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Backlog delaying ‘shovel-ready’ ventures will be cleared with aim of building virtually zero-carbon power system by 2030
Britain’s energy system operator is pulling the plug on hundreds of electricity generation projects to clear a huge backlog that is stopping “shovel-ready” schemes from connecting to the power grid.
Developers will be told on Monday whether their plans will be dismissed by the National Energy System Operator (Neso) – or whether they will be prioritised to connect by either the end of the decade or 2035.
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Allendale, Northumberland: Every winter I return to it with my secateurs, but hollies certainly know how to protect themselves
It has become an annual ritual, the cutting of branches from this shapely holly for a winter wreath. A mixture of the wild and of things garnered from my garden, I push twigs and vines into a metal frame packed with moss from drystone walls. Resinous rosemary and pine, silver seedheads of clematis, trails of ivy, lichens, ferns, honesty – each year is different with whatever I happen to find.
This particular holly is always a good source of scarlet berries, but this year it is even more jewelled than usual. It has, for now, been untouched by birds who cannily eat shorter-lived fruits first (wild raspberry, rowan, elder), leaving the solid drupes of holly until other food is scarce. Then its bounty might be guarded by a mistle thrush, possessively seeing off other possible feasters. Hollies are dioecious, with male and female flowers on different trees, so this is a female, its fertility the result of bees ferrying pollen from nearby males.
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Cameras capture lone creature collecting materials for its lodge in riverside nature reserve
A wild beaver has been spotted in Norfolk for the first time since beavers were hunted to extinction in England at the beginning of the 16th century.
It was filmed dragging logs and establishing a lodge in a “perfect beaver habitat” on the River Wensum at Pensthorpe, a nature reserve near Fakenham in Norfolk.
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Exclusive: ‘extremely unhelpful’ policy seen as deterrent to clearing thousands of dump sites across England
Millions of pounds in landfill tax owed to the government has to be paid by the Environment Agency (EA) if it clears any of the thousands of illegal waste dumps across the country.
Of the £15m that taxpayers are paying for the clearance of the only site the agency has committed to clearing up – a vast illegal dump at Hoad’s Wood in Kent – £4m is landfill tax.
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Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: I have memories of seeing them at night, on our pyjama-clad safaris round the farm, but they haven’t been here for a decade
There’s a shimmering in the sky and I can’t work it out. Driving, I can only snatch glimpses of flickering light. I pull into a lay-by near home. Now I can make out five or six broad-winged birds, flying in a loose flock. They are black and white and their motion reflects the low sun, flashing light and contrasting dark, like a disturbance in the force field.
Lapwings, or “peewits” as they are known for their call, are birds of my childhood. Every spring, they nested in the same field and, in winter, flocks gathered. I loved their crest and the way their petrol-sheened plumage changed with the light, from dark green to bronze or purple.
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RSPB says growing trend for honouring species that are in decline is not matched by action on conservation
Britain’s street names are being inspired by skylarks, lapwings and starlings, even as bird populations decline.
According to a report by the RSPB, names such as Skylark Lane and Swift Avenue are increasingly common. Using OS Open Names data from 2004 to 2024, the conservation charity found that road names featuring bird species had risen by 350% for skylarks, 156% for starlings and 104% for lapwings, despite populations of these having fallen in the wild.
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Conservationists say changes, coupled with underfunding, will curb take-up and leave less land protected for nature
An ambitious scheme to restore England’s nature over coming decades has been undermined after the government inserted a clause allowing it to terminate contracts with only a year’s notice, conservationists have said.
The project was designed to fund landscape-scale restoration over thousands of hectares, whether on large estates or across farms and nature reserves. The idea was to create huge reserves for rare species to thrive – projects promoted as decades-long commitments to securing habitat for wildlife well into the future.
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Every year, 1bn tonnes of food are wasted. I value my meals and the work that has gone into them, so I am now always prepared and ready to take home delicious leftovers
I’ve always loved catching up with friends and family over a meal out. Not only is it a chance to find out the latest gossip and what everyone’s up to, but it’s also an opportunity to try out new foods and share that experience together.
But looking back, I’ve realised that I’ve been guilty of contributing to food waste by leaving meals unfinished. Sometimes, I didn’t realise how big portions would be or I’d get so focused on chatting to everyone that I would forget to eat everything until it was time to go.
