,” he said.Under the existing laws, approved two years ago, all cars coming on the market from 2035 have to be zero CO2 emissions, meaning the end of the road for hybrid vehicles as well as those running solely on fossil fuels.
However, Manfred Weber, an MEP and the president of the European People’s party group of conservative and centrist parties in the European parliament, told Germany’s Bild newspaper that the 2035 cutoff date would be softened next week.“The technology ban on combustion engines is off the table,” he said.“All engines currently manufactured in Germany can therefore continue to be produced and sold.” The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, Merz and most of the car industry have lobbied for the ban to be changed to allow the continued sale of hybrid vehicles.Reports of a looming rowback on the 2035 ban enraged green campaigners.
Colin Walker, the head of transport at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said if the changes are confirmed next week, it would “keep millions of European families stuck driving dirtier and more expensive petrol cars for longer”.Having hybrid cars as a continued option would merely delay the switch to electric vehicles (EVs), he added.Some car manufacturers, including Volvo and Polestar, have attacked those calling for a softening of the 2035 cutoff for traditional combustion engines, arguing it would just give further advantage to Chinese rivals.Weber said the rule change would be an important signal “to the entire automotive industry and secures tens of thousands of industrial jobs”, reflecting concerns over the future of one of Europe’s most important industries.He suggested the EU would pave the way for the continued sale of plug-in hybrid cars, including a future generation of powerful hybrids with long ranges, but with backup combustion engines for long journeys, for example, more than 373 miles (600km).
“For new registrations from 2035 onwards, a 90% reduction in CO2 emissions will now be mandatory for car manufacturers’ fleet targets, instead of 100%,” Weber told Bild,A European Commission spokesperson, Paula Pinho, said on Friday that the 2035 deadline was “still being discussed”,She added that the commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, had already said several times that that there was a clear demand for “more flexibility on the CO2 targets”,Volkswagen, Stellantis, Renault, Mercedes-Benz and BMW have argued in favour of dropping the ban, arguing that consumers are not taking up EVs in the numbers anticipated when the 2035 date was approved in 2022,According to reports, the EU will also propose a package of measures to incentivise Europeans to make and buy small EVs as part of a new push to dent the growing presence of Chinese electric cars in the bloc.
Incentives for a “made in Europe” small EV would take inspiration from Japan, which offers significant breaks including lower insurance and car tax for those who own electric kei cars, a category of small, lightweight vehicles notable for their boxy appearance.Norway, which has the highest take-up of electric vehicles in Europe, drove adoption of the zero-emission cars with VAT and purchase tax exemptions along with 50% road toll fees.It has meant more than 90% of all new cars sold in 2025 were electric, in extraordinary contrast to southern Europe where a lack of infrastructure and incentives has led to a slow take-up of EVs.In Norway almost 30% of all cars are now electric, compared with Italy where numbers are growing, but still account for only 12% of the market, according to figures for November.
December cut to UK interest rates ‘nailed on’ after economy shrinks unexpectedly by 0.1% in October – as it happened
Economists are convinced that the Bank of England will respond to the UK’s weak economic performance by cutting interest rates next week.The Bank’s monetary policy committee will make its final decision of the year on Thursday 18th December, and a rate cut to 3.75% appears highly likely now that the economy shrunk by 0.1% in October.Ruth Gregory, deputy chief UK economist at Capital Economics, says:The surprise 0
Damn dalmatian! Fury erupts after David Jones cancels Christmas window display to promote joy of … its loyalty program
Two weeks out from Christmas, the footpath outside Sydney’s flagship David Jones store would usually be packed with eager-eyed families lining up to view the retailer’s traditional festive window display.But on Friday morning, Elizabeth Street was mostly empty. An upset-looking child in a pram stared forlornly at a Valentino advertisement.Sydneysiders have come out swinging after the department store replaced its famous Christmas window display with a celebration of its new loyalty program and associated mascot, Domino the Dalmatian.Sign up: AU Breaking News emailA David Jones spokesperson said the company understood “how deeply sentimental the Christmas windows are for many families”, adding it “truly appreciated the feedback”
Disney wants you to AI-generate yourself into your favorite Marvel movie
Users of OpenAI’s video generation app will soon be able to see their own faces alongside characters from Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars and Disney’s animated films, according to a joint announcement from the startup and Disney on Thursday. Perhaps you, Lightning McQueen and Iron Man are all dancing together in the Mos Eisley Cantina.Sora is an app made by OpenAI, the firm behind ChatGPT, which allows users to generate videos of up to 20 seconds through short text prompts. The startup previously attempted to steer Sora’s output away from unlicensed copyrighted material, though with little success, which prompted threats of lawsuits by rights holders.Disney announced that it would invest $1bn in OpenAI and, under a three-year deal perhaps worth even more than that large sum, that it would license about 200 of its iconic characters – from R2-D2 to Stitch – for users to play with in OpenAI’s video generation app
Musk calls Doge only ‘somewhat successful’ and says he would not do it again
Elon Musk has said the aggressive federal job-cutting program he headed early in Donald Trump’s second term, known as the “department of government efficiency” (Doge), was only “a little bit successful” and he would not lead the project again.Musk said he wouldn’t want to repeat the exercise, talking on the podcast hosted by Katie Miller, a rightwing personality with a rising profile who was a Doge adviser and who is married to Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s hardline anti-immigration deputy chief of staff.Asked whether Doge had achieved what he’d hoped, Musk said: “We were a little bit successful. We were somewhat successful.”Doge created chaos and distress in the government machine in Washington DC, and by May more than 200,000 federal workers had been laid off and roughly 75,000 had accepted buyouts as a result of purges by Musk’s external team of often-young zealots
Global anti-doping chief admits drugs cheats in sport are escaping detection
One of the most senior figures in global anti-doping has warned that too many drug cheats in sport are evading detection – and criticised the current system as “ineffective”.David Howman, the former director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) and the chair of the Athletics Integrity Unit, urged anti-doping bodies to be more ambitious in catching elite athletes again rather than focusing on compliance issues.In what was a clear criticism of Wada’s leadership, Howman also told them that the lack of success in catching cheats was harming the clean sport message.“Let’s be honest and pragmatic … intentional dopers at elite level are evading detection,” Howman told the Wada’s World Conference on Doping in Sport in South Korea. “We are not effective enough nowadays in catching cheats
Gloucester prop Afo Fasogbon: ‘I’m quite chilled off the pitch – until it’s time to go to work’
The 21-year-old came to rugby via an unusual route, but it is one that may soon see him in the England squadTo announce Afo Fasogbon as English rugby’s next big thing is not entirely accurate. He may be big – 6ft 4in tall and about 130kg (20st 6lb) – but as far as the internet is concerned he arrived some time ago. Video footage of the young Gloucester prop waving off the more experienced Ellis Genge after edging a scrummaging duel at Kingsholm last year went viral almost before Genge had reached the touchline.Should the 21-year-old make a strong impact off the bench against Munster in Cork on Saturday evening, however, he could soon be vying for even greater recognition. England are suddenly lighter in the tighthead department after Will Stuart’s unfortunate achilles injury, with Asher Opoku-Fordjour also out of action
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