The former Greens leader's appointment as CEO of the Australian Conservation Foundation raised eyebrows - but for him, the mission remains the same

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Sometime in the months after his shock defeat at last May's federal election Adam Bandt made a decision: his time in party politics was over.

Friends and colleagues had suggested the former Greens leader consider running for parliament again in 2028 - either returning to the lower house seat of Melbourne that he held for 15 years or putting up his hand for the Senate.

Choice could prove difficult for Thames Water, which is trying to push through a water recycling scheme nearby

The first designated bathing water area on the River Thames in London has been shortlisted as one of 13 new monitored swimming areas across the country.

The Thames at Ham, in south-west London, was shortlisted as a new river bathing water after campaigners gathered evidence to show thousands of people use the river for swimming throughout the year.

Number of males at RSPB Abernethy rises to 30, after 'huge amount of work' by conservationists in Highlands forests

After decades of decline, there are signs of hope for the capercaillie, one of Britain's most endangered birds.

Populations of the charismatic grouse, which is found only in the Caledonian pine forests of the Scottish Highlands, have increased by 50%, from 20 males in 2020 to 30 in 2025 at RSPB Abernethy.

Report by Tony Blair Institute urges government to drop some green policies amid criticism of decarbonisation goal

• Analysis: Blair's oil lobbying is a misleading rehash of fossil fuel industry spin

Tony Blair's thinktank has accused Ed Miliband of driving up energy prices in his push to make Britain's energy supply more environmentally friendly.

The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) published a report on Friday criticising the government's green policies and urging the energy secretary to drop some of them altogether, including almost completely decarbonising the electricity system by 2030.

Doubling of fish biomass and rebounding of endangered species shows government measures starting to work, biologists say

The Yangtze River in China, which has been in ecological decline for 70 years, is showing signs of recovery thanks to a sweeping fishing ban.

The ban was made more effective by the implementation of "evolutionary game theory", which included finding alternative employment for fishers.

Stanhope, Weardale: One of the best gifts I've ever received is a microscope. Sixty years on, it's still a wonder to watch a mini rainforest in action

It was hard to resist running my fingers over the velvet carpet of moss that smoothed the drystone wall's jagged capstones. Six months ago, after four heatwaves and prolonged drought, these same mosses resembled brown, wizened threads of dried tobacco. Today they were an inch-tall emerald forest again, studded with yellow moss bell toadstools, saturated with overnight rain.

Wall-top mosses are resilient, and so is the microscopic life that thrives on them. I collected a few soggy green cushions to investigate later, for "here be monsters", though most are less than a millimetre long.

Award was presented as president directed Pentagon to buy billions of dollars' worth of energy from coal plants

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Donald Trump was crowned the "undisputed champion of beautiful clean coal" during a White House ceremony on Wednesday, during which the president received a trophy after ordering the US defense department to purchase billions of dollars' worth of power from coal plants.

The award was reportedly granted by the Washington Coal Club, an advocacy group with financial ties to the coal industry.

This week's best wildlife photographs from around the world

Scientists believe we're seeing the largest loss of life since the dinosaurs - and it's a risk to the global economy. Governments and companies need to work together on solutions

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It feels like groundhog day: another week, another warning about the seriousness of the biodiversity crisis. This time it was the financial sector's turn, as on Monday a major report, approved by more than 150 governments, said that many companies face collapse unless they better protect nature.

From healthy rivers to productive forests, the natural world underpins almost all economic activity. But human consumption of the Earth's resources is unsustainable, driving what many scientists believe is the largest loss of life since the dinosaurs. And companies are not immune to the consequences.

Economics has failed on the climate crisis. This complexity scientist has a mind-blowing plan to fix that

'To live a normal life again, it's a dream come true': UK's first climate evacuees can cast off their homes and trauma

'We've lost everything': anger and despair in Sicilian town collapsing after landslide

'It sounds apocalyptic': experts warn of impact of UK floods on birds, butterflies and dormice

Indonesia takes action against mining firms after floods devastate population of world's rarest ape

'We thought they would ignore us': how humans are changing the way raptors behave

Pressure, frictional heating and a disordered layer of molecules on top of the ice make skating possible

Ice skating is counterintuitive: why should a narrow blade make it easier to slide over the ice? The science is surprisingly complex, but unscientific people worked out the practical application a long time ago.

