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Floreana giant tortoise reintroduced to Galápagos island after almost 200 years

Giant tortoises, the life-giving engineers of remote small island ecosystems, are plodding over the Galápagos island of Floreana for the first time in more than 180 years. The Floreana giant tortoise (Chelonoidis niger niger), a subspecies of the giant tortoise once found across the Galápagos, was driven to extinction in the 1840s by whalers who removed thousands from the volcanic island to provide a living larder during their hunting voyages. Remarkably, 158 juvenile giant tortoises descended from the Floreana subspecies have been returned to the island in a vital step for the largest ecological restoration project undertaken on the Pacific Ocean archipelago. A relic population of giant tortoises discovered on Wolf volcano in the north of Isabela Island in 2008 were found to be descended in part from the Floreana population. Most of the Wolf volcano tortoises had domed shells like those living on Isabela’s other volcanoes to the south, but some had a saddleback-shaped carapace more typical of the tortoises that evolved on Floreana. A captive “back breeding” programme began in 2017, for which 23 hybrid tortoises most closely related to the Floreana subspecies were chosen to recreate it as genetically close to the original as possible. More than 600 hatchlings had been born by 2025, and several hundred grew large enough to be returned to their ancestral island. Males can reach nearly 1.5 metres (5ft) in length. Although whalers wiped out the Floreana tortoise, it ironically endured on Wolf volcano because they also deposited live tortoises on other islands for safekeeping and sometimes tossed tortoise cargo overboard if they needed to lighten their load during their whaling missions. Floreana, the sixth largest island in the archipelago, was once home to a wealth of endemic wildlife, including spectacular species such as the Floreana mockingbird, the Floreana racer snake. But the arrival of sailors, whalers and then settlers brought invasive mammals including rats and feral cats that wiped out native fauna and flora, a pattern repeated on small islands across the world. When Charles Darwin reached Floreana in 1835, its giant tortoise population was in its death throes. Its reintroduction has been brought about by the Floreana Ecological Restoration Project, a partnership between the Galápagos national park directorate and a number of charities working closely with the island’s 160 residents. An invasive species eradication programme, which began in 2023 and has removed most of the rats and feral cats on the island, paved the way for the tortoises’ return. The Galapagos rail has since been rediscovered on Floreana after not being recorded since Darwin’s first visit, and there has been a resurgence in populations of ground finches and native geckos, lizards and snails. Verónica Mora, a Floreana community representative, said of the tortoises’ return: “This moment marks an important step toward a future where conservation and community wellbeing go hand in hand, because our livelihoods, from tourism to agriculture and fishing, depend on the health of this island.” The island’s farmers have also reported much-improved harvests since rat numbers were drastically reduced. Giant tortoises are “keystone species”. Their grazing maintains open habitats, promoting the growth of native plants and creating conditions that benefit reptiles, invertebrates and birds. They also distribute native seeds across the island as they roam. “Habitats are the foundation for biodiversity, the home that allows species to move, live and evolve naturally over time,” said Rakan Zahawi, the executive director of the Charles Darwin Foundation. “Giant tortoises are a critical part of this system. By dispersing seeds, shaping vegetation, creating micro-habitats such as their well known wallows, and influencing how landscapes regenerate, they help rebuild ecological processes that many other species depend on.” Hugo Mogollón, the chief executive of Galápagos Conservancy, said: “By identifying tortoises on Wolf Volcano with Floreana ancestry and breeding their descendants, we are returning this species to its island in a form that closely reflects the original lineage – laying a critical scientific foundation for the restoration of Floreana’s ecosystems and the future reintroduction of additional native species.” The next phase of restoration will seek to return species including the Floreana mockingbird, the Floreana racer snake, the vegetarian finch and the little vermilion flycatcher. Dr Jen Jones, the chief executive of the Galapagos Conservation Trust, said: “It’s a validation of the incredible efforts we’ve seen over the last 20 years from a whole ecosystem of conservation NGOs, local authorities, determined individual researchers and community champions.”

