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Ministers say culls are vital for cutting TB infections in cattle but scientists say there is little evidence to support the policy

Up to 33,500 badgers will be shot this autumn in an attempt to control tuberculosis in cattle, a huge rise from the 10,000 killed in 2016.

The government has announced that 11 new badger cull areas have been licensed, adding to the 10 already in place. Devon now has six badger culls under way, with Somerset and Wiltshire having three each, with others in Cheshire, Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire.

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A small great white shark was rescued after it was found floundering on a beach in Sydney, Australia, on Monday. The shark was found by beachgoers in shallow waters at Manly beach and was moved to a beach rockpool to be monitored by authorities

• Pool shark: beached great white given temporary refuge in Sydney rock pool
  

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Stag deers in London’s Richmond Park, elks in east China, and Bactrian deer in central Asia are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

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Public pool closed to swimmers after injured marine predator transferred for observation by wildlife experts

A juvenile great white shark was rescued after washing up on a Sydney beach – and given a new temporary home in a nearby public swimming pool.

The shark, which washed ashore on Manly beach in Sydney’s north about midday, appeared to be injured and onlookers alerted marine rescue and lifeguards.

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Government backing for mines, which could potentially include the Adani Carmichael project, comes as banks under pressure from activist groups

The Turnbull government has responded to the increasing unwillingness of Australia’s banks to fund major coal projects by overturning a ban on government-backed loans to domestic miners.

Steve Ciobo, the minister for trade, says protesters and activist groups have so discouraged Australia’s retail banks from financing “otherwise viable exporters in the coal sector” that the government must step in to fund a growing “market gap.”

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Forest fires have brought a smoky haze to the West, along with stinging eyes, sore throats and headaches to people far from flames. Unseen particles of ash also make it hard for some to breathe.

(Image credit: David McNew/Getty Images)

Locals blame coca interests for the state’s broken promise on protecting Tipnis national park, biodiversity hotspot and home to thousands of indigenous people

When Ovidio Teco’s Amazon homeland was declared “untouchable” by the Bolivian government in 2011, his war had been won.

The concerns of people like him had been listened to: their beautiful and ancient land would not be carved in two by a 190-mile highway.

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Announcement aimed at tackling pollution will prove a huge incentive to development and sale of electric and hybrid vehicles

China, the world’s biggest vehicle market, is considering a ban on the production and sale of fossil fuel cars in a major boost to the production of electric vehicles as Beijing seeks to ease pollution.

Related: Britain to ban sale of all diesel and petrol cars and vans from 2040

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Ed Rappaport, acting director for the National Hurricane Center, gives an update on Hurricane Irma, and other storms expected to hit the Gulf Coast.

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Michael Masters, senior vice president with security intelligence firm The Soufan Group, who explains how natural disasters from fire and floods can destabilize major cities.

Exclusive: Special rapporteur’s mission finds government has violated obligation to protect people’s lives and health

The UK government is “flouting” its duty to protect the lives and health of its citizens from illegal and dangerous levels of air pollution, according to the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights related to toxic waste.

Baskut Tuncak issued his warning after a fact-finding mission to the UK in January at the invitation of the government in a report that has been shared exclusively with the Guardian before it is presented to the UN human rights council this week.

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2 Timothy 2:24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,  25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;  26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks to Vice Admiral Karl Schultz about the Coast Guard's Hurricane Irma response efforts.

It is possible to determine which nations and companies are responsible for damaging the climate. It’s only a matter of time before courts decide they must pay for global warming

Recent days have seen Houston, Texas literally sunk under sheer weight of rain, Carribbean islands battered by powerful storms barrelling across the Gulf and now Florida homes blasted by Irma, the largest of three hurricanes churning in the Atlantic basin. It seems almost certain that man-made climate change has a role in such events. Scientists used to be circumspect at attributing any single extreme event to global warming. No longer. Now scientists make the link between climate change and droughts in Kenya, record winter sun in Britain and torrential downpours in south-west China.

The unmistakeable fingerprint of extreme weather at the crime scene of global warming seems intuitively obvious: consider that Houston is reckoned to have been hit by three “500-year floods” in three years. A 500-year flood does not have to happen only twice a millennium. But a run of three indicates that past climate is no longer a reliable guide to the present weather. The explanation is that the climate itself is changing.

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Small but fast-growing Green party, which is demanding an immediate halt to gas and oil exploration, seen as potential kingmaker

When Truls Gulowsen began campaigning in the 1990s, telling Norway it had both a moral obligation and an economic interest in phasing out the industry that has made it rich was not what might be called a vote winner.

But as Norwegians go to the polls on Monday, the future of their country’s giant oil and gas business is a major electoral issue – with parties that back curbs or even a shutdown of the industry set to play a key role in post-election coalition-building.

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A new film tells the story of Crossett, Arkansas – a small town dominated by a Koch brothers-owned paper mill, blamed for dumping cancer-causing chemicals

The documentary Company Town opened in New York City on Friday night, for a short run at Cinema Village on East 12th Street. Introducing a sold-out screening, New York state attorney general Eric Schneiderman said co-directors Natalie Kottke-Masocco and Erica Sardarian had captured one of the “quiet tragedies that are taking place all across America all the time”.

Related: Dark Money review: Nazi oil, the Koch brothers and a rightwing revolution

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We have an update from the National Hurricane Center in Miami as Hurricane Irma passes over the Florida Keys.

NPR's Linda Wertheimer speaks with Chis Wilcox of the National Interagency Fire Center about wildfires burning across the western U.S.

Analysts predict sea change in energy policy as falling costs for offshore power will charge UK taxpayer at least 10% less than deal handed to new nuclear plant

Windfarms around Britain’s coast will beat the planned nuclear power station Hinkley Point on price when the winning bidders for a £290m-a-year pot of government subsidies are announced on Monday, experts predict.

Such a milestone would mark a dramatic cost reduction for a technology that was once far more expensive than atomic power, and could fuel calls for a rethink over the UK’s future energy mix.

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In the 1950s, the poultry industry began dunking birds in antibiotic baths. It was supposed to keep meat fresher and healthier. That's not what happened, as Maryn McKenna recounts in her new book.

(Image credit: Express/Getty Images)