The polar regions and Europe were hit hardest by global warming in 2022, according to a new analysis. The data from Copernicus, the EU’s climate monitoring service, says 2022 was the fifth warmest year globally. Europe experienced its warmest summer, with temperatures increasing by more than twice the global average over the past three decades, faster than any other continent. The last eight years are now also the warmest eight yet recorded. Last year saw a continuation of a pattern of global warming that has become the new normal, say Copernicus scientists. While the La Niña weather event helped to cool the oceans for the third year in a row, global temperatures were still approximately 0.3C higher in 2022 than the 1991-2020 reference period. Researchers say this means that last year was close to 1.2C above the 1850-1900 period, taken as the start of global industrialisation. Europe and the polar regions were at the sharp end of this high heat. Temperature records in many western European countries were broken including the UK, with summer heatwaves and intense droughts hitting many parts.(BBC)…[+]

The US justice department is reviewing documents marked classified found in President Joe Biden’s former office at a think tank, the White House says. About 10 of the files were discovered in a locked closet at the Penn Biden Center in Washington in November by Mr Biden’s legal team, said his lawyer. The batch has been handed over to the National Archives. Mr Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, is facing a probe for taking classified files to Florida after his presidency. According to the BBC’s US partner CBS News, the FBI is involved in the inquiry into classified documents found at the Penn Biden Center, and US Attorney General Merrick Garland has been asked to review the papers. Mr Biden’s lawyer said they relate to the period when he was vice-president. But it is unclear what the documents relate to, the level of classification involved or why they were there. A source familiar with the matter told CBS News the batch did not contain nuclear secrets and had been contained in a folder in a box with other unclassified papers.(BBC)…[+]

A group of 24 volunteers have gone on trial on the Greek island of Lesbos more than four years after they were arrested for carrying out migrant rescue missions off Greece. Their case was denounced in a European Parliament report as Europe’s “largest case of criminalisation of solidarity”.  Among the defendants accused of a string of misdemeanours is refugee and swimmer Sarah Mardini. A movie recently told the story of how she escaped with her sister from Syria. The volunteers were initially detained in 2018 for several months on suspicion of human trafficking, but the charges facing the group in Mytilini on Tuesday involved espionage, illegal access to state communications, money laundering and assisting criminal activity. Police said in 2018 that the volunteers had collected information about refugee flows from the Turkish coast to the Greek islands of Lesbos and Samos, and provided direct assistance to organised trafficking groups.(BBC)…[+]

An Iranian journalist who interviewed families of protesters who had been sentenced to death has been arrested, his wife and Iranian media say. Mehdi Beik was detained on Thursday night, reformist newspaper Etemad, which Mr Beik works for, said. The reasons for his arrest are not known, but it comes amid an ongoing crackdown and anti-government protests. Iran has been rocked by months of protests since the death of an Iranian Kurdish woman in police custody. Protests erupted in September following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained by morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, “improperly”. They quickly spread across the country, becoming the most serious challenge to the Islamic Republic since its inception in 1979. In a tweet on Friday, Mr Beik’s wife, Zahra, said he had been “detained by agents of the Ministry of Information and his cell phone, laptop and belongings were seized”. Mr Beik is the head of the politics desk at Etemad.(BBC)…[+]