The Guardian

The decision to expand Heathrow is just the latest evidence that my party is chasing policies that serve profit, not people

Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s recent “big growth agenda” speech wasn’t just the expression of a vision for the economy. It was also a warning shot to wavering Labour MPs. The message was blunt: get on board with the government’s economic strategy or step aside. Growth, we were told, is the non-negotiable mission.

This was not a sudden shift but a reaffirmation of her stance at Davos, where she made clear that “the answer can’t always be no”. That answer, now firmly codified, prioritises GDP growth above all else. Heathrow airport expansion is in; net zero, bats and newts are out. The promise? A revitalised economy, busy high streets and more bobbies on the beat – a Labour-friendly vision of progress designed to bolster morale and stuff leaflets with “good news” ahead of the next election.

Clive Lewis is the Labour MP for Norwich South

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

Tiny plastic pollution more than 50% higher in placentas from preterm births than in those from full-term births

A study has found microplastic and nanoplastic pollution to be significantly higher in placentas from premature births than in those from full-term births.

The levels were much higher than previously detected in blood, suggesting the tiny plastic particles were accumulating in the placenta. But the higher average levels found in the shorter pregnancies were a “big surprise” for the researchers, as longer terms could be expected to lead to more accumulation.

Road outside high court blocked in protest against ‘draconian’ sentences given to 16 Just Stop Oil ‘political prisoners’

Hundreds of protesters have blocked the road outside the high court in London, where the appeals of 16 jailed climate activists are being heard, in condemnation of “the corruption of democracy and the rule of law”.

As England’s most senior judge heard arguments in the appeal of the sentences of the Just Stop Oil activists, who are serving a combined 41 years in jail, their supporters sat on the road in silence holding placards proclaiming them “political prisoners”.

Court of session says UK government go-ahead for Rosebank and Jackdaw permits does not take into account carbon emissions

The decision to greenlight a giant new oilfield off Shetland has been ruled unlawful by the courts in a major win for environmental campaigners.

The proposed Rosebank development – the UK’s biggest untapped oilfield – had been given the go-ahead in 2023 under the previous government.

Our rivers, our wildlife, the air we breathe: the government is sacrificing all to the insatiable god of GDP – and mocking our objections

I can scarcely believe I’m writing this, but it’s hard to dodge the conclusion. After 14 years of environmental vandalism, it might have seemed impossible for Labour to offer anything but improvement. But on green issues, this government is worse than the Tories.

The last prime minister to insist that growth should override every other consideration, and to fling insults at anyone who disagreed, was Liz Truss. She called those of us seeking to defend the living world an “anti-growth coalition”, “voices of decline” and “enemies of enterprise” who “don’t understand aspiration”.

Emission targets could derail project as campaigners say net zero commitment cannot be met if expansion happens

• Reeves urged to rethink plans for airports and roads
• Heathrow third runway: promises, protest and U-turns

Rachel Reeves caused a furious backlash as she insisted a third runway at Heathrow was “set up for success”, despite scepticism in Whitehall that the plan can be reconciled with the UK’s climate obligations.

The chancellor made throwing the government’s weight behind Heathrow expansion the centrepiece of a major speech on growth on Wednesday.

Analysis by dozens of scientists internationally notes urgent conservation efforts could halt or even reverse losses

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Genetic diversity in animals and plants has declined globally over the past three decades, an analysis of more than 600 species has found.

The research, published in the journal Nature, found declines in two-thirds of the populations studied, but noted that urgent conservation efforts could halt or even reverse genetic diversity losses.

As UK chancellor backs expansion at London’s biggest airport, we assess possible environmental impacts

More climate-heating carbon emissions, more people enduring noisy aircraft over their homes and, most likely, more air pollution – these would be the environmental impacts of building a third runway at Heathrow airport, a plan that has been backed by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves.

Despite many years of lobbying for a third runway, there is no current proposal that can be analysed for its environmental impacts. However, the last proposal was extensively assessed by the Airport Commission (AC) in 2017 and remains relevant.

Critics say chancellor’s ‘growth at all costs’ plans are not compatible with UK’s climate targets

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Rachel Reeves has been accused by environmental experts of putting the climate at risk with high carbon projects including the expansion of Heathrow airport.

The chancellor made airports the central focus of her plan for growth, despite having previously promised to be the first green chancellor and having extolled the benefits of green growth.

