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Lake Palcacocha is swollen with water from melting ice caps in the Cordillera Blanca mountains. Below, 50,000 people live directly in the flood path

Nestled beneath the imposing white peaks of two glaciers in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca, the aquamarine Lake Palcacocha is as calm as a millpond. But despite its placid appearance it has become a deadly threat to tens of thousands people living beneath it as a result of global warming.

A handful of residents of Huaraz, the city below the lake, can recall its destructive power. In 1941 a chunk of ice broke away from the glacier in an earthquake, tumbling into the lake. The impact caused a flood wave which sent an avalanche of mud and boulders cascading down the mountain, killing about 1,800 people when it reached the city.

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New charity warns Britain’s largest butterfly could be lost within four decades as rising seas turn its habitat into saltmarsh

Britain’s biggest butterfly, the swallowtail, could become extinct within four decades because of rising sea levels, a new charity has warned.

New inland habitat needs to be created for the swallowtail because rising seas are predicted to turn much of its current home, the Norfolk Broads, into saltmarshes later this century.

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In industry where one-third of workers are immigrants, Ice’s largest raid at an Ohio plant strikes fear in local communities

Meatpacking has never been the safest, or the most pleasant, job. Now, under the Trump administration, workers are facing another hazard – the threat of deportation.

“We were working in the plant and the agents showed up with machine guns and started taking everyone outside,” 20-year-old “Carlos”, a meatpacker at the Fresh Mark meatpacking plant in Salem, Ohio, told the Guardian.

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Northern Ireland Water to introduce hosepipe ban this weekend after rise in demand

Water companies have urged UK households to conserve supplies as the country continues to bask in a near record-breaking June heatwave.

The hot weather is likely to remain, with the sun expected to shine throughout the weekend and temperatures in the high 20s across much of Britain.

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An experiment with a "vending machine for crows" is revealing insights into how intelligence evolves, scientists say.

Money will be spent on expanding an Interpol taskforce dedicated to investigating the gangs driving illegal deforestation

The Norwegian government has announced a pledge of 145m kroner (£12m) to help fight forest crime such as illegal tree clearances.

The money will be shared by Interpol, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the Rhipto Norwegian Centre for Global Analyses, which collects data on illegal logging. The funds will allow Interpol to expand its dedicated taskforce from six to 15 detectives.

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Lower Benefield, Northamptonshire: The stubby little white specimen turns out to be my first concolorous moth

National Moth Night has inspired me to dust off my moth trap and indulge in a summer pageant of colourful insects. With some disappointment I clock the dropping temperatures and cleared sky with twinkling stars. Not a positive development. Clear, cold nights deter moths from taking to the wing. I consider hanging the trap back up, but decide a small haul of moths would be suitably charming.

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Germany company commissions three new large-scale battery storage facilities using first and second life auto battery modules.

Tesla and Panasonic take top spot in latest BNEF ranking of tier 1 li-ion battery cell makers. But China's CATL getting most attention.

Work set to begin on Solar River Project after "Australia's biggest" PV farm approved for 220MW solar, 120MWh lithium-ion battery.

Former PM says "obsession" with emissions will damage Australia's economy, for what? Just to save the planet for the grandkids.

Tesla batteries arrive on site at company's third big battery project in Australia, and at what will be the world's first grid-connected project combining large scale wind, solar and battery storage.

A new protein discovery by a team of Dutch and South African researchers could help develop new smart solar technologies.

Study finds birds have design templates in their minds and may pass them on to future generations

New Caledonian crows use mental pictures to twist twigs into hooks and make other tools, according to a provocative study that suggests the notoriously clever birds pass on successful designs to future generations, a hallmark of culture.

“We find evidence for a specific type of emulation we call mental template matching,” co-author Alex Taylor, director of the Language, Cognition and Culture Lab at the University of Auckland, told AFP.

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AEMO data shows some surprising results on the replacement of Hazelwood, and what happened to wholesale electricity prices.

Jaguar's pursuit of changing the image of "the old man's car" cars to a leading edge innovator in electric vehicles leads to a new speed record, on water.

From biologically dead to a haven for wildlife. How the Thames Estuary has become a sanctuary for seals.

The Thames was once heavily polluted but seals are back and population surveys are helping guard against threats from disease and dredging.

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US markets were mostly quiet this week as traders looked ahead to the July 4 holiday next Wednesday, though RGGI allowances saw their highest volumes of the year transacted at the end of last week.