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Admittedly it is hard to keep track of North Korea's missile launches these days. Especially when they fire a weapon almost every other day, as we have seen over the past fortnight. The launches in isolation no longer generate the headlines they used to, but if we look at the latest tests all together there is much we can learn. North Korea says it is punishing the US and South Korea for holding their largest military drills in years. The allies have been practising how to defeat the North in the event of an attack. This is not a scenario its leader Kim Jong Un relishes. Only this is not a typical North Korean protest. In the past it has responded to such drills by firing off a mix of short, medium, and long-range missiles, and perhaps some artillery shells. What do we know about North Korea?

Germany and the European Union announced Saturday that they have reached an agreement in their dispute over the future of cars with combustion engines, allowing the registration of new vehicles with such engines even after 2035 provided they use climate-neutral fuel only. EU Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans tweeted that “we have found an agreement with Germany on the future use of e-fuels in cars.” German Transport Minister Volker Wissing tweeted that the way had been cleared for vehicles with internal combustion engines that only use climate-neutral fuels to be newly registered even after 2035. “We secure opportunities for Europe by preserving important options for climate-neutral and affordable mobility," Wissing wrote.

Leading lawyers say they will refuse to prosecute climate protesters or represent new fossil fuel projects. More than 120 lawyers have vowed to not act against activists from groups such as Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil who are "exercising their democratic right of peaceful protest". They have published a "Declaration of Conscience", and face the prospect of disciplinary action. The chair of the Bar Council Nick Vineall KC said it was "disappointing". Barrister Paul Powlesland, who signed the declaration, said: "We're refusing to advise fossil fuel companies on how to dig for new oil and gas, the same way we wouldn't advise a killer how to commit serial murders." The group, who call themselves 'Lawyers Are Responsible', say they will withhold their services supporting new fossil fuel projects and any action against climate protesters who are "exercising their democratic right of peaceful protest".

Should fossil fuel companies face homicide charges for their contributions to climate change? That’s the question explored in a paper set to be published in the Harvard Environmental Law Review next year. Oil and gas companies have faced a wave of litigation in recent years, typically over greenwashing and fraud. In February, environmental law charity ClientEarth even personally sued Shell’s board of directors over their alleged failure to properly manage risks associated with the climate crisis. But does this go far enough? The paper’s authors - Donald Braman, a law professor at George Washington University, USA, and David Arkush, a director at consumer advocacy group Public Citizen - argue that it doesn’t.

Ford is ready to send its electric trucks into hyperspace. The automaker has reconfirmed plans to build an all-new electric pickup at the new BlueOval City manufacturing complex it is building in west Tennessee. The yet to be revealed pickup will be a follow-up to the F-150 Lightning that is currently on sale. The vehicle is being developed under the name Project T3, which Ford says stands for "Trust The Truck."

Iran proxy forces launched about seven rockets targeting a U.S. base in Northeast Syria today in retaliation to the U.S., a defense official confirms to Fox News. In first assessments, there are no U.S. casualties and no damage to the base near the Al-Omar oil field. The rocket attacks came after President Biden ordered a series of retaliatory strikes in response to a suspected Iranian-made drone that killed a U.S. contractor and wounded six other Americans on Thursday. The US. strikes reportedly killed eight Iranians.

Physician-assisted suicide has been a hotly debated topic across the United States for decades but a push to legalize the controversial practice in more states is picking up steam this year. Starting with Oregon in 1997, ten other states and the District of Columbia have made it legal for a terminally ill patient to ask their doctor for a lethal cocktail of drugs they ingest to die. They include California, Montana, Vermont, Washington, New Jersey and Hawaii. Lawmakers in ten more states have introduced physician-assisted suicide laws in 2023.

12:55 Today is World Water Day, an annual event that aims to highlight the problems millions of people around the world have in accessing clean, safe drinking water. The United Nations children's agency UNICEF says that on the continent of Africa alone, 190 million children in ten countries are at the highest risk from a convergence of three water-related threats - inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene-related diseases. The triple threat was found to be most acute in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Somalia. Central Africa is one of the world's most water-insecure and climate-impacted regions, according to the UNICEF analysis.

Scientists have discovered a new disease in seabirds that eat plastic. Every day, around 8 million pieces of plastic spew into the world’s oceans. Much of it ends up in the guts of seabirds. These birds have scarred digestive tracts - a phenomenon that scientists at the Natural History Museum in London have named ‘plasticosis’. This plastic induced illness has major knock-on impacts on growth and survival, warns Dr Alex Bond, co-author of a study into the pollution. “While these birds can look healthy on the outside, they’re not doing well on the inside,” he says. “This study is the first time that stomach tissue has been investigated in this way and shows that plastic consumption can cause serious damage to these birds’ digestive system.”

Lawmakers in Sweden voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Nordic nation joining NATO, signing off on the country's membership along with the required legislation. The 349-seat Riksdagen, or parliament, authorised Sweden’s accession to NATO on a 269-37 vote, with 43 absent. It was the last required domestic hurdle to the country becoming part of the 30-member Western military alliance.

Extreme weather events are increasing in many parts of the world, but can we always blame their mounting severity on climate change? Join us for a live YouTube debate, and ask your questions! In the aftermath of a heatwave, flood or drought, public interest is often intense, but can scientists really pinpoint whether a storm was made worse by climate change, and how can the science of extreme weather event attribution help them to do so? At 2pm (CET) on 23 March our panel of experts will discuss the role that extreme weather attribution plays in educating the public about the link between climate change and today's weather.