African penguins could be extinct by 2035, campaigners say

Population has declined dramatically due to overfishing and environmental changes in the Indian Ocean

African penguins are on track for extinction by 2035 if measures are not taken to ensure their survival, campaigners have said.

The population of African penguins has declined dramatically over the past 100 years. In the early 20th century, it is thought that there were probably several million breeding pairs: today, fewer than 11,000 breeding pairs remain, and the population continues to fall sharply.

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Thursday briefing: Inside South America’s summit to save the Amazon

In today’s newsletter: After years of rampant exploitation under a far-right government, Brazil has brought together leaders to help secure the future of the world’s biggest rainforest – and create ‘a just ecological transition’

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Good morning. “I think the world needs to see this meeting in Belém as the most important landmark ever … when it comes to discussing the climate question.” For once you can forgive the hyperbole of Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, when he spoke about this week’s Amazon summit.

Leaders from the eight South American countries that share the river basin have been meeting this week in the Brazilian city to discuss an issue that, by any measure, is a global emergency: how to protect the vast rainforest and safeguard its critical role in regulating the planetary climate.

Education | Rising costs and family needs could force one in three students starting university this year to opt to live at home, according to new research. While some of the “Covid generation” of school-leavers said they planned to live at home because their preferred university was nearby, most said they could not afford to live away from home.

Northern Ireland | The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has launched an investigation into an unprecedented data breach that disclosed details of more than 10,000 police officers and staff in Northern Ireland. The agency, which regulates data privacy laws, is working with the Police Service of Northern Ireland to establish the level of risk amid warnings that the leak may compel officers to leave the force or move their home address.

Hawaii | Six people were killed after unprecedented wildfires tore through the Hawaiian island of Maui. The fires, fanned by strong winds from Hurricane Dora, destroyed businesses in the historic town of Lahaina, and left at least two dozen people injured.

Ecuador | Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot dead at a campaign rally on Wednesday. The country’s president, Guillermo Lasso, said he was “outraged and shocked by the assassination” and would convene a meeting of his security cabinet.

Media | Employees at ITV’s This Morning were allegedly subjected to “bullying, discrimination and harassment”, according to staff members who have spoken out after Phillip Schofield’s departure from the programme. Some workers claim they attempted to raise concerns about the programme only to face “further bullying and discrimination” by bosses for speaking out.

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‘Nature needs money’: Lula tells rich countries to pay up and protect world’s rainforests

Brazilian president says developed nations that over centuries have pumped emissions into the atmosphere must ‘pay their bit’

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has told developed countries to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to protecting the world’s remaining tropical forests, as major rainforest nations demanded hundreds of billions of dollars of climate financing and a greater role in how those resources are spent.

“It’s not Brazil that needs money. It’s not Colombia that needs money. It’s not Venezuela. It’s nature,” Lula told journalists on the second day of a major environmental summit in the Amazon city of Belém.

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Amazon leaders fail to commit to end deforestation by 2030

Eight South American presidents including Brazil’s Lula say rich countries need to pledge more resources to help protect rainforest

Amazon leaders have called on rich countries to help them develop a Marshall-style plan to protect the world’s largest rainforest – but stopped short of committing to zero deforestation across the biome by 2030 amid divisions over oil extraction.

In a joint declaration at the end of a two-day summit in the Brazilian city of Belém on Wednesday, the eight South American countries that are home to the Amazon rainforest said ensuring its survival could not be solely up to them, as resources from the forest were consumed globally.

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Brazilian president Lula pledges ‘new Amazon dream’ at rainforest summit

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sets out ambitious programme to repair damage done by Bolsonaro and tackle environmental crime

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has vowed to haul the Amazon out of centuries of violence, economic “plundering” and environmental devastation and into “a new Amazon dream”, at the start of a major regional summit on the world’s largest rainforest.

Addressing South American leaders gathered in the Brazilian city of Belém, Lula offered a bold blueprint for the future of the Amazon, a 6.7m sq km region that is home to nearly 50 million people spread across eight countries and one territory.

