World
Truck drivers in Alsace protest against proposed new tax
The new tax comes at a cost of 15 cents per kilometre for heavy goods lorry drivers.
A procession of slow-moving trucks gridlocked Alsace’s A35 motorway in protest against a proposed new heavy goods vehicles tax.
The new tax, which would be introduced from 2027, will target vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tonnes and aims to reduce transit traffic on the region’s main motorway.
The government says the HGV tax is the only solution to combat the growth in this traffic, which is exacerbated by the many European transit drivers who use the route to bypass the high ecotaxes in place on Germany’s motorways.
“We have no other solution today to curb transit. The lion’s share of the tax will be paid by transit traffic, since over 50% of all traffic is transit,” says Frédéric Bierry, Chairman of the Alsace European Community. He also claims that the new tax would bring in around €64million per year.
However, many of those working in the transit industry say the addition of this tax would threaten the survival of some businesses.
“Our businesses have very low margins, so as soon as a [new] tax is introducer or proposed, we are directly affected because we have no room for manoeuvre,” explains road haulier, Frédéric Reinheimer.
Séverine Richart, from Transports Sateg – FNTR Alsace, adds that “France’s HGV fleet is already less competitive than that of other countries. Adding yet another tax will make us even less competitive.”
Concerns have also been raised by the Collective for the Competitiveness of the Alsatian Economy, which has requested that Bierry postpone the decision by at least six-months.
However, according to Brigitte Kempf, co-president of the Alsace section of the National Federation of Road Transporters, Frédéric Bierry is so far refusing to give in to these requests.
Local councillors are set to vote on the proposal on 21st October.
World
Video: Owner of Swiss Bar Detained in Fire Investigation
new video loaded: Owner of Swiss Bar Detained in Fire Investigation
By Meg Felling
January 9, 2026
World
Greenland leaders push back on Trump’s calls for US control of the island: ‘We don’t want to be Americans’
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Greenland’s leadership is pushing back on President Donald Trump as he and his administration call for the U.S. to take control of the island. Several Trump administration officials have backed the president’s calls for a takeover of Greenland, with many citing national security reasons.
“We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and four party leaders said in a statement Friday night, according to The Associated Press. Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory and a longtime U.S. ally, has repeatedly rejected Trump’s statements about U.S. acquiring the island.
Greenland’s party leaders reiterated that the island’s “future must be decided by the Greenlandic people.”
“As Greenlandic party leaders, we would like to emphasize once again our wish that the United States’ contempt for our country ends,” the statement said.
TRUMP SAYS US IS MAKING MOVES TO ACQUIRE GREENLAND ‘WHETHER THEY LIKE IT OR NOT’
Greenland has rejected the Trump administration’s push to take over the Danish territory. (Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix / AFP via Getty Images; Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump was asked about the push to acquire Greenland on Friday during a roundtable with oil executives. The president, who has maintained that Greenland is vital to U.S. security, said it was important for the country to make the move so it could beat its adversaries to the punch.
“We are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not,” Trump said Friday. “Because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor.”
Trump hosted nearly two dozen oil executives at the White House on Friday to discuss investments in Venezuela after the historic capture of President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3.
“We don’t want to have Russia there,” Trump said of Venezuela on Friday when asked if the nation appears to be an ally to the U.S. “We don’t want to have China there. And, by the way, we don’t want Russia or China going to Greenland, which, if we don’t take Greenland, you can have Russia or China as your next-door neighbor. That’s not going to happen.”
Trump said the U.S. is in control of Venezuela after the capture and extradition of Maduro.
Nielsen has previously rejected comparisons between Greenland and Venezuela, saying that his island was looking to improve its relations with the U.S., according to Reuters.
A “Make America Go Away” baseball cap, distributed for free by Danish artist Jens Martin Skibsted, is arranged in Sisimiut, Greenland, on March 30, 2025. (Juliette Pavy/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
FROM CARACAS TO NUUK: MADURO RAID SPARKS FRESH TRUMP PUSH ON GREENLAND
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Monday that Trump’s threats to annex Greenland could mean the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“I also want to make it clear that if the U.S. chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops. Including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2.
That same day, Nielsen said in a statement posted on Facebook that Greenland was “not an object of superpower rhetoric.”
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen stands next to Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen during a visit to the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen on April 28, 2025. (Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)
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White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller doubled down on Trump’s remarks, telling CNN in an interview on Monday that Greenland “should be part of the United States.”
CNN anchor Jake Tapper pressed Miller about whether the Trump administration could rule out military action against the Arctic island.
“The United States is the power of NATO. For the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, obviously Greenland should be part of the United States,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
World
What Canada, accustomed to extreme winters, can teach Europe
Euronews spoke to Patrick de Bellefeuille, a prominent Canadian weather presenter and climate specialist, on how Europe could benefit from Canada’s long experience with snowstorms. He has been forecasting for MétéoMédia, Canada’s top French-language weather network, since 1988.
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