7 h. ago Outrage as Trump withdraws from key UN climate treaty along with dozens of international organisations

Experts decry move to leave UNFCCC as ‘embarrassing’ as president orders withdrawal from 66 international groupsDonald Trump has sparked outrage by announcing the US will exit the foundational international agreement to address the climate crisis, cementing the US’s utter isolation from the global effort to confront dangerously escalating temperatures.In a presidential memorandum issued on Wednesday, Trump withdrew from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), along with 65 other organizations, agencies and commissions, calling them “contrary to the interests of the United States”. Continue reading...

Politics

18 h. ago Pioneering trial to tackle ‘silent burden’ of mental illness in new mothers axed over US aid cuts

The first-of-its-kind pilot in India was just beginning to bear fruit, according to those involved with the project

Politics

19 h. ago Pioneering trial to tackle ‘silent burden’ of mental illness in new mothers axed in US aid cuts

The first-of-its-kind pilot in India was just beginning to bear fruit, according to those involved with the project

Politics

45 h. ago Trump taking ‘drill, baby, drill’ plan to Venezuela ‘terrible’ for climate, experts warn

‘Everybody loses’ if production supercharged in country with largest known oil reserves, critics sayDonald Trump, by dramatically seizing Nicolás Maduro and claiming dominion over Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, has taken his “drill, baby, drill” mantra global. Achieving the president’s dream of supercharging the country’s oil production would be financially challenging – and if fulfilled, would be “terrible for the climate”, experts say.Trump has aggressively sought to boost oil and gas production within the US. Now, following the capture and arrest of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, he is seeking to orchestrate a ramp-up of drilling in Venezuela, which has the largest known reserves of oil in the world – equivalent to some 300bn barrels, according to research firm the Energy Institute. Continue reading...

Events

46 h. ago We can safely experiment on reflecting sunlight away from Earth. Here’s how | Dakota Gruener and Daniele Visioni

Reflecting a small fraction of incoming sunlight to reduce global heating is not a new idea. It is time to safely experimentThe world is warming fast – and our options to avoid catastrophic harm are narrowing. 2024 was the first full year more than 1.5C hotter than the 19th-century average. Emissions are still rising, with fossil fuel use expected to hit a new high in 2025. Permanent carbon removal technologies – often cited as a fix – are removing just tens of thousands of tonnes annually, almost nothing relative to the 5-10bn tonnes needed. Cutting emissions and scaling carbon removal remain essential. But they may not be enough.As suffering grows and ecosystems unravel, more people will ask: is there anything we can do to prevent these harms? The idea of reflecting a small fraction of incoming sunlight to reduce warming is not a new idea. In 1965, Lyndon B Johnson’s science advisers proposed it as the only way to cool the planet. Earth already reflects about 30% of incoming sunli...

Politics

3 d. ago ‘Extremely dangerous precedent’ set by Trump’s attack on Venezuela, six countries warn – live

Spain, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay say US actions ‘constitute an extremely dangerous precedent for peace and regional security’Top Republicans backpedal from Trump claim that US will run VenezuelaKeir Starmer also told the BBC that he thinks we are living in a more “volatile” world than we have been for “many, many years” and said global affairs have much more of a “direct impact” on the UK than they have in a long time, citing the effects of military conflicts and the climate crisis.Asked if Donald Trump is worsening global turmoil, Starmer dodges the question and speaks about the so-called special relationship between the UK and the US.The relationship between the US and the UK is one of the closest relationships in the world. It is vitally important for our defence, for our security, for our intelligence.It is my responsibility to make sure that relationship works as the prime minister of this country, working with the president of the United States. Not only have...

Events

3 d. ago Leftwing militants claim responsibility for arson attack on Berlin power grid

Protest over climate crisis and AI has cut power to tens of thousands of homes which may take days to fully restoreGerman leftwing militants protesting over the climate crisis and AI have claimed responsibility for an arson attack that cut power to tens of thousands of households in Berlin.The fire that broke out on a bridge across the Teltow canal in the south-west of the capital early on Saturday could deprive up to 35,000 homes and 1,900 businesses of electricity – and in many cases heat – until 8 January, the grid company Stromnetz Berlin said. Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago Republican casts doubt on Trump’s claim US will ‘run’ Venezuela amid Democrats’ anger over Maduro operation – live

Senator Tom Cotton says there are ‘still a lot of questions to be answered’ about what happens next in Venezuela and dismisses Trump’s assertion that the US will ‘run’ the country How Trump intervention in Venezuela is a return to form for the USAnalysis – Trump’s new focus on oil reinforces it was never about ‘war on drugs’Keir Starmer also told the BBC that he thinks we are living in a more “volatile” world than we have been for “many, many years” and said global affairs have much more of a “direct impact” on the UK than they have in a long time, citing the effects of military conflicts and the climate crisis.Asked if Donald Trump is worsening global turmoil, Starmer dodges the question and speaks about the so-called special relationship between the UK and the US.The relationship between the US and the UK is one of the closest relationships in the world. It is vitally important for our defence, for our security, for our intelligence.It is my responsibility to make sure that relati...

Politics

3 d. ago Nicolás Maduro jailed in New York as Trump says US will ‘run’ Venezuela – live

Venezuelan leader is expected to make an initial appearance in Manhattan federal court on Monday after capture by US forcesFull report: Trump says US will ‘run’ VenezuelaExplained: Is there legal justification for the US attack on Venezuela?Keir Starmer also told the BBC that he thinks we are living in a more “volatile” world than we have been for “many, many years” and said global affairs have much more of a “direct impact” on the UK than they have in a long time, citing the effects of military conflicts and the climate crisis.Asked if Donald Trump is worsening global turmoil, Starmer dodges the question and speaks about the so-called special relationship between the UK and the US.The relationship between the US and the UK is one of the closest relationships in the world. It is vitally important for our defence, for our security, for our intelligence.It is my responsibility to make sure that relationship works as the prime minister of this country, working with the president of the...