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Australian effort to contain fire ants hampered by funding shortfall, documents show

Invasive Species Council releases material showing contrast between original $133m plan to fully eradicate the ants and $89m ‘revised work plan’

Lack of proper funding is hindering efforts to contain the spread of invasive fire ants by Australian authorities, according to documents obtained by the Invasive Species Council.

The documents show a stark contrast between the original $133m plan to fully eradicate the ants and an $89m “revised work plan” to continue for the next 12 months. This revised plan would only treat half the area needed, even as the ants continue their southward march towards New South Wales.

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Amazon deforestation falls over 60% compared with last July, says Brazilian minister

Marina Silva welcomes progress but says climate crisis means upcoming regional summit needs to produce real action

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by at least 60% in July compared to the same month last year, the environment minister, Marina Silva, has told the Guardian.

The good news comes ahead of a regional summit that aims to prevent South America’s largest biome from hitting a calamitous tipping point.

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‘Shameful loss’: wolves declared extinct in Andalucía

Naturalists decry extinction of species as loss of habitat, poaching and illegal hunting take toll

For centuries, wolves have roamed the mountain ranges of Andalucía in southern Spain, but after years of decline the creature has been officially declared extinct in the region.

Since 2003, the regional government has carried out a census of the wolf (Canis lupus signatus) population in an effort to monitor the species and reduce conflict with the local population, farmers in particular.

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Race to save almost 50 pilot whales after same number die in mass stranding on WA beach

Rare footage of mammals grouping offshore before they beached east of Albany sets event apart from previous strandings, experts say

More than 50 of the long-finned pilot whales stranded on a Western Australian beach have died, despite an overnight vigil by wildlife experts.

“Sadly 51 [pilot] whales have died overnight after a mass stranding at Cheynes Beach,” the Parks and Wildlife Service said on Wednesday morning in an update on social media.

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Global calls to revoke ‘misleading’ sustainable farming certification for salmon in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour

Letters sent to two accreditation schemes say pollution is contributing to the extinction of a critically endangered fish species

More than 80 organisations around the globe have called for two international accreditation schemes to revoke sustainability certifications for salmon and trout farmed in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour, with letters labelling the certification “misleading”.

The letters to the Best Aquaculture Practices (Bap) and GlobalG.A.P schemes come as federal and state government workshops are held in Hobart to determine what urgent action is necessary to prevent the extinction of the critically endangered Maugean skate, an ancient fish species found only in Macquarie Harbour on Tasmania’s west coast.

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‘Get rid of all the green crap’: Tory PMs’ strange attitude to the environment

As both Labour and Conservatives ponder their green policy, we look back at the Tories’ propensity to promise much – and deliver little

Conservative party support for environmental causes has generally been vocal at election time but hesitant and half-hearted in power. On one hand, the party – with the exception of a few hardcore climate crisis deniers – has never reached the total opposition to green causes that disfigures rightwing parties in other nations, in particular the US Republicans. On the other, it has generally failed to enact the kind of legislation that would allow the UK to take a global lead in the battle against global heating, as can be seen from the records of three recent Tory prime ministers.

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Scientists battle to save Guam kingfisher after snakes introduced

A species almost wiped out by tree snakes is being returned to the wild and, eventually, to its Pacific island home

As arks go, the shipping container that has been placed inside Sedgwick County Zoo, in Wichita, Kansas, looks an unlikely vehicle for saving species.

Nevertheless, work there is expected to play a key role in undoing one of the world’s worst conservation disasters: the accidental introduction of brown tree snakes to the Pacific island of Guam. The snakes’ arrival, at the end of the second world war, eventually wiped out huge numbers of indigenous birds, mammals, and lizards including the Guam kingfisher, the Guam rail, and the Guam flycatcher.

