The world’s tropical rainforests are edging towards collapse. But knowing how to stop deforestation isn’t enough to drive action. The challenge is aligning all the pieces of the puzzle to initiate substantial change. Now our research suggests the key is to persuade enough people to make the system tip in the right direction.

In the mid-1980s, the British fur industry collapsed in less than a decade. Famous retail stores shut down their fur departments. Fur farming was banned in 2000. By the late 2010s, even fashion houses whose heritage was built on the fur trade had gone fur free, citing consumer sentiment.

This abrupt change didn’t come because of new technology or better regulation. It came because of a shift in social norms, triggered by British fashion photographer David Bailey’s Dumb Animals cinema ad campaign. This short film featured a catwalk model trailing a fur dripping with blood and a slogan: “It takes up to 40 dumb animals to make a fur coat. But only one to wear it.” Once desirable and luxurious, fur coats quickly became taboo.

Unfortunately, a similar shift has not yet happened in how people consider tropical forest destruction.

To slow deforestation, scientists can map and monitor forests from space to the resolution of a single tree. Certification schemes have made supply chains more transparent and given consumers and regulators something to act on. Securing Indigenous land tenure produces the lowest deforestation rates on the planet.

Yet every year another patch of Amazon the size of a small European country gets cut down or burnt.

In Southeast Asia, palm oil and pulp monocultures continue to decimate its rainforests. In the Congo Basin and West Africa, small-scale agriculture, charcoal production, cocoa, coffee and mining are steadily fraying another of the planet’s vital areas for biodiversity and carbon storage.

The world’s tropical forests are all edging closer towards a catastrophic dieback. This isn’t a knowledge issue. It’s a problem about how societies change their minds.

Tipping points

When positive change happens, it’s easy to assume that evidence accumulates that things are getting worse, the public is informed, opinion shifts, policy follows, then behaviour and consumption adjust. Each step is gradual and linear. The dial turns slowly.

Except that’s not how anything important does change. Take smoking in public places, the acceptance of same-sex marriage or the speed with which electric vehicles are becoming mainstream. Nothing happens for years or decades, then everything happens all at once.

This is the nature of tipping points: thresholds beyond which a system abruptly reorganises itself and settles into a new state that becomes hard to reverse.

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UK may be on verge of triggering a ‘positive tipping point’ for tackling climate change

At the University of Exeter, we research what makes such change – good and bad – happen slowly then all at once, and how we might trigger the good ones deliberately. We’re exploring how to find tipping points that could positively protect tropical forests at our upcoming Exeter climate conference.

Many social systems, like those in nature, have tipping points. They can resist change up to a point. Then a relatively small, additional nudge – perhaps a film, a court ruling, a fall in the price of something, a critical mass of new adopters – flips a system into a new stable state that is hard to reverse.

That can be hopeful, in a way that gradual change is not, because it means that we don’t have to persuade everyone to do the right thing. We just need to persuade enough people to make the system tip in the right direction.

What the Amazon teaches us

For tropical forests, the most studied example of a deliberate tipping intervention began in 2006. Following a Greenpeace exposé called Eating Up the Amazon, the world’s largest soy traders agreed not to buy from newly cleared Amazon land. The Amazon soy moratorium worked, dramatically. Direct soy-driven deforestation in the Amazon fell from around 30% of soy expansion to under 4%. This became a textbook strategy for protecting tropical forests.

But while the moratorium was a success inside the Amazon, soy production has expanded elsewhere, including into the neighbouring Cerrado, Brazil’s vast tropical savanna, driving rapid deforestation there. Rural communities in the Amazon saw little of the prosperity that might have made standing forest the obvious economic choice. The underlying incentive structure – an economy that still pays more to clear land than to keep it intact – was never reshaped.

Twenty years on, that fragile arrangement is under serious strain. Major traders have signalled their intent to withdraw. Brazil is moving to ban the agreement outright.

Pressure is not coming from collapsed consumer concern. European supermarket chains including Lidl, Aldi and Tesco have reaffirmed their commitments. More than 70 organisations have signed a manifesto defending the moratorium.

The pressure is coming from somewhere harder to fix: China is now the dominant buyer of Brazilian soy and is not party to the agreement. The EU’s deforestation regulation has been delayed and weakened. A new EU trade deal with Mercosur (a South American trade bloc bringing together Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) expands Brazilian exports into Europe. And Brazil’s powerful agribusiness lobby has spent two decades patiently working to dismantle the agreement from within.

