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Tails of the City: Paris Rats Find Unlikely Political Ally 

The rat "Plume" sits on the shoulder of Gregory Moreau, the deputy mayor of Paris's 11th district, as he strolls through a market in the Belleville neighborhood in Paris on September 16, 2025. (AFP) 
The rat "Plume" sits on the shoulder of Gregory Moreau, the deputy mayor of Paris's 11th district, as he strolls through a market in the Belleville neighborhood in Paris on September 16, 2025. (AFP) 
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Tails of the City: Paris Rats Find Unlikely Political Ally 

The rat "Plume" sits on the shoulder of Gregory Moreau, the deputy mayor of Paris's 11th district, as he strolls through a market in the Belleville neighborhood in Paris on September 16, 2025. (AFP) 
The rat "Plume" sits on the shoulder of Gregory Moreau, the deputy mayor of Paris's 11th district, as he strolls through a market in the Belleville neighborhood in Paris on September 16, 2025. (AFP) 

It has black button eyes and long, thin whiskers that tremble when it looks around curiously.

Unlike most rats, this one has a name, Plume, and gets to enjoy the rare privilege of wandering around Paris on the shoulder of its owner, a local politician.

Gregory Moreau, a Paris district deputy mayor, is on a mission to reconcile residents with the capital's population of rats which, it is said, outnumber the inner city's two million human residents by a big margin.

"Hello, have you ever seen a rat?", Moreau asked an unsuspecting woman carrying two shopping bags around a market in Belleville, a bustling eastern Parisian neighborhood. "Look what I'm carrying on my shoulder."

The woman eyed the rodent skeptically, then broke out in a smile. "Is that Ratatouille?" she asked, a reference to the titular character of the Disney animated film about a rat that can cook.

Myths and tales about rats have been part of Paris folklore for centuries, giving the rodents an overwhelmingly unfavorable rap.

"Rats have a bad image because they spread the plague in the 14th century," said Moreau, who is a member of the PA animal rights party and a qualified physics theorist.

But these days, he said, the role of rats in the transmission of illnesses is negligible, except perhaps for leptospirosis, a bacterial infection transmitted from animals to humans that occurs mostly in the countryside.

Moreau never tires of campaigning, including by distributing leaflets with pictures of cute-looking rats in front of the Eiffel Tower, and by urging passers-by to recognize the usefulness of the rodents.

"They eat about 100 tons of waste in Paris every day," he said, thus preventing the city's sewer system from clogging up.

When challenged about complaints of too many rats in playgrounds and parks, Moreau acknowledges a need for rodent control.

But, he says, there are gentler methods than traditional rat poison, which he calls both cruel and ultimately inefficient because rodents become immune to its toxicity and often learn to avoid the bait in the first place.

Moreau said it makes more sense to avoid leaving food waste in the streets, which is a problem in Paris, especially around fast-food outlets.

"If the rats don't find food they don't multiply as much," he said.

Predictably, the rat-friendly deputy mayor has encountered opposition, most ferociously from Geoffroy Boulard, district mayor in a chic western neighborhood of Paris.

Boulard has been viewed as the capital's top rodent-hater ever since local paper "Le Parisien" published a picture of him holding four dead rats dangling by their tails.

Boulard's anti-rat credentials even earned him an invitation to last year's inaugural edition of the National Urban Rat Summit in New York.

"Anyone claiming that we should coexist with rats lives in a fantasy world," Boulard said.

Any let-up in the fight would "threaten public health", said Boulard, who has installed traps in his district that attract rats with food before killing them via an app-controlled mechanism.

The traps, costing 800 euros ($940) each, kill about 800 rats per year -- only a tiny part of the rat population.

But Boulard says fewer reports of rat sightings from concerned citizens on a designated website suggest that his approach is working.

