The Guardian

Company insists project should go ahead despite new government saying it had been unlawfully approved

The company behind the first new coalmine in the UK for 30 years has argued in the high court on Tuesday that it would be a “unique net zero” mine.

West Cumbria Mining (WCM) continued to defend the legality of its mine, which will produce 60m tonnes of coking coal in its lifetime, in the court days after the government said its planning permission was unlawful because it had not taken into account downstream emissions from using the coal.

Scientists believe the world’s rarest whale may have washed up on a New Zealand beach. Spade-toothed beaked whales have never been seen alive; beaked whales are believed to be exceptionally deep divers, spending their time far below the surface hunting squid and small fish. The specimen has been transported to cold storage and is awaiting examination. If confirmed to be a spade-toothed whale, it will be the first ever to be dissected by scientists.

As part of the annual Beaker Street festival, a celebration of science and art in Tasmania, finalist images in the festival’s annual science photographic competition will be on show at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery from 6 August to 23 August

When I was in school, for a few weeks every year, caterpillars were the most exciting thing happening

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On the trunks of small magnolia trees, in the corner where a table leg meets a table top, on a low damp wall in the shade – here the hairy caterpillars gather together. They travel in long lines, they sleep as close to each other as possible (displaying, it is called in science, a high level of “gregariousness”), as though the scariest thing a predator might see is a cat’s disembodied tail or retched-up fur ball, or a too-small itchy blanket.

If you take a picture of a hairy caterpillar and put it on the internet, a stranger will tell you that you can safely touch it, while another will say you can’t under any circumstances. “What about that says, ‘Touch me’?” one person will ask. “People really need to get a grip,” another will write. “The caterpillars which are hazardous to touch are the hairy Marys, which have hollow hairs with venom. The hairy Marys are very obviously hairy.” This person sounds exactly like an older kid talking to a younger one.

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The hikers were a father and daughter lost in Canyonlands and a woman who passed out at Snow Canyon state park

Three hikers died over the weekend in suspected heat-related cases at state and national parks in Utah, including a father and daughter who got lost on a strenuous hike in Canyonlands national park in triple-digit temperatures.

The daughter, 23, and her father, 52, sent a 911 text alerting dispatchers that they were lost and had run out of water while hiking the 8.1-mile (13km) Syncline Loop, described by the National Park Service as the most challenging trail in the Island in the Sky district of the south-east Utah park.

Melting of ice is slowing planet’s rotation and could disrupt internet traffic, financial transactions and GPS

The climate crisis is causing the length of each day to get longer, analysis shows, as the mass melting of polar ice reshapes the planet.

The phenomenon is a striking demonstration of how humanity’s actions are transforming the Earth, scientists said, rivalling natural processes that have existed for billions of years.

Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah is suing three government departments over Ella’s fatal asthma attack

The mother of a nine-year-old girl who became the first person in the UK to have air pollution cited on their death certificate has said she wants an official apology for her daughter’s suffering as her high court claim against the government heads to trial.

Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah is suing three government departments for compensation for personal injury arising from the illness and premature death of her daughter Ella, who had a fatal asthma attack in 2013 after being exposed to excessive air pollution.

Heat advisories are in place from Texas to New York as major east coast cities under air quality alerts

Millions of Americans are bracing themselves for dangerous temperatures at the start of the working week as a heat dome blankets the midwest and eastern United States.

Heat advisories are in place in Kansas and Texas all the way to New York and South Carolina, as the area of high pressure that caused misery in the west last week slowly makes its way across the country.

Tess, a 40-year-old female at Houston zoo, has been given a trial mRNA vaccine to help combat the virus, a leading killer of calves in captivity

An Asian elephant at Houston zoo in the US has received the first mRNA vaccine against herpes, which is the leading killer of Asian elephants calves in captivity.

Tess, a 40-year-old Asian elephant, was injected with the trial vaccine at the Texas zoo in June, after a spate of deaths in juveniles in zoos around the world from the elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV).

Political violence is not OK but what about snails are they OK?

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Senior climate figures welcome move after Conservative government largely left the role to junior ministers

Ed Miliband is to take personal control of the UK’s negotiations at vital international climate talks, in stark contrast to his Tory predecessors.

