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UK bond yields rise sharply amid speculation over future of Rachel Reeves
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Cost of government borrowing leaps as investors take fright from PMQs, before falling back as No 10 says chancellor staying in post Reeves will stay as chancellor, says No 10 after her tears in Commons Where does the welfare bill climbdown leave UK public finances? UK government borrowing costs have risen sharply amid speculation over Rachel Reeves’s position as chancellor, as City investors warned Labour’s welfare U-turn had blown a multibillion-pound hole in the public finances. After Keir Starmer failed initially to give his full backing to a tearful chancellor at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, the yield on 10-year UK government bonds, also known as gilts, was on course for the biggest jump in a day since Liz Truss was in No 10, while the pound slumped. Continue reading...
Heathrow substation fire ‘caused by fault first identified seven years ago’
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Ofgem opens investigation into National Grid as report finds incident that cut airport power was preventable Business live – latest updates The root cause of the substation fire that shut Heathrow airport was a preventable technical fault that National Grid had been aware of seven years ago but failed to fix properly, investigators have concluded. The final report by the National Energy System Operator (Neso) on the incident said the fire that cut power to the airport on 21 March, affecting more than 1,350 flights, almost 300,000 passengers and cutting power to 67,000 homes, was “most likely” sparked by moisture entering the insulation around wires. Continue reading...
Reeves has Starmer’s full backing, says No 10 after chancellor’s tears in Commons
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Downing Street says there will be no reshuffle, after Kemi Badenoch claims Labour MPs regard Reeves as ‘toast’ UK politics live – latest updates Downing Street has insisted Rachel Reeves will stay in post and has not offered her resignation, after the chancellor was in tears at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday. Reeves wiped away a tear after a series of questions from the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, who said Labour MPs had said she was “toast”. Badenoch suggested Keir Starmer had failed to confirm Reeves would stay in post until the election. Continue reading...
EU targets 90% cut in emissions by 2040 as green groups cry foul
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Anger as long-awaited announcement of cuts against 1990 pollution levels allows for foreign carbon credits The EU should slash its planet-heating pollution by 90% by 2040, the European Commission has announced, in a proposed change to its climate law that falls short of what its scientists have advised. The much-awaited target to cut emissions, which is measured against pollution levels from 1990, is a significant milestone on the EU’s path to decarbonise its economy by 2050. Continue reading...
Droughts worldwide pushing tens of millions towards starvation, says report
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Water shortages hitting crops, energy and health as crisis gathers pace amid climate breakdown Drought is pushing tens of millions of people to the edge of starvation around the world, in a foretaste of a global crisis that is rapidly deepening with climate breakdown. More than 90 million people in eastern and southern Africa are facing extreme hunger after record-breaking drought across many areas, ensuing widespread crop failures and the death of livestock. In Somalia, a quarter of the population is now edging towards starvation, and at least a million people have been displaced. Continue reading...
UK watchdog threatens Ticketmaster with legal action over way Oasis tickets were sold
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Only days before reunion tour begins, CMA raises concerns that fans may have been misled by company The UK competition watchdog has written to Ticketmaster threatening legal action over the way it sold more than 900,000 tickets for Oasis’s reunion tour, days before the start of what is expected to be the most popular, and profitable, run of gigs in British history. In March, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published concerns that Ticketmaster may have misled fans, some of whom paid more than £350 for tickets with a face value of £150, in the way it priced tickets for the band’s comeback gigs when they went on sale last August. Continue reading...
Greggs feels the heat as shoppers shun pastries in hot June
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Shares fall almost 13% after bakery chain’s profit warning over heatwave hit to sales The UK’s biggest bakery chain, Greggs, has said last month’s heatwave harmed its sales and profits as customers went off the idea of hot pastries in the unusually high temperatures. Shares in Greggs slumped almost 13% as investors reacted to the profit warning a day after the UK experienced the hottest day of the year so far, with temperatures reaching as high as 35C. Continue reading...
Welfare bill climbdown will have ‘a cost’ at budget, says senior minister
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Pat McFadden says U-turn will change calculations, as IFS says tax rises in autumn look increasingly likely UK politics live – latest updates There will be “a cost” to the government’s climbdown on welfare changes at the budget, one of Keir Starmer’s senior ministers has said, as a leading fiscal thinktank said new tax rises appeared increasingly likely. Pat McFadden, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, defended Starmer and the work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, after the second reading of the government’s main welfare bill passed its first Commons test only after a central element was removed. Continue reading...
