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Some things you just don’t see coming. Defections from the Tory party may be very on trend: just last month it was Dan Poulter. Or Dan Who? to his friends. But when Natalie Elphicke took her place right behind Keir Starmer on the Labour benches for prime minister’s questions there were open mouths on both sides of the Commons. Penny Mordaunt had to do a quick double-take. Could it be? Surely not. It was. She dashed to the speaker’s chair to warn the prime minister.

Elphicke is no ordinary defector. Not some Tory wet like Dripping Dan. So centre-right one nation that she may as well have been Labour anyway. Natalie is about as far to the right as you can get. Not only that, but with an unpleasant backstory too.

A woman who defended her husband, Charlie, the previous MP for Dover, until she inherited the constituency after he had been convicted of three charges of sexual assault. Not the best of looks. Natalie was even suspended from the Commons after she was found to have tried to influence the judge presiding over his trial.

Then there are her politics. Natalie was about the only MP to criticise Marcus Rashford for campaigning for free school meals. The only good kid is a hungry kid. Why couldn’t they just get a job and feed themselves? Footballers should know their place and stick to football. It goes to say that Natalie was also a paid-up member of the European Research Group. A diehard advocate of the hardest possible Brexit that would do the most damage to the UK.

She has never yet met a foreigner she didn’t want to deport. Every time a small boat lands in her constituency, she projectile vomits. Only last year she was writing about how Labour couldn’t be trusted not to get soft on refugees. Stay strong, Nat! And it goes without saying she has never got over the removal of Boris Johnson from No 10.

Quite how Natalie explains her defection to herself is a mystery. What does she tell her Dover constituents? Or even her friends? Assuming she still has any. Does she just say her career has always been a bit of a joke? Labour the unexpected punchline. Is she hoping for a safe seat at the next election? Or maybe even a peerage. Labour insist not. But things do change.

Understandably, then, many on the Labour benches looked a little queasy to find Elphicke in their ranks. At best they grinned and bore it. At worst they shuffled away to create a cordon sanitaire. There was certainly no rush to pick up their phones and tweet their excitement about their newest recruit. Most would have been more than happy for Nat to have been refused entry to the Labour party. A polite reminder that there were plenty of spare seats among the independents and the has-beens. Next to 30p Lee.

But Keir Starmer is made of sterner stuff. He keeps telling us that the Labour party has changed and he’s as good as his word. Even the undesirables are now welcome. Better a sinner that repenteth and all that. Anything that chips away at Tory morale is fine, as far as Keir is concerned. A quick win is quick win. Never mind the politics, feel that Tory majority getting chipped away.

At the current rate of attrition, Rishi will be running a minority government within a matter of weeks. And Elphicke’s welcome to the Labour camp shows that no one will be turned away. Jacob Rees-Mogg, Mark Francois and Bill Cash. Feeling betrayed by Brexit? Come and find a shoulder to cry on. Anyone thinking they may lose their seat in a few months, then jump ship. You can tell that Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove must be really tempted.

Rishi Sunak didn’t look that bothered to be told by Starmer that Elphicke was now an ex-Tory. Maybe the news had yet to really register. Rish! is good on denial. He has to be. Otherwise he wouldn’t be able to cope. Once he gives up, the Downing Street bunker will quickly empty. Cue, downfall memes. As it was, Sunak just ignored the whole thing. It hadn’t happened. Nothing had changed. Rish! is visibly falling apart. The man previously untouched by failure is now its embodiment.

PMQs now represents a Theatre of Cruelty, its every second a reminder of Sunak’s own inadequacy. It starts with the cheers that greet his arrival in the Commons. They’ve gone from the ironic to the openly mocking. No one thinks he is doing a good job. No one holds him in any affection. He only gets to keep his job because it would look even worse to sack him so soon before a general election. An election they all know they are going to lose. Gallows humour is all that is left. Dignity long gone.

Everyone knows the score. None more so than the Labour leader. Time was when Starmer was more wary around Rish!. Took him seriously as a political opponent. Now he is almost demob happy. The game of PMQs is just too easy for him. Sunak is just a plaything. A rag doll to be kicked around and punched. Before being discarded.

Starmer began by crowing about the local election results. Rish! looked as if he might start crying before starting to read out the names of all the successful Tory councillors. There are so few, it didn’t take long. Sunak retreated into his safe place: the investigation into Angela Rayner. Keir just smirked. People in glass houses, etc. Had the prime minister forgotten that he had two convictions himself?