William FitzStephen described how Londoners entertained themselves in freezing conditions in 1173: "Crowds of young men go out to play on the ice. Some of them fit shinbones of cattle on their feet, tying them round their ankles … and are carried along as fast as a flying bird."

Continuing extreme weather has caused deaths of 16 people, evacuation of thousands and destruction of homes

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Portugal is under pressure to draw up plans to adapt to the climate emergency as the country continues to be lashed by an unprecedented series of storms that have killed at least 16 people and left tens of thousands without electricity.

More than 3,000 people were evacuated from the Coimbra area of central Portugal on Wednesday as the Mondego River reached critical levels, while part of the country's main motorway, the A1, collapsed after a dyke on the Mondego gave way under the weight of flood water.

Stuart Vevers wants the luxury brand to keep championing upcycled materials and reduce landfill waste

Stuart Vevers, the British designer of the American mass luxury brand Coach, is working to keep sustainability in the spotlight at New York fashion week. Not an easy task, when environmental concerns are slipping down the global agenda and fashion, perennially a mirror to the world we live in, has reverted to putting profits first.

"I'm an optimist, but it's not a blind optimism. There's a lot of tension in optimism, because the world is challenging and I am not ignoring that. My optimism comes from believing that the young people of today are going to make this world better," he said before Wednesday's show, held in the historic Cunard building in downtown New York.

A pilot scheme in Brooklyn is giving businesses batteries to form an electricity storage network - part of a growing number of innovative DIY energy ideas around the world

In the back of Black Seed Bagels in northern Brooklyn is a giant catering kitchen filled with industrial-size condiments and freezers full of dough.

A tall, silver electric oven, named the Baconator, stands in a far corner, cooking thousands of pounds of meat every week to accompany Black Seed's hand-rolled, wood-fired bagels. The Baconator is connected to a battery the size of a carry-on suitcase, which is plugged into the wall.

Capitalism cares about our species' prospects as much as a wolf cares about a lamb's. But democratise our economy and a better world is within our grasp

We have an urgent responsibility. Our existing economic system is incapable of addressing the social and ecological crises we face in the 21st century. When we look around we see an extraordinary paradox. On the one hand, we have access to remarkable new technologies and a collective capacity to produce more food, more stuff than we need or that the planet can afford. Yet at the same time, millions of people suffer in conditions of severe deprivation.

What explains this paradox? Capitalism. By capitalism we do not mean markets, trade and entrepreneurship, which have been around for thousands of years before the rise of capitalism. By capitalism we mean something very odd and very specific: an economic system that boils down to a dictatorship run by the tiny minority who control capital - the big banks, the major corporations and the 1% who own the majority of investible assets. Even if we live in a democracy and have a choice in our political system, our choices never seem to change the economic system. Capitalists are the ones who determine what to produce, how to use our labour and who gets to benefit. The rest of us - the people who are actually doing the production - do not get a say.

Marineland Antibes, the French government and animal welfare groups all agree on the need to rehome the listless killer whales but no one can agree where

In a sprawling aquarium complex in south-eastern France that once drew half a million visitors a year, only a few dozen people now move between pools that contain the last remaining marine mammals of Marineland Antibes. Weeds grow on walkways, the stands are empty and algae grows in the pools, giving the water a greenish hue.

It is here that Wikie and Keijo, a mother and son pair of orcas, are floating. They were born in these pools, and for decades they performed in shows for crowds. But since the park's closure in January 2025, they no longer have an audience. When they are alone, they "log", or float at the water's surface, according to a court-ordered report released last April.