Hamas reportedly holds leadership vote at critical moment for militant group

Hamas has reportedly begun holding leadership elections among its members at a time when the militant Palestinian movement faces imminent decisions which will be critical to its own continued existence and the potential for peace in Gaza. According to the BBC and press reports in the Gulf, Hamas members in Gaza have already voted. Those in the West Bank, in Israeli prisons and the diaspora are also expected to cast ballots for delegates to the movement’s 50-member general Shura council, which ultimately chooses its politburo and a new interim leader. The process could last weeks. The new leader will have to decide how far to cooperate with a US-sponsored peace plan, whether to disarm and how much of its arsenal to give up, what to demand in return from Israel in terms of withdrawal from the territory and whether to press for inclusion in a new Gaza government or fade into the political background. Much of the Hamas leadership has been killed by Israel in a military campaign that also razed much of Gaza and killed more than 75,000 Palestinians over 28 months. Among those killed was Yahya Sinwar, the Gaza Hamas leader, and Mohammed Deif, its military chief who led the shock attack on southern Israeli communities in October 2023, killing about 1,200 people, including more than 800 civilians. Israel also assassinated the movement’s deputy leader, Saleh al-Arouri, in Beirut in January 2024 and the overall political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran in July 2024. Israel tried to kill much of the surviving leadership in a single airstrike on Doha in September last year when they had gathered to discuss a US peace proposal, but the key leaders survived. The two frontrunners in the leadership contest are thought to be Khalil al-Hayya and Khaled Meshaal, who both survived the Doha airstrike. Between them, they present a fairly clearcut choice on Hamas’s future direction. Al-Hayya leads the Gaza wing, though he lives in the Gulf, and is considered Sinwar’s heir – hardline, though not drawn from the military wing, and closest to Iran among Hamas’s foreign sponsors. Meshaal is a Hamas veteran, one of its founders, who served as overall leader for more than two decades. He now leads the movement abroad and is thought to live in Doha. He is viewed as being at the more flexible end of the Hamas spectrum, with stronger ties to Qatar and Turkey. “Meshaal wants to consider a political settlement with Israel – not a recognition but maybe a long-term settlement – and even reconciliation with the Palestinian Authority, and once again be part of the formal political system in the Palestinian arena,” said Michael Milshtein, a former Israeli military intelligence colonel now at Tel Aviv University. “These two represent two different camps, and different agendas about the future and the goals of Hamas.” It is unclear whether there are other significant candidates. The vote is taking place under conditions of maximum secrecy due to the danger of assassination faced by anyone identified as playing a leading role in Hamas. “Whoever is in the leadership – whether it’s the Shura council or the actual top leadership – the question is: who wants to be in that position, knowing that they will most likely be on an Israeli hitlist?” said Khaled Elgindy, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Washington. “It’s clear that this is going to be a new chapter for Hamas, and it may even be existential. Will Hamas survive? What will it look like? Obviously, they’re going to do anything and everything to avoid the optics of a surrender,” Elgindy said. “Meshaal will have better ties with the Arab states, certainly with the Qataris and the Turks, all of whom are going to be very influential,” he added. “I can see him making the case that Hamas’s reliance on Iran is going to have to diminish as Tehran is preoccupied with its own survival. “There’s so much anger and frustration with Hamas on the street, but has that translated to the membership, the people who are actually voting? I don’t have a sense of that.” Under Donald Trump’s plan, a group of non-affiliated Palestinian technocrats, called the National Committee for Administration of Gaza (NCAG), are supposed to take over the immediate task of running Gaza, and overseeing Hamas’s disarmament. While Hamas leaders are reported to have indicated informally they would consider handing over heavier weapons, such as rockets and mortars, to a Palestinian body, its fighters are likely to refuse to surrender personal firearms, which they say are necessary for self-defence against Gaza’s multiple armed clans and criminal gangs, some of them backed by Israel. Reuters news agency has reported that Hamas has been busy rebuilding its organisation in recent weeks, collecting taxes on goods allowed into the territory under a ceasefire deal and replacing senior officials in Gaza ministries and district governors.

