The Guardian

Environment minister’s cultural site declaration draws accusations of torpedoing a $1bn NSW project but she insists it was vital to protect Aboriginal heritage

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A goldmine in the central-west of New South Wales attracted plenty of heated headlines this week.

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, expressed disappointment over a decision by the federal environment and water minister, Tanya Plibersek, that has put the future of the proposed project in doubt.

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Australian scientists hail finding as a step in unlocking secrets of planet’s protective magnetic field

By travelling to the centre of the Earth via seismic waves scientists have discovered a ring-like structure within the swirling pool of molten metal known as the outer core.

Research published in the journal Science Advances has identified a doughnut-shaped region within the outer core, parallel to the equator.

More electricity demand and lower than usual generation from two renewable sources raises questions about climate targets

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Greenhouse gas emissions from Australia’s ageing coal-fired power plants rose slightly in the first half of the year, reversing years of declining pollution from the power section and raising questions about the country’s ability to meet its climate targets.

An increase in electricity consumption across the country and lower than usual wind and hydro output led to an increase in coal generation. It pushed up emissions from the electricity grid between January and June.

Defra sources say some licensed culls will continue until 2026 but it is highly unlikely any new ones will be granted

Badger culling will end in England by 2029, the government has said.

Some culls under existing licences will continue until 2026, according to sources at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), but it is highly unlikely any new ones will be granted.

Etienne Stott among Extinction Rebellion protesters to call for citizens’ assembly to tackle climate crisis

An Olympic gold medal-winning canoeist will be among climate activists protesting in Windsor this weekend to demand the Labour government takes climate action seriously.

Extinction Rebellion, which is organising the three-day event, which began on Friday, said it had been disappointed by the new administration’s lack of action on reducing fossil fuel emissions.

Discovery of Apis florea in Malta raises fears of devastating impact on native bee populations

The red dwarf honeybee has established a colony in Europe for the first time, scientists have found.

The bee, Apis florea, is native to Asia and its discovery has raised alarm among local beekeepers and conservationists, who fear the potentially devastating impact on native bee populations.

It’s expected to reach 29C in Sydney’s CBD on Friday and be even hotter in the west while Brisbane’s temperature is forecast to reach mid-30s over the weekend

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Parts of Australia are bracing for a warm and windy end to winter, continuing a trend that is almost certain to make this month the country’s hottest August on record.

Hot conditions are forecast for Sydney on Friday with a maximum temperature of 29C in the CBD and higher in the city’s west. Temperatures in the mid-20s are forecast for the weekend.

Meteorologists predict scorching temperatures for the weekend before weather cools just in time for Labor Day

Millions of Americans will continue to swelter as Labor Day weekend approaches, with much of the country under some kind of excessive heat watch.

The brutal heatwave the US midwest suffered earlier this week has spread to the eastern half of the country, with more than 20 million people under some kind of a heat alert.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

Before biomass firm is promised a penny extra from billpayers, Ed Miliband should commission a review of its business model

A finding that you submitted dodgy data to the regulator on where your wood pellets come from sounds like very bad news if, like the biomass power generator Drax, you are the lucky recipient of £500m-plus of subsidies every year and are trying to keep the handouts flowing beyond their scheduled end date of 2027.

But shares in Drax did not collapse on Thursday. City analysts judged that the end of Ofgem’s investigation represented an excellent development for the company – “a clear positive”, said RBC, and “a positive read-across” for the chances of getting a new contract with the government, thought Jefferies.

After the polar blast of a few weeks back, we have opened our eyes to the luminous full bloom of premature spring

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These unseasonal late-winter days of warmth and clear skies, of the sudden necessity of shorts and T-shirts for the morning dog-walk, are at once glorious and somewhat disconcerting.

Spring – the season of renewal, of awakening, of birth and perhaps re-birth – demands to be celebrated. But somehow this year, all of its ridiculously early harbingers feel double-edged for their presaging of the realities of climate change and sea-level rise.

