About nine million species of animals and plants are exposed to changes in the global climate. Monitoring how climate change affects wildlife and ecosystems has become critical for directing conservation measures where life is most at risk. Today the world's biggest iceberg is bearing down on South Georgia. The Antarctic ice giant, similar in size to the island or to the county of Somerset, is expected to anchor itself offshore of the wildlife haven; posing a grave threat to local penguins and seals. Their normal foraging routes could be blocked, preventing them from feeding their young properly. All creatures living on the seafloor would be crushed where it touches ground. David Attenborough said the world is a unique and spectacular landscape, if we act now we can put it right and save and protect the animals and plants we have endangered throughout centuries of changing the natural world.

Harsh sentences reflect dark times for both recognised and underground churches in Iran. The flogging of an underground Christian, and the harsh prison sentence upheld for the pastor of a legally-recognised church, reflect the growing dangers for Christians. Mohammad Reza Omidi received 80 lashes for drinking communion wine. Alcohol is forbidden only for Muslims, but since Iranian law does not recognise his conversion from Islam to Christianity, he was sentenced to the lashes in September 2016. The sentence was not carried out until recently. Two of his fellow house-church members, Mohammad Ali (Yasser) Mossayebzadeh and Zaman (Saheb) Fadaee, have also been sentenced to flogging. Omidi received 80 lashes in 2013 for the same offence. Advocacy director Mansour Borji said the lashes were ‘inhumane and humiliating’.

A Saudi women’s rights activist, Loujain al-Hathloul (31), was arrested along with about a dozen other female activists in May 2018. She has been on hunger strike for a week, and on 5 November her health was said to be rapidly worsening. UN experts are calling for her immediate release. She was arrested just weeks before Saudi Arabia lifted a decades-old ban on female drivers, yet she is still in prison. Her deteriorating health was ‘deeply alarming’, said the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The committee, made up of 23 independent experts, also voiced serious concern ‘by recent information concerning the conditions of Ms al-Hathloul’s prolonged detention, including reports that she is not allowed regular contact with her family’. Some activists arrested with her were provisionally released. Others remain in detention, subjected to waterboarding, sexual harassment, and court trials for contacting media, diplomats and human rights groups.

An Indian government-backed Covid-19 vaccine could be launched as soon as February, months earlier than expected. Final trials begin this month and studies have so far shown it is safe and effective, said a senior government scientist. Bharat Biotech is the private company developing Covaxin. ‘The vaccine has shown good efficiency’, said senior ICMR scientist Rajni Kant, who is also a member of the Covid-19 task-force.