AI hit: India hungry to harness US tech giants’ technology at Delhi summit

India celebrates 80 years of independence from the UK in August 2027. At about that same moment, “early versions of true super intelligence” could emerge, Sam Altman, the co-founder of OpenAI, said this week. It’s a looming coincidence that raised a charged question at the AI Impact summit in Delhi, hosted by India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi: can India avoid returning to the status of a vassal state when it imports AI to raise the prospects of its 1.4 billion people? Modi’s hunger to harness AI’s capability is great. He compared it on Thursday to a turning point that resets the direction of civilisation, such as “when the first sparks were struck from stone”. The most common analogy heard among the thousands of visitors to the summit was the dawn of electricity, but Modi was talking about fire. His desire to use AI to supercharge Indian economic growth is matched by that of the big US tech companies. OpenAI, Google and Anthropic all played prominent roles at the summit, announcing deals to get ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude AIs into more people’s hands. The Trump administration, seeing AI as central to its battle for supremacy with China, was clearing the path for the three AI companies. The US government signed the Pax Silica, a technology agreement that binds India closer to US tech and away from Beijing. At the signing, Jacob Helberg, the US under secretary of state for economic affairs, emphasised the threat from China if India should even think about looking elsewhere for its AI. “We have seen the lights of a great Indian city extinguished by a keystroke,” he said, in an apparent reference to a suspected Chinese cyber-attack on Mumbai in 2020. India lacks the semiconductors, power plants and vast gigawatt datacentres to go it alone. In common with most other countries, it faces a choice between US and Chinese AI models. Which they choose could have profound consequences for who controls India’s future, because if AI’s power emerges as predicted, it will not only tweak economic and social structures, but become their new bedrock. Stuart Russell, a professor of artificial intelligence at the University of California, Berkeley, who closely follows India’s progress, said: “If we get to AGI [artificial general intelligence], AI is going to be producing 80% of the global economy. All manufacturing, most agriculture, all services will be just done; managed by AI, produced by AI.” Imagine, he said, an Indian village priced out of having a health centre. In the future, AI could design the hospital and “along comes a bunch of giant quad copters carrying the materials, and a bunch of robots come and assemble everything. Two weeks later, you’ve got a hospital.” In this scenario, technology becomes integral to a country’s wellbeing. Elements of sovereignty can be fought over, but how successful that will be remains to be seen. AI’s power is such that its controller gains enormous leverage. Anthropic’s chief executive, Dario Amodei, told the summit: “It may sound absurd, but AI can even help India achieve a standout 25% economic growth.” If that were to happen, it would take India to a per-capita GDP in a decade that is equivalent to Greece today. How could a leader resist? Modi’s tech secretary, Shri Krishnan, said India realised it must ally with like-minded countries to ensure it did not become “enslaved”. It is a high-stakes decision. India appears unlikely to turn to China, for now. It has the AI models, but there are tensions on the Himalayan border, and Chinese companies and leaders were scarce at the summit. Will India thrive with US AI? Silicon Valley companies talk of cooperation not control. Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s head of global policy, said: “We don’t see India as a customer, we see it as a strategic partner.” US officials framed the deal with India as an alliance of two nations that “broke centuries of colonial rule”, and as “two great democracies saying we will build together”. The Guardian asked Michael Kratsios, Donald Trump’s science and technology adviser, if India risked being controlled by the US under a form of digital colonialism. “I would say it is actually the opposite,” he said. “Any country that builds on top of the American AI stack will have the most open, independently controlled, secured stack the world has to offer. And that is why we are soon keen to share it with so many countries that are prioritising their AI sovereignty.” Russell sees another possibility. “I think the American companies want to get in at that high-school and middle-school level to create basically a bunch of AI addicts who can’t tie their shoelaces without the help of AI,” he said. “Silicon Valley has always been about eyeballs. You monetise later and it works. Google and Facebook generate vast amounts of money.” Could India build its own AI? It is investing billions in datacentres and semiconductor capacity, but it takes years to come online. India can press US tech companies to adapt their AIs to its kaleidoscope of languages and cultures, and attempt to insist on guardrails. There is much at stake. As the summit came to a close, Joanna Shields, a former Facebook and Google executive and a UK minister for internet safety, warned: “If we have a world where we are accepting models from just the global north, we will lose so much of our cultural diversity, our uniqueness as people, wherever we come from … We don’t want to develop a monoculture based on a handful of models that everybody uses around the world and we lose that richness of who we are, what makes us human.”