Doyne Farmer says a super-simulator of the global economy would accelerate the transition to a green, clean world

It's a mind-blowing idea: an economic model of the world in which every company is individually represented, making realistic decisions that change as the economy changes. From this astonishing complexity would emerge forecasts of unprecedented clarity. These would be transformative: no more flying blind into global financial crashes, no more climate policies that fail to shift the dial.

This super simulator could be built for what Prof Doyne Farmer calls the bargain price of $100m, thanks to advances in complexity science and computing power.

Torcross, Devon: 2026 has been defined by storms here. My job of repairing a thatched roof is simple compared with the wider recovery

During the storm, the waves sounded like bombs going off under the house, Bonni Breeze Lincoln tells me. She lives on the seafront of Torcross, a Devon village that is accustomed to weathering storms, but even she is not used to waves shattering her storm shutters, or sending seawater down the chimney.

I've come to Torcross to repair the thatch on Bonni's roof. Up the ladder, I tie bundles of reed, called "wads", to pack them into the holes; the thatch is riddled with shingle, fragments of seaweed and even limpet shells. Looking down the seafront to torn up paving slabs and slate roofs that yawn open to the sky, it's clear that this house - the oldest in the village - has come off comparatively well. The soft, springy nature of thatch allows it to absorb even the impact of breaking waves.

Intricate ice formations can grow on frozen lakes and seas when relatively warm ice is exposed to still air

Intricate fern-like "frost flowers", said to be painted on windows and windscreens by Jack Frost, are a familiar feature of British winter. In Arctic regions there is an even prettier three-dimensional version.

These frost flowers are typically 3-4cm across and whole gardens of them grow on frozen lakes and seas. Like the window version, they are the result of ice crystals growing in a slow, orderly fashion.

The government has not made enough of a dent in emissions, but global trends and a shambolic opposition offer a rare opportunity to act

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There is good news out there, even if it feels like scraps in a world on the brink. Some came last week - with plenty of caveats - when analysts at the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) found coal-fired power generation decreased in both China and India last year.

This is a potentially big shift. Among other things, it exposes the hollowness of arguments in Australia that there is no point doing anything about the climate crisis because the big Asian economies are building endless new coal plants.

A dozen red roses may say 'I love you', but many conventional bouquets carry an environmental price, having been imported by air, dipped in chemicals and wrapped in plastic. Guardian Australia's Petra Stock explains how you can choose flowers that show you care for both a valentine and the environment

• Roses are red, violets are blue: why Valentine's Day flowers need a redo

My father, Alex Kirby, who has died of cancer aged 86, was a well-respected journalist - at the BBC and elsewhere - and, despite beginning his career in the church, ended up dedicating much of his life to chronicling the climate crisis.

Following a degree in theology at Keble College, Oxford, he trained for the priesthood at the Anglo-Catholic theological college in Mirfield, Yorkshire, and after ordination, became a deacon in the Isle of Dogs, east London.

Continued global heating could set irreversible course by triggering climate tipping points, but most people unaware

The world is closer than thought to a "point of no return" after which runaway global heating cannot be stopped, scientists have said.

Continued global heating could trigger climate tipping points, leading to a cascade of further tipping points and feedback loops, they said. This would lock the world into a new and hellish "hothouse Earth" climate far worse than the 2-3C temperature rise the world is on track to reach. The climate would also be very different to the benign conditions of the past 11,000 years, during which the whole of human civilisation developed.

The radical project is an attempt to preserve wildlife in one of Europe's most light-polluted countries, but can they persuade local people they will still feel safe?

Two yellowing street lamps cast a pool of light on the dark road winding into the woods outside Mazée village. This scene is typical for narrow countryside roads in Wallonia in the south of Belgium. "Having lights here is logical," says André Detournay, 77, who has lived in the village for four decades. "I walk here with my dog and it makes me feel safe and gives me some protection from theft."

Belgium glows like a Christmas decoration at night, as witnessed from space. It is one of the most light-polluted countries in Europe, with the Milky Way scarcely visible except in the most remote areas.

