climate change

The Mirror meets Ali Porteous, star of the new series of Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild, who lives one mile south of the equator on the remote island of Bulago in Uganda

Living on a remote island in Uganda’s section of Lake Victoria, just one mile south of the equator and up to three hours from the mainland on a public canoe, might not be everyone’s cup of tea but for 66-year-old British-born Ali Porteous, it’s paradise on earth. A former television camerawoman from Chichester in West Sussex, Ali swapped a career filming the wars of the 1980s in Afghanistan, Peru and Sri Lanka for a life on Bulago island, where she has now lived for 27 years, after discovering the island on a boat trip.

Life’s priorities change living on an island, Ali explains, “Watching the full moon rise as the sun sets takes precedence over everything. I’m happy to live quite frugally, growing my own fruit and veg where I can. I’m mostly vegetarian but eat like a queen thanks to ‘the pearl of Africa’s’ lush abundance. We grow the juiciest pineapples I’ve ever tasted and the best and biggest avocados,” says Ali, who stars in episode one of the new series of Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild, which begins this Thursday on Channel 5.

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“I live off very little money. We run everything on solar and don’t have heating bills. When I go to the mainland, I still drive a 1996 Rav4 car too old to have airbags! Most of my clothes come from a wonderful second-hand shop on the mainland where I can buy beautiful silk and designer clothes that the owner brings all the way from Hollywood.”

Ali shares her life with an eclectic bunch of animals. Her horse Tufani, which means storm in Swahili, came to the island at four months old and is now best friends with Donkey, who was dumped on the beach. Wanting to introduce hardy animals, she brought two camels from North Kenya called Rumi and No 9, who climatised happily to island life and produced a son called Minimus.

Ali’s love for dogs knows no bounds so she has always nurtured a multi-generational pack of little dogs, mixing Dachshund with Jack Russell and Pomeranian to make feisty companions. There’s Mama Huche, Maximus and puppy Spoticus. But sadly living out on the island, tragedy does strike.

“I’ve lost dogs to crocodiles and snakes. Just a few months ago, three of Max’s grown-up pups attacked a big forest cobra and were dead within the hour. It was horrific, I tried to save them by picking up and throwing the snake into the lake but it was too late. Dogs are instinctive hunters so every day when we are out walking, I have to be ready for the dogs to catch the scent of something, most often a monitor lizard. If they catch one, I try to save the lizard by picking it up by its shoulders and hips and throwing it into the lake or a nearby tree. My main motivation for doing this, besides saving the animal, is to save the dogs as these lizards have salmonella in their saliva, which can be fatal.”

And it’s not just Ali’s animals that are in danger. “If I get sick or injured there are no medical facilities on the island so help seems far away. A boat ride away but the crossing can be difficult in bad weather. And this is getting worse each year with global warming’s unpredictable and frightening storms. I always used to ride my horse bareback, but now with ageing bones, I have to be cautious and ride with a saddle because I don’t want to fall off and break my back and be paralysed.”

Born in 1959, Ali was a rebellious child who never settled in school but buckled down to earn a degree in media studies, where she picked up a camera for the first time. A life-changing commission came from BBC 2 Newsnight to film an Afghan Mujahideen/Russian prisoner exchange, which took her to the frontlines of Afghanistan and launched her career as a war camerawoman.

“I ended up filming deep in the mountains in Bin Laden’s secret hideaway. A Russian bomb landed quite near me but didn’t explode so once the explosive had been removed, I decided to take the shell home with me on a British Airways flight, who were more than happy to transport the souvenir.” The shell now forms the base of a table in her island garden.

In 1985, disguised as a travel agent and smuggled through Kampala roadblocks, Ali embedded with the National Resistance guerilla Army to report a silent genocide than would kill a million Ugandans. It was then that Ali’s love affair with this country began, which made her return the following year for Uganda’s liberation. Although three months pregnant with her son, Oliver, she felt compelled to get back, to witness and film this new beginning.

Ali and her partner Robin raised two children – Oliver and Phoebe – in the English countryside, in between her trips to war zones. But by the early-90s, disillusioned with making documentaries in the UK, she returned to Uganda to work for President Yoweri Museveni as a media/PR adviser.

