By Christopher Thompson Choosing a safe but effective sunscreen is becoming a pain in the brain. While we spent decades happily applying the sunscreen of our choice, the chemical ingredients that manufacturers used to fight the sun have been under attack. The latest salvo: a study by the US Food and Drug Administration showing that […]

Yesterday, New York governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags. It is estimated that New York uses 23 billion plastic bags every year with 50 percent of those plastic bags ending up in landfills and around the city and waterways. Governor Cuomo signed the legislation on Earth Day, which […]

A Global Pact for the Environment would lend coherence to international environmental law, give greater legal and political heft to existing environmental covenants, and safeguard the imperiled biosphere. With each successive Earth Day, the scale of the global environmental crisis becomes more disheartening. So too does the collective failure to respond to the planet’s plight. Over the […]

US President Donald Trump has issued an angry response after a TV interview on Sunday alleged that officials had held discussions to have him removed. Mr Trump tweeted of “illegal and treasonous” behaviour and an “illegal coup attempt”. In the interview, ex-acting FBI chief Andrew McCabe said talks had been held in 2017 about invoking […]

A US community devastated by a school shooting one year ago is marking the tragic anniversary with quiet mourning. Seventeen people were shot and killed by an ex-student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (MSD) in Parkland, Florida on 14 February 2018. Students and educators across the country are also marking the day with vigils, […]

Democrats and Republicans have reached an agreement in principle over border security to fund the US government and avert another partial shutdown. Lawmakers said the deal had been struck in a closed-door meeting in Washington. No details have been released. Talks had stalled on the detention of undocumented migrants and funding for President Donald Trump’s […]

US President Donald Trump has announced in his State of the Union speech that he will hold a second nuclear summit with North Korea’s leader this month. In an address to the nation with the theme “Choosing Greatness”, he vowed once again to build a border wall. While appealing for political unity, the Republican president […]

The planet has a fever: Can we treat it? As the new year is carrying on where the old one left off, with growing signs climate disruption is accelerating at a more destructive rate than many scientists predicted. The US deep freeze, which has plunged temperatures in Minnesotato -50C(-58F), may appear to have little in […]

At least 21 people have died in one of the worst cold snaps to hit the US Midwest in decades. Ninety million people – a third of the US – have seen temperatures of -17C (0F) or below. Some 250 million Americans overall have experienced the “polar vortex” conditions. Hospitals have been treating patients reporting […]

At least eight people have died in the US Midwest as the region shivers in the grip of its worst cold snap in decades. An Iowa student found dead outside a college building is among victims of the deadly freeze. Hospitals have been treating patients reporting frostbite as life across a swathe of the nation […]