Officials race to contain virus outbreak after 72 captive tigers die in Thailand

A highly contagious virus is believed to have caused the deaths of 72 captive tigers in northern Thailand this month, with officials racing to contain the outbreak. Teams are urgently disinfecting enclosures and preparing to vaccinate surviving animals. The exact cause of death was unclear. A statement by the government’s region 5 livestock office for Chiang Mai said the animals had been infected with canine distemper virus, with veterinarians also identifying mycoplasma bacteria as a secondary infection. Earlier, however, Somchuan Ratanamungklanon, director general of the department of livestock development within the Thai agricultural ministry, told the Thai outlet Matichon that the tigers had been infected with feline panleukopenia. “Treating sick tigers is very different from treating dogs and cats. Dogs and cats live closely with us, so when they show symptoms, we can respond and provide treatment right away. Tigers, however, aren’t living closely with humans. By the time we notice that something is wrong, the illness may already be advanced,” he said. The outbreak has affected two districts of Chiang Mai: the mountainous regions of Mae Rim and Mae Taeng. Dozens of tigers first began to show signs of illness on 8 February, media reported. Tiger Kingdom Chiang Mai has been temporarily closed since the deaths. The zoo, which allows visitors to “hug, touch, and take photos up close with tigers”, is a popular tourist attraction. Kritsayarm Kongsatri, director of the wildlife conservation office in Chiang Mai, told Thai media the number of deaths recorded was “very unusual”. In other instances of tiger deaths, 47 died along with three leopards between August and October 2024 in south Vietnam after catching bird flu. In October 2004, an outbreak of bird flu spread in Sriracha tiger zoo in Chonburi province in eastern Thailand. A total of 147 of the zoo’s 441 tigers died or were euthanised to prevent possible spread to other animals. Fresh chicken carcasses fed to the animals were pointed to as the most likely source of infection. Tiger Kingdom Chiang Mai could not immediately be reached for comment.

‘The costs could rise’: Austria manslaughter ruling could alter climbing in Europe

