The White House seems committed to ecocide. The EU should harness the power of the single market to force it to change course
Are we understanding it yet? As Europe burns in the west, the south and the north, are we grasping the fact that our economies, food systems, political stability and even our ability to plan for the future, will all be charred in a world on fire?
Paris got a taste of what is in store for us Europeans when, weeks ago, fire ripped through Fontainebleau forest, a bouldering paradise and one of the world’s first natural reserves. But the wildfires currently threatening Bordeaux and Madrid, which experts are calling the most extreme seen in Europe, are apocalyptic in comparison. In the Gironde region around Bordeaux, tens of thousands of hectares have burned, creating an unpredictable “thunderstorm of fire” as the region’s chief administrator called it. More than 200,000 people have been displaced in the largest peacetime evacuations in France’s history. Only the bravery of firefighters, dozens of whom have been injured, is keeping the fires within mere kilometres of Bordeaux and its more than a million inhabitants.
Alexander Hurst writes for Guardian Europe from Paris. His memoir Generation Desperation is out now
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/30/2026 - 06:00
07/30/2026 - 04:39
UKHSA estimates 2,877 fatalities during heatwaves in May and June, almost twice that recorded in 2025 season
England is on track to record its highest ever number of heat-related deaths this summer after the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced that an estimated 2,877 people had died in the May and June heatwaves.
The record was set in 2022 with 2,985 deaths, and August, traditionally the hottest month, is yet to arrive. The health secretary, Yvette Cooper, said: “My thoughts are with all those who have lost loved ones as a result of the long and intense heatwaves.”
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07/30/2026 - 03:01
Several people evacuated after ‘large-scale, wind-driven’ fire 3 miles from Sizewell B nuclear plant
A major incident has been declared as firefighters battle a large heathland fire on the Suffolk coast about 3 miles from the Sizewell B nuclear power plant.
Suffolk fire and rescue service was called to reports of a wildfire at Dunwich Heath, near Leiston, shortly after 5.30pm on Wednesday, and crews remained at the scene on Thursday. About 90 firefighters were tackling the blaze, and several people had been evacuated. Firefighters have said there is not thought to be any danger to Sizewell B at this time, and an EDF spokesperson said the wildfire was not affecting operations at the power station.
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07/30/2026 - 03:00
Boom in migrating moth sightings put down to hot weather, strong winds and food scarcity in Europe
He had just sat down to dinner in the garden when a speedy visitor whizzed by – a “grey lump with orange wings”, recalled Luke Burstow, from Sussex. It was a hummingbird hawk-moth, a flying insect that migrates to the UK from continental Europe and north Africa.
“I was like: ‘Wow!’,” said the software project manager. “I didn’t even know they existed.”
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07/30/2026 - 01:00
Forty hectares of Oaken Wood could be razed after it was identified as potential site of expansion by Reform-run council
It was at the confluence of seven forest paths that Allison Sweetman came to a stop. Trees rose on all sides, save for a recently coppiced section to the north-east. The noon heat had silenced most birds, but the quiet was peaceful.
“This is what they call Seven Wents,” she said. For centuries, the people of Kent had travelled this way, from East Malling to Barming, from Ditton to Teston, for church, commerce and friends. “It’s on maps going back 400 years.”
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07/29/2026 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 30 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s44183-026-00235-9
Blue SIA: the case for social impact assessment in the blue economy
07/29/2026 - 10:00
Clean Energy Council calls for a national, legislated scheme to funnel benefits of hosting renewables projects back to local councils
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Organised campaigns against wind and solar energy have proved “extremely effective” in undermining community support for renewable energy but enthusiasm for electric vehicles has jumped after Donald Trump’s attack on Iran, according to a detailed snapshot of Australian attitudes to the clean energy transition.
The survey found levels of “deep support” for clean technologies were highest for home batteries and rooftop solar and also improving for major infrastructure projects such as transmission lines, which have been a target for critics of renewables.
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07/29/2026 - 10:00
Authorities say local transmission of H5 bird flu virus among South Australian birds signals ‘shift in the situation’
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Australia has entered a new phase in dealing with the incursion of deadly H5N1 bird flu, with authorities confirming on Wednesday that local transmission had taken place, and Victoria confirming first case of the highly virulent strain Thursday.
“We have had what is suggestive of local transmission for the first time,” Julie Collins, the federal minister for agriculture, fisheries and forestry, said on Wednesday afternoon, after 11 suspected detections were reported in South Australian birds.
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07/29/2026 - 09:35
What once felt exceptional now arrives with grim regularity all over the continent, and it will only get worse
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Spain has changed immeasurably since I arrived here 10 years ago to begin work as the Guardian’s Madrid correspondent.
Over that time, the push for Catalan independence has exploded, sputtered and faded out; the Covid pandemic has hit with unimaginable ferocity, before seeming to linger for a face-masked eternity; and Podemos and Ciudadanos – the two upstart parties that once seemed likely to alter the Spanish political landscape irrevocably – have risen and fallen.
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07/29/2026 - 09:17
Repeated heatwaves and strong winds alarm experts, who warn blazes are becoming harder to quell
Three Greek firefighters have died while tackling wildfires on the island of Crete and in the south of the mainland, the Greek fire department has said, as extreme heat hinders efforts to control blazes ravaging southern Europe.
The arc of brutal fires, which runs from the Atlantic coast to the eastern Mediterranean, and from the Scottish Highlands to the south of Spain, has alarmed experts because many of the fires have been out of control and burning close to towns and cities.
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