“These were exciting times to be working in Uganda with the constitution being written and the first democratic elections taking place so I tried to split my time between the UK and Uganda, working for the President and trying to look after my children but such a schism took its toll and my relationship with Robin couldn’t survive,” remembers Ali.

When Ali’s contract ended with the President, she had to decide her future, to return to the UK or to stay. “I borrowed a little sailing boat to take a last trip out on Lake Victoria with my longtime reporter friend and we came across Bulago island. Maybe we should buy it, I whimsically suggested and we did. We bought a 49-year lease on this 500 acre island for $16,000, with a plan to develop Uganda’s first marine eco resort.”

So, Ali as a newly single parent, moved to the island, taking her children with her, Oliver was nine and Phoebe was five years old. To begin with, the children went to school in Kampala but later they boarded at Pembroke Prep school in Gilgil, Kenya, which required a regular nine hour school run to visit and bring them back for holidays.

“There was nothing here when we came – just bush, bush, bush.… We lived in British army tents for about three years and had to learn how to build and run a lodge on an island. We made the bricks from termite hills and built the resort with no machinery and of course, without mains electricity so everything runs on solar power.”

Ali saved Bulago from destruction. “When I first arrived in 1997, the island’s forests were being destroyed for charcoal and timber, the flora for commercial farming and the fauna and fish were fighting extinction. There were only a handful of people living on the island but they were being terrorised by the illegal fishermen so we started working on how to protect the local communities and conserve their fishery.”

But in 2009 everything was put on hold as Ali nearly lost everything she had built when her friend and business partner made decisions without her and ultimately the lodge was sold without her consent.

“There was a court order against me going to the lodge. So, I rented a one-bedroom unit in Kampala and worked at an international school to pay the rent. I lived off dates and coffee. The lodge was mostly knocked down and the island returned to bush. It took Ali 10 years of legal battles to win back her island home. “I was so broken by it all. I lost my faith and trust in mankind. But I think I’m on the road to recovery which is why I love to live out here. Every day I wake with a smile, feeling so happy.”

And since then, she’s been more determined than ever to make Bulago thrive. To make enough money to develop the island into a protected eco resort, she sold plots of land to like-minded people for them to build houses and it has worked because the island is conserved while the neighbouring islands are deforested and destroyed. Bulago now has a thriving community of about 150 residents, who mainly live in the fishing village and are employed by the island lodge and private houses.

“I’ve fought long and hard to protect the lake around the island, by campaigning for a Lacustrine Protected Area, which for the last 10 years has been successfully secured by the Government and I’m proud to have made that happen. I’ve been able to help the local communities too, many of whom are living well below the poverty line. At least now they can make some money from responsible fishing and farming.”

Next on her list is to encourage marine tourism to support this community conservation. “We’ve built essential infrastructure – a harbour, lakewall, jetties and a beautiful boat to provide essential access so tourists and local people can travel to the Koome archipelago and enjoy this amazing wilderness. Future plans include establishing Uganda’s first National Marine Park and partnering with an eco-hospitality investor to commence the sustainable development of the remaining southeastern section of Bulago into a conserved and beautiful eco wilderness resort.

Ali’s son Oliver, a “tech genius” now 39 and living in Estonia and her daughter Phoebe, an artist passionately trying to fight climate change, 35, and living in Chang Mai, Thailand, are both planning to their mum this year to celebrate Oli’s 40th birthday in style.

Despite living alone, many miles from friends and family, Ali says she doesn’t get lonely. Far from it. “I don’t know if you’ve heard Jane Fonda’s description of life in three acts? I’ve entered my “Third Act” (60s to death) and loving every minute. There is a delicious sense of liberation, no longer burdened with the trappings of being a woman, hormones disappearing fast, along with the need to take care of everyone. She calls it self-actualising, becoming a more complete and honest version of myself, which has given me the chance to pursue and realize my dreams for the island and the lake. I feel happier now here in the wild than I’ve ever been in my life.”

