This week's top stories
In our last edition we shared the news of two huge new marine protected areas in Samoa and French Polynesia (now the world’s largest). Turns out they weren't alone. In the last fortnight...
- Colombia designated a new 8,000 km² marine protected area around the San Andrés archipelago in the Caribbean.
- Tanzania announced two new marine protected areas covering 1,300 km2 in the waters around Pemba Island.
- Spain will expand protections to cover 25% of its marine waters, including critical habitat for whales, dolphins, and endangered seabirds.
- Portugal created a new marine protected area covering nearly 2,700 km² off its southern coast.
- The Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea announced plans to create the massive, 6.07 million km² Melanesian Ocean Reserve, covering an area nearly as big as the entire Amazon rainforest.
The Ocean Cleanup has launched a new initiative targeting 30 of the world’s most polluted rivers, aiming to reduce plastic inflow into the ocean by one-third by 2030. The plan is to bring their Interceptors (snazzy belts and boats, read more about them here) to 30 cities with the dirtiest rivers, including Mumbai, Bangkok and Los Angeles. Backed by city governments and philanthropies, the initiative marks a major scale-up in global efforts to tackle marine plastic at its source.
50 countries, plus the European Union, have now ratified the UN’s High Seas Treaty, aimed at protecting international waters that cover nearly half the planet’s surface, and beyond the jurisdiction of any single country. The agreement needs at least 60 countries to ratify it to enter into force. The Conversation
… plus the European Commission announced a €1 billion investment to support ocean conservation, science, and sustainable fishing, Germany launched a €100-million programme to remove underwater munitions from the Baltic and North Seas, New Zealand committed $52 million to strengthen the Pacific’s ocean governance, and a 37-country coalition led by Panama and Canada, launched the High Ambition Coalition for a Quiet Ocean to tackle underwater noise pollution. UNOC
Bolivia’s Congress has advanced legislation to ban child marriage, raising the legal age to 18 without exceptions. The move follows similar reforms in Colombia and would close one of South America’s last remaining legal gaps on child marriage. Latin Times
Speaking of, Colombia has launched a national programme for children orphaned by femicide, offering financial support, counselling, and legal aid to survivors. Thousands of children are expected to benefit, marking one of the world’s first large-scale policy responses to the hidden toll of gender-based killings. Al Jazeera
Oh, and Colombia’s government has entered new negotiations with armed groups in a bid to extend its 'total peace' agenda. Talks include ceasefires, reintegration measures, and rural investment aimed at addressing long-standing grievances. While past efforts have collapsed, officials say public pressure and fatigue with violence are creating a rare window for breakthrough. El Pais 🗄️
We thought this egg-laying mammal might be extinct. It wasn’t. Clickbait boldface, but excellent news: biologists have confirmed the ‘rediscovery’ of Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna, one of the sole living representatives of the monotreme lineage that diverged from therians (marsupials and placental mammals) approximately 200 million years ago. By combining camera traps with indigenous knowledge, researchers obtained the footage in New Guinea. Cute! Nature
In the Terpera language of Yongsu Sapari and Yongsu Dosoyo, the echidna is called Payangko, and our camera-trap images demonstrate the potential importance of Indigenous and local knowledge in biodiversity research. Our success in capturing the first photographic evidence of the species was built on the Indigenous and local knowledge of communities in the Cyclops, which informed us on echidna behaviour and habitat, where to place camera-traps, how to search for echidna signs and, fundamentally, gave us confidence the species was still extant.
Global EV sales rise 28% in first five months of 2025. Sales rose to 7.2 million units globally between January 2025 and May 2025, driven by surging demand in China and a sharp rebound in Europe. China accounted for 60% of all EVs sold, while Europe posted 15% growth after a subdued 2024. The data suggest EV uptake remains resilient despite subsidy cuts and broader auto market stagnation. Rho Motion
India accelerates battery rollout with massive funding scheme
India has approved ₹5,400 crore (around $650 million) to support 30 GWh of new battery storage, part of its larger clean energy ambitions. The funding covers a huge financing gap and complements a recent decision to waive transmission charges on storage projects until mid-2028. Combined, these moves signal a pivot from coal dependency to grid flexibility.
