CPS says there is not enough evidence to proceed against Greenpeace activists who blockaded firm’s London office
Criminal charges have been dropped against dozens of people who staged a protest against plastic pollution outside the headquarters of Unilever.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has decided not to proceed against 34 individuals days before their trial was due to start.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
01/08/2025 - 09:31
Scuba diving has opened my eyes to a new world. Being a beginner again feels magical | Kieran Pender
01/08/2025 - 09:00
There are significant health benefits to trying new things, whatever the activity – and there is always more to learn
There is a paradox to being 20 metres under the ocean. It is a place of calm and wonderment. I am immersed in a foreign world, with a new watery sky above me. There is a sense of serenity, blissful peace as countless colourful fish glide past.
Only the tranquillity is deceiving. As a novice diver, my mind ticks over in hyperdrive. All that stands between me and an agonising fate is the tank of oxygen on my back (and, hopefully, the dive guide’s spare air).
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01/08/2025 - 09:00
Feeding birds from flat surfaces such as tables could be contributing to spread of finch trichomonosis, says charity
The RSPB has withdrawn flat bird feeders from sale on its website amid warnings they could be spreading deadly diseases to finches.
The charity has said feeding birds from flat surfaces such as tables could be contributing to the spread of illnesses such as finch trichomonosis, which has been blamed for the plummeting greenfinch population.
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01/08/2025 - 09:00
Exclusive: England and Wales proposals expected to follow Scottish consultation amid fears British farmers are being undercut
Ministers may lift a ban introduced during the BSE crisis on the use of animal remains in feed for farmed chickens and pigs over fears that foreign producers are undercutting British farmers.
A consultation on permitting the use of processed animal protein (PAP) from poultry, pigs and insects has opened in Scotland, and it is understood that proposals will be made for England and Wales in the coming months.
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01/08/2025 - 08:41
Lawsuit challenges the federal government’s December 2024 decision to add restrictions to offer of drilling leases
The US state of Alaska has sued the Biden administration for what it calls violations of a congressional directive to allow oil and gas development in a portion of the federal Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
The federal lawsuit in the US district court in Alaska filed on Monday challenges the federal government’s December 2024 decision to add restrictions to an offer of oil and gas drilling leases in an area known as the coastal plain.
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01/08/2025 - 07:17
Bulk of funds for electric vehicle firm relate to government’s plug-in car grant, analysis finds
Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company has received almost £200m in grants from the UK government since 2016, according to analysis.
Tesla, which is run by the tech billionaire who has become increasingly vocal about the UK government, has received £191m from Westminster through grants, according to Tussell, which analyses public contract data.
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01/08/2025 - 07:00
Exodus from target-setting group is attempt to head off ‘anti-woke’ attacks from rightwing politicians, say analysts
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The six biggest banks in the US have all quit the global banking industry’s net zero target-setting group, with the imminent inauguration of Donald Trump as president expected to bring political backlash against climate action.
JP Morgan is the latest to withdraw from the UN-sponsored net zero banking alliance (NZBA), following Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs. All six have left since the start of December.
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01/08/2025 - 06:02
Marauding gangs and political unrest since October’s polls have driven thousands of Mozambicans across the border into Malawi, despite its drought, food and fuel shortages
On a sunny Saturday afternoon, Manase Madia, 50, shows his Mozambican identity card. Once a sign of pride, he does not know what to believe in any more. Over the past few weeks he has seen houses being burned down, and shops and businesses looted, including his own. He now fears for his family, which has scattered in fear.
At a community ground where officials are processing new arrivals before being transferred to a shelter, Madia is one of about 13,000 people who have crossed into Malawi in the past two months, seeking refuge from post-election violence in Mozambique. The arrival of the refugees, albeit in smaller numbers, is reminiscent for people here of the civil war when almost a million Mozambicans sought refuge in the neighbouring southern African nation in the 1980s and early 1990s.
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01/08/2025 - 05:00
The tiny nation of Niue has raised £3m selling sponsorship of its marine protected area at just over £100 for a square kilometre
Niue, also known as the Rock of Polynesia, is one of the tiniest island states in the world. It takes a mere two hours to drive around it, giving views of its rugged limestone cliffs and occasional sandy coves. These coves give way to caves and chasms, once used for storage, burial sites and even as living spaces. But perhaps what visitors seek most are its crystal clear waters, home to spinner dolphins, eels, grey reef sharks, sea snakes and humpback whales.
Now the island is engaged in an innovative plan to try to conserve these vast and pristine territorial waters. The scheme, which has been running for a year, involves selling off sponsorship of the ocean surrounding the island to individuals or companies for NZ$250 (£116) a square kilometre. So far, it has raised NZ$7m, nearly halfway to its target.
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01/08/2025 - 05:00
These tiny organisms matter. They have been used to map dark matter and improve transport networks, and they’re living all around us
A few years ago, I started looking at the underside of logs and it changed my life. I found a secret carnival of the most bodacious and interesting organisms I had ever seen. Bubbles of candy-pink gloss on stilts (Comatricha nigra), bunches of rainbow iridescence on toffee strings (Badhamia utricularis), bouffants of raspberry parfait (Arcyria denudata) – and those are just a few that have appeared on bits of wood in our urban garden.
Slime moulds, or myxomycetes, spend part of their life cycle as what are known as fruiting bodies – which look a bit like tiny mushrooms, hence why they were once classified as fungi (they’re actually in the kingdom Protista). Often you will find them, at this stage, in a colony – or, well, I’d suggest galaxy, sweetshop or funfair would be more accurate for a collective noun.
Lucy Jones is the author of Matrescence, Losing Eden and The Nature Seed
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