*Ben Fogle: New Lives in The Wild launches Thursday 15 January 2026 on 5 and is then on catch-up. For an island getaway or a magical stay at Ali’s guest house, one mile south of the Equator, visit oneminutesouth.com

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The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing in California has been years in the making, with the aim of reducing wildlife deaths on the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills

While global temperatures dipped in 2025, fears persist over the continuing effects of global warming and climate change on communities worldwide.

Wildlife remains a major cause for concern, with countless species under threat from shifting habitats and deteriorating environmental conditions.

Yet despite these obstacles, many organisations and campaigners are striving to create safer conditions for animals across the globe. One method involves building infrastructure that enables wildlife to move around, or safely across, man-made barriers.

The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing stands out as a leading example. Currently under construction northwest of Los Angeles, it will become the world’s largest animal crossing once completed.

The £68 million megaproject is being built over the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills and has been decades in the planning,reports the Express.

Work finally began on site in early 2022, with expectations that the bridge would open in early 2026. However, that launch date has now been pushed back to November 2026, according to KTLA 5. The delay has been blamed largely on the weather, with storms battering the region and causing significant setbacks.

Beth Pratt, a spokesperson for the project, said: “[The storms] caused us to have to redo work as this occurred when contractors were constructing the massive supports and doing the groundwork around them, which required much soil compaction. They had to redo this multiple times because of the muddy mess.”

However, while the scheme’s completion has been delayed by almost a year, there is optimism that its benefits for local wildlife will remain intact, with projections suggesting it will dramatically reduce the number of animals killed by vehicles.

A comparable crossing on Interstate 80 near Salt Lake City in Utah is reported to have cut animal-to-vehicle collisions by 77 per cent.

Beth, who also serves as California’s regional director for the National Wildlife Federation, added: “We found solutions … we knew we had to find a way because failing wasn’t an option. The future of the area wildlife was at stake, and we could not let this mountain lion population go extinct on our watch.”

The bridge is named after Wallis Annenberg, a philanthropist who was instrumental in the project and who died last year at the age of 86.

In addition to supporting environmental causes, Wallis was a passionate advocate for science and education initiatives. In a statement released to the Los Angeles Times following her death, her family said: “Wallis transitioned peacefully and comfortable this morning to her new adventure.

“Cancer may have beaten her body but it never got her spirit. We will hold her and her wisdom in our hearts forever.”

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will withdraw from dozens of international organizations, including the U.N.’s population agency and the U.N. treaty that establishes international climate negotiations, as the U.S. further retreats from global cooperation.

President Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order suspending U.S. support for 66 organizations, agencies and commissions following his instructions for his administration to review participation in and funding for all international organizations, including those affiliated with the United Nations, according to a White House statement on social media.

Most of the targets are U.N.-related agencies, commissions and advisory panels that focus on climate, labor and other issues that the Trump administration has categorized as catering to diversity and “woke” initiatives, according to a partial list obtained by The Associated Press.

“The Trump Administration has found these institutions to be redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity,” the State Department said in a statement.

Trump’s decision to withdraw from organizations that foster cooperation among nations to address global challenges comes as his administration has launched military efforts or issued threats that have rattled allies and adversaries alike, including capturing autocratic Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and indicating an intention to take over Greenland.

This is the latest U.S. withdrawal from global agencies

The administration previously suspended support from agencies like the World Health Organization, the U.N. for Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA, the U.N. Human Rights Council and the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO as it has taken a larger, a-la-carte approach to paying its dues to the world body, picking which operations and agencies they believe align with Trump’s agenda and those which no longer serve U.S. interests.

“I think what we’re seeing is the crystallization of the U.S. approach to multilateralism, which is ‘my way or the highway,’” said Daniel Forti, head of U.N. affairs at the International Crisis Group. “It’s a very clear vision of wanting international cooperation on Washington’s own terms.”

It has marked a major shift from how previous administrations — both Republican and Democratic — have dealt with the U.N., and it has forced the world body, already undergoing its own internal reckoning, to respond with a series of staffing and program cuts.

