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I recently moved from a gas stove to an induction range, and I love it. Other Americans probably will, too

Of all the political issues I assumed would come to the fore in 2023, gas stoves were not on my bingo card. And yet Americans’ right to cook on an open gas flame has turned into a red-hot culture war issue. Conservatives are gearing up for a War of the Cooktops – and unfortunately, some Democrats aren’t helping.

Some five decades’ worth of studies have found that gas stoves are hazardous to human health, with a recent one suggesting that gas stoves in US homes may be to blame for nearly 13% of childhood asthma cases. Gas stoves are bad for the environment, too, powered as they are by fossil fuels.

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Study suggests children who were in the womb during Superstorm Sandy are more likely to have behavior disorders

When Superstorm Sandy hit in October 2012, Celia Sporer-Newman was about eight months pregnant and working full-time as a paramedic in Queens, New York.

Sporer-Newman had worked through previous disasters, including Hurricane Irene the year before, but this felt different. She saw news reports that said Sandy was going to be worse than anything New Yorkers had seen before.

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Analysts warn bloc’s lack of industrial policy may impede riposte to $370bn US subsidy package

Anger is mounting in EU capitals at a “massive” and “super aggressive” $370bn US green subsidy package that many fear will deal a hammer blow to Europe’s industry and economy. But the bloc is deeply divided over how to respond.

Signed into law last August, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) offers huge subsidies and tax credits to companies investing in electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies, such as batteries, solar panels and wind turbines – as long as the products and parts they manufacture are made in America.

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High court in Japan agreed defendants could not have predicted the massive tsunami that crippled the power plant and triggered a nuclear meltdown

Three former executives from the company that operates the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have had their not-guilty verdicts upheld by a court in Japan, dealing a blow to campaigners demanding the firm take legal responsibility for the disaster in March 2011.

The Tokyo high court on Wednesday cleared Tsunehisa Katsumata, the former chairman of Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), along with former vice-presidents Ichiro Takekuro and Sakae Muto, of professional negligence resulting in death.

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Study also says eating one serving of fish with PFAS could be equivalent to drinking contaminated water every day for a month

Wild caught, freshwater fish in the United States are far more contaminated with toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” than those commercially caught in oceans, and the highest levels are found in fish from the Great Lakes, a new analysis of federal data suggests.

The peer-reviewed study by public health advocate Environmental Working Group (EWG) also found eating one serving of US freshwater fish contaminated with median PFAS levels could be equivalent to drinking highly contaminated water every day for a month.

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Researchers use thermal vision to unpack how the spiny monotremes tolerate the searing Australian heat

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It’s long been thought echidnas are poor at dealing with the Australian heat but researchers say they have some secret weapons, including snot bubbles.

Echidnas rely on snot bubbles and belly flops to keep themselves cool in the searing heat, researchers have found.

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Exclusive: Sales of Chinese-made vehicles increased 61% in 2022 with one industry expert saying companies are ‘innovating faster’

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China is rapidly becoming one of the largest sources of new cars for Australian buyers with Chinese carmakers’ increasing dominance of electric vehicle sales in their home market potentially accelerating the transition off fossil-fuel powered transport.

In 2022, sales of Chinese-made vehicles in Australia totalled 122,845 units, a 61.1% increase on the previous year, according to Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries data. In December, imports from China were more than double a year earlier.

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Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca and Antonio Díaz Valencia’s bullet hole-riddled vehicle was found after an anti-mining meeting

Fears are mounting for the safety of two missing Mexican land rights activists after their vehicle was found ridden with bullet holes.

Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca, a human rights lawyer and environmentalist and Antonio Díaz Valencia, leader of the Aquila Indigenous community in Michoacán, were last seen on Sunday evening travelling toward the neighbouring state of Colima after attending an anti-mining community meeting.

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Decades of large scale crop irrigation now means big water problems in drought-stricken areas like western Kansas.