So a supply-chain commitment that covers one market but not another will leak. A consumer pressure that is real in Berlin but absent in Shanghai will eventually be outflanked. A moratorium that protects a forest without making it economically rewarding for people living in it will be politically vulnerable. Each mechanism is just one part of the puzzle.

The three As

By looking at the system as a whole, we can understand how preserving the forest becomes the affordable, attractive and socially acceptable option. Affordability is about finance and the supply chain. Attractiveness is about the the co-benefits to all parties. Acceptability involves shifting the cultural and political pressure – without that, the other two erode.

We can study, plan for and even deliberately seed positive social tipping points when we design solutions with a whole systems-perspective. For tropical forests, this includes new supply-chain rules, Indigenous leadership and
the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (a new multi-billion-dollar rainforest investment fund).

A concerted, coordinated push across all three aspects will turn the protection of the standing forest into the most affordable, socially acceptable and attractive option.

Cherise Chapman is helping address the decline through a new campaign that reconnects generations.

Ms Chapman, 79, who lives at Nunthorpe Oaks Residential Care Home, is part of Sanctuary Care’s Lifelong Learning Exchange — a scheme that brings older and younger people together to share traditional skills and life experience.

Ms Chapman said: “Sewing has been part of my life for as long as I can remember — there’s something so satisfying about being able to mend and make things with your own hands.

“It’s a skill that gives you real confidence and independence.

“I’m delighted to be part of the Lifelong Learning Exchange, and pass on these skills to the younger generation.”

The scheme follows research commissioned by Sanctuary Care, which found that 43 per cent of people in the North East believe sewing and mending clothes is a skill at risk of dying out.

A further 39 per cent believe writing letters and cards is disappearing.

The Lifelong Learning Exchange aims to revive these skills through one-to-one mentoring and practical advice, as well as skill guides, demonstrations and personal stories.

Louise Palmer, director of operations at Sanctuary Care, said: “Our residents hold an incredible wealth of practical knowledge.

“The Lifelong Learning Exchange is about sharing this knowledge, creating meaningful connections between generations, and ensuring essential life skills don’t disappear.

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“As part of our developing Young Persons Strategy, we are continuing to explore and evolve ways of bringing younger people into our homes to take part in intergenerational experiences.

“This includes volunteering opportunities, and school or college-led sessions with residents — creating meaningful opportunities for shared learning, connection, and community.”

According to a survey of Sanctuary Care residents, 80 per cent said they had skills or hobbies they wanted to pass on, while another 87 per cent believe traditional skills are at risk of being lost.

Many have helped evacuate ‘men, women, children that are living in fear’ as protests rage on

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A family ‘would have been beaten to a pulp’ as protestors attempted to get into their house and threw fireworks, according a resident who helped them flee.

The woman, who did not want to give her name, said people were trying to kick a man, his wife and their teenage daughter out of their house in the Shankill Road area as the protests erupted on Tuesday night.

‘Sporadic pockets of disorder’ broke out in a number of areas following demonstrations in response to Monday night’s stabbing attack in Belfast.

Protestors caused chaos across the city, setting fire to a bus, businesses and houses, with firefighters having to remove residents from their homes.

The woman told Sky News: “I could just see them all going into the house.

“I don’t know how I did it but I stopped every one of them from going into the bedroom.”

The woman added that the family seemed “really, really scared”.

She continued: “I just said, come out with me, I’ll help you, just come with me… I walked out with them and I could see people looking at me.”

She then shouted at demonstrators that the family were not involved in Monday night’s attack.

“We just kept walking and walked right out of the street with them and walked right around the corner.”

The woman said she believed that “definitely, something really bad would have happened” had she not intervened.

“I think they would have been beaten to a pulp,” she said.

“To be honest, I dread to think what would have happened.”

When asked about her thoughts on Monday night’s incidents she said it had been on her mind the whole day and how it highlighted riots in Northern Ireland last year.

“You’re thinking, what’s going to happen and what’s the worst that can happen?” she said.

“I don’t know but when I saw them going into that house, I just knew that something really bad was going to happen to them, only because they were foreign. I was the only person there that actually stopped it.”

A pastor who has also been helping those targeted in the attacks in the Crumlin Road area where several houses were alight condemned the violence against “innocent people”.

He told the BBC people are being forced out of their homes “because they’re black”.

Pastor Jack McKee said some of the members of his church “who have been with us for 20 years” were “getting put out of their home, had their house attacked, windows smashed, houses beside them burned”.

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“They’re good Christian people and they’re getting put out just because they’re black,” he added.

“I’m doing my best to help them, it’s as simple as that.”

He told the BBC that “obviously we’re all disgusted” after the knife attack on Monday. “But this doesn’t help anyone.”

