Wool

A gardening column from north central Ohio warns that hemlock woolly adelgids, small invasive insects that feed on eastern hemlock trees, are active pests in the region. The piece explains how the adelgids damage and can kill hemlocks, and offers guidance for gardeners and landowners on identifying infestations and protecting their trees.

Jennifer Lopez drew attention at Paris Fashion Week while sitting front row at Stella McCartney's spring 2027 ready-to-wear show. The animal-rights-themed collection, described as 'sea life, not sea food', featured zero wool and dolphin T-shirts, with models walking in the rain. Coverage focused on Lopez's front-row presence and an unexpected accessory she posed with.

Animal rights group Peta declared victory years ago as major fashion houses dropped fur, but its activists are once again storming runways at fashion shows. The Guardian asks why the organisation is back hijacking catwalks, examining what now drives its protests as the industry moves on from fur to new controversies over leather, wool and animal-derived materials.

A trailer circulating online presents itself as a first look at Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach 2, including a supposed release date reveal. The horror game series from Steel Wool Studios has a large fanbase, and any sequel news draws intense attention. Viewers should note that no official announcement has been confirmed, and fan-made concept trailers for the franchise are common, so the date should be treated with caution.

An astrophysicist has posed an electromagnetism trivia question: if you rub a plastic balloon with wool or a synthetic material and bring it close to an aluminum can resting on a nearly frictionless table, what will the can do? The puzzle invites people to reason about static electricity and induced charge, and is drawing answers and debate from science-minded followers.

New research suggests a previously unnoticed RNA switch may influence how hair follicles develop in cashmere goats before birth, potentially affecting the fineness and quality of the cashmere fiber the animals later produce. The finding points to prenatal genetic mechanisms as key to one of the wool industry's most valuable traits, opening possible avenues for breeding and biotechnology.

Australia's Greens have announced a A$25.1 billion proposal for the government to buy and run 200 supermarkets owned by Coles and Woolworths, explicitly modelled on New York mayor Zohran Mamdani's push for publicly owned grocery stores. The party frames it as a way to cut grocery prices by introducing public competition to a heavily concentrated duopoly. The plan is expected to face strong opposition from the major parties and the retail giants.

Fashion's environmental footprint begins long before the runway or the garment rack, with the way raw fibres such as cotton, wool and synthetics are farmed and produced. New attention is turning to agriculture's role in the industry's emissions, water use and soil damage, with calls for brands to address fibre sourcing as the first step toward sustainability.

Forecasters are revisiting the folk claim that the width of a woolly bear caterpillar's brown band predicts how harsh the coming winter will be. Meteorologists say the woolly worm's coloring does not hold up as a reliable seasonal indicator, and instead point to established climate signals such as sea-surface temperatures and large-scale weather patterns when weighing whether the winter ahead will be mild or severe.