On a bright but chilly February morning, around a dozen volunteers gather by the beachfront at Minster, on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. In bobble hats and walking boots, they carry blue plastic bags and litter pickers. They wander slowly past the dog walkers and brightly painted beach huts, combing the pebbles for waste. But the rubbish they’re looking for isn’t normal litter; it’s builders’ rubble and shredded household waste. It was dumped en masse by the lorry load, at an illegal dump site further up the coast by Eastchurch Gap, between 2020 and 2023. “It’s lots of guttering […]

Thousands of new species have been discovered by scientists this year – here are some of the weirdest. From the depths of the Pacific Ocean to the mountains of Vietnam, thousands of weird and wonderful new plants, animals and fungi have been discovered all over the world this year. Whether they are creatures unearthed in a little explored corner of the globe, or a specimen lying hidden in a drawer of a museum, they give us an exciting glimpse of the precious variety of life on our planet. The discoveries came amid growing frustration at the lack of progress being […]

Former PM Liz Truss says she hopes Donald Trump wins the next US election. The UK’s shortest-serving prime minster said the world was “on the cusp of very, very strong conflict” and needed “a strong America more than ever”. Source: BBC