DINNER PARTY INTEL...
The topics you have to be able to discuss this week
1. Coldpressed
Extreme drought last year cut Germany’s potato crop, Europe’s largest, by 30%. Now Italy’s olive harvest has been mashed 57% as result of climate change, and the country might have to import olive oil by April. The worst olive crop in 25 years sparked protests by thousands of Italian farmers wearing gilet arancioni — orange vests — in Rome. Reports say olive trees across the Mediterranean have been hit by freak events that mirror climate change predictions — erratic rainfall, early spring frosts, strong winds and summer droughts. Italy’s Coldiretti farmers’ union estimates that the cost of the olive oil collapse this year has already reached €1bn.
“Democrats are harassing the president to distract from their radical agenda of making America a socialist country, killing babies after they’re born, and pushing a ‘green new deal’ that would destroy jobs and bankrupt America” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, on the House of Representatives’ investigation into meddling in the 2016 election campaign, President Donald Trump’s tax returns and potential conflicts of interest involving his family
2. Is no one clean?
Three high-profile politicians have resigned from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government after accusations that he and top aides tried to shield Snc-lavalin, one of the world’s largest engineering companies, from a corruption trial involving $36m in bribes paid to Libyan officials when Muammar Gaddafi was in power. Former attorney-general Jody Wilsonraybould says she was pressured to cut a deal with the firm, which is based in Quebec, to save jobs in a province whose votes are important to Trudeau’s Liberal Party. Polls show the clean-cut PM’S popularity is slipping ahead of October’s elections.
3. Great white hope
The first map of the DNA of great white sharks has revealed mutations that protect the animals against cancer and other illnesses. Scientists hope further research will help treatment for cancer and age-related illnesses in humans.
The research was carried out by a team of scientists at the Save
Our Seas Foundation
Shark Research Center at
Nova Southeastern
University in Florida.