Nations have achieved “an important global milestone” for people and planet, with more than 10% of the ocean now officially protected.

That’s according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which revealed this week that 5m sq km of ocean – an area larger than the European Union – was classed as protected in the last two years alone. The percentage of ocean now officially under conservation measures, it added, stands at 10.01% – up from 8.6% in 2024.

“We all depend on the ocean for our survival; over half of the world’s oxygen is produced by life in the ocean,” said Neville Ash, director of UNEP’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre, “[this] therefore is a moment for celebration.” 

It’s also, he added, “a reminder of how much work there is still to do”, pointing to the 2022 agreement committing nations to conserving 30% of Earth’s land and sea by 2030. To meet the target, an area the size of the Indian Ocean must be protected in the next four years, said UNEP. 

Policing protected areas is also a challenge, as highlighted by a new report revealing how the UK’s marine protected areas are being plundered by industrial trawlers. “It is critical that both new and existing areas are managed effectively to deliver positive outcomes for people and nature,” added Ash.

Image: Pagie Page

David Eubank, 20, from Horwich, was killed instantly in a crash on the M61 near Rivington Services at around 11.40pm on October 15, 2024.

David Eubank, 202, died in a car crash on the M61 (Image: Public)

He had been travelling in the back seat of a Citroen C1 when it crashed in two vehicle collision.

Eighteen months on, the family are still waiting to find out what happened and David’s father, Steven, says the family remain “stuck in limbo”, unable to properly grieve.

“It never leaves you,” he said.

“It’s with you every minute of every day. Losing a child is the worst thing that can happen to anyone, nothing prepares you for it.

“You expect to lose your parents, your grandparents, maybe even your partner. But nobody ever conditions you to lose your child.”

Steven described the past year and a half as deeply traumatic, made worse by what he says has been a lack of communication from police.

Steven said: “They were treating it like a bike was stolen, I said you can’t just give me a crime number and fob me off.

“It’s been 18 months and we’ve been left in the dark,” Steven said.

“Months go by with no contact. There’s no sense of urgency at all.

“You see on the news that families are supported by specially trained officers but that just hasn’t been our experience. It’s been appalling.”

The family’s heartbreak was compounded last month when David’s mother, Jennifer Hindley, died aged 56 after a long battle with cancer.

Jenifer Hindley, who died without seeking justice for her son David (Image: Public)

She passed away at Bolton Hospital on March 29, having been seriously ill for several weeks.

Jennifer had first been diagnosed with leukaemia at just 19 and went on to battle cancer three times.

The long-term effects of her treatment, including radiotherapy, caused lasting damage to her heart and lungs.

Despite undergoing major heart surgery in December, she died from heart failure.

Steven believes the emotional toll of losing David and the lack of progress in the case had a devastating impact on her.

“She’d fought cancer all her life,” he said.

“But after David died, it was like the fight just went out of her.

“She said to us, ‘I’ve had enough now.’ And I truly believe not getting any answers about David made that so much harder for her.”

He added: “She went to her grave without seeing any justice for her son. That’s something we have to live with.”

Jenifer battled cancer for decades before her death (Image: Public)

Jennifer was described as “full of life”, “colourful” and deeply loved by everyone who knew her.

Her journey into motherhood made David’s death even more painful for the family.

After being told as a teenager that cancer treatment would likely leave her unable to have children, Jennifer was later stunned to discover she was pregnant with twins.

“It was unbelievable,” Steven said.

“We’d already accepted we might never have children and then not only did she fall pregnant, but it was twins. It felt like a miracle.”

“To go through all of that, to be told you might never have children, then to be given two it made them everything,” he said.

“That’s why losing David is just, it’s impossible to put into words.”

The crash also left a front seat passenger with life-changing injuries.

While David’s twin brother, Adam, is now being supported by family members as a vulnerable adult.

Steven says the ongoing lack of answers has left the family unable to move forward.

“We’re still in shock,” he said.

“There’s no closure. You can’t even begin to process it properly because you’re still waiting.

“It just never stops. The grief doesn’t leave you and neither does the frustration.”

A Lancashire Police spokesperson said: “First and foremost, our thoughts remain with David’s family and friends at this time.

“A now 22-year-old man was interviewed under caution for causing death by dangerous driving.

“He has been released under investigation.

“A file was prepared for and passed to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration.”

The victim’s mum said he is now scared to leave their home

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A knife-wielding abductor snatched a boy in a shopping trolley and cut him with the blade.

After allegedly shoplifting a “large kitchen knife” from a Walmart store in Omaha, Nebraska, Noemi Guzman is accused of approaching the child and his babysitter. The 31-year-old suspect is said to have forced the adult to walk ahead as the child remained in the shopping trolley.

