Each decade around 13% of the ice in the Arctic Ocean is lost, but scientists are now exploring whether new technology can help refreeze the sea ice and halt its rapid decline.

Scientists from two enterprises, Real Ice and Arctic Reflections, have been testing a plan to spread seawater on top of the ice in order to create thicker ice which will last longer in the summer months.

How bad is the situation in the Arctic?
The level of Arctic sea ice has declined starkly in recent decades due to increasing global emissions and the "oldest and thickest ice in the Arctic has declined by a stunning 95%" since the 1980s, said the World Wildlife Fund.

At this point, there is some consensus that even if "greenhouse gas emissions are sharply reduced" immediately, the Arctic would still be free of summer ice by the next decade, said The Guardian. Research published last year suggests 90% of the melting had been due to "human-caused global heating", the paper added.

How does the refreezing plan work? 
The idea is that engineers will first send an underwater drone to find thin ice and punch a hole through to the surface. They will then "flood" seawater over the top of the ice using pumps.

It is hoped that the extra water will speed up the "natural freezing process" and "create ice that is about a metre thicker" and therefore more durable in the warmer temperatures.

Though the system has been through numerous tests already, this year was the first time the pumps were powered by renewable energy, running on hydrogen.

Will it work?
The sheer size of the Arctic means there is doubt whether the technology could be rolled out effectively and widely enough to make a significant difference. Some research suggests "deploying pumps across a tenth" of the area could "reverse present trends of ice loss", said The Times, but that would require "about 10 million pumps" alone.

Ultimately, refreezing is not a "solution" to the problem, Hayo Hendrikse, assistant professor at Delft University of Technology, told The Guardian, but merely a "sticking plaster" that could be used on a "smaller scale".

A Michelin star may be the ultimate fine dining accolade, but recently updated research in The Strategic Management Journal suggests restaurants "might be better off remaining starless", said The Economist.

University College London (UCL) School of Management researchers tracked highly reviewed New York restaurants that opened between 2000 and 2014. They found those that earned a Michelin star were more likely to close than those that didn't – even allowing for location, price and type of cuisine. By the end of 2019, 40% of the restaurants awarded Michelin stars from 2005 to 2014 had closed. Fame, it seems, "comes at a price".

Star-shaped target
Being in the limelight "puts a star-shaped target" on restaurants' backs, said The Economist. Receiving Michelin star status "intensified bargaining problems with landlords, suppliers, and employees", according to researcher Daniel Sands – all of which push up costs. This, combined with "heightened consumer expectations", makes staying in business tougher.

Five of the "highest-awarded fine dining restaurants" in Berlin have closed in the past year, said Euronews. Still reeling from the pandemic, restaurants were "hit by soaring inflation", with no choice but to pass on those higher costs to customers. People's willingness to spend has "significantly changed", said Sebastian Frank, head chef at double Michelin-starred restaurant Horváth.

From fine dining to food truck
For some in the culinary world, stars have begun to "seem more of a burden than a blessing", said CNN, and several chefs have even "handed back their Michelin status".

In 2018, Spanish chef Dani García announced the closure of his eponymous restaurant in Andalusia just 22 days after it received a third Michelin star: the "shortest triple-Michelin-star period" in the world, said Eater. García told staff that he doubted he could "continue to devote the focus required" to maintain the stars. "This achievement could undermine my freedom to do new things," he told the food news site.

There's a financial as well as personal advantage to such a move, too. Announcing the closure of a restaurant during "the height of its acclaim" can yield even more headlines – and good publicity for a chef's next venture. 

In Sally Rooney's novels, unhappiness is a "mark of personal distinction", rather like "good A-level results", said The Times' James Marriott. And by that measure, the protagonists in her new novel, "Intermezzo", are as distinguished as they come.

Ivan, a 22-year-old chess genius, and his brother Peter, a 32-year-old human rights lawyer, are grieving the death of their father, as well as their own unsatisfactory relationship. Ivan's career is "stagnant", while Peter uses prescription drugs to get through his "dreary" working day. Their romantic liaisons are no less troubled. Ivan "burns for" Margaret, 10 years his senior, while Peter's focus oscillates between his ex-girlfriend and a student who sells nude pictures of herself online.

An intermezzo is a kind of chess move that represents an "unexpected step that requires from the opponent an immediate response", said The Guardian's Alexandra Harris, and the characters here consistently move around each other in a way that can "throw each other off course". Ivan and Peter meet only three times in the narrative, said Jo Hamya in The Independent, yet the reader is made aware of something the brothers remain unaware of: "that each brother loves the other, but language fails them".

"For all its flaws", said Marriott, the book is scattered with the "little gifts of psychological and emotional observation that are the most cherishable aspects of Rooney's talent". She reaches the "full potential of her prowess" with this latest offering, said Hamya.

We disrupted the Labour conference because war and climate breakdown was not what Britons voted for
Jack McGinn for The Guardian
We needed to "end the silence" on "the assault on Gaza and Lebanon," and the "deadly impacts of climate breakdown", writes protester Jack McGinn. After disrupting Rachel Reeves' speech at the Labour Party conference, "I was slammed into a wall", handcuffed, and subjected to "verbal abuse". But "our rough treatment isn't the main story". Instead, we should focus on the fact that Labour policy looks "remarkably like complacency and complicity" on war and climate breakdown.

The unspeakable horror of the French mass rape case
Megan Nolan for The New Statesman
"As I have written occasionally about gendered violence", I am familiar with a "chorus of responses accusing me of hating men", writes Megan Nolan. In fact, "I love men", but when it comes to cases like the Pelicot mass rape trial in France, "the general love I feel seems suddenly starkly absurd". It is "the uncanny feeling of men, the individuals", and "men, the abstract threat, merging and not being able to tell which is which".

Turning a teacher into a parent does not help children
Joanna Williams for The Times
"Put it on the curriculum" has become the "default response to every social and economic problem", whether it's "climate change, obesity, racism" or "tooth decay", writes Joanna Williams. But "the roles and responsibilities" of parents and teachers have "become increasingly blurred", to the "detriment" of both. "Reasserting the boundaries between school and home" and "clarifying the unique roles of parents and teachers" is "vital for both education and family life".