What happened
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice is facing criticism after questioning the value of efforts to reduce global warming and suggesting that Britain should embrace hotter weather. Speaking yesterday, he argued that adapting to the changing conditions was preferable to trying to prevent them. “When it’s a bit warm, let’s enjoy it,” said Tice.

Who said what
Tice (pictured above) said it was “arrogant” to believe that humans could stop climate change and asked: “Where is the evidence that net zero is going to stop it?” He also suggested that warmer conditions could help English winemakers compete with France. Meanwhile, the National Farmers’ Union said its members were facing “one of the worst ever” harvests.

Dr Simon Williams, a public health researcher at Swansea University, said: “It’s concerning to see someone so high-profile spreading misinformation around climate change and its impacts.”

Tice’s comments come “amid a record-breaking summer”, said Kiran Stacey in The Guardian, during which “temperatures have risen above 35C several times, causing thousands of deaths, millions of hospital visits and costing the UK an estimated £4 billion in economic output”.

What next?
Reform continues to oppose the UK’s 2050 net zero target and has pledged to remove green subsidies if elected.

What happened
Meta is to face a jury trial from today over allegations that it designed its social media platforms to hook children and then gathered data on them in violation of the law.

The four plaintiffs in the trial – the US states of California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey – are seeking up to $1.4 trillion (£1 trillion) in penalties and product changes such as parental verification and the end of infinite scrolling.

Who said what
This trial “may pose the biggest threat yet” to Meta’s operations, according to the BBC. Meta was recently fined $942 million (£696 million) over child safety concerns by a judge in New Mexico. If it were to lose again, it would “mark a significant alteration to the experience of its platforms”.

Meta may be facing “thousands of legal claims” against it, said The Independent, yet “none may prove more consequential” than this one. A $1.4 trillion penalty is “unlikely”, but “the stakes are high”.

“We strongly disagree with these allegations and are confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people,” said a Meta spokesperson.

What next?
The trial is likely to last about six weeks, and about 25 other states are expected to go to trial at a later date.

There’s trouble brewing in the water. The US and Israel’s ongoing war with Iran has stranded more than 1,500 ships in the Strait of Hormuz – the waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman – since February. While the closure of the strait has led to severe economic consequences, there is also a burgeoning ecological crisis: invasive species growing on the hulls of the trapped ships could soon voyage across the globe.

There is a “high likelihood” that the idle ships in the Strait of Hormuz will “facilitate the extensive spread of economically and ecologically damaging invasive species as they re-enter the global shipping network”, said a study published in the journal Biological Invasions. The stagnant ships’ hulls are “becoming encrusted with marine life” – from “microbes and algae to barnacles and other invertebrates” – in a phenomenon called biofouling, said The Guardian. These organisms can “hitchhike to ports around the world” when trade resumes.

The marine organisms of the Middle East “can withstand extremes”, Mario Tamburri, a professor at the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science and the study’s lead author, told USA Today. They are “tolerant organisms, which makes them good candidates for invasions when they go to a new location”.

“Current ship biofouling management and regulatory frameworks are insufficient to mitigate the impacts of large-scale, unplanned vessel lay-up events,” according to the study. “While the human and economic consequences of events like the war in the Middle East will always remain the highest priority, ecological impacts cannot be overlooked.”