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Canada-Europe Relations
Update: EU drops idea of ​​new status for Canada

EU member states have abandoned the notion of granting Canada the status of an "associated member," according to documents obtained by Politico.

Initially, the intention was to address Canada’s status in a statement during an upcoming summit. Instead, a new draft proposes an "even closer relationship" with Canada.

According to sources, Germany, Italy, Greece, and France objected to discussing a potential "associated membership" for Canada at the summit.

Terror Threats in Europe
Knife attack at the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade

An assailant armed with a knife has been shot dead after attacking a police officer outside the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, according to international media reports.

The police officer sustained minor injuries, and the country has raised its terror threat level to the highest possible setting.

According to Interior Minister Ivica Dačić, the attacker was a minor and a follower of the terrorist group IS.

Threats to the Amazon
The Saamaka people use GPS to protect the forest

New roads are pushing ever deeper into the Amazon rainforest, opening up previously untouched areas to logging and gold mining. Now, the Saamaka people in Suriname are using satellite imagery and GPS to detect and document incursions, the AP reports.

"This is our wealth, and it is what we are fighting for. Hopefully, all of this will still be here in a thousand generations—just as our ancestors left it to us," says Navaldo Vola, who patrols the forest.

For generations, the Saamaka people have protected the forest through their own customary rules. Despite a 2007 court ruling, the state has yet to recognize the group’s collective land rights. The residents now hope that this mapping effort will strengthen their cause.

Since 2001, territories belonging to various traditional indigenous and tribal groups in Suriname have lost nearly 154,000 hectares of forest—an area roughly twice the size of New York City.

The Climate Threat  Global Challenges
Slovenia mourns the loss of a glacier following a scorching summer

The ice on the glacier atop Mount Triglav in Slovenia has melted away completely following an unusually hot summer, *The Guardian* reports.

The glacier lost 93 percent of its ice mass between 1983 and 2003, but had managed to cling to the mountain ever since. Now, however, new images taken earlier in October confirm what researchers had long feared: there is no ice left on the mountain.

For researcher and mountain guide Miha Pavšek, Triglav is part of his family history. The mountain is also part of the Slovenian national identity.

“When this glacier melts, a part of me disappears too,” he says.