Many independent nongovernmental agencies — some that work with the United Nations — have cited many project closures because of the U.S. administration’s decision last year to slash foreign assistance through the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.

Despite the massive shift, the U.S. officials, including Trump himself, say they have seen the potential of the U.N. and want to instead focus taxpayer money on expanding American influence in many of the standard-setting U.N. initiatives where there is competition with China, like the International Telecommunications Union, the International Maritime Organization and the International Labor Organization.

The global organizations from which the U.S. is departing

The withdrawal from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC, is the latest effort by Trump and his allies to distance the U.S. from international organizations focused on climate and addressing climate change.

UNFCC, the 1992 agreement between 198 countries to financially support climate change activities in developing countries, is the underlying treaty for the landmark Paris climate agreement. Trump — who calls climate change a hoax — withdrew from that agreement soon after reclaiming the White House.

Mainstream scientists say climate change is behind increasing instances of deadly and costly extreme weather, including flooding, droughts, wildfires, intense rainfall events and dangerous heat.

The U.S. withdrawal could hinder global efforts to curb greenhouse gases because it “gives other nations the excuse to delay their own actions and commitments,” said Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who chairs the Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists that tracks countries’ carbon dioxide emissions.

It also will be difficult to achieve meaningful progress on climate change without cooperation from the U.S., one of the world’s largest emitters and economies, experts said.

The U.N.’s population agency, which provides sexual and reproductive health across the world, has long been a lightning rod for Republican opposition and Trump himself cut funding for the agency during his first term in office. He and other GOP officials have accused the agency of participating in “coercive abortion practices” in countries like China.

When President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, he restored funding for the agency. A State Department review conducted the following year found no evidence to support these claims.

Other organizations and agencies that the U.S. will quit include the Carbon Free Energy Compact, the United Nations University, the International Cotton Advisory Committee, the International Tropical Timber Organization, the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation, the Pan-American Institute for Geography and History, the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies and the International Lead and Zinc Study Group.

The State Department said additional reviews are ongoing.

Lee and Amiri write for the Associated Press. Amiri reported from the United Nations. AP writer Tammy Webber reported from Fenton, Mich.

The city is, by some counts, the hottest in the world. However, in January, the coldest time of the year, the thermometer rarely rises much higher than 20 °C, while staying in the balmy mid-teens

It’s possible to get to the hottest city in the world for £78 this month.

Kuwait City is, by all measures, ferociously hot. On July 21, the mercury reached 53.9C in Mitribah, which is near to the Capital. That temperature was verified by the World Meteorological Organization as the highest ever recorded in Asia.

Given how dangerous such high temperatures can be, it’s advisable to visit Kuwait in the winter or spring months, rather than the summer. In January, the coldest time of the year, the thermometer rarely rises much higher than 20 °C, while staying in the balmy mid-teens.

If escaping the UK’s frosty shores for a spot of Kuwaiti sunshine appeals, then you’re in luck. Flight prices are relatively low at this time of the year. Skyscanner lists flights from London for £78 return this January, with services from Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester coming in at under £100.

Waleed Alkhamees has lived his whole life in Kuwait City – a destination the tour guide describes as one that “no one ever moves away from”. Yet this Middle Eastern metropolis holds the dubious distinction of being the planet’s most scorching urban centre. During 2021, the mercury climbed above 50C (122F) for 19 consecutive days.

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When we caught up with Waleed, he told us how locals deal with the weather. “Everybody is trying to keep indoors, as everywhere in Kuwait is air-conditioned. Most of the locals escape from the heat and go outside Kuwait during the summer. Businesses close down. By law you can’t work outdoors from 10am to 5pm, so the workers work from midnight until the morning.”

Waleed has observed the average temperatures inching up year on year. Each summer, he notes, it seems to get a tad hotter. While it’s always been a place where the mercury soars, residents of the largely concrete city are finding themselves making more and more adaptations just to manage.

The state heavily subsidises electricity – funded alongside healthcare and education from vast oil reserves that keep the tax rate at zero – enabling most of the 3.3 million city dwellers to run their air conditioning units non-stop.

