What happened
US President Donald Trump has moved to undo a 2009 Environmental Protection Agency determination that greenhouse gases pose a risk to human health. The decision had formed the legal basis for federal limits on emissions across a number of sectors, particularly transport. The White House has framed the change as a sweeping rollback of regulation, arguing that it would reduce manufacturing costs and lower prices for drivers. The decision dismantles a core mechanism used by the federal government to justify action on climate pollution.

Who said what
Trump described the rule as “a disastrous Obama era policy that severely damaged the American auto industry and massively drove up prices for American consumers”. But former president Barack Obama warned on X: “Without it we’ll be less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change.”

Trump administration officials argue that scrapping the rule will deliver savings of more than $1 trillion (£734 billion) and lower the cost of energy and transport, but “many environmentalists are sceptical of the potential savings being touted by the Trump team”, said Matt McGrath on the BBC.

What next?
Legal challenges from states and advocacy groups are expected in response to the move, potentially pushing the issue towards the Supreme Court.

What happened
Jim Ratcliffe has issued a lukewarm apology for his comments that Britain has been “colonised” by migrants as the FA confirmed that it was examining whether the statement may have brought the game into disrepute. The Manchester United co-owner’s remarks drew widespread criticism, including from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who called them “offensive and wrong”.

Who said what
Ratcliffe (pictured above), who is also the CEO of Ineos, said he was sorry “his choice of language” had “offended some people in the UK and Europe”, but that he felt it necessary to “raise the issue of controlled and well-managed immigration”. Kick it Out, an anti-discrimination body, said Ratcliffe’s comments were “disgraceful” and had “no place in English football”.

Manchester United’s woes have been well-documented, but nothing comes close to this “toxic”, “Farage-esque” rhetoric, said Richard Jolly in The Independent. Alongside the “hypocrisy” of a man who has “emigrated himself”, it appears that the migration statistics Ratcliffe quoted were “incorrect”.

What next?
It has not yet been decided whether a formal investigation will follow, said the FA’s chief executive Mark Bullingham. It is a “matter that our legal and regulation team are working to”.

Free-living amoebas, which are single-celled organisms that do not require a host, pose a dangerous threat to humans. They are prevalent in both natural water sources and drinking water systems. They are also notoriously difficult to kill and can harbour other pathogens. Scientists say more research needs to be done to effectively control amoebic disease spread.

Amoebas’ “widespread presence in both natural and engineered environments poses significant exposure risks through contaminated water sources, recreational water activities and drinking water systems”, said a paper published in the journal Biocontaminant. While most species are harmless, there is a subset that can have serious public health consequences, like Naegleria fowleri, the brain-eating amoeba.

There is a lack of knowledge on how to deal with amoebas, making it “challenging to establish science-based regulatory standards for water treatment that are guaranteed to be effective against all threatening species”, said the study.

The threat posed by amoebas is also likely to worsen because of climate change. The rising temperatures are “expanding the geographic range of heat-loving amoebae into regions where they were previously rare”, added the study. Mitigating the spread “requires comprehensive strategies combining enhanced surveillance, rapid diagnostics and targeted environmental interventions”. Experts insist that there should also be more public awareness about the risk of amoebic infections, especially in natural bodies of water.

“Amoebae are not just a medical issue or an environmental issue,” said Professor Longfei Shu, the author of the study. “They sit at the intersection of both, and addressing them requires integrated solutions that protect public health at its source.”