In today’s newsletter: Hotter houses are likely to become the norm, with the dangerous health impacts facing society’s most vulnerable
Good morning. With temperatures soaring across Europe, fears of drought and people trying to steer clear of the most severe heat, there’s one place millions of us will still not be comfortable: home.
The Guardian’s Hot Property series shows how the poorest and most vulnerable are trapped inside dangerously hot homes. Even for today’s temperatures much housing is inadequate, let alone the even more extreme heat predicted for the coming years, the reporting shows.
Israel-Gaza war | Hundreds of mourners carried the body of the prominent Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif through the streets of Gaza City on Monday, a day after he and four colleagues were killed in an Israeli airstrike, prompting condemnation from across the world.
NHS | Attacks on A&E nurses have almost doubled over the last six years, with incidents often involving patients frustrated at waiting so long for care.
US news | Donald Trump has ordered the national guard to Washington DC and seized control of the city’s police force, describing a “lawless” city in ways that are sharply at odds with official crime statistics.
UK news | David Lammy is facing possible legal action over a plan to invite staff from the oil firm Shell and the defence firm BAE Systems to work inside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Agriculture | A study has found that Biochar, a charcoal made from human waste, could help solve fertiliser shortages as well as reduce pollution and energy use.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
08/12/2025 - 00:42
08/12/2025 - 00:26
Kirsten Mae Fearn was repeatedly warned about the behaviour but she continued to import plants which she intended to sell online
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A Queensland woman caught importing illegal cacti and other plants in packages purporting to contain lingerie and shoes has been sentenced to six months in prison.
Kirsten Mae Fearn pleaded guilty to 14 biosecurity charges at Brisbane magistrates court in July after she repeatedly imported illegal plants to sell online.
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08/12/2025 - 00:00
National Drought Group meets and water companies prepare to take drastic action as supplies dwindle
A nationally significant water shortfall is gripping England, the government has warned, as experts say the conditions could last until mid-autumn.
The National Drought Group met to discuss actions to save water across the country, and Steve Reed, the environment secretary, briefed the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, about the risks posed by the dry weather.
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08/11/2025 - 14:00
Excrement contains nutrients needed for crop growth and a new source of them could cut farming’s huge CO2 output
Charcoal made from human waste could help solve fertiliser shortages as well as reduce pollution and energy use, a study has found.
Biochar is a form of charcoal made from organic matter treated at high heat, which is often used on farming soil as a fertiliser. The process also removes carbon from the atmosphere, making it a useful carbon sink.
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08/11/2025 - 12:00
Fish once as large as grizzly bears have become far smaller in recent years due to overfishing, dams and climate crisis
The size of megafish in the Mekong River has shrunk alarmingly in recent years owing to overfishing, a study has found. The length of the largest and most endangered freshwater giants, some as big as grizzly bears, decreased by 40% in seven years.
Some fish, like the Mekong giant catfish, have been studied for over a longer period and show a decline in weight of 55% in the past 25 years, dropping from an average of 180kg (397lb) to 80kg.
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08/11/2025 - 11:33
Lee fire is one of largest blazes in state history after burning 130,000 acres, while Elk fire surpassed 14,000 acres
Firefighters in Colorado responding to one of the largest blazes in the state’s history are facing gusty winds and dry conditions that are expected to continue to drive extreme fire behavior.
More than 1,000 firefighters have been deployed, and while crews have gained containment on one fire, another has grown amid fire-friendly weather.
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08/11/2025 - 10:37
Singapore firm using secretive international legal system to seek compensation for climate concerns blocking plans
The UK government is being sued in a secretive “corporate court” after a proposal for a new coalmine in Cumbria was quashed by the high court. If successful, UK taxpayers would have to fund a substantial compensation payment to the mine’s investors.
It is the first such case to be filed against the UK government by a fossil fuel company as a result of climate policy. The case uses investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) rules agreed in a 1975 trade agreement between the UK and Singapore, where the major investor in the coalmine is incorporated.
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08/11/2025 - 06:16
Four-year-old boy dies of heatstroke in Italy as scientists warn of ‘molotov cocktail’ of climatic conditions
Deadly heat of up to 44C is searing southern Europe, as scientists warn of a “molotov cocktail” of climatic conditions that is fuelling vast wildfires across the Mediterranean.
In Italy, where temperatures of 40C are expected in Florence later this week, a four-year-old boy died of heatstroke, and a red alert warning was issued for seven major cities, including Bologna and Florence.
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08/06/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 07 August 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00150-5
Divergent patterns of global tuna fishing fleet dynamics among different continents
World Ocean Explorer Wins Gold Medal Serious Simulation Award from Serious Play Annual International Competition
10/26/2023 - 14:35
For Immediate Release October 19, 2023
Sedgwick, Maine USA World Ocean Explorer, a 3D virtual aquarium and educational simulation, was recently cited for excellence, winning a Gold Medal Award in the 2023 International Serious Play Awards Program.
World Ocean Explorer is an innovative 3D virtual aquarium designed for educational exploration of the world’s oceans. With interactive exhibits and a lobby space, visitors can immerse themselves in realistic marine environments, including a DEEP SEA exhibit funded by Schmidt Ocean Institute, showcasing unprecedented deep-sea discoveries off Australia. Targeted at 3rd graders and beyond, this immersive experience offers a range of perspectives on the ocean environment and can be explored through guided tours or user-controlled interfaces. Visit DEEP SEA at worldoceanexplorer.org/deep-sea-aquarium.html.
Serious Play Conference brings together professionals who are exploring the use of game-based learning, sharing their experience, and working together to shape the future of training and education. For more information on Serious Play Award Program visit seriousplayconf.com/international-serious-play-award-programs.
World Ocean Explorer is a transformative virtual aquarium designed to deepen understanding of the world ocean and amplify connection for young people worldwide. Organized around the principles of Ocean Literacy and the Next Gen Science Standards, World Ocean Explorer brings the wonder and knowledge of ocean species and systems to students in formal and informal classrooms, absolutely free to anyone with a good Internet connection. As an advocate for the ocean through communications, World Ocean Observatory believes there is no better investment in the future of the sustainable ocean than through a new approach to educational engagement that excites, informs, and motivates students to explore the wonders of our marine world and to understand the pervasive connection and implication for our future, inherent in the protection and conservation of all aspects of our ocean world.
World Ocean Explorer presents an astonishing 3-dimensional simulated aquarium visit, organized to reveal the wonders of undersea life, with layers of detailed data and information to augment the emotional connection made to the astonishing beauty and complexity of the dynamic ocean. Within each of the virtual exhibits, students visit exemplary theme-based sites with myriad opportunities to understand the larger perspectives of scientific knowledge as organized and visualized to dramatize the impact and change on ocean life as a result of natural and human-generated events. Through immersion among displays, mixed media and 3D models, the experience of an aquarium visit will be brought into classrooms or home school environments as a free, accessible, always available opportunity for teaching and learning. All of this will be available to a world audience without physical limitation or cost. World Ocean Explorer, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, receives support from the Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, Visual Solutions Lab, the Climate Change Institute, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, and The Fram Museum Oslo. To learn more about the current and future exhibits of World Ocean Explorer, visit worldoceanexplorer.org.
media contact
Trisha Badger, Managing Director, World Ocean Observatory | director@thew2o.net +12077011069
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