Nearly all enclosed public spaces are filled with artificial cold air throughout the day and night, while streets are enveloped in clouds of cooling water. A government prohibition on outdoor work from 10am to 5pm during the summer months aims to prevent people from collapsing and dying in weather conditions that pose a constant threat to human health.

However, if you visit Kuwait City in the summer, you might notice that this rule isn’t strictly enforced. Workers, often recent immigrants, defy the heat and the ban to labour on the streets, their bodies fully covered from head to toe for some respite from the relentless sun.

Waleed guides tourists around the city, showcasing landmarks such as the spaceship-like Kuwait Towers, which tower over the city as a clear symbol of its wealth in a style reminiscent of the 1970s. The Grand Mosque and the old Souk are the other major attractions.

His tour groups typically comprise around 80% Americans, with the remainder being European visitors – a demographic that mirrors the significant US military presence at Camp Arifjan in the country’s south-east. Even during the scorching months of June and July, tours operate year-round, with visitors seldom stepping out of air-conditioned vehicles whilst discovering the city.

Western travellers seeking a refreshing beer in the evening will be disappointed in Kuwait, which maintains a rigorous and strictly enforced alcohol ban, even within hotels frequented by tourists. For those brave enough to trust their sun cream, the city’s coastline proves particularly attractive.

The expansive sandy shoreline ranks among the longest in the Middle East and boasts excellent diving locations.

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Despite the unrelenting heat – so extreme it forces pigeons to stay grounded during parts of the day and has even killed off marine wildlife in the bays – Waleed insists his fellow citizens have no intention of leaving.

“Kuwait City has gotten hotter. For years now. It is hotter and hotter every year. I am worried about global warming. It’s half a degree every couple of years. But we won’t move away. Kuwaitis never move away. There are lots of benefits in Kuwait,” he explained.

“The currency is the highest currency in the world, we pay zero tax, everything is subsidised by the government, fuel cost is half that of Saudi Arabia. Medication and education is free. People, they don’t move away.”

The Environmental Protection Agency under President Trump has cut federal limits on air and water pollution and promoted fossil fuels, a metamorphosis that clashes with the agency’s stated mission — to protect human health and the environment.

The administration says its actions will “unleash” the American economy, but environmentalists say the agency’s abrupt change in focus threatens to unravel years of progress on climate-friendly initiatives that could be hard or impossible to reverse.

“It just constantly wants to pat the fossil fuel business on the back and turn back the clock to a pre-Richard Nixon era” when the agency didn’t exist, said historian Douglas Brinkley.

A lot has happened this year at “Trump’s EPA,” as Administrator Lee Zeldin frequently calls the agency. Zeldin proposed overturning the landmark finding that climate change is a threat to human health. He pledged to roll back dozens of environmental regulations in “the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen.” He froze billions of dollars for clean energy and upended agency research.

Zeldin has argued the EPA can protect the environment and grow the economy at the same time. He announced “five pillars” to guide the EPA’s work; four were economic goals, including energy dominance — President Trump’s shorthand for more fossil fuels — and boosting the auto industry.

A former New York congressman who had a record as a moderate Republican on some environmental issues, Zeldin said his views on climate change have evolved. Many federal and state climate goals are unattainable in the near future — and come at a huge cost, he said.

“We should not be causing … extreme economic pain for an individual or a family” because of policies aimed at “saving the planet,” he told reporters at EPA headquarters in early December.

But scientists and experts say the EPA’s new direction comes at a cost to public health and would lead to far more pollutants in the environment, including mercury, lead and especially tiny airborne particles that can lodge in lungs. They also note higher emissions of greenhouse gases will worsen atmospheric warming that is driving more frequent, costly and deadly extreme weather.

Christine Todd Whitman, a longtime Republican who led the EPA under President George W. Bush, said watching Zeldin attack laws protecting air and water has been “just depressing.”

“It’s tragic for our country. I worry about my grandchildren, of which I have seven. I worry about what their future is going to be if they don’t have clean air, if they don’t have clean water to drink,” said Whitman, who joined a centrist third party in recent years.

