Residents and local authorities are worried about environmental hazards and land devaluation as minister says excess regulations may hinder modern farming practices

Bushfires, marches and a summer of sport - Guardian Australia's best photos from around the country

Motorists benefit as industry offers deals of up to 18% off to attract buyers for petrol, diesel and electric modelsIf you are considering buying a new car, now might be the time to act as new data shows manufacturers and dealers slashing prices by more than 10%, with the average discount close to 6,000.The typical discount available across all petrol, diesel and electric cars sold in the UK is 11.4% of the on-the-road price - the equivalent of 5,911 - according to Insider Car Deals, which sells discount data to people looking to buy. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Formal validation for claret reflects hotter conditions, falling consumption and shift towards chillable redsBordeaux's wine industry has historically adapted to consumer habits. In the 1970s the region leaned towards white, but by the 2000s was famed for powerful oak-aged reds.Now it's turning to a much older form of red with a name familiar to anglophones: claret. With origins in the 12th century, when it was first shipped to Britain, claret was soon our favoured wine, an unofficial byword for bordeaux red, which in recent decades has become increasingly full-bodied. Continue reading...

Soaring temperatures, heat at altitude and hot summer nights combine to create one of south-eastern Australia's most significant' heatwaves

Experts say administration has launched war on all fronts' to undo environmental rules - here are the key areas at riskIn his first year back in office, Donald Trump has fundamentally reshaped the Environmental Protection Agency, initiating nearly 70 actions to undo rules protecting ecosystems and the climate.The agency's wide-ranging assault on the environment will put people at risk, threatening air and water quality, increasing harmful chemical exposure, and worsening global warming, experts told the Guardian. The changes amount to a war on all fronts that this administration has launched against our health and the safety of our communities and the quality of our environment," said Matthew Tejada, the former director of the EPA's environmental justice program. Continue reading...

This week's best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...

From a renovated Victorian village house in Hampshire to a new-build apartment in south London Continue reading...

Exclusive: Ben Goldsmith will work on issues including fishing and green belt preservation to attract green ToriesBen Goldsmith, the veteran Conservative environmentalist and ally of Boris Johnson, has been approached to write Reform UK's policies on nature, as Nigel Farage's party attempts to make inroads with voters put off by his stance on the climate crisis.Goldsmith will work with the Reform leader and his policy adviser James Orr on policies such as fishing and preservation of the green belt, as party figures admit they are struggling to win over Conservative voters who care about the environment. Continue reading...

Eleven endangered skinks released into a gated community in Victoria's Alpine national park will soon become 13, when Omeo, one of the females, gives birth in March. One of Australia's only alpine lizards, guthega skinks live on 'sky islands' above 1,600 metres in two isolated alpine locations - Bogong high plains in Victoria and Mount Kosciuszko in NSW. 'They're extremely vulnerable, given where they live,' says skink specialist Dr Zak Atkins, director of Snowline Ecology. As the climate warms, their alpine zone is retracting, and there's nowhere higher for them to go

Information tribunal rules Soil Association must disclose salmon farm inspection reports to WildFish campaignersCampaigners have forced the Soil Association to reveal its salmon farm inspection reports, amid claims that certifying the farmed fish as organic" is misleading to consumers.The Soil Association's Organic scheme, the UK's oldest and most widely recognised organic certification, defines organic farming as using methods that benefit our whole food system, from people to planet, plant health to animal welfare." Continue reading...

Emergency pumps are deployed in attempt to stop water inundating homes around River Parrett

Eleven guthega skinks could soon become 13 thanks to a captive breeding program in the Alpine national park

Canada has reached a tentative deal for 30 belugas in an amusement park to be shipped to four aquariums in US

Despite no criminal charges being brought against them, four officers have been detained since the MV Dali struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, killing six workersSeveral crew members of a ship that collided with a bridge in Baltimore almost two years ago are still being held in the US by federal authorities despite the fact that no criminal charges have been brought against them.In the early hours of 26 March 2024, the MV Dali departed the port of Baltimore bound for Sri Lanka. While navigating the Fort McHenry channel, the 1,000ft-long Singapore-flagged cargo vessel lost power before striking the bridge. The impact resulted in the deaths of six people who were working on the bridge at the time. Continue reading...

