Breaking Waves: Ocean News

UK electric vehicle charging firms ‘seeking buyers amid rising costs and tough competition’

admin — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 12:00:02 +0000

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.

Wealthy use loophole to conceal value of £300m in Scottish land sales

admin — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 07:00:55 +0000

Prices paid for large estates not being disclosed on official register, land reform advocates say

Land reform campaigners are alarmed at the increasing use of a legal loophole that allows landowners to conceal the price paid for Highland estates from the public register.

Andy Wightman, a land reform analyst, said the loophole meant the prices paid in more than £300m-worth of Highland property transactions were not disclosed on the register.

Bermuda snail thought to be extinct now thrives after a decade’s effort

admin — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 06:00:56 +0000

Special pods at Chester zoo helped conservationists breed and release more than 100,000 greater Bermuda snails

A button-sized snail once feared extinct in its Bermudian home is thriving again after conservationists bred and released more than 100,000 of the molluscs.

Storm Leonardo devastates southern Portugal and Spain – video

admin — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 13:30:37 +0000

Storm has ravaged southern regions of Spain and Portugal this week, leaving one man dead in Portugal and one woman missing in Spain

Calls to postpone presidential election as Storm Leonardo lashes Portugal and Spain

Calls to postpone presidential election as Storm Leonardo lashes Portugal and Spain

admin — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 11:54:05 +0000

Portugal’s far-right Chega party has said vote should be delayed as state of calamity declared in 69 areas

Heavy rains and strong winds have continued to batter parts of Spain and Portugal, causing at least two deaths, forcing the evacuation of more than 7,000 people and prompting calls to postpone the second-round of Portugal’s presidential election.

Only seven new petrol-powered cars sold in Norway in January

admin — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 10:20:02 +0000

Data shows 29 hybrid and 98 diesel cars also sold, while the figure for battery electric vehicles was more than 2,000

Just seven new petrol cars were sold in Norway last month, data shows.

The country, which is the frontrunner in the uptake of electric vehicles, shifted a record low number of new fossil-fuel cars in January, information from the Norwegian Road Traffic Information Council (OFV) reveals.

Week in wildlife: cuddling sloths, dazed iguanas and a very fat seal

admin — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 08:00:00 +0000

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

That’s a wrasse! Rare fish spotted for first time since 2009 in kelp forest in Western Australia

admin — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 02:50:24 +0000

When marine biologist Océane Attlan saw the tiny Braun’s wrasse, it was like ‘recognising a familiar face, but you can’t put a name on it’

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The chances of encountering the rare reef fish were so far-fetched, it took marine biologist Océane Attlan a few seconds to clock what she was seeing.

‘Stark warning’: pesticide harm to wildlife rising globally, study finds

admin — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 19:00:45 +0000

Toxicity from farm chemicals increased for most species groups between 2013 and 2019, with insects worst affected

Ecological harm from pesticides is growing globally, a study has found, with bugs, fish, pollinators and land-based plants among six species groups hit hardest.

Insects suffered the greatest increase in harm from synthetic farm chemicals between 2013 and 2019, the study shows, with “applied” toxicity rising by 42.9%, followed by soil organisms, which faced an increase of 30.8%.

Israel accused of spraying cancer-linked herbicide on farms in southern Lebanon

admin — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 17:58:56 +0000

President condemns ‘environmental and health crime’ as critics say Israel seeks to make southern Lebanon uninhabitable

Lebanon has accused Israel of spraying a herbicide linked to cancer on farmland in the south of the country as a “health crime” that would threaten food security and farmers’ livelihoods.

The country’s president, Joseph Aoun, condemned what he called “an environmental and health crime” and a violation of Lebanese sovereignty, and he vowed to take “all necessary legal and diplomatic measures to confront this aggression”.