A couple have combined their passion for sustainability with chic hospitality set a stone’s throw from West Cork’s art scene

The drive south through County Cork grew prettier with every turn. From Gougane Barra, where a tiny chapel sits at the lake’s edge, the road winds through old rebel country, into deep forests where foxgloves bloom along the mountainside. Bantry House – a magnificent estate overlooking a lovely bay – marked our path toward Ballydehob, West Cork’s boho village just north of the Mizen Head peninsula.

It’s a suitably impressive setting for Native, a new off-grid eco-guesthouse just a stone’s throw from the village. The brainchild of Didi Ronan (who previously worked in public policy and the music industry) and husband Simon (who runs the sustainable landscape architect studio SRLA), the aim was to create somewhere that has a positive impact on both the environment and local community.

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Between January and May, China added 198 GW of solar and 46 GW of wind, enough to generate as much electricity as Indonesia or Turkey

China’s installations of wind and solar in May are enough to generate as much electricity as Poland, as the world’s second-biggest economy breaks further records with its rapid buildup of renewable energy infrastructure.

China installed 93 GW of solar capacity last month – almost 100 solar panels every second, according to an analysis by Lauri Myllyvirta, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute. Wind power installations reached 26 GW, the equivalent of about 5,300 turbines.

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Young disabled people may soon see their Universal Credit top-up cut as part of wider welfare reforms.

Number of babies born in April rises to 20,717 at a year-on-year rate last seen in 1991, though overall fertility rate remains below replacement levels

South Korea’s birthrate surged at its fastest pace in more than three decades in April, offering tentative signs of recovery in a country grappling with the world’s lowest fertility rate, official data showed.

The number of babies born in April reached 20,717, marking an 8.7% increase from the same month last year and the steepest monthly growth since April 1991, according to Statistics Korea.

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Exclusive: Edi Rama attacks British return hubs scheme as looking for ‘places to dump immigrants’

A UK plan to send refused asylum seekers to “return hubs” in third countries shows post-Brexit Britain is “in a very dark place”, Albania’s prime minister has said.

In his first interview with the international media since leading his socialist party to a historic fourth term in office, Edi Rama said the idea of the UK wanting to “look for places to dump immigrants” would have been inconceivable a decade ago.

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Study shows ice sheet gained mass from 2021 to 2023, due to extreme snowfall that was also an effect of climate crisis

A new study shows that after decades of rapid decline, the Antarctic ice sheet actually gained mass from 2021 to 2023. This is a reminder that climate change does not follow a smooth path but a jagged one, with many small ups and downs within a larger trend.

The research, published in the journal Science China Earth Sciences, showed that while the ice sheet lost an average of 142bn tonnes each year in the 2010s, in the 2021 to 2023 period it gained about 108bn tonnes of ice each year.

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BBC racing commentator John Hunt has spoken for the first time since the murder of his wife and two daughters, in July last year.

The racing commentator, speaking for the first time since the murder of his wife and two daughters, says their love has helped sustain him through grief.

The racing commentator, speaking for the first time since the murder of his wife and two daughters, says their love has helped sustain him through grief.

President Trump’s strikes on Iran have resurfaced old rifts among Democrats over war and peace that have been inflamed by a newer schism inside the party, over support for Israel.