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  • ✇The Guardian World news
  • Stranded whale Timmy swims on to barge in German rescue attempt Kate Connolly in Berlin
    Rescuers hope to move young male humpback from Baltic to North Sea after being stranded for a month near LübeckRescuers trying to save a stranded humpback whale off Germany’s Baltic coast have coaxed the mammal on to a barge in the hope the vessel can take it to safety in deeper waters.Amid intense media attention, the high-stakes rescue mission, funded by two multi-millionaires, is being watched by hundreds of onlookers, many of whom are camped nearby to monitor the spectacle. Continue reading.
     

Stranded whale Timmy swims on to barge in German rescue attempt

28 April 2026 at 17:09

Rescuers hope to move young male humpback from Baltic to North Sea after being stranded for a month near Lübeck

Rescuers trying to save a stranded humpback whale off Germany’s Baltic coast have coaxed the mammal on to a barge in the hope the vessel can take it to safety in deeper waters.

Amid intense media attention, the high-stakes rescue mission, funded by two multi-millionaires, is being watched by hundreds of onlookers, many of whom are camped nearby to monitor the spectacle.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Stefan Sauer/dpa

© Photograph: Stefan Sauer/dpa

© Photograph: Stefan Sauer/dpa

Final steps taken before audacious plan to tow whale stranded in Germany to North Sea

26 April 2026 at 16:46

Millionaire funded operation called ‘pure animal cruelty’ after environment minister sent threats on social media

Final preparations are reportedly under way for a millionaire funded plan to tow a sickly humpback whale into the North Sea.

The 12-tonne whale, nicknamed Timmy, has been stranded on the Baltic Sea coastline for almost a month. A barge resembling a giant steel aquarium will attempt to transport Timmy 400km (248 miles) towards the North Sea, and then hopefully back to the Atlantic Ocean from where it is believed to have arrived.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Frank Molter/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Frank Molter/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Frank Molter/AFP/Getty Images

Six great reads: Iran’s social media memes, an abandoned department store and a 1,200-year-old record of cherry blossoms

18 April 2026 at 05:00

Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days

Continue reading...

© Illustration: Twitter/X

© Illustration: Twitter/X

© Illustration: Twitter/X

  • ✇The Guardian World news
  • Millionaires fund last-ditch attempt to save humpback whale stranded in Germany Deborah Cole in Berlin
    Critics say efforts to rescue the animal, nicknamed Timmy, unlikely to succeed and could lead to further harmA last-ditch effort to rescue a wayward whale that has transfixed Germans for weeks has begun in the Baltic Sea despite criticism it has little chance of success and could further harm the 12-tonne creature.The male humpback whale was first spotted last month near Timmendorfer Strand on the northern coast of Germany, giving rise to its nickname Timmy. It has repeatedly become stranded and
     

Millionaires fund last-ditch attempt to save humpback whale stranded in Germany

16 April 2026 at 15:37

Critics say efforts to rescue the animal, nicknamed Timmy, unlikely to succeed and could lead to further harm

A last-ditch effort to rescue a wayward whale that has transfixed Germans for weeks has begun in the Baltic Sea despite criticism it has little chance of success and could further harm the 12-tonne creature.

The male humpback whale was first spotted last month near Timmendorfer Strand on the northern coast of Germany, giving rise to its nickname Timmy. It has repeatedly become stranded and then freed itself after human assistance but it is now stranded again, with rescuers saying it is fighting a losing battle for its life.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Sea Shepherd Germany/HANDOUT HANDOUT/EPA

© Photograph: Sea Shepherd Germany/HANDOUT HANDOUT/EPA

© Photograph: Sea Shepherd Germany/HANDOUT HANDOUT/EPA

  • ✇Colossal
  • NEVERCREW Explores Our Tenuous Relationship with Nature in Huge Murals Kate Mothes
    Artists Christian Rebecchi and Pablo Togni, who work as NEVERCREW, have a knack for bringing the immensity of nature to developed urban spaces. Their colorful, large-scale murals take a playful tack when it comes to portraying animals, often merging them with other objects such as instant photos or, most recently, a plastic punch-out toy. “Souvenir,” completed this year in Vienna, combines motifs of a large bear with other Arctic components, such as icebergs, a seabird, and a steamship. “
     

NEVERCREW Explores Our Tenuous Relationship with Nature in Huge Murals

15 April 2026 at 17:00
NEVERCREW Explores Our Tenuous Relationship with Nature in Huge Murals

Artists Christian Rebecchi and Pablo Togni, who work as NEVERCREW, have a knack for bringing the immensity of nature to developed urban spaces. Their colorful, large-scale murals take a playful tack when it comes to portraying animals, often merging them with other objects such as instant photos or, most recently, a plastic punch-out toy. “Souvenir,” completed this year in Vienna, combines motifs of a large bear with other Arctic components, such as icebergs, a seabird, and a steamship.

“The natural environment appears transformed, filtered, made artificial: it is no longer a space experienced through relationship, but a distant construction,” the artists say in a statement. The work is “almost a simulation reflecting a perception of nature progressively emptied of empathy…Nature becomes something to observe, arrange, organize, as if it were a separate object rather than a system of which we are an integral part.”

a large mural by Nevercrew of a number of grizzly bears gathered around a Polaroid picture of a tree in a forest
Detail of “Bracketing”

Over the past few years, NEVERCREW has completed numerous architectonic paintings that depict the fragile balance between humanity and nature—specifically wildlife. Whales, bears, and elephants are depicted inside of terrariums or bundled into fabrics.

The animals’ very presence on the side of buildings, where they are contained within the bounds of the architecture, is a reminder of the tensions between—one might even say the incongruousness of—daily human activities and city infrastructure. For Rebbechi and Togni, bringing nature into these spaces highlights the importance of sustaining the relationship between humankind and nature.

See more on the artists’ Instagram.

a pair of murals on the sides of white buildings by Nevercrew
“Bracketing” (2021), diptych, Jarville-la-Malgrange, Nancy, France. Curated by LeMur Nancy
a detail of a large mural by Nevercrew of a number of grizzly bears gathered around a Polaroid picture of a tree in a forest
Detail of “Bracketing”
a large mural by Nevercrew of a number of blue whales swimming around a Polaroid photo of an iceberg
Detail of “Bracketing”
a mural by Nevercrew of blue whales inside of an upside-down terrarium
“Gravity” (2021), Le Locle, Switzerland, for Exomusée
a mural by Nevercrew of an elephant inside of a toy terrarium
“Switch” (2024), Wuppertal, Germany, for Urbaner Kunstraum Wuppertal, curated by Valentina Maoilov
a detail of a mural with a large key, shown for scale next to a person
Detail of “Switch”
a detail of a mural by Nevercrew of an elephant inside of a toy terrarium
Detail of “Switch”
a mural by Nevercrew of a grizzly bear inside of an upside-down terrarium
“Wire” (2023), Paradiso, Switzerland. Organized and curated by Freefox Architecture Studio
a detail of a mural by Nevercrew of a punch-out plastic toy featuring a blue bear, a ship, animal heads, and other details
Detail of “Souvenir”
a detail of a mural by Nevercrew of a punch-out plastic toy featuring a blue bear, a ship, animal heads, and other details
Detail of “Souvenir”

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article NEVERCREW Explores Our Tenuous Relationship with Nature in Huge Murals appeared first on Colossal.

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