My column on how capital becomes a death cult. Faced with a choice between profit and human life, the radical right chooses profit. Then it tries to persuade us that mass death is what we want. It's the new phase of climate denial: accept your fate, earthlings. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Murderous heat, an endangered food supply, decimated landscapes: embrace the Mediterranean life | George Monbiot

As climate disaster stares us in the face, the radical right says ‘Embrace the Mediterranean life’. Embrace death, more like it, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

theguardian.com

Three lions held at the Tokyo Zoo have died from heat stroke. Four lions remain so ill that they're unable to stand. The average heat index in Tokyo in July was 110°. And we are in just 1.4C of global heating. We are on track for 3C in my kid's lifetime. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/w...

Eight people were killed at a train station in the village of Kvitneve, Kyiv Oblast, after a delay forced them to miss their last connection home, according to the head of the Brovary District State Administration. Video: Olena Zashko / The Kyiv Independent.

*2026 El Niño Ahead by a Mile* It’s remarkable for us scientists to witness El Niño’s evolution. If you had asked us if something like this was possible a year ago, it would have been a definitive no. But here we are… already more than 1C (& 3 months) ahead of the next strongest episode in 1997… 1/

Another great cover from @privateeyenews.bsky.social

You won't regret clicking on this beautifully told story by @lsommer.bsky.social about the Pacific Ocean and how the Trump regime is opening some marine monuments to commercial fishing.

These are some of the last pristine ocean ecosystems. Now, they're losing protections

The largest conservation areas in the U.S. are in the Pacific Ocean, where tiny islands are epicenters of biodiversity. The Trump administration is now opening their waters to commercial fishing, spar...

apps.npr.org

Unless we ban the use of fossil fuels for energy generation and surface transport, no company will ever leave this stuff in the ground. Why would they when they're making money hand over fist?

Oil Giant Saudi Aramco Reports 33% Profit Surge, Despite Iran War Disruptions (Gift Article)

Higher oil prices propelled a quarterly earnings jump for Saudi Arabia’s energy giant, which used pipelines to work around disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.

nytimes.com

This would be rare here - a sign of the depth of the drought. Rabbits normally have no need to drink water - they are surrounded by pastures & hedgerows filled with green grass & juicy vegetation. Now the fields are scorched brown and dry - birds & animals & insects face dehydration. #Droughts

Leaders of flag-raising group Raise the Colours Oxfordshire placed trackers on highway workers’ cars to find out their home addresses, the High Court has heard. RTC then attempted to intimidate the highway staff into no longer removing flags by repeating their addresses to them.

They're probably hoping you won't hear about this. But tomorrow in TX, Tarrant County officials meet to vote on a GOP plan to cut almost HALF of Election Day voting locations, plus 8 early voting locations, some of them on campuses. Not hard to guess why. fortworthreport.org/2026/07/30/t...

Tarrant County considers cutting 140 Election Day polling sites for November

County commissioners vote Aug. 4 on proposed reductions to the number of early voting and day-of sites for the midterms.

fortworthreport.org

In TX: Tarrant County Judge Tim O'Hare just CLEARED the meeting room, kicking out public speakers who are opposed to the GOP plan to cut half of the battleground county's Election Day voting locations for November:

First call I've seen by any politician for an emergency heat summit. 41°C today in Vienna Kudos @lgewessler.bsky.social orf.at/stories/3438177

Grüne-Chefin Gewessler fordert Hitzegipfel

orf.at

In fairness it starts and closes by making clear that economic and food security is under grave threat. But then provides next to no insight about what we should do about it beyond worrying about the cost of decarbonisation and undertaking some ill defined form of adaptation.

“We are simply missing one-third of the water volume that our hydropower plants would normally process.” #Hydropower flow in the Alpine region is “close to an all-time low” amid Europe’s worsening summer #drought www.euronews.com/2026/08/04/e... #ClimateEmergency #oilandgas #KatharinaReiche

Europe’s drought is draining hydropower in the Alpine region

“We are simply missing one-third of the water volume that our hydropower plants would normally process.”

euronews.com

My editor asked me to write about what happened to summer:

We launched a war on nature. Now we are in a climate warzone | Rebecca Solnit

Summer is not what it once was. We have been robbed of one of life’s great joys

theguardian.com

NEW: GB News has now spent a year as the leading news channel (though Ofcom treats its shows as "current affairs"). BARB data says it has been ahead of BBC News Channel and Sky News for 12 months in terms of average views. Still losing money, but gaining influence.

