BRUSSELS (Dispatches) - The EU went into battle on Wednesday to secure a path to its bold pledge of carbon neutrality by 2050, triggering an epic political clash over electric cars and fuel prices that could last for years. The mammoth plan was unveiled by the European Commission and is intended to transform the bloc’s economy from fossil fuel dependency to a world of net-zero emissions. Brussels also hopes to establish Europe as the unquestioned leader on meeting the goals of the Paris climate accord. “Europe is now the very first continent that presents a comprehensive architecture to meet our climate ambitions,” EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels.

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ISLAMABAD(Dispatches) - At least 12 people, including nine Chinese citizens, have been killed after a bus carrying construction workers in Pakistan’s far north plunged into a ravine following an explosion, the Pakistani foreign ministry said. The incident took place as a bus carried workers to the Dasu hydropower project in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, about 190km (118 miles) north of the capital, Islamabad, on Wednesday morning. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear, with the Pakistani foreign ministry saying it took place due to a “mechanical failure”, while a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson referred to it as an “attack”.

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SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian authorities extended a lockdown in Sydney on Wednesday by at least 14 days, after three weeks of initial restrictions failed to stamp out the biggest outbreak of COVID-19 this year in the country’s largest city. New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said restrictions would need to remain in place until at least July 30 after she reported 97 new locally transmitted cases, a slight increase from a day earlier. The shutdown has now been extended on two occasions and total infections since the first was initially detected in the city’s eastern suburbs in mid-June now stand at just under 900. Two deaths have been reported, the first for the country this year.

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VANCOUVER (Reuters) - A crane that collapsed in Kelowna, British Columbia,Canada killed four people and left another missing presumed dead, Canadian police said. The crane was in the process of being dismantled when it collapsed, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Adam MacIntosh told a press conference, causing an evacuation of nearby buildings and a state of emergency in the city of Kelowna, located roughly 400 km (248.55 miles) east of Vancouver, to be declared.

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YAKUTIA, Russia (Reuters) - Russian military helicopters flew in firefighters to battle Siberian wildfires on Wednesday, and the Kremlin said climate change was to blame for the unprecedented blazes. Flames are tearing across 800,000 hectares of forest, and the hardest-hit region of Yakutia in the north has been in a state of emergency for weeks as climate scientists sound the alarm about the potential long-term impact. More than 2,600 firefighters were battling blazes in Yakutia, which has borne the brunt of the fires in recent years. “We’re suffocating, our lungs are being poisoned by acrid smoke,” reads one of two online petitions by Yakutia’s residents addressed to President Vladimir Putin. They are asking for more equipment and forces to combat the fires.