Northvolt was supposed to be Europe's industrial champion for batteries. Anjani Trevedi is a global business correspondent. But last week, Northvolt filed for bankruptcy protection in America. So

it's a pretty dramatic change, Anjani. What were the signs

that things were going wrong? Northvolt had essentially expanded too fast all over the world. It was planning to set up factories in Canada, in Germany, and car makers believed in this technology like Volkswagen, Volvo, and BMW. But as it tried to expand very quickly as capital flowed in, it got distracted. Soon car makers' orders weren't being fulfilled and they started pulling out. BMW cancelled an order and slowly that started leading to the companies unwind. The company had undertaken a big strategic overview earlier this year and as part of that it was looking to rein in some of its expenditure and it had cut back a big part of its workforce. It had on hold some of its factories. That wasn't enough.

We keep hearing that electric vehicles are the future. So how did this happen?

Northvolt has been trying to innovate on many levels. It also chosen to use a difficult type of battery technology, and that is what it was hoping to scale. That is, again, very expensive, very hard to do. The Chinese have been able to scale up technologies, but that has come over two decades and at a massive cost and has created champions in China, but in a hugely competitive environment. Europe or even the US does not have that ecosystem of suppliers, parts and raw material supplies. That meant that Northvolt was trying to do all of that on its own from scratch and create a vertically integrated battery making giant in a very short period of time. And

you mentioned China there. Is it just that no one is able to compete with China now when it comes to electric vehicle batteries? China has mastered the art of manufacturing these batteries at

scale. Now, the actual technology or the battery chemistry hasn't evolved hugely. That means there is room for the West or for other countries to leaf frog. However, if they can't reach the manufacturing and if they can't get over the technical challenges, there will likely be problems and they won't be able to catch up. China not only has started taking over mines across the world, but it also, more importantly, actually has a tight grasp on the refining of the minerals like lithium and graphite that are needed for batteries. That has made it very challenging for companies and countries across the world to actually have access to and make their own supply chains for batteries.

So what does Northvolt's collapse mean for the future of electric vehicles in Europe?

Northvolt accounted for just under 10% of total production capacity of batteries in Europe. So its collapse will have a significant impact on the market. The thing was, there was a few players, but Northvolt was the one company that hogged all of investors' attention and their capital. With Northvolt gone, the competitive landscape is in theory open, but there will be a chilling effect on investors and policymakers and whether they are willing to fund and support this industry in the same way. There will be a shortfall in terms of supply, especially because Europe has set very stringent targets about banning internal combustion engine vehicles and has put in place various green goals. That makes this even more difficult. If it cannot meet the demand, whether for electric vehicles, for energy storage systems that will power renewable energy, then it will have to largely depend on foreign companies. As of today, LG Energy Solutions has the biggest battery production capacity in Europe, and that's a South Korean company. Now, part of the dynamic here is that electric vehicle sales in Europe and in America are slowing, which means the market for these batteries is slowing. Some of that will get offset by renewable energy and the large grid-scale batteries. However, ultimately, if they can't reach those goals, and especially with industrial policy doing what it's doing, keeping players out, it will then find itself in a tight spot. If it can't get the supply or if that supply is expensive or it's protected, then Europe will struggle to meet all of its requirements, not just for its green ambitions, but also for reducing emissions. Anjani,

thank you so much for talking to me. Thank

you for having me. One of the most surprising features of the Netflix hit show Emily in Paris is that the character who has most captured the French imagination is not Emily, but Sylvie, played by the 61-year French actress Philippine Le Roi Beaulieu. Sophie Pedder is our Paris bureau chief. Sylvie is a caustic marketing executive. She's Emily's boss, she has a fabulous wardrobe, and she has a knack for the one line put down. That's not black, that's off-black. And if you keep smiling like that, people will think you're stupid. If you're their new arbiter of taste, we want nothing to do with them. Companies hire savoir to raise their standards, not lower them. The actress herself is also having quite a moment. In September, she appeared at the Saint Laurent fashion show in what's known as le naked dress. These are folds of transparent organza or tulle or chiffon draped over bare breasts. In the version she wore, she bared it all through a translucent midnight blue gown. It showed, said the French critics, that even in France you can be sexy at 60. Across the country, women are casting off unforgiving codes about femininity and ageing. Two journalists, both approaching 60, have recently published a book, which is an ode to single women in their 50s. You can have more wrinkles, they say, but you can still be attractive. And another book argues that women in their 60s are freed from the weight of the gaze of others. It makes the age liberating. French women have long faced a tension between their country's post-war feminist theorists and the objectification that its film and fashion industries serve up. The messaging has been both defy the patriarchy and conform to it. In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir published her groundbreaking work, The Second Sex, in which she challenged the way women are defined only in relationship to men. At the same time, France launched the bikini and Brigitte Bardot to the world. It's a complicated, contradictory sort of environment for French women to have grown up in. But if wrinkles and white hair used to wreck a public career, that is starting to change. Think of Elizabeth Bourne, the 63-year former prime minister, or even Christine Lagarde, the 68-year head of the European Central Bank. Both of these women embody silver power. And a recent poll showed that a quarter of young French women had undergone some form of aesthetic nip or jab, but for older women the figure was just 13%. Perhaps the Netflix show, which the French pretend to hate, has tapped into more than just clichés about Paris. Leroy Beaulieu plays Sylvie with swagger. But the actress privately lacked confidence. She thought that casting agents wouldn't hire her because she looked too old.