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A drone image of two humpback whales ‘bubble-net feeding’ by Western Australian photographer Scott Portelli has taken out the top prize in the 2024 Australian Geographic nature photographer of the year competition. This is a cooperative hunting strategy used by humpbacks that allows as many of them as possible to feed in a short time. It is widely believed the whales developed this feeding method after they were hunted to near extinction. The image was chosen from 1,856 entries and the exhibition is now on at the South Australian Museum until Sunday 3 November

• Focusing in on the microscopic world of nanophotography – in pictures

Government says it will not challenge reviews of approval given to controversial Jackdaw and Rosebank fields

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The future of two of the UK’s most controversial oil and gas projects has been thrown into doubt, after the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, withdrew government support for the companies in two legal cases brought by campaigners.

The Jackdaw oilfield, operated by Shell, was given approval in 2022, and Greenpeace applied for a judicial review shortly after the decision. Last year, the previous Conservative government gave the green light to Equinor-operated Rosebank, the UK’s biggest untapped oilfield, against the recommendation of climate advisers. Greenpeace and Uplift demanded a judicial review, arguing that the approval was incompatible with the UK’s legally binding climate commitments, and saying that ministers’ original analysis ignored the devastating impact of burning oil from the site.

Campaigners hail Labour’s ‘proactive approach’ after series of policy U-turns under Conservatives

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The UK government is considering making further commitments on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, likely to be announced at the UN climate summit this year.

It is hoped the plan will help kickstart global ambitions on cutting emissions and encourage other countries to follow suit.

Greek authorities have started collecting hundreds of thousands of dead fish that poured into a tourist port in the central coastal city of Volos this week after being displaced from their usual freshwater habitats during flooding last year. 'It spans kilometres,' a city council member, Stelios Limnios, told Reuters. 'It’s not just along the coast, but also in the centre of the Pagasetic Gulf,' he said, referring to the waters off Volos, where the coast is lined with holiday homes. There have been warnings that the rotting fish could create an environmental disaster for other species in the area

• Greece tourist port flooded with hundreds of thousands of dead fish

WaterNSW says closure a ‘precautionary measure’ and water supplied from filtration plant to local communities is safe and meets guidelines

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WaterNSW has temporarily closed a dam in the Blue Mountains after tests detected elevated levels of PFAS chemicals in untreated water.

The state’s water agency said it had disconnected Medlow Dam from the region’s water supply as a precautionary measure while further investigations were conducted.

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Authorities in Volos say affected area spans kilometres and could cause environmental disaster for other species

Greek authorities have started collecting hundreds of thousands of dead fish that poured into a tourist port in the central city of Volos this week after being displaced from their usual freshwater habitats during flooding last year.

The floating carcasses created a silvery blanket across the port and a stench that alarmed residents and authorities who raced to scoop them up before the odour reached nearby restaurants and hotels.

Selected from almost 60,000 entries from 117 countries and territories, the winners of the 60th competition will be announced on 8 October. The 100 winning images will be on display at the Natural History Museum in London from 11 October

Lobbyists from Airlines for America argued against European Commission draft rules to report cocktail of pollutants, freedom of information requests show

US airlines lobbied against plans to monitor the damage wrought by planet-heating pollutants pumped out of planes in a previously undisclosed meeting with the European Commission, the Guardian can reveal.

Lobbyists from Airlines for America and some of its member companies met representatives of the European Commission’s climate team in May in a meeting that is not logged on the participants’ pages in the EU transparency register. The commission said the meeting took place at a technical level and that it is under no obligation to publish details of meetings at lower levels of its hierarchy.

Extinct in central Europe for 300 years, 36 northern bald ibis are following an ultralight aircraft on their long-forgotten migration route from Austria to Spain

The northern bald ibis was extinct in central Europe for 300 years. Now, it has returned – and scientist “foster parents” aboard a tiny plane are teaching the birds to fly their long-forgotten migration routes.

Thirty-six of these endangered birds are now following an ultralight aircraft 1,740 miles (2,800km ) from Austria to Spain, on a trip that could take up to 50 days to complete.