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Mark Carney is considering lifting a tanker ban that has protected coastal communities for 53 years
The distress call went out to the Canadian coast guard station after midnight on an October night. The Nathan E Stewart, an American-flagged tugboat, sailing through the light winds and rain of the central British Columbia coast, had grounded on a reef.
The captain tried to reverse, moving the rudder from hard over port to hard over starboard. The boat pivoted but did not move, and the tug repeatedly struck the sea bed.
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Bureaucratic delays and funding shortages stall plans to carve out a forest reserve for the uncontacted Indigenous group on the southern fringe of the Brazilian Amazon
In 2024, agents of the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai) walked more than 60 miles through rainforest on the southern fringe of the Brazilian Amazon on a mission to monitor and help protect a group of Indigenous people who had no contact with the modern world.
What they found was a small basket freshly woven from leaves, a child’s footprints on the bank of a creek, and tree trunks hacked open hours before to extract honey. There were huts abandoned a year before that were sinking into the forest floor, and brazil nut pods discarded around old campfires. They were all signs that the Pardo River Kawahiva people were there.
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Izravna mjerenja vitamina C unutar ljudske kože, pokazala su da prehrana može povećati sadržaj vitamina C u koži i utjecati na strukturu kože, te su pritom otkrivena jasna ograničenja njegovih učinaka na stvaranje kolagena i UV zaštitu.
Liječenje intravenskim (IV) željezom značajno je poboljšalo preživljavanje i povećalo razinu hemoglobina kod pacijenata s anemijom uzrokovanom nedostatkom željeza koji su hospitalizirani zbog akutne bakterijske infekcije, tvrdi studija u kojoj je sudjelovalo više od 85.000 pacijenata.
Genetska varijanta vjerojatno dovodi neku djecu koja pate od miokarditisa - upale srčanog mišića - u veći rizik od razvoja zatajenja srca, što može biti fatalno, pokazuje nova studija.
Upala pluća može izazvati srčane komplikacije poput zatajenja srca, aritmija ili srčanog udara koje uzrokuju smrt. Sada su američki znanstvenici identificirali bakterijski enzim nazvan zmpB, koji bi mogao biti razlog zašto neki ljudi dobiju srčane komplikacije s upalom pluća, dok drugi ne.
Žene koje prijavljuju visoku razinu psihosocijalnog stresa, poput stresa uzrokovanog brigom i nedostatkom emocionalne podrške, pokazuju znakove ranih promjena srčanog tkiva povezanih s kardiovaskularnim bolestima – povezanost koja nije uočena kod muškaraca, otkriva nova studija.
Dugotrajna izloženost uobičajenim onečišćujućim tvarima zraka povezana je s uznapredovalijom koronarnom bolešću srca, pokazuje studija provedena na više od 11.000 odraslih osoba.
Prema rezultatima novog istraživanja, suzbijanje uobičajenog dječjeg virusa moglo bi otvoriti vrata sprječavanju raka mokraćnog mjehura. Naime, studija sugerira da BK poliomavirus (BKPyV) koji većina ljudi pokupi u djetinjstvu može izazvati vrstu oštećenja DNK koja može dovesti do raka mokraćnog mjehura kasnije u životu.
Osobe s oštećenom funkcijom bubrega imaju više razine biomarkera za Alzheimerovu bolest u krvi, ali ne i povećan rizik od demencije, tvrdi nova studija. Iako nije otkriveno da smanjena funkcija bubrega povećava rizik od razvoja demencije, otkriveno je da oštećena funkcija bubrega može ubrzati pojavu demencije kod ljudi koji imaju više razine biomarkera.
Rizik od iznenadne srčane smrti veći je i za osobe s dijabetesom tipa 1 i dijabetesom tipa 2, pokazuje nova studije. Povećanje rizika posebno je uočljivo među mlađim odraslim osobama. Iznenadna srčana smrt je kada netko iznenada i neočekivano umre zbog problema sa srcem. Općenito je rijetka kod mladih i naizgled zdravih osoba.
Mikrobi u našem tijelu ne samo da pomažu u razgradnji hrane, već utječu i na naše zdravlje. Ipak, njihov točan utjecaj nije uvijek shvaćen, posebno u prisutnosti lijekova.. Sada nova studija izvještava kako jedna od najzastupljenijih crijevnih bakterija, Bacteroides dorei, reagira na tetracikline, klasu često propisivanih antibiotika.