Heathrow fire caused by preventable fault, report finds, as Ofgem launches investigation into incident – business live
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Root cause of fire at substation was ‘preventable, technical fault’ most likely caused by moisture, report says The electricity substation fire on 20 March caused chaos at Heathrow airport, which had to shut, affecting more than 200,000 passengers around the world. Europe’s busiest airport had more than 1,000 flights cancelled on the Friday after the fire at the substation in Hayes, west London. Flights restarted on Saturday and the airport was back to normal by Sunday, albeit with some slight delays. The North Hyde substation fire resulted in global disruption, impacted thousands of local customers, and highlighted the importance of investment in our energy infrastructure. As a result of the report’s findings, we have opened an investigation into National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET). We have also commissioned an independent audit of their most critical assets. Continue reading...
Floods, wild winds and power cuts: inundated NSW south coast holiday haven braces for more heavy rain
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Lashing gales and torrential downpours have left businesses gearing up for school holidays underwater and praying for ‘a bit of a break’ Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast In Burrill Lake, the rain has stopped – for now. Overnight, the small New South Wales south coast town was pummelled by heavy rain, high winds and large swells. Combined with the high tide in the early hours of the morning, the lake began to flood, inundating homes and businesses. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...
Specieswatch: now is the best time to see the stag beetle
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At this time of year, the males, with their antler-like jaws, fly at dusk looking for much smaller females This is the best time of year to see Britain’s largest insect, the stag beetle, Lucanus cervus, with its distinctive jaws that look like antlers, hence its common name. The males, which reach up to 75mm long (3ins) look formidable but are completely harmless. At this time of year they fly at dusk looking for much smaller females. If you are very lucky you will see two males, jaws locked in combat, jousting for a female. Continue reading...
Owners of collapsed oil refinery Prax Lindsey took £11.5m in pay and dividends
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Details of payouts to Winston Soosaipillai and wife Arani emerge as calls grow for couple to financially support 625-strong workforce The married couple behind the Prax Lindsey oil refinery awarded themselves at least $15.9m (£11.5m) in pay and dividends in the years leading up to its collapse, it has emerged, as the government urged the company’s boss to “put his hand in his pockets” to help workers. Winston Soosaipillai, who goes by his middle names Sanjeev Kumar, jointly owned the refinery with his wife, Arani, until it plunged into insolvency on Monday. Continue reading...
More than 80% of UK farmers worried about climate crisis harming livelihood, study finds
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Farmers warn of risk to Britain’s food supply as more than three-quarters take hit to income from extreme weather More than 80% of UK farmers are worried that the “devastating” effect of the climate crisis could damage their ability to make a living, a study has found. Farmers have warned that global heating risks Britain’s supplies of home-grown food amid wild swings in weather conditions, in new research carried out by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU). Continue reading...
Political cowardice hindering Europe’s climate efforts, says EU’s green chief
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Teresa Ribera says effects of crisis are becoming increasingly obvious but not translating into proper action Political cowardice is hindering European efforts to face up to the effects of the climate crisis, even as the continent is pummelled by a record-breaking heatwave, the EU’s green transition chief has warned. In an interview with the Guardian, Teresa Ribera said that although the effects of the climate emergency were becoming increasingly obvious, they were still not translating into proper action. Continue reading...
Key climate change reports removed from US government websites
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The national climate assessments help state and local governments prepare for the impacts of a warming world Legally mandated US national climate assessments seem to have disappeared from the federal websites built to display them, making it harder for state and local governments and the public to learn what to expect in their back yards from a warming world. Scientists said the peer-reviewed authoritative reports save money and lives. Websites for the national assessments and the US Global Change Research Program were down Monday and Tuesday with no links, notes or referrals elsewhere. The White House, which was responsible for the assessments, said the information will be housed within Nasa to comply with the law, but gave no further details. Continue reading...
Trump and Musk’s feud blows up again with threats of Doge and deportation
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Reignited quarrel centers around Musk’s opposition to the president’s signature tax bill as it moves through Congress Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s feud reignited this week with the former political allies trading sharp public threats of retribution. The blowup, centered around Musk’s opposition to Trump’s signature tax bill as it moves through Congress, ends a period of rapprochement between two of the world’s most powerful men. Musk posted escalating attacks against Trump’s sweeping spending bill on his social media platform X, calling the legislation “insane” and vowing to form a new political party if it passed late Monday. In response, Trump claimed he could “look into” deporting the South Africa-born billionaire, while also suggesting he could cut government subsidies for Musk’s companies or set the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) on its former leader. Continue reading...