Your eyes do not deceive you,' ABC7 told viewers about unexpected turn during report from Pacific HeightsLive television reporting about an incident where a young mountain lion was safely tranquilized and captured in San Francisco's Pacific Heights neighborhood took an unexpected turn on Tuesday when a coyote wandered into the background during the broadcast.During live coverage of the feline's capture, the ABC7 News reporter Frances Wang was on camera when an unexpected urban resident passed behind her. A coyote calmly walked through the shot, unnoticed as she continued reporting. Video of the moment quickly gained attention for the visual irony of one wild predator being removed as another freely roamed the city streets. Continue reading...

Monarch says he has remained focused despite early criticisms of his beliefs, in new film Finding Harmony: A King's VisionKing Charles has revealed he wasn't going to be diverted" from his environmental campaigning despite criticism in the past in a new documentary showcasing his philosophy of Harmony".In the Amazon Prime Video film, his first project with a streaming platform, Charles recalls past attacks on his outspokenness on the environment, saying: I just felt this was the approach that I was going to stick to. A course I set and I wasn't going to be diverted from." Continue reading...

Judgment in The Hague orders Netherlands to do more to protect Caribbean people in its territory from impacts of climate crisisThe Dutch government discriminated against people in one of its most vulnerable territories by not helping them adapt to climate change, a court has found.The judgment, announced on Wednesday in The Hague, chastises the Netherlands for treating people on the island of Bonaire, in the Caribbean, differently to inhabitants of the European part of the country and for not doing its fair share to cut national emissions. Continue reading...

People in south-west mop up after Storm Chandra and prepare for next bout of rain, with major incident declaredIn the early hours, the Wade family's boxer puppy began barking. Thinking it needed to be let out, they traipsed downstairs and opened the back door - to be greeted not by their neat garden but an expanse of water.It was like a sea out there," said James Wade. Over the coming hours the water crept into their home on a modern estate in Taunton, forcing James, his wife, Faye, and their three children, six, 11 and 12, out and into emergency accommodation. Continue reading...

Superpower Institute report fleshes out 2024 call from Labor heavyweight Ross Garnaut to re-embrace carbon pricing 12 years after Tony Abbott axed it

A year into Trump's second term, critics say the EPA is rolling back dozens of protections and giving a leg up to pollutersAfter a tumultuous year under the Trump administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has adopted a new, almost unrecognizable guise - one that tears up environmental rules and cheerleads for coal, gas-guzzling cars and artificial intelligence.When Donald Trump took power, it was widely anticipated the EPA would loosen pollution rules from sources such as cars, trucks and power plants, as part of a longstanding back and forth between administrations over how strict such standards should be. Continue reading...

Rest of UK has resisted calls to make builders install bricks that provide nesting for swifts and other endangered birdsSwift bricks will be installed in all new buildings in Scotland after the Scottish parliament voted in favour of a law to help endangered cavity-nesting birds.The Scottish government and MSPs across the parties backed an amendment by Scottish Green Mark Ruskell to make swift bricks mandatory for all new dwellings where reasonably practical and appropriate". Continue reading...

Finding herself in charge of her sick husband's clipper, a self-taught working-class teenager overcame storms, icebergs and a disloyal first mate to get her ship to safetyNo one knows exactly what Mary Ann Patten said in September 1856 when she convinced a crew on the verge of mutiny to accept her command as captain. What is known is that Patten, who was 19 and pregnant, was a force to be reckoned with.After taking the helm from her sick husband in the middle of a ferocious storm off the coast of Cape Horn, the notoriously hazardous tip of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago off southern Chile, she successfully put down the mutiny and navigated her way to safety through a sea of icebergs. Continue reading...

How long does it take for a Frosty Fruit to melt in a heatwave? Guardian Australia sacrificed three ice blocks in Melbourne, Sydney and Ouyen, where the temperature hit 48C on Tuesday. It was the fifth day in a row that temperatures have exceeded 40C, with four more forecast to follow

It took an FOI request to bring this national security assessment to light. For doomsayers' like us, it is the ultimate vindicationI know it's almost impossible to turn your eyes away from the Trump show, but that's the point. His antics, ever-grosser and more preposterous, are designed to keep him in our minds, to crowd out other issues. His insatiable craving for attention is a global-threat multiplier. You can't help wondering whether there's anything he wouldn't do to dominate the headlines.But we must tear ourselves away from the spectacle, for there are other threats just as critical that also require our attention. Just because you're not hearing about them doesn't mean they've gone away.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Weather warnings, including danger to life' flood threat in Devon, are in place across much of the UK with major travel disruption expected

