Vickie Neal, Шевченко, Kyiv (2026)

16/12/2025

Unemployment rate hits four-year high!

The latest figures from the Labor Department show the US unemployment rate rose to 4.6% last month.

That's the highest since September 2021, when the rate stood at 4.7%. At that time, the economy was still struggling with the immediate impacts of the Covid pandemic, which drove the unemployment rate to a peak of 14.8% in April 2020.

12/12/2025

Shell facing first UK legal claim over climate impacts of fossil fuels

Victims of a deadly typhoon in the Philippines have filed a legal claim against oil and gas company Shell in the UK courts, seeking compensation for what they say is the company's role in making the storm more severe.

Around 400 people were killed and millions of homes hit when Typhoon Rai slammed into parts of the Philippines just before Christmas in 2021.

Now a group of survivors are for the first time taking legal action against the UK's largest oil company, arguing that it had a role in making the typhoon more likely and more damaging.

Shell says the claim is "baseless", as is a suggestion the company had unique knowledge that carbon emissions drove climate change.
Typhoon Rai, known locally as Odette, was the most powerful storm to hit the Philippines in 2021.

With winds gusting at up to 170mph (270km/h), it destroyed around 2,000 buildings, displaced hundreds of thousands of people - including Trixy Elle and her family.

She was a fish vendor on Batasan island when the storm hit, forcing her from her home, barely escaping with her life.

"So we have to swim in the middle of big waves, heavy rains, strong winds," she told BBC News from the Philippines.

"That's why my father said that we will hold our hands together, if we survive, we survive, but if we will die, we will die together."

Trixy is now part of the group of 103 individuals that has filed a claim that's believed to be the first case of its kind against a UK major producer of oil and gas.
In a letter sent to Shell before the claim was filed at court, the legal team for the survivors says the case is being brought before the UK courts as that is where Shell is domiciled – but that it will apply the law of the Philippines as that is where the damage occurred.

The letter argues that Shell is responsible for 2% of historical global greenhouse gases, as calculated by the Carbon Majors database of oil and gas production.

The company has "materially contributed" to human driven climate change, the letter says, that made the Typhoon more likely and more severe.

The survivors' group further claims that Shell has a "history of climate misinformation," and has known since 1965 that fossil fuels were the primary cause of climate change.

"Instead of changing their industry, they still do their business," said Trixy Elle.

"It's very clear that they choose profit over the people. They choose money over the planet."
Shell denies that their production of oil and gas contributed to this individual typhoon, and they also deny any unique knowledge of climate change that they kept to themselves.

"This is a baseless claim, and it will not help tackle climate change or reduce emissions," a Shell spokesperson said in a statement to BBC News.

"The suggestion that Shell had unique knowledge about climate change is simply not true. The issue and how to tackle it has been part of public discussion and scientific research for many decades."

The case is being supported by several environmental campaign groups who argue that developments in science make it now far easier to attribute individual extreme weather events to climate change and allows researchers to say how much of an influence emissions of warming gases had on a heatwave or storm.

But proving, to the satisfaction of a court, that damages done to individuals by extreme weather events are due to the actions of specific fossil fuel producers may be a challenge.

"It's traditionally a high bar, but both the science and the law have lowered that bar significantly in recent years," says Harj Narulla, a barrister specialising in climate law and litigation who is not connected with the case.

"This is certainly a test case, but it's not the first case of its kind. So this will be the first time that UK courts will be satisfying themselves about the nature of all of that attribution science from a factual perspective."

The experience in other jurisdictions is mixed.

In recent years efforts to bring cases against major oil and gas producers in the United States have often failed.

In Europe campaigners in the Netherlands won a major case against Shell in 2021 with the courts ordering Shell to cut its absolute carbon emissions by 45% by 2030, including those emissions that come from the use of its products.

But that ruling was overturned on appeal last year.

There was no legal basis for a specific cuts target, the court ruled, but it also reaffirmed Shell's duty to mitigate dangerous climate change through its policies.