After that it was all just fun, fun, fun. All the places where Sunak has fifth homes – the ones we know about – were now under Labour control. So at least he would be safe. Could Rish! think of any of his policies that were actually working? At the current rate of progress it would take 300 years to deport every refugee to Rwanda. Sunak’s comebacks just died a death. Not even his own backbenchers could keep up the pretence that they were enjoying this.

We ended with Sunak unexpectedly blurting out an inconvenient truth. “There is no long-term policy,” he said. Of course there isn’t. Everything is concentrated on short-term survival. The prime minister had been spat out and ground into the dust. You wouldn’t treat an animal like this.

Kate Forbes, the former finance secretary who stepped aside last week allowing John Swinney to stand unopposed for the Scottish National party leadership, has been appointed deputy first minister.

The announcement came after Swinney was sworn in as Scotland’s seventh first minister at the court of session on Wednesday morning, after his nomination by MSPs at Holyrood, where he pledged to be the “first minister for everyone in Scotland”.

Swinney had promised a “significant” role to Forbes, who narrowly lost to Humza Yousaf in last year’s leadership contest to replace Nicola Sturgeon.

After informal talks between the pair last week, after Yousaf’s resignation nine days ago, Forbes said she had been persuaded by Swinney’s promise to “govern from the mainstream” to rule herself out of the contest and back his bid.

Forbes was the only appointment of significance in a reshuffle in which nine cabinet secretaries kept their existing portfolios, prompting derision from Scottish Labour, who dismissed Swinney’s “continuity cabinet”.

The economy portfolio will be split off from Màiri McAllan’s brief and given to Forbes, a Gaelic speaker who also takes responsibility for the Gaelic language. McAllan, another younger woman who is considered a potential future SNP leader, remains in cabinet with responsibility for net zero and energy.

Forbes, who served in Sturgeon’s government before returning to the backbenches after Yousaf offered her what she considered a demotion, said it was “a moment of extraordinary privilege” to rejoin the cabinet.

Swinney described her as “an immensely talented politician”, saying her new role would be critical “as we focus on our key commitments of eradicating child poverty, investing in public services and supporting economic growth”.

Her appointment to such a senior position is a clear signal to those within the SNP who had expressed reservations about the party’s governing partnership with the Scottish Greens and its influence on policy areas including rural affairs, just transition, economic growth and LGBTQ+ reforms.

Since her narrow defeat by Yousaf, Forbes has become a focus for those worried that divisive and distracting rows, such as those about gender recognition reform and the implementation of the hate crime act, were giving the impression to voters that the party did not prioritise their cost of living concerns.

Yousaf abruptly ended the partnership two weeks ago, but was forced to step down when the Greens backed a vote of no confidence against him, leaving him unable to marshal sufficient cross-party support.

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The Scottish Greens co-leader, Patrick Harvie, was critical of the appointment, saying Forbes had expressed “quite startlingly social conservative views” during the leadership campaign last March.

But Shona Robison, who stepped down as the deputy first minister immediately before being replaced by Forbes but remains responsible for finance and local government, said Forbes’s appointment was the best way to unite the party and deliver a “progressive agenda”.

In a letter to Swinney, Robison revealed she had made the suggestion during a conversation that took place last week, for which Swinney thanked her in his letter of acknowledgment.

Swinney wrote: “I thought hard about your offer because I recognise it as an act of selfless generosity. I agree with you that it will help me create the inclusive and unified team that is needed to take Scotland forward.”

First, the good news. We understand the problem: almost two-thirds of people worldwide believe the climate crisis is an emergency. We know what needs to be done, and should be confident that we will be able to achieve it, thanks to the rapid advance of renewable technologies. Collectively, we can also muster the money to do it.

The scale and speed of global heating make it hard to hang on to these facts. But it is also why we must focus on them rather than throwing up our hands. New research by the Guardian has found that hundreds of the world’s top climate scientists believe global temperatures will rise by at least 2.5C above pre-industrial levels by the century’s end, far above the internationally agreed limit. Only 6% of those surveyed, all from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, thought that the 1.5C target could be met.

We are already seeing soaring temperatures. The European Union’s climate monitoring service says that every month since last June has broken temperature records. And we are already living with – and dying from – the early consequences: deadly floods, wildfires, droughts, heatwaves and an increased risk of new diseases. These will intensify in coming years, spurring social conflicts and displacing huge numbers of people. They will punish poorer nations above all – experts warn of a “semi-dystopian future” for the global south – which helps to explain why richer nations have been slow to act. But they will not be contained there.

