Generator’s shares rise as regulator finds no evidence of misleading statements about fuel’s sustainability
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The City watchdog has closed an investigation into the owner of the Drax power plant after an almost 10-month review into whether the company’s sustainability claims mislead shareholders.
The Financial Conduct Authority said it had “reviewed thousands of pages” of “complex material” relating to the company’s sourcing of wood pellets for the Drax power plant in Selby, North Yorkshire, but “did not find evidence that justified any further action”.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
06/18/2026 - 03:00
More than half of Ayetoro – a Christian utopia founded in the 1940s – has been lost to the ocean, and its remaining people are running out of options
In the early hours of 15 February 2019, the Atlantic Ocean came for Arowo Victoria’s livelihood. The 60-year-old retired midwife was asleep when neighbours began banging on her door, shouting that the sea had started covering buildings along the nearby coastline.
By the time she got to her small shop, she discovered that the Atlantic had already swept it away, destroying the business she had built with borrowed money after retirement.
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06/18/2026 - 03:00
John Ray, 17th-century botanist who coined words petal and pollen, was a tutor at Cambridge when he created his first garden
He coined the terms petal and pollen, helped to lay the foundations of modern biology and is widely regarded as the greatest English naturalist of the 17th century.
But it was while he was a young college tutor at Cambridge in the 1650s that the botanist John Ray – also known as “the father of natural history” – created his first known garden and began to systematically study plants for the first time.
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06/18/2026 - 02:59
A major study of Australian native bees found that stem-nesting species may be the first to feel the impact of climate change. Unlike bees that nest underground, they have few ways to escape dangerous heat. Researchers also discovered that tropical bees are particularly vulnerable, even when they are already adapted to hot environments. The findings suggest bee behavior could be a key factor in determining which species survive a warming world.
06/18/2026 - 02:00
The Biodiversity Heritage Library is an invaluable online archive of historic texts on species living and lost supplied by the world’s leading museums and universities. Now its future is in doubt
Some go there to read about the wood that Victorian manufacturers used to make walking sticks. Others want to see an illustration of a Tasmanian tiger or marvel at the field diary of one of the first known botanists to explore the Antarctic.
Over the past 20 years, more than 64m pages have been made freely available through the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) – a digital treasure trove for fans of the natural world. More than 680 museums, universities, libraries and scientific institutions from China, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand to Europe, Africa, Mexico, Canada and the US, have contributed to the library.
Manuscript on parchment from the Circa instans. Dating from about 1190, it is the oldest book in the digital library. Photograph: LuEsther T Mertz Library/New York Botanical Garden/Biodiversity Heritage Library
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06/17/2026 - 23:51
Testing confirms spread of deadly H5N1 virus on the subantarctic Heard Island, about 4,000km south-west of Perth
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More than 13,000 seal pups have died on an Australian territory, as testing confirmed the spread of deadly H5N1 bird flu among penguins, seals and petrels on subantarctic islands.
The mass mortality of southern elephant seal pups on Heard Island, about 4,000km south-west of Perth and 1,700km north of Antarctica, was observed by government scientists conducting drone and ground surveys in October 2025 and January 2026.
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06/17/2026 - 18:01
Nottinghamshire tree, one of Europe’s oldest and largest, fails to produce leaves after being stressed by series of hot, dry summers
The Major oak, one of Europe’s oldest, largest and most celebrated ancient trees, has died.
The huge tree, which has grown in Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, England, for at least 1,000 years, failed to produce any leaves this year, after becoming stressed by a series of hot, dry summers.
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Even as Florida moves detainees from ‘Alligator Alcatraz’, activists fight for its permanent closure
06/17/2026 - 15:28
Groups cite detainee maltreatment and degradation of surrounding land as reasons to close facility permanently
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An alliance of environmental groups has welcomed reports that detainees have been moved from Florida’s notorious “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration jail, but have promised to press ahead with legal action to ensure its permanent closure and the restoration of the fragile Everglades wetlands where it is located.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement late on Tuesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and authorities in Florida “have moved illegal aliens from the soft sided facility [and] transferred them to other facilities” for their safety, citing this month’s beginning of the Atlantic hurricane season.
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06/17/2026 - 11:55
The southern US is seeing intense rain that is expected to cause dangerous flash flooding
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The first tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season formed on Wednesday near the Gulf coast, bringing intense rain and the threat of dangerous flash floods to states including Texas and Louisiana, meteorologists said.
Tropical Storm Arthur was a disorganized cluster of storms that brought rain for days over parts of eastern Mexico and the Gulf. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said conditions were conducive for a short-lived tropical storm to form.
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06/17/2026 - 10:00
Researchers also discover bees can adjust their diets when pollen sources do not provide healthy level of nutrients
Honeybees blend a special “baby food” to give their larvae a balanced diet, with adult bees also able to regulate their feeding to avoid overconsuming certain nutrients, according to a study.
Researchers have discovered that bees can adjust how much they eat when pollen sources do not provide them with the ideal balance of essential amino acids, the essential building blocks of protein that animals cannot make for themselves and must obtain from their diet.
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