Many saw the beloved tree that Adam Carruthers and Daniel Graham cut down as a part of north-east England’s DNA
“It was just a tree,” said a mystified Adam Carruthers, one of the two men who illegally cut down the tree at Sycamore Gap in the early hours of a stormy night nearly two years ago. “It was almost as if someone had been murdered.”
Carruthers was right about the reaction to the felling. Many likened its loss to that of a good friend or relative. Its destruction prompted feelings of sadness, grief and then blind fury. Some people wept.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
05/09/2025 - 04:49
05/09/2025 - 04:46
Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, found to have criminally damaged tree and Hadrian’s Wall
‘Stealing joy’: the sadness and symbolism of the crime at Sycamore Gap
Two friends who embarked on a “moronic mission” to fell the Sycamore Gap tree with a chainsaw have been found guilty of “mindless” criminal damage.
Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, cut down the cherished tree next to Hadrian’s Wall, in Northumberland, as Storm Agnes raged in the early hours of 28 September 2023.
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05/09/2025 - 04:04
Scientists fear early emerging insects may fall out of sync with pathogens, predators or availability of food
Midsummer butterflies are on the wing in early May after a sunny spring prompted one of the most advanced seasons for Britain’s Lepidoptera on record.
The Lulworth skipper – usually found in June and July – is flying at Lulworth Cove in Dorset, the chequered skipper emerged in April rather than mid-May in Scotland and the first swallowtail, which is most common in mid-June, was spotted in Norfolk on 1 May.
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05/09/2025 - 03:00
Experts found 60% of the EU’s agricultural soils had been degraded, with about 40% similarly damaged in the UK
More than 60% of the EU’s agricultural soils are degraded due to intensive agriculture, with similar damage to about 40% of British soils, a report has found.
Experts from the Save Soil initiative said nourishing and restoring agricultural soils could reduce the impact of the climate crisis and provide protection against the worsening extremes of weather, as well as the food shortages and price rises likely to accompany them.
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05/09/2025 - 01:00
The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
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05/09/2025 - 00:00
About 270,000 people died in Liberia’s timber trade-fuelled civil war. I helped to rebuild and protect its forests. Now Europe is threatening to undermine all our hard work
It is sad when a ruthless military dictator funds his government by destroying ecologically important rainforest, logging tropical trees and displacing and robbing the people who live in and depend on the forests for their livelihoods and culture.
This happened in my country, Liberia.
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05/08/2025 - 23:00
Mayor to make major policy shift and say scale of housing crisis requires breaking taboo
Sadiq Khan is announcing plans to build on parts of London’s green belt, in a dramatic shift in housing policy aimed at tackling “the most profound housing crisis in the capital’s history”.
In a major speech on Friday, the mayor of London is expected to say the scale of the challenge, which could need about 1m new homes built in the next decade, requires a break from longstanding taboos.
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05/08/2025 - 21:20
Healesville sanctuary releases 21 critically endangered birds in hopes a new wild population will thrive
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For the first time in 42 years, critically endangered helmeted honeyeaters have returned to Cardinia in south-east Victoria, where they were found until the Ash Wednesday bushfires in 1983.
Helmeted honeyeaters are charismatic, energetic and curious, according to Dr Kim Miller, the manager of threatened species at Healesville sanctuary.
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05/08/2025 - 20:03
Voters have spoken with clarity. We want a renewable-powered future
Australia news live: latest politics and federal election updates
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A shift toward nuclear power and a significant expansion of gas electricity would have stalled renewable energy investment at the worst possible time, potentially derailing Australia’s transition to a clean, modern energy system. This election was not just a political moment, it was a turning point.
This result might offer a much-needed shot in the arm for the clean energy sector, but this is no time for self-congratulation or complacency. Australia’s energy transformation is happening in country towns and centres right around the nation with windfarms, solar projects, battery installations and the transmission lines that connect them being built in regional and rural communities. These communities have legitimate concerns. While the benefits from the jobs, investment, upgraded roads and bridges will come, they also bear the brunt of change. It is our responsibility as an industry to do better by them.
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05/08/2025 - 15:31
Judge grants payments between $5,000 and $104,000 after second world war-era tank leak contaminated water supply
A federal judge has awarded more than $680,000 to 17 families who say they were sickened by a leak from a second-world-war era fuel tank into a US navy drinking water system in Hawaii in 2021.
The bellwether cases set the legal tone for another 7,500 military family members, civilians and service members whose lawsuits are still awaiting resolution.
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