This picture of the future can feel overwhelming and unfixable, encouraging people to tune out or accept the worst. For many of the scientists surveyed by the Guardian, those feelings are magnified. Having invested so much in understanding, measuring and informing people about the problem, they find it incomprehensible that so little has been done to tackle the causes and prepare for the consequences. They feel hopeless and infuriated when faced by the failure of governments to act, and the determination of vested corporate interests to block change. Tweaking personal behaviour is not sufficient: systemic change is required.

It is true that what citizens support in theory and what they actually vote for do not always align. Tackling global heating will be cheaper than trying to live with it, but the costs are upfront and the rewards long term – certainly longer than electoral cycles. But politicians have mostly failed to make the case for change, and some experts believe that they often lag behind voters. If you want to make a difference, they say, back leaders who prioritise the climate crisis. A year with so many major elections around the globe offers a critical opportunity.

Scientists also noted that young people care more about the crisis and appear more willing to make lifestyle changes to address it. And in moments of despair, said one expert, Henri Waisman, two things help: “Remembering how much progress has happened since I started to work on the topic in 2005 and that every tenth of a degree matters a lot – this means it is still useful to continue the fight.”

It is not only useful; it is essential. Individual actions can seem futile given the magnitude of the task. But they can also build collective awareness, a sense that change is possible and momentum for wider systemic progress. Just as climate tipping points exist, so do social tipping points. It is imperative to hit the latter as fast as we possibly can.

Andrew Tate has been served with civil proceedings papers at his home in Romania in relation to allegations of rape and sexual assault made by four British women.

Lawyers representing the women said the alleged victims were bringing a case against the self-professed “misogynist influencer” at the high court in the UK, after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to prosecute him in 2019.

McCue Jury and Partners said the women alleged Tate, 37, “raped and assaulted them and will also seek damages for injuries they suffered as a result”.

Three of the four British accusers were the subject of an investigation by Hertfordshire constabulary, which was closed in 2019.

The law firm said: “Three of the women bringing the civil action reported that Tate had raped and physically assaulted them to the UK police in 2014-15. After a four-year investigation, Hertfordshire police sent the case to the Crown Prosecution Service for a charging decision.

“In 2019, the CPS decided not to prosecute … Despite additional evidence, the CPS have declined the women’s recent requests to review its decision. The criminal justice system let these women down; civil action is their last remaining route to justice.”

The women, who were seeking donations for the proceedings via crowdfunding, thanked their supporters on Wednesday.

Tate, a controversial social media influencer, and his brother Tristan Tate, 35, are also facing a trial in Romania.

A court in Romania ruled last month that a trial could start in a human-trafficking case, which accused the Tate brothers of rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.

The pair were arrested near Bucharest in December 2022 alongside two Romanian women. All four deny the allegations.

The Tate brothers will be extradited to the UK after the proceedings in Romania, after Bedfordshire police secured a European arrest warrant in a separate rape and human-trafficking investigation.

The Bedfordshire force in March said: “As part of an ongoing investigation into allegations of rape and human trafficking, Bedfordshire police has obtained a European arrest warrant for two men in their 30s.

“We are working with authorities in Romania as part of this investigation and will provide an update in due course.”

A representative for the Tate brothers said they “unequivocally deny all allegations”, and were “fully committed to challenging these accusations with unwavering determination and resolve”.

On 14 August 2023, heavy rainfall in north India triggered flash floods and landslides, devastating the region. Kishori Lal, the sarpanch (head) of the Kothi Gehri village in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh, recalls the events of that day: “Our link road connecting to the state highway and a few homes along that road were completely devastated.”

Torrential downpours in nearby Rewalsar, a picturesque lake town popular with tourists, led to several water bodies bursting their banks. The subsequent flooding and landslides wrecked homes in Lal’s village, necessitating the evacuation of hamlets and severing vital links to the outside world. With roads submerged, the ensuing closure of the Mandi-Rewalsar-Kalkhar Road and link roads left scores of tourists stranded and local communities isolated.

Amid this chaos, the resilience of Nog, a village in Bilaspur district, stands out. While roads across the region, including those in and around Kothi Gehri, remained closed, the road leading to Nog was accessible in less than one week, according to officials.