Omaha Police Department was alerted to the incident on Tuesday (April 14) at around 9:13am for an “unknown nature”, with a further 911 call telling officers that a young child was being held hostage by a woman with a knife.

Guzman made repeated threats to harm the boy as officers arrived to defuse the situation. She refused to let go of the large knife and eventually cut the boy, Daily Star reports.

Officers fired at Guzman in a desperate attempt to save the child hostage, with the attacker later pronounced dead at the scene despite the best efforts of responders. The boy was treated for ‘non-life threatening’ at Children’s Hospital, according to police, and has since been released.

Police said in a statement that the boy was taken to Children’s Hospital by Omaha Fire Department medics for treatment. The boy’s injuries were considered non-life threatening, and he has since been released from the hospital.

Shocking body cam footage released by Omaha Police Department shows Guzman brandishing the knife close to the young boy’s face. His mother, Sara Hillman, told US media outlets that she is still in fear of the incident and asks herself: “What if it could have gone a different way?”

The family added that the child is now scared to go outside. Guzman reportedly had a previous criminal history and recorded issues of mental health.

During a previous trial, in which the judge ruled she was suffering from schizophrenia and should remain under the court’s supervision, it was heard that she had allegedly broken into a church while holding a knife.

“The responding officers acted with professionalism and direct action to intervene and save a child’s life,” Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said. “The community can be reassured in knowing that Omaha police officers stand ready to act with courage and decisiveness in the most serious situations to protect the public.”

Omaha Mayor John W. Ewing Jr. thanked the police for their quick action, which prevented a larger tragedy. He said: “I am grateful for the department’s professionalism and transparency.”

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — President Donald Trump heads to Las Vegas on Thursday to promote the tax cuts he signed into law last year to try to highlight what Republicans see as an economic strength ahead of this year’s elections.

Workers who earn tips and overtime are seeing bigger returns this tax season, but those savings and others resulting from the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that Trump signed last year have been eaten away by higher gas pricesdriven by the Iran war.

The president’s rare trip out West comes as Trump faces growing political pressure to wrap up the war and focus on a message that helps his party as they try to defend their congressional majorities in November’s midterm elections.

On Friday, Trump will hold an event in Phoenix with conservative political group Turning Point USA. But his first stop is in Las Vegas where he will hold a roundtable with several police officers who have benefited from new tax breaks on overtime, along with a barber and a casino pit supervisor, who got to claim the new tax breaks on tips.

The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the average tax refund this year has been over $3,400, up about $340 from a year ago.

Vegas, once known for affordable living, feels economic pain

Trump has said he first conceived of his “no tax on tips” in Las Vegas, a city where entertainment is the financial lifeblood and many workers depend on gratuities from visitors.

But it’s also a city of commuters, including the tipped workers who drive to their jobs at glitzy casinos. Gasoline is averaging $5 a gallon in Las Vegas, up 28% from a year ago, according to AAA.

Nicholas Delaney, an airline attendant who lives in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson and said he did not vote for the president in 2024, said he thinks Trump is doing a “terrible” job when it comes to the cost of living. He thought the tax break for tips was a good policy, but is concerned about the cost of groceries and gas.

“I gotta spend over $100 for a full tank of gas, 13 gallons? Crazy,” Delaney said.

Paula Goodman, a bartender in a Henderson casino, said the cost of living is her biggest concern right now, adding that she spends more than $400 a week on groceries for her family.

But Goodman, who voted for the president, said she thought he is “doing a pretty good damn job,” and doesn’t blame him for high gas prices, which she portrayed as just a fluctuation. As a bartender, she said she personally appreciated the tax savings on tips she brings home.

“Every little penny nowadays is, like, huge,” she said. “You’ve seen diesel, right? $6.11.”

Tax refunds are offset by gas prices

The White House said Trump is focused on tax cuts, deregulation and boosting U.S. energy production to drive down prices, and describes high gas prices as a temporary disruption from the war in Iran.

“Tens of millions of Americans are benefiting this tax season from the president’s signature provisions” in the tax law, said White House spokesman Kush Desai, saying that shows “how the administration hasn’t lost focus on delivering on our affordability agenda at home.”

Even so, the conflict has made things less affordable. The Bank of America Institute looked at its deposit and spending data and in a Tuesday analysis concluded that “the average increase in tax refunds could cover the average increase in gasoline spending for at least five months.”

Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide, the insurance and financial services company, said last week in an analysis that “the steep rise in gasoline prices looks likely to completely offset the increased tax funds windfall with households,” stressing that the money back would likely prevent a sharper drop in consumer spending.

