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Received today — 14 February 2026

‘Seasons have become confused’: the people struggling in UK’s relentless rain

14 February 2026 at 01:00

A thatcher, gardener and others on keeping their business afloat in the bad weather – and their fears for the future

With 76 flood warnings still in force across the UK and further downpours forecast this week and next, parts of the country have endured rain almost without pause since the start of the year.

The prolonged wet weather is disrupting livelihoods as well as daily life, particularly in rural areas, where flooded roads, waterlogged ground and repeated storms are making it harder to keep businesses afloat, protect crops and maintain steady work.

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© Photograph: Jory Mundy/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jory Mundy/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jory Mundy/Getty Images

Received yesterday — 13 February 2026

Western US states fail to negotiate crucial Colorado River deal: ‘Mother nature isn’t going to bail us out’

13 February 2026 at 18:01

Negotiators disbanded on Friday without a plan for the basin supplying water to 40m people, thrusting the region into uncertainty

The future of the American west hung in the balance after seven states remained at a stalemate over who should bear the brunt of the enormous water cuts needed to pull the imperiled Colorado River back from the brink.

Negotiators, who have spent years trying to iron out thorny disagreements, ended their talks on Friday without a deal – one day before a critical deadline to form a plan that had been set for Saturday.

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© Photograph: Étienne Laurent/EPA

© Photograph: Étienne Laurent/EPA

© Photograph: Étienne Laurent/EPA

ICE plans to spend $38.3bn converting warehouses to detention centers, documents show, as DHS shutdown looms – US politics live

Centers would have capacity for tens of thousands of people to be held; talks over funding bill stall hours before shutdown

The annual rate of US inflation eased in January, according to the latest data consumer price index report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Over the last 12 months, the cost of goods has increased by 2.4% – down from 2.7% in last month’s report.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate left Washington on Thursday as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) heads for another shutdown, when stopgap funding lapses tonight. Nearly all Democrats blocked a second attempt to pass the annual DHS appropriations bill as negotiations for guardrails on federal immigration enforcement have stalled. Senator John Fetterman was the only lawmaker to break ranks with the party.

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© Photograph: Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

© Photograph: Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

© Photograph: Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

Tony Blair’s oil lobbying is a misleading rehash of fossil fuel industry spin

12 February 2026 at 19:01

Ex-PM’s thinktank urges more drilling and fewer renewables, ignoring evidence that clean energy is cheaper and better for bills

A thinktank with close ties to Saudi Arabia and substantial funding from a Donald Trump ally needs to present a particularly robust analysis to earn the right to be listened to on the climate crisis. On that measure, Tony Blair’s latest report fails on almost every point.

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) received money from the Saudi government, has advised the United Arab Emirates petrostate, and counts as a main donor Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, friend of Trump and advocate of AI.

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© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Received before yesterday

Tony Blair’s thinktank accuses Ed Miliband of driving up energy prices

12 February 2026 at 19:01

Report by Tony Blair Institute urges government to drop some green policies amid criticism of decarbonisation goal

Tony Blair’s thinktank has accused Ed Miliband of driving up energy prices in his push to make Britain’s energy supply more environmentally friendly.

The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) published a report on Friday criticising the government’s green policies and urging the energy secretary to drop some of them altogether, including almost completely decarbonising the electricity system by 2030.

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© Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

© Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

© Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Trump’s EPA repeals landmark climate finding in gift to ‘billionaire polluters’

12 February 2026 at 15:53

Rollback of government’s ability to limit climate-heating pollution will make families ‘sicker and less safe’, environmental advocate says

The Trump administration has revoked the bedrock scientific determination that gives the government the ability to regulate climate-heating pollution. The move was described as a gift to “billionaire polluters” at the expense of Americans’ health.

The endangerment finding, which states that the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere endangers public health and welfare, has since 2009 allowed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to limit heat-trapping pollution from vehicles, power plants and other industrial sources.

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© Photograph: Kevin Carter/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kevin Carter/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kevin Carter/Getty Images

Climate leaders condemn Trump EPA’s biggest rollback yet: ‘This is corruption’

12 February 2026 at 10:10

Leaders promise to fight back with court challenges as Trump rescinds finding foundational to US climate rules

Climate leaders gathered outside the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters on Wednesday to condemn the Trump administration’s plans to repeal the legal finding underpinning all federal climate regulations, and promised to fight against the rollback.

“This is corruption, plain and simple. Old-fashioned, dirty political corruption,” said Sheldon Whitehouse, senator for Rhode Island, at the rally. “This is an agency that has been so infiltrated by the corrupt fossil fuel industry that it has turned an agency of government into the weapon of the fossil fuel polluters.”

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© Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Portugal urged to adapt to climate emergency after series of deadly storms

Continuing extreme weather has caused deaths of 16 people, evacuation of thousands and destruction of homes

Portugal is under pressure to draw up plans to adapt to the climate emergency as the country continues to be lashed by an unprecedented series of storms that have killed at least 16 people and left tens of thousands without electricity.

More than 3,000 people were evacuated from the Coimbra area of central Portugal on Wednesday as the Mondego River reached critical levels, while part of the country’s main motorway, the A1, collapsed after a dyke on the Mondego gave way under the weight of flood water.