The UK claim has now been filed at the Royal Courts of Justice, but this is just the first step in the case brought by the Filippino survivors with more detailed particulars expected by the middle of next year.

26/11/2025

A landmark deal to cut global shipping emissions has been abandoned after Saudi Arabia and the US succeeded in ending the talks.
More than 100 countries had gathered in London to approve a deal first agreed in April, which would have seen shipping become the world's first industry to adopt internationally mandated targets to reduce emissions.
But US President Donald Trump had called the plan a "green scam" and representatives of his administration had threatened countries with tariffs if they voted in favour of it.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared the outcome a "huge win" for Trump.

But reflecting the pressure countries faced, the Secretary General of the International Maritime Organisation Arsenio Dominguez issued a "plea" for this not to be repeated.
In a dramatic conclusion on Friday, when countries should have been voting to approve the deal, Saudi Arabia tabled a motion to adjourn the talks for a year.
The chairman said this would mean that the agreement was not approved, as key timelines for the treaty would have to be revised.
The motion passed by just a handful of votes.
Hon. Ralph Regenvanu, Minister for Climate Change for the Republic of Vanuatu, said Saudi Arabia's motion was "unacceptable given the urgency we face in light of accelerating climate change".
"We came to London in reluctant support of the IMO's Net-Zero Framework. While it lacks the ambition that climate science demands, it does mark a significant step," he said.
The shipping industry has been broadly supportive of the deal because it offered consistent global standards.
Speaking after the talks ended, Thomas Kazakos, secretary-general of the industry body the International Chamber of Shipping, said : "We are disappointed that member states have not been able to agree a way forward at this meeting."
"Industry needs clarity to be able to make the investments," he added.
The UK and most EU nations voted to continue the talks, but some countries including Greece went against the EU bloc and voted to abstain.
The countries that voted in favour of adjourning the talks included Russia, Saudi Arabia and the US, who raised concerns that the deal would lead to price rises for consumers.
Some key countries including China that had initially voted to support the deal in April agreed to delay proceedings.
Island states Bahamas also changed their position and Antigua and Barbuda, who agreed in April, abstained. A delegate from the island states group told the BBC that these nations particularly rely on the US for trade and had been leaned on heavily by the Trump administration to change their position.

The deal was first agreed in April after ten years of negotiations and was considered historic as it meant shipping was set to become the first industry in the world with internationally mandated targets to reduce emissions.
The agreement had meant that from 2028 ship owners would have to use increasingly cleaner fuels or face fines.
Shipping currently makes up 3% of global emissions, with levels increasing in line with global trade rises – 90% of goods are currently transported via the sea. Unlike other sectors shipping has been unable to reduce its emissions, in part due to the lack of cost incentive.
"There is no fuel as cheap as diesel that ships use today because when we take crude oil out of the ground, we take out all the nice bits, that's the kerosene for aviation, diesel and petrol for cars," F**g Abbasov, programme director for maritime transport at think tank Transport and Environment, told the BBC during the last IMO negotiations.
This means without intervention the International Maritime Organisation previously estimated that by 2050 emissions could grow by between 10% and 150%.
The meeting this week in London between nations had been to make the final approval and finalise the next steps. But since April the US has been increasingly vocal about its objections to the plan which they are concerned could raise prices for goods for its consumers.
Posting on Truth Social on Thursday night President Trump wrote: "The United States will NOT stand for this Global Green New Scam Tax on Shipping. We will not tolerate increased prices on American Consumers."
With talks now delayed the carefully planned timeline to get the regulations in place for 2028 does not appear feasible.
"A delay in action may require changes to the text of agreement that undermine the planned timeline, and could revert years of work to date," said Blánaid Sheeran, an observer to the talks and policy officer at environmental NGO Opportunity Green.

