Breaking Waves: Ocean News

For 1,500 years, Mexico’s Mixtec people have extracted ink from the rare purpura snail to dye yarn. But they fear the species – and their rich tradition – may soon be lost for ever Photographs by Mauricio Palos The site for the camp is well chosen. Mangrove trees provide shade from the sun; from their hammocks, the two men can look out over the yellow sand of Chachacual Bay. Rocks rise at both ends of the beach, breakers crashing against them. Next to the camp, turtles have left their tracks in the sand. “They often come at night and keep us company,” says Mauro Habacuc Avendaño Luis, 81, known to everyone as Habacuc. While Habacuc lights a campfire to make coffee, his son Rafael, 42, sets up a small tent for the night. Rain is forecast. “We’ve been camping in the same spot for many years,” says Habacuc. “From here, we roam the coast in search of the purpura snail.” White cotton skeins dyed with snail ink turn from yellow to green and finally ‘tixinda’ purple in the sun Continue reading...

Report says proposals ‘threaten to affect most vulnerable’, who would be helped by more time to seek advice A group of influential MPs has urged the government to delay controversial planned changes to inheritance tax for farmers to “allow for better formulation of tax policy” and to protect vulnerable farmers by giving them more time to seek advice. The environment, food and rural affairs (Efra) committee has called on the government to hold off announcing its overhaul of agricultural property relief and business property relief until October 2026, before bringing them into effect from April 2027. Continue reading...

Ministers must resist pressure to relax environmental standards in the rush for new housing Almost two decades after the last Labour government announced a zero carbon homes standard, and with the breaking of temperature records around the world now so normal as to seem routine, it ought to be uncontroversial that new buildings should be as environmentally friendly as possible. Given everything we know about global heating, and the law obliging the UK to reach net zero by 2050, it is disturbing that even the basics of promoting energy security and efficiency continue to be questioned. But that is the situation Britain faces, as the government lays the ground for a housebuilding spree that it hopes will last for the rest of this parliament (as planning is devolved, the target of 1.5m new homes is for England only). Much of the blame for this discouraging state of affairs lies with the Tories, who delayed progress towards sustainability by scrapping environmental rules, leading to a disgraceful proliferation of new developments where the houses do not even have solar panels on the roofs. Continue reading...

Egg-laying monotremes have no nipples, so young rub their beaks against ‘milk patch’ to get milk from mother’s skin Australia news live: latest politics updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast When echidna mothers nurse their young, known as puggles, the microbiome of their pouch changes to protect their babies in their first weeks of life, new research has found. These first few weeks are critical for puggles. At this early developmental stage, they are tiny – roughly the size of a 5-cent coin – and vulnerable. Continue reading...