Downbeat Liz Kendall acts as if even she no longer believes in welfare reforms | John Crace
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A mauling by MPs the day before took its toll on the work and pensions secretary amid yet more concessions to placate Labour rebels You’ve got to ask yourself one thing: Just how many Labour MPs really believe in the concessions – sorry, measures (I keep making that mistake) – that the government has offered on the welfare bill. Who has really thought, you know what, it’s great that existing claimants can get to keep their benefits but anyone after November 2026 who finds themselves in need of help can do without. It’s a question of morality. Either you think no one deserves the full personal independence payments or that everyone does. It’s that binary. Yet here we were again. On Monday, Liz Kendall had laid out her measures to try to mitigate the rebellion on her own backbenches that could have sunk the welfare bill at second reading. Continue reading...
Santander to buy TSB for £2.65bn amid fears of branch closures and job losses
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Purchase would be third major ownership shake-up for high street lender in 12 years The Spanish bank Santander is buying the British high street lender TSB for £2.65bn, raising fears of job cuts and branch closures across the combined group. The proposed deal, announced on Tuesday evening, is the result of a takeover tussle in Santander’s home base of Spain, with the lender Sabadell having decided to sell TSB as it faces an €11bn (£9.4bn) hostile approach from a rival, BBVA. Continue reading...
The Guardian view on Europe’s heatwave: leaders should remind the public why ambitious targets matter | Editorial
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With net zero targets under attack from the populist right, dangerously high temperatures should refocus minds At times like now, with dangerously high temperatures in several European countries, the urgent need for adaptation to an increasingly unstable climate is clearer than ever. From the French government’s decision to close schools to the bans in most of Italy on outdoor work at the hottest time of day, the immediate priority is to protect people from extreme heat – and to recognise that a heatwave can take a higher toll than a violent storm. People who are already vulnerable, due to age or illness or poor housing, face the greatest risks from heatwaves. As well as changes to rules and routines, public health warnings are vital, especially where records are being broken and people are unfamiliar with the conditions. In the scorching European summer of 2022, an estimated 68,000 people died due to heat. Health, welfare and emergency systems must respond to those needing help. Continue reading...
The Guardian view on Trump’s aid cuts and development: the global majority deserve justice, not charity | Editorial
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Funding is plummeting as needs grow, with the closure of USAID, the slashing of UK and European aid budgets, and the obstruction of debt reform and cancellation When one door closes, you would hope that another opens. As USAID was formally shut down on Monday, a once-in-a-decade development financing conference was kicking off in Seville. But while initially intended to move the world closer to its ambitious 2030 sustainable development goals, it now looks more like an attempt to prevent a reversal of the progress already made. A study published in the Lancet predicted that Donald Trump’s aid cuts could claim more than 14 million lives by 2030, a third of them among children. For many poor countries, the scale of the shock would be similar to that of a major war, the authors found. More than four-fifths of the US agency’s programmes have been cut, with surviving projects folded into the state department. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
What’s in Trump’s major tax bill? Extended cuts, deportations and more
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GOP’s sweeping legislation boosts wealthy, funds border wall and risks $3tn deficit before Trump’s term ends Senate Republicans on Tuesday passed Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending bill after spending all night voting on amendments. The bill, which the GOP has dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, now returns to the House of Representatives, which passed their version last month, before a Friday deadline the president has imposed for the legislation to be on his desk. Here’s what’s in the Senate’s version of the bill: Continue reading...
AstraZeneca boss ‘wants to shift stock market listing to US’
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Report claims CEO Pascal Soriot talked in private about moving UK’s most valuable listed company and considered shifting its domicile AstraZeneca’s chief executive, Pascal Soriot, has reportedly said that he would like to shift the company’s stock market listing from the UK to the US. The boss of Britain’s most valuable listed company has spoken privately about a preference to move the listing to New York, the Times reported. It added that he had also considered moving the company’s domicile. Continue reading...