The energy security and net zero secretary will attend Cop29, this year’s UN climate summit, in Azerbaijan this November to head the UK’s delegation and meet political leaders from around the world.

Site in Pembrokeshire currently grazed by sheep will be planted with a range of species and reconnect to Celtic past

A lost piece of Celtic rainforest in the far south-west of Wales is to be restored to its ancient glory, weaving around standing stones and an abandoned, tumbling-down farmhouse with a waterwheel.

The 59-hectare (146-acre) site in Pembrokeshire will be planted with species such as oak, small-leaf lime and wild service (Sorbus torminalis) and should support an abundance of mosses, liverworts, lichens and ferns as well as providing a home for animals and other plant life.

It’s not entirely clear if fox numbers are on the rise in urban areas, but research shows they are learning to avoid hazards such as dogs and poisonous baits

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Alex Abbey’s security camera captured something moving through an alley behind his home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs a few weeks ago. When he watched the 2am footage the next day, he was surprised to see a red fox on the screen.

“It’s unusual. It’s the first time I have seen one in Potts Point,” he says.

Over 245 million Americans are expected to experience 90F temperatures early this week, with some as high as 105F

A heatwave that impacted the US west coast over the past week is now moving east into the midwest and south-east, as millions of Americans have been under a heat alert at some point in the past week.

“Numerous near record-tying/breaking high temperatures are possible over the central High Plains and Southeast Sunday, and along much of the East Coast by Monday,” reported the National Weather Service.

Campaigners warn of same ‘tragic events’ as in River Wye if planners ignore pollution risks of intensive production

The chicken industry is facing calls to halt the expansion of intensive production in the River Severn catchment, with campaigners warning that the river is at risk from the same pollution that has blighted the River Wye.

An outcry over the ecological plight of the Wye has effectively halted the proliferation of intensive poultry units across the catchment. Campaigners say that the pollution threat is being transported “from one catchment to the other”.

Letter urges environment minister to investigate alleged breaches at Doongmabulla Springs

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There is growing concern that a culturally significant and nationally important wetland is under threat from Adani’s controversial coalmine in Queensland, with an Indigenous group demanding the government investigate alleged breaches of the conditions that protect the site.

Scientists say drops in water levels in bores around the Doongmabulla Springs have been detected hundreds of times since mining started, and allege hydrocarbons associated with coal have been found in bores and the springs themselves.

Ed Miliband sets new rules on solar panels and approves three giant solar farms as Labour seeks to end years of Tory inaction

Keir Starmer’s new Labour government today unveils plans for a “rooftop revolution” that will see millions more homes fitted with solar panels in order to bring down domestic energy bills and tackle the climate crisis.

The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, also took the hugely controversial decision this weekend to approve three massive solar farms in the east of England that had been blocked by Tory ministers.

Johannes-Harm Hovinga has to take painkillers to complete 20-day artistic protest at Museum Arnhem

Every day for the last two weeks, Johannes-Harm Hovinga has sat at a raised table in Museum Arnhem, using a two-hole page puncher to systematically perforate the 7,705-page sixth assessment report produced by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

He has printed it out on coloured paper and the result is a vibrant heap piling up at the artist’s feet.

Experts say devastating hurricane so early in season is ‘big wake-up call’ – and predict even more powerful storms

The poignancy was unmistakable: prognosticators at Colorado State University amended their already miserable seasonal tropical cyclone forecast on Monday precisely as Hurricane Beryl was filling Houston’s streets with floodwater and knocking out power to more than 2m homes and businesses.

“A likely harbinger of a hyperactive season” was how CSU researchers characterized Beryl, which set numerous records on the way to its Texas landfall, including the earliest category 5 hurricane, strongest ever June storm, and most powerful to strike the southern Windward Islands.

Campaigners welcome ‘seismic shift’ and urge museum bosses to review links with other fossil fuel sponsors

The Science Museum has been forced to cut ties with oil giant Equinor over its sponsor’s environmental record, the Observer can reveal.

Equinor has sponsored the museum’s interactive “WonderLab” since 2016, but the relationship is now coming to close, a move that will be seen as a major victory for climate change campaigners.