Trump’s economic message focusing on the tax breaks has also been drowned out this week by distractions from the president himself, who angered even some of his own supporters when he got into a public fight with the pope and posted a now-deleted image on social media depicting himself as Jesus.

GOP strategist Ron Bonjean said among Republicans, “the frustration and concern is growing every week about whether or not we will be able to hold onto the House this November.”

It takes a lot of repetition for a message like promoting the tax bill to break through to voters, but Trump’s tendency to drift into other subjects can dilute that, Bonjean said. Trump, who has at times dismissed affordability concerns as “a hoax,” and “con job” from Democrats, has to acknowledge the economic realities people are facing now if he wants to help his party this November, Bonjean said.

“He absolutely has to talk about his plan to bring down high gasoline costs, or else he’s lost his own message. It won’t be credible just to talk about no taxes on tips,” Bonjean said.

When will gas prices come down?

While the president has said he thinks the war with Iran will end soon, a deal to resolve it has not yet emerged, with the U.S. and Iran still proffering stances that are far apart.

Trump on Sunday said in a Fox News Channel interview that gas prices “could be the same or maybe a little bit higher” by the November midterms.

By Wednesday, in another Fox News interview, Trump walked back that comment. “I think they’ll be much lower” before the election, on the assumption the war will be long over.

“When that’s settled, gas prices are going to go down tremendously,” Trump said.

Hours later at the White House, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was less rosy, predicting that gas prices will fall sometime this summer, depending on how the negotiations with Iran go.

“I’m optimistic that sometime between June 20th and September 20th, that we can have $3 gas again,” Bessent told reporters.

___

Price reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.

On many coastlines around the world, piles of discarded oyster and mussel shells are a common sight — the leftovers of a global seafood industry that produces millions of tonnes of waste each year. At the same time, hidden in rocky deposits far from the coast, a very different sort of resource — rare earth elements — is plentiful. These metals are in soaring demand as they are essential for technologies such as wind turbines, electric vehicles, and most modern electronics.

My team’s new research explores an interesting connection between this waste and the critically needed rare earth elements. We found that common seashells, particularly oyster shells, can capture and trap rare earth elements from water. In doing so, the seashells transform from waste into a potential tool for cleaning up pollution linked to the green energy transition.

People in Japan often describe rare earth elements as the “vitamins of modern industry” because, like vitamins in the body, they are essential for many modern technologies but only small amounts are needed. Extracting and processing rare earth minerals them can generate contaminated wastewater, where these elements may leak into the environment.

In our labs at Trinity College Dublin, we have been investigating whether seashell waste could help address this problem. We collected oyster, mussel and cockle shells from Irish beaches, cleaned them and crushed them into small grains. These fragments were then placed in water containing rare earth elements — specifically lanthanum, neodymium and dysprosium — at concentrations similar to those found in severe industrial contamination.

What happens next is not immediately visible to the naked eye, but under the microscope it is striking – and beautiful. At the surface of each shell grain, a chemical reaction begins. The calcium carbonate that makes up the shell starts to dissolve, while new minerals containing rare earth elements begin to crystallise in its place. Over time, a thin layer forms, like a kind of mineral “skin” that coats the grain.

Using a high-resolution microscope, we observed this process in detail. Tiny crystals first appear as needle-like structures, then grow and merge into a continuous crust. In some cases, this crust eventually blocks further reaction, effectively shutting down the process.

But not all shells behave the same way: oyster shells, it turns out, have a unique internal structure. They are made of thin layers and porous, chalky regions that allow water and dissolved elements to circulate more freely. This means the reaction does not stop at the surface. Instead, it continues inward, gradually replacing the entire shell.

Under the right conditions, 1g of oyster shells can capture and lock away up to around 1.5g of the rare earth elements present in the solution. Rather than simply sticking to the surface, these elements become part of a new, stable carbonate mineral.

From pollution control to resource recovery

Many materials used in water treatment rely on adsorption, the process whereby contaminants bind or “adsorb” to a surface. But in this case, it’s a process called full mineral transformation that incorporates the rare earth elements into solid crystals. This makes them far less likely to be released back into the environment.

Once captured, these elements could follow different paths. The material could be potentially processed further to recover the metals. Because they are concentrated in a solid phase, established chemical extraction methods could, in principle, be used to recycle them. Potentially, those waste shells could be used not only to clean up pollution, but also to recover valuable resources that would otherwise be lost.

There is no shortage of seashells. Nature makes them for free. Global shellfish aquaculture produces vast quantities of shell waste each year, much of which ends up in landfill or stockpiled near coastlines. Crushed shells could be used in filtration systems, treatment beds or permeable barriers, where contaminated water flows through reactive material. These approaches are already commonly used in water treatment, for example for the removal of heavy metals from seawater.

