The Guardian

Lib Dem councillor calls for company to be fined over the incident

Thames Water has been accused of repeatedly ignoring warnings about cuts to supplies and burst pipes in Surrey where hundreds of households had to endure three days without tap water at the height of this weekend’s heatwave.

Residents, including some that were vulnerable, had to queue for bottled water on Saturday in temperatures of well over 30C (86F) after a pump failure at Netley Mill treatment works.

Young 600kg female had been basking in waters of Norway’s capital and attracting crowds who disturbed her rest

A walrus nicknamed Freya that attracted crowds while basking in the sun in the Oslo fjord has been euthanised.

“The decision to euthanise was taken on the basis of a global evaluation of the persistent threat to human security,” the head of Norway’s fisheries directorate, Frank Bakke-Jensen, said in a statement.

Without lots of heavy rain in autumn and winter, water restrictions could be tightened even further

South-east England could be tipped into severe and devastating drought without above-average rainfall this winter, while current water use restrictions in London and surrounding areas are expected to last until the new year even if rainfall returns, ministers have been told. Severe drought would mean even tighter restrictions, such as bans on non-essential uses of water including cleaning windows and filling and maintaining swimming pools.

Though it is too soon to forecast weather for this winter, anything less than substantial rainfall could lead to London being placed under much stricter measures next year, experts have told the Observer. One Whitehall source said officials were being told to prepare for a potential severe drought throughout the south-east.

Residents of Everton, Bedfordshire, have learned to live with an on-off supply, and are always prepared for the worst

Yvonne Hinde opens her fridge to reveal three big bottles of water. There are two buckets full in her garden. “We have to be prepared,” she says. She isn’t being dramatic. Like other residents of Everton in Bedfordshire, Hinde, 59, a childminder, can no longer take running water for granted.

Since the start of July the supply has been severely interrupted or cut off five times. Often the taps run dry for hours at a time. The problems have forced the pub to close and the village school to tell children to stay at home. “It makes life really difficult,” says Hinde, who is forced to close her business when the water isn’t running.

France’s biggest wildfire, which has been burning since Tuesday, spread by high temperatures and dry conditions, has destroyed more than 7,400 hectares of forest in Gironde.

Firefighters from across the EU rallied, most stationed along a 26-mile (40km) active fire-front in the south-west, where the blaze that some have described as 'monstrous' continued to devastate pine forests. The aid rushed to France to help battle wildfires is an unprecedented show of international solidarity

• EU countries rush to help France tackle ‘monstrous’ wildfires

Crops, power plants, barge traffic, industry and fish populations devastated by parched waterways

In places, the Loire can now be crossed on foot; France’s longest river has never flowed so slowly. The Rhine is fast becoming impassable to barge traffic. In Italy, the Po is 2 metres lower than normal, crippling crops. Serbia is dredging the Danube.

Across Europe, drought is reducing once-mighty rivers to trickles, with potentially dramatic consequences for industry, freight, energy and food production – just as supply shortages and price rises due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine bite.

Dorset and Wiltshire fire service reports 492% increase in number of August wildfires compared with 2021

A large blaze at a Dorset nature reserve was most likely caused by a barbecue, firefighters have said.

Firefighters battled through the night to bring the fire at Studland Heath under control on Friday.

Domestic cats destroy over one million native animals a day – but Australians still find it hard to accept their own cute little moggie could be a killer

The Macquarie Island parakeet was, by all accounts, an elegant parrot endemic to the island off southern Tasmania that shared its name. We will never really know, because the last of its species was seen in the 1880s.

The lesser bilby inhabited warmer climes – it was found predominantly in the sandy deserts of central Australia. A charismatic but fierce little marsupial, it joined the list of extinct Australian species more recently, with the last known remnants found in a wedge-tailed eagle nest in the late 1960s.

Leaked documents predict crop failure rates of up to 50% as water companies resist calls to prioritise food production

Experts have warned of widespread crop failures across England, as charities and farmers criticised water companies for dithering over hosepipe bans despite drought being declared across much of the country.

On Friday, the Environment Agency classified eight of the 14 areas of England as being in a drought. Despite this, water companies, including Anglian Water, Southern Water and South West Water have not brought in hosepipe bans. Thames Water said it does not plan to expedite a hosepipe ban expected next week.

