Environment

The UK is in the middle of its worst outbreak of bird flu. The current strain of H5N1 avian influenza has devastated wild bird populations, killing thousands and affecting threatened species such as puffins and hen harriers. Bird flu has also been wreaking havoc on poultry, and since 7 November, all captive birds in England have been kept indoors to prevent them catching the virus.

How are both wild and captive bird populations coping with the current strain of avian flu? And is the UK prepared to deal with another major animal disease outbreak? Ian Sample speaks with Phoebe Weston, a biodiversity writer for the Guardian, and Paul Wigley, a professor in animal microbial ecosystems at the University of Bristol.

Archive: BBC News, Sky News

Follow the day’s news live

• Indigenous voice vote: foreign donations expected to be banned and campaigns forced to raise own cash
• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

The government services minister Bill Shorten was on ABC radio RN Breakfast when he learned the Medibank hackers had released all the customer information on the dark web.

Josh Taylor has reported on that here.

Our democracy is precious, our federal government is crucial to the success of the nation, and I know, as you do, that trust in our parliament, in our commonwealth, in politicians, has been falling dramatically. That’s a real problem and I really hope this begins to restore the trust.

And scientist Dr Peter Ridd from the IPA accuses the BoM and CSIRO of ignoring what he claims are the benefits of global heating

• Follow our Australia news live blog for the latest updates
• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

Keeping global heating as close to 1.5C as possible is critical for all ecosystems and societies, including the viability of Australia’s ocean jewel, the Great Barrier Reef.

The federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, this week launched a strong defence of the government’s climate targets after UN-backed scientists outlined the steps they said were needed to give the reef the best chance of retaining its status as a world heritage area.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Jess Jeffery and family were looking for rentals when their belongings stored in Rochester were destroyed by floods, and have been excluded from relief as they lack fixed address

• Follow our Australia news live blog for the latest updates
• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

A homeless family who were keeping everything they owned in a shipping container in Rochester have been rejected from flood relief funding despite the recent disaster destroying all their possessions.

Jess Jeffery, 27, her partner, Aaron, and their young son had been living in the garage attached to her mum’s house about 25 minutes’ drive out of Rochester while they looked for rental properties.

Australia has 18% of the world’s supply of vanadium, an element used in steelmaking and battery storage, but lacks the workforce to expand

• Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter
• Join the Rural Network group on Facebook to be part of the community

A plan to create a global minerals hub in north-west Queensland could be undermined by a lack of highly skilled workers, industry experts have warned.

Queensland resources minister Scott Stewart travelled to the UK last week with the aim of promoting Queensland as a global minerals hub to investors, focusing on the expansion of the vanadium industry, a mineral that is used in steel alloys and creating batteries for renewable energy.

Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter

City and Mississippi health department sign order agreeing to federal oversight of the failing water system

The US justice department has taken drastic action regarding the crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, that has affected drinking water for its 150,000 residents for several months.

On Tuesday, the city of Jackson and the Mississippi health department signed an order agreeing to federal oversight of the failing water system, in an attempt to restore clean and safe drinking water.

Two seafood monitoring groups downgraded Maine lobster's sustainability ratings, prompting Whole Foods to pause purchases. Here's how environmental groups and state leaders are reacting.

(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Tory backbenchers are among 40 parliamentarians who asked PM to ‘stand up for nature’ at talks

• UK politics live – latest news updates

Forty parliamentarians, including seven Conservative MPs, have privately written to Rishi Sunak imploring him to attend the Cop15 biodiversity conference, which starts next week.

In the letter, seen by the Guardian and organised by the all-party parliamentary group on the environment, the parliamentarians warn that a million species are facing extinction globally and that lack of high-level political buy-in could spell disaster for nature.

Exclusive: Fatih Birol says claims that limit is dead are ‘factually incorrect and politically very wrong’

The world can still limit global heating to 1.5C, and to claim that the target is now out of reach is to play into the hands of fossil fuel proponents, the world’s leading energy economist has warned.

Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, the global authority on energy, slammed scientists and activists who have claimed that the recent Cop27 UN climate summit killed off hopes for the crucial 1.5C limit.

Japan’s prime minister is pushing for as many as 17 nuclear reactors to be switched back on, more than a decade on from the meltdown at Fukushima

Look carefully through the trees, and it is just possible to catch sight of Onagawa nuclear power plant from its visitors’ centre, perched on a hill surrounded by thick woods.

