The Guardian

Suppliers may be forced to cut large-scale usage by businesses amid fears of a repeat of last year’s heatwave

If water industry bosses think they are having a stinking time of it, they should cast their minds back to when Trevor Newton was head of Yorkshire Water. Urging customers to reduce consumption in balmy 1995, he confessed he had “not had a bath or shower in three months”.

As a bout of sweltering weather grips Britain, with forecasts of a baking summer, there are concerns that a widespread drought and a repeat of last year’s heatwave could force water suppliers to ban certain companies from using large quantities. It promises to be a fresh headache for an industry already under fire over sewage dumping, leakage rates, large dividends, a £10bn customer-funded investment plan and “flimsy” pledges to give up bonuses.

Exclusive: Ecologists say there are early signs that the population is recovering in remote forests

It is a discotheque for Britain’s biggest type of grouse. Before dawn, male capercaillie will begin their courtship rituals, their black tail feathers erect and fanning out, chests puffed out, their heads thrust high into the cold spring air.

Their dancefloors are forest clearings in the Highlands which echo the males’ wheezing, popping and clattering mating calls. Often perched in surrounding pine trees, hens will carefully watch as their potential mates compete to win their affection.

World leaders will meet next week to discuss climate finance, green growth, debt and private investment

Talks on a global financial pact that will give poor countries access to funds to help them tackle the climate crisis and develop their economies in environmentally sustainable and socially equitable ways will begin next week in Paris.

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, will be joined on Thursday by dozens of world leaders to discuss climate finance, green growth, the debt crisis and how to tap private sector sources of investment. EU leaders, including the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, will be there, but the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has not confirmed whether he will attend.

Millions of crickets – or rather shield-backed katydids – migrating across state, after hatching was delayed in spring

Millions of flightless insects known as Mormon crickets have descended across Nevada, alarming residents, blanketing roadways and buildings, and fueling nightmares.

Footage shared on social media and by local news outlets captures six Nevada counties under siege, with thick carpets of bugs moving slowly and efficiently across the state. A local hospital had to deploy brooms and leafblowers to clear the way for patients to get into the building, a spokesperson for the Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital, told local news outlet KSL.

Feats of endurance such as this provoke wonder for what they reveal about what it means to be human

The story of four children discovered deep in the Amazon jungle, grieving, hungry and insect-bitten but otherwise uninjured despite being lost for 40 days after a plane crash, feels closer to myth or fairytale than real life. That a dog apparently accompanied them for some of this time, before itself going missing, is yet another fantastical element in a drama that has gripped Colombia and much of the world.

Feats of endurance involving children always command attention. What makes this one so astonishing is that sisters aged 13 and nine not only kept themselves going on a mixture of cassava flour salvaged from the wreck, and foraged fruits and seeds, but also helped their four-year-old brother and baby sister – who had her first birthday in the forest – to stay alive. The children, said Colombia’s leftwing president, Gustavo Petro, are “an example of total survival”.

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The task of radically reducing our greenhouse gas emissions is daunting, the former chief scientist says. But it’s also a huge opportunity

“It won’t be easy getting to zero, Kathleen.”

We were at a dinner party soon after the May 2022 Australian election, which saw the Labor party, led by Anthony Albanese, form government, with an unprecedented number of seats won by the Greens and by climate-focused independents. Rolling her eyes, Kathleen pressed on in a triumphal tone.

Feedback argues ministers’ failure to include measures to reduce production of meat and dairy products was unlawful

Ministers broke the law by failing to make plans to cut consumption of meat and dairy in England, activists will argue in a legal challenge after they were granted permission for a full judicial review of the government’s food strategy.

Overturning two previous decisions, the court of appeal ruled that the food systems campaigners Feedback could challenge the national food strategy on the basis that it failed to take into account ministers’ duties to cut carbon emissions.

Restrictions will begin on 26 June, stopping customers watering gardens, washing cars and filling paddling pools

South East Water is introducing a hosepipe ban amid shortages in Kent and Sussex. Schools in the region have been forced to close during the warm weather and bottled water stations have been set up as the utility company said demand for drinking water had reached “record levels”.

The company said the temporary hosepipe restrictions would come into force from 26 June. It means customers cannot water their gardens, wash cars, boats or patios and are banned from filling paddling or swimming pools.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs, including hot monkeys, baby flamingos and a hitchhiking cygnet

WWF showcases work saving endangered species in Fiji, home to five of the world’s seven species of marine turtles

Paul Nowak says workers need a seat at the table to ensure a quick and fair transition to a net zero economy

The UK is in danger of being left behind in the global race to decarbonise the economy with potentially disastrous consequences for jobs and communities, according to the TUC’s general secretary.

