Manufacturers use method that labels plastic as ‘circular’ and climate-friendly, despite being mostly fossil-based
Europe’s supermarket shelves are packed with brands billing their plastic packaging as sustainable, but often only a fraction of the materials are truly recovered from waste, with the rest made from petroleum.
Brands using plastic packaging – from Kraft’s Heinz Beanz to Mondelez’s Philadelphia – use materials made by the plastic manufacturing arm of the oil company Saudi Aramco.
This article is part of a cross-border investigation, supported by IJ4EU and coordinated by the independent journalist Ludovica Jona, with the media outlets the Guardian, Voxeurop, Mediapart (France), Altreconomia (Italy), Público (Spain), Investigative Reporting Denmark, Deutsche Welle (Germany) and with reporters Lorenzo Sangermano and Lucy Taylor
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
01/27/2026 - 07:30
Experts are watching for how other countries will react as the ‘real economy’ shifts to cheaper, cleaner energy
The United States has officially exited the Paris climate agreement for the second time, cementing Donald Trump’s renewed break with the primary global venue to address global heating.
The move leaves the US as the only country to have withdrawn from the pact, placing it alongside Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only countries not party to the agreement. While it will not halt global climate efforts, experts say it could significantly complicate them.
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01/27/2026 - 02:44
Weather warnings, including ‘danger to life’ flood threat in Devon, are in place across much of the UK with major travel disruption expected
Tell us: how have you been affected by Storm Chandra?
Some of the rainfall totals in the south-west of England for the last 24 hours has almost totalled the average for the entire month, BBC News reports.
Here is a list of some notable rainfalls:
100mm (3.9in) White Barrow (South Dartmoor)
75mm (3in) Marden Down (Dartmoor)
73mm (2.8in) Ottery St Mary’s
60mm (2.4in) Ashcombe (Teignbridge)
51mm (2in) Wendron (South-west Cornwall)
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01/27/2026 - 02:00
Fifteen years after a tsunami caused the Fukushima nuclear accident, only bears, raccoons and boar are seen on the streets. But the authorities and some locals want people to move back
Norio Kimura pauses to gaze through the dirt-flecked window of Kumamachi primary school in Fukushima. Inside, there are still textbooks lying on the desks, pencil cases are strewn across the floor; empty bento boxes that were never taken home.
Along the corridor, shoes line the route the children took when they fled, some still in their indoor plimsolls, as their town was rocked by a magnitude-9 earthquake on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 which went on to cause the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chornobyl.
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01/27/2026 - 01:00
Exclusive: Campaigners say ‘menacing vehicles’ are putting children at risk owing to their large front blind zones
The number of US-style pickup trucks on UK roads has almost doubled in the past 10 years, data shows.
The vehicles are more environmentally damaging than ordinary cars, and more dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists. Campaigners have said the extra-large vehicles, which are often too big for UK streets and parking spaces, are built like “battering rams”.
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01/27/2026 - 00:00
French port’s green energy push, evoking second world war spirit of resilience, is seen as a testing ground for reindustrialisation
A new cargo and passenger ferry service directly linking Scotland and France could launch later this year as the port of Dunkirk embarks on a €40bn (£35bn) regeneration programme it claims will mirror the second world war resilience for which it is famed.
The plans could include a new service between Rosyth in Fife and Dunkirk, eight years after the last freight ferries linked Scotland to mainland Europe, and 16 years after passenger services stopped.
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01/26/2026 - 16:46
BoM to check if Walpeup and Hopetoun broke state’s official heat record - set during 2009’s Black Saturday
What happens to the human body in 49C heat? Australians are finding out
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Victoria may have sweltered through its hottest temperatures on record, with preliminary readings of 48.9C at two locations in the state’s north-west both higher than that recorded during 2009’s Black Saturday.
According to initial data recorded by the Bureau of Meteorology, the Mallee towns of Hopetoun and Walpeup reached 48.9C on Tuesday afternoon. This would exceed the previous highest temperature of 48.8C, recorded at Hopetoun on 7 February 2009.
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01/26/2026 - 13:29
Scientists expect 41% of the projected global population to face the extremes, with ‘no part of the world’ immune
The number of people living with extreme heat will more than double by 2050 if global heating reaches 2C, according to a new study that shows how the energy demands for air conditioners and heating systems are expected to change across the world.
No region will escape the impact, say the authors. Although the tropics and southern hemisphere will be worst affected by rising heat, the countries in the north will also find it difficult to adapt because their built environments are primarily designed to deal with a cooler climate.
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01/26/2026 - 12:43
European retailers urge traders to adhere to commitments after Brazilian lawmakers wreck forest protection pact
Leading British and European retailers are trying to salvage the core elements of the Amazon soy moratorium after the world’s most successful forest protection agreement was wrecked by Brazilian lawmakers and abandoned by international traders.
In an open letter, high street brands including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda say the breakdown this month of the 20-year-old agreement will damage consumer confidence unless new arrangements are put in place to ensure grain production is not linked to deforestation.
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01/26/2026 - 12:34
Aircraft crashed on takeoff at Bangor airport as visibility diminished amid winter storm, leading to airport shutdown
Six people died when a business jet crashed during takeoff as a snowstorm caused visibility to diminish at Maine’s Bangor international airport on Sunday night, according to officials.
The Bombardier Challenger 600 crashed on takeoff at about 7.45pm as Bangor, like much of the country, grappled with a major winter storm. The airport, about 200 miles (320km) north of Boston, shut down after the crash.
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