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Helene's death toll rises to more than 100 as supplies rushed to isolated communities

Emergency responders in western North Carolina were racing on Monday to try to reach people who remain unaccounted for three days after Hurricane Helene tore through the southeastern United States, killing more than 100 people across six states, wiping o

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Hurricane Helene shines light on woes of US home insurance industry

With private insurer losses expected to top $6 billion, Hurricane Helene is another reminder of climate change's impact on the US home insurance market. Also in this edition: the UK's last coal-fired power plant gets set to shut down after 54 years as th

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Friday, september 27, 2024

The long journey home for South African freedom fighters

Forty-two South African freedom fighters have been honoured in their homeland after their bodies were repatriated from Zimbabwe and Zambia. The activists died there in exile decades ago during the struggle against Apartheid. Their return is part of a gov

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Climate activists sentenced to jail for throwing soup at Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’

Two climate activists who threw soup at Vincent van Gogh's "Sunflowers" at London's National Gallery in 2022 were sentenced to prison by a UK court on Friday. Another five members of the British environmental group Just Stop Oil were sentenced in June fo

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War over water in Central Asia's Ferghana Valley

In the Ferghana Valley of Central Asia, neighbouring Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are at loggerheads over crucial water resources. This territorial dispute is exacerbated by climate change and the gradual melting of glaciers in the region. Is the future of

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Ethical shopping in the age of ultra-fast fashion: Time to slow down?

This week we look at ethical fashion in the age of "direct-to-consumer" giants like China's Shein and Temu. Thanks to their business model based on ultra-fast design and production, consumers can purchase a new look at incredibly low prices. But at what

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Wednesday, september 25, 2024

Hope for Australia's Great Barrier Reef? Helping coral adapt to rising temperatures

As ocean temperatures in the Great Barrier Reef reach their hottest for 400 years, there is new hope that it may be possible to adapt coral to make it climate resilient. As the quality of the reef continues to decline, scientists are becoming more and mo

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Tuesday, september 24, 2024

California sues ExxonMobil for misleading public on plastic recycling

In a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, the US state of California has sued ExxonMobil for fraud over plastic recycling. The state's attorney general accuses the oil giant of deceiving the public for decades by promoting recycling as a solution to plastic waste

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80 years on, French lake still polluted by World War II bombs

A French environmental group has found artillery shells dating back to World Wars I and II and even the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 in a lake in eastern France. Water samples from Gerardmer in the Vosges mountains show high levels of TNT explosive as wel

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Biden calls for end to Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan conflicts in farewell speech to UN General Assembly

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday called for an end to the conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan as he delivered the final address to the UN General Assembly of his career. UN Secretary-General Guterres, in his opening remarks earlier on Tuesday, warned t

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Monday, september 23, 2024

World's oceans close to becoming too acidic to sustain marine life, report says

A new report by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research details how a crucial threshold for ocean acidification could soon become the seventh factor breached – out of of nine – considered critical for the planet's ability to regulate life-susta

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Floods kill at least six in central Japan region recently hit by earthquake

Nine months after a magnitude-7.5 earthquake killed at least 374 people in the Ishikawa region on New Years Day, "unprecedented" rains caused floods that killed at least six people, blocked over 100 areas, and cut power to 4,000 households.

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Sunday, september 22, 2024

French Prime minister unveils right-leaning cabinet, decried by the opposition

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier's hard-won new government faced pressure from day one on Sunday, as it came under fire from opponents on both the left and far right -- which are now the largest blocs in parliament. Story by Charlotte Hughes.

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Swiss voters reject plan to boost biodiversity, vote against pension reform

Switzerland's biodiversity was dealt a blow on Sunday when voters rejected a plan to protect the country's endangered ecosytems. Environmentalists have repeatedly warned that the country's biodiversity is declining but the government said that the propos

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Saturday, september 21, 2024

Heavy snowfall shuts roads, strands motorists in South Africa

Roads were closed and motorists were stranded on Saturday following unusually heavy snowfall in South Africa. The N3 highway connecting Johannesburg and Durban was particularly affected, with emergency services trying to reach people in their vehicles in

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Environmental activists blockade Marseille port in protest at cruise ship pollution

Environmental protesters from Extinction Rebellion and Stop Croisieres blocked Marseille's cruise ship port on Saturday, protesting against the air, sea, and climate pollution caused by large cruise vessels. The protest, which involved a canoe blockade,

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Friday, september 20, 2024

Two missing, 1000 evacuated as Storm Boris brings flooding to northern Italy

Two people are missing and some 1,000 people have been evacuated from their homes after heavy flooding and landslides hit the northeastern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. The mayor of the city of Ravenna described the situation as a "full emergency".