A man with a severe speech disability has been able to speak expressively using a brain implant that translates neural activity into words almost instantly. The device, implanted in the motor cortex, uses a synthetic voice to speak words within 10 milliseconds of detecting intention - a significant improvement over earlier models which took at least three seconds. The implant also conveys intonation, lets the user emphasise words, and hum and sing. Nature
Researchers have found that we all have a unique 'breathprint', tied not only to our body mass index, but also to patterns of anxiety, depression and autism. For example, those scoring high on depressive traits tended to exhale very swiftly. These unexpected findings could point to a positive future for non-invasive mental health screening. NYT 🎁
MPs vote to decriminalise abortion for women in England and Wales
Parliament has backed a landmark amendment removing criminal penalties for women ending their own pregnancies, the most significant shift in abortion law in nearly 60 years. While legal limits remain unchanged, the amendment ends police investigations of women outside the 24-week threshold. Advocates called it a long-overdue correction to a Victorian-era law still used against vulnerable women. BBC
Fresh data from UNICEF reveals that the proportion of children in child labour has more than halved since the beginning of this century, thanks to a combination of tighter laws, better schooling, and poverty reduction.
After a concerning rise in child labour captured by the global estimates for 2020, a feared further deterioration in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has not materialized, and the world has succeeded in returning to a path of progress. There are over 100 million fewer children in child labour today than in 2000, even as the child population increased by 230 million over the same period.
Steel is China’s dirtiest industry, responsible for roughly 15% of national CO₂ emissions. But that’s changing, fast. Over 300 of China's roughly 500 steel plants are undergoing a government-mandated retrofit to meet “ultra-low emissions” standards by the end of 2025. Facilities must now slash particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, and carbon output, replacing outdated blast furnaces, capturing exhaust heat, and integrating real-time monitoring. If completed on schedule, it will be the largest decarbonisation of heavy industry anywhere in the world. BigMint
And finally: Maize may be the iconic crop of North America, but it’s pretty hard to grow, especially in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The crop likes long, frost-free seasons and nutrient-loaded soil, labour-intensive enough that for decades scholars thought corn was only the remit of centralised, politically complex societies, and nothing like the small-scale egalitarian tribes who lived in Upper Michigan before the arrival of Europeans. Those people ate wild rice. Right?
…not right. Archaeologists have uncovered what may be the largest intact Native American agricultural site in eastern North America, showing First Nations were growing corn at massive scale, engaging in environmental engineering on over 300 hectares of raised and ridged agricultural fields. This isn’t just cool because now we know what people ate 400-1,000 years ago, but because it demonstrates that such huge environmental engineering was achievable outside a polity based in hierarchy. “This challenges persistent ethnocentric and simplistic models that equate complexity solely with political centralization and population density.” Scienmag
Human Progress
Egypt has hit the WHO's target for controlling hepatitis B in children under five - the first country in the Eastern Mediterranean to do so. Hepatitis B used to be a persistent threat, but a birth-dose vaccination policy, universal screening, and a drive to reach undocumented children has helped bring prevalence below 2%. Daily News Egypt
In one of the most mosquito-infested places on Earth, healthcare workers are calling the arrival of the malaria vaccine a 'godsend.' Mothers in Uganda's Apac district have been lining up daily since the launch in April, defying concerns that misinformation and stigma would slow uptake. The initial phase of Uganda's rollout aims to reach 1.1 million children under the age of two, across 105 high and moderate transmission districts. Gavi
Cambodia’s school meals programme is now reaching 300,000 children every day. National funds cover 60% of the costs, part of the government’s shift from donor-funded aid to nationally owned policy. School meals may seem small-scale but in a wide-ranging interview, Dr. Sok Silo, the Secretary General of the Council of Agriculture and Rural Development, explains why they're so important.
British authorities are using hospital data, youth outreach, and city planning to prevent violence, with incredible results. To take one example, the number of men seeking treatment after Saturday night fights has dropped by 55% over the past decade, with 65% of the decline driven by fewer 18- to 30-year-olds getting into fights. A rise in teetotal 16- to 24-year-olds - from 18% to 28% - suggests changing drinking habits could be behind the shift, alongside preventative policing. The Economist 🗄️
Sticking with the UK, after years of campaigning, the Labour government is repealing the 1824 Vagrancy Act, a 'cruel and outdated' law that criminalised rough sleeping and begging for two centuries. The legal overhaul will remove police powers to fine or arrest people simply for being homeless, instead replacing punishment with prevention, housing support, and health interventions. BBC
Jamaica’s murder rate has fallen by 42% year-on-year, marking the country’s steepest decline in over four decades. Serious and violent crimes overall are down 22%, and the national weekly average for murders now stands at 13 - down from 22 per week last year. The drop follows sustained crackdowns on organised crime, tighter border controls, and community-based policing that locals say have helped to dismantle violent networks. NY Carib News
In a landmark win for Indigenous sovereignty in Canada, the Heiltsuk Nation in British Columbia has formally adopted its own constitution. The new constitution enshrines the power of both elected members and hereditary chiefs, and shifts control over justice, child welfare, and land management back to the community. The Guardian
It’s not just this hatred or righteous anger at these historical and contemporary wrongs. It’s the love for our own people. We’re not turning our back from state recognition. We’re just saying we don’t need it. We need to recognize our law first.