Kincraig, Badenoch: The Loch Insh Old Kirk is a compelling place, and yet, like the copious wildlife here, it is on the edge of existence

The snow has retreated to the tops of the Cairngorms and the last fragments of ice are crumbling at the edges of Loch Insh. In a muddy landscape, an old white church rises on a knoll on the northern shore. The simple stone building with its bell tower and arched windows dates to 1792, though the site was established by early monks from Iona, probably as far back as the seventh century. Indeed, some sources claim this as the site of longest continuous Christian worship in Scotland.

Those early monks would have built a stone cell here as a dwelling and a base for evangelising. A later chapel was dedicated to St Adamnan - the ninth abbot of Iona and Columba's biographer - and a rough granite font remains from that time. The monks rang a bell to announce worship and the kirk still holds a bronze bell dating to AD900, one of only five left in Scotland. Resonant with legends, the bell was believed to have the power of healing and was once stolen and carried to Scone Palace - but it flew home, tolling the chapel's name all the way over the Drumochter Pass.

Emissions have plunged 75% since communist times in the birthplace of big oil - but for some the transition has been brutal

Once the frozen fields outside Bucharest have thawed, workers will assemble the largest solar farm in Europe: one million photovoltaic panels backed by batteries to power homes after sunset. But the 760MW project in southern Romania will not hold the title for long. In the north-west, authorities have approved a bigger plant that will boast a capacity of 1GW.

The sun-lit plots of silicone and glass will join a slew of projects that have rendered the Romanian economy unrecognisable from its polluted state when communism ended. They include an onshore windfarm near the Black Sea that for several years was Europe's biggest, a nuclear power plant by the Danube whose lifetime is being extended by 30 years, and a fast-spreading patchwork of solar panels topping homes and shops across the country.

Vast flocks of birds return to Somerset and a rare grebe turns an ordinary walk into something special

After weeks of heavy rain, Cheddar reservoir in Somerset is finally full again - of water, and of birds. Thousands of coots, hundreds of gulls and ducks, and dozens of great crested grebes crowd the surface, some already moulting into their smart breeding plumage, crests and all.

They feed almost constantly, building up energy reserves for the breeding season. Among the throng are some less familiar visitors: a flock of scaup, the males bulkier than the nearby tufted ducks, with pale grey backs that catch the light. Flocks of goosanders dive frequently for food, the colourful males looking like a cormorant in extravagant drag.

In Lancashire, I met people living with dangerous levels of Pfas, including in their food. The government is failing them

Last week, on the morning the government published its Pfas action plan, I got a worried phone call from a woman called Sam who lives next door to a chemical factory in Lancashire. Sam had just been hand-delivered a letter from her local council informing her that after testing, it had been confirmed that her ducks' eggs, reared in her garden in Thornton-Cleveleys, near Blackpool, are contaminated with Pfas.

Pfas - per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as "forever chemicals" due to their persistence in the environment - are a family of thousands of chemicals, and I have been reporting on them for years. Some, including those found in the eggs Sam and her family have been eating, have been linked to a wide range of serious illnesses, including certain cancers.

US courts, scholars and Democrats are pushing back against the president's aggressive drive to boost fossil fuels

Donald Trump's aggressive drive to boost fossil fuels, including dirty coal, coupled with his administration's moves to roll back wind and solar power, face mounting fire from courts, scholars and Democrats for raising the cost of electricity and worsening the climate crisis.

Four judges, including a Trump appointee, in recent weeks have issued temporary injunctions against interior department moves to halt work on five offshore wind projects in Virginia, New York and New England, which have cost billions of dollars and are far along in development.

Exclusive: only matter of time until decrepit ships cause spill bigger than Exxon Valdez disaster, analysts say

Decrepit oil tankers in Iran's sanctions-busting shadow fleet are a "ticking time bomb", with a catastrophic environmental disaster only a "matter of time", maritime intelligence analysts have warned.

Such an oil spill could be far bigger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster that released 37,000 tonnes of crude oil into the sea, they said.

