The world’s largest iceberg is on a collision course with the British territory of South Georgia – potentially putting millions of penguins and seals in danger. 

The trillion-tonne slab of ice, named A23a, broke free from its position last month and started drifting northwards.

The “megaberg” – which is twice the size of Greater London and 130 feet tall – is expected to approach the remote island off Antarctica in the next two to four weeks.

Experts fear for the island’s rich wildlife. If the iceberg gets wedged in the shallow waters close to the island, it could block vital pathways for penguins to get food for themselves and their chicks.

This would mean parent penguins would have to swim further, burning more energy and bringing back less to feed their offspring.

That could “dramatically increase mortality rates” among penguins, according to British Antarctic Survey physical oceanographer Andrew Meijer – something that has happened in the past.

He examined the “colossal ” iceberg up close in December 2023 when it drifted past the research ship RRS Sir David Attenborough.

“It’s a huge wall, a Game of Thrones-style wall of ice that towers above the ship,” he said.

“South Georgia is an amazingly ecologically rich island. It’s a breeding ground for a huge number of penguins, millions of penguins and seals,” Mr Meijers said.

“There’s lots of pups and chicks and they’re all still dependent on their parents.”

While the A23a represents a threat to the penguin colony on South Georgia, it doesn’t pose a greater risk to the overall penguin populations, University of Colorado ice scientist Ted Scambos said.

“The whole ecosystem in the Southern Ocean is very resilient to these events,” he wrote. “It has evolved with these icebergs being a factor for hundreds of thousands of years.”

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The iceberg started moving for the first time in more than three decades in November 2023, scientists said.

Before then, it had largely been stranded after its base became stuck on the floor of the Weddell Sea.

Eventually, the A23a will break up into smaller icebergs and melt as icebergs do, Mr Meijers said.

Icebergs breaking off is normal, but it is happening more frequently as the climate warms and more fresh water flows into the ocean, Mr Meijers said.

A US mother charged with murdering two of her young children has lost her fight to avoid extradition from the UK.

Kimberlee Singler’s nine-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son were found dead in a residential property in Colorado after being shot in the head and stabbed in the neck on 19 December 2023, police said.

Singler’s 11-year-old daughter was also at the scene with an injury after she was slashed with a knife, officers added.

Prosecutors allege the 36-year-old carried out the attacks in Colorado Springs amid a protracted custody battle with her ex-partner.

Despite initially co-operating with the investigation, Singler reportedly disappeared on 23 December 2023 and a warrant was issued for her arrest on murder charges.

She was arrested by the National Crime Agency in Kensington, west London, on 30 December 2023 and appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on New Year’s Day facing extradition to the United States.

She has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder, three counts of child abuse and one count of assault.

Singler’s lawyer had argued that sending her back to the US would violate European human rights law, in part, because she faces a sentence of life in prison without parole in Colorado if convicted of first-degree murder.

Such a sentence would be inhumane because it offers no prospect for release even if she is rehabilitated, lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said.

District Judge John Zani rejected the challenge at Westminster Magistrates’ Court today.

Singler, wearing a teal jumper and jogging bottoms, was remanded into custody

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will now decide whether she is to be extradited to the US.

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A woman whose four young boys died in a house fire after she went to a supermarket has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Deveca Rose, 30, was found guilty of the manslaughter of her two sets of twins, Leyton and Logan Hoath, aged three, and Kyson and Bryson Hoath, aged four, in October last year.

Jurors were told the four children died after a discarded cigarette or upturned tea light sparked a blaze at the family house in Collingwood Road, Sutton, in south London.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC said during sentencing on Friday: “There are no words to describe this case other than a deeply tragic one.”

During the prosecution’s opening statement last year, Kate Lumsdon KC alleged that Rose left the children alone to visit a supermarket on the evening of 16 December 2021.

She also told the court at the time that “there was rubbish thickly spread throughout the house”.

Children ‘too young’ to escape

Rose, who the court heard suffered from mental health problems, covered her head with a thick hood and hid her face as she was sentenced.

Judge Lucraft told the court that the children were left alone by their mother in an “unsafe” house that was lit using tea light candles when the fire broke out.

He then noted that she had already been to Sainsbury’s earlier that day, and her second trip at the time of the fire was not to purchase any items that were “essential or vital”.

The front door was locked at the time of the fire, the judge noted, and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in the home were either not working or were out of battery.

“You were not there, and the children were too young to know what to do,” he said.

“As a result of what you did, they were all killed.”

He then described the victims as lively and engaging children who were “deeply loved” by all who had a role in their care.

After the fire started, the court heard that the children ran upstairs and started calling for help.

A neighbour attempted to break down the front door, and firefighters later found their bodies under beds once they entered the property.

The boys were rushed to separate hospitals, where they died from inhalation of fumes that night.

Rose arrived home while firefighters were still tackling the blaze, and claimed she left the children with a friend called Jade. Police concluded she either did not exist or was not at the property that day.

The court heard social worker Georgia Singh had raised concerns about the family and that the case was closed three months before the fire.

Previously, a health visitor had also expressed worries, but they were not followed up after she retired, jurors were told.

The children had not attended school for three weeks before their deaths.

It also heard evidence which suggested Rose may have suffered from a personality disorder – but the prosecution said this was not a defence.

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Dad of boys ‘will never recover’

Dalton Hoath, father of the boys, told the court ahead of sentencing that losing his sons was “the worst day of my life”.

In a victim impact statement read to the court by a relative, he said: “Their lives had just begun but were cut so short. It was every parent’s worst nightmare… I have tried to be some sort of normal for my own family now.

“I will never recover from losing my funny, beautiful boys. I have to fight for all of us left behind and live with this massive pain in my heart before I meet them again.”

The boys’ grandfather Jason Hoath also told the court, “the pain from this loss has shattered my life in every possible way,” while their great-grandmother Sally Johnson said: “The thought of them crying and screaming out will haunt me forever.”

Step-grandmother Kerrie Hoath later said outside of the court that the children had been “cruelly taken away from us” by Rose.

She then added: “The impact [the children] have made on us in their short lives cannot be measured and will never be forgotten.

“We miss them every day and will always hold them in our hearts. While there will be better days to come, the hole that has been left by our children’s deaths cannot be filled.”