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NSW at ‘extreme risk’ of fire ant invasion after nest discovered 5.5km from border

Federal agriculture minister says ‘additional effort’ needed after new infestation found on the Gold Coast

The discovery of a nest of red fire ants just 5.5km from New South Wales’ northern border has prompted calls for urgent action to stop the spread of the destructive invasive insect.

The nest, found at Tallebudgera on the Gold Coast, is the farthest south the pest has been detected, prompting accusations that governments have been dragging their feet on properly funding eradication programs.

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Environment charity bids to encircle London in ‘M25 for nature’

CPRE London hopes to surround capital in trees by weaving existing areas of green belt in outer boroughs

An environmental charity is bidding to create an “M25 for nature” that would encircle London in woodland, hedgerows and street trees to boost biodiversity, carbon capture and wellbeing.

The countryside charity CPRE London hopes to weave together existing areas of green belt in the city’s 18 outer boroughs to create an uninterrupted ring of trees around the capital.

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Scottish ministers have ‘duty’ to protect seabed from harmful fishing, says court

Licensing for scallop dredging and trawling must comply with National Marine Plan after judicial review by Open Seas charity

The Scottish government should stop approving licences for fishing vessels using methods believed to cause harm to habitats, a charity working to protect marine life has urged, after a court declared a routine licensing decision to be unlawful.

Scotland’s highest court ruled that the Scottish government had failed to act in accordance with Scotland’s National Marine Plan (NMP) when varying fishing licences last December, after a judicial review by the conservation charity Open Seas. It is legally obliged to act in accordance with its environmental duties, as stated in the NMP, when making these decisions.

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EU passes nature restoration law in knife-edge vote

MEPs back law to place recovery measures on 20% of EU’s land and sea by 2030 by dozen votes

The EU has narrowly passed a key law to protect nature – a core pillar of the Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s European Green Deal – after months of fiery debate and an opposition campaign scientists criticised as misleading.

The nature restoration law will place recovery measures on 20% of the EU’s land and sea by 2030, rising to cover all degraded ecosystems by 2050.

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Brazil says illegal miners driven from Indigenous territory, but ‘war’ not over

Country’s top cop said 90% of miners despoiling Yanomami land had been expelled, though experts say they are only displaced

Brazil’s top federal police chief for the Amazon has celebrated the government’s success in driving thousands of illegal miners from the country’s largest Indigenous territory but warned the “war” against environmental criminals is not yet over.

Speaking during a visit to the Amazon city of Belém, Humberto Freire estimated environmental and police special forces had expelled 90% of the 20,000 miners who had been devastating the protected Yanomami territory, since launching their clampdown in February.

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Rare and ‘seriously, seriously cute’ chubby-cheeked rat discovered near Melbourne

Shy broad-toothed rat found after a detection dog tracked down its bright green poo

A detection dog has unexpectedly discovered a new population of rare native rodents in Melbourne’s outer east.

The previously unrecorded broad-toothed rat population was found by a four-year-old labrador called Moss who was searching the Coranderrk bushland near Healesville sanctuary.

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Driven out by decades of conflict, native giraffes make a return to Angola

In a ‘message of hope’ the animals have been brought in from Namibia to establish a group in their historical homeland

After an epic 36-hour journey, the first native giraffes to be returned to an Angolan national park arrived from Namibia this week, in what many hope to be the first of multiple translocations to return the animals to their historical homeland.

The giraffes, seven males and seven females, travelled more than 800 miles (1,300km) from a private game farm near Otjiwarongo in the Otjozondjupa region of central Namibia to Iona national park in the south-west corner of Angola.

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Tory MPs back mandatory swift bricks in all new homes to help declining birds

Calls grow for legislation requiring developers to include hollow bricks for endangered nesting species

Conservative MPs are joining calls for a new law to guarantee swift bricks in every new home to help the rapidly declining bird and other endangered roof-nesting species.

Pressure is growing to amend the levelling up bill so that developers are required to include a hollow brick for nesting birds in all new housing, with MPs to debate the issue in parliament on 10 July.

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