Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Amendment restricts protection for animals to allow faster house building Housing secretary Steve Reed has told Labour MPs to vote down an amendment to the new planning bill intended to protect British wildlife and its habitats from destruction. The amendment, which was passed with a large majority in the House of Lords, restricts the most controversial part of the draft bill by removing protected animals such as dormice, badgers, hedgehogs, otters and nightingales, and rare habitats such as wetlands and ancient woodlands, from new rules which allow developers to sidestep environmental laws to speed up house building. Continue reading...

Sussan Ley appears to have given up trying to meet voters where they are, instead allowing conservative MPs to dictate policy to keep her job – and keep the Coalition together Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Six months ago on Thursday, the new Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, stood in the opposition party room at Parliament House and promised the Coalition would meet voters “where they are”. Six months on – and after another messy few weeks for the Liberals and Nationals – Ley was back in the same spot confirming the Liberals had dumped support for net zero emissions by 2050. Continue reading...

Troubled waters over the world’s longest suspension bridge are no surprise. The Italian government should be funding public services A dozen or so times each day, as Italy’s southbound Intercity rail service arrives in the Calabrian town of Villa San Giovanni, the journey comes to a dramatic halt. The train is decoupled from its tracks, carefully loaded on to the deck of a ferry, and secured in place. The entire cargo then eases out into the Strait of Messina en route to Sicily. Invariably, this 25-minute crossing becomes an impromptu community moment. Passengers abandon their carriages, flocking to the ship’s top-deck snack bar to share freshly fried arancini, trade anecdotes, and admire the vista over Mount Etna’s distant peak, before returning to continue their journey by rail. For tourists and itinerant visitors like myself, the ferry crossing is a charming novelty. For local people, however, it has long been a defining part of their identity. In his 1941 novel, Conversations in Sicily, the writer Elio Vittorini describes a group of fruit pickers congregating on the boat’s deck, feasting on large chunks of local cheese and enjoying the view. As the narrator joins them, he is transported to “being a boy; feeling the wind devouring the sea”, while gazing out at “the ruins along the two coasts”, separated, poetically, across the water. Jamie Mackay is a writer and translator based in Florence Continue reading...

Michael Miller tells Senate misinformation inquiry platforming climate deniers and net zero critics part of ‘great democracy and healthy debate’ Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free weekly media newsletter here A senior News Corp Australia executive has defended the company’s platforming of climate science deniers, saying its news outlets were not part of a “denial machine” spreading misinformation. News Corp Australia’s executive chair, Michael Miller, told a Senate inquiry into climate and energy misinformation there was no coordination across the organisation’s news outlets to feature voices sceptical of climate action or Australia’s current goal to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions. Sign up to get Guardian Australia’s weekly media diary as a free newsletter Continue reading...