As a winter storm dubbed Eunice barreled into Britain, downing trees and sending rooftops flying and jets off course at Heathrow, who would have guessed there was an upside to England’s record 122-mph winds?

London’s Telegraph reported that power prices across Europe took a welcome tumble as blustery Eunice helped drive unusually high output from wind turbines. Energy prices fell in the U.K., and in Germany they even dipped into negative territory over the weekend.

With inflation reaching a 25-year high, the Greek center-right daily Kathimerini reports that Greek farmers have been parking their tractors along highways and threatening to block traffic to protest ubiquitous price hikes. The cost of fertilizer has tripled in one year, one farmer said, while olive oil, a staple of the Greek kitchen, is up 15 percent over the previous year.  

Weather doesn’t seem to be a factor in a blaze that broke out Friday aboard the Euroferry Olympia, a large vessel sailing to Brindisi, Italy, from western Greece. The 600-foot-long ferry turned into a floating inferno for reasons as yet unknown; the dramatic rescue of 280 passengers by the Greek coast guard was chronicled across the spectrum of Greek and Italian media.

Some aging ferries that ply the Mediterranean seem prone to fire, with their garages — which often transport both passenger vehicles and cargo trucks — being a particular hazard. The Greek newspaper Ta Nea reported reported that as of Saturday 12 people were still missing.

Maritime mayhem in recent days extended to the middle of the Atlantic, where the fire-ravaged car carrier Felicity Ace was adrift following Thursday’s blaze and evacuation of its crew to the Azores — with a cargo of nearly 4,000 luxury vehicles worth $250 million. The now likely-charred hot wheels included Porsches, Lamborghinis, and Bentleys — and possibly electric cars, too, with Maritime Executive reporting that the fire may have started with a defective battery in one of those vehicles.

Porcupines … who doesn’t love them? Not Palestinians, apparently: An article in Israel’s Ynet says Palestinian hunters routinely kill wildlife as part of their “cultural activity.” That also includes the likes of foxes and deer — the latter often ending up as kebabs. Away from the usual headlines, the West Bank has a rich flora and fauna, but the extent of the hunting as well as cruel methods used, which have come to light thanks to boast-posts on social media such as TikTok, spells extinction for some species. The Israel Nature and Parks Authority’s understaffing and jurisdictional issues make it tough to crack down on illegal hunting. 

TikTok has also helped propel a tabby cat in Ukraine to fame. The Moscow Times reports that the city of Lviv has a “cat mayor” named Levchyk, who has gone from the streets of a western Ukrainian town to human Mayor Andriy Sadovyi’s prefurred (sorry) political pet. As chronicled on the socials, during his time in office Levchyk has already met with the U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, welcomed the Belgian delegation, and was embraced by the acting U.S. ambassador.

“Tunisia, democracy ruined” is the headline of an op-ed in leading Spanish newspaper El Pais, and it refers to Tunisian president’s seizure of judiciary powers in the North African country that spawned the Arab Spring more than a decade ago. Kais Saied’s decree dissolved the Supreme Judicial Council and gives him the power to control appointments, transfers, and postings of judges, and is seen as a significant setback to Tunisia’s increasingly fragile-looking democratic reforms. Mr. Saied, president since 2019 and himself a retired law professor, has also extended a state of emergency in Tunisia until the end of the year. 

French newspaper Le Monde reports that a former French modeling agent, Jean-Luc Brunel, was found hanged in his prison cell in Paris in the early hours of February 19. Brunel, a friend of and procurer for the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, stood accused of rape by multiple models, some of whom were minors at the time of the alleged crimes. The incident, which the Daily Mail calls a suicide, comes a week after Prince Andrew’s settlement of a lawsuit that accused him of sexual abuse during time with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Brunel was 76.