The Independent announces the return of its acclaimed Climate 100 List

Increasingly frequently, the world is suffering from more wild fires, flash floods, droughts, and hurricanes, caused by the human-induced climate crisis.

Recent data from Nasa revealed a dramatic rise in the intensity of extreme weather events which are happening more regularly, are lasting for a longer period of time and are more severe, such as the LA fires in January that devastated tens of thousands of homes, recent deadly flooding in Beijing, and long heatwaves in the Nordic countries that even reach the Arctic Circle.

Across the US, ‘heat streaks‘ are on the rise, a phenomenon that’s seeing an increase in the number of consecutive hot days across its cities, with life-threatening temperatures. It’s becoming a pattern as for the second year running, the planet has reached record temperatures, following 2024 becoming the warmest year on record.

Alongside the physical extremes on the environment, the effects of the USA’s climate-sceptic administration’s rollbacks are already being felt. Cuts to overseas aid, which many conservation areas like Zambia’s Lower Zambezi National Park rely on, as do vulnerable nations like Malawi who are now struggling to prepare for climate disasters, will have long-lasting and devastating effects.

Despite more awareness than ever, the climate crisis is only worsening and it’s never felt more urgent to react. The Independent has long been at the forefront of calling for action and change when it comes to the climate, as well as reliably reporting on the severity of the global climate crisis.

It’s this understanding and commitment to resolving the issues that sees the important return of The Independent’s Climate 100 List. Back for its second year, it will be published again next month, aptly during the United Nations’ Summit of the Future in New York, part of the 16th annual Climate Week NYC.

The list brings together 100 changemaking and inspiring people to celebrate their contributions in finding positive climate solutions. From around the globe, it includes those who have dedicated their lives to the cause, as well as lesser known newcomers to the movement who need their voices heard and actions seen, across industries as broad as science to activism, food to politics, and business to entertainment, to name a few.

We want to continue to celebrate their courage, innovation and much-needed efforts in paving the way for a cleaner and greener future for the next generation.

The unveiling of the list will also align with the Climate 100 event held in New York, hosted by The Independent’s Editor-in-Chief, Geordie Greig, bringing together global changemakers, business leaders, scientists, policymakers, and activists.

Geordie Grieg, Editor-in-Chief of The Independent, says: “Now in the second year of Climate 100, we are excited to continue honoring leaders who are not just raising the alarm, but driving the solutions our planet urgently needs.”

The list is compiled by a team at The Independent, but as we know three out of four of our readers consider themselves to be environmentally friendly, a key part of the list is the Reader’s Choice category, which is returning after last year’s success.

We’re once again asking you, the readers, to get involved and submit your unsung climate hero – someone who has made a significant contribution to protecting the environment through their work and deserves to be properly recognised for it. Perhaps it’s a colleague, a classmate, a mentor, a peer or even a friend or family member.

Submit your nominations for The Independent’s Climate 100 List using the form below – and stay tuned: the full list lands in mid-September.

‘Banksying’ is the cruel new dating trend you need to know about

Recently, I watched a few episodes of Sex and the City with teenagers. There were obvious revelations in the room: the girls were baffled as to why someone would choose to walk around a city in vertiginous heels, for example; as generations before them have been, they were of course stumped by Carrie Bradshaw’s confounding finances. But the biggest eye-opener – at least for me – was the stark (and, sometimes, downright cruel) differences in dating.

Because, while dating – and, along with it, investment and effort made in the pursuit of love – used to be necessary, for Gen Z and, soon, Gen A, dating has become more or less obsolete.

You don’t need to go on a date to discover someone’s likes or dislikes – you can chat on Snap. You don’t need to get excited about how cute they might look in a new dress or pair of jeans, because they’re all over Insta, and even sex in an age of sexting, porn, and hook-up app culture seems to have lost some of its exciting appeal for the younger generations. And this, in turn, has given way to a heartless dating game with its own language, rules and rituals.

Some of it is now well-established – we’ve all heard of (and maybe experienced) ghosting, when the person you’ve been dating (or just chatting to, which in modern terms is often a substitute for dating in old terms) completely vanishes, cutting off all contact.