McKee says that those evacuated will “probably” not be able to return to the area, saying that “innocent people” are hurting.

“Men, women, children that are living in fear because of what some idiot did last night.

“I’m angry and I’m disappointed that this is the response of people in our community.”

A 30-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of the knife attack and was charged with attempted murder.

He is also charged with possession of an article with a blade or point in a public place and making threats to kill. He is due to appear at Belfast Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.

The victim of the attack, a man aged in his 40s, remained in a serious condition in hospital on Tuesday receiving treatment for serious eye, face and back wounds.

Emergency services are in attendance and the incident has been confirmed as a house fire

Police have told the public to “avoid” a busy Cambridge road amid an “ongoing incident” on Tuesday, June 9. Cambridgeshire Police said emergency services, including the fire service, are in attendance.

The public have been asked to avoid King Hedges Road for the “foreseeable future”. The fire service confirmed at around 1.30pm that the incident was a house fire.

Traffic monitoring site Inrix said: “Kings Hedges Road in both directions partially blocked, slow traffic due to an Emergency Services incident between Northfields Avenue and Campkin Road.”

A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Police said: “Please avoid King Hedges Road for the foreseeable future. There is an ongoing incident where fire and police are attending.”

Another changeble day has been forecast for Wales on Wednesday.

A Met Office spokesperson said: “A day of sunny spells and showers across the region. Showers may be heavy and merge into longer spells of rain at times. Pleasant in any sunshine, but otherwise feeling rather cool for June in a blustery breeze. Maximum temperature 15 °C.”

People have been issued a ‘toxic or life-threatening’ alert

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A leading vet charity has urged pet owners to double-check veterinary advice found on TikTok and social media platforms. The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) has warned that online “hacks” and home treatments could be putting pets’ lives at risk.

The PDSA has seen viral clips online where owners are encouraged to give dogs ibuprofen for injuries despite the drug being toxic to pets. Cat Henstridge, a veterinary surgeon who shares pet care advice to over 400,000 followers on social media, said the golden rule is to always “run it past your vet first”.

Henstridge, who runs the account @cat_the_vet, told the Press Association: “Ibuprofen is 100% off the menu for all pets and paracetamol is very toxic for cats.” Whilst stressing that some general advice from social media for pets can be good, Ms Henstridge said “when it comes to medicines, it has to be the veterinary profession that is the first port of call”.

The 45-year-old from Sheffield added: “A lot of home and herbal holistic remedies are at best ineffective and, at worse, potentially dangerous.”

Catherine Burke, a PDSA vet, said: “Animals process medications very differently from humans. Something safe for people can be toxic or even life-threatening for pets.”

Ms Burke said she can understand that social media offers pet owners “quick help” but this comes with a risk as these viral clips often “make medical guidance appear far simpler and safer than it really is”.

The PDSA is concerned how quickly “misinformation spreads online” and has encouraged pet lovers not “to try home treatments seen online without first checking with their vet”. It added: “What works for one animal in a short video may not be safe for another, and similar symptoms can have very different underlying causes.”

The charity is urging owners to contact their vet directly if they are concerned about their pet’s health, rather than using social media trends or often unverified online tips. Ms Burke added: “Following these viral tips can delay pet owners from seeking proper veterinary care, where early treatment can make a significant difference to health and wellbeing.”

The PDSA is the UK’s leading veterinary charity, with 49 pet hospitals across the UK. The charity has a dedicated Pet Health Hub where expert advice can be found.

Locals say it is like ‘football match traffic’ at peak times for the church

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Frustrated residents say traffic issues caused by worshippers attending Kingsgate Community Church are like facing “football match traffic” each week.

People in Peterborough have said they are in favour of the church providing regular services and creating a sense of community. However, they say the associated traffic makes navigating the area a challenge before and after peak service times.

“As a local resident in the vicinity of the Kingsgate Community Church, I find it frustrating and a burden on the roads and surrounding area of the amount of traffic every week associated with the services and meetings at Kingsgate,” said a local resident who asked to go by Lou.

“The traffic disruption, noise, pollution and ever increasing numbers is something that needs to be addressed for the benefit of the whole community.”

Kingsgate Peterborough, in Parnwell, is the founding and largest hub of the wider Kingsgate network of churches, which includes campuses in Cambridge and Leicester.

The congregation first moved into the 84,000sq/ft Kingsgate facility in 2006. Since then, it has grown to megachurch status, regularly attracting between 1,000 to 2,000 worshippers to its most popular services.