Macquarie digs deeper for redemption at Southern Water. There was no alternative | Nils Pratley
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Infamous former owner of Thames Water coughs up more capital in bid to turn around badly performing utility Southern Water owners to invest up to £1.2bn in troubled utility Many took the view in 2021 that Macquarie should have been run out of town, rather than be allowed to own another English water company. The giant Australian financial outfit’s former outing, remember, was at Thames Water from 2006 to 2017, which was when the absurd games of financial leverage began at the UK’s biggest water company. The then-chair of Ofwat later told MPs he asked himself the question “What do we do here, with that reputation?” when Macquarie made the best financial offer to rescue Southern Water. Continue reading...
Labour ought to think small on infrastructure | Letters
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Guardian readers respond to George Monbiot’s column about plans for the Lower Thames Crossing Your report last month on the Lower Thames Crossing and George Monbiot’s article (Overblown infrastructure projects damage lives and imperil democracy. Why is Britain addicted to them?, 24 June) raise the question of the rationale of government investments. More good money is going into HS2, completion receding over the horizon, and nearly another £590m into the Lower Thames Crossing, which is supposed to relieve congestion on the Dartford Crossing. As many earlier studies have shown, more road capacity does not solve but worsens traffic congestion, an observation made in the 1963 Buchanan report. In fact, over half the traffic on the Dartford Crossing is local between south Essex and north Kent. The latest payment to the Lower Thames Crossing would pay for the KenEx tram project linking Dartford, Northfleet, Gravesend, Grays, Tilbury and Purfleet, offering a six-minute or better service, and cutting journey times. Indeed, the Thames tram tunnel has been designed to allow emergency vehicles to use it and save time reaching local hospitals, especially at peak times. Continue reading...
Federal Reserve chair blames Trump’s tariffs for preventing interest rate cuts
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Jerome Powell says inflationary impact of the president’s trade policies needs to be assessed before borrowing costs can be reduced The chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, has blamed Donald Trump’s tariffs for preventing the immediate interest rate cuts the president has demanded. Trump has repeatedly urged Powell to reduce borrowing costs in the US economy. On Tuesday, he said: “Anybody would be better than J Powell. He’s costing us a fortune because he keeps the rate way up.” Continue reading...
Tracking sea ice is ‘early warning system’ for global heating – but the US is halting data sharing
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News comes as research finds record lows of Antarctic sea ice had seen more icebergs splintering off ice shelves Scientists analysing the cascading impacts of record low levels of Antarctic sea ice fear a loss of critical US government satellite data will make it harder to track the rapid changes taking place at both poles. Researchers around the globe were told last week the US Department of Defence will stop processing and providing the data, used in studies on the state of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, at the end of this month. Continue reading...
‘Seeing climate change like this, it changes you’: dance duo Bicep on making an album in Greenland
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Collaborating with Indigenous artists and sampling melting glaciers, the Northern Irish artists are championing Arctic culture – and documenting a collapsing world Russell glacier, at the edge of Greenland’s vast ice sheet, sounds as if it’s crying: moans emanate from deep within the slowly but inexorably melting ice. Andy Ferguson, one half of dance duo Bicep, walks around in its towering shadow recording these eerie sounds. “Everyone comes back changed,” he says of Greenland. “Seeing first-hand climate change happening like this.” It’s April 2023 and, in the wake of Bicep’s second album Isles cementing them as one of the leading electronic acts globally, Ferguson has travelled to Greenland as part of a project to collaborate with Indigenous musicians and bring the momentous struggle of this region – and even the planet – into focus. Continue reading...
M&S’s online business should be ‘fully’ operational by end of month, CEO says
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Stuart Machin tells AGM retailer hopes to put ‘vast majority’ of cyber-attack chaos ‘behind us’ by August Business live – latest updates Marks & Spencer’s online business should be running “fully” within the next four weeks, its boss has said, as the retailer recovers from a damaging cyber-attack. The hack forced the retailer to pause customer orders through its website for almost seven weeks, before resuming them last month. However, its click-and-collect services remain suspended, and the full range of clothing and homeware is not available to buy online. Continue reading...
After 150 years, a prized box returns to an Indigenous nation in Canada: ‘I felt like royalty traveling with it’
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The unlikely return of the bentwood box underscores the challenges facing Indigenous communities working to reclaim items raided from their lands When the plane took off from Vancouver’s airport, bound north for the Great Bear Rainforest, Q̓íx̌itasu Elroy White felt giddy with excitement. The plane traced a route along the Pacific Ocean and British Columbia’s coast mountains, still snow-capped in late May. Continue reading...
