In this week’s newsletter: From nature projects to biodiversity funds, key programmes will suffer as the UK aims to lower its international climate finance commitments by billions

The UK’s spy chiefs are accustomed to being listened to at the highest levels of government. Prime ministers and cabinets take notice when the joint intelligence committee (JIC), which directs MI5 and MI6, warns of threats to national security. Except, it seems, when it comes to the future of the planet.

Last year the JIC produced a hard-hitting report which, the Guardian revealed, found the collapse of globally important ecosystems around the world – including the potential shift of the Amazon from rainforest to savannah, the demise of coral reefs, and the loss of glaciers – would threaten the UK’s national security, through food shortages at home and the potential for conflict overseas.

Dirty water, death and decline: the inside story of a privatisation scandal

Global sea levels have been underestimated due to poor modelling, research suggests

‘I live in constant fear’: surge in giant sinkholes threatens Turkey’s farmers

What exactly is climate finance? Who pays it? And who gets it? | Explainer

We can move beyond the capitalist model and save the climate – here are the first three steps | Jason Hickel and Yanis Varoufakis

Biodiversity collapse threatens UK security, intelligence chiefs warn

Adam Tickell, of University of Birmingham, says money is loaned to people who ‘are not really capable of graduating’

A leading vice-chancellor has questioned whether students without A-levels should be eligible for government-backed student loans, as part of an effort to solve England’s university funding crisis.

Adam Tickell, vice-chancellor of the University of Birmingham, said universities face an “almost existential challenge” and falling public support that requires a radical review of higher education funding.

Wood Group’s ‘desire to maintain previously stated financial results’ influenced inaccurate reporting, says regulator

John Wood Group has been fined nearly £13m for repeatedly publishing inaccurate financial results.

The FTSE-listed oil and has engineering company, which is soon to be bought by a Dubai-based rival, has previously admitted that “cultural failings” led to information being kept from auditors.

Exclusive: Schemes worth hundreds of millions of pounds to protect biodiversity and oceans likely to be substantially reduced

UK programmes to protect nature and the climate in developing countries are suffering swingeing budget cuts despite ministers’ promises, the Guardian has learned.

The cuts belie the government’s claims to be fulfilling international obligations on climate finance and are veiled behind a system that experts have criticised as opaque.

The cutting and partial closure of the £100m Biodiverse Landscapes Fund, intended to protect nature in vital ecosystems in poor regions overseas. Six regions were originally targeted, in Africa, South America and Asia, but this has been reduced to two.

Coast – a project for Climate and Ocean Adaptation and Sustainable Transition – and Pact (Prepare and Accelerate Climate Transitions) are having substantial cuts.

The future of the £500m Blue Planet Fund has been thrown into doubt despite its successful operation.

Other schemes have been reduced in scope, for instance by allowing only one year’s funding where years were expected.

Requests for data under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed spending has been slashed among the departments responsible for international climate finance (ICF).

Finance campaigner marches on to set and tells Tory leader her policy to cut interest rates will only help top earners

• UK politics live – latest updates

Kemi Badenoch has faced what could be described as the stuff of nightmares for a UK politician being interviewed about a personal finance policy: being ambushed and contradicted live on air by Martin Lewis.

As the Conservative leader was being interviewed on ITV about her party’s plans to cut interest rates for some student loans, Lewis, a campaigner and finance expert, marched on to the set to announce that he completely disagreed.

Investors respond after US supreme court rules that Donald Trump exceeded his authority in imposing sweeping tariffs under emergency powers

• US Politics live: US supreme court rules against Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs

• UK reports record-breaking budget surplus of £30.4bn in surprise boost for Rachel Reeves

• Art and antiques help lift retail sales in Great Britain to biggest monthly rise since 2024

The jump in tax receipts last month may show that UK government receipts are starting to get the boost from inflation and wage growth earlier in the year.

