Faced with the prospect of sagging turnout this November, President Barack Obama is waging a green charm offensive designed to amp up support for Democratic congressional candidates.

During an interview with Rolling Stone magazine published Tuesday, Obama couldn’t have been more explicit about the connection between environmental issues and the midterm elections. more »

It is fashionable to talk up the Arctic as some sort of treasure trove of oil and gas and as the gateway to a promising new ice-free sea route. Time, global warming, and new technology may well prove the optimists right. But for Russia, just like the Soviet Union before it, the region is equally important as a Cold War-style arena to demonstrate the country’s new geopolitical ambitions. more »

Undergraduate students in America managed to get control of the manoeuvring thrusters of an orbiting 2000-lb NASA satellite at the weekend, sending it plummeting into the Earth’s atmosphere to rain burning fragments across the chilly seas north of Norway and Russia, says theregister.co.uk more »