Our daily journey around the world

🇵🇱 Poland held parliamentary elections over the weekend. Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party is seeking a third consecutive four-year term at the helm of the country’s government, which hasn’t been accomplished since Poland left the Soviet Union in 1991. Candidates focused on a wide range of key issues leading up to yesterday’s elections, including Poland’s future in the EU, how to handle Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, economic equality, abortion access, and LGBTQ+ rights.

🇬🇷🫒 Greece has seen a recent uptick in olive oil heists. Olive oil prices in Greece have risen by 200% over the past year, leaving many residents scrambling for an ingredient that’s long been a dietary staple. In recent months, thieves across Greece have broken into remote villages in search of oil, raided graveyards where priests keep olive oil for use in lamps, and most recently, snatched 37 tons of olive oil worth nearly $400,000 from a cooperative in eastern Greece.

🇬🇧⚡ The UK launched the first large-scale renewable energy network that uses flooded mining tunnels. The UK is home to a sprawling network of retired mining tunnels, which can be found beneath ~25% of all homes within the country. Following decades of disuse, the coal mines gradually flooded with over 2 billion cubic meters of warm water, with temperatures reaching up to 113°F. Over the past six months, a new extraction system built by the former UK coal town of Gateshead has successfully heated hundreds of local homes and businesses using only warm mine water.