In today’s newsletter: Numerous studies have found evidence of microplastics in the human body and warned of the risks to our health. But in the race to research this new field scientists may have drastically overstated the dangers
Good morning. Microplastics are everywhere. They have been found at the top of Mount Everest and in the deepest ocean trenches. They are in our food, our water and the air we breathe.
For a while, research suggested they were inside us too. Studies reported microplastics in our cells, brains, placentas and testicles.
Iran | Donald Trump has said he has been assured the killing of protesters in Iran has been halted, adding that he would “watch it and see” about threatened US military action, as tensions appeared to ease on Wednesday night.
Greenland | Donald Trump reiterated on Wednesday that the US needs Greenland and that Denmark cannot be relied upon to protect the island, even as he said that “something will work out” with respect to the future governance of the Danish overseas territory.
UK news | Three Palestine Action-affiliated prisoners have announced the end of their hunger strike after the government decided not to award a £2bn contract to the Israeli arms company subsidiary Elbit Systems UK – with another four who had paused their protest choosing not to continue.
Digital ID | The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has insisted that she is “pretty relaxed” about what form of digital ID people use to prove their right to work in the UK, amid criticism of the government’s latest U-turn.
Ukraine | Anti-corruption investigators have accused the former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko of plotting to bribe MPs, including some from Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s party, in a bid to undermine him.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
01/15/2026 - 00:00
In countries such as South Sudan, the great herds have all but disappeared. But further south, conservation success mean increasing human-wildlife conflict
It 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 national park, a protected area covering nearly 9,000 sq km (3,475 sq miles).
Technology helps – the 20-year-old bull elephant wears a GPS collar that pings coordinates every hour. The animal’s behaviour patterns also help; Badingilo’s last elephant is so lonely that it moves with a herd of giraffes.
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01/14/2026 - 19:01
Pressure mounting for use of glyphosate, listed by WHO since 2015 as probable carcinogen, to be heavily restricted
Children 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 glyphosate-based herbicides in public green spaces.
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01/14/2026 - 12:52
There was a time when nobody picked up after their dogs – and it would have been considered disgusting to do so. What caused the change in attitude?
A PE teacher from Cardiff called Tony is frozen solid after being caught in an avalanche in 1979. There he remains until global heating sees to his thawing and he pops up in the present day, exactly as he was back then. Comedy ensues. This is make-believe, by the way; it’s the premise of Mike Bubbins’ BBC series Mammoth. In the masterful opening scenes, to the sound of Gerry Rafferty’s Get It Right Next Time, we see Tony being scornful, angry, frightened and disgusted by four things that didn’t happen before his big freeze.
He scoffs at a bloke carrying a baby in a sling, gives a charity chugger very short shrift, and jumps out of his skin when a youth on a hoverboard zips past him. But it was Tony’s disgust at a woman picking up her German shepherd’s poo that got me thinking. When did picking up dog poo become the thing to do? Or, put another way, when did just leaving it there become the thing not to do? When did we start becoming disgusted at those who didn’t pick it up rather than those who did? This is a pretty seismic cultural shift, I’m sure you’ll agree.
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01/14/2026 - 12:46
Agency to focus rules for fine particulate matter and ozone only on cost to industry, aligning with Trump approach
The Environmental Protection Agency says it will stop calculating how much money is saved in healthcare costs avoided and deaths prevented from air pollution rules that curb two deadly pollutants.
The change means the EPA will focus rules for fine particulate matter and ozone only on the cost to industry, part of a broader realignment under Donald Trump toward a business-friendly approach that has included the rollback of multiple policies meant to safeguard human health and the environment and slow climate change.
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01/14/2026 - 12:21
Fine of 10% of annual turnover among other potential penalties as environment secretary calls for Ofwat review
South East Water could lose its operating licence after residents across Kent and Sussex faced up to a week without water.
The environment secretary, Emma Reynolds, has called for the regulator to review the company’s operating licence. If it were to lose it, the company would fall into a special administration regime until a new buyer was found.
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01/14/2026 - 11:44
Government hails step towards clean power in Great Britain by 2030 – but the auction shows trade-offs are now needed
Offshore windfarm contracts to fuel 12m homes in Great Britain after record auction
Ed Miliband: With this record wind power auction, we’ve proved the rightwing doubters wrong
The government has defied gloomy price expectations for its latest auction for offshore wind capacity. The worry a few months ago was that bill payers would be forced to pay more than £100 a megawatt hour (MWh) via contracts that give developers guaranteed prices for their electricity output. In the event, winning projects landed at roughly £91/MWh.
Cue some forgivable crowing from Ed Miliband, the energy secretary. “A monumental step towards clean power by 2030,” he declared. Officials pointed to calculations by the energy consultants Aurora and Baringa that £94/MWh would have been a “cost-neutral” outcome for consumers even though today’s wholesale price, usually set by gas generation, is about £81/MWh (the analysts’ reasoning is that using less gas lowers the wholesale price, offsetting the cost of the subsidies for new windfarms).
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01/14/2026 - 09:57
St Michael’s Mount launches major operation to clear up devastation caused by 112mph winds
The tidal island of St Michael’s Mount in the far south-west of Britain is usually a place of peace and quiet.
But it has become a hive of noisy activity as gardeners equipped with chainsaws and wood chippers get to grips with the devastating damage caused by Storm Goretti.
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01/14/2026 - 09:00
Bob Debus says operations at Glenbog state forest on south coast show native forest logging is untenable
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A former New South Wales Labor environment minister has called on the government to halt imminent logging in a forest on the state’s south coast, after citizen scientists recorded 102 trees that they say are home to endangered greater gliders.
Bob Debus, who served as environment minister in the Carr and Iemma governments, also accused the NSW Forestry Corporation (NSWFC) of being found in breach of its own regulations so frequently that the “practice is essentially part of its business model”.
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01/14/2026 - 07:57
Energy company also under pressure from worse oil trading performance and weaker oil prices
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BP has said it expects to write down the value of its struggling green energy business by as much as $5bn (£3.7bn), as it refocuses on fossil fuels under its new chair, Albert Manifold.
The oil company said the writedowns were mostly related to its gas and low-carbon energy divisions in its “transition businesses”, but added that wiping between $4bn and $5bn off their value would not affect its underlying profits when it reports its full-year results in February.
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