Insects join list of species capable of solving simple ‘box-and-banana’ problem that demonstrates basic intelligence
Bumblebees can use tools to solve a problem, according to experiments that demonstrate their remarkably advanced cognitive abilities.
The bees were given an adapted version of an experiment that, 100 years ago, first demonstrated chimpanzees could work out how to retrieve an out-of-reach banana by stacking boxes. Since then, various other primates, elephants and crows have joined an elite cohort of species known to be capable of this level of insight and spontaneous problem solving.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
06/04/2026 - 13:00
06/04/2026 - 12:40
Beluga whales, which Marineland threatened to euthanize in 2025, will be moved to sanctuaries in Spain or across US
Canada and an embattled marine park have reached a tentative deal on the future of 30 beluga whales, ending a saga that has captivated the public and angered animal rights groups.
The federal fisheries ministry announced this week that all of Marineland’s belugas would be shipped to either Spain or one of four locations in the US, ending whale captivity in Canada.
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06/04/2026 - 12:28
US president accused of ‘putting polluters first’ by invoking Defense Production Act to prop up coal output
Donald Trump is to use a wartime presidential authority to hand $700m to coal-fired power plants in the US, the latest move by the president to bolster what he calls “beautiful clean coal” despite it being the dirtiest of fossil fuels.
Trump is using the Defense Production Act, a cold war-era statute used to accelerate American industrial output in times of national need, to provide grants to more than a dozen existing coal plants across the US, including facilities capable of exporting coal.
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06/04/2026 - 11:00
Republican-led states growing renewable capabilities at faster rate as Texas emerges as clean-energy leader
Democratic-led states are eroding their climate policies, as red states are scaling up their clean energy deployment.
California on Friday scaled back its cap-and-invest program, offering more than $3bn in free pollution allowances to polluting companies. Earlier the same week, New York weakened its groundbreaking climate law, delaying a plan to regulate carbon from 2024 until 2028 and reducing emissions-slashing targets. Rhode Island’s governor, meanwhile, is attempting to roll back aggressive clean-energy programs.
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06/04/2026 - 10:00
Snow arrives in time for the start of ski season, but climate change and El Niño mean it may not stick around for long, experts say
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There was optimism across Australian alpine resorts this week as their social media channels filled with footage of snow flurries that arrived just in time for the opening of the ski season this weekend.
“We couldn’t be more excited,” said the Instagram account of Perisher, the southern hemisphere’s biggest ski resort in Kosciuszko national park in New South Wales, as hands swept the fresh snow from outdoor tables.
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06/04/2026 - 07:54
USDA confirms first case of new world screwworm fly in cattle in six decades, posing threat to livestock industry
A flesh-eating parasite rarely seen in the US in six decades has been found in a calf in Texas, agriculture officials said, in an alarming development for the country’s cattle industry.
The new world screwworm fly (NWS) was confirmed in the animal in the south of the state, about 50 miles from the Mexico border, Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary, said late on Wednesday.
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06/04/2026 - 07:28
Registrations up 7% in the month, with battery EVs recording fastest growth and Tesla jumping 45% as motorists look to cut fuel bills
British car sales rose in May to their strongest level for the month since before the Covid pandemic, driven in part by strong growth from the Chinese manufacturers BYD and Chery.
Car registrations rose by 7% to 160,662 during the month, according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a lobby group.
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06/04/2026 - 07:22
Exclusive: New loopholes for developers will exacerbate extreme disparities across country, charity coalition warns
The poorest and most nature-deprived communities in England will be further left behind in their access to green spaces if proposed changes to planning laws go ahead, a report finds.
More than 7.4 million people in England live in areas completely devoid of immediate biodiversity, including 1.4 million children under 15, the report commissioned by a number of wildlife and environmental NGOs says.
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06/04/2026 - 05:00
Electric shock is one of the biggest causes of death among wildlife in the country but a court ruling is a first step to making power lines safe
Peque, a small black howler monkey, scratches her head as she sits on a thick wooden branch in a wired enclosure with seven other orphaned baby howler monkeys at a rescue centre in Nosara, on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast.
Last year, Peque was one of more than 100 animals to arrive at International Animal Rescue Costa Rica (IARCR) as a result of electrocution on power lines, which primates such as monkeys frequently mistake for trees and vines.
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06/04/2026 - 04:24
Protests in Albania over a proposed luxury resort backed by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, are expected to intensify after opponents rejected an offer from the country’s prime minister 'to discuss solutions'. Footage showed police firing water cannon at protesters as thousands of people took to the streets of Tirana for a third day on Wednesday, some of them holding inflatable flamingos to symbolise the environmental damage they fear the project could cause, amid growing calls for it to be blocked. In January, Ivanka Trump made a surprise visit to Albania with a team of architects, touring the site earmarked for development by her husband’s investment firm, Affinity Partners. The resort is planned for an area that includes the uninhabited outcrop of Sazan, Albania’s largest island, as well as wetlands and coastal habitats within the surrounding marine national park
Protests in Albania grow over Jared Kushner-backed luxury resort
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