Nick Ridpath, research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, says:

Today’s data on the public finances is particularly important, given the outsized impact of January’s self-assessment returns on revenues and borrowing for the year as a whole.

Income tax receipts had been a little disappointing over 2025, lagging behind forecasts even as inflation and wage growth exceeded expectations. But today’s data shows that self-assessment revenues in January were almost £2bn (6%) higher than forecast.

Mail order retailers, which are predominantly online, experienced a boost from retailers selling sports supplements, as well as continued strong sales volumes by online jewellers. Comments from jewellers reported that demand had hit unprecedented levels.

Trump has attacked judges and weakened global safeguards. Someone needs to stand up to the US and stop the erosion of democracy

In an era of overlapping crises, corruption is no longer a side issue – it is a structural threat to achieving international equality and even freedom itself. Each year, Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, a league table of 182 countries, is greeted with predictable theatrics: praise where it flatters power, condemnation where it can be weaponised, and hollow promises of reform that quietly expire once attention moves on. Instead of a moment of reckoning, it is ignored by those with the power to act.

As this newspaper reported, last week’s table showed a “worrying trend” of backsliding and a picture of “democratic institutions being eroded by political donations, cash for access and state targeting of campaigners and journalists”.

Exclusive: UK graduates in Germany, Belgium and possibly other countries informed of rises as salary threshold is cut

Britons living in some European countries face a huge rise in their student loan repayments later this year, the Guardian can reveal, in a move that threatens to trigger a fresh backlash for Rachel Reeves.

UK graduates working in Germany and Belgium – and possibly other countries – have been told that their monthly repayments will increase from April, the Guardian can reveal.

Acquisition by Premier Group Recruitment boss Andrew Woosnam appears to be example of ‘phoenixism’

A recruitment business that went bust owing the tax authorities and other creditors almost £3m has promised to send its staff on an all-expenses paid trip to Las Vegas after being repurchased by its former owner for an initial £10,000.

Premier Group Recruitment went into administration in September with debts of £2.9m – including £647,000 owed to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which had commenced enforcement proceedings against the company.

Universities, builders and health trusts are feeling the squeeze, as thinktank says effect of zero net migration could be similar to Brexit

• ‘It’s been life-changing’: young Britons on why they left the UK

When Greenwich and Kent universities said this month they would merge to save money, the heart of their financial difficulties could be found in the UK government’s crackdown on immigration.

Tough restrictions on foreign students have sent the number of university applications from abroad plummeting, cutting lucrative tuition fees and leaving all universities facing the same squeeze.

Councillors vote for 3.99% council tax increase while mounting ‘attack on the vulnerable’, opposition says

Reform UK’s showcase council in Kent faces “extreme risk” and “instability”, opposition politicians have warned, after it passed its first budget.

The party’s councillors voted it through on Thursday night after their leaders announced a 3.99% council tax increase, one percentage point under the limit before a referendum is required, despite promising before their election win not to raise tax.

Capitalism cares about our species’ prospects as much as a wolf cares about a lamb’s. But democratise our economy and a better world is within our grasp

We have an urgent responsibility. Our existing economic system is incapable of addressing the social and ecological crises we face in the 21st century. When we look around we see an extraordinary paradox. On the one hand, we have access to remarkable new technologies and a collective capacity to produce more food, more stuff than we need or that the planet can afford. Yet at the same time, millions of people suffer in conditions of severe deprivation.

What explains this paradox? Capitalism. By capitalism we do not mean markets, trade and entrepreneurship, which have been around for thousands of years before the rise of capitalism. By capitalism we mean something very odd and very specific: an economic system that boils down to a dictatorship run by the tiny minority who control capital – the big banks, the major corporations and the 1% who own the majority of investible assets. Even if we live in a democracy and have a choice in our political system, our choices never seem to change the economic system. Capitalists are the ones who determine what to produce, how to use our labour and who gets to benefit. The rest of us – the people who are actually doing the production – do not get a say.