The decision of an Austrian court to convict an amateur climber of manslaughter after he had left his girlfriend behind to die on an Alpine peak in winter is certain to be examined closely throughout Europe. In his decision in Innsbruck, the judge, Norbert Hofer – a climber, and an expert in Austrian law relating to the mountains – ruled that the “galaxies-wide” disparity in experience and skills between Thomas P and his late girlfriend Kerstin G meant he had been de facto acting as her mountain guide “as a favour” despite no financial arrangement having been involved. The case has drawn global media attention to what, if any, precedent it could set for climbers and mountaineers involved in accidents. An appeal against the ruling is expected. While professional mountain guides in many jurisdictions belong to certified bodies and can be held legally responsible for negligence in serious cases, and similarly for adults leading activities with minors, Hofer’s ruling suggests a novel and potentially complex duty of care: between more experienced and more novice participants in mountain sports. At the heart of the case was Thomas P’s decision to climb a high-altitude, mixed snow and rock route on the 3,798-metre (12,461ft) Großglockner in poor weather with insufficient safety equipment, as well as errors of decision making, including failing to turn back late at night below the summit when it would have been safe to do so. The prosecution’s argument, accepted in part by the judge, was that Thomas P had made nine separate mistakes, the most serious being to take Kerstin G on the climb despite her inexperience and the fact she had never undertaken an alpine tour of this length, difficulty and altitude, and despite the challenging winter conditions. The court heard Thomas P had left his girlfriend alone and exposed in the open and pushed on alone, apparently believing he could secure assistance from a hut on the other side of the mountain. He had declined the offer of assistance from a rescue helicopter that had been sent to see if they required help. “You haven’t been convicted because you’re [the] better [climber],” Hofer told Thomas P, rather it was because he had met the threshold for what the court believed was “guiding out of courtesy” and the duties that involved. “You did not fulfil the leadership responsibilities you assumed in the manner required of you by law.” Whether Hofer’s ruling has a wider impact will depend on how it is seen in different jurisdictions with varying attitudes to regulation in the mountains, including how police investigate fatal accidents. In an interview with Austria’s Kurier newspaper, Andreas Ermacora, a former head of the Austrian Alpine Club, which is a major provider of mountaineering insurance throughout Europe, was sceptical the ruling would have a major impact. “I don’t think so, because every story is so unique. [But] it is perhaps groundbreaking that this is the first time in Austria that someone has been convicted as an unqualified guide,” said Ermacora, a lawyer who has represented professional guides involved in accidents. “The crucial point was that it was clear the woman would never have gone up there alone. For a mixed ice and rock climb like that in winter, you really need to know what you’re getting into. And I don’t think she knew that at all. He, on the other hand, had been up there several times before. She transferred her responsibility to him.” Where that becomes complicated, however, is that the main way in which many aspirant mountaineers gain skills is through the mentorship of more experienced partners. “One of the things that struck me was the big disparity in experience between the two,” said John Cousins, a British mountain guide and chief executive of Mountain Training, which runs training schemes for mountain activities. “We’re all on a continuum of experience. If someone is an absolute novice they can only be looked after. But once you get a way along that continuum, in my mind as a mountain guide, it very definitely becomes a negotiation. You want to be constantly checking in with the other person to see how it is going for them.” Checks would include whether the less experienced person was still within their comfort zone, and whether the more experienced climber might feel out of their depth, even if they say they are not. The latter issue was prominent in reporting around Kerstin G’s death last year and in the case itself. “I can’t think of a precedent,” said Cousins. “But I also don’t believe anyone goes into the mountains with a court in mind in the event of an accident.” Where it may have an impact, some observers suggest, is around whether some amateur climbers could feel nervous about being seen as responsible for a less experienced companion, a point made by Severin Glaser, a professor of criminal law at the University of Innsbruck. “This could shift the responsibility for yourself if you’re doing something dangerous,” he told the New York Times. “The costs of mountaineering, the costs of expressing your freedom might rise, and maybe some people are not willing any more to pay this higher price.” A final issue apparent to climbers is the sometimes complicating issues of climbing partnerships where those involved are in a relationship, a situation where – regardless of gender – the dynamics of the need for approval or vulnerability can creep in. It is an issue coincidentally discussed in the current issue of Climbing magazine by the climber Alice Hafer, on why she had decided not to climb with her “significant other” after a frustrating climb. “I looked back on … situations like this one and saw that I often deflected decisions to my partner and avoided empowering myself towards my own goals. Climbing, a place where I usually excelled, became tainted by the context of a relationship.”

‘A joyful day’: final piece of Sagrada Familia’s central tower put in place

The final piece of the central tower of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia has been laid in place, bringing the church to its maximum final height 144 years after work began. After several days when it has been too windy to work, the upper section of the 17 metre-high four-sided steel and glass cross was winched into position at 11am on Friday, completing the tower dedicated to Jesus Christ. At 172.5 metres, the Sagrada Familia, to which the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí devoted the later part of his life, is Barcelona’s tallest building and the world’s tallest church. As the Catalan and Vatican flags were raised, Jordi Faulí, the chief architect for the project, said: “It’s been a joyful day, wonderful for all the people who have made it possible.” A ceremony to mark the completion of the tower – the tallest of 18 conceived by Gaudí – is due to take place on the centenary of Gaudí’s death in 1926 on 10 June, 16 years after the church was consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI. The end to the building at the church is expected in about a decade with the construction of a striking south-facing facade. It was nevertheless a day full of emotion for a city that has lived with Gaudí’s unfinished work for generations and, although there remains much work to do, the temple now defines the Barcelona skyline as much as the Eiffel tower in Paris or the Empire State building in New York. For decades it was a building site open to the skies, where generations of stone masons and carpenters worked around the tourists who have ultimately funded the construction. It’s only in the past 15 years, since work began on the breathtakingly beautiful interior, that it has felt more like a church than a building site. Here Gaudí’s geometrical designs have created an oasis of light, with delicate, tree-like columns tapering off to the roof, the white stone of the interior picked out in colours from the stained glass windows. The basilica is loved and loathed equally by those who live in Barcelona. George Orwell described it as “one of the most hideous buildings in the world” and regretted the anarchists did not blow it up when they had the chance. The anarchists did, however, destroy Gaudí’s drawings and the plaster model, which years later was painstakingly reconstructed. In the late 1970s, Mark Burry, a New Zealand architect, adapted rocket design software to realise Gaudí’s design. To those who claim the basilica is nothing like what was originally envisaged, Burry’s retort was that Gaudí’s geometry is so precise that should there be any deviation from his plan, the building would collapse. It is, however, now the work of many hands. There are elements that jar, in particular the Passion façade, popularly known as Darth Vader façade, the work of the sculptor Josep Maria Subirachs, and yet overall it is unmistakably Gaudí’s work. Aside from finishing the details of the main tower, three artists – Miquel Barceló , Cristina Iglesias and Javier Marín – have been commissioned to present designs for the Glory façade, which is expected to take a further 10 years to complete. The Sagrada Familia is the city’s top tourist attraction, with about 5 million visitors a year and an annual income of roughly €150m (£131m), about half of which has so far been spent on construction.