The history behind EPA

The EPA was launched under Nixon in 1970 at a time when pollution was disrupting American life, some cities were suffocating in smog and industrial chemicals turned some rivers into wastelands. Congress passed laws then that remain foundational for protecting water, air and endangered species.

The agency’s aggressiveness has always seesawed depending on who occupies the White House. The Biden administration boosted renewable energy and electric vehicles, tightened restrictions on motor-vehicle emissions and proposed greenhouse gas limits on coal-fired power plants and oil and gas wells. Industry groups called rules overly burdensome and said the power plant rule would force many aging facilities to shut down. In response, many businesses shifted resources to meet the more stringent rules that are now being undone.

“While the Biden EPA repeatedly attempted to usurp the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law to impose its ‘Green New Scam,’ the Trump EPA is laser-focused on achieving results for the American people while operating within the limits of the laws passed by Congress,” EPA spokeswoman Brigit Hirsch said.

Zeldin’s list of targets is long

Zeldin has announced plans to abandon soot pollution rules, loosen rules around harmful refrigerants, limit wetland protections and weaken gas mileage rules. Meanwhile, he would exempt polluting industries and plants from federal emissions-reduction requirements.

Much of the EPA’s new direction aligns with Project 2025, the conservative Heritage Foundation road map that argued the agency should gut staffing, cut regulations and end what it called a war on coal or other fossil fuels.

“A lot of the regulations that were put on during the Biden administration were more harmful and restrictive than in any other period. So that’s why deregulating them looks like EPA is making major changes,” said Diana Furchtgott-Roth, director of Heritage’s Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment.

But Chris Frey, an EPA official under Biden, said the regulations Zeldin has targeted “offered benefits of avoided premature deaths, of avoided chronic illness … bad things that would not happen because of these rules.”

Matthew Tejada, a former EPA official under both Trump and then-President Biden who now works at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said of the revamped EPA: “I think it would be hard for them to make it any clearer to polluters in this country that they can go on about their business and not worry about EPA getting in their way.”

Zeldin also has shrunk EPA staffing by about 20% to levels last seen in the mid-1980s.

Justin Chen, president of the EPA’s largest union, called the staff cuts “devastating.” He cited the dismantling of research and development offices at labs across the country and the firing of employees who signed a letter of dissent opposing EPA cuts.

Relaxed enforcement and cutting staff

Many of Zeldin’s changes aren’t in effect yet. It takes time to propose new rules, get public input and finalize rollbacks.

It’s much faster to cut grants and ease up on enforcement, and Trump’s EPA is doing both. The number of new civil environmental actions is roughly one-fifth what it was in the first eight months of the Biden administration, according to the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project.

“You can effectively do a lot of deregulation if you just don’t do enforcement,” said Leif Fredrickson, visiting assistant professor of history at the University of Montana.

Hirsch said the number of legal filings isn’t the best way to judge enforcement because they require work outside the EPA and can bog staff down with burdensome legal agreements. She said the EPA is “focused on efficiently resolving violations and achieving compliance as quickly as possible” and not making demands beyond what the law requires.

EPA’s cuts have been especially hard on climate change programs and environmental justice, the effort to address chronic pollution that typically is worse in minority and poor communities. Both were Biden administration priorities. Zeldin dismissed staff and canceled billions in grants for projects that fell under the “diversity, equity and inclusion” umbrella, a Trump administration target.

Zeldin also spiked a $20-billion “green bank” set up under Biden’s landmark climate law to fund qualifying clean energy projects. The EPA chief argued the fund was a scheme to funnel money to Democratic-aligned organizations with little oversight — allegations a federal judge rejected.

Pat Parenteau, an environmental law expert and former director of the Environmental Law School at Vermont Law & Graduate School, said the EPA’s shift under Trump left him with little optimism for what he called “the two most awful crises in the 21st century”: biodiversity loss and climate disruption.

“I don’t see any hope for either one,” he said. “I really don’t. And I’ll be long gone, but I think the world is in just for absolute catastrophe.”

Phillis, John and Daly write for the Associated Press.