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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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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.

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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.

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.

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?

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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."