A newly identified rocky island in the northwestern Weddell Sea, previously marked only as a navigation hazard, was confirmed during the 2026 Polarstern expedition led by the Alfred Wegener Institute. Its ice-covered surface blends with surrounding icebergs, making detection from satellite imagery difficult—raising a key question: how many similar features remain misclassified in sparsely surveyed Antarctic waters? (Photo: Alfred Wegener Institute / Christian Haas)

Antarctica’s Grip: When New Zealand’s Capital Sees Snow for the First Time in Over a Decade

Wellington saw its first snow in 11 years as an Antarctic blast gripped New Zealand, closing roads and delighting Dunedin's Baldwin Street skiers.

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When sugar prices hit record highs, mills pulled cane away from ethanol and back to the sweetener. The reversal exposes a fragile balance: every litre of biofuel competes with the plate, and policy shifts the moment food costs spike. [Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0]

India Halts Its Own Ethanol Push to Salvage Sugar at Record Prices

### When Policy Collides with Markets: The Mills’ Gamble on Profit Over Fuel Sugar prices hit record levels in 2026. Mills, faced with the opportunity to capture unusually high margins, diverted roughly 3 million tons of their output—about 10% of India’s total sugar production—into ethanol rather than market as sugar. Government policy encouraged the shift.

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