In an interview, Paul Nowak said the UK was “limping towards a green future” and he called for a “national collective effort” involving employers, workers and the government to ensure a quick and fair transition to a net zero economy.

In 1967, Roger Payne, who has died at 88, noticed that the mammals’ calls were organised in repeating patterns, spurring the discovery of whale song

The idea that whales “sing”, commonly accepted today, is relatively recent. Until the late 1960s it was thought that whale noises were nothing more than expressive sounds or calls. But in 1967, a discovery by the marine biologist Roger Payne, who died last Saturday, changed our understanding – ushering in a new way of looking at the world’s largest mammals.

As the young Payne listened on repeat for days to recordings made of humpback sounds captured underwater off the coast of Bermuda, he noticed the calls were organised in repeating patterns. Speaking to Guardian Seascape in 2020, he described it as his “wow” moment, spurring on the discovery – made alongside other researchers – that all whale species “sing” in some rhythmic form, even in the “clicks” of toothed whales, such as sperm whales.

Three activists use glitter cannons and air horns during performance of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites

Just Stop Oil protesters have interrupted a performance during the Glyndebourne opera festival in East Sussex by letting off glitter cannons and blowing air horns.

The disruption took place during a performance on Thursday of Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites at the festival near Lewes.

European birds nest in Norfolk much to the delight of twitchers – but environmentalists warn it’s a clear sign of climate change

With plumage cherry red, ultramarine, turquoise and yellow, usually found streaking like multicoloured darts across the skies of Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Spain, they present as an epitome of tropical glamour.

British birdwatchers are aflutter to have found European bee-eaters swooping and burrowing in a disused quarry in Norfolk for the second summer in a row.

A decade on from its beginnings, the BigPicture Natural World photography competition attracts thousands of entries from around the world. Its aim is to highlight the extraordinary and often fleeting moments of wonder and beauty in nature while bringing attention to ecosystems in need of protection and conservation. Open to professionals and amateurs, contestants enter for the chance to win cash as well as the opportunity to be exhibited at the California Academy of Sciences

• Ten years of Guardian Australia’s best photography – in pictures

Campaigners have heralded the move as a victory for transparency, making polluting industries more accountable

Fossil fuel lobbyists will have to identify themselves as such in registering for the UN Cop28 climate summit, making polluting and carbon-intensive industries more accountable at the annual talks.

The move by the UN to require anyone registering for the summit to declare their affiliation was heralded as a victory for transparency by campaigners who have been increasingly concerned at the growing presence of oil and gas lobbyists at climate talks.

Animals to be introduced during next three years but ecologists say they still face survival challenges

About 20 specially bred wildcats are being released at secret locations in the Scottish Highlands by conservationists hoping to save the species from extinction in the UK.

The animals were raised in captivity at a wildlife park in the Cairngorms as part of a breeding programme run by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, which is expected to release up to 60 cats into the wild over the next three years.

Queensland’s $550 electricity bill rebate for all and staggering $19bn investment in renewables show why it’s time for NSW to put in place a similar system

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When Queensland posted a surprise $12bn surplus – the largest ever recorded by an Australian state – in this week’s budget, it was a testament to its progressive coal royalties system.

Introduced by the treasurer, Cameron Dick, in June 2022, royalties range from 7-40% of revenues depending on coal prices, and are immediately delivering beyond expectations for the people of Queensland.

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Tim Buckley is the founder of Climate Energy Finance, an Australian public interest thinktank

Criticism of South East Water mounts as local people accuse it of failing to invest in infrastructure

Four schools in East Sussex have been closed because of water shortages across the area as criticism of South East Water mounts.

The company was communicating with customers in the affected areas by text message, according to some residents in Wadhurst. Three primary schools and one secondary school that had been forced to shut earlier in the week remained closed, East Sussex county council said.

World Bank says subsidies costing as much as $23m a minute must be repurposed to fight climate crisis

Trillions of dollars of subsidies for fossil fuels, farming and fishing are causing “environmental havoc”, according to the World Bank, severely harming people and the planet.

Many countries spend more on the harmful subsidies than they do on health, education or poverty reduction, the bank says, and the subsidies are entrenched and hard to reform as the greatest beneficiaries tend to be rich and powerful.