Environment & Conservation
The UN has named its first three World Restoration Flagships, part of its global drive to scale up ecosystem restoration. The new flagships are: mangroves and coral reef ecosystems in Mozambique, Mexico's famous seabird islands, and Spain's Mar Menor Lagoon, Europe’s first ecosystem with legal personhood.
A Eurasian beaver has been spotted in Portugal - the first confirmed sighting in more than five centuries. Likely crossing from Spain, where reintroduction efforts began in the 2000s, the beaver was filmed building a dam in the Côa Valley, a key rewilding corridor. Its return signals healthier river ecosystems and reflects broader conservation gains in the region. Rewilding Portugal is now monitoring the area, hoping this marks the beginning of a permanent comeback.
China has joined the UN’s Port State Measures Agreement, committing to inspect and deny entry to any fishing vessels suspected of illegal, unreported, or unregulated activity. Analysts say the move, alongside a rigid distant‑water fleet overhaul, marks China’s most significant push in years to curb illegal fishing. Dialogue Earth
Isotope evidence shows steep decline in atmospheric mercury. Using alpine plants as bio-monitors, researchers reconstructed four decades of atmospheric mercury on Mount Everest and found a ~70% drop since 2002. Isotope models suggest direct human sources of mercury fell off sharply, while legacy emissions from soil and oceans have become more dominant, proportionally. Environmental Science & Technology
Hundreds of white rhinos have been relocated from South Africa to Rwanda and Uganda, expanding the species’ range and strengthening long-term conservation efforts. 70 rhinos now call Rwanda's Akagera National Park home after completing a 3,400 km journey by road and Boeing 747 (!) and 48 rhinos now roam Uganda’s Ziwa Ranch, following a local extinction back in the 1980s.
The US Navy has officially banned all medical testing involving cats and dogs. The announcement follows a years-long campaign by White Coat Waste, a nonprofit whose aim is to stop the U.S. government from using animals or funding research that harms animals.
Some more welcome conservation wins across the United States:
- In Florida, the Miccosukee Tribe have partnered with the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation in an ambitious project to connect 72,000 km² of state and privately owned wilderness into a contiguous, safe habitat for endangered species, including black bears and panthers.
- In Oklahoma, ranchers have restored over 1,700 km of streams by fencing off waterways to keep cattle out, allowing native grasses and clean water to return.
- In Washington, conservationists have rescued the Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly by restoring prairie habitat around Puget Sound and reintroducing captive-bred individuals.
- In California, the Yurok Tribe has reclaimed 190 km² along the Klamath River, the largest land-back conservation deal in California history. All it took was "two decades of relentless work, pioneering funding tools, and $60 million paid to a timber company."
And while we're on the Klamath, the Guardian has a great long read on what's happening now that the dams are down.
Vestiges of the recent past are still visible. Gradients of green shroud a scar left by the high-water mark of the reservoir. Columns of dried mud, remnants of the 15 million cubic yards of sediment held behind the dams, are clumped along the river’s edge But there are also signs of nature’s resilience. Swaying willows stand stalwart from the banks. Behind them, rolling hills splashed with orange and yellow wildflowers and ancient basalt pillars stretch to the horizon. Far from the hum of highway and roads, the silence here is broken only by the purr of the river as it rolls over rocks, accented with eagle calls or chattering sparrows who have already claimed sites along the water for their nests.
Energy & Climate
Energy analyst, Michael Thomas, with an important reminder:
I often feel like we aren't making any progress on addressing climate change. Everyday the news is bleak. But that's why I try to zoom out often and look at the data. When you do that, the trend is unmistakeable: We're in the early days of a clean energy revolution. In every city, state, and country around the world humans are replacing polluting fossil fuel infrastructure with cleaner sources of energy. Much of this transition is being driven by the fact that clean energy is just better than fossil energy is so many ways. It's often cheaper. It enables autonomy and independence—at both the individual and country-level. And it's, well, cleaner. Progress is neither linear nor inevitable. But it's happening. And the speed of the transition is largely in our control. When people show up and demand that their elected leaders pass ambitious policies to accelerate the transition, they often do.