The plant’s supporters may have had its remote location, on a rugged peninsula in Japan’s north-east, in mind when they campaigned to bring nuclear power – and the promise of subsidies – to the town more than 40 years ago.

As flood waters surge into South Australia, ecologists say locals should give fleeing snakes a wide berth

• Follow our Australia news live blog for the latest updates
• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

Snakes on the plains will seek shelter in back yards and homes as the flood waters from the eastern states surge down the system into South Australia.

The state’s flood plains and relatively flat topography will slow the advance of the water from New South Wales and Victoria, before it is channelled into the River Murray.

Move could help restore drying lake, a former resort destination that has deteriorated into an environmental crisis amid drought

The US government said on Monday it will spend up to $250m over four years to help mitigate an environmental health disaster that has been brewing in California’s Salton Sea for nearly two decades.

The inland lake, which is fed by agricultural runoff and wastewater, has slowly been shrinking, exposing a powdery shoreline laced with arsenic, selenium and DDT. Dust from the drying lake has wafted into surrounding communities, exacerbating pollution and consequently respiratory conditions in one of California’s poorest and most environmentally burdened regions.

Lava, volcanic gas and smog are the main hazards from eruption of the world’s largest active volcano

Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, is erupting for the first time in nearly 40 years – causing spectacular scenes, casting an eerie red glow over the island and shooting lava up to 200ft (60 metres) in the air.

Mauna Loa last erupted in 1984. Its smaller, more active neighbor, Kilauea volcano, has been erupting continuously for more than a year since September 2021.

The climate activists claim to have targeted 4x4 owners in eight European and US cities

Guerrilla climate activists Tyre Extinguishers have claimed their “largest ever night of action against SUVs”, with 900 of the vehicles targeted around the world.

“Last night (the evening of Monday 28 November and early morning of Tuesday 29 November), citizens in eight countries deflated tyres on nearly 900 polluting SUVs,” the activist group said in a statement.

Half of free-range turkeys and geese grown for festive period have died or been culled due to bird flu, MPs told

Half of the free-range poultry grown for Christmas in the UK have died or been culled because of the bird flu epidemic, an industry leader has told MPs.

The British Poultry Council chief executive, Richard Griffiths, told the environment, food and rural affairs committee on Tuesday that free-range poultry had been hit “very, very hard”.

Magistrate reportedly speaks of using Jan Goodey’s case as a ‘deterrent’ during court proceedings

A climate activist who disrupted traffic on the M25 has been sentenced to six months in prison.

Jan Goodey, 57, from Brighton, was jailed after pleading guilty to intentionally or recklessly causing a public nuisance after taking part in Just Stop Oil’s campaign of disruption on London’s orbital motorway earlier this month.

Chris O’Shea said the government handing energy companies money in advance presents a big risk

The chief executive of British Gas owner Centrica has warned that more energy suppliers could go bust this winter – with million of pounds of taxpayer cash on their balance sheets.

Chris O’Shea said he believed that some suppliers were “poorly capitalised”, and risked going bust and “taking taxpayer money with them”.

The Biden administration declared the northern long-eared bat endangered on Tuesday in a last-ditch effort to save a species driven to the brink of extinction by white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease.

(Image credit: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources/AP)

Free allowances ‘in direct contradiction with the polluter pays principle’, WWF report says

Big polluting industries have been given almost €100bn (£86bn) in free carbon permits by the EU in the last nine years, according to an analysis by the WWF. The free allowances are “in direct contradiction with the polluter pays principle”, the group said.

Free pollution permits worth €98.5bn were given to energy-intensive sectors including steel, cement, chemicals and aviation from 2013-21. This is more than the €88.5bn that the EU’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) charged polluters, mostly coal and gas power stations, for their CO2 emissions.

EDF’s Suffolk plant will create 10,000 highly skilled jobs and help ensure UK energy security, ministers say

The government has confirmed the Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk will go ahead, backing the scheme with an investment of nearly £700m that will end China’s controversial involvement.

Ministers said the move to take a 50% stake in the project’s development, first announced in Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement, would create 10,000 highly skilled jobs, provide “reliable low-carbon power” to the equivalent of 6m homes for more than 50 years, and help boost UK energy security. The government also said it would set up an arm’s-length body, Great British Nuclear, to develop further nuclear projects.