Finance firms’ claim to be ‘saving the world’ was a mistake, says City veteran
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Aberdeen chair says some asset managers may have put themselves at legal risk by exaggerating ESG role Business live – latest updates Pension funds and institutional investors made a “huge mistake” and exaggerated their role in environmental, social and government (ESG) issues to promote their products, the outgoing chair of Aberdeen Group, Douglas Flint, has said. Flint, who has chaired the recently rebranded fund manager since 2019, said “ridiculously extravagant claims” had been made by some companies, which were driven by a mindset that their job was “not really about investing money: we’re just jolly good people and we’re saving the world”. Continue reading...
You love the outdoors. So why are you pooping all over it?
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Millions of Americans a year visit national parks and many leave their business anywhere. Contrary to popular belief, that deluge of poop is not going to decompose Last year, I watched a man squat and relieve himself 30ft (9 metres) from me, holding on to his vehicle’s front wheel with one hand to steady himself. My dog and I were on our usual walk up the dirt road that bisects our old mining town, nestled just shy of 10,000ft (3km) in south-western Colorado. It was a short walk from the house, and we were out just to get a little movement. Not to see one. Continue reading...
Great Britain’s energy networks to get £24bn upgrade but bills to rise
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Ofgem approves investment amid push by government to expand UK’s renewables sector Business live – latest updates Energy companies have been given the green light to spend nearly £24bn on Great Britain’s electricity grid, in a move that will further increase household bills. In its draft verdict on price controls for energy network companies, the energy watchdog, Ofgem, approved more than £15bn to be spent on gas transmission and distribution networks in the five years to 2031. Continue reading...
Southern Water owners to invest up to £1.2bn into troubled utility
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Australia’s Macquarie leads consortium putting up funds to help firm avoid breach of regulatory licence What would happen if Thames Water is temporarily renationalised? Business live – latest updates The struggling UK utility Southern Water has secured investment worth up to £1.2bn in a deal led by its majority owner, Macquarie Group, that will help it avoid a breach of its regulatory licence. A consortium led by Macquarie has committed to invest £655m, with a promise of another £245m by the end of the year from existing shareholders and unnamed new investors. Southern could receive another £300m depending on the outcome of a legal appeal to increase the amount it can charge customers. Continue reading...
EU may allow carbon credits from developing countries to count towards climate goals
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Exclusive: Green groups furious at plans to let member states buy controversial carbon offsets from abroad EU member states may be allowed to count controversial carbon credits from developing countries towards their climate targets, the European climate commissioner has said as states meet for a crucial decision on the issue. The EU will discuss on Wednesday its target for slashing carbon dioxide by 2040, with an expected cut of 90% compared with 1990 levels, in line with the bloc’s overarching target of reaching net zero by mid-century. Continue reading...
UK house prices fall by most in more than two years
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Increase in stamp duty has helped weaken demand, as average price drops by 0.8% in June, says Nationwide Business live – latest updates House prices in the UK fell the most in more than two years last month as demand weakened after the end of a tax break, but activity is expected to pick up over the summer. The average price of a home fell by 0.8% to £271,619 in June, after a 0.4% gain in May, according to Nationwide, Britain’s biggest building society. This is the biggest monthly decline since February 2023. The annual rate of house price growth slowed to 2.1% from 3.5% in May. Continue reading...
UK house prices fell in June; London stock market celebrates best first half to a year since 2021 – business live
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Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey then warns that the UK, like all countries, is facing “headwinds”. Asked about the UK’s fiscal position, he says chancellor Rachel Reeves has “set out a very clear fiscal framework”, which he argues needs to include some “flexibility”. “The UK has a fiscal framework. The chancellor and I discuss it often. I know the chancellor is very committed to having a robust fiscal policy in place, and that is important as a backgrop to macroeconomic stability.” Continue reading...
Sainsbury’s boss warns over retail taxes after ‘high impact’ NI rise
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Supermarket reports strong growth as hot weather lifts demand for fans, shorts and swimsuits Business live – latest updates The UK government should be wary of loading retailers with more tax after the “high impact”, particularly on jobs, of raising national insurance costs this year, the boss of Sainsbury’s has warned. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is under pressure to raise fresh funds in her autumn budget as she attempts to fix public services and grow the economy while meeting her fiscal rules and dealing with the fallout from the government’s U-turn on welfare cuts. Continue reading...
