Marion Soulet rides to Paris' City Hall along a once car-choked road that is now a cycleway and a symbol of the French capital's urban green transformation that faces a test in a mayoral election ​on Sunday. Soulet welcomes the construction of about 1,000 km (620 miles) of cycle lanes by leftist Mayor Anne Hidalgo over the last decade, which she ‌says means nearly half of Parisians now ride a bicycle at least once a week. Learn More

Taiwan's parliament authorised the government on Friday to sign U.S. agreements for four arms sales ‌packages worth some $9 billion, after officials warned that Taipei would go to the back of the queue if it missed the deadline, sending the wrong message to Washington. The back and forth on Taiwan's defence spending has provoked concern in the United States, as it is the most important international backer ​and arms supplier of the Chinese-claimed island, despite a lack of

BYD said on Friday it will launch a premium electric vehicle in Europe next month that can charge ​in just minutes, far faster than anything on the ‌market today, as it pursues rapid overseas expansion amid flagging sales in China. Combined with a range of up to 800 km (497 miles) that is well above ​most available EV models, BYD's Denza Z9GT model illustrates Chinese ​automakers' competitive edge over legacy European manufacturers when it ⁠comes to electric car technology.