Breadcrumbing – where the object of your affections doesn’t quite ghost you but pops up occasionally with a morsel of contact, therefore maintaining a sliver of connection and hope – is similar. Less well known is throning, a bizarrely modern concept that sees someone date another purely for social or financial clout.

Then I spoke to Rhiannon. She’s a 22-year-old who had been dating her partner Amir for almost a year – they’d met each other’s families, lived together at university and had been planning on going travelling. Until, completely out of the blue, Amir ended their relationship. “I was beyond upset,” she tells me, “but what really tipped me over was when my friends saw Amir on TikTok (he blocked me) explaining to his followers how he’d done it.

“He’d basically been withdrawing from the relationship for over six months using advice from ChatGPT and his online ‘bro’ workout communities, so he was prepared for the emotional fallout. I wasn’t, and all the commenters online were laughing at me and congratulating him on his ‘strategy’. I threw up when I saw it.”

Rhiannon had been the victim of “Banksying”, a cruel dating phenomenon named after the British street artist, whereby one of the partners in a relationship is blindsided by a sudden and unexpected dumping that’s been planned by the other partner for weeks or even months, often using AI and online communities for advice on how to execute this.

The level of glee and cruelty I see on the video Rhiannon speaks about is pretty shocking, but typical: the consensus often seems to be the victim “deserved” the treatment, but in Rhiannon’s case (and many of the others), her transgression seems to be nothing more than being a good, loving girlfriend who was into Amir and their relationship.

And this is the crux of the problem. In an era of hostile algorithms, the manosphere, the femosphere and influencers who paint an extremely toxic view of the opposite sex, young people are coming of dating age in an atmosphere that’s less Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, and more akin to a gender civil war, where the opposing side must not only be heartbroken, but punished and vanquished.

Girls are being told at an impressionable age that “all men are trash” and boys are being told that girls are “scheming b*****s” by people they follow and admire and so it’s unsurprising that they view dating less as a pleasurable pursuit and more as a game of tactics where the goal is not to fall in love, but to win. Even Love Island, the wildly popular dating show, has seemed less about silly games and hookups this year, and more about oppositional solidarity between the young men and women. This year seems to firmly suggest, young dating is not just in a problematic state, but a downright hostile, nasty one that will view Banksying, ghosting, breadcrumbing and throning as fair game.

But dating isn’t a game and shouldn’t be viewed as one – despite what over a decade of influencers have been telling younger generations. At its best, dating is a nerve-wracking, butterfly-inducing, risk-taking appetiser to most great relationships. The time and effort signified not just to the other person but to yourself that this might be something worthwhile, and it also built the foundation of good connections.

It’s a time and space, where you were both at your best and could figure out compatibility and chemistry in all kinds of areas without the need for an algorithm or matchup – something essential for any couple who were going to go the distance.

It is no coincidence that as younger generations become more estranged from the old rituals of dating and courtship, there are serious long-term consequences. Younger people are putting off (or being put off) coupling up and having children. By 2084, the UN predicts, “The global population will officially begin its decline. Rich countries will all have become like Japan, stagnant and ageing. And the rest of the world will have become old before it ever got the chance to become rich.”

Of course, there are other important factors at play in the stagnating populations – economics, access to contraception, changing attitudes to having children. But we shouldn’t underestimate how much of an important building block the attitude to dating and relationships is in our stability as a society, both now and in the future.

If Gen Z and Gen A believe they don’t like or respect each other enough to safely date each other, let alone form serious, trusting, long-lasting relationships, the long-term consequences are potentially catastrophic.

I ask Rhiannon (who’s highly dateable – she’s bright, beautiful and kind) if she’s planning on re-entering the dating scene and her response is depressing. “No, I don’t think so. I feel like dating is over. Everybody finds it sad, depressing and at worst, humiliating. It’s like we’ve all become strangers who don’t trust each other and don’t like each other much, but are vaguely aware we’re still required to have sex with each other and live with each other at some point in the future. I can’t see that happening.”

I wonder if the real Banksy could paint that sentiment in a mural?

