US and Qatar say new rules will hinder imports of LNG, posing ‘existential threat’ to European economies

The US has demanded that the European Union roll back its climate and human rights rules in order to allow greater imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), as the Trump administration approved a controversial gas export hub along the Gulf of Mexico coast.

A letter jointly sent by the US and Qatar, two of the three largest LNG exporters in the world, warned the EU that its new rules pose an “existential threat” to European economies as they would hinder imports of gas from countries such as theirs.

LA wildfires and storms this year cost $101bn, new study by non-profit resurrecting work axed by Trump says

The first half of 2025 was the costliest on record for major disasters in the US, driven by huge wildfires in Los Angeles and storms that battered much of the rest of the country, according to a climate non-profit that has resurrected work axed by Donald Trump’s administration that tracked the biggest disasters.

In the first six months of this year, 14 separate weather-related disasters that each caused at least $1bn in damage hit the US, the Climate Central group has calculated. In total, these events cost $101bn in damages – lost homes, businesses, highways and other infrastructure – a toll higher than any other first half of a year since records on this began in 1980.

A burst of recent climate-themed cultural output suggests views of the topic as too depressing or dull may be changing

Despite (or perhaps because of) its overwhelming awfulness, the climate crisis has been oddly underrepresented on stage and screen. Humanity’s greatest challenge has often been deemed too much of a downer, too complex or too dull a topic to spawn shows and movies.

A burst of recent climate-themed cultural output, however, suggests this may be changing. Weather Girl, a one-woman play about the unraveling of a TV meteorologist who can no longer bear to gloss over climate breakdown in California, has just closed in New York City to upbeat reviews.

In this week’s newsletter: from Google to Amazon to OpenAI, the economic and climate cost of datacenters continues to grow

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The headlong rush to build huge new datacenters, in order to support the growth of AI, is raising a number of concerns in the US – around the impact upon the climate crisis, water use and electricity bills. It’s also set to reshape American politics in potentially unusual ways.

Companies such as Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, Amazon and Meta are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into new datacenters that will form the backbone to the surging use of AI by businesses and the public.

Bird migration is changing. What does this reveal about our planet? – visualised

Towns may have to be abandoned due to floods with millions more homes in Great Britain at risk

The plastic inside us: how microplastics may be reshaping our bodies and minds

Datacenter emissions probably 662% higher than big tech claims. Can it keep up the ruse? | Isabel O’Brien

Power struggle: will Brazil’s booming datacentre industry leave ordinary people in the dark?

Revealed: Trump’s fossil-fuel donors to profit from datacenter boom and green rollbacks