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Ramón Bedoya says his father, a land activist, was shot by local paramilitaries in league with agribusiness and narcos who fill the void left by Farc rebels

The bullet-proof 4x4 is speeding through the countryside of western Colombia with two armed bodyguards, reggaeton is blasting out from the speakers, banana trees flit past the reinforced windows and the protected passenger – a threatened, recently bereaved 18-year-old campesino (poor farmer) – is explaining from bitter personal experience why he thinks Netflix’s Narcos TV series is trash.

“It glorifies killers,” says Ramón Bedoya. “Drug dealers and paramilitaries. These are the type of people who murdered my dad.”

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In Brazil, Maria do Soccoro Silva is leading Amazonian forest people against alleged land-grabbing, corruption and pollution

A warning voice on the telephone, a home intrusion, a punch in the face, a pistol barrel prodded against the ear.

The intimidation of Maria do Socorro Silva has come in many forms since she began defending her Amazonian home against the world’s biggest alumina refinery and its local government backers.

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St Dominic, Tamar Valley: This year’s exceptional cherry harvest has seen our feathered friends gorge on maturing fruit

Abundant fruit reflects the sun as we pick cherries in the cool of evening. The spreading trees in James and Mary’s orchard of traditional varieties provide oases of shade among dried-up grasses and help protect the shallow roots from drought; despite the hot weather, rustling leaves remain fresh and bright green.

A few weeks ago, pigeons and jackdaws flocked here to gorge on maturing fruit, breaking off new shoots and littering the ground with wizened stones. Since these birds left for alternative venues and feasts of ripening grain, the remaining fruit has become plump and juicy, tasting sweet and slightly tart, as delicious as that of ancestor trees. These were common in the valley’s widespread orchards during the 18th and 19th centuries, with only a few surviving until the 1980s.

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From the murky waters of the Murray River emerges a rare monster with an underbelly of red berries and claws of ghostly white. This program is selected from the rich Off Track archives for your listening pleasure.

Coral reefs everywhere are in trouble. In recent decades, reefs have been dying as we watch. Australian scientists in the Philippines are collecting coral larvae and placing them on degraded reefs to give them a helping hand.

How the giant Lovell radio telescope at Jodrell Bank is transformed into a 3,200 tonne art installation.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

A record batch of Colombian CERs were voluntarily cancelled this week for use by local emitters against the country’s carbon tax.

The dry and hot summer of 1911 drove Londoners to paddle in the Serpentine while, in the north, mills closed for lack of power

The long hot summer of 1911 is credited with changing fashions, with women shedding whalebone corsets and brassieres becoming the rage. Edwardian aristocrats are said to have taken up nude tennis at their country estates, although at the ever more crowded seaside resorts men and women still used bathing machines towed into the sea. The sexes were kept segregated in case any flesh was exposed.

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An archaeological dig unearths an ancient campfire; we go gardening in marginal country; young Rory has his heart set on a music career; and Charlie goes truffle hunting in the alps.

The Trump administration wants to weaken the landmark protection law. What species are under threat?

Czechia has once again been the first country to receive the annual greenlight from the European Commission to hand free EUAs to its utilities.

EU carbon prices extended their seven-year high on Friday to end above €17 for a 6.3% weekly rise, as tighter auction supply nears and despite a weaker energy complex.

There have been a number of bird attacks reported, including one man persecuted by seagulls each morning and another man who reacted violently to having his chips stolen

Name: Seagull rage.

Prevalence: High in coastal areas.

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Charity had argued the government was in breach of international obligations under the Paris agreement

Environmental campaigners have lost their high court challenge against the government over its policy for tackling climate change.

The charity Plan B Earth brought legal action against the government’s stance on the 2050 carbon target, set out under the Climate Change Act 2008.

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The UK High Court on Friday blocked the path to a full hearing for a charity group seeking to deepen the country’s 2050 emission reduction goals, in one of the world’s first legal tests of the Paris Agreement.

The Philippines government is looking at whether to introduce a carbon tax in the country, holding an “exploratory” workshop on the subject this week.

Birds bred in captivity led on three-week migration south from Germany by human ‘foster parents’

Leaning out of an ultralight aircraft, Corinna Esterer turns toward a flock of peculiar black birds soaring just a few metres away. “Come, come ibis,” she yells through her megaphone. Drawn by Esterer’s voice, the birds dart to the aircraft, and follow it to a field overlooking Lake Constance in southern Germany. Once on the ground, the ibis flock to Esterer. To the birds, the young woman is their parent.

For more than 300 years, the northern bald ibis has been extinct in the wild in central Europe, with small populations surviving only in zoos. But recently, it has celebrated a slow but steady comeback thanks to human foster parents who have shown the birds how to migrate south by leading the way in ultralight aircraft.

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Adopting a federal clean fuel standard (CFS) is a costlier and less effective way for Canada to reduce GHGs than an economy-wide carbon price, according to a new study published on Thursday.

Migrating geese race to warmer Arctic but are too worn out to lay their eggs early when they get there.