Lou said: “Sundays, in particular times between 8:50am and 12:45pm, are causing a nuisance with queuing traffic to get in through the morning causing a lack of flow for local residents.”

Lou said she and her fellow residents resent the fact that they often have to tweak their own journeys and social activities to fit around church service times. “We shouldn’t have to adapt what we want to do around what’s going on at the church or then get caught up in traffic unexpectedly,” she said.

“At times it feels like you are dealing and coming across football match traffic issues on a weekly basis throughout the year.” She continued: “They are a good community church with various valuable projects and I do not hold bad will against them. But this has been going on for years and nothing changes, just at times gets worse.”

Labour councillor Sam Hemraj, herself a Parnwell resident, represents the East ward where Kingsgate Community Church is. “For residents living in Parnwell, around Parnwell Road and Oxney Road area – it is a nightmare at times,” she said, describing local Sunday morning traffic as “horrendous”.

She added: “I’ve had other residents complain about it, [and] even my husband says ‘I’m not leaving now because we’re going to get stuck in that traffic’.”

Like Lou, Cllr Hemraj was keen to highlight that, away from the evident traffic issues, she regards the church as a great asset for Parnwell. “What they do, community-wise, is fantastic,” she said. “They help a lot of vulnerable people in the community.”

Kingsgate Community Church acknowledged the popularity of its services, saying “more people than ever” now attend its weekly Sunday morning services, and that it was fully aware of the issues this brings.

“We understand the frustrations expressed by some residents… and would welcome the opportunity to engage directly with members of the local community,” a spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

The church said it is “grateful to be part of the Parnwell community” and that it is looking at ways to help to alleviate some of the challenges residents have become frustrated with.

They continued: “Proactive work is ongoing to manage increasing traffic both on and off the Kingsgate site. This has included carrying out traffic surveys, working with local businesses to utilise other car parks, and enlisting traffic management consultancy support.

“We are continuing to explore all potential options for longer-term measures to address the impact of traffic on local roads, in liaison with the relevant authorities.”

Residents have also suggested a number of measures the church might consider implementing in order to help resolve the issue. These include staggering church service times, bringing in shuttle bus services, and establishing more than one exit and entry point.

Cllr Hemraj believes a change in local infrastructure may well be the only truly effective way to comprehensively resolve the issue in the long-term, and that she would be pushing for that in her official capacity. “This [issue] is on my agenda,” she confirmed.

“I think that the only way to alleviate [the traffic] is an improvement to the road. There were talks about extending Parnwell Way but it goes down to the [council] funding. I think… that road needs two lanes.”

The councillor said that she would be reaching out to Peterborough City Council’s Service Director for Infrastructure and Highways, James Collingridge, to discuss potential solutions.

The remains of a woman who died in the 2025 Air India crash were wrongly identified and repatriated to the UK under another victim’s name, an inquest has heard.

The remains of Vasuben Narendrasinh Raj, 70, were sent to the UK under another name, only to be correctly identified after a DNA test.

She was among the 241 passengers killed after the London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed in western India’s Gujarat state on 12 June 2025. The plane slammed into a medical college building shortly after take off, killing 19 more people on the ground. Only one passenger, a British national of Indian origin named Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, survived the crash.

Inquests have now opened for two victims of the crash, including the 70-year-old woman and a second individual who is yet to be identified.

On Tuesday, senior coroner professor, Fiona Wilcox, told Inner West London Coroner’s Court that it was “obviously very unusual” to open inquests nearly a year after death.

She told an online hearing that Raj’s remains were flown into the UK under another person’s name, but when the remains were tested, it was confirmed they were not of that person.

Westminster Public Mortuary then sent the remains for DNA testing, and sent the results to Indian authorities, who then confirmed that it were those of Raj.

“There have been extensive inquiries ongoing in the background and we have only recently been able to make contact with the son of Ms Raj,” she said.

In a separate case heard at the inquest, an unidentified male victim’s remains had been mixed with those of another crash victim and were later separated through forensic examination.

She said extensive examinations were conducted on these remains and the victim was separated from another person’s remains

“We have sent palm prints and DNA to India in an attempt to identify this gentleman but to date we have had no confirmation as to his name or any of the other registration that the court is able and required to find,” she said.

“The identity of the unidentified male remains outstanding. I hope that identification will be forthcoming,” she added.

Full inquests will be held once results from the Indian investigation are available.

Detective Inspector Mike Buck, who was also part of the hearing, said: “We have been working for some time with British High Commission in India to make those identifications.”

Full inquests will be held once the Indian investigation concludes.