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Varieties

British Writer John Harrison Wins 2026 Booker Prize for ‘The End of Everything’

British author John Harrison poses after winning the 2026 Booker Prize for his novel "The End of Everything" at the awards ceremony in London, Britain, 09 November 2026. (EPA)
British author John Harrison poses after winning the 2026 Booker Prize for his novel "The End of Everything" at the awards ceremony in London, Britain, 09 November 2026. (EPA)
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British Writer John Harrison Wins 2026 Booker Prize for ‘The End of Everything’

British author John Harrison poses after winning the 2026 Booker Prize for his novel "The End of Everything" at the awards ceremony in London, Britain, 09 November 2026. (EPA)
British author John Harrison poses after winning the 2026 Booker Prize for his novel "The End of Everything" at the awards ceremony in London, Britain, 09 November 2026. (EPA)

British author ‌John Harrison has won the 2026 Booker Prize for his novel, "The End of Everything," a dystopian satire that the prize says probes the limits of human understanding, becoming the oldest winner in the literary award's history at age 81.

Harrison's 13th novel follows Phillip Tennent and his elderly aunt Marnie on England's south coast years after social order has broken down ‌and mysterious entities ‌known as the iGhetti have arrived.

The ‌Booker ⁠judges unanimously selected ⁠the 198-page book, saying it "turns you upside down, raises a wry smile and, surprisingly, given the subject matter, leaves you with a twinge of optimism."

The victory was the first Booker Prize for Harrison, whose career as a ⁠novelist and critic spans six ‌decades and includes acclaimed science ‌fiction and fantasy works.

His win also marks ‌a rare triumph for speculative fiction.

Mary Beard, ‌chair of the judging panel, described the book as "the politics of now seen through the lens of the future", saying it depicts a society grappling ‌with a catastrophe its inhabitants do not fully understand.

Accepting the £50,000 ($67,235) prize at ⁠a ⁠ceremony in London, Harrison said literary awards remained important in a "landscape of industrialized fiction."

Speaking to the Booker Prize in August, Harrison said his novel was inspired by the 2008 financial crisis and asks what happens when "all of our expectations and explanations of the world become an ongoing disaster, but we still have to make a life."

Harrison beat a shortlist that included former Booker winners Douglas Stuart and Marlon James.

Varieties

Fossil Fuel Emissions Fall Due to Iran War, Renewables, Research Finds

Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, November 9, 2026. (Reuters)
Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, November 9, 2026. (Reuters)
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Fossil Fuel Emissions Fall Due to Iran War, Renewables, Research Finds

Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, November 9, 2026. (Reuters)
Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, November 9, 2026. (Reuters)

Global fossil fuel emissions are projected to fall slightly in 2026 due to the expansion of renewable energy and the oil price shock sparked by the Iran war, researchers said Tuesday.

Emissions from the burning of oil, gas and coal -- the main drivers of climate change -- rose by 0.9 percent per year on average in the past decade, hitting a record high in 2025, according to the Global Carbon Budget report.

But they are expected to drop by 0.4 percent in 2026, according to the research, published as nations meet at the UN's COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Türkiye.

It would be the first annual drop since 2020, when the Covid pandemic paralyzed the global economy, trade and transport.

This year, the US-led war in Iran and closure of the Strait of Hormuz played a role in driving emissions down as it caused a drop in oil consumption amid soaring crude prices, the researchers found.

The deployment of solar panels, wind farms and electric vehicles also contributed to the drop. Two thirds of the increase in global energy demand is being met by solar and wind power and electric vehicles, the report found.

"A decline in fossil CO2 emissions is encouraging, but a reduction driven partly by geopolitical shocks is not a sustainable climate solution," said Pierre Friedlingstein, director of the Global Carbon Budget Office at the University of Exeter in Britain.

"The long-term answer remains the rapid deployment of clean energy technologies," said Friedlingstein, who led the study published in the journal Earth System Science Data.

- Rebound looms -

Corinne Le Quere, a climate change science professor at the University of East Anglia, noted that emissions rebounded when economies recovered following shocks such as Covid or the global financial crisis.

A rebound is likely "when the oil tensions go away", she said in a media briefing.

Oil-related emissions are projected to drop 1.9 percent last year but it was "likely a short-term response to the energy shock triggered by the Iran conflict", the researchers said.

Gas emissions are set to fall 0.3 percent while those from coal use will rise 0.6 percent.

Overall, fossil carbon dioxide emissions are expected to reach 38.2 billion tons in 2026.

