Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Inheritance tax for farmers to kick in at £2.5m in government U-turn – UK politics live

admin — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 12:12:46 +0000

Previous policy would have led to inheritance tax being levied on farms valued at over £1m

The Treasury has published this explainer setting out in detail how the inheritance tax rules will apply to farms after today’s announcement.

When the government first announced its plan to extend inheritance tax to farms, it said that this would raise around £520m a year from 2028-29.

Something gnawed your oak tree? Sink hole in your road? How Zurich’s beaver hotline is reassuring residents

admin — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 09:00:52 +0000

As the number of the semi-aquatic creatures soars so can tensions. But the Swiss have a tried and tested system to calm the neighbours and restore harmony

“I hate beavers,” a woman tells the beaver hotline. Forty years ago she planted an oak tree in a small town in southern Zurich – now at the frontier of beaver expansion – and it has just been felled: gnawed by the large, semi-aquatic rodents as they enter their seasonal home-improvement mode.

Forecasters say 2025 ‘more likely than not’ to be UK’s hottest year on record

admin — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 06:00:49 +0000

Met Office says temperatures are tracking ahead of 2022 after year of heatwaves and drought, though late cold spell could yet intervene

Forecasters say 2025 is “more likely than not” to break the record for the hottest year in the UK since records began, after a summer of heatwaves and drought followed by a mild autumn.

According to the Met Office, the official forecaster, the mean temperature for 2025 is tracking well ahead of the previous highest year, set in 2022. However, a colder spell expected from Christmas until the new year makes it too close to call definitively.

Victoria to get first publicly owned windfarm with 33-turbine Latrobe valley project

admin — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 02:53:19 +0000

Advocates say State Electricity Commission’s $650m Delburn windfarm will be a ‘new chapter’ for region previously home to Hazelwood coal power station

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Pink platypus spotted in Gippsland far from a monochrome monotreme

admin — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 23:11:57 +0000

Biologist says specimen filmed by a Victorian fisher is ‘unusual’, but not a rare albino as some had wondered

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Yellowstone hot spring spews forth spectacular muddy plumes

admin — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 18:49:59 +0000

Black Diamond Pool eruption provides dramatic footage after being captured on official camera

A hot spring in Yellowstone national park that erupts sporadically was captured on an official camera exploding in spectacular muddy plumes at the weekend.

Volcanic experts at the US Geological Survey described the eruption as simply “Kablooey!”

Trump officials halt offshore wind-farm projects over ‘national security risks’

admin — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 16:16:03 +0000

Interior department move affects five projects under construction in latest blow to industry targeted by Trump

The Trump administration has said it is immediately pausing all leases for offshore wind farms already under construction, in the heaviest blow yet to an industry that the administration has relentlessly targeted throughout the year.

Muddy eruption at Black Diamond Pool in Yellowstone national park – video

admin — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 15:45:59 +0000

Video shared by the US Geological Survey on social media shows mud spraying up and out from the Black Diamond Pool in Yellowstone national park. Other recent eruptions have mostly been audible but not visible because they happened either at night or when the camera was obscured by ice. The agency said the Black Diamond Pool was previously the site of a hydrothermal explosion, in July 2024, that sent rocks and mud flying hundreds of feet into the air and damaged a boardwalk. It prompted the closure of the area to visitors due to the damage and potential for additional hazardous activity

Fatberg weighing 100 tonnes discovered in east London sewer

admin — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 15:33:34 +0000

Mass of congealed fat, oil and grease 100 metres in length found blocking sewers in Whitechapel area of capital

A “fatberg” weighing an estimated 100 tonnes has been discovered blocking sewers in east London, officials have said.

Man describes narrow escape after boats pulled into giant hole on Shropshire canal

admin — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 12:49:53 +0000

Major incident declared as 50-metre-long breach opens up in waterway previously flagged as ‘amber risk’

A man has told of his narrow escape after waking up just in time to raise the alarm as his canal boat and those of others were swallowed by a fast-appearing giant hole.

Emergency services declared a major incident after the 50-metre-long crater – initially described by emergency services and other agencies as a sinkhole – breached the Llangollen canal in England’s West Midlands, leaving boats teetering on the edge of a steep drop or stuck at the bottom of the cavity.