Louise Haigh is expected to agree to cut a target for EV sales by about a quarter
The Tories have criticised the Scottish government for posting a message on its X social media account about a Sikh festival at 11am yesterday – as the nation was observing the two-minute silence for Remembrance Sunday. Harriet Cross, the shadow Scottish secretary, said:
It is hard to see their decision to post about a Sikh festival at precisely 11am, at the very moment that people across the country were observing a two-minute silence to honour our war dead, as a coincidence.
There is no reason why they couldn’t have recognised both - not least out of respect to the 83,000 Sikhs killed fighting in both World Wars.
Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, said he plans to introduce new legislation to introduce mandatory human rights due diligence for companies, which will require them to remove products made with forced labour and modern slavery.
He outlined the move in a letter to the Commons business committee, which has been calling for new business safeguards against modern slavery for nearly two years.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
11/09/2026 - 05:11
11/09/2026 - 05:00
There is no ‘saving’ these traumatised mammals from places like Marineland in Canada. Humans need to understand that our actions are not easily undone
Remember “Save the whales”? Now that was an environmental campaign everyone could get behind. Surely you don’t want whales to die!
It may have got the 1986 global ban on commercial whaling over the line, but in these sophisticated times that slogan seems woefully reductive, even naive. As Greenpeace warns on its website, 40 years later: “There is still more work to be done to save the whales.” Yes. You might say, surveying the state of our ocean ecosystems, there’s quite a bit.
Elle Hunt is a freelance journalist
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11/09/2026 - 02:30
Increased heat will supercharge extreme weather events, warns UN agency as Cop31 climate summit begins
Heat is accumulating in Earth’s systems at an accelerating rate, the UN’s weather agency has reported as the Cop31 climate change summit begins in Turkey, with 2026 on track to be one of the four warmest years on record.
The imbalance between incoming energy from the sun and energy leaving Earth reached its highest level since monitoring began, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its State of the Global Climate update.
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11/09/2026 - 02:12
UN climate summit will focus on how to implement the targets needed to urgently cut greenhouse gas emissions
What is at stake at the UN climate summit and what can it achieve?
Key players at the climate talks
Next up is the Australian climate change minister, Chris Bowen, who is president of the negotiations here in Antalya.
This is his big moment to set the tone for the next two weeks, and he said even though the 1.5C Paris target will be overshot, “we can return … if we work together and act with urgency, solidarity and resolve.”
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11/09/2026 - 01:00
US government will have no official presence at UN’s annual climate summit, this year’s Cop31 held in Antalya, Turkey
The US will be absent from key UN climate talks that start on Monday, a further sign of Donald Trump’s scornful dismissal of the climate crisis. But Democrats’ crushing win in the US midterm elections has delivered a timely shot of optimism to countries now looking beyond the Trump era of climate obstruction.
For the second year in a row, there will be no official US government presence at the annual climate summit, this year known as Cop31 and held in Antalya, Turkey. While almost every other country in the world sends delegations to the talks, Trump has derided the climate crisis as a “hoax” and “bullshit” and triggered the withdrawal of the US from the entire international climate framework.
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11/09/2026 - 00:47
‘It’s pretty obvious that there are all sorts of people making all sorts of comments,’ Murray Watt says after budget savings meeting
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The environment minister, Murray Watt, has urged ministers to stop undermining the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, as Labor struggles to sell its budget and looks to cut popular clean energy subsidies to help with the fight against inflation.
Cabinet ministers met again on Monday to discuss potential budget savings to be included in next month’s mid-year update, part of efforts to reducing spending to ease pressure on the economy.
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11/09/2026 - 00:39
It’s 2126 and class is getting under way beneath the Earth’s remaining ocean
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11/08/2026 - 13:50
The first winter storm began affecting the people of Gaza this weekend with heavy rain hitting on Saturday. Reports that about 70,000 tents were flooded within 12 hours prompted warnings of a worsening humanitarian situation for hundreds of thousands of displaced people living in temporary camps lacking adequate protection from rain and cold
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11/08/2026 - 12:51
Exclusive: Louise Haigh likely to weaken mandate for sales that forms key part of emission reduction plan
Analysis: Climate always comes second – are green issues slipping down Burnham’s agenda?
Ministers are expected to make steep cuts to the government’s electric vehicle (EV) targets this week, in a move that will relieve carmakers but alarm many Labour MPs who are worried about the government’s commitment to the green agenda.
Louise Haigh, the de facto deputy prime minister, will finalise the plan after a crunch meeting in Downing Street on Wednesday to settle a long-running dispute between the transport, energy and business departments.
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