Birdwatchers flock to Montréal for rare sighting of 'vagrant' bird that has made its home during a bitterly cold winter

On a quiet Montréal street of low-rise brick apartment buildings on one side and cement barrier wall on the other, a crowd has gathered, binoculars around their necks and cameras at the ready. A European robin has taken up residence in the neighbourhood, which is sandwiched between two industrial areas with warehouses and railway lines and, a few blocks away, port facilities on the St Lawrence River.

Ron Vandebeek from Ottawa, Ontario, is here on a frigid February morning hoping to see the rare bird, which was first spotted at the beginning of January.

Abbeydale, Sheffield: I'm genuinely scared when I wake at 2am to the sound of screaming. Then I see two male badgers in an almighty scrap

Fast asleep, my dreamworld takes an unexpected swerve as raucous screaming erupts outside the open bedroom window. For a moment, I assume this is imagined, some emotional outburst from my subconscious. Then I realise that I'm awake. This is real. I check the time: 2am. The screaming continues. In fact, it's now louder and somehow more intense. The back of the house is woodland, and noises off are common enough. A fox barking. Robin song that eases those anxious, wakeful stretches of the night. But this is something else altogether. This is violence.

My heart is racing now. I fear someone is being attacked, and from the pitch of the screaming, a woman. Mercifully, I soon discount this. My startled mind then suggests a catfight, but the sound I'm hearing is too big for that. So, despite the freezing cold beyond the duvet, I hop out of bed, pull back a curtain and stick my head outside.

Born of student disquiet after the 2008 crash, the group says it reshaping economists' education

As the fallout from the 2008 global financial crash reverberated around the world, a group of students at Harvard University in the US walked out of their introductory economics class complaining it was teaching a "specific and limited view" that perpetuated "a problematic and inefficient system of economic inequality".

A few weeks later, on the other side of the Atlantic, economics students at Manchester University in the UK, unhappy that the rigid mathematical formulas they were being taught in the classroom bore little relation to the tumultuous economic fallout they were living through, set up a "post-crash economics society".

The beautiful game has a fast fashion problem, with clubs bringing out multiple kits every season. But a move towards upcycling old shirts and wearing vintage garments is on the rise

It may have been a quiet January transfer window, but even so, thousands of new shirts will be printed for Lucas Paquetá, returning to his former Brazilian club Flamengo, while his West Ham shirt instantly feels old. Not to mention the thousands of other players moving from one club to another. Uefa estimates that up to 60% of kits worn by players are destroyed at the end of the season, and at any one time there are thought to be more than 1bn football shirts in circulation, many of which are discarded by fans once players leave.

The good news is that lots of designers are bringing their upcycling skills to old kits, taking shirts and shirring them, sewing them or, as in the case of designer and creative director Hattie Crowther, completely transforming them into one-of-a-kind headpieces. "I'm not here to add more products into the mix, I'm here to reframe what's already in circulation and give it meaning, context, and longevity while staying culturally relevant," says Crowther, whose creations involving the colours and emblems of Arsenal, Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain, are, she says, "a response to how disposable football product has become".

Release into Helman Tor reserve marks historical first for keystone species hunted to extinction in UK 400 years ago

Shivering and rain-drenched at the side of a pond in Cornwall, a huddle of people watched in hushed silence as a beaver took its first tentative steps into its new habitat. As it dived into the water with a determined "plop" and began swimming laps, the suspense broke and everyone looked around, grinning.

The soggy but momentous occasion marks the first time in English history that beavers have been legally released into a river system, almost one year after the government finally agreed to grant licences for releases.

The disruption and distress caused by record downpours must focus minds on the need for climate preparedness

With flood warnings still in place across south-west England and Wales on Monday, followed by another fortnight of wet weather forecasts, the sodden ground across swathes of the UK is not likely to dry up any time soon. Reports that Aberdonians have not seen so much as a sliver of sun since 21 January prompted an outburst of stoicism on BBC radio, with one resident commenting: "You have to get on with it, brighter days are coming".