The largest funeral in Gaza history is being held today as the remains of 112 people from a single clan are laid to rest after being buried in rubble for three years. More than 300 people were killed in the strike by Israel, including 44 children and 37 women. The others were vaporized.

Gaza families bury 112 people recovered nearly three years after Israeli strikes

Remains recovered from beneath the rubble renew grief for families still searching for thousands missing in Gaza

middleeasteye.net

Why does the world allow russians to hunt Ukrainian civilians with FPV drones? In Kherson, a fruit vendor was attacked by ordinary russians with a drone while selling his produce at a market. The 52-year-old vendor suffered blast injuries,a concussion and shrapnel wounds. source: Myroslava Petsa

Wrote about the deafening silence on our summer of climate impacts from Labour, the Lib Dems, the Greens, business leaders, and even some campaign groups. The dominant climate discourse from the past week has been from those who want to ditch net zero targets and trash decarbonisation policies.

Jessica Elgot@jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 2d ago

We are in the third drought in five years. We have the National Trust and NFU - those radical types - sounding the alarm on unprecedented temperatures. But so little from any single figure in politics talking about the climate crisis.

July 2026 was an exceptional month for the UK's climate statistics, with records challenged or broken for rainfall, temperature and sunshine. Read more in our press release ⤵️ www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/new...

Good editorial from the FT saying our new PM must take a strategic approach to universities www.ft.com/content/1419...

"Kew Gardens has had a weather station since 1871. This July was, based on third party analysis of Met Office data collected at the site, the first calendar month on record where no rainfall was measured at Kew."

London's first month without rain

Plus: There's nowhere to bury the dead • London wants to keep its money • When will it stop being so damn hot • Who is to blame for turning off the air conditioning in the tower block?

londoncentric.media

“Drought causes 'collapse' in France's vegetable production: 'Even with irrigation, young plants have not survived' Cauliflower, peas and lettuce are suffering from a lack of water and successive heatwaves. The industry describes the situation as a 'disaster,' …” 8/2/26

Drought causes 'collapse' in France's vegetable production: 'Even with irrigation, young plants have not survived'

Cauliflower, peas and lettuce are suffering from a lack of water and successive heatwaves. The industry describes the situation as a 'disaster,' especially across western France, as the ability to sow...

lemonde.fr

Second to last paragraph.

Jo@pingiarcher.bsky.social · 6d ago

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

“I want to make something very clear,” #PedroSanchez in 2022. “Climate change kills: it kills people, as we’ve seen; it also kills our ecosystem, our biodiversity, and it destroys the things we as a society hold dear – our houses, our businesses, our livestock.” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘Climate change kills’: Pedro Sánchez speaks plain truth to Spain’s deniers

PM has long history of speaking out on realities of global heating but political opponents remain unnmoved

theguardian.com

"2024 global temperature record is consistent with model-predicted warming" | Our new article in @pnas.org (open access): www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

2024 global temperature record is consistent with model-predicted warming | PNAS

We employ a semiempirical approach combining climate model simulations and observational temperatures to assess the likelihood of recent global tem...

pnas.org

There are many issues with Reform’s proposals for Royal Navy operations against small boats but chief among them is the fact it has already happened and didn't achieve the government's stated aims Operation Isotrope ran from 2022-23 as Channel crossings peaked inews.co.uk/news/world/n...

No, Farage, the Royal Navy can't stop small boats. This is why

Critics are already tearing apart Reform's plans to deploy British warships to intercept migrants in the Channel

inews.co.uk

Last week, R20 Advisory – which is ultimately owned by Dunain Holdings Ltd, registered in the British Virgin Islands, and has virtually no public footprint – filed accounts for the year to May 2025, showing that it had owed more than £67m “on interest-free terms”.

🧵Right-leaning newspapers are trying to blame Europe's raging wildfires on everything EXCEPT fossil fuels 1. The Wall Street Journal Frontpage story: "Greece fights wildfires as Europe crisis spreads" WSJ editorial: "How green policies fuel fires in Europe"

I see we've reached the point in this particular summer of extremes where we are now having to BLOW UP rocks in drought-striken rivers to help send water towards gasping nuclear power plants www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

South-eastern Europe faces heatwave energy crunch as Romania detonates Danube rock to increase water flow – Europe live

Explosives used to move a large rock and let more water flow to cool nuclear power plant

theguardian.com