Exclusive: Friends of the Earth finds greatest sewage discharge in Devon, Cornwall, Dorset and Somerset
‘Tiny bit of rain and the sewage comes’: Brighton swimmers vent fury at sea pollution
South West Water is doing more harm to the environment than any other water company in England, according to new analysis, with more sewage discharged in Devon, Cornwall, Dorset and Somerset than anywhere else.
Friends of the Earth analysed water companies’ environmental performance in six categories: sewage spills, water quality at bathing sites, pollution incidents or warnings at bathing sites, severity of sewage pollution at bathing sites, the percentage of rivers rated below the standard for good ecological health, and the affordability of bills.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
08/30/2026 - 01:00
08/30/2026 - 01:00
Checking for sewage spills has become as normal as checking the weather forecast, say swimmers on East Sussex beaches
South West Water has worst environmental record in England, analysis shows
“I’m furious,” says Jo Armstrong, 75, sitting on Brighton beach with her daughter and granddaughter.
Armstrong lives in Lewes, a town 8 miles from Brighton, and usually goes swimming in nearby Seaford in East Sussex every day. But over the past week the water there has been too polluted to swim. “Brighton beach was the only place that stayed clean,” she says.
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08/29/2026 - 18:51
Plaskett fire has swept through more than 5,900 acres in Monterey county and remains un-contained, says Cal Fire
A fire in California’s Big Sur region doubled in size overnight, forcing the evacuation of nearby residents, in a coastal region where firefighters have battled another blaze for weeks.
The Plaskett fire, which sparked on Tuesday, had swept through more than 5,900 acres (2,400 hectares) in Monterey county as of Friday, and remained un-contained, according to Cal Fire. Its cause is under investigation.
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08/29/2026 - 08:43
Half the world away, a Himalayan diaspora reacts in sorrow and pitches in to help victims in their home countries
Geeta Tamang was getting ready for bed when her aunts shared news that upended her world.
“My aunts came into my room and told me what had happened,” said Tamang, a 24-year-old computer science student at Queens College. She lives in Jackson Heights, home to one of the largest Nepali and Tibetan communities in New York City.
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08/29/2026 - 07:00
Recent deadly water-related incidents amid heatwave leads National Park Service to issue water-safety reminders
As a heatwave continues to bake the western and central US, officials are urging swimmers to be cautious when seeking respite from the summer heat, especially amid a score of recent deadly water-related incidents.
Each year, from April to September, drowning deaths rise nationwide, according to 2018-24 data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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08/28/2026 - 13:38
Nevada-based Kingsbarn Realty Capital seeks to acquire land to construct private road to development outside park
The Trump administration is reportedly pushing to give a parcel of land inside Yosemite, one of the country’s most popular national parks, to a Nevada-based private developer.
Staff with the National Park Service have been exploring how the agency can give a quarter-mile parcel to a company operated by Kingsbarn Realty Capital, the news outlet Notus reported on Friday, citing agency documents and unnamed sources “directly familiar with discussions”.
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08/28/2026 - 11:57
Campaigners say ‘seismic shift’ follows years of pressure to sever ties with oil and gas firm
The London Science Museum has ended its decades-long partnership with the oil and gas company BP in what has been described as a “seismic shift” for the museum.
The Science Museum Group academy, which was established in 2018 to provide training and resources, announced on Friday that it would be ending its partnership with BP. In a statement, the director and chief executive of the Science Museum Group, Sir Ian Blatchford, said the partnership had “drawn to a close at the end of the current contract term”.
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08/28/2026 - 11:39
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08/28/2026 - 10:16
State to offer up to 5,000 trappers chance to snare reptiles whose numbers have risen to 3m from fewer than 100,000
The first recreational alligator hunt in Louisiana in more than half a century is about to commence in the swamps of that state, with up to 5,000 hopeful trappers facing strict rules in order to snare a reptile.
The state’s fish and wildlife commission banned alligator hunting in 1962 to allow the species to recover after decades of unregulated killings for meat and hides dropped numbers there to below 100,000.
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08/28/2026 - 10:11
Government says Green leader’s proposed moratorium on ‘energy-guzzling’ AI projects would be disaster for economy
Labour has rejected calls to pause construction of major AI infrastructure in Britain after the Green party leader, Zack Polanski, said it was time to “slam the brakes on these energy-guzzling, water-guzzling datacentres”.
The government hit back at the opposition party’s proposal of a “moratorium other than [for] local-scale datacentres for the local community”, saying it “would be a disaster for jobs and national security”.
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