The clean-up, led by Darlington Council’s public health team and the Darlington Stop Smoking Hub, collected 5,000 cigarette butts in just two hours.

The project forms part of the council’s broader efforts to promote environmental sustainability, healthier living, and longer life expectancy for residents.

Some of the thousands of cigarette butts cleared from around Darlington Memorial Hospital (Image: Supplied)

Cigarette butts are among the most commonly littered items worldwide and can take up to a decade to break down.

They also leach toxic chemicals into soil and waterways, posing threats to both the environment and wildlife.

Lorraine Hughes, director of public health at Darlington Council, said: “Quitting smoking is the single best action you can take for better health.

“Within weeks, you’ll breathe easier, feel more energetic, and lower your risk of serious illnesses like cancer, heart attack, stroke, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

“Many people also report feeling calmer, happier, and less anxious just a few weeks after quitting.

“It’s better for your bank balance too and could save you over £2,000 a year.

“Our friendly local stop smoking services are here to help you quit for good – giving you the best advice on how to kick the habit and ease your cravings.

“Even if you’ve been unsuccessful in the past – please don’t give up; your next quit attempt could be the one that works and changes your life.

“It’s never too late.”

The 5,000 cigarette butts collected represent around £3,500 spent on tobacco products and roughly a month of lost life, with each cigarette estimated to reduce life expectancy by 11 minutes.

Darlington Stop Smoking Hub offers free advice, guidance and evidence-based support.

Appointments can be booked at www.darlington.gov.uk/stop-smoking or by calling 0800 802 1850.

400 free licences for the NHS Smoke Free app are also available for Darlington residents at https://smokefreeapp.com/.

Councillor Stephen Harker, leader of Darlington Council, said: “We are committed to making sure people in Darlington live longer in good health and initiatives like this, provide fresh opportunities to engage with our communities about issues which impact their health and wellbeing.

“Smoking is the single largest driver of health inequalities – something we are determined to address in Darlington.

“Smoking prevalence in the borough is now the second lowest in the region, and lower than the UK average.

“Referrals to local stop smoking services continue to increase, and more people than ever are benefitting from kicking the habit.

“However, one in 13 local people continue to smoke.

“The small action taken by our staff and partner colleagues has helped prevent plastic particles entering soil and drains and toxic chemicals from leaching into the local environment – protecting local wildlife, waterways and public health.”

Record View says an inquiry would be able to reassure the public that decisions were above board.

We all now know Peter Murrell is a crook. The estranged husband of Nicola Sturgeon has admitted so in court.

But the former chief executive of the SNP is also a chancer. Given the weight of the evidence against him, Murrell must have known he was guilty all along.

As soon as cops started poring through a decade of receipts for dodgy purchases, the game was up.

But Murrell’s delay in admitting his guilt allowed the SNP to go into the Holyrood election unsullied by the unfolding scandal.

Murrell was originally due in court for a pleading diet before the Holyrood election. But the date was then pushed back until May 25 – weeks after the crucial vote, which the SNP won at a canter.

We report today how election experts believe the delay gave the SNP a clear advantage in the May election.

The calls for a full inquiry into the Murrell scandal are growing every day.

Any inquiry – whether at Westminster or Holyrood – must examine the decision to delay his final day in court.

The role of the legal authorities in agreeing to a delay may have been entirely legitimate. But transparency must be the new watchword for Scotland’s secretive public bodies – so an inquiry should be able to clear that issue up once and for all.

An inquiry must also look at the decision to grant Murrell legal aid, despite him having a luxury villa in Portugal worth £400,000 and a £600,000 pension.

Why was he given taxpayers’ money to mount his defence when he was clearly a man of some means?

Again, an inquiry would be able to reassure the public that everything in that decision was above board.

Voters deserve answers on these key questions.

And here at the Daily Record we won’t give up until we have them.

Be a visa pleaser

It’s every Scottish football fan’s worst nightmare.

Thousands of pounds spent on a World Cup trip, only to see it scuppered at the last minute by red tape.

But that is exactly what’s happening to a growing number of Scotland supporters as the US authorities revoke their visa waivers without any notice.

After the Record reported demands for US president Donald Trump to step in and sort out the mess First Minister John Swinney has spoken out.

He has demanded the US Consulate allow fans who have applied for visa waivers in plenty of time be given exemptions to let them travel.

We know Swinney has a direct line to the White House. He spoke to The Don when he lobbied for a cut in whisky tariffs.

He should use that connection – and Trump’s strong family ties to Scotland – to plead the Tartan Army’s case.

If he succeeds he’ll be the first Scottish hero of this World Cup.

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