Before then, however, north-east Scotland is braced for more heavy rain. For farmers and businesses in the affected areas, the impact goes far beyond inconvenience. Marketing consultant Sam Kirby told the Guardian that she had to work from a car park in Cornwall following Storm Goretti, because her broadband wasn't working. And Goretti was the first of three January storms.

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It has rained in parts of the country every day of the year so far and downpours are expected to continue this week

In a "miserable and relentlessly wet" start to the year, rain has fallen somewhere in the UK every single day for weeks on end.

With more than 100 flood warnings in force across the country and further downpours forecast this week, scientists say the atmospheric forces behind Britain's endless drizzle are the same ones driving devastating floods across Spain and Portugal.

Push to restart uranium mining in Patagonia has sparked fears about the environmental impact and loss of sovereignty over key resources

On an outcrop above the Chubut River, one of the few to cut across the arid Patagonian steppe of southern Argentina, Sergio Pichiñán points across a wide swath of scrubland to colourful rock formations on a distant hillside.

"That's where they dug for uranium before, and when the miners left, they left the mountain destroyed, the houses abandoned, and nobody ever studied the water," he says, citing suspicions arising from cases of cancer and skin diseases in his community. "If they want to open this back up, we're all pretty worried around here."

Corteva will discontinue a mixture of Agent Orange and glyphosate, but another of its herbicides will still use Vietnam war-era defoliant

The chemical giant Corteva will stop producing Enlist Duo, a herbicide considered to be among the most dangerous still used in the US by environmentalists because it contains a mix of Agent Orange and glyphosate, which have both been linked to cancer and widespread ecological damage.

The US military deployed Agent Orange, a chemical weapon, to destroy vegetation during the Vietnam war, causing serious health problems among soldiers and Vietnamese residents.

Storm Marta sweeps Iberian peninsula just days after Storms Kristin and Leonardo brought deadly flooding and major damage

Spain and Portugal have endured another storm over the weekend, just days after the deadly flooding and major damage caused by Storm Kristin and Storm Leonardo last week. Storm Marta passed over the Iberian peninsula on Saturday, bringing fresh torrential rain and killing two people. Storm Kristin killed at least five people after it made landfall on 28 January with Storm Leonardo claiming another victim last Wednesday.

The outlook for this week is for more rain across Spain, Portugal and France, especially across north-west Portugal, where more than 100mm is possible during the first half of the week. Some of the heaviest of the rain will transfer to southern Italy and western parts of Greece and Turkey later in the week.

Rising GDP continues to mean more carbon emissions and wider damage to the planet. Can the two be decoupled?

During Cop30 negotiations in Brazil last year, delegates heard a familiar argument: rising emissions are unavoidable for countries pursuing growth.

Since the first Cop in the 1990s, developing nations have had looser reduction targets to reflect the economic gap between them and richer countries, which emitted millions of tonnes of CO2 as they pulled ahead. The concession comes from the idea that an inevitable cost of prosperity is environmental harm.

Cullernose Point, Northumberland: These cliffs are always thrilling, but today is a riot of sound and damp air as we take the coastal path

The sea is still raging after yesterday's storm, waves the highest that I've seen here, more ocean than North Sea. The grey-green water, full of churned up sand, is frothing and erupting against dark rocks, bursting with the force of geysers as it collides with the land.

Here at Cullernose Point, the dolerite cliffs of the Whin Sill thrust a giant wedge as they taper into the sea. It's dramatic at all times, but today is especially thrilling, the sound all enveloping, the wind cutting, the air damp with spume.

Forty-odd residents of Clydach Terrace in Ynysybwl, south Wales, relieved by council buyout after years in fear of fast flooding

When Storm Dennis hit the UK in 2020, a wall of dirty, frigid water from a tributary of the Taff threw Paul Thomas against the front of his house in the south Wales village of Ynysybwl. He managed to swim back into his home before the storm surge changed direction, almost carrying him out of the smashed-in front door.

"I was holding on to downpipes to stop myself being dragged out again. It was unbelievably strong, the water," he said.

