Parliamentary group launched alongside campaign for ‘play sufficiency duty’ that matches those in Wales and Scotland
UK politics live – latest updates
A duty to provide space for children to play on new developments should be embedded in planning law, MPs and campaigners have said.
The first ever all-party parliamentary group on play was launched on Tuesday alongside a campaign to bring in a “play sufficiency duty” in England to match those in Wales and Scotland.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
05/13/2025 - 09:48
05/13/2025 - 06:48
US agriculture secretary says country is moving away from both methods of production, illegal in UK and EU
Chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-fed beef may not be essential for a US-UK trade deal, Donald Trump’s agriculture secretary has indicated.
Speaking to journalists at a press conference in London, Brooke Rollins said the market was moving away from the two controversial methods of production, which are illegal in the UK and the EU.
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05/13/2025 - 06:03
Enfield’s Ergin Erbil under pressure to recuse himself from decisions over football club’s property plans
The leader of Enfield council is under pressure to recuse himself from decisions over the property plans of Tottenham Hotspur, after accepting match tickets days before the felling of an ancient oak by a company financially linked to the football club.
Labour’s Ergin Erbil has been the public voice of the council’s outrage at the felling on 3 April of a 500-year-old ancient oak by contractors for Mitchells & Butlers Retail (MBR), the pub chain that runs a Toby Carvery on land leased from the London borough.
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05/13/2025 - 06:00
Bioplastics, heralded for supposedly breaking down more quickly, can cause similar health problems to other plastics
Starch-based bioplastic that is said to be biodegradable and sustainable is potentially as toxic as petroleum-based plastic, and can cause similar health problems, new peer-reviewed research finds.
Bioplastics have been heralded as the future of plastic because it breaks down quicker than petroleum-based plastic, and is often made from plant-based material such as corn starch, rice starch or sugar.
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05/13/2025 - 01:00
It broke my heart to see a seal so injured by a £1 plastic toy. Now I campaign to ban them – and it has changed my life
There was an incident seven years ago that changed my life. I saw an adult grey seal with a plastic pink flying ring toy so deeply embedded in her neck that she was practically dead. It was stopping her from feeding because it was digging into her and she couldn’t extend her neck – the wounds were horrific.
It broke my heart. From that moment on, I became obsessed with seals and protecting them from the dangers of plastic flying rings.
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05/13/2025 - 00:00
The 1,274-hectare Bradford Pennine Gateway links eight nature sites and includes landscape that inspired sisters
The sweeping landscapes of the Pennines inspired the Brontë sisters, and now those lands are being protected as one of England’s biggest nature reserves.
A huge new national nature reserve, to be called the Bradford Pennine Gateway, is being announced by the government on Tuesday. It will give Bradford, one of Britain’s largest and most nature-deprived cities, easier and more protected access to green space
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05/12/2025 - 23:00
Exclusive: Andrew Bowie says Kemi Badenoch could pull UK out of Paris climate agreement
The Conservative party’s energy spokesperson has attacked leading climate scientists as biased and claimed Kemi Badenoch could take the UK out of the Paris climate agreement.
Andrew Bowie, the acting shadow secretary for energy, told the Guardian that the target of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 – passed into law by Theresa May – was “arbitrary” and “not based on science”.
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05/12/2025 - 13:00
Wood barrels circle the world and can be used for more than a century. They tell a story, but they’re imperiled by tariffs
No one at Tucson’s Hamilton Distillers knows exactly what wood the cognac barrels holding whiskey are made of.
“Probably Spanish oak?” one employee ventures a guess. The age of the barrels is also a question mark. No one working here is old enough to vouch for that; the distillery believes they are anywhere from 100 to 125 years old, which is old in the grand scheme of barrels’ lifespans, but not unusual. But it can say with certainty, using records of its vintages, that these barrels are on their fifth use – at least.
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05/12/2025 - 12:36
Pink salmon, Purple Asian clams, marine invertebrates that form spaghetti-like colonies and a nematode worm that causes extensive deaths of trees are among the new entries in experts' watchlist of invasive non-native species that could threaten Great Britain in the next 10 years. The latest version of the watchlist again includes known problem species such as the yellow-legged (Asian) hornet, raccoon and twoleaf watermilfoil.
05/12/2025 - 10:00
Karenia mikimotoi algae can suffocate fish, cause haemorrhaging and act as a neurotoxin, one expert says
Australia news live: latest politics updates
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More than 200 marine species, including deepwater sharks, leafy sea dragons and octopuses, have been killed by a toxic algal bloom that has been affecting South Australia’s coastline since March.
Nearly half (47%) of the dead species were ray-finned fish and a quarter (26%) were sharks and rays, according to OzFish analysis of 1,400 citizen scientist reports.
Get Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an email
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