Politics

3 d. ago The climate crisis, aid cuts and deepening poverty are combining to drive a crisis in Madagascar

The humanitarian crisis in the south of the country has worsened in recent months, with the head of the country’s UN humanitarian operation telling Nick Ferris there is currently little hope for improvement

Society

3 d. ago Keir Starmer refuses to condemn US attack on Venezuela as Maduro is jailed in New York – live

President Nicolás Maduro is expected to make an initial appearance in Manhattan federal court on Monday after capture by US forcesFull report: Trump says US will ‘run’ VenezuelaExplained: Is there legal justification for the US attack on Venezuela?Keir Starmer also told the BBC that he thinks we are living in a more “volatile” world than we have been for “many, many years” and said global affairs have much more of a “direct impact” on the UK than they have in a long time, citing the effects of military conflicts and the climate crisis.Asked if Donald Trump is worsening global turmoil, Starmer dodges the question and speaks about the so-called special relationship between the UK and the US.The relationship between the US and the UK is one of the closest relationships in the world. It is vitally important for our defence, for our security, for our intelligence.It is my responsibility to make sure that relationship works as the prime minister of this country, working with the president...

Events

4 d. ago Tens of thousands of mothers are bleeding to death giving birth. Aid cuts are denying them a solution

A breakthrough to stop life-threatening bleeding in childbirth was only just starting to reach the mothers most at risk when Donald Trump’s aid cuts hit. Rachel Schraer speaks to health workers about the dire consequences

Events

5 d. ago ‘Just an unbelievable amount of pollution’: how big a threat is AI to the climate?

Defenders say AI can do good to fight the climate crisis. But spiralling energy and water costs leave experts worriedDuring a golden sunset in Memphis in May, Sharon Wilson pointed a thermal imaging camera at Elon Musk’s flagship datacentre to reveal a planetary threat her eyes could not. Free from pollution controls, the gas-fired turbines that power the world’s biggest AI supercomputer were pumping invisible fumes into the Tennessee sky.“It was jaw-dropping,” said Wilson, a former oil and gas worker from Texas who has documented methane releases for more than a decade and estimates xAI’s Colossus datacentre was spewing more of the planet-heating gas than a large power plant. “Just an unbelievable amount of pollution.” Continue reading...

Events

6 d. ago US ‘adapt, shrink or die’ terms for $2bn aid pot will mean UN bowing down to Washington, say experts

Afghanistan and Yemen excluded from list of 17 priority countries chosen by Trump administration to receive aid laden with demandsThe $2bn (£1.5bn) of aid the US pledged this week may have been hailed as “bold and ambitious” by the UN but could be the “nail in the coffin” in changing to a shrunken, less flexible aid system dominated by Washington’s political priorities, aid experts fear.After a year of deep cuts in aid budgets by the US and European countries, the announcement of new money for the humanitarian system is a source of some relief, but experts are deeply concerned about demands that the US has imposed on how the money should be managed and where it can go. Continue reading...

Events

6 d. ago Jacinda Ardern steps in to rescue project saving mothers during childbirth in wake of Trump’s aid cuts

Aid workers describe the move by New Zealand’s former prime minister as ‘a moment of believing that there was going to be light at the end of the tunnel’

Events

7 d. ago Often brutal, always beautiful: the sea hounds of the Frisian Islands – in pictures

For 10 years, the scientist and photographer Jeroen Hoekendijk has been observing pinnipeds (seals, sea lions and walruses) on the fragile North Sea archipelago stretching along the Dutch, German and Danish coastline. A remainder of the now-drowned Doggerland, left behind after the ice age, the low-lying islands are an advance warning sign of the warming and rising seas of the climate crisisPhotographs by Jeroen Hoekendijk, text by Philip Hoare Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago How the climate crisis showed up in Americans’ lives this year: ‘The shift has been swift and stark’

Guardian US readers share how global heating and biodiversity loss affected their lives in ways that don’t always make the headlines The past year was another one of record-setting heat and catastrophic storms. But across the US, the climate crisis showed up in smaller, deeply personal ways too.Campfires that once defined summer trips were never lit due to wildfire risks. There were no bites where fish were once abundant, forests turned to meadows after a big burn and childhood memories of winter wonderlands turned to slush. Continue reading...

Society

8 d. ago Democracy in retreat amid growing global conflict and aid cuts, warns David Miliband

David Miliband tells the World of Trouble podcast with Sam Kiley that there currently 59 significant conflicts going on around the world, including Sudan, DRC, Gaza, Ethiopia and Myanmar

Events

8 d. ago Aid cuts are an opportunity for Africa to take control of the health of the continent, says leading doctor

While the slashing of funding is a ‘painful experience’, it should prompt African governments to do more to tackle corruption, raise taxes and manufacture medical supplies locally, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention head Dr Jean Kaseya tells Rachel Schraer

Society

8 d. ago Just 1 in 10 Brits know about world’s worst crises forcing families to flee from homes

MORE than 117 million people are currently displaced worldwide – yet fewer than one in 10 UK adults are aware of some of the world’s most neglected crises driving families from their homes. Across Somalia, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Mozambique, families are fleeing from conflict, climate disasters and deepening poverty – often more than...

Society