Environment

• Tuesday, August 7th 2018 - 10:43 UTC

  Chile legally bans the widespread commercial use of plastic bags

  

  Chile has become the first South American country to legally ban the widespread commercial use of plastic bags. The new legislation approved by Congress and enacted by President Sebastián Piñera, gives small shops two years to adapt to a total ban.

• Monday, August 6th 2018 - 06:45 UTC

  East Australia suffering worst drought in living memory: massive cull of livestock

  

  The worst drought in living memory is sweeping parts of eastern Australia, leaving farmers struggling to cope and asking questions about their future. Record-low rainfall in some regions and successive seasons of above-average temperatures have blighted vast tracts of Australia's grazing and crop land.

• Wednesday, August 1st 2018 - 07:51 UTC

  Last year was the fifth warmest for UK in over a century

  

  Last year was the fifth warmest for the UK in records dating back more than a century, the Met Office has confirmed. Figures show the UK climate is warming, with average temperatures over the last decade around 0.8C above the 1961 to 1990 average, while the country has also seen 8% more rain and 6% more sunshine.

• Wednesday, August 1st 2018 - 07:21 UTC

  Europe melting: river water suffocates fish and is too hot to cool nuclear power stations

  

  The heat wave gripping large stretches of Europe has already been blamed for deadly forest fires and crop failures. Now, freshwater fish could be its next victims. Some regions in Germany sweltered as the mercury hit 39C, and the German Meteorological Office said the country’s all-time record of 40.3C could be topped this week.

• Tuesday, July 31st 2018 - 08:12 UTC

  Argentina and Spain sign fisheries MoU to promote conservation and management of straddling species

  

  Argentina and Spain have signed a fisheries and aquaculture bilateral cooperation Memorandum of Understanding. The MoU was stamped in Buenos Aires during the recent G20 Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries ministerial meeting by Argentina's Luis Miguel Etchevehere and Spain's Luis Planas.

• Tuesday, July 31st 2018 - 07:47 UTC

  King penguins down to 10% of original population in three years in French island

  

  The planet's largest colony of King penguins has declined by nearly 90% in three decades, alarmed researchers said on Monday. The last time scientists set foot on France's remote Ile aux Cochons — roughly half way between the tip of Africa and Antarctica — the island was blanketed by two million of the flightless birds, which stand about a meter tall.

• Tuesday, July 31st 2018 - 06:52 UTC

  UK embassy in Guatemala holds forum on Illegal Wildlife Trade

  

  The British Embassy in Guatemala hosted a forum bringing together local partners in the fight against the Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT). Over the past decade, IWT has become a serious criminal industry fuelled by corruption, which has damaged economic growth and sustainable development, undermined good governance and the rule of law across the world, including here in Guatemala.

• Friday, July 27th 2018 - 08:28 UTC

  ”Blood Moon” or longest total lunar eclipse of the century this Friday

  

  The longest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century takes place this Friday, July 27. The total phase of the “blood moon” eclipse of July 27 will last one hour and 43 minutes, during which Earth's natural satellite will turn a spectacular red or ruddy-brown color. From start to finish, the entire celestial event will last nearly 4 hours.

• Tuesday, July 17th 2018 - 15:31 UTC

  Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay US$ 4.7bn in damages to 22 women

  

  Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay US$ 4.7 billion in damages to 22 women who alleged that its talc products caused them to develop ovarian cancer. A jury in the US state of Missouri initially awarded US$ 550m in compensation and added US$ 4.1bn in punitive damages.

• Monday, July 16th 2018 - 07:20 UTC

  Argentine foreign ministry informs Tierra del Fuego delegation on the current Malvinas policy

  

  Overall the Argentine government is satisfied how relations with the UK regarding the South Atlantic, and Falklands' sovereignty claims are evolving, was the message with which members of the so called Malvinas Question Observatory from Tierra del Fuego province, returned to Ushuaia after meeting with foreign ministry officials in Buenos Aires, according to local media reports.