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Leila Jeffreys’ ethereal images required 300 budgies, 20kg of birdseed and painting the birds’ toenails

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Growing up in India to an Indian mother and Anglo-Australian father, the artist Leila Jeffreys found herself drawn to the myriad rainbow-coloured birds.

“I was a real dreamer,” she recalls over tea in Sydney, where she lives with her husband, son and dog, Ronnie Barker. “We travelled a lot and I never really knew the names of the places we went to. But if there was an animal or a bird I just zoned in. I imagined their stories and their lives. I always saw them and I saw their characters.”

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It startled the cows, intrigued the locals and excited scientists around the world. Fifty years on, the Murchison meteorite still defines a town and yields new discoveries every year.

Competitors' bankruptcy proposal for Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) would funnel nearly $29 billion through two stock offerings to help cover the embattled California utility’s wildfire liabilities, according to a filing by bondholders and fire victims on Thursday.

Campaigners and MPs condemn the ban of Extinction Rebellion across London, while Keith Flett writes that historically protest has always included disruptive elements. Plus letters from Marilyn Mason, Richard Terry, Declan O’Neill, Jackie Ambrose and Peter B Baker

Thursday was not an easy day to be a member of Extinction Rebellion (Movement split over tactics as travellers turn on activist who disrupted rail travel, 18 October). As families involved in the movement, we feel that now is not the time to condone or condemn, but to recognise and reflect on the very human desperation that has driven thousands of citizens to commit acts of nonviolent civil disobedience.

Despite more than 1,600 arrests over the last two weeks, the government is yet to respond with a clear plan of action to tackle the climate and ecological emergency. While we sound the alarm louder and louder, the government remains silent.

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A climate change activist dressed as Boris Johnson has scaled the scaffolding surrounding London's Big Ben. The man was filmed standing on netting which was hung off the clock tower's frame on Friday afternoon. As he balanced on the edge of the landmark, he revealed two banners which read 'No pride on a dead planet' and 'Citizens Assembly'. According to Extinction Rebellion's Facebook page, the protester is 43-year-old tree surgeon Ben Atkinson.

• Extinction Rebellion activist climbs Big Ben in climate protest
  
• Brexit: Labour to back rebel Tory bid to force Johnson to demand extension – live news
  

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Discovery of whale’s body near Gravesend follows death of young humpback this month

A second whale has been found dead in the Thames less than two weeks after a humpback nicknamed Hessy died near the same stretch of water.

The Port of London Authority confirmed the suspected fin whale was discovered in the river at Denton, near Gravesend, on Friday morning.

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A plucky otter, a mysterious blob and a Florida panther on the prowl

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Analysts expect EU carbon prices to climb sharply over the next few years but to then fall back as demand from industrial emitters eases as factories invest in cleaner production methods, a conference heard on Thursday.

The Wong family of Peru amassed a fortune building up a chain of supermarkets, but much of their wealth today is in real estate – including the 220,000-hectare (543,400-acre) Madeacre forestry concession that family’s late patriarch, Erasmo Wong, cobbled together in the province of Tahuamanu.

Two female astronauts are making history with the first ever all-women spacewalk.

European carbon prices fell back on Friday on a weak auction result and amid pessimism that the Brexit deal agreed this week between Britain and the EU would pass UK parliament, with bearish implications for EUAs in most outcomes.

Closing prices, ranges and volumes for China's regional pilot carbon markets this week.

With more than 5 million carbon credits sitting in the national offset registry, Australian developers are likely able to meet demand for the 2019-20 financial year, but the market could tighten considerably as issuance volume might shrink next year while government demand has yet to peak, Clean Energy Regulator data showed Friday.

Guardian picture editor Fiona Shields explains why we are going to be using fewer polar bears and more people to illustrate our coverage of the climate emergency

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At the Guardian we want to ensure that the images we publish accurately and appropriately convey the climate crisis that we face. Following discussions among editors about how we could change the language we use in our coverage of environmental issues, our attention then turned to images. We have been working across the organisation to better understand how we aim to visually communicate the impact the climate emergency is having across the world.

Our goal is to provide guidelines for anyone working with images at the Guardian. We are also asking the agencies and photographers we work with to provide images that are appropriate to the changing narrative.

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Photographer Robin Hinsch travelled to the Niger delta, visiting the gas flaring sites, artisanal refineries, and meeting the communities living in the hugely polluted environments caused by the oil industry

Covering 70,000 sq km (27,000 sq miles) of wetlands, the Niger delta was formed primarily by sediment deposition. It is home to more than 30 million people and 40 different ethnic groups, making up 7.5% of Nigeria’s total land mass.

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With rising seas swallowing Bangladesh’s land and kidnappings a regular hazard, families scraping a living farming crab and shrimp in one of the world’s largest mangrove forests are fighting to survive

“The river is so hungry,” says Peramin Ishak, as he gestures to a missing arc of land from the muddy embankment. “It just keeps eating the land.”

From his village of Datina Khali, which rests on the edge of the Bangladeshi Sundarbans, Ishak has watched the river swallow up a three hectare (seven acre) chunk of land in the past decade.

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Australia now has a standard for residential battery storage installations. We look at what it means for customers, and installers.

The post Australia’s new battery installation standard – what does it mean for you? appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The Department recently wrote to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner about its disclosure log.

The Department recently wrote to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner about its disclosure log.

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