British overseas territories miss final deadline to crack down on ‘dirty money’
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Island havens accused of ‘defying the will of parliament’ after failing to initiate corporate transparency measures The UK is edging towards a constitutional showdown with some of its overseas territories after offshore financial havens missed a final deadline to introduce corporate transparency measures aimed at cracking down on “dirty money”. Five overseas territories (OTs) including the British Virgin Islands and Bermuda had pledged to introduce registers of company ownership, accessible to those with a “legitimate interest”, by June this year. Continue reading...
Taylor Swift, Charli xcx and Springsteen among live music acts who gave UK £10bn lift in 2024
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Report says concerts attracted record 23.5m fans, leading to unprecedented spend across British economy A wave of big-name acts including Taylor Swift, Charli xcx and Bruce Springsteen helped to attract a record of more than 23 million live music fans in the UK last year, leading to an unprecedented £10bn of spending across the UK economy. A report from the industry body UK Music estimates that 23.5 million “music tourists” attended concerts and festivals last year, up almost a quarter on the 19.2 million in 2023. Continue reading...
To all who think capitalism can drive progressive change, it won’t – and here’s the shocking proof | Polly Toynbee
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Asset manager Aberdeen’s surprise cut to funding research into inequality has left those that used its grants for good works reeling The axe fell with shocking suddenness. On Thursday Aberdeen Group plc terminated its Financial Fairness Trust without notice and sacked the CEO, Mubin Haq, the chair and all the trustees, leaving eight staff dangling. The company tells me it plans to move in a different direction. That dreaded phrase marks the end of 16 remarkable years, during which the trust sponsored some of the most influential research into inequality and its financial causes. Aberdeen is a wealth management and investment company. I admired its willingness to fund research not in its own immediate interest, but for the sake of social improvement, as a sign that decent capitalism was possible. Now that’s over. The mood has changed. Wildfires started by President Trump are engulfing global companies as his administration attempts to bar asset and retirement plan managers from considering environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in investment decisions and targets private sector diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives with executive orders. Companies doing good are at risk. I ask Aberdeen if that’s why it has shut down the trust. It denies it strongly, saying it is just a “natural evolution”. Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Country diary: Like wrecked prizes, the body parts of pheasants litter the landscape | Nicola Chester
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North Wessex Downs, Hampshire: Predators are increasingly drawn by the shooting-season escapees. But, miserably, other ground-nesting birds and their eggs are being taken, too Away from where arable fields have enriched the down to coarse grasses, meadow anthills are floriferous pillows, pimpling the smoothness. On them, strange, wrecked prizes are arranged: eggshells; the light, keeled sternum of a pheasant; a stripped, raw‑red bone; a jewel-bright French partridge’s head, topping the beads of its neck vertebrae like an umbrella handle, or a brooch, pretty and gruesome. As far as the eye can see, shooting estate borders shooting estate. Skylarks, linnets, yellowhammers and whitethroats sing, but by far the most numerous birds are pheasants, followed by corvids; and this year’s gamebirds haven’t yet been released for winter’s shooting. Continue reading...
‘Even if we stop drinking we will be exposed’: A French region has banned tap water. Is it a warning for the rest of Europe?
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Forever chemicals have polluted the water supply of 60,000 people, threatening human health, wildlife and the wider ecosystem. But activists say this is just the tip of the Pfas iceberg One quiet Saturday night, Sandra Wiedemann was curled up on the sofa when a story broke on TV news: the water coming from her tap could be poisoning her. The 36-year-old, who is breastfeeding her six-month-old son Côme, lives in the quiet French commune of Buschwiller in Saint-Louis, near the Swiss city of Basel. Perched on a hill not far from the Swiss and German borders, it feels like a safe place to raise a child – spacious houses are surrounded by manicured gardens, framed by the wild Jura mountains. But as she watched the news, this safety felt threatened: Wiedemann and her family use tap water every day, for drinking, brushing her teeth, showering, cooking and washing vegetables. Now, she learned that chemicals she had never heard of were lurking in her body, on her skin, potentially harming her son. “I find it scary,” she says. “Even if we stop drinking it we will be exposed to it and we can’t really do anything.” Continue reading...