If the courts let 16 climate activists’ draconian sentences stand this week, we are no better than an authoritarian state

• Caroline Lucas is an environmental activist and former Green MP

Sixteen jailed Just Stop Oil activists will appear in court this week in an appeal against their sentences, which were believed to be the harshest ever for peaceful protest in Britain. For damaging picture frames, obstructing the road, or just talking about obstructing the road, they have received punishments that we would normally reserve for serious crimes. People trying to draw attention to the government failure to confront the cause of the climate crisis were imprisoned for up to five years.

These sentences have been condemned as draconian by Amnesty International, as “a grave erosion of … freedoms” by Liberty, as “a profound injustice” by Global Witness, and as “not acceptable in a democracy” by a special rapporteur for the UN. They represent the terrifying decline of our nation, from a beacon of tolerance with a clear division between politics and policing, towards an oppressive state where that dividing line is becoming harder and harder to discern. Regardless of your politics and what you are standing for, the right of peaceful protest is a vital sign of a healthy democracy and an essential guardrail against authoritarian politicians and reckless companies.

Caroline Lucas is an environmental activist and former Green MP

Labour is constantly torn between its self-image as a party of radical change and its fear of alienating voters with the wrong kind of radicalism

When Keir Starmer became Labour leader he was unpractised in politics. For advice, he naturally turned to someone who had done his job before and with whom he had a good personal rapport: Ed Miliband.

As Starmer grew in confidence he stayed friendly with Miliband, deferential to his status as a veteran of government and appreciative of his sincere enthusiasm for the energy and climate brief. But the new leader was also ruthlessly focused on winning power, and increasingly alert to toxicities in the Labour brand. He was persuaded that the journey to Downing Street could be completed only by jettisoning policy baggage and paying less heed to people associated with past failure.

More than 2,500 native trees have been planted to form a temperate rainforest in decades to come

The first step towards creating a Celtic rainforest – a now extremely rare habitat that once covered large swathes of the west coast of Britain – has been completed in Devon.

More than 2,500 native trees have been planted so far this winter at Devon Wildlife Trust’s Bowden Pillars site, above the Dart valley and close to the green-minded market town of Totnes.

Protesters will gather outside court of appeal in support of activists, who say judges defied decades of precedent

Sixteen environmental activists jailed in the past year will appear at the high court on Wednesday to ask England’s most senior judge to quash their “unduly harsh” sentences.

The appellants, from four separate cases, will appear before a bench of judges led by Lady Carr, the Lady Chief Justice, in a full session of the court of appeal in which they will argue that judges defied decades of precedent to hand them long jail terms for nonviolent protests.

Behaviour of ‘remarkable predators’ also seen off coast of South Africa could affect ecosystem, researchers say

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Orcas have a taste for shark liver and prey on great white sharks in Australian waters, researchers have confirmed by using DNA analysis.

In October 2023, the maimed carcass of a 4.7m great white shark washed ashore near Portland, in southwest Victoria, missing its liver, digestive and reproductive organs.

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More than 1,500 dolphins were filmed making their way across Carmel Bay and heading south, forming a rare ‘super pod’. The Risso’s dolphins filmed in the drone footage usually travel in groups of only 10 to 30

Baby shark Yoko hatched in early January, flummoxing staff and experts at a US aquarium

Birds do it, bees do it. Even educated fleas do it, according to Cole Porter’s classic song on the universal nature of sex.

But a baby swell shark born in a Louisiana aquarium that houses only females has flummoxed marine experts and raised the possibility that the species may not require such earthly pleasures to produce offspring.

Lib Dem Tim Farron seeks law to protect fund as Treasury tries to take control of £11m

Fines from water companies that pollute rivers must be ringfenced by law to be spent on restoring water quality in rivers, MPs will urge.

The Treasury is trying to take control of £11m in fines from water companies, which was intended for small charities to restore rivers, in a move criticised by river restoration campaigners as “appalling”.

The Hollywood actor was stopped mid-scene as a man and a woman climbed on stage at London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Hayley Walsh, 42, a lecturer from Nottingham, and Richard Weir, 60, a mechanical engineer from Tynemouth, set off a confetti cannon and held up a banner referring to the 1.5C global temperature rise as a 'shipwreck', a nod to the Shakespeare play that features a ship sinking at sea

• Just Stop Oil activists interrupt play starring Sigourney Weaver in London