Eight years ago, death metal fan Randal Plunkett, whose family have presided over Dunsany Castle northwest of Dublin for nine centuries, began his "radical" rewilding project. The 38-year-old vegan, an unlikely successor to ancestors depicted in sober portraits lining the walls of the grey stone castle, evicted livestock and dismissed lawnmowers to allow nature to take its course.

While it took just over a year for the global COVID death toll to hit 2.5 million, the next 2.5 million deaths were recorded over the past eight months as the highly contagious delta variant spread around the world.

Here are a few reasons to pick up a copy of The Guardian on Wednesday. Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Wednesday.

While countries from all over the world gather for COP26, "climate change famine" shows no sign of abating in southern Madagascar, where crippling droughts have left families starving, paying what the United Nations describes as the "highest price" of malnutrition induced from climate change. Africa, responsible for just 3% of global emissions, is seen as the most vulnerable region to climate change, as evidenced by Madagascar's droughts this year . African leaders demanded at the Glasgow conference that wealthy countries responsible for the bulk of carbon emissions make good on an earlier pledge to provide $100 billion a year to help poorer countries cope. Climate change is battering the Indian Ocean island and several U.N. agencies have warned in the past few months of a "climate change famine" there. Rainfall patterns in Madagascar are growing more erratic – they've been below average for nearly six years, said researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Here are a few reasons to pick up a copy of The Guardian on Friday. Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Friday. ⁣

Zhang Zhan traveled to Wuhan in February last year to report on the chaos at the epicenter of the first coronavirus outbreak. She is on hunger strike after receiving a 4-year jail sentence for "provoking trouble."

COVID and conflicts have pushed the number of people facing food insecurity to 45 million, with Afghanistan fast becoming the "world's largest humanitarian crisis."

Protesters gathered at the Agareb landfill to protest its reopening on Wednesday, a day after a demonstrator died from allegedly inhaling tear gas fired by police at a similar rally. "It is not reasonable for the army to protect a place of waste and to fire tear gas and attack the protesters," said a protester. Tunisia’s General Trade Union (UGTT) called for a general strike and a day of mourning in Agareb following the death of the 35-year-old protester.  

Initial reactions to the death of South Africa's last white president Frederik Willem (FW) de Klerk were mixed on Thursday.

Anger in Poland after a woman died from complications in her pregnancy. A termination had been delayed because doctors feared breaking Poland's near-total ban on abortion. Also we meet those in Iraq who are challenging the norms of highly traditional society that encourages women to stay at home. Plus providing a much needed social media platform for women in midlife; Annette Young talks to the chief creative officer of hellorevel.com, Nina Lorez Collins.

Nigerian journalist, Tordue Henry Salem, was last seen alive on 13 October 2021. Days later, he was declared missing. Almost a month after he was declared missing, police authorities in Abuja, on Friday, paraded 29-year-old Itoro Clement, who confessed to knocking down the missing reporter.⁣ ⁣

Here are a few reasons to pick up a copy of The Guardian on Tuesday. Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Tuesday.⁣⁣