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Experts say climate crisis, corruption and lack or misuse of infrastructure among factors driving water conflicts
Water-related violence has almost doubled since 2022 and little is being done to understand and address the trend and prevent new and escalating risks, experts have said.
There were 419 incidents of water-related violence recorded in 2024, up from 235 in 2022, according to the Pacific Institute, a US-based thinktank.
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Researchers found a new way to filter and destroy Pfas chemicals at 100 times the rate of current systems
New filtration technology developed by Rice University may absorb some Pfas “forever chemicals” at 100 times the rate previously possible, which could dramatically improve pollution control and speed remediations.
Researchers also say they have also found a way to destroy Pfas, though both technologies face a steep challenge in being deployed on an industrial scale.
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Pollution from wood burners kills thousands but proposed emissions limit would cut toxic particles by 10%
New wood-burning stoves will carry a health warning highlighting the impact of the air pollution they produce, under UK government plans.
Ministers have also proposed cutting the limit on the smoke emitted from wood burners by 80%. However, the measure would only apply to new stoves, most of which already meet the stricter limit. The new limit would cut the annual toxic emissions from wood burning in the UK by only 10% over the next decade, according to the consultation.
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This year’s RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, which begins on Friday, could reveal ‘some surprise migratory visitors’
The chances of spotting a fieldfare or redwing in 2026 have risen, thanks to cold and unsettled weather in Europe, prompting a bumper year in birds migrating to the UK.
The RSPB highlighted the trend on the eve of the Big Garden Birdwatch, an annual event that constitutes the world’s largest garden wildlife survey, which will take place between 23 and 25 January.
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Study also says Balkan levels are often higher than in Beijing – and sometimes among the highest in the world
When we think of the world’s most polluted cities, images of Delhi or Beijing come to mind, but new data has revealed acute pollution problems close to the heart of Europe.
Prof Andre Prevot, of the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland, explained: “In winter, the particle pollution in the Balkans is the highest in Europe. Particle pollution levels are often higher than in Beijing and on some days they are among the highest in the world. Sulphur dioxide in winter can be over 30 times greater than what we normally see in western Europe.”
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Grays, Essex: I visit an unassuming gorge where a wealth of ice age fossils was once found, telling us about Britain’s megafauna – and Neanderthals
You wouldn’t know the Lion Pit was there. This overgrown gorge exists quietly, without the sensation its name implies, below a housing estate, by Lakeside shopping centre and within earshot of the M25, wedged on all sides as tightly as the newbuilds that line its cliffs. This is industrial West Thurrock, far south Essex, where the wild marshes that still thrive on the Blackwater Estuary, where I live in the north-east of the county, have long since disappeared.
As I arrive, a fox strolls up the road, urbanely cool. It darts over the edge and into the gorge. I follow it. Descend into the pit, and you’re down in deep time. Ice age time, to be precise, because this location has produced some of the most important archaeological finds of Britain’s Palaeolithic past.
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More than 30,000 households left with defects after ‘catastrophic failure’ of Tory government schemes
Members of parliament have called for the Serious Fraud Office to investigate the UK’s home insulation sector, after thousands of householders suffered ruined homes, big financial losses and months of disruption from the “clear and catastrophic failure” of two Conservative government schemes.
More than 30,000 households were left with defects, some of them severe, including mould, water ingress and damage to the fabric of walls, with about 3,000 dwellings so badly damaged they presented immediate health and safety risks to occupants.
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Oil, out-of-date milk and even roast dinner residues contribute to the growth of fatbergs, a sticky problem for sewerage systems
Fatbergs are a sticky problem for sewerage systems – blocking pipes, spawning poo balls, and even forcing the cancellation of a Bryan Adams concert.
When households pour cooking oils, out-of-date milk or the residues of a roast dinner down the sink, it contributes to the buildup of fats, oils and grease – known as FOG – in the wastewater system, and the growth of fatbergs.
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Coroner is yet to determine the cause of death of Piper James, a 19-year-old Canadian woman found surrounded by dingoes on Monday
In the early hours of Monday morning, a young woman’s body was found being mauled by a pack of dingoes near a shipwreck on a windswept stretch of white sand beach on an island off the east coast of Australia.
The island was K’gari, formerly known as Fraser Island, in southern Queensland, home to about 150 human inhabitants and a population of dingoes genetically distinct from those on the mainland. Called wongari in the language of its Butchulla traditional owners, the lean yellow and white canids are sacred to the First People and indelibly entwined in the cultural fabric of this world-heritage listed sand island.
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Neighbours might look askance at Jarno Coone’s unkempt yard, but the local birds, bees and bats aren’t bothered by the aesthetics
When they moved in about 13 years ago, there was plush green lawn out the front. Nowadays the grass is so high that neighbours fear it could be harbouring snakes. Even the meter reader is a bit wary.
“I’d love to have snakes in the front yard. But they need water. And so they stay down by the river, which is a couple of blocks away,” says Jarno Coone, whose unkempt front yard in Kyneton, Victoria, has been named the World’s Ugliest Lawn 2025.
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