The heatwave in Melbourne and Adelaide this week is likely to become the norm. We should prepare now

Manufacturers use method that labels plastic as circular' and climate-friendly, despite being mostly fossil-basedEurope's supermarket shelves are packed with brands billing their plastic packaging as sustainable, but often only a fraction of the materials are truly recovered from waste, with the rest made from petroleum.Brands using plastic packaging - from Kraft's Heinz Beanz to Mondelz's Philadelphia - use materials made by the plastic manufacturing arm of the oil company Saudi Aramco.This article is part of a cross-border investigation, supported by IJ4EU and coordinated by the independent journalist Ludovica Jona, with the media outlets the Guardian, Voxeurop, Mediapart (France), Altreconomia (Italy), Publico (Spain), Investigative Reporting Denmark, Deutsche Welle (Germany) and with reporters Lorenzo Sangermano and Lucy Taylor Continue reading...

Experts are watching for how other countries will react as the real economy' shifts to cheaper, cleaner energyThe United States has officially exited the Paris climate agreement for the second time, cementing Donald Trump's renewed break with the primary global venue to address global heating.The move leaves the US as the only country to have withdrawn from the pact, placing it alongside Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only countries not party to the agreement. While it will not halt global climate efforts, experts say it could significantly complicate them. Continue reading...

BoM to check if Walpeup and Hopetoun broke state's official heat record - set during 2009's Black Saturday

Fifteen years after a tsunami caused the Fukushima nuclear accident, only bears, raccoons and boar are seen on the streets. But the authorities and some locals want people to move backNorio Kimura pauses to gaze through the dirt-flecked window of Kumamachi primary school in Fukushima. Inside, there are still textbooks lying on the desks, pencil cases are strewn across the floor; empty bento boxes that were never taken home.Along the corridor, shoes line the route the children took when they fled, some still in their indoor plimsolls, as their town was rocked by a magnitude-9 earthquake on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 which went on to cause the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chornobyl. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Campaigners say menacing vehicles' are putting children at risk owing to their large front blind zonesThe number of US-style pickup trucks on UK roads has almost doubled in the past 10 years, data shows.The vehicles are more environmentally damaging than ordinary cars, and more dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists. Campaigners have said the extra-large vehicles, which are often too big for UK streets and parking spaces, are built like battering rams". Continue reading...

French port's green energy push, evoking second world war spirit of resilience, is seen as a testing ground for reindustrialisationA new cargo and passenger ferry service directly linking Scotland and France could launch later this year as the port of Dunkirk embarks on a 40bn (35bn) regeneration programme it claims will mirror the second world war resilience for which it is famed.The plans could include a new service between Rosyth in Fife and Dunkirk, eight years after the last freight ferries linked Scotland to mainland Europe, and 16 years after passenger services stopped. Continue reading...

Aircraft crashed on takeoff at Bangor airport as visibility diminished amid winter storm, leading to airport shutdownSix people died when a business jet crashed during takeoff as a snowstorm caused visibility to diminish at Maine's Bangor international airport on Sunday night, according to officials.The Bombardier Challenger 600 crashed on takeoff at about 7.45pm as Bangor, like much of the country, grappled with a major winter storm. The airport, about 200 miles (320km) north of Boston, shut down after the crash. Continue reading...

Scientists expect 41% of the projected global population to face the extremes, with no part of the world' immuneThe number of people living with extreme heat will more than double by 2050 if global heating reaches 2C, according to a new study that shows how the energy demands for air conditioners and heating systems are expected to change across the world.No region will escape the impact, say the authors. Although the tropics and southern hemisphere will be worst affected by rising heat, the countries in the north will also find it difficult to adapt because their built environments are primarily designed to deal with a cooler climate. Continue reading...

European retailers urge traders to adhere to commitments after Brazilian lawmakers wreck forest protection pactLeading British and European retailers are trying to salvage the core elements of the Amazon soy moratorium after the world's most successful forest protection agreement was wrecked by Brazilian lawmakers and abandoned by international traders.In an open letter, high street brands including Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda say the breakdown this month of the 20-year-old agreement will damage consumer confidence unless new arrangements are put in place to ensure grain production is not linked to deforestation. Continue reading...

