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Czech Dam Project Was Stalled by Bureaucracy. Beavers Built Their Own.

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Czech Dam Project Was Stalled by Bureaucracy. Beavers Built Their Own.

For years, officials in the Czech Republic had pushed a dam project to protect a river south of Prague, and the critically endangered species living in it. But the project, hamstrung by land negotiations, stalled.

In the meantime, a group of chisel-toothed mammals — renowned for their engineering skills and work ethic, and unencumbered by bureaucracy — decided to take on the task. The beavers of Prague simply built dams themselves.

The rodents’ fast work saved the local authorities some 1.2 million euros, according to a news release from the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic, a government agency responsible for conservation across the country. “Nature took its course,” Bohumil Fišer, the head of the Brdy Protected Landscape Area, where the revitalization project was planned, said in the statement. The beavers, he added, had created the ideal environmental conditions “practically overnight.”

The project, on a former army site on the Klabava, a river about 40 miles southwest of Prague, the Czech capital, was drafted in 2018 and had a building permit, but had been delayed for years by negotiations over the land, which had been used as a military training grounds, Agence France-Presse reported on Tuesday. Officials had hoped to build a barrier to protect the river and its population of critically endangered crayfish from sediment and acidic water spilling over from two nearby ponds, A.F.P. reported.

The beavers began working before the excavators could even break ground. It was not immediately clear specifically when the dams were built and how long it took to build them.

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The new wetland created by the dams covers nearly five acres, the conservation group said. It is twice as large as the area that the humans had planned, Agence France-Presse reported. “It’s full service,” Mr. Fišer told A.F.P. “Beavers are absolutely fantastic and when they are in an area where they can’t cause damage, they do a brilliant job.”

Despite their remarkable ability to construct dams, beavers often draw the ire of landowners and farmers for destroying trees, eating crops and flooding roads and fields. But in thinning a tree canopy, the rodents can often help to diversify an ecosystem by allowing in sunlight in so that other plant species can thrive, said Emily Fairfax, an assistant professor of ecology at the University of Minnesota.

“They’re fundamentally changing the way water and life moves through that landscape,” she said.

To build a dam, the beavers, whose weight as adults can range from about 40 to 80 pounds, begin by piling small stones across a river or stream, packing those stones in with mud, and repeating the process to construct a pond, which they then expand to become a wetland, Dr. Fairfax said.

They are motivated by their fear of predators: Beavers are adept swimmers and can hold their breath underwater for 15 minutes. On land, their ungainly waddle makes them easy prey. “They’re basically a big chicken nugget for predators,” which include bears, mountain lions and wolves, she said.

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The Czech dam is not the first time the rodents have assisted in building a wetland. Beavers in California have helped to restore a floodplain about 30 miles northeast of Sacramento. In that case, the beavers’ work also helped local officials save money. “All they had to do was let the beavers be there,” Dr. Fairfax said. In other cases, beavers often did work that went unacknowledged. “We sort of have a blindness for beavers,” she said, noting that they were often considered a nuisance because of their alarming size and capacity to rapidly change the landscape.

“They’re powerful, they’re big, and they’re elusive,” Dr. Fairfax said, noting that, despite the beavers’ engineering prowess, they presented a challenge for conservation groups when planning restoration projects.

“Oftentimes we don’t want to allow the beavers to make the choices, because it’s hard to plan around that uncertainty; it’s hard to turn over control to a giant water rodent,” she said. “But that’s when beavers are at their best.”

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Patriots rookie RB Tre’Veyon Henderson sidelined against Ravens with head injury

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Patriots rookie RB Tre’Veyon Henderson sidelined against Ravens with head injury

BALTIMORE (AP) — New England running back Tre’Veyon Henderson left Sunday night’s game at Baltimore in the second quarter with a head injury.

Henderson was slow getting up after a carry in Baltimore territory. He was able to walk off the field, but then headed to the tunnel a short time later. He was later ruled out.

Henderson entered the game with 773 yards rushing and is a Rookie of the Year candidate after teaming up with Drake Maye to help the Patriots close in on a playoff berth. He had touchdown runs of 52 and 65 yards in last week’s loss to Buffalo.

He had just 3 yards on five carries before exiting against Baltimore.

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Iran executes man convicted of spying for Israeli intelligence

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Iran executes man convicted of spying for Israeli intelligence

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Iranian officials executed a man over the weekend who was convicted of spying for Israel’s intelligence arm and its army, according to state media.

The man was Aghil Keshavarz, who was put to death on Saturday, state media reported.

Keshavarz, 27, had “close intelligence cooperation” with the Mossad — the national intelligence agency for Israel — and captured photos of Iranian military and security areas, according to state media.

IRAN’S EXECUTION RATE TOPS 1,000 THIS YEAR AS DEATH ROW INMATES LAUNCH HUNGER STRIKE

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Iran executed Aghil Keshavarz, 27, after he was convicted of spying for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency. (Getty Images)

Keshavarz was arrested in May while taking pictures of a military headquarters in the city of Urmia, located about 371 miles northwest of Iran’s capital of Tehran.

He was accused of engaging in more than 200 similar assignments for the Mossad in various Iranian cities, including Tehran.

Keshavarz was tried and sentenced to death in connection with the spying accusations. The country’s Supreme Court later upheld the sentence, according to state media.

Smoke rises from the building of Iran’s state-run television after an Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, on June 16, 2025.  (AP Photo)

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Iran has executed 11 people for espionage since a 12-day air conflict in June that was kicked off by Israel, killing roughly 1,100 people in Iran, including military commanders and nuclear scientists. Iran countered with a missile barrage that killed 28 people in the Jewish State.

