BANGKOK – The Trump administration plan to allow mining of deep sea metals in the Pacific Ocean would unequivocally violate international law, experts said, making any attempt to sell the minerals – used in batteries, weapons and smartphones – open to challenge by other nations. President Donald Trump last month signed an executive order to speed development of the contentious deep sea mining industry, including in off-limits international waters governed by a treaty most nations are signatory to. The order said action is needed to “counter China’s growing influence over…
Tag: Environment
Potential role for Chinese firm in key UK windfarm attracts government scrutiny
Ministers are weighing up proposals for a Chinese company to supply wind turbines for a major offshore windfarm in the North Sea. The government is in discussions with Green Volt North Sea over whether Mingyang, China’s biggest offshore wind company, should supply the wind turbines. Mingyang has emerged as the preferred manufacturer, but the company has sought advice from ministers on whether to proceed. Green Volt, which is jointly owned by Flotation Energy, a Scottish company and Vårgrønn, a Norwegian one, is constructing the first commercial-scale floating offshore windfarm in…
The missing lynx: how the rise of border walls has split up wildlife populations
The lynxes of the Białowieża forest once freely prowled through 1,420 sq km (548 sq miles) of ancient woodland. Then, in 2022, the habitat was abruptly sliced in two. Poland built a 115-mile (186km) wall across its border with Belarus to stop refugees and migrants entering the EU. About 15 lynxes were left stranded on the Polish side of the forest, forced into a genetic bottleneck. The 5.5-metre high barrier, which is topped with wire and cameras, also dissects the forest’s population of bison, wolves and elk. Researchers monitored 10…
Student rescued from Mount Fuji twice in one week
A university student has been rescued from the slopes of Mount Fuji twice in the space of a week – the second time during an attempt to retrieve his mobile phone. The hapless climber, a 27-year-old Chinese national who has not been named, was airlifted from Japan’s highest mountain last week, only to be the subject of a second search four days later. It emerged that he had returned to the scene of his first rescue to retrieve his phone, Japanese media reported. The student, who lives in Japan, was…
Boonie Bears: Future Reborn review – kiddie Chinese eco-fable is like Mad Max on mushrooms
When George Michael recorded Careless Whisper, there can be no doubt his ultimate ambition for it would have been to soundtrack a garish animated sequence in which two anthropomorphic bears gambol through a prairie of giant fungus experiencing ecstatic visions as hallucinogenic spores rain down on them. Such is the frantic way of this Chinese cartoon franchise, as relentless and exhausting as ever in its 11th feature-film instalment. Five minutes in, before the credits, it has crammed in a post-apocalyptic prologue, oodles of eco-babble, a time-travelling tyke and an avalanche.…
US takes step towards deep sea mining in international waters
BANGKOK – U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered his administration to speed development of the deep sea mining industry, including in international waters governed by a U.N. treaty that most nations are signatory to. A Trump executive order signed Thursday says the U.S. must “counter China’s growing influence over seabed mineral resources,” – namely the potato sized nodules that carpet vast areas of the seabed and contain rare earths and minerals such as nickel, cobalt and manganese. Like Trump’s tariff shock therapy, the deep sea mining policy threatens to upend…
Xi contrasts China’s clean energy promises with Trump turmoil
China will continue to push forward on the climate crisis, Xi Jinping has said while appearing to criticise the “protectionism” of Donald Trump’s tariff policies. The Chinese president was attending a closed-door virtual meeting with the UN secretary general, António Guterres, Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and about a dozen other heads of state and government to discuss the climate crisis. Xi told the meeting that China would “not slow down its climate actions”, according a draft of his remarks.…
Ed Miliband bows to pressure with ban on solar panels linked to Chinese slavery
Ed Miliband will ban the UK’s national energy company from investing in projects that use solar panels linked to Chinese slave labour after bowing to pressure from Labour and Conservative MPs. The energy secretary has dropped his previous resistance to rewriting the bill establishing Great British Energy and will now introduce an amendment that forces the company to make sure there is no slavery or human trafficking in its supply chain. The decision, which was first reported by the Times, was welcomed by MPs and campaigners seeking to highlight Chinese…
Starmer calls for ‘lower temperature’ in trans debate as Badenoch says he must admit he was wrong about defining women – UK politics live
From 1h ago Starmer urges MPs to ‘lower the temperature’ in trans debate, as Badenoch challenges him to admit he was wrong about defining women Kemi Badenoch also wishes people a happy St George’s Day. And she says, being married to a Catholic, she knows how much the Pope meant to people. Does the PM accept that, when he said a trans woman was a woman, he was wrong. Starmer says the supreme court ruling has brought clarity. He sets out the principles he is applying. And he says it…
British Steel must now join the modern economy, not be a prisoner of the old | Will Hutton
The fate of incoming Labour business and industry secretaries seems to be to launch emergency rescue packages for industries that would otherwise face imminent closure. Witness Jonathan Reynolds at last Saturday’s extraordinary parliamentary recall arguing for the legal right to take over the running of British Steel from its Chinese owner, Jingye, in order to save up to 3,500 jobs and Britain’s strategic capacity to make steel. And witness Tony Benn, in 1974, offering a financial lifeline to 3,000 workers forming a cooperative to save motorcycle manufacture at the failed…