NOAA has issued an El Niño Watch. The 2025–26 La Niña has ended. There is now an 82 percent chance El Niño emerges by July and a 96 percent chance it persists through next winter. The world’s weather is about to be rearranged.
We handed the formation of our children’s minds to advertising systems. That is the defining act of negligence of our era.
Fakarava, French Polynesia — this week’s letter from somewhere remarkable.
Kenya’s energy ministry confirms 93 percent of consumed electricity now comes from renewable sources — primarily geothermal from the Rift Valley. The 100 percent target is set for 2030. Most wealthy nations are not on similar trajectories.
One of conservation’s few unambiguous wins. From fewer than 300 in the 1980s to 1,063 today, mountain gorillas are recovering — sustained by a rare three-government partnership across Rwanda, Uganda, and the DRC.
The most biodiverse marine region on earth is at the centre of the largest coral bleaching event in history. The communities whose protein, economy, and culture is inseparable from the reefs are absorbing the loss.
Three Chinese astronauts including Lai Ka-ying — the first astronaut from Hong Kong — docked at the Tiangong space station early Monday morning. One will remain in orbit for a full year, China’s longest planned human spaceflight.
84 percent of the world’s coral reef area has experienced bleaching-level heat stress since January 2023. The event is ongoing. It has displaced almost no headlines from politics. It is the largest ecological event in living memory.
Pakistan brokered the US-Iran ceasefire in April. The story being told is about Tehran and Washington. The story being missed is about Islamabad’s emergence as the diplomatic axis through which the Middle East now negotiates.
The Pakistan-mediated ceasefire announced 8 April holds, but barely. President Trump has accused Iran of bad faith on Hormuz; Israel continues operations against Hezbollah; the underlying enrichment dispute is untouched.