England’s privatised water system is compounding the climate emergency. Instead of fixing it, the government has gone awol

A drought has officially been declared across vast swathes of England. Rivers and reservoirs are evaporating in front of our eyes. Water may soon be rationed and crop irrigation restricted. Drought, and the extreme heat that exacerbates it, isn’t some occasional freak occurrence that can be brushed off as “super scorchio” fun once or twice a year. It’s a consequence of years of inaction on the climate emergency. This is producing a perfect storm of energy insecurity, food supply chaos and extreme weather that is wreaking havoc on society.

Getting a firm grip on this crisis requires both immediate and long-term solutions. Our lame duck government is offering neither. It’s clear that the privatisation experiment for water companies has failed. They’re fit for profit, not for purpose. The head of Thames Water – the company responsible for the supply fiasco at Northend in Oxfordshire – is set to receive a £3.1m “golden hello” for signing on as CEO. English water firms across the board have handed over £72bn to shareholders in dividends.

Caroline Lucas is the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion

A drought has been declared across swathes of England amid prolonged dry conditions, with some areas not receiving significant rainfall all summer. A hosepipe ban came into force for about 1.4 million South East Water customers in Kent and Sussex on Friday, but more severe measures may be put in place

• Drought to be declared across eight areas of England

A 1965 report warned of the climate crisis, but is recent legislation enough to undo the fossil fuel industry’s years of disinformation?

The scientists’ warning to the US president on climate crisis was stark: the world’s countries were conducting a vast, dangerous experiment through their enormous release of planet-heating emissions, which threaten to be “deleterious from the point of view of human beings”. Some sort of remedial action was needed, they urged.

This official alert was issued not to Joe Biden, who is poised to sign America’s first ever major legislation designed to tackle the climate crisis, but in a report given to his presidential predecessor Lyndon Johnson in 1965, a year when the now 79-year-old Biden was still in college.

Equestrian groups call for riders – who are mostly female – to get same access rights as cyclists and walkers

The government must allow horse riders access to England’s publicly funded woodlands, equestrian groups have said.

Those who ride horses are banned from many scenic countryside routes, including many footpaths, meaning that most are severely restricted in their access to nature.

Expert group declares official drought amid prolonged dry spell, meaning water rationing may take place

A drought has been declared across wide swathes of England after a meeting of experts.

The prolonged dry conditions, with some areas of the country not receiving significant rainfall all summer, have caused the National Drought Group to declare an official drought.

Yorkshire Water announces ban from 26 August and Thames Water could introduce measure from Friday

A hosepipe ban could be introduced as early as Friday by Britain’s largest water company, covering London and much of the south-east of England, if a drought is declared.

Thames Water is “ready to go” with its hosepipe ban, according to its strategy and regulatory affairs director, Cathryn Ross, who said there was a process for introducing a ban but that it could be bypassed if an official declaration of drought is made on Friday.

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including grazing camels, hot bats and a newly hatched turtle

By restoring these natural wet assets that were neglected for decades we can mitigate the worst effects of climate change

Fresh water is the lifeblood of civilisation. It makes life on land possible. But we have lost touch with how the water cycle works. As Britain runs further into serious drought, people are asking if we are prepared and if we should have planned better, by building more reservoirs or plugging leaks in the water distribution system.

These are hugely important subjects. What is not being discussed are the severe floods that may well arrive in a few months’ time. Climate change is leading to greater volatility in the water cycle. It’s time to stand back and examine our resilience to water extremes and start improving water quality.

Tony Juniper CBE is the chair of Natural England

Exclusive: Britishvolt’s 95-hectare site seen as great hope for car industry, but construction severely limited until February

Construction of a huge electric car battery factory that has attracted tens of millions of pounds of taxpayer cash and been hailed as a flagship project of Boris Johnson’s levelling up policy has been put on “life support” to cut spending, leaked internal documents suggest.

Work on Britishvolt’s 95-hectare site near Blyth in Northumberland has been severely limited until February to minimise spending as it focuses on unlocking its next round of funding and critical power supply infrastructure, the documents suggest.

The Discovery Boffins at the CSIRO have uncovered 139 new species! What are they and how are we going to kill them? Ahaha just kidding…

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