Organisers say move will damage nation’s scientific standing as government refuses to comment on why group of scientists were refused entry
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Organisers of an international research conference have criticised a last-minute Australian government decision to deny visas to eight invited researchers, mostly from Asia and Africa.
Prof Justin Welbergen, chair of the 20th International Bat Research Conference in Cairns, said the decision to deny the researchers entry without option to appeal had disrupted the event, which is a key forum for global collaboration on bat research and conservation.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
08/08/2025 - 10:00
08/08/2025 - 07:19
Researchers say distinct frequency is ‘great news’ as it will allow their nests to be located with greater ease
Asian hornets buzz at a unique frequency that could be the key to controlling their spread, scientists have found, as the invasive species experiences a record year in the UK.
Researchers have said this is “great news”, as the hornet nests can now be more quickly found and distinguished from those of other species, meaning their threat to bees and other pollinators could be contained.
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08/08/2025 - 06:53
Canyon fire in Ventura county, north of Los Angeles, is 25% contained but still growing, officials say
Hundreds of firefighters and first responders are working to contain a rapidly growing brush fire in a mountainous area of southern California that has forced thousands of evacuations.
The Canyon fire erupted in a rural, sparsely populated area of Ventura county on Thursday afternoon and quickly exploded in size, spreading east into Los Angeles county. By 3pm on Friday afternoon, the blaze was 25% contained but covered nearly 5,400 acres (21.9 sq km) , according to authorities.
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08/08/2025 - 06:30
Con Edison, city’s monopoly utility, cut off 88,000 households in first half of 2025 as climate crisis drives extreme temperatures
An energy company seeking to hike utility bills in New York City by 11% disconnected more than 88,000 households during the first six months of 2025, signaling a crackdown on families struggling to cover rising energy costs even as the climate crisis drives extreme temperatures.
Con Edison, the monopoly utility that provides electricity to 3.6m homes across the country’s largest city and neighboring Westchester county, disconnected almost 2.5% of all its customers between January and June this year – triple the total number of families left without power in 2024. One in five disconnected homes remain without power for at least a week.
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08/08/2025 - 06:30
Sightings confirmed in County Durham and Suffolk as southern small white flutters in from European mainland
Britain has a new species of butterfly: the southern small white has continued its rapid colonisation of northern Europe by flying across the North Sea.
The species looks very similar to the native small, large and green-veined whites but two individuals spotted in County Durham and Suffolk this summer have been verified as Pieris mannii, which was once confined to southern Europe.
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08/08/2025 - 05:58
UK Health Security Agency warns of potential rise in deaths as hot weather sweeps in from Monday
A yellow heat health alert has been issued across much of England for the start of next week as forecasters predict another heatwave.
Temperatures could reach the mid-30s across central, southern and eastern areas of the country by Wednesday, the Met Office has said.
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08/08/2025 - 02:00
Experts warn country is in danger of becoming ‘dirty man of Europe’ as it falls to bottom of bathing water leaderboard
English swimming waters are five times more likely to be polluted than those in the EU, new research has revealed.
Experts have said that the country is in danger of becoming the “dirty man of Europe” again as it falls at the bottom of the leaderboard for bathing water which is free of bacterial contaminants.
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08/08/2025 - 01:00
Lek Chailert devoted her life to rescuing abused elephants. Now caring for 120 of them, she fears for their future in Asia
Saengduean Lek Chailert was five years old when she saw an elephant for the first time. It was in chains, lumbering past her home in rural Thailand on its way to help loggers pull trees from the forest. Back then, she saw the giant mammals like everyone else – as animals that served humans. But that changed the day she heard a scream from the forest.
Chailert was 16 when she heard the terrible noise. She scrambled through the trees until she found the source: a bull elephant scrabbling in the mud as it tried and failed to drag a log out of a ditch. Every failed attempt was met with punishment from the loggers and mahout, the elephant keeper.
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08/08/2025 - 01:00
The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
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08/08/2025 - 00:00
Social media post led to discovery that samplers measuring toxic particles in air can also detect fragments of DNA
As the UK’s Big Butterfly Count reaches more than 100,000 submissions, an international group of scientists have produced the first national survey of biodiversity using an entirely different approach. Instead of looking for species by eye, they took advantage of the samplers around the UK that constantly measure toxic metal particles in the air, and used them to measure tiny fragments of DNA.
Dr Joanne Littlefair from University College London, part of the research team, said: “Organisms lose bits of themselves all the time – dead skin cells, fragments of hair or feathers, saliva, even faeces and urine. Some of this will blow up into the air and become airborne ‘environmental’ DNA or eDNA.”
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