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Tuesday, september 17, 2024

Ocean Photographer of the Year winners unveiled

PRESS REVIEW – Tuesday, September 17: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer ruffles Labour Party feathers with a cosy visit to Italy's Giorgia Meloni to talk migration. In other news, as fires ravage parts of northern Portugal, residents return to their ho

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Brasilia wildfire rages across national park, threatening protected environments

Wildfires engulfed the conservation area of Brasilia National Park on Monday and smothered the capital in smoke as the country grapples with a historic drought. The fire was reported to be human-caused, according to the government agency that manages the

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Peruvian city of Iquitos, a hotbed for wildlife trafficking in Amazon

Iquitos is a city of over 400,000 inhabitants located at the heart of the Peruvian Amazon and accessible only by boat or plane. In recent years, it has become a hotbed of wildlife trafficking in one of the world’s most biodiverse areas. More than 300 spe

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Monday, september 16, 2024

'Oil giants should pay for the damage', Greenpeace activist says amid deadly floods in Europe

Exceptionally heavy rainfall pounding Central Europe has prompted deadly flooding in the region. FRANCE 24's Sharon Gaffney speaks to Ian Duff, head of Greenpeace International's "Stop Drilling Start Paying" campaign. He says that oil and gas companies h

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'Oil giants should pay for the damage', Greenpeace activist says amid deadly floods in Europe

Exceptionally heavy rainfall pounding Central Europe has prompted deadly flooding in the region. FRANCE24's Sharon Gaffney speaks to Ian Duff, head of Greenpeace International's 'Stop Drilling Start Paying' campaign. He says that oil and gas companies ha

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Gateway to the underworld: Permafrost 'megaslump' in Siberia is expanding

According to a study published in the Journal of Geomorphology, global warming is the cause of the enlargement of the Batagaika crater in Siberia. Also known as the "gate to hell", this crater releases thousands of tonnes of CO2 each year and is expandin

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Sunday, september 15, 2024

Honduran anti-mining activist who fought to save forests, rivers is killed

An environmental activist who protested mining and hydro-electric projects in northern Honduras in an effort to preserve tropical forests and rivers has been killed, police said on Sunday.

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In pictures: Storm Boris brings heavy floods to central, eastern Europe

At least one person died in Poland and another in Austria, authorities said on Sunday, as Storm Boris brought some of the heaviest rains in years to central and eastern Europe. The storm has already caused the deaths of at least five people in Romania, f

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Saturday, september 14, 2024

Heavy rains batter Central Europe, four found dead in Romania

Storms battered eastern Romania on Saturday, flooding several neighbourhoods, where emergency workers found four people dead in a search and rescue mission. The stormy weather comes as several central European nations anticipate severe flooding to hit th

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Friday, september 13, 2024

What Greenland’s nine-day mega-tsunami tells us about climate change

A seismic signal heard across the world last September for nine days has been traced back to a trapped tsunami triggered by a landslide in the remote fjords of Greenland. Climate scientists say that the collapse seems to have been set off by melting glac

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Thursday, september 12, 2024

Paris to lower speed limit on ring road in drive to reduce pollution

Drivers on the French capital's crucial ring road will have to take their foot off the gas pedal just a little bit, as Paris' mayor Anne Hidalgo moves to cut the speed limit from 70 km/h per hours to 50 km/h. The new speed limit will be enforced graduall

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Reclusive Peruvian tribe Mashco Piro under threat: 'Their land has to be protected'

Two loggers, part of a team of people who had a license to cut down trees in the Peruvian Amazon, have been killed by bow and arrow after they allegedly encroached too far into land inhabited by the largest uncontacted tribe on the planet, the Mashco Pir

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Future of Amazon rainforest in peril amid historic droughts

PRESS REVIEW – Thursday, September 12: Papers focus on fires and historic droughts that are ravaging the Amazon and imperiling its role as the lungs of the planet. Also, French daily Le Figaro looks back at the rape accusations levelled against two rugby

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Wednesday, september 11, 2024

Super Typhoon Yagi kills at least 197 in Vietnam, forces evacuations in Hanoi

Thousands of people living along the Red River in Vietnam's capital Hanoi were evacuated on Wednesday, as floods and landslides caused by Asia's most powerful storm this year killed at least 197 people in the country's north. Typhoon Yagi also wreaked ha

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Tuesday, september 10, 2024

Floods in Chad have killed hundreds of people and affected 1.5 million, UN says

Every single one of Chad's provinces have been hit by intense floods brought on by severe rainfall that have left 341 dead and affected a total of 1.5 million inhabitants since July, the UN said on Monday.