In October, Iran executed an unknown person convicted of spying for Israel’s intelligence agency in the city of Qom.

IRAN HANGS A MAN CONVICTED OF SPYING FOR ISRAEL

A police officer stands guard as demonstrators wave flags and cheer during a gathering following the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, on June 24, 2025, in Tehran, Iran. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)

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Various others have been executed in Iran in recent years before the June conflict on allegations of spying for the Mossad, including multiple earlier this year.

Iran routinely conducts closed-door trials of people accused of espionage, with the suspects often unable to access the evidence prosecutors used against them in their case.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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EU plans to raise €90 billion in joint debt for Ukraine — here’s how

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EU plans to raise €90 billion in joint debt for Ukraine — here’s how

Reparations loan is out, joint debt is in. That is the agreement that the 27 leaders of the European Union reached at their make-or-break summit this week.

With the reparations loan ruled out for good, the bloc turns to common borrowing to raise €90 billion to meet Ukraine’s budgetary and military needs for the next two years.

It is a simpler, faster and more predictable solution compared to the high-risk scheme of using the immbolised Russian assets. But joint debt is expensive, and immediately so.

Here’s what you need to know about the plan.

Back to the markets

Since neither the EU nor its member states have €90 billion at their disposal at the moment, the European Commission will go to the markets and raise the money from scratch by issuing a mix of short-term and long-term bonds.

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The €90 billion will be gradually dolled out to ensure a steady flow of assistance to Ukraine, which needs a fresh tranche as early as April. The country will be able to use the funds for both military and budgetary purposes for greater flexibility.

In the meantime, the EU budget will absorb the interest rates to spare Ukraine, already heavily indebted, from any additional burden. The Commission estimates that, under current rates, the interest payments will amount to €3 billion per year. This means the next EU budget (2028-2034) will have to make space for about €20 billion.

Member states will share the interest according to their economic weight. Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland will carry the highest costs.

According to Commission officials, the €90 billion will not count towards domestic levels of debt because the issuance will be done exclusively at the EU level.

Forever roll-over

Under a non-recourse loan agreement, Ukraine will be asked to pay back the €90 billion only after Russia ceases its war of aggression and agrees to pay war reparations.

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Given that Moscow has emphatically ruled out the possibility of any compensation, the Commission is already prepared to roll out the liability over time so that Ukraine does not have to pay out of pocket, which will be painful after suffering so much devastation.

“The assumption is, today it’s a non-recourse loan to Ukraine that is only paid back when reparations are there, and therefore this debt is going to be rolled over up until then,” a senior Commission official explained.

But will the roll-over continue for eternity?

That seems unlikely. At some point in the future, the EU will have to settle the fate of the €90 billion to stop paying interest rates. The go-to method will be the EU budget, which will act as the ultimate guarantor to ensure investors are always paid back.

The three opt-outs

The reason why joint debt for Ukraine is now possible is that, as first reported by Euronews during the summit, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic agreed to refrain from vetoing in exchange for being exempted.

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This is key because under current rules, the EU budget cannot be used to raise money for a non-EU country. Any changes to that effect will require unanimous approval.

Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic will commit to that unanimity. In return, the bloc will activate the so-called “enhanced cooperation” mechanism to spare them from any costs and responsibilities associated with the €90 billion.

The other 24 countries will take over their share of the interest. But the change will be minimal because the three opt-outs only amount to 3.64% of the bloc’s GNI.

The exemption will also be institutional. Once the budget rules are amended and the “enhanced cooperation” is triggered, the three countries will lose their voting rights to approve the regulation that will establish the new assistance programme.

In practice, they will be strictly removed from the initiative.

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Strings attached

The Commission intends to recycle the now-discarded proposal of the reparations loan to set up the €90 billion common borrowing.

As a result, Ukraine will be subject to the same conditions to receive the funds.

One of them is a “no rollback” clause that will link the aid to the anti-corruption measures that Kyiv must implement to advance in its EU accession bid. The country was recently shaken by a corruption scandal in the energy sector that precipitated numerous resignations, including that of Andriy Yermak, President Zelenskyy’s chief of staff.

If Kyiv takes a step back on the fight against corruption, as it briefly did in the summer when it undermined the independence of two anti-corruption agencies and prompted widespread protests, payments will be suspended.

There will also be safeguards to strengthen oversight on how Ukraine allocates defence contracts, which have been a source of controversy in the past.

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Additionally, there will be “Made In Europe” criteria to ensure the €90 billion fosters Ukraine’s and Europe’s domestic defence industries. Only when the equipment is not readily available on the continent will purchases outside Europe be allowed.

Assets still on the table

Resorting to joint debt means the cash balances from the Russian assets will not be touched, as was originally planned in the reparations loan.

However, in their conclusions, EU leaders say they reserve “the right” to tap the assets, or at least try, sometime in the future, as a way to repay the €90 billion borrowing.

“For me, it’s very difficult and very premature today to say how this will be translated in actual terms,” a senior Commission official said when asked about the meaning.

“I think the message is pretty political, which is to say that the option to use the cash balance assets of the Russian Central Bank is not off the table.”

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The addition of the assets into the final wording is considered a way to placate those countries that were most vocally supportive of the reparations loan, particularly Germany, and had publicly ruled out the idea of common borrowing.

President Zelenskyy hailed the decision as an “important victory” for his country.

“Without these funds, it would be very difficult for us. In any case, this is tied to Russian reparations,” he said. “For us, this is a reinforcement. It is a signal to the Russians that there is no point for them to continue the war because we have financial support, and therefore, we will not collapse on the front line. We will support our army and our people.”

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