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In a simulation game, five off-the-shelf large language models or LLMs were confronted with fictional crisis situations that resembled Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or China’s threat to Taiwan. The results? Almost all of the AI models showed a preference to escalate aggressively, use firepower indiscriminately and turn crises into shooting wars — even to the point of launching nuclear weapons.

blue whale vocalizations dropped by almost 40 percent, according to the study, with populations of krill and anchovy collapsing. "When you really break it down, it’s like trying to sing while you're starving," Ryan explained. "They were spending all their time just trying to find food."

A German court has delivered a landmark ruling in a climate lawsuit brought by Peruvian farmer, Saúl Luciano Lliuya, against German energy giant RWE. The German Higher Regional Court of Hamm has ruled that, in principle, companies can be held liable to people halfway around the world for their contribution to the impacts and risks of climate change . While the Court ultimately dismissed Mr Lliuya’s claim, its reasoning represents a significant breakthrough for climate litigation globally. Below we explain what the Court decided, why it matters, and what it might mean in a New Zealand context with Smith v Fonterra still moving through the courts.

Even if agricultural practices adapt in response to higher temperatures, five of the world's six main staple crops will suffer severe losses due to climate change. Global corn yields are projected to fall by about 12 or 28 per cent by the end of the century

Since Donald Trump's presidential election victory, major tech companies have abandoned years of policies restricting military work and sought out lucrative defense contracts and deeper connections with the Pentagon.

Growing food is a precarious business, and losing access to key information makes it worse.

Trump could reverse the nation’s progress on climate change, but rolling back the Biden administration’s significant climate successes could be a low, slow and difficult process...

Land-based nuclear weapons are world-ending accident waiting to happen, and completely superfluous to a reliable deterrent.

If the system can’t contact military leaders, it checks for signs of a nuclear strike. Should its computers determine that an attack occurred, it would automatically launch all remaining Soviet weapons at targets across the northern hemisphere. As in the film, the Soviet Union long kept Dead Hand completely secret, eliminating any strategic benefit, and rendering it a pointless menace to humanity. You might think the United States would have a more sensible nuclear launch policy. You’d be wrong.

Report calls for better safeguards to prevent bioterrorists from weaponizing new technology

The EU have introduced a new regulation on the import of products linked to deforestation – but will this reduce deforestation globally?

The Center for Climate and Security (CCS), a non-partisan institute of the Council on Strategic Risks, has a team and distinguished Advisory Board of security and military experts. CCS envisions a climate-resilient world which recognizes that climate change threats to security are already significant, unprecedented and potentially existential, and acts to address those threats in a manner that is commensurate to their scale, consequence and probability.

As China's record heatwave starts to subside, farmers are assessing the damage caused by a prolonged drought and the government is urging them to replant or switch crops where they can.

Group says ‘climate disaster’ vehicles targeted in nine countries including the UK, France and Canada

A Guardian report from 11 countries tracks how US waste makes its way across the world – and overwhelms the poorest nations

We have here (in the Baltic Sea, about half a million tonnes of conventional munitions and about 40,000 tonnes of chemical weapons. Some of the conventional munitions are armed and may explode if moved. As for poisoning people and fish, we don`t have enough data to speak of probability. However, the bombs leak poisonous substances, the seabed is contaminated in their immediate vicinity (up to 250 m).

Allhoff-Cramer claims that the automaker is partly responsible for the impact of global heating on the farming industry and wants Volkswagen to stop making combustion engines by 2030. "Farmers are already being hit harder and faster by climate change than expected," says Allhoff-Cramer.

The MET Office has warned the UK could be ravaged by armed militias because of worsening conditions caused by climate change.

Warmer winters are happening across the globe, and can be drivers of catastrophic weather events and profound changes

Intensive agriculture’s insatiable thirst for water is turning wetland to wasteland, draining rivers and polluting groundwater