Environment news

• Judge allows offshore windfarm halted by Trump to resume construction

  15-01-2026 23:22 via theguardian.com
  Setback for president, who has called windfarms ‘losers’, as Empire Wind project allowed to move forwardA federal judge on Thursday cleared the way for a New York offshore wind project to resume construction, a victory for the developer who said a Trump administration order to pause it would probably kill the project in a matter of days.District judge Carl J Nichols, an appointee of Donald Trump, ruled construction on the Empire Wind project could go forward while he considers the me
  
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• Spain’s meteorologists subjected to ‘alarming’ rise in hate speech, minister warns

  15-01-2026 14:01 via theguardian.com
  Environment minister says attacks on social media affect perceptions of meteorology and denigrate researchers’ workEurope live – latest updatesSpain’s environment minister has written to prosecutors to warn of “an alarming increase” in hate speech and social media attacks directed against climate science communicators, meteorologists and researchers.In a letter sent to hate crimes prosecutors on Wednesday, Sara Aagesen said a number of recent reports examined by the
  
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• Greenland: new shipping routes, hidden minerals – and a frontline between the US and Russia?

  15-01-2026 13:10 via theguardian.com
  Key maps show the growing strategic importance of Greenland as Arctic ice melts under global heatingLying between the US and Russia, Greenland has become a critical frontline as the Arctic opens up because of global heating.Its importance has been underscored by Donald Trump openly considering the US taking the island from its Nato partner Denmark, either by buying it, or by force. Continue reading...
  
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• Historic market in Kinshasa ready to reopen to a million shoppers a day after five-year makeover

  15-01-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Long criticised as overcrowded and filthy, the city’s Zando marketplace has had an elegant and sustainable redesignSelling vegetables was Dieudonné Bakarani’s first job. He had a little stall at Kinshasa Central Market in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Decades later, the 57-year-old entrepreneur is redeveloping the historic marketplace that gave him his start in business to be an award-winning city landmark.Bakarani hopes to see the market, known as Zando, flourish agai
  
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• Six-yearly count to track diverging fortunes of UK and Ireland’s wintering swans

  15-01-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  The international swan census takes place this weekend, with volunteers helping count whooper and Bewick’s swans Volunteer birders across the UK and Ireland will be among those taking part in the six-yearly international swan census this weekend, counting numbers of the countries’ two wintering species, whooper and Bewick’s swans.The survey, which last took place in January 2020, aims to track changes in the populations of these charismatic wildfowl in the UK and Ireland. The w
  
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• Country diary: A chilly tour of our historic churches (while the tourists are away) | Virginia Spierss

  15-01-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  St Kew, Cornwall: Midwinter is the best time for us to visit heritage sites and speculate on legends, starting at the secluded St Winnow’s churchThe stained glass window of St Kew’s church, with a tamed bear at the saint’s feet, is temporarily out of sight, penned in by a jumble of scaffolding. On a chilly hilltop a few miles to the south, St Mabyn’s tower features weathered carvings of heraldic beasts, including a muzzled bear pointing its snout northwards; ins
  
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• The crisis whisperer: how Adam Tooze makes sense of our bewildering age

  15-01-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Whether it’s the financial crash, the climate emergency or the breakdown of the international order, historian Adam Tooze has become the go-to guide to the radical new world we’ve enteredIn late January 2025, 10 days after Donald Trump was sworn in for a second time as president of the United States, an economic conference in Brussels brought together several officials from the recently deposed Biden administration for a discussion about the global economy. In Washington, Trump and h
  
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• Africa’s great elephant divide: countries struggle with too many elephants – or too few

  15-01-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  In countries such as South Sudan, the great herds have all but disappeared. But further south, conservation success mean increasing human-wildlife conflictIt is late on a January afternoon in the middle of South Sudan’s dry season, and the landscape, pricked with stubby acacias, is hazy with smoke from people burning the grasslands to encourage new growth. Even from the perspective of a single-engine ultralight aircraft, we are warned it will be hard to spot the last elephant in Badingilo
  
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• Traces of cancer-linked pesticide found in tests at UK playgrounds

  15-01-2026 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Pressure mounting for use of glyphosate, listed by WHO since 2015 as probable carcinogen, to be heavily restrictedChildren are potentially being exposed to the controversial weedkiller glyphosate at playgrounds across the UK, campaigners have said after testing playgrounds in London and the home counties.The World Health Organization has listed glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen since 2015. However, campaigners say local authorities in the UK are still using thousands of litres of glyphos
  
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