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According to a new study led by researchers from the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, protected natural areas in the UK are struggling to halt declines in insects and spiders that have occurred over the last 30 years (UKCEH).

Nature reserves, Special Areas of Conservation, and other forms of protected habitat have long been regarded as critical tools in conservation efforts to preserve and restore natural habitats.

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During the Covid years from 2020 to 2022, around 180,000 more people died in Germany than would have been normally expected. This is the finding of calculations by the ifo Institute. “The elderly were especially poorly protected,” says Joachim Ragnitz, Managing Director of ifo Dresden. In the 80+ age group alone, 116,000 more people died than expected; in the 60–79 age group, the figure was 51,000. In the large age group of 30–59, on the other hand, there were only 12,000 additional deaths and only about 900 among those aged 0–29.

US President Joe Biden. LEHTIKUVA / AFP

US President Joe Biden was employed by the University of Pennsylvania after leaving the vice presidency and was paid one million dollars a year as a professor but never taught a class.

On Tuesday, at North America Leaders' Summit in Mexico City, Biden said, "The four years after being vice president, I was a professor at Penn."

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The Facebook and Instagram accounts of former US President Donald Trump will be reinstated by Meta after a ban of two years, according to New York Times.

Notably, Trump's accounts on Facebook and Instagram were suspended by Meta following the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

Photo: ifo Institute

Construction in Europe will see weaker growth in the period 2023–2025. Residential construction in particular – in Italy and many other European countries – is facing considerable headwinds. This is evident from calculations by the EUROCONSTRUCT forecasting network, of which the ifo Institute is a member. “Resilience will be greatest in civil engineering,” says ifo expert Ludwig Dorffmeister.

Photo: Finland International School Pune (FIS)

Finland International School Pune (FIS) recently organized a one-of-a-kind opening ceremony to commemorate a successful start of their journey and as a celebration of togetherness between India and Finland.

The event commenced with an address by the Chief Guest, Finland's Madame Ambassador, Ritva Koukku Ronde, followed by joyful performances by the children.

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The United States said on the candidacies of Sweden and Finland for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) that the two Nordic countries are ready and should be added to the world's strongest defense alliance at the earliest possible opportunity.

Addressing a press briefing on Tuesday, the US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said that the US has been very clear about its views on Finland and Sweden's candidacies for NATO membership in public, as well as in private.

Windmills producer by Enercon at the SABA Wind Oy Ab wind power park in Hanko. LEHTIKUVA

The highest inflation in Finland in the past 40 years was covered in an article by Macau Business published in January 2023. It explains the reasons for the increase in prices and how the inflation could continue.

In 2022 the consumer prices in Finland rose by about 7% which is the highest increase in the past 40 years. “Inflation in 2022 was exceptional compared to … past decades. Similar figures were last seen in the early 1980s,” chief actuary at Statistics Finland Kristiina Nieminen says.

Image: Mika Pakarinen, Keksi/LVM

The revised Directive concerning the security of network and information systems (NIS2) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 27 December 2022. NIS2 will replace the earlier Directive concerning measures for a high common level of security of network and information systems across the Union (NIS). The Ministry of Transport and Communications launched the national implementation on 2 January 2023 to transpose the obligations of the new Directive into national law.

President of the Republic of Finland Sauli Niinistö meets President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Tuesday 24 January 2023. Photo: Riikka Hietajärvi/Office of the President of the Republic of Finland

President of the Republic of Finland Sauli Niinistö visits Ukraine and meets President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Tuesday 24 January 2023. The visit underlines Finland’s strong and continuous support to Ukraine

The Presidents will discuss the current situation concerning the war of aggression that Russia started 11 months ago, Finland’s political and material support to Ukraine and Ukraine’s efforts to bring about a just peace.

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The past eight years were the warmest on record globally, fueled by ever-rising greenhouse gas concentrations and accumulated heat, according to six leading international temperature datasets consolidated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The average global temperature in 2022 was about 1.15 [1.02 to 1.27] °C above the pre-industrial (1850-1900) levels.

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In the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia which has resulted in widespread devastation of life and property, Ukraine has suffered its sharpest economic decline in over 30 years in 2022, Al Jazeera reported, citing the official data.

The Gross domestic product (GDP) declined by 30.4 per cent last year, according to preliminary figures from the data released by the Economy Ministry on Thursday.

Steel is one of the most important materials in the world, essential to the cars we drive, the buildings we live in, and the infrastructure that allows us to get around. Steel also contributes 7 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. 45 countries pledged in 2021 to pursue near-zero-emission steel over the next decade. But how feasible is it to produce the steel that society requires with zero emissions?

Pesticides application. Photo: Zeynel Cebeci

Pesticides banned by the EU because of harm and danger are still in our food or environment. Many EU countries continue to allow their use. In a new report, PAN Europe exposes the widespread abuse of emergency derogations in the EU.

Carcinogenic, mutagenic, genotoxic pesticides, those with strong negative impacts on the environment, and those highly toxic to bees are still used in food production.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on January 04, 2023 in New York City. U.S. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP) LEHTIKUVA / AFP

Economic experts from around the world expect inflation to gradually decline, finds the latest Economic Experts Survey, which is conducted quarterly by the ifo Institute and the Swiss Economic Policy Institute. According to this, the inflation rate worldwide will reach 7.1 percent in the new year, then 5.8 percent next year, and only 4.5 percent in 2026. “Expectations at the beginning of the year are encouraging because, compared with the previous quarter, experts see somewhat lower inflation rates,” says ifo researcher Niklas Potrafke. “Nevertheless, inflation remains at a very high level.”