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Russian airstrikes on Christmas Day, the aftermath of the fall of Assad, remembering the Indian Ocean tsunami and a Boxing Day swim in Scotland: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

• Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing

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The agency obtained research from 3M in 2003 revealing that sewage sludge, the raw material for the fertilizer, carried toxic “forever chemicals.”

As a researcher at several universities and an adviser at NASA, he used data analysis to show how the planet’s different systems are interrelated.

Treaties ratified by the Senate in 1978 established permanent neutrality, but some Republicans regret that decision.

“Technostuff” built in the last 100 years outweighs all the living matter on Earth.

As climate change intensifies, flooding is emerging as a threat for homes not previously seen as high-risk. Some residents are responding creatively by lifting up their homes.

Analysis shows fossil fuels are supercharging heatwaves, leaving millions prone to deadly temperatures

The climate crisis caused an additional six weeks of dangerously hot days in 2024 for the average person, supercharging the fatal impact of heatwaves around the world.

The effects of human-caused global heating were far worse for some people, an analysis by World Weather Attribution (WWA) and Climate Central has shown. Those in Caribbean and Pacific island states were the hardest hit. Many endured about 150 more days of dangerous heat than they would have done without global heating, almost half the year.

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At least one dead and three missing amid storm that has split wharf, wrecked boat and piled up debris

California residents are being warned to stay off wharves, piers and other waterside structures as 20-30ft waves are expected to batter the northern Pacific coast for the rest of the week.

The National Weather Service advisory comes after a 150ft section of the wharf in Santa Cruz collapsed amid high waves on Monday, and storm debris was blamed for the death of a Santa Cruz county man on a beach in Watsonville.

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The measure will seek to raise funds to pay for some of the damage caused by extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent because of the combustion of fossil fuels.

An increasingly ferocious and volatile surf is raising questions about the future of the state’s piers, which have defined the coastline for generations.

Belief in a supposed US government plot linked to aircraft condensation trails has been boosted by confusion over proposals to geoengineer a response to the climate crisis

A conspiracy theory that airplanes are leaving nefarious “chemtrails” in their wake due to a sinister government plot has been given fresh impetus in the US amid a swirl of concerns and confusion about proposals to geoengineer a response to the climate crisis.

State legislation to ban what some lawmakers call chemtrails has been pushed forward in Tennessee and, most recently, Florida. Meanwhile, Robert F Kennedy, who has expressed interest in the conspiracy theory on social media and his podcast, is set to be at the heart of Donald Trump’s new administration following his nomination as health secretary.

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Your holiday baking wouldn’t be the same without it.

Rising temperatures are pushing these Arctic mammals ever farther into Greenland’s north. But eventually there will be nowhere left for them to go

Built like a small bison, weighing as much as a grand piano and covered in thick, shaggy coat, the musk ox is one of the most distinctive species in the high Arctic. But from a hill on Greenland’s tundra, they seem impossible to find.

Each bush, rock and clump of grass resembles a mass of wool and horns in the blustery chill on the edge of the island’s enormous polar ice cap. Scanning the shimmering landscape with binoculars, Chris Sørensen looks for signs of movement.

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President-elect Donald J. Trump is expected to roll back many of the rules and subsidies that have attracted billions of dollars from the private sector to renewable energy and electric vehicles.

Scientists search for a variety to withstand the climate crisis as high temperatures and drought can stress trees

The climate crisis is increasingly affecting agriculture in the United States, including the production of Christmas trees.

Like all crops, Christmas trees are vulnerable to a changing climate, as the United States continues to experience warmer temperatures, more frequent and severe heat, increased rainfall, droughts, wildfires and hurricanes, as a result of global warming and the climate crisis – primarily driven by humans’ burning of fossil fuels.

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America must compete with China, but there’s also a complicated reality that both countries have to face.

Campaigners say consumption such as travel, gifts and food are destroying planet and the meaning of Christmas

Whether out of poverty or virtue, many of us spend much of the year reining in our appetites to save our pennies and our health. But at Christmas many of us put our worries aside and go wild in an orgy of lavish gifting, extensive travel and a gluttonous feeding frenzy.

This carnival of consumption has a cost: not just to our wallets and our waistlines, but also to the climate.

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With restrictions due next month, food vendors are still using such plastics and some traders have not heard of ban

Labake Ajiboye-Richard, the founder of a Lagos-based sustainability consultancy, was driving in Nigeria’s most populous city earlier this month when she saw someone throwing rubbish out of their car window.

“I was so shocked to see that in 2024,” she said. “If you’re throwing something on the road, what are you doing in your home? What are you doing in your community?”

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En los últimos días, el presidente electo ha pedido que se afirme el control estadounidense en el exterior, demostrando que su filosofía de “Estados Unidos primero” tiene una dimensión expansionista.

While some residents take to building houses in trees, officials recognise need for national response to climate disasters

Every summer, Dongting Hu, China’s second-largest freshwater lake, swells in size as flood water from the Yangtze River flows into its borders. Dams and dikes are erected around the lake’s edges to protect against flooding. But this year, not for the first time, they were overwhelmed.

For three days in early July, more than 800 rescue workers in Hunan province scrambled to block the breaches. One rupture alone took 100,000 cubic metres of rock to seal, according to Zhang Yingchun, a Hunan official. At least 7,000 people had to be evacuated. It was one of a series of disasters to hit China as the country grappled with a summer of extreme weather. By August, there had been 25 large floods, the biggest number since records began in 1998, reported state media.

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