First migrants detained under ‘one in, one out’ returns deal with France, Starmer confirms

The first migrants who arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel have been detained under the new “one in, one out” deal with France, the prime minister has confirmed.

The first detentions came after people arrived in Dover on Wednesday, the first day the pilot scheme came into force.

The agreement, announced by the prime minister in a joint press conference with Emmanuel Macron last month, means that any adult migrant who crosses the Channel will now be at risk of return if their claim for asylum is considered inadmissible.

For each small boat migrant sent back across the English Channel, an asylum seeker will be allowed to enter the UK from France under a legal route.

UK officials aim to make referrals for returns to France within three days of a person’s arrival by small boat while French authorities will respond within 14 days.

Adults and families in France are now able to express an interest in coming to the UK through an online platform set up by the Home Office. They will have to meet suitability criteria, standard visa application process and security checks.

Posting to social media, the prime minister said: “We have detained the first illegal migrants under our new deal before returning them to France. No gimmicks, just results.

“If you break the law to enter this country, you will face being sent back. When I say I will stop at nothing to secure our borders, I mean it.”

The Home Office later released footage which showed some of those who were detained arriving at Western Jet Foil in Dover and being medically assessed.

Video also showed men, wearing dark grey tracksuit jumpers and bottoms, taken to Manston processing centre.

The government is hoping the new scheme will turn the tide on the numbers of people arriving in the UK after crossing the Channel, amid mounting tensions over the issue in recent days.

There have been protests across the UK opposing the use of hotels to house asylum seekers, with a number of people arrested after a protest outside a hotel in Canary Wharf in London on Sunday.

The Home Office said detentions began for those who arrived on Wednesday afternoon and they will be held in immigration removal centres until they are returned to France.

Home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Yesterday, under the terms of this groundbreaking new treaty, the first group of people to cross the Channel were detained after their arrival at Western Jet Foil and will now be held in detention until they can be returned to France.

“That sends a message to every migrant currently thinking of paying organised crime gangs to go to the UK that they will be risking their lives and throwing away their money if they get into a small boat.”

However, there is confusion over whether the UK-France deal leaves open a loophole which would allow for human rights claims to hold up deportations.

The terms of the treaty indicated that migrants who had arrived in the UK via small boat could frustrate attempts to deport them to France, as the agreement contains a clause that says in order for people to be returned to France the UK must confirm they do not have an “outstanding human rights claim”.

Critics have argued this could risk bogus applications being made to frustrate the deportation process and cause delays.

Home Office sources said that migrants with an ongoing human rights claim would not be removed from the UK until their claim is complete in UK courts.

If, however, a claim hasn’t been commenced then an individual can be removed, with any further legal challenges being dealt with in the French courts.

It is also understood that people with claims that have been ruled as unfounded can be removed even where there is a possibility of future legal challenge.

Labour has put a pledge to crack down on the number of people coming to the UK on small boats at the centre of its plan for government.

But with boat crossings at a record high, and the asylum backlog still above 75,000, there is mounting pressure on ministers to take more drastic action – pressure which is exacerbated by the success of Reform UK in the polls.

Last week figures showed that the number of migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the English Channel topped 25,000 – the earliest point in a calendar year at which the 25,000 mark has been passed since data on Channel crossings was first reported in 2018.

‘We are stranded in Paris after the Birmingham airport chaos – it has been a nightmare’

A mother says she was left “overwhelmed” after her family was left stranded in Paris when Birmingham Airport shut its runway due to an emergency landing.

Gena Fraser, 45 from Wolverhampton, went to Paris with her teenage son, brother, sister-in-law and 11-year-old niece on Saturday with expectations they would return to Birmingham Airport on Wednesday evening.

The UK’s seventh busiest airport closed for around six hours after a light aircraft developed landing gear problems and made an emergency landing, causing disruption for thousands of travellers around the world. One person suffered minor injuries after the aircraft’s main under-carriage collapsed on touch down.

“The relaxation that we felt on our four day trip to Paris now feels ruined,” she said after her flight was cancelled.

Ms Fraser, who works as a disabled student allowances needs assessor, was due to leave Paris-Beauvais Airport on a Ryanair flight around 6pm on Wednesday when she saw news of the disruption.

