Dogs trained by everyday pet owners are proving to be surprisingly powerful allies in the fight against the invasive spotted lanternfly. In a groundbreaking study, citizen scientists taught their dogs to sniff out the pests’ hard-to-spot egg masses with impressive accuracy. The initiative not only taps into the huge community of recreational scent-detection dog enthusiasts, but also opens a promising new front in protecting agriculture. And it doesn’t stop there—these canine teams are now sniffing out vineyard diseases too, hinting at a whole new future of four-legged fieldwork.
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/17/2025 - 10:02
07/17/2025 - 10:00
The president is threatening to deport essential farm workers, grocery clerks and food delivery drivers. But without them, shelves could go empty and prices could soar
The Trump administration’s assault on immigrants is starting to hit the American food supply.
In Texas, farmers who have for years depended on undocumented people for cheap labor – to plant, harvest and haul produce – have reported that workers are staying home to avoid raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). In Los Angeles, restaurants and food trucks have been forced to close as the immigrants who cook and wait tables fear Ice and other law enforcement.
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07/17/2025 - 09:37
Residents of Minot, North Dakota, exasperated by proliferation of furry foot-long neighbors
The Richardson’s ground squirrel weighs less than a pound, is about a foot long and is native to the northern Plains.
The little creature also is a ferocious tunneler, and it’s exasperating the people of Minot, North Dakota, where it’s burrowing everywhere from vacant lots to the middle of town, and growing more plentiful over the past two decades.
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07/17/2025 - 09:02
Pesticide Injury Accountability Act would ensure that Bayer, Syngenta and others can be held responsible for allegedly causing health issues
US politics live – latest updates
Cory Booker on Thursday introduced legislation that would create a federal “right of action”, allowing people to sue pesticide makers such as Bayer and Syngenta, and others, for allegedly causing health issues such as cancer and Parkinson’s disease.
The Pesticide Injury Accountability Act would “ensure that pesticide manufacturers can be held responsible for the harm caused by their toxic products”, according to a summary of the bill. The legislation would be amended to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act of 1972 (Fifra).
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07/17/2025 - 06:25
President has 15 days to approve or veto legislation that critics say will lead to vast deforestation and destruction of Indigenous communities
Brazilian lawmakers have passed a bill that drastically weakens the country’s environmental safeguards and is seen by many activists as the most significant setback for the country’s environmental legislation in the past 40 years.
The new law – widely referred to as the “devastation bill” and already approved by the senate in May – passed in congress in the early hours of Thursday by 267 votes to 116, despite opposition from more than 350 organisations and social movements.
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07/17/2025 - 06:00
Tires take decades to decompose, and millions are improperly dumped every year. An intrepid group sets out to clear Kentucky’s ‘conveyor belt of trash’
In the 1980s, Russ Miller and his wife moved to a far edge of eastern Kentucky’s Red River Gorge, where they built a homestead on a ridge hugged by three sides of the river. It’s the kind of place you can only get to with a hand-drawn map. A place so remote that the farther and farther you drive to get to it, the more unsure you are that you are in the right place.
They would spend leisurely afternoons drifting the river in inner tubes, until they started noticing what floated alongside them: heaps of discarded junk.
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07/17/2025 - 05:00
Exclusive: 17% increase in military spending will add emissions equivalent to those of some entire countries
Donald Trump’s huge spending boost for the Pentagon will produce an additional 26 megatons (Mt) of planet-heating gases – on a par with the annual carbon equivalent (CO2e) emissions generated by 68 gas power plants or the entire country of Croatia, new research reveals.
The Pentagon’s 2026 budget – and climate footprint – is set to surge to $1tn thanks to the president’s One Big Beautiful Act, a 17% rise on last year.
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07/17/2025 - 04:22
Industry says party’s threat to strip wind and solar subsidies if it enters power undermines national interest
Business live – latest updates
Britain’s green energy industry has accused the Reform UK party of undermining the national interest by threatening to strip public subsidies for wind and solar projects if it comes to power.
Groups representing Britain’s biggest clean energy investors said the populist party was “putting politics before prosperity” after Reform’s deputy leader gave “formal notice” to large developers that it would axe any deals struck in an upcoming renewables subsidy auction this summer.
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07/17/2025 - 02:02
Diners jump at chance to snuggle with cubs but wildlife experts accuse firm of ‘exploiting wild animals for selfies’
A restaurant in northern China has been criticised by animal welfare groups for offering an unusual item on the menu: lion cub cuddles.
According to a screenshot of a menu circulating on social media, Wanhui – a restaurant in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province – has a four-course set afternoon menu costing 1,192 yuan ($166/£124) that includes playtime with the in-house animals.
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07/17/2025 - 01:00
From microscopic images inside a human kidney to self portraits of enduring epilepsy and endometriosis, this year’s selection is as moving as it is dazzling
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