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Blazes near Madrid coming under control but efforts to contain huge fire near Bordeaux hampered by windy conditions
Authorities in France are battling to contain a huge wildfire near Bordeaux in the south-west as Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, warned Spain and the Iberian peninsula were suffering the effects of the climate emergency.
Efforts to extinguish the blaze in the Gironde region of France – which has consumed an area four times the size of Paris and caused nearly 220,000 people to be evacuated – were hampered by windy conditions on Saturday night.
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Exclusive: Blunder at Rosebank, UK’s biggest undeveloped oilfield, comes as government considers granting licence
Production at Britain’s biggest undeveloped oil and gasfield could be delayed for months after equipment from a rig was accidentally dropped in the North Sea, the Guardian can reveal.
Andy Burnham’s new government is under pressure from the fossil fuel industry to allow oil to be retrieved from the Rosebank site despite opposition from climate campaigners and some Labour MPs.
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Allowing use of two neonicotinoids to combat crop-ruining disease will kill bees and reduce harvests, union says
Beekeepers and environmentalists in France have reacted furiously after parliament approved a bill reauthorising two banned pesticides scientists say can poison bees.
“There are no words to describe the frustration,” said Carolyn Bouguet, a beekeeper in Essonne, greater Paris. “Bee populations have already been badly compromised by climate change, new parasites and loss of habitat. And now this.”
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For some, scorching days and humid nights are just the norm. So how do they stay chilled and comfortable?
Luis Pacherrez Antón is president of Agroperu Cooperative, a democratic collective of 102 small-scale farmers in the Chira River valley, Peru. He is based in Piura, known as “the city of eternal heat” because it stays hot and dry all year round. “The sun rays start to shine very early – from 9am,” he says. “So as people who work in cultivation, under a burning sun, we stay comfortable by starting much earlier and consuming the healthy foods that we produce, like bananas, oranges, lemons, grapes, papayas and avocados.”
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Scottish first minister thanks Nethy Bridge residents and aid workers after earlier requesting UK military aid to fight 10-day fire
Residents of Nethy Bridge have been told they can return to their homes after a large fire broke out in the Cairngorms national park.
Supt Judy Hill of Police Scotland said: “Thanks to the efforts of fire crews, gamekeepers, contractors, partners and many others over the past 24 hours, there is no longer the immediate threat which prompted the evacuation of properties in Nethy Bridge.
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Campaigners urge government to introduce right of access to water, particularly as heatwaves become more common
Almost three-quarters of riverbanks in England have no public access, according to data released by the Right to Roam campaign.
Across the country, the public cannot use riverbanks or gain access to the rivers themselves in most of the river catchments from the west of Cornwall up to the Tweed, which flows through northern England and Scotland.
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Warning in place until Sunday morning in southern and central regions after drought declared in parts of Wales
Heat alerts are in place across parts of England, with possible highs of 30C (86F) and officials saying temperatures are likely to have an impact on health and wellbeing.
The yellow heat health alerts issued for the East Midlands, east of England, London, south-east, south-west and West Midlands are in place until 9am on Sunday.
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More than 3,600 people sign petition for careful assessment of proposed AI hub, now a flashpoint for national debate on datacentre boom
For some residents it started with a letter in the mailbox. It was a “friendly introduction from the team behind the Victorian AI hub”.
“I am knocking on doors to explain what we have in mind and, most importantly, to listen,” the letter from Syncline Energy stated.
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Minns government promised no new coalmines but permits expanding existing sites, despite being behind on climate targets
At Branxton community hall in the New South Wales Hunter Valley last week, local resident Janet Murray was given five minutes to speak about plans for the state’s biggest coalmine extension.
Before her were dozens of people, also there to share their views about whether the 19-year extension proposed by Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) should be allowed to proceed.
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Fish being moved to oxygenated flowing water further downstream as water levels drop across country
Along the Odet River in Brittany, fisher Mathieu Le Bouter and a dozen volunteers are catching hundreds of trout and young salmon – not for sport but to save them.
They are only a few miles from the source of the river, which springs from the Black Mountains in Finistère and runs for about 40 miles (65km) into the Atlantic Ocean, but the water is barely up to their knees.
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Photo: Vivian Grisogono