Pressure cookers can steam-cook anything from vegetables and pulses to fish and stews in a fraction of the time, and our panel of chefs agrees they preserve flavour, too

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What are the advantages of pressure cookers?
Charlie, Lincoln
What really sets pressure cookers apart from other bits of kitchen kit, notes food writer Catherine Phipps, is their versatility. “I don’t see them as a gadget, but just as a saucepan with a specially adapted lid,” says the author of Modern Pressure Cooking. “You can use them for everything you would a normal saucepan, and much more besides, plus you’re also cutting down 70-75% of the cooking time.”

Stefano Arturi, of the Italian Home Cooking blog, adds: “I can make dishes that would otherwise take hours [stews, chickpeas] in a fraction of the time, and with no loss of flavour – in fact, pressure cooking intensifies how things taste.” And all for a fraction of the cost, too: “It’s a great ally in reducing water and energy consumption when you’re cooking things like vegetables, because you need very little of either.”

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

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Whitehaven colliery will release about 17,500 tonnes of methane every year, estimates thinktank

The new coalmine in Cumbria is likely to prevent the UK from meeting its internationally agreed commitment to reduce emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane, analysis has suggested.

The Whitehaven colliery, controversially approved by ministers shortly before Christmas, will release about 17,500 tonnes of methane every year, according to estimates from the Green Alliance thinktank.

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Material from dry landscapes has surged since the 1800s, possibly helping to cool the planet for decades

Dust that billows up from desert storms and arid landscapes has helped cool the planet for the past several decades, and its presence in the atmosphere may have obscured the true extent of global heating caused by fossil fuel emissions.

Atmospheric dust has increased by about 55% since the mid-1800s, an analysis suggests. And that increasing dust may have hidden up to 8% of warming from carbon emissions.

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With drenching rain, local rivalries and – crucially – no animals harmed, the Kerry Beagle drag hunt has fascinated photographer Tony O’Shea for three decades

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Low fertility rates in the wake of China's former one-child policy and lockdowns related to the COVID pandemic have contributed to the country's shrinking population.

(Image credit: Andy Wong/AP)

Toxic pesticides used to eradicate grain-eating quelea may harm the country’s endangered raptors, say conservationists

A drive by the Kenyan government to kill up to 6 million red-billed quelea birds that have invaded farms will have unintended consequences for raptors and other wild species, experts have warned.

The continuing drought in the Horn of Africa has reduced the amount of native grass, whose seeds are queleas’ main food source, causing the birds to increasingly invade grain fields, putting 2,000 acres (800 hectares) of rice under threat. About 300 acres of rice fields have been destroyed by the birds.

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Financial institutions signed up to GFANZ initiative accused of acting as ‘climate arsonists’

Banks and finance institutions that have signed up to net zero pledges are still investing heavily in fossil fuels, research has shown, leading to accusations they are acting as “climate arsonists”.

The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) initiative was launched by the former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, as one of the main UK achievements in hosting the Cop26 UN climate summit at Glasgow in 2021.

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Dreyfus opens discussion about judicial watchdog

Today the attorney-general, Mark Dreyfus, will open consultation for the creation of a federal judicial commission, to police what he described as the “relatively rare” instances of “problematic conduct by judges”.

The three diseases that we’re focusing on on this trip – malaria, HIV and tuberculosis – three diseases that Australia has a good control over or good management over.

HIV cases are on the rise for a range of different reasons. Tuberculosis is just devastating and any young child with tuberculosis is an extremely confronting and devastating thing to see it’s a horrible disease. And malaria is an ongoing killer.

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Spotted some new action in the nest at 4 AM yesterday. The momma dug it up and was in there for a while. After she came out, she spent a lot of time grooming herself "down there". She came back this morning for what I assume is the first feeding. It will be about 2 weeks before whatever is in the nest is big enough to be spotted on camera. Wondering if there is more than just one in this litter. 65,76,47,0,B

NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University on what California needs to end their drought.