Zelenskyy says ‘real opportunities to end war with dignity still exist’ - Europe live

… and on that note, it’s a wrap for today! The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has insisted that “real opportunities to end the war with dignity still exist,” as he called for another round of talks with Russia and the US, and moving some issues to the leaders’ level (15:39). His comments come just days before the fourth anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, with some EU leaders expected to visit Kyiv (12:11), and others joining online for a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing (15:26). The EU is also racing to adopt the latest, 20th, package of sanctions against Russia before the anniversary (12:47), after EU ambassadors failed to reach an agreement today (11:58). Meanwhile, Kyiv said Friday that 10 people were arrested in Ukraine and Moldova on suspicion of planning to assassinate senior Ukrainian political figures on Moscow’s orders, with payouts of up to $100,000 (10:43). Ahead of the anniversary, the Guardian’s Shaun Walker prepared a detailed account, largely reported for the first time, of how the US and Britain uncovered Vladimir Putin’s plans to invade, and why most of Europe – including the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy – dismissed them. Make sure to read it over the weekend: In other news, German defence minister Boris Pistorius suggested the E5 group could establish a European version of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance (12:53). German chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Germany must assert itself and take on greater responsibility as a new world order rapidly takes shape (13:35). The European Commission has dismissed criticism of its participation in Donald Trump’s Board of Peace event in Washington DC, rejecting suggestions that it had no mandate for attending (12:25).

Asos co-founder dies in fall from 18-storey building in Thailand

Quentin Griffiths, the co-founder of the online fashion retailer Asos, has died after falling from an apartment building in the Thai seaside resort city of Pattaya. Police told Reuters that the 58-year-old had fallen from the 17th floor of an 18-storey condominium on 9 February. Police said initial investigations suggested suicide, and there were no indications of foul play. CCTV showed no sign of anybody entering his apartment, where he had lived alone, but his body had been sent for an autopsy, they added. The police also quoted a Thai friend of Griffiths as saying he had been worried about lawsuits from his former wife, a Thai national. Documents related to those lawsuits were found in his apartment, the police said. The retail entrepreneur, a British passport holder, co-founded Asos in London in 2000 with Nick Robertson, the great-grandson of the eponymous founder of the suit retailer Austin Reed. The business launched with the name As Seen on Screen, before switching to the Asos acronym in 2002. It was floated on London’s Alternative Investment Market in 2001 and grew to become one of the world’s largest online fashion retailers, with its designs worn by Rihanna and Michelle Obama. Griffiths left the company in 2005 but remained a large shareholder for nearly another decade. He later pursued several other ventures, co-founding the online furniture store Achica, the music-focused fashion retailer EBTM, and Adili, an ethical clothing website. EBTM later went into administration, while Adili was sold for a nominal £1. Asked about Griffiths, the UK Foreign Office said it was supporting “the family of a British national who has died in Thailand” and was in touch with the local authorities. Asos said in a statement: “We’re saddened to hear about the passing of Quentin, one of our original co-founders. He played an important role in Asos’ earliest days and we’re forever grateful for his contribution. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.”