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Centrelink payments increase, higher passport fees and pay rises: all the 1 January changes in Australia in 2025
Bigger Austudy and carer allowance payments, higher Medicare safety net thresholds and mandatory corporate reporting on climate also in 1 Jan changes
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With the new year come new policies, laws, taxes and reforms. Here’s everything to know about changes on 1 January, 2025 that could affect you.
Continue reading...Republican-run states see opportunity to push extreme policies under Trump
Emboldened red states could advocate for rightwing reforms from steep tax cuts to slashes to education
Republican state lawmakers and conservative leaders around the United States see Donald Trump’s re-election as a mandate that will help them enact rightwing policies in Republican-run states across the US.
The policies include steep tax cuts, environmental legislation, religion in schools and legislation concerning transgender medical care and education, among other hot-button social issues.
Continue reading...At Extinction Rebellion, we aimed for UK net zero in 2025. That won't happen – so here’s what to do instead | Rupert Read
With the climate crisis hitting Britain, we must build resilience at a local level by rewilding, saving water and fighting floods
Imagine, for a moment, if 2025 was the year that the UK achieved its legally binding targets of reducing dangerous carbon emissions to zero. Imagine if the Extinction Rebellions of 2019 had achieved their goal, and the government had bowed to the pressure of climate activism to meet this target. In this counterfactual reality, the world would be much saner than our own. But as the new year arrives, we’re forced to confront a stark reality. Britain is nowhere near achieving zero carbon in the next 12 months.
When Extinction Rebellion (XR) was founded in 2018, the 2025 target was conceived as a clarion call to action. It was based on the need to decarbonise quickly, to mitigate the worst impacts of climate decline, and to fulfil our historical responsibility as one of the world’s largest polluters. With the new year upon us, it’s clear that decarbonisation at the scale and speed we imagined isn’t a feasible goal within our existing political and economic frameworks. And this failure brings with it some uncomfortable truths that everyone concerned about the climate crisis must face head-on. And that means, in effect, everyone: for even if you don’t feel affected by this crisis, it still affects you.
Continue reading...The Panama Canal Has a Big Problem, but It’s Not China or Trump
Former EU environment chief warns against backsliding on climate crisis
Virginijus Sinkevičius, a former environment commissioner, criticises bloc’s decision to delay deforestation law
A former EU environment commissioner has warned against backsliding on the protection of nature and the battle against the climate crisis after the bloc decided to delay its landmark deforestation law.
Virginijus Sinkevičius, the Lithuanian MEP and a vice-president of the European parliament’s Green group, said he disagreed with the decision to amend the deforestation law in order to give companies a year of extra time to ensure their products are not implicated in the felling of trees.
Continue reading...All the 1 January changes in Australia: Centrelink increases, import bans and pay rises
Bigger Austudy and carer allowance payments, higher Medicare safety net thresholds and mandatory corporate reporting on climate also in 1 Jan changes
- Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
With the new year comes new policies, laws, taxes and reforms. Here’s everything to know about changes on 1 January, 2025 that could affect you.
Continue reading...Trump Wants Greenland and the Panama Canal. It’s About Climate.
California will require insurers to offer home coverage in wildfire-prone areas
Opponents say rule could hike premiums by 40% and does not require new policies to be written at fast enough pace
Insurance companies that stopped providing home coverage to hundreds of thousands of Californians in recent years as wildfires became more destructive will have to again provide policies in fire-prone areas if they want to keep doing business in the state.
The new state regulation, announced on Monday, will require home insurers to offer coverage in high-risk areas, something the state has never done, the office of the California insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, said in a statement.
Continue reading...Trump aims to crush legal curbs on his climate rollback – but it may not be easy
The president-elect said he will ‘stop the wave of frivolous litigation from environmental extremists’ but the ability to block suits will be limited, experts say
Donald Trump has promised to deregulate the energy sector, boost fossil fuels, dismantle environmental rules and otherwise attack climate progress. However, experts and advocates say that lawsuits that aim to hold the fossil fuel sector responsible for deceiving the public about the climate crisis still “have a clear path forward”.
“The overwhelming evidence of the industry’s lies and ongoing deception does not change with administrations,” said Richard Wiles, president of the non-profit Center for Climate Integrity, which tracks and supports the litigation. There are more than 30 accountability lawsuits active around the US brought by states and municipalities accusing fossil fuel interests of covering up the climate risks of their products or seeking damages for impacts. “Climate deception lawsuits against big oil have a clear path forward no matter who is in the White House.”
Continue reading...‘In 10 years we may cease to exist’: rising seas and influx of tourists threaten to engulf Panama island
The Guna people have fought for survival for hundreds of years. But modern threats are testing its cultural resilience
In a church built on stilts facing the sea, two 19-year-old American Mormon priests sit in front of the altar chatting to young Guna people. Elder Burr and Elder Aba, from the US states of Utah and Oregon respectively, reached the island of Kanir-Dup , in the Guna Yala (San Blas) archipelago in Panama, by pirogue more than four months ago, sent by their movement to teach the Indigenous community about the word of Jesus Christ.
Since their arrival, the missionaries’ daily routines have been on a continuous loop: prayers, sports, meals, Bible studies and mass. Yet Burr does not seem to mind the repetition; he has his mind on the greater aim of his proselytism mission. “We are here to convert these natives,” he says.
Continue reading...China Hacks the Treasury Dept., and a Hydropower Crisis
Starmer faces test of climate leadership with big decisions on carbon budget
PM will have to respond to Climate Change Committee’s recommendations on future emissions cuts with drastic changes in many sectors of economy
Keir Starmer will face a key test of his claims to leadership on the climate early next year, when the UK’s statutory advisers issue their latest advice on future cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.
The independent Climate Change Committee will set out recommendations on the UK’s seventh carbon budget on 26 February. At the core of the budget will be an overall cap on emissions for the years 2038 to 2042, needed to meet the legal obligation of reaching net zero emissions in 2050.
Continue reading...La EPA promueve un fertilizante tóxico. 3M le informó de los riesgos hace años
‘Moving to the mountaintops’: rising seas displace tens of thousands in Papua New Guinea
Gulf province councillor says growing numbers are leaving, in what climate activist describes as a ‘humanitarian crisis’
Two years ago fisher Siri James lived on the southern coast of Papua New Guinea, in a small village near Pariva beach. But as the tides continued to rise, James was forced to move further in from the shore.
“It’s not easy moving inland, I was born and raised by the seas, I am a fisherman. I know the flow of tides and currents, I know when the wind will come strongly and when it will rain – but now I don’t understand why everything is changing,” says James, who is in his early 40s.
Continue reading...What If Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan Lived In This Alternate Timeline?
Ecuador optó por la energía hidroeléctrica. Luego los ríos se quedaron sin agua
Essex county council sends 95% of non-recycled waste to landfill, data reveals
Seven local authorities in England have waste figures highlighted as government launches circular economy measures
New government data published on Monday showed that 95% of non-recycled waste in Essex is sent to landfill, as ministers launched their plans for a circular economy.
The data revealed that seven local authorities in England reported sending more than 40% of their residual waste to landfill in 2022 to 2023, with Essex county council at the top of the list.
Continue reading...All the 1 January changes coming to Australia in 2025: Centrelink increases, import bans and pay rises
Bigger Austudy and carer allowance payments, higher Medicare safety net thresholds and mandatory corporate reporting on climate also ahead
- Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
With the new year comes new policies, laws, taxes and reforms. Here’s everything to know about changes on 1 January, 2025 that could affect you.
Continue reading...