The reason lies in an innovative approach: soil bioengineering.

Concrete retaining walls 10ft high are the traditional go-to solution used to protect roads from hillside slopes. However, these structures leave exposed slopes vulnerable to erosion during intense rains, exacerbating the risk of landslides.

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Sanjeev Dogra, vice-president of the Nog panchayat, the local governing body, describes the threat landslides used to pose: “Our road used to suffer landslides every monsoon, which threatened villagers living nearby,” he says. Before the implementation of bioengineering measures, Nog’s road endured month-long closures on average during every monsoon season.

The turning point came in 2010, when bioengineering techniques were used to stabilise exposed slopes at two locations on the new link road to Nog, as part of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), the Prime Minister’s Village Roads Scheme. Launched in 2000, the flagship government programme seeks to provide reliable all-weather connectivity to unconnected rural communities across the country.

“We treated the exposed surface of the potential landslide area near Nog by covering it with wire-mesh netting, planted shrubs and grasses within the grid,” says Pawan Kumar Sharma, director of projects at Himachal Pradesh Road and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (HPRIDCL). “Where landslides were triggered by erosion from a local river, we planted brush hedges and hardwood cuttings to bind the soil.”

The green infrastructure took root within a single season, gradually fortifying the slopes, which were better able to withstand the effects of last year’s deluge.

Neha Vyas, a senior environmental specialist with the World Bank, defines bioengineering as a subset of green infrastructure. This ecological engineering technique involves the strategic planting of vegetation and the incorporation of other organic materials to stabilise soil and enhance ecosystem resilience.

By harnessing the natural properties of plants and their root systems, soil bioengineering can be a sustainable and cost-effective approach to mitigate environmental hazards and promote landscape restoration, which is particularly good in fragile ecosystems.

In Himachal Pradesh, soil bioengineering has “involved the use of vegetation, both living and dead plants, such as bamboo, in conjunction with simple civil engineering structural elements such as catch drains, gabion walls and others,” says Vyas.

The Nog bioengineering initiative was the first of more than 250 mountainous road stretches treated with the World Bank’s assistance. Dalip Chauhan, president of the Jubbal panchayat, attests to its efficacy, citing reduced damage along the state highway #10 during last August’s catastrophic floods.

“If soil bioengineering is designed after due investigation and analysis, and monitored during execution, it effectively controls erosion along roadways, which is crucial to maintain the integrity of the road section and can even help during the heavy rains that are becoming more commonplace due to climate change,” says Vyas.

“Soil bioengineering can also improve the stability of slopes along roads, thereby reducing the risk of landslides, increasing safety for people and protecting assets,” she adds. “By absorbing much more water, bioengineered slopes can reduce the runoff and the ensuing erosion, water logging and damage.”

Beyond that, she reckons that choosing the right vegetation species could lead to carbon dioxide absorption, habitat creation for wildlife, increased ecosystem resilience and additional livelihood sources for local communities.

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Harvesting grass planted by the roadside has saved Sonali, a 38-year-old cattle-rearing resident of Nog, many visits to the forest where the species is usually found. “Planting vegetation that can be used as fodder by the road to help protect it is doubly useful for us,” she tells Dialogue Earth. “I source about half of the fodder I need from the roadside. I wish such species were planted alongside all the roads in the area.”

Soil bioengineering can be a useful tool in combatting erosion and stabilising slopes, but the planning and maintenance is critical.

Even though they understand the need for robust vegetation growth, contractors sometimes prioritise cost over effectiveness. To maximise efficacy, experts advise a multi-pronged approach that ensures vegetation growth, with Vyas pointing out that “horticultural principles must be used along with the application of engineering design principles to build structures that will protect the plant communities as they grow to maturity and function as they would in their natural settings.”

Himachal Pradesh considers it good practice to also appoint supervisors to watch over and maintain sites, and Sharma highlights the importance of selecting low-maintenance indigenous plants “with aesthetic value, medicinal value, commercial value and grasses that can be used as forage for cattle.”

Vyas describes investments in bioengineering as “investments in safety and sustainability, which are much more cost-effective and visually more appealing than hardcore engineering and less environment-friendly structures.”

As Himachal Pradesh prepares for future climatic uncertainties, soil bioengineering emerges as a potential innovative lifeline to help protect lives and livelihoods.

“While it is impossible to defeat nature, surely we can use bioengineering and allied techniques to make roads that are as climate-resilient as possible,” says Sharma.