The UK government approved a natural gas project off Scotland's coast over the objections of environmental groups, saying it would improve energy security even as the country transitions to renewable sources. Gas from the Jackdaw field east of Aberdeen, which was stalled by a court ruling in 2024, is expected to start flowing into the UK gas distribution network later this year. The government said that it will reduce reliance on foreign energy threatened by the Iran war and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Authorities have yet to rule on the Rosebank project west of the Shetland Islands, which is expected to produce mainly crude oil. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that the decision would "protect hundreds of jobs and help keep millions of homes warm this winter." Burnham said that the government wanted to maximise the existing energy reserves in the United Kingdom at a time when people are struggling, but that it also remained "committed to moving towards renewable energy" and reaching net zero emissions by 2050.

Voters in Canada's oil-rich Alberta province overwhelmingly backed remaining in the country, referendum results showed Tuesday (Oct. 20), delivering a boost to Prime Minister Mark Carney's push for national unity as US President Donald Trump's trade war and annexation threats rally Canadians around their country. With more than 1.9 million votes counted and results reported from 90% of voting areas and locations, 75% of voters supported remaining in Canada, while 25% backed beginning a process toward separation, according to unofficial results from Elections Alberta.

The referendum was not a direct vote on independence. Approval would have set Alberta on a path toward a future vote on separation from Canada. "It's a great result for Canada that Albertans have chosen unity," Carney told reporters Tuesday before a Cabinet meeting in Ottawa. Carney said the roughly one-quarter of voters who backed beginning the separation process did not necessarily want independence.

Two leaders of the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) have been freed from jail a week after they were arrested for trespassing at a banned protest site in Delhi. Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka walked out of Tihar jail hours after a magistrate ordered their release. They had been detained by police and jailed after they crossed barricades and climbed over the locked gate at Jantar Mantar. The historic venue was recently removed from a list of designated protest sites.

The men, who denied wrongdoing, have been calling on India's chief election commissioner to resign. Critics accuse the commission of manipulating voter rolls to benefit India's governing party, charges the commission rejects. A special executive magistrate court in Delhi, passed their release order, legal news website Bar and Bench reported. After bail was granted, Das told reporters from a police van: "Truth alone triumphs. Long live the revolution."

Losing more ground in the fight against climate change, humanity is heading for a hotter world than experts projected last year - and the United States is a big reason for that, a new United Nations report said this week. If all the countries do what they promise to reduce heat-trapping emissions, Earth will likely still warm another 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.2 degrees Celsius) above current temperatures, according to Wednesday's update of climate calculations by the United Nations Environment Programme. That's about two-tenths of a degree Fahrenheit (0.1 degrees Celsius) more than last year's projections by the same science team.

"This is a worse outcome than expected last year, as a result of the formal withdrawal of the United States of America from the Paris Agreement and revised estimates of historical emissions," the report said. The report also blames the United States for increased emissions last year, in contrast to all the other top 20 major economies.