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Monday, september 9, 2024

More than 50 killed in Vietnam after Typhoon Yagi triggers floods, landslides

Dozens of people have been killed in northern Vietnam after Asia's most powerful storm this year triggered floods and landslides on its way west. Typhoon Yagi cut power to millions of homes and companies, with factories across the country's northeast rep

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Saving the snot otter: How scientists are working to bring the hellbender to safety

PRESS REVIEW - Monday, September 9: The Paris Olympics have come to a close and it's not quite national mourning, but it's a teary goodbye for the host nation. In other news, as Georgia prepares for parliamentary elections in late October, are voters cho

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Paris's plan to ditch ACs and expand urban cooling system

Around the world, record-shattering temperatures are feeding demand for air conditioning. 135 million individual ACs are sold every year, a figure set to triple by 2050 according to the International Energy Agency. This rush to cool air could in turn bec

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Saturday, september 7, 2024

After years of civil war, South Sudan turns its focus to wildlife conservation

The world’s youngest nation of South Sudan, which emerged after decades of civil war, is home to the world’s biggest conservation project twice the size of Portugal. The conflicts have had an unintended consequence: they delayed development, meaning few

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Friday, september 6, 2024

Summer of 2024 was world's hottest on record, EU climate change monitor says

The world is emerging from its warmest northern hemisphere summer since records began, the European Union's climate change monitoring service said on Friday, as global warming continues to intensify. The exceptional heat increases the likelihood that 202

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Super Typhoon Yagi slams into southern China after deadly pass through Philippines

Super Typhoon Yagi on Friday made landfall in southern China, barrelling into the Hainan and Guangdong provinces. The storm is the biggest to hit Asia in more than a decade and has led to hundreds of thousands of evacuations and schools and businesses to

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Summer 2024 hottest ever recorded, EU climate change monitor says

Scientists have confirmed that summer 2024 broke global heat records for the second consecutive year, making 2024 likely to be the hottest year in recorded history. Data from Copernicus, Europe’s climate change service, shows June to August as the hottes

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Wednesday, september 4, 2024

'Queen of Trash' in dock in Sweden's biggest toxic waste scandal

Eleven people went on trial in Sweden on Tuesday, accused of illegally dumping toxic waste in the country's biggest-ever environmental crime case. Among those charged with "aggravated environmental crime" is Bella Nilsson, an ex-stripper who once called

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Monday, september 2, 2024

Attempted jailbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo turns deadly

Several people have reportedly been killed during an attempted jailbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo. Gunshots rang out overnight at Makala prison in Kinshasa. It's the country's largest incarceration facility - and has long been dangerously overcrow

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Sunday, september 1, 2024

'Hawaii of Europe': Azores seek to avoid pitfalls of mass tourism

This summer, many towns in Europe protested the arrival of tourists. In Spain, some locals even sprayed water guns to deter visitors. But one gem, dubbed the "Hawaii of Europe", has taken drastic measures to avoid overtourism. Faial Island, in the heart

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Friday, august 30, 2024

Weakening typhoon churns through Japan, leaving at least five dead

Typhoon Shanshan, which has weakened to a severe tropical storm, continued to dump heavy rain on Japan, where it has killed at least five people and injured dozens since making landfall on Thursday. One of the strongest typhoons to hit the country in dec

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Thursday, august 29, 2024

Dead fish blanket Greek tourist port after flooding

Greek authorities have started collecting hundreds of thousands of dead fish that poured into a tourist port in the central city of Volos this week after being displaced from their usual freshwater habitats during flooding last year.