24/11/2025

She's the astronaut who smashed through the glass ceiling. And kept on going.
Eileen Collins made history as the first woman to pilot and command a Nasa spacecraft - but despite her remarkable achievements, not everyone will know her name.
Now a feature-length documentary called Spacewoman, which chronicles her trailblazing career, looks set to change that.
We meet Collins at London's Science Museum. She's softly spoken, warm and very down to earth - but you quickly get a sense of her focus and determination. She clearly has inner steel.
"I was reading a magazine article on the Gemini astronauts. I was probably nine years old, and I thought that's the coolest thing. That's what I want to do," she says.
"Of course, there were no women astronauts back then. But I just thought, I'll be a lady astronaut."

But that little girl set her sights even higher - she wanted to be at the controls of a spacecraft.
And the only way to achieve this was to join the military and become a test pilot.
In the Air Force, she stood out from the crowd and was selected to join the astronaut programme. She was to fly Space Shuttles - Nasa's reusable "space planes".
She knew the eyes of the world were on her when her first mission launched in 1995.
"As the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle, I worked very hard at that because I didn't want people to say, 'Oh look, the woman has made a mistake'. Because it wasn't just about me, it was about the women to follow me," she says.
"And I wanted there to be a reputation for women pilots that was: 'Hey, they're really good'."

She was so good in fact that she was soon promoted to commander, in another first.
Collins was also a parent to two young children. The fact that she was a working wife and mother was frequently brought up in press conferences at the time, with some journalists seemingly astonished that she could be both.
But Collins says being a mum and a commander were "the two best jobs in the world".
"But I'm going to tell you it is harder to be a parent than to be a space shuttle commander," she laughs.
"The best training I ever had for being a commander was being a parent - because you have to learn how to say no to people."
Nasa's Space Shuttles, which flew for three decades, reached breathtaking highs, but also some terrible lows.
In 1986, the Challenger spacecraft suffered a catastrophic failure seconds after launching, killing all seven crew members on board.
And in 2003, the Columbia shuttle broke up in the skies over Texas at the end of its mission, killing its crew of seven as well.
A piece of insulating foam on Columbia's fuel tank broke loose during launch, damaging the heat shield with devastating results.
Columbia was unable to withstand the fiery re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, disintegrating as the world watched on in horror.
Collins shakes her head at the memory of the disaster, and of the friends whose lives were lost.
But with her job as commander, she had to pick up the mantle - she was to be in charge of the shuttle's following flight.
Did she think about quitting at that point?
"People throughout the shuttle programme were counting on the commander to stick with it," she says quietly.
"I think quitting the mission would have been the opposite of brave… and I wanted to be a brave leader. I wanted to be a confident leader. I wanted to instill that confidence in other people."
But when her mission finally took to the skies in 2005, the nightmare scenario happened again. A chunk of foam broke away during launch.
This time, though, there was a plan in place to check the damage. But it meant undertaking one of the riskiest maneuvers in space history.
Collins had to pilot the shuttle through a 360 degree flip while flying beneath the International Space Station. It allowed colleagues on the orbiting lab to photograph the craft's underside and check if the heatshield had been breached.
"There were engineers and managers saying it couldn't be done, all these reasons why it was too dangerous," she says.
"I listened to the discussion, they knew I was the commander, and I said: 'It sounds like we can do it'."
With her hands steady at the controls, her voice calm as she spoke to mission control, Collins piloted the craft through a slow, graceful somersault. With the shuttle's underside now visible, the damage was quickly spotted - and a spacewalk was carried out to repair it.
It meant Collins and her crew would make it safely home.
This was Collins's last flight. She tells us that she always planned to stop after her fourth mission - to give others a chance to go to space.
And she's watched plenty of astronauts follow in her footsteps. Does she have any advice for the next generation dreaming of the stars?
"Do your homework, listen to your teacher, pay attention in class and read books, and that will give you something to focus on," she says in a matter-of-fact way.
Those who follow Collins to space will learn just how much she achieved, not only as a woman, but as a formidable pilot and commander.
She says she has no regrets about bringing her astronaut career to an end. She made her decision and didn't look back. But there's still a wistful look in her eye when we ask if she'd be tempted if a seat on a spacecraft became free.
"Yes, I would love to go on a mission someday. When I'm an old lady, maybe I'll get a chance to go back in space."