People in Niscemi struggle to comprehend loss of homes and businesses and feel disaster could have been avoided

For days, the 25,000 residents of the Sicilian town of Niscemi have been living on the edge of a 25-metre abyss. On 25 January, after torrential rain brought by Cyclone Harry, a devastating landslide ripped away an entire slope of the town, creating a 4km-long chasm. Roads collapsed, cars were swallowed, and whole sections of the urban fabric plunged into the valley below.

Dozens of houses hang precariously over the edge of the landslide, while vehicles and fragments of roadway continue to give way, hour by hour, under the strain of unstable ground.

Community organiser Jon Barrett says event, inspired by the tradition Solmōnaþ, aims to reconnect people with benefits of mud

A misty, rainy day in the uplands of Somerset and the mud was thick and sticky. In some patches, just putting one foot in front of the other without plunging into the mire felt like a win.

But Jon Barrett, a community engagement officer for the Quantock Hills national landscape, had a broad grin on his face as he negotiated the ooze.

Providers report rise in demand as companies seek mental health benefits and increased sense of community

In a growing number of workplaces, the soundtrack of the lunch break is no longer the rustle of sandwiches at a desk, but the quiet hum of bees - housed just outside the office window.

Employers from Manchester to Milton Keynes are working with professional beekeepers to install hives on rooftops, in courtyards and car parks - positioning beekeeping not as a novelty but as a way to ease stress, build community and reconnect workers with nature in an era of hybrid work and burnout.

One expert says 2027 could be even hotter than the last three years, which have been the top three warmest on record

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Weather agencies and climate scientists have pointed to the possibility of an El Niño forming in the Pacific Ocean later this year - a phenomenon that could push global temperatures to all-time record highs in 2027.

Both the US government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Australia's Bureau of Meteorology have said some climate models are forecasting an El Niño but both cautioned those results came with uncertainties.

Experts told the Guardian it was too early to be confident, but there were signals in the spread of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific that suggested an El Niño could form in 2026.

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Animals, insects, flora and fauna - the world photographed in close-up in the annual competition dedicated to micro and macro photography. Cupoty 7 was won by underwater photographer Ross Gudgeon, triumphing over 12,000 entries from 63 countries

Mergers and acquisitions will shrink number of operators from more than 100 to five or six, says Be.EV co-founder

British electric charger companies are asking rivals to buy them as they run out of cash amid rising costs and intense competition, according to industry bosses.

A wave of mergers and acquisitions is likely to shrink the number of charge point operators from as many as 150 to a market dominated by five or six players, said Asif Ghafoor, a co-founder of Be.EV, a charging company backed by Octopus Energy.

NFU warn it could take years to restore Brexit losses despite efforts to smooth negotiations on farming and other elements of UK-EU reset

Exports of British farm products to the EU have dropped almost 40% in the five years since Brexit, highlighting the trade barriers caused by the UK's divorce from the EU in 2020.

Analysis of HMRC data by the National Farmers' Union shows the decline in sales of everything from British beef to cheddar cheese has dropped by 37.4% in the five years since 2019, the last full year before Brexit.

Experts say dangerous sleep apnoea affects an estimated 8 million in the UK alone, and everything from evolution to obesity or even the climate crisis could be to blame

When Matt Hillier was in his 20s, he went camping with a friend who was a nurse. In the morning she told him she had been shocked by the snoring coming from his tent. "She basically said, 'For a 25-year-old non-smoker who's quite skinny, you snore pretty loudly,'" says Hiller, now 32.

Perhaps because of the pervasive image of a "typical" sleep apnoea patient - older, and overweight - Hillier didn't seek help. It wasn't until he was 30 that he finally went to a doctor after waking up from a particularly big night of snoring with a racing heartbeat. Despite being young, active and a healthy weight, further investigation - including a night recording his snoring - revealed that he had moderate sleep apnoea. His was classed as supine, the most common form of the condition, meaning it happens when he sleeps on his back, and is likely caused by his throat muscles.