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© Photograph: Miguel A Lopes/EPA

© Photograph: Miguel A Lopes/EPA

© Photograph: Miguel A Lopes/EPA

Deafening, draining and potentially deadly: are we facing a snoring epidemic?

7 February 2026 at 07:00

Experts say dangerous sleep apnoea affects an estimated 8 million in the UK alone, and everything from evolution to obesity or even the climate crisis could be to blame

When Matt Hillier was in his 20s, he went camping with a friend who was a nurse. In the morning she told him she had been shocked by the snoring coming from his tent. “She basically said, ‘For a 25-year-old non-smoker who’s quite skinny, you snore pretty loudly,’” says Hiller, now 32.

Perhaps because of the pervasive image of a “typical” sleep apnoea patient – older, and overweight – Hillier didn’t seek help. It wasn’t until he was 30 that he finally went to a doctor after waking up from a particularly big night of snoring with a racing heartbeat. Despite being young, active and a healthy weight, further investigation – including a night recording his snoring – revealed that he had moderate sleep apnoea. His was classed as supine, the most common form of the condition, meaning it happens when he sleeps on his back, and is likely caused by his throat muscles.

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© Illustration: Igor Bastidas/The Guardian

© Illustration: Igor Bastidas/The Guardian

© Illustration: Igor Bastidas/The Guardian

New Flaw in Somalia’s E-Visa System Exposes Travelers’ Passport Data

22 December 2025 at 02:08

Somalia e-visa

A newly identified security flaw in Somalia’s electronic visa platform has raised serious concerns about the safety of personal data belonging to thousands of travelers, only weeks after the country acknowledged a major breach affecting tens of thousands of applicants. Investigations show that the Somalia e-visa system lacks essential protection methods, making it possible for unauthorized users to access and download sensitive documents with minimal effort.  The Somalia e-visa flaw was confirmed this week by Al Jazeera after receiving a tip from a source with professional experience in web development. According to the source, the e-visa platform could be exploited to retrieve large numbers of visa files containing highly sensitive personal information. The exposed data includes applicants’ passport details, full names, and dates of birth, information that could be misused for a wide range of criminal or intelligence-related activities. 

Ignored Warnings Followed by Independent Verification of Global Data Exposure 

The source not only shared evidence of the exposed data with Al Jazeera but also demonstrated that they had formally alerted Somali authorities to the e-visa vulnerability the previous week. Despite these warnings, the individual stated that there was no response from officials and no indication that the flaw had been addressed or corrected.  Al Jazeera independently verified the claims by replicating the vulnerability described by the source. During testing, journalists were able to download e-visas belonging to dozens of individuals within a short period. The compromised files included personal information of applicants from several countries, including Somalia, Portugal, Sweden, the United States, and Switzerland.  “Breaches involving sensitive personal data are particularly dangerous as they put people at risk of various harms, including identity theft, fraud, and intelligence gathering by malicious actors,” Bridget Andere, a senior policy analyst at the digital rights organization Access Now, said in comments to Al Jazeera. She noted that the consequences of such failures extend beyond technical problems and can have lasting effects on individuals’ safety and privacy. 

Somalia E-Visa Vulnerability Emerges as Fallout Continues from Earlier Mass Data Breach 

The Somalia e-visa flaw comes barely a month after Somali officials announced an inquiry into an earlier cyberattack on the same e-visa system. That previous incident prompted warnings from both the United States and the United Kingdom governments. According to those alerts, personal information belonging to more than 35,000 Somalia e-visa applicants had been leaked.  At the time, the US Embassy in Somalia detailed the scope of the exposure, stating that the compromised data included applicants’ names, photographs, dates and places of birth, email addresses, marital status, and home addresses.  In response, Somalia’s Immigration and Citizenship Agency (ICA) moved the e-visa platform to a new internet domain, citing the change as an effort to strengthen security. On November 16, the agency said it was treating the breach with “special importance” and confirmed that an investigation had been launched. However, the discovery of a fresh e-visa vulnerability suggests that the underlying security issues may not have been fully resolved. 

Security Claims Clash with Legal Duties 

Earlier that same week, Somalia’s Defence Minister, Ahmed Moalim Fiqi, publicly praised the Somalia e-visa system. He claimed it had played a role in preventing ISIL (ISIS) fighters from entering the country, as Somali forces continued a months-long battle against a local affiliate of the group in the northern regions.  “The government’s push to deploy the e-visa system despite being clearly unprepared for potential risks, then redeploying it after a serious data breach, is a clear example of how disregard for people’s concerns and rights when introducing digital infrastructures can erode public trust and create avoidable vulnerabilities,” Andere said. She also expressed alarm that Somali authorities had not issued any formal public notice about the serious November data breach.  Under Somalia’s data protection law, data controllers are required to notify the national data protection authority when breaches occur. In high-risk cases, such as incidents involving sensitive personal data, affected individuals must also be informed. “Extra protections should apply in this case because it involves people of different nationalities and therefore multiple legal jurisdictions,” Andere added.  Al Jazeera said it could not disclose specific technical details of the current security flaw, as the vulnerability remains unpatched, and publicizing it could enable further exploitation. Any sensitive information obtained during the investigation was destroyed to protect the privacy of those affected. 
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