The challenge lies in maintaining efficiency. Some shell types quickly develop impermeable coatings that limit their effectiveness. Our results suggest that oyster shells, thanks to their structure, are particularly well suited to overcoming this limitation.

Making this technology work on a larger scale will depend less on finding new materials and more on designing systems that let as much water as possible come into contact with the active surfaces, while preventing those surfaces from becoming blocked or less effective over time.

This approach alone will not reduce the need for mining rare earth elements. Global demand for these materials is vast and growing very rapidly. However, that does not make this solution insignificant. It can help support a less wasteful and more “circular” approach to critical materials by offering a way to capture rare earth elements from waste streams, reduce environmental contamination and potentially recover part of what is currently lost during processing.

Scaling this approach from the lab to real-world applications requires testing under more complex conditions, as industrial wastewaters contain mixtures of metals, variable chemistry and flowing systems. Pilot-scale studies are needed to assess performance, durability and how quickly shell fragments develop a rare earth-rich mineral coating, like an armour, that blocks further reaction with the water.

Practical questions also matter: how much processing (cleaning, crushing) is truly necessary, and can it be done cost-effectively at scale? If rare earth recovery is the goal, efficient methods must be developed to extract them from the newly formed minerals. Addressing these challenges will determine whether this becomes a viable large-scale solution.

The BBC Radio 2 star is among those rumoured to be taking over Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman on BBC’s Strictly

Zoe Ball has teased that she has a ‘glamourous’ new job as rumours continue to swirl that she could be one of the new hosts of Strictly Come Dancing.

As fans of the BBC One dance contest know, there was widespread shock back in October when Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman announced their plans to leave after 14 years at the helm together, with Tess hosting the show from the beginning in 2004, then with Sir Bruce Forsyth.

They said in a joint statement at the time: “We have loved working as a duo and hosting Strictly has been an absolute dream. We were always going to leave together, and now feels like the right time.

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“We will have the greatest rest of this amazing series and we just want to say an enormous thank you to the BBC and to every single person who works on the show. They’re the most brilliant team and we’ll miss them every day. We will cry when we say the last ‘keep dancing’ but we will continue to say it to each other. Just possibly in tracksuit bottoms at home while holding some pizza.”

It was then in December they were seen hosting Strictly live for the last time as the 2025 series drew to an emotional close. Their last show, which saw Karen Carney and Carlos Gu crowned Strictly 2025 champions, saw them welcomed with a standing ovation from the studio audience, before the show featured a number of tributes to the presenters, including from the Queen, as well as fans of the show.

While who will replace them is yet to be confirmed, many names have been put forward including BBC Radio 2 stars Zoe and Rylan Clark, who both previously hosted Strictly’s spin-off show, It Takes Two, as well as the likes of Alison Hammond, Bradley Walsh, Emma Willis and Amanda Holden.

While she previously said she would “love to do it”, Zoe also made a point that whoever took over the role would have big shoes to fill. But now, the broadcaster has been quizzed by her radio pal Jo Whiley on their podcast, Dig It, after she revealed she was preparing for a “glamorous” job, though couldn’t share further details.

When asked by Jo what plans she had coming up, Zoe replied: “Absolutely nothing going on my end, nothing going on my end at all,” before acknowledging that her quick downplay of what she has ahead sounded rather suspicious.

“Well I may or may not believe you,” Jo laughed before Zoe then shared: “Hopefully afterwards, I’ll be able to tell you about it all, but obviously at the moment I can’t say anything about it.”

Jo also pointed out Zoe’s new hair do, to which the TV and radio star revealed she had her roots done and added some extensions. “I need to be glamorous for something,” she teased. Jo continued to press, with Zoe replied: “Just, you know, doing the garden. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror – just for going down the shops.” Appearing to note the rumours, Jo then quipped: “Strictly gardening,” before Zoe changed the subject.

It comes after Janette Manrara said she will “wait and find out” about a potential new presenting role on Strictly Come Dancing as she remains among the names rumoured to take over the huge hosting gig.

The dancer and presenter, who was previously a professional dancer on the BBC show and hosts the BBC One programme’s spin-off, It Takes Two, has been rumoured as one of the potential successors to Claudia and Tess. During an appearance on BBC Breakfast on Wednesday (April 15), Janette was asked whether she will be in a new presenting role for this year’s series.

She said: “I don’t know, we’ll have to wait and find out. I think everyone at the moment is a bit on standby, so we’ll see what happens.” Janette also said she is “assuming we’ll have a couple of new professionals and a couple of new presenters” for the 2026 series, after dancers Michelle Tsiakkas, Karen Hauer, Nadiya Bychkova and Luba Mushtuk announced they are leaving the show.