Our daily voyage around the world

🇹🇭 Thailand is experiencing a severe and harmful plankton bloom. The amount of plankton in eastern Thailand has increased to 10x its average level in recent months, creating a large aquatic “dead zone” in which waters are depleted from oxygen and cut off from sunlight. Thailand’s Chonburi region, famous for its mussels, has seen 80% of such farms adversely affected by the plankton’s dead zone. Scientists say the cause of the unusually large bloom is unknown, but may be due to the ocean getting its Athletic Greens in a combination of pollution and heat from the ongoing El Niño event.

🇬🇧 UK PM Rishi Sunak delayed the country’s ban on new gas-powered car sales. PM Sunak said his decision to move the deadline from 2030 to 2035 was part of a concerted effort to place the "long-term interests of our country" before "short-term political needs." The move was announced alongside a wider overhaul of the UK government’s green energy commitments, which PM Sunak framed as a way to ensure the country’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 doesn’t impose too high of a cost on lower-income citizens.

🇪🇸 ⚽ The Spanish women’s national soccer team ended its boycott. All but two members of the World Cup-winning squad agreed to resume playing after Spain’s soccer federation said it would make "immediate and profound changes," which reportedly includes the firing of between six and nine senior officials. The players initially said they wouldn’t represent Spain until the federation agreed to reforms after its former boss, Luis Rubiales, kissed a player on the lips without her consent during the World Cup presentation ceremony. Rubiales later resigned and is facing sexual assault and coercion charges.