World news...

1. The mayor of Paris may run for the leadership of the Socialist Party in France. From the Independent, "Paris mayor to challenge Royal for leadership of divided Socialist Party":

An openly gay politician who has given Parisians free bikes-for-hire and fake beaches along the river Seine, M. Delanoë is seen by some Socialists as their best chance of breathing new life into the party.

There has been speculation that M. Delanoë would like to challenge M. Sarkozy for the presidency in 2012, but he and other Socialist leaders say it is much too early to talk about that. For now, the Socialists have been so engrossed in the leadership contest that they have failed to capitalise on M. Sarkozy's decline in popularity since late 2007. The President has launched dozens of reforms but voters have yet to see their purchasing power improve – the main concern according to the polls – and many are disappointed with him.

Potentially this is another way to show how to implement a new urban agenda, although European countries are much more oriented to pro-urbanism than we are in North America.


2. Also according to the Independent, in "Tequila sunset: The ethanol boom," due to the demand for corn for ethanol (which doesn't really provide much more energy than it costs to produce), Mexican farmers of the blue agave plant are switching to corn. That means less tequila.