Including emissions from land-use change such as deforestation, total CO2 emissions are projected to rise to 43.3 billion tons, from 42.8 billion tonnes last year.

The researchers said land-use emissions are projected to rise partly due to peat fires and forest degradation in southeast Asia, associated with drier conditions linked to this year's exceptionally strong El Nino climate pattern.

The report found that the world's carbon budget -- the amount of CO2 that can be emitted before global warming exceeds 1.5C above pre-industrial levels -- stands at 150 billion tons.

The researchers calculated that at the current, the carbon budget would be exhausted in less than four years.

Nations agreed at the 2015 UN climate talks in Paris to keep global warming "well below" 2C above pre-industrial levels, while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5C.

But the United Nations declared in September that the long-term 1.5C target would be missed in a matter of years.

Scientists say it is crucial to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels to limit the period of "overshoot" above 1.5C and bring temperatures back down as quickly as possible.

Varieties

Food Industry Pushes Back on WHO Guidance for Products with Added Color, Sweeteners

Around 11 million deaths a year are linked to unhealthy diets, according to the agency, based on data from a global study. (Getty Images)
Around 11 million deaths a year are linked to unhealthy diets, according to the agency, based on data from a global study. (Getty Images)
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Food Industry Pushes Back on WHO Guidance for Products with Added Color, Sweeteners

Around 11 million deaths a year are linked to unhealthy diets, according to the agency, based on data from a global study. (Getty Images)
Around 11 million deaths a year are linked to unhealthy diets, according to the agency, based on data from a global study. (Getty Images)

Governments should consider regulating foods that include added colors, flavors or sweeteners designed to make the product more appealing to consumers, according to new draft World Health Organization guidance that has sparked swift pushback from the food industry.

The WHO draft aims to help governments identify which foods should be consumed in moderation as part of a healthy diet – and which products could be subject to measures like warning labels or taxes, depending on national priorities.

The new draft food-profiling model, published last week, marks the first time the UN health agency has included this type of ‌ingredient in its guidance, ‌previously only focused on nutritional content, including fat and salt.

“This draft ‌goes ⁠beyond traditional nutrient ⁠profiling by recognizing that foods may need to be considered not only for their nutrient content, but also for other aspects of their formulation” in order to prevent diet-related disease, said Katrin Engelhardt, technical officer at the WHO's department of nutrition and food safety.

Around 11 million deaths a year are linked to unhealthy diets, according to the agency, based on data from a global study.

The proposed new model is also the WHO’s attempt to guide member states through an increasingly polarized debate ⁠about ultra-processed foods (UPFs), a class of food or drink made using processing ‌techniques, additives and industrial ingredients, which often contain little ‌whole food. Examples include carbonated soft drinks or instant noodles.

BEYOND NUTRIENTS ALONE

Many food scientists say UPFs pose ‌numerous health risks but others – and the food industry – say they are defined too widely, ‌which risks demonizing healthy products.

The International Food and Beverage Alliance, an organization representing major multinational food and beverage companies, said it was concerned the proposed approach shifts attention away from nutritional quality and could capture more products for potential regulation.

"Of particular concern is the potential to undermine established nutrition priorities and reformulation ‌efforts,” said IFBA Secretary General Rocco Renaldi.

Other concerns for the food industry are higher costs from reformulating products or stringent labelling requirements, as well ⁠as the risk ⁠of class-action lawsuits as seen in the United States, and higher taxes for processed food companies.

Broadly, the WHO said the model covers “industrially-produced foods to be consumed in moderation” and is a bridge between its healthy diet recommendations and government policy on individual food products.

Lindsey Smith Taillie, co-director of the Global Food Research Program at the University of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, said the point of the model was to target unhealthy foods, combining both nutrients and UPFs.

“These two frameworks have never been mutually exclusive and can and should be used by policymakers as the starting place,” she said, adding that healthiness is measured by multiple criteria.

Kraft Heinz CEO Steve Cahillane last week told Reuters that industry players should have a say.

"We're in the food business and we care about consumers deeply," Cahillane said. "And so we ought to have a seat at the table as these discussions evolve."

The WHO proposal is out for consultation until November 27.