18/11/2025

Snow and ice warnings come into force across Scotland

The Met Office has warned that yellow weather warnings for snow and ice could impact travel in Scotland and northern England later.

Scattered showers of rain, sleet and snow are expected, with an ice alert for the north and east Highlands in place until 10:00.

A second ice warning came into force at 05:00 and continues until 12:00, covering much of central and southern Scotland as well as northern England.

A yellow alert for snow affects most of the mainland north of Perth until 18:00, after the Highlands saw its first snowfall of the season last week.

The Met Office said that 0.8in to 2in (2-5cm) of snow is possible at lower levels and as much as 4in (10cm) on higher ground.

Later, an alert for snow and ice covers all of northern Scotland including Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles, from 18:00 on Tuesday until 21:00 on Thursday.

Another Met Office yellow warning is in force for snow and ice in coastal areas of eastern England from 06:00 on Wednesday until 18:00 on Thursday.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has also issued amber and yellow cold health alerts for northern England and the Midlands which are valid until Friday.

It will turn less cold by the end of the week, with temperatures rising slightly to return to average at the weekend.
ScotRail urged people to take care while travelling and to check the status of their entire journey before heading out.

Stagecoach said customers would be updated about any changes on its app or social media channels.

The Met Office advised that there was a chance of power cuts as well as road closures.

'Conditions turning colder'
A yellow warning means the weather is likely to have some impact for some people, but others will be able to carry on as normal.

People are advised to keep an eye on the latest forecast to work out how much they might be impacted, especially if the weather gets worse.

A Met Office spokesperson said: "Conditions are turning colder this week, with multiple snow and ice warnings in place.

"Wednesday to Friday will be the coldest part of the week, and this period has the greatest potential for impactful weather."
Police Scotland said drivers should ensure their cars are roadworthy before heading out.

Last week, Scottish transport operators outlined their winter resilience plans.

This included stocking up on 497,000 tonnes of salt - more than was used for the entirety of last winter - and preparing 240 gritters to undertake salt spreading and snow ploughing patrols of the trunk road network.

So far, November has been considerably milder than previous years.

Typical overnight temperatures at this time of year range from 2C in Scotland to 5C in the south of England, but they rarely fell into single figures during the first week of November this year.

Temperatures below -10C were recorded in some parts of northern Scotland last November, including Braemar in Aberdeenshire which reached a low of -11.2C.
'Some disruption is likely'
This week's weather will give us an early taste of winter, writes BBC Scotland Weather's Christopher Blanchett.

On Monday night, icy stretches are likely in the far north and across Grampian as rain and sleet showers fall on frozen surfaces.

During the early hours of Tuesday, a frontal system will move in from the Atlantic.

It moves across the Hebrides and then extends across Scotland from the west coast to the east coast during Tuesday daytime.

This will bring the likelihood of a spell of rain, sleet and snow for the first part of Tuesday morning.

The forecast is for 2-5cm (1-2in) of snow on ground above 150m (500ft) across inland areas north of the central belt.

On higher ground and higher road routes, the snow will be heavier, with a greater potential for some disruption.
Some disruption is likely with ice, sleet and snow causing problems for travel during the morning, before easing into the afternoon.

There's a little pocket of less cold air within the system, which means for much of the central belt and south, snow is likely to be on higher ground.

But as the temperature drops on Tuesday night, snow may come to lower levels again for a time.

Bitter north winds will surge across the country on Wednesday and Thursday, with frequent snow showers at sea-level across the north of Scotland and down some eastern and western coasts.

Thursday night could see the coldest spots of the country dip to a bitter -10C.

24/10/2025

'It's harder to be a parent than a space shuttle commander', trailblazing Nasa pilot tells BBC

She's the astronaut who smashed through the glass ceiling. And kept on going.

Eileen Collins made history as the first woman to pilot and command a Nasa spacecraft - but despite her remarkable achievements, not everyone will know her name.

Now a feature-length documentary called Spacewoman, which chronicles her trailblazing career, looks set to change that.

We meet Collins at London's Science Museum. She's softly spoken, warm and very down to earth - but you quickly get a sense of her focus and determination. She clearly has inner steel.

