Exclusive: The ‘deeply troubling’ move comes amid concerns US ignoring international climate ramifications
US officials have missed recent international climate forums sparking concerns about a potentially significant shift from Donald Trump’s first term, a review of meeting records and interviews with meeting attendees by the Centre for Climate Reporting and the Guardian show.
On his first day back as president, Trump signed an executive order on stage in front of supporters at an arena in Washington DC which he said was aimed at quitting what he called the “unfair one-sided Paris climate accord rip off”. Trump’s exit from the Paris agreement means the US will join Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only countries outside the international agreement adopted in 2015 to limit global warming.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
02/25/2025 - 08:00
02/25/2025 - 07:28
Regulator says bringing emergency runway into operation would boost competition and passenger choice
Business live – latest updates
Gatwick airport’s expansion has received the backing of the UK’s aviation regulator, which argued it would bring “benefits to consumers” even with the prospect of a third runway at Heathrow.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced its support for the West Sussex airport’s proposed new commitments for the next four years, saying they would increase choice for passengers.
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02/25/2025 - 07:00
Protesters who tried to disrupt completion of Mountain Valley pipeline to defend themselves in Virginia court
Climate activists who tried to disrupt the completion of a fossil-fuel pipeline through Appalachian forests will appear in court in Virginia on Tuesday to face serious criminal charges that they vehemently deny.
The Mountain Valley pipeline (MVP) was pushed through by the Biden administration in mid-2023 – overriding court orders, regulatory blocks and widespread opposition to the 300-mile (480km) fossil fuel project. Biden’s decision triggered a wave of non-violent protests and civil disobedience against the pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia as work crews rushed to finish construction of the pipeline through sensitive waterways and protected forests.
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02/25/2025 - 04:00
For more than 20 years, scientists have followed the animals in Norway’s Arctic archipelago to understand how they may adapt to changing threats as the ice they depend on melts
When Rolf-Arne Ølberg is hanging out of a helicopter with a gun, he needs to be able to assess from a distance of about 10 metres the sex and approximate weight of the moving animal he is aiming at, as well as how fat or muscular it is and whether it is in any distress. Only then can he dart it with the correct amount of sedative. Luckily, he says, polar bears are “quite good anaesthetic patients”.
Ølberg is a vet working with the Norwegian Polar Institute, the body responsible for the monitoring of polar bears in Svalbard, an archipelago that lies between mainland Norway and the north pole. Every year he and his colleagues track the bears by helicopter, collect blood, fat and hair samples from them and fit electronic tracking collars.
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02/25/2025 - 03:45
Each spring since 2003, Jon Aars, senior scientist at the Norwegian Polar Institute, and his team have conducted an annual polar bear monitoring program on Svalbard - collaring, capturing and taking samples from as many bears as they can across several weeks.By studying polar bears they get a better understanding of what is happening in this part of the Arctic environment. The bears roam over large distances and, being apex predators, provide lots of information about what is happening lower in the food chain and across different Arctic species.The Guardian accompanied Aars on an expedition to the southern end of Spitsbergen island, the largest in the Svalbard archipelago.
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02/25/2025 - 02:00
After last year’s Cop16 biodiversity talks in Cali left key issues unresolved, the extra summit will attempt to seek consensus, especially over funding
Global talks to halt the loss of nature will reopen today in Rome, amid “loss of trust” in the United Nations-led process and concerns that countries will not turn up for the meeting. Delegates are due to meet at Cop16, the UN’s biodiversity conference, to discuss global targets to stop nature loss by 2030.
The additional meeting in Rome was called after talks were suspended in confusion in the Colombian city of Cali in November when they overran and delegates left to catch flights home.
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02/25/2025 - 01:53
In today’s newsletter: The government is refusing to back down over its changes to inheritance tax breaks for farmers – here’s why the issue is still rumbling on
Good morning. It’s a time-honoured tradition: the minister arriving to speak to a conference hall full of people who absolutely hate him, and getting roundly pilloried as he sticks to the government line. Today, it might be the environment secretary Steve Reed’s turn. His adversaries: a large number of implacably angry farmers.
Whether or not they bring pitchforks, the attendees who listen to his speech at the National Farmers’ Union conference are up in arms because of the government’s refusal to back down over its changes to inheritance tax breaks for farmers. And while Reed is coming with policy changes that he says will be to the benefit of British farmers, like a five-year extension of the seasonal farm workers’ scheme, they are unlikely to be enough to earn him a warm welcome.
Ukraine | Donald Trump has said the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, would accept European peacekeepers in Ukraine as part of a potential deal to end the three-year war. After meeting with Trump, Emmanuel Macron stressed that peace “must not mean a surrender of Ukraine or ceasefire without guarantees”.
House of Lords | One in 10 members of the House of Lords have been hired to give political or policy advice, according to their own declarations, and others do paid work for companies that could conflict with their role as legislators. The findings in a Guardian investigation raise questions over lobbying rules in the second chamber.
Gaza | At least 160 healthcare workers from Gaza, including more than 20 doctors, are believed to still be inside Israeli detention facilities as the World Health Organisation expressed deep concern about their wellbeing and safety. The detained group includes some of the most senior physicians in Gaza.
Politics | Mike Amesbury, the MP for Runcorn and Helsby, has been sentenced to 10 weeks in prison for punching a man to the ground. Amesbury, who was suspended by the Labour party after an investigation, last month admitted a single charge of section 39 assault in relation to the incident.
AI | More than 1,000 musicians, including Kate Bush, Damon Albarn and Annie Lennox, have released a silent album in protest against UK government plans to let artificial intelligence companies use copyright-protected work without permission.
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02/25/2025 - 01:00
Environment secretary will hope move can reset relations with farmers after inheritance tax row
The environment secretary, Steve Reed, is to announce a five-year extension of the seasonal farm worker scheme in an attempt to reset relations with farmers after fury over inheritance tax.
Making his pitch to farmers at the National Farmers’ Union conference in central London on Tuesday, Reed will also announce the opening of a new national biosecurity centre to tackle diseases including foot-and-mouth and bluetongue.
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02/25/2025 - 01:00
Dog walker’s close encounter prompts debate over whether the animals, once native to UK, should remain
Sightings of wild boar on Dartmoor have raised suspicions a guerrilla rewilder has been releasing them – and prompted a debate over whether they should be allowed to remain.
Videos of a group of boar on the moors in Devon were posted online earlier this month, and a dog walker has recently complained of a close encounter with one of them, which frightened his pet.
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02/24/2025 - 15:00
Study shows funding bias towards animals like rhino while other endangered species including amphibians and algae disregarded
Most global conservation funds go to larger, charismatic animals, leaving critically important but less fashionable species deprived, a 25-year study has revealed.
Scientists have found that of the $1.963bn allocated to projects worldwide, 82.9% was assigned to vertebrates. Plants and invertebrates each accounted for 6.6% of the funding, while fungi and algae were barely represented at less than 0.2%.
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