Case in point: in the first quarter of 2025, the United States added 8.6 GW of solar manufacturing capacity, led by factories in Texas, Ohio, and Arizona. Politics be damned, of the top ten states with the most solar installations this quarter, eight were won by Trump in 2024: Texas, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Arizona, Wisconsin, Idaho, and Pennsylvania. Wood Mackenzie
But lest you think US liberals have been tying themselves up too much in red (blue?) tape, take a look at how things have changed in California. Two years ago fossil gas generated 93% more power than solar; this year, solar's output has been 32% higher than fossil gas. In 2025, 56.6% of all demand so far has been met with wind, water, and sunshine, versus 54.1% in 2024 and 47.6% in 2023. Full steam ahead! Mark Jacobson
China’s coal imports fell by 18% in May 2025 compared to the previous year, driven by cheaper domestic coal and rapid renewable growth. Solar and wind contributed nearly 30% of power generation in the first five months of the year. Seems increasingly obvious that we are seeing structural decarbonisation, not just seasonal shifts. Reuters
Germany’s energy storage triples in just three years. Germany now hosts over 20 GWh of energy storage, up from 6.6 GWh in 2021. More than two million homes have installed battery systems alongside rooftop solar, driven by falling prices and feed-in tariff reforms. This marks one of the fastest storage expansions in Europe - and it's still accelerating. More than 1.7 GWh of new storage capacity was added in Q1 2025, representing a 16% increase compared to the same period last year. Strategic Energy
China’s ‘Shenzhen Model’ shows what urban decarbonisation at speed looks like. Shenzhen, once a fishing village and now a tech megacity of 17 million, has emerged as a blueprint for rapid urban decarbonisation. Since 2010, it has electrified 100% of its buses and taxis, slashed energy intensity by 40%, and halved per capita emissions—all while its economy grew fourfold. With China now promoting Shenzhen’s model nationwide, it may soon become the default template for low-carbon urbanisation in the Global South. Carbon Brief
Africa’s clean transportation revolution is underway. Electric mobility is gaining real traction across Africa, from Senegal’s battery-powered buses to Ethiopia’s expanding EV infrastructure. In Kenya, Roam has launched their 2nd generation motorcycle—locally assembled, built for rough roads, with swappable batteries and a 180 km range. It’s a powerful example of the continent’s small but emerging clean tech ecosystem: solutions designed in Africa, for Africa. Clean Technica
Science & Technology
A newly approved drug combination is showing strong results against chronic lymphocytic leukaemia — even in patients resistant to previous therapies. In clinical trials, nearly 80% of patients receiving the combination achieved remission within one year. The results, if sustained, could mark one of the biggest shifts in leukaemia treatment in decades. Independent
AI muscles into mathematics' last strongholds...
Large language models are now generating proofs, solving equations, and probing abstract structures that were once off-limits to machines. At a recent private meeting in Baltimore, mathematicians debated whether AI is becoming an indispensable collaborator — or threatening to rewrite the very nature of mathematical discovery. Scientific American
... and quantum computers are breaking into particle physics.
For the first time, a 16-qubit quantum computer has simulated key aspects of particle interactions once thought too complex for classical systems. Could these platforms crack the problems sitting at the heart of fundamental physics? New Scientist
A new satellite that can detect changes on Earth’s surface down to the centimetre is set to launch this week from India. Weighing almost three tonnes, the US$1.5 billion NISAR satellite will track the ground under our feet and the water that flows through it, providing valuable information for farmers, climate scientists and natural disaster response teams. The Conversation
Hopes for life on exoplanet K2-18b—once one of the most promising candidates for habitability—have dimmed after the JWST failed to detect methane or carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This may not seem like good news but the results are, per one scientist's words, a reminder of "how rare life may be, even on seemingly favourable worlds." In other words, we’re all pretty lucky. NYT
Solar Orbiter sends back first images of the Sun’s south pole. ESA’s Solar Orbiter, now tilted 17° below the Sun’s equator, has sent back humanity’s first close-up images of the Sun’s south pole. The images reveal swirling magnetic chaos during solar maximum, offering fresh clues into how the Sun’s field flips roughly every 11 years. It doesn't stop there - later this year, we'll get our first images of the sun’s north pole too. The Guardian
That's it for this edition, thanks for reading! Remember, it's a big world out there, and more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in the news media's philosophy.
We'll see you next week :)
With love,
The FTN team