Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel once said she wished "for nothing more than a free-trade agreement between the USA and the EU". But, to the dismay of many in Brussels and Washington, Germans are now taking a very different view.

Europe's biggest exporter is becoming one of the most vocal opponents of the world's biggest trade deal. A transatlantic pact would create a market of 800 million people and allow Germany to sell more of its luxury cars, trains and chemicals in the United States, an attractive proposition for an economy that has faltered in recent months.

But in a twist that few officials expected, European concerns about the threat to food and the environment have found their strongest voice in Germany, amplified by the country's influential Green party, as well as anger at reports of US spying.

For the first time ever, the sale of carbon credits will finance projects that help tackle climate change. The EU Commission will fund 19 projects, two of which are in France. EurActiv France reports.

For those who still question the point of a European carbon market, here is a possible answer. The European Commission announced on 8 July that 19 projects from 12 EU member states will receive their share of €1 billion raised through the sale of carbon credits.

Established in 2005, the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) set a cap on the total amount of certain greenhouse gases that can be emitted by some 12,000 factories, power plants and other installations across the EU. Most emission allowances were initially given away for free, while countries were allowed to auction off part of the credits destined for the industrial sites. The collapse in carbon prices forced the Commission to withdraw the credits from the market in an attempt to increase prices, which are currently at €5 per tonne compared to €30 in 2008.

A study co-authored by a University of Guelph scientist that involved fitting bumblebees with tiny radio frequency tags shows long-term exposure to a neonicotinoid pesticide hampers bees' ability to forage for pollen.

The research by Nigel Raine, a professor in Guelph's School of Environmental Sciences, and Richard Gill of Imperial College London was published in the British Ecological Society's journal Functional Ecology.

The study shows how long-term pesticide exposure affects individual bees' day-to-day behaviour, including pollen collection and which flowers worker bees chose to visit.

"Bees have to learn many things about their environment, including how to collect pollen from flowers," said Raine, who holds the Rebanks Family Chair in Pollinator Conservation, a Canadian first.

"Exposure to this neonicotinoid pesticide seems to prevent bees from being able to learn these essential skills."

Today was the 17^th consecutive day on which both the German peak and base day-ahead prices remained below four cents, a new record streak going back probably to the early 2000s, when the wholesale price was regularly at that low level.

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The difference between French and German prices today is striking, but it is also Bastille Day today, a public holiday in France. But we do not have to look far to find similar days with a great discrepancy between the two countries.

On Wednesday, July 9, for instance, prices in France were once again only half as great as in Germany, and there was no public holiday in France. As French grid operator RTE shows, the country exported up to 10 GW of power at a time that day. The French were therefore dumping a lot of electricity on neighboring countries at a loss. Nonetheless, nuclear plants were not at a particularly low level, peaking above 47 GW for most of the day. Perhaps the large amount of hydropower helps explain this outcome