The movement against datacenters is uniting Americans because they perfectly illustrate how a few individuals hold all the power to control decisions that affect our lives

Bryce Gustafson has been knocking on doors in Indiana for more than a decade. The lead organizer with Citizens Action Coalition (CAC), a consumer and environmental organization, he usually encounters a mix of reactions when he’s out canvassing; whatever issue he’s talking about, there’s always at least a few people on the other side. But at a recent festival in the rural town of Monrovia, Indiana, he was struck by an unusual spirit of unity.

He was there about a proposed datacenter, a 550-acre (222-hectare) Google project in this small town of 1,600 people. “I had 50 people I talked to,” Gustafson told me. “Nobody wanted that datacenter in their community. And at least a half a dozen people came up to me to say, ‘Hey, I voted for Trump. What the heck’s he doing, supporting these things?’”

Record inundations wrecked homes and took seven lives but Trump has not approved emergency aid and the state has cut funds for environmental agencies

It’s been 10 days since the floodwater receded from Cambridge City’s main street and yet signs of disaster are all around.

Abandoned cars, toilets and bathtubs are strewn across parks and side streets on a recent visit to the city. Garages have been lifted from their foundations and moved by the rushing water. Dumpsters up and down the street are overflowing with people’s belongings, with red paint sprayed on homes indicating which houses have been cleared by water rescue teams.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Whitley Bay, North Tyneside: A huge community effort is under way to clear up a spill of these disastrously resilient beads. We take a family trip to the beach to do our bit

My son spots the first one. It’s about the size of a lentil, and half-buried in the dry sand.

We’re on the beach at the seaside town of Whitley Bay. We’ve just walked past a clean-up crew of about 40 volunteers in hi-vis clothing and rubber gloves, kneeling or stooped over black buckets. This is the aftermath of the Tyne nurdle spill, which sounds much funnier than it is.

Many of us are overwhelmed by the sheer number of our belongings, but can we change our consumption habits? And is there a more sustainable way to declutter?

• Change by degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprint

• Got a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at changebydegrees@theguardian.com

Whether you call it decluttering, death cleaning or a clear out, many of us face the onerous task of paring back our possessions, or those of a loved one.

There can be many reasons: from managing the mountains of stuff that comes with small children, to downsizing or moving house, or dealing with a deceased estate.

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Each year, the Guardian reaffirms its commitment to the environment – both in our reporting and how we operate as a business. From critical tipping points to war in Iran, this is how the last 12 months have looked

• Support the Guardian’s environment coverage

• The Guardian climate forum 2026

Today marks the end of the Guardian’s annual climate support campaign. Each year, during the campaign, we remind our audience about the Guardian’s role in covering the threats to our planet and the importance of independent journalism in telling that story. Our climate pledge is a reminder of the environmental values we place at the heart of our reporting and our organisation.

Since our 2025 climate pledge, the world has experienced extreme levels of heat as well as extreme forms of denial and abdication in the face of the climate crisis. But, across the world, there have also been inspiring efforts to tackle it.

We will be publishing our annual company emissions data in the autumn, explaining what drives our emissions and where they have risen and fallen.

We have started the process of estimating our emissions from generative AI usage. We hope to report on this next year.

We have undertaken our B Corp recertification in line with the new standards introduced by B Lab in 2026. We will find out our result later this year.

We have participated in advertising industry working groups that published a methodological framework that aims to capture the emissions impact of digital and print advertising.

We open ourselves up to scrutiny by independent third parties, such as the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and B Corp, so they can assess the robustness of our targets and our internal policies.

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”.

In this week’s newsletter: Anti-datacentre sentiment is growing across the political spectrum in the US – and the public is only just finding out about the potential effects on their energy bills

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Anti-datacentre sentiment is growing from across the political spectrum in the US.

More than a dozen states have considered moratoria on datacentres. New York became the first US state to enact a temporary ban last month. Progressive stalwarts Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have proposed a national moratorium. And even Greg Abbott, the far-right governor of Texas, called for a ban on datacentre development in rural swaths of his state.

‘Our new normal’: how marine heatwaves affect life in British seas

Iraq’s ghost villages: Islamic State drove people away – now a new enemy is preventing their return

Destroyed crops, riverbed cyclists and a ‘Rock of Starvation’: how drought has devastated the Danube

Brazil has failed to prove compliance with EU rules on use of antibiotics in cattle and poultry farming

The UK’s leading farming organisations and animal health experts have called for an urgent ban on imports of Brazilian meat, in light of concerns over the safety of imports.

The National Farmers’ Union in England and its sister organisations in the devolved administrations wrote to the government on Friday warning that public health was at risk.

Nepalis and Tibetans must not pay the price – with their lives, livelihoods and money meant for education and health – for global heating caused by wealthy states

• Sunil Acharya is an international climate policy and just transition specialist based in Kathmandu, Nepal

As a Nepali citizen working on international climate policy for more than a decade, it is difficult to look at the harrowing images coming out of the catastrophic flash flood that thundered down valleys in Nepal, sweeping down the Lhende Khola, Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers, and not feel angry.

Not just because of the destruction, but because it comes after years of warnings from scientists and civil society that a rapidly warming planet would make disasters more frequent, more intense and harder to predict. This is what the cost of delaying global climate action looks like.

Sunil Acharya is an international climate policy and just transition specialist based in Kathmandu, Nepal

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Flash flooding and mudslides in Ishikawa and Toyama prefectures, while convective storms hit western Europe

After an “unprecedented” deluge in Chiba in mid-August, Japan has experienced further extreme rainfall in recent days. Moisture from the Sea of Japan brought relentless heavy rain to the prefectures of Ishikawa and Toyama on Thursday.

In Himi, Toyama, 361.5mm of rain fell in 24 hours, equivalent to half the average annual rainfall in London and Paris. Several rivers burst their banks, triggering flash floods and mudslides, felling and damaging buildings.

In this week’s newsletter: pollutants from fossil fuels and wildfires damage nearