De Europese Commissie heeft op 4 februari 2026 het 3e betaalverzoek van het Nederlandse Herstel- en Veerkrachtplan positief beoordeeld. De positieve beoordeling is een belangrijke stap naar officiële goedkeuring van het betaalverzoek en de uitbetaling van het daarbij horende bedrag van € 551 miljoen uit de Europese Herstel- en Veerkrachtfaciliteit. Deze faciliteit is opgericht tijdens de coronacrisis en helpt lidstaten bij het herstel en vergroten van de veerkracht van hun economie. Het 1e en 2e betaalverzoek, ter waarde van samen € 2,5 miljard, zijn reeds goedgekeurd door de Europese Commissie en uitbetaald aan Nederland.
Company publicly denied allegations that primary forests were being cut down to fuel UK’s biggest power plant
Senior executives at Drax raised concerns internally about the validity of the energy company’s sustainability claims while it publicly denied allegations that it was cutting down environmentally important forests for fuel, court documents have revealed.
Britain’s biggest power plant assured ministers and civil servants of the company’s green credentials as it scrambled to defend itself against claims in a BBC Panorama documentary that it had burned wood sourced from “old-growth” forests in Canada.
Continue reading...Saltwater, survival backstroke and sheer mind over matter may have helped the teenager save his family, experts say
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An Australian 13-year-old who swam 4km (2.49 miles) to shore and then ran 2km (1.24 miles) to get help for his stranded family has been described as “superhuman”.
Experts say Austin Appelbee’s feat of endurance exceeded the limits of what is normally perceived as possible. So how was the teenager able to save the day, and is there any precedent for it?
Continue reading...Despite hearing many words of warning about expressing public affection, travelling in Japan with my boyfriend helped me loosen up
The first time I saw gay people on TV, it was during an ABC news package about Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. My Egyptian parents were chomping through a bag of dried pumpkin seeds when the assault on our eyeballs took place.
Muscle bears in backless chaps, shirtless lifesavers in tiny budgie smugglers, chunky women with buzzcuts and saucer-plate nipples revving their Harley-Davidsons down the strip. It was too much for my father, who announced: “Atstaghfurallah: they should not show such things.” Mum just sucked her teeth in dismay. But the sight of all the handsome, gleaming men sent a hot flush of excitement up my 12-year-old cheeks.
Continue reading...While some benefits such as stress relief are backed by solid evidence, they can be achieved without expensive hyped-up courses
Read more in the Antiviral series
In the 2012 film adaptation of the Dr Seuss book The Lorax, a fable about capitalist greed, air is a commodity.
The mayor of Thneedville deprives the city’s residents of trees so a company he heads can sells bottles of air. He has, as one advertising lackey puts it, “gotten rich selling people air that’s ‘fresher’ than the stinky stuff outside”.
Donna Lu is an assistant editor, climate, environment and science at Guardian Australia
Antiviral is a fortnightly column that interrogates the evidence behind the health headlines and factchecks popular wellness claims
Continue reading...The Games’ newest sport combines the seemingly impossible task of ascending a mountain on skis with hiking and then a rapid descent
No one could suggest that the Winter Olympics are lacking in challenge. Skiers zipping down the slopes and flying through the air. Skeletons hurtling around at more than 100km/h. Ice skaters, metal-bladed, spinning, leaping and twisting. Slopestyle athletes pulling off the most outrageous tricks while landing the biggest air. But everyone from recreational skiers to the most extreme sports enthusiasts knows there is always room for more.
Enter the new kid on the ice block at Milano Cortina 2026: ski mountaineering. The new challenge? How about going up the mountain, hiking a bit, followed by a rapid descent on the tiniest skis possible. Before you ask, “why”? Cast your mind over the other disciplines on the schedule and remember that the answer is almost always, “why not”?
Continue reading...Like the first cluster of snowdrops, a burst of white is a reminder to focus on the positive – just don’t go full snowman
Everyone knows that the prettiest scraps of winter are the precious snow days. At this time of year, when it feels like we’ve been scurrying around in near-constant darkness like moles for as long as we can remember, we crave the brightness you get with snowfall – and the glamour of it, too. The disco-ball sparkle of frost is a counterpoint to chapped lips and three-week sniffles that won’t budge.
We can’t make it snow, but we can create our own little flurry. A pop of snowy white is the best boost you can give an outfit right now. White is to January what rust and orange are to October: a colour pulled from nature to remind us of the best bits of the season. After all, autumn has grey skies and muddy puddles too, but we ignore them and lean into its gorgeous falling-leaf colours instead.
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Gezond en duurzaam eten gaan meestal hand in hand. Toch? „Met een dierlijke productie die optimaal is qua milieu-impact loop je tegen gezondheidskwesties aan.”
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