“On the Ryanair app it said our flight had been delayed until 8pm but the delays kept getting worse,” she said.

Ms Fraser and her family were each given €4 vouchers to spend at the airport on a drink or a snack, but she said the compensation was barely enough to buy a drink.

“You couldn’t even buy a drink because the drinks were €4.20,” she said. “You can’t even buy a drink and that’s just like a bottle of Coke or Sprite.”

Ms Fraser, who has Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and ADHD, requires special assistance at airports, which was made clear on her Ryanair ticket. This means she gets seats allocated for free and would normally not have to queue at the airport, instead going into a special assistance lane.

“I’d expect Ryanair to be mindful about special assistance because I’ve told them about my disabilities,” she said. “There has been no special assistance whatsoever other than the seat allocation.”

She said that after a special trip that the family had been looking forward to for months, she was left feeling “overwhelmed, extremely stressed and anxious” in a crowded airport.

At around 7pm, Ms Fraser discovered the family’s flight was cancelled and they were forced to rebook their tickets for 11pm the next day to land in Manchester, forcing them to spend the night at the Ibis hotel near the airport.

Despite having a new flight booked, Ms Fraser’s said her travel anxiety had not abated. “How are we gonna get back to Wolverhampton?”, she asked. “Is it going to be public transport? It’s just a nightmare.”

The Independent has contacted Ryanair for comment.

As flights resume to normal, Woodgate Aviation – the company that owned the aircraft involved in the incident, said they were “co-operating fully with Air Accident investigators and airport services.”

Teacher banned from the classroom after doing student’s coursework

A teacher who wrote and submitted a student’s coursework for them has been banned from the classroom indefinitely.

Lauren Oliver, 35, taught health and social care at Oasis Academy Shirley Park for 12 years, but in June 2023 it was discovered she rewrote a student’s coursework and sent it to the exam board in November 2022.

A panel found the teacher was “guilty of unacceptable professional conduct” and was “dishonest” and “lacked integrity”.

She has been banned from teaching indefinitely, with the right to have the prohibition order reviewed in two years.

On 21 June 2023, the principal of the school was approached by a student who informed them Ms Oliver wrote their coursework five months earlier, a report revealed.

Ms Oliver had advised the student that her work was due to be sampled for moderation by the exam board and that she would instead write the work and submit it on her behalf.

The coursework that was submitted on behalf of the student was different to what they had originally produced, the report added.

Ms Oliver resigned on 20 October 2023, after admitting to her actions.

The report highlights Ms Oliver’s actions meant the student temporarily received a better grade than they otherwise would have attained.

Her actions may also have affected the student’s overall grade because their work could have been disregarded.

Ms Oliver had over a decade of teaching experience and was one of the lead internal verifiers at the school – meaning she was responsible for confirming to the exam board that the coursework was authentic.

Considering this the panel decided Ms Oliver was aware that completing a students work on their behalf and attributing it to them was “wrong”.

The panel found Ms Oliver “behaved in a dishonest manner” and concluded her “conduct was capable of causing reputational damage to the school and her colleagues.”

She was found to not uphold the professional and ethical standards expected of a teacher.

“Ms Oliver was in a position of trust and responsibility. Therefore, honesty and integrity were integral to her role. Notwithstanding this, Ms Oliver behaved in a dishonest manner,” the panel said.

The former teacher is now banned from the classroom and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.

Trump and Putin to meet ‘in days’ but no Zelensky invite

An agreement has been reached for Putin and Trump to meet ‘in the coming days’ to discuss a ceasefire, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed.

Despite Trump suggesting there was “a good chance” of a summit involving Zelensky, Ushakov said that a trilateral meeting “was for some reason mentioned by Washington” but had not been discussed with the Kremlin.

The venue for the meeting has been decided and is due to be announced later, he added

A face-to-face meeting would be the first between a sitting US and Russian president since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021, some eight months before Russia launched the biggest attack on a European nation since the Second World War.

Earlier, Trump said his envoy Steve Witkoff made “great progress” in a meeting with Putin in Moscow, adding: “Everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come.”