"I was reading a magazine article on the Gemini astronauts. I was probably nine years old, and I thought that's the coolest thing. That's what I want to do," she says.

"Of course, there were no women astronauts back then. But I just thought, I'll be a lady astronaut."
But that little girl set her sights even higher - she wanted to be at the controls of a spacecraft.

And the only way to achieve this was to join the military and become a test pilot.

In the Air Force, she stood out from the crowd and was selected to join the astronaut programme. She was to fly Space Shuttles - Nasa's reusable "space planes".

She knew the eyes of the world were on her when her first mission launched in 1995.

"As the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle, I worked very hard at that because I didn't want people to say, 'Oh look, the woman has made a mistake'. Because it wasn't just about me, it was about the women to follow me," she says.

"And I wanted there to be a reputation for women pilots that was: 'Hey, they're really good'."
She was so good in fact that she was soon promoted to commander, in another first.

Collins was also a parent to two young children. The fact that she was a working wife and mother was frequently brought up in press conferences at the time, with some journalists seemingly astonished that she could be both.

But Collins says being a mum and a commander were "the two best jobs in the world".

"But I'm going to tell you it is harder to be a parent than to be a space shuttle commander," she laughs.

"The best training I ever had for being a commander was being a parent - because you have to learn how to say no to people."
Nasa's Space Shuttles, which flew for three decades, reached breathtaking highs, but also some terrible lows.

In 1986, the Challenger spacecraft suffered a catastrophic failure seconds after launching, killing all seven crew members on board.

And in 2003, the Columbia shuttle broke up in the skies over Texas at the end of its mission, killing its crew of seven as well.

A piece of insulating foam on Columbia's fuel tank broke loose during launch, damaging the heat shield with devastating results.

Columbia was unable to withstand the fiery re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, disintegrating as the world watched on in horror.

Collins shakes her head at the memory of the disaster, and of the friends whose lives were lost.

But with her job as commander, she had to pick up the mantle - she was to be in charge of the shuttle's following flight.

Did she think about quitting at that point?

"People throughout the shuttle programme were counting on the commander to stick with it," she says quietly.

"I think quitting the mission would have been the opposite of brave… and I wanted to be a brave leader. I wanted to be a confident leader. I wanted to instill that confidence in other people."
But when her mission finally took to the skies in 2005, the nightmare scenario happened again. A chunk of foam broke away during launch.

This time, though, there was a plan in place to check the damage. But it meant undertaking one of the riskiest maneuvers in space history.

Collins had to pilot the shuttle through a 360 degree flip while flying beneath the International Space Station. It allowed colleagues on the orbiting lab to photograph the craft's underside and check if the heatshield had been breached.

"There were engineers and managers saying it couldn't be done, all these reasons why it was too dangerous," she says.

"I listened to the discussion, they knew I was the commander, and I said: 'It sounds like we can do it'."
With her hands steady at the controls, her voice calm as she spoke to mission control, Collins piloted the craft through a slow, graceful somersault. With the shuttle's underside now visible, the damage was quickly spotted - and a spacewalk was carried out to repair it.

It meant Collins and her crew would make it safely home.

This was Collins's last flight. She tells us that she always planned to stop after her fourth mission - to give others a chance to go to space.

And she's watched plenty of astronauts follow in her footsteps. Does she have any advice for the next generation dreaming of the stars?

"Do your homework, listen to your teacher, pay attention in class and read books, and that will give you something to focus on," she says in a matter-of-fact way.

Those who follow Collins to space will learn just how much she achieved, not only as a woman, but as a formidable pilot and commander.

She says she has no regrets about bringing her astronaut career to an end. She made her decision and didn't look back. But there's still a wistful look in her eye when we ask if she'd be tempted if a seat on a spacecraft became free.

"Yes, I would love to go on a mission someday. When I'm an old lady, maybe I'll get a chance to go back in space."

Vickie Neal

16/12/2025

12/12/2025

26/11/2025

24/11/2025

18/11/2025

24/10/2025

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