Party's pitch to voters in May Holyrood elections dismissed as profoundly unserious, almost comically so' by analystsReform UK would slash what it calls highly dubious" environmental protection measures to help fund a 2bn cut to income tax in Scotland if it won May's Holyrood elections, the party has said.Malcolm Offord, the multimillionaire financier who was announced as leader of Reform UK in Scotland 10 days ago, used his first major speech to announce plans to realign the country's tax system - where higher earners currently pay significantly more - with the rest of the UK and institute a 1p-in-the-pound cut across the board. Continue reading...

Queensland government says it has already killed six of the 10 dingoes seen near the body of 19-year-old Piper James

The variety and scope of entries to the global Walk of Water photography contest reflect the intimate connection between water and humanity Continue reading...

Residents near Otways fire in Victoria urged to prepare to evacuate, while Ouyen and Mildura forecast to record 49C on Tuesday

Death toll sparks calls for companies to be fined under animal welfare legislation over mass fish deaths

Environmental charity to prioritise water capture and storage as it urges gardeners to prepare for new normal'The Royal Horticultural Society has unveiled emergency plans to protect its gardens from major water shortages in the future.The environmental charity, which owns and operates five renowned public gardens in England, said on Saturday it will invest in more water-capture and water-management projects in 2026 after severe droughts last year. Continue reading...

An extraordinary mosaic of wildlife has made Britain's urban jungle its homeLondon is the only place in the UK where you can find scorpions, snakes, turtles, seals, peacocks, falcons all in one city - and not London zoo. Step outside and you will encounter a patchwork of writhing, buzzing, bubbling urban microclimates.Sam Davenport, the director of nature recovery at the London Wildlife Trust, emphasises the sheer variation in habitats that you find in UK cities, which creates an amazing mosaic" of wildlife. Continue reading...

Wolves killed more than 2,100 reindeer in Finland last year, and herders are blaming the Ukraine warJuha Kujala no longer knows how many reindeer will return to his farm from the forest each December. The 54-year-old herder releases his animals into the wilderness on the 830-mile Finnish-Russian border each spring to grow fat on lichens, grass and mushrooms, just as his ancestors have done for generations.But since 2022, grisly discoveries of reindeer skeletons on the forest floor have disrupted this ancient way of life. The culprits, according to Kujala: wolves from Russia. Continue reading...

US president asks whatever happened to global warming?' Well, it could be making our winter storms worseDonald Trump has erroneously cited an enormous winter storm that is set to deliver freezing temperatures and heavy snow to half of the US as supposed proof that the world is not heating up due to the burning of fossil fuels.Trump, who has repeatedly questioned and mocked established climate science in the past, posted of the storm on Truth Social: Rarely seen anything like it before. Could the Environmental Insurrectionists please explain - WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING???" Continue reading...

Region has higher share of net zero economic output, data shows, and Labour leaders fear Reform would dismantle industry if it wins powerRachel Reeves has been urged to put the north of England at the heart of the UK's net zero strategy as research shows the sector contributes a larger share of the region's economy than it does nationally.The Labour peer Julie Elliott said the north must be front and centre" of the Treasury's growth strategy for clean energy. Continue reading...

Architect of government's water plan says nationalisation might not fix everything and the current system can workThe privatisation of water in England is not the reason for its failings, the architect of the government's water plan has said, as he warned there was no one simple solution" such as nationalisation.Sir Jon Cunliffe, a former Bank of England deputy governor who was involved in reforming banking regulation after the 2008 financial crisis, was enlisted by the Labour government to write a report on the water industry. He was tasked with addressing problems such as the sewage scandal, frequent tap water outages and lack of preparedness for drought. Continue reading...

Canadian backpacker, 19, was found dead on K'gari island earlier this week surrounded by pack of wild dingoesThe autopsy of Piper James, whose body was found on K'gari surrounded by a pack of dingoes, has found physical evidence consistent with drowning and injuries consistent with dingo bites".The Canadian backpacker's trip to Australia ended in tragedy when the 19-year-old was found dead on a beach on Monday on the world heritage-listed island formerly known as Fraser Island off the Queensland coast. Continue reading...

This week's best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...