King Charles to receive £132m next year after crown estate makes £1.1bn profit
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Offshore wind power boom helps push profit from land and property to more than double what it was two years ago King Charles is set to receive official annual income of £132m next year, after his portfolio of land and property made more than £1bn in profits thanks to a boom in the offshore wind sector. Profits at the crown estate – which partly funds the monarchy – were flat at £1.1bn in its financial year to the end of March but more than double their level two years ago, at £442.6m. Continue reading...
UK food delivery firms step up checks after claims of illegal workers
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Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat to increase use of facial verification after ministers raise concerns The UK’s three largest food delivery companies have announced increased security checks for riders after ministers raised concerns about people working illegally for the firms. Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat have committed to increasing the use of facial verification checks and fraud detection technology in efforts to ensure only those with registered accounts can work on their platforms. Continue reading...
Spain records highs of 46C and France under alert as Europe swelters in heatwave
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Extreme heat ‘the new normal’, says UN chief, as authorities across the continent issue health warnings A vicious heatwave has engulfed southern Europe, with punishing temperatures that have reached highs of 46C (114.8F) in Spain and placed almost the entirety of mainland France under alert. Extreme heat, made stronger by fossil fuel pollution, has for several days scorched Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece as southern Europe endures its first major heatwave of the summer. Continue reading...
Flying ants: why this year’s mating season could be longer and more frenzied than ever
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Warm weather and wet conditions caused by the climate emergency could trigger huge swarms of winged ants this July, experts warn. But why do they all take to the skies at once? Name: Flying ants. Age: Their ancestors have been with us since the end of the Jurassic period. Continue reading...
England wildlife regulator chair ‘enthusiastic’ about lynx rewilding
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Views on apex predator still polarised, says Natural England head, as activists apply for trial release in Northumberland The head of the government’s wildlife regulator has said he remains enthusiastic about reintroducing lynx to Britain and would be “absolutely delighted” if it could be achieved during his two-year term. But Tony Juniper, the chair of Natural England, said debates over the animal’s release were “still quite polarised” and more engagement was required to understand how communities would be affected. Continue reading...
I was a big orca fan – but their skincare regime is giving me the ick | Emma Beddington
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These supposedly serious cetaceans have been spotted massaging each other with kelp stalks. This is the sort of performative nonsense you’d expect from dolphins I’ve thought for a while that it would be nice to be an orca. Not because I hate boats and they sink them (though I get it – the briny depths are none of our human business). What actually appeals is the idea of being charismatic megafauna – I love that phrase – and also important as a post-menopausal female. Orcas are one of very few species that go through menopause, living for decades after their reproductive years. These older matriarchs remain an integral part of the community, improving pod survival rates thanks to being “repositories of ecological knowledge”, caring for young and even, research suggests, keeping their giant adult sons safe from being attacked. The fact that they’re fashion-conscious is a bonus: the 80s orca trend for wearing jaunty salmon fascinators was revived, intriguingly, in some pods last December; other orcas have been observed draping themselves artistically in kelp. But new research is giving me pause. Now orcas in the Salish Sea off the coast of Washington state have been filmed picking kelp stalks and “massaging” each other with them. In sightings of this behaviour, reported and dubbed “allokelping” by the Center for Whale Research, “the two whales then manoeuvre to keep the kelp between them while rolling it across their bodies … During contact, whales roll and twist their bodies, often adopting an exaggerated S-shaped posture.” Continue reading...
Did you know that there are huge caves full of weirdy bugs and ancient life right under the Nullarbor desert? | First Dog on the Moon
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We simply don’t know even a fraction of what is in them Sign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are published Get all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and prints Continue reading...
UN expert urges criminalizing fossil fuel disinformation, banning lobbying
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Rapporteur calls for defossilization of economies and urgent reparations to avert ‘catastrophic’ rights and climate harms A leading UN expert is calling for criminal penalties against those peddling disinformation about the climate crisis and a total ban on fossil fuel industry lobbying and advertising, as part of a radical shake-up to safeguard human rights and curtail planetary catastrophe. Elisa Morgera, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and climate change who presents her damning new report to the general assembly in Geneva on Monday, argues that the US, UK, Canada, Australia and other wealthy fossil fuel nations are legally obliged under international law to fully phase out oil, gas and coal by 2030 – and compensate communities for harms caused. Continue reading...