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Wednesday, august 28, 2024

‘Refugees in our own village’: India's desert herders pay price for green energy drive

The deserts of India’s western Rajasthan state have become home to one of the country's largest onshore wind farms as the country scrambles to boost renewables and stem the impact of climate change. But local livestock herders say the wind turbines are p

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Japan issues evacuation, emergency warnings as Typhoon Shanshan approaches

Japan on Wednesday was braced for its strongest typhoon of the year as Typhoon Shanshan approached the southern island of Kyushu. Tens of thousands of island residents have been told to evacuate the area and transportation services were suspended as auth

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Monday, august 26, 2024

Pacific sea levels are rising faster than global average, says WMO

Sea levels in the Pacific Ocean are rising more rapidly than the global average, endangering low-lying island nations, a World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) report revealed on Tuesday. While global sea levels have increased by an average of 3.4 milli

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Brazil launches 'war' on wildfires devastating Sao Paulo state

Brazil has deployed military aircraft to combat raging wildfires in the densely populated state of Sao Paulo, where authorities suspect arsonists are responsible for the blazes. Following a crisis meeting, President Lula da Silva and Environment Minister

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Saturday, august 24, 2024

Nearly 300,000 Bangladeshis in emergency shelters after monsoon rains cause heavy flooding

More than 4 million people have been affected by flooding caused by heavy monsoon rains in Bangladesh, with almost 300,000 taking refuge in emergency shelters on Saturday, the ministry of disaster management said.

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Thursday, august 22, 2024

Tim Walz, America's new environmental champion?

As governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz has championed some of the most progressive climate policies, raising hopes that, if elected to office, Kamala Harris's vice presidential pick could help put environmental issues high up the agenda in the White House. F

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Smoke shrouds Brazilian city as Amazon burns

Residents of Porto Velho in the Brazilian Amazon have barely seen sunlight in days as a thick cloud of smoke from forest fires envelops their city. The Amazon suffered a historic drought between June and November last year and this year has recorded more

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Wednesday, august 21, 2024

Australia approves plans for 'largest' solar farm in the world

The Australian government approved on Wednesday an ambitious plan for a massive solar farm intended to power millions of homes domestically and supply electricity to Singapore. The project now depends on sign-offs from Singapore's energy market authority

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The ugly legacy of tourism in Bali: thousands of tons of plastic waste wash up on beaches

Bali’s beaches are among the most beautiful in the world. In 2023, more than 5 million people descended on this Indonesia resort. But behind the picture-perfect image is an ugly legacy of overtourism – a yearly haul of 300,000 tons of plastic waste. Repo

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Sicily yacht disaster: What do we know so far?

Divers were searching on Tuesday for six missing people, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, who were on board the British-flagged luxury yacht "Bayesian" that sank off the coast of Sicily amid a storm on Monday, killing one person whose body was r

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Monday, august 19, 2024

Firefighters contain wildfires in Turkey's Izmir and Bolu provinces

Firefighters in Turkey have brought under control two large forest fires that had been burning for three days, with several other wildfires across the country expected to be put out soon, the Forestry Minister said on Sunday. The blazes in Turkey's weste

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Saturday, august 17, 2024

Mediterranean Sea temperature reaches record high

The Mediterranean Sea reached its highest temperature on record of 28.90C Thursday, breaking the record from July 2023, Spanish researchers said. On top of endangering many fish species, overheating of the sea prevents the air from cooling at night and e

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Rising water levels threaten Indonesia's Jakarta

Jakarta, the former capital of Indonesia is sinking at an average of 10cm per year, threatening the livelihoods of its 10 million inhabitants. Meanwhile dykes that prevent sea water from flooding Jakarta are poorly maintained and could collapse at any mo

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Friday, august 16, 2024

Mediterranean Sea reaches highest surface temperature ever recorded

The Mediterranean Sea reached its highest surface temperature with a daily median of 28.9 degrees Celsius on Thursday, according to Spanish researchers, topping a previous record set last month. For two successive summers, the Mediterranean has been warm

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Thursday, august 15, 2024

Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson to remain in detention in Greenland

American-Canadian anti-whaling activist Paul Watson will remain in custody pending a decision to potentially extradite him to Japan, a Greenland court ruled on Thursday. Watson was arrested in Greenland last month on an international arrest warrant and i

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Wednesday, august 14, 2024

Firefighters battle remnants of deadly wildfire near Athens

Firefighters are tackling the last remnants of a deadly wildfire near Athens on Wednesday that has been raging for three days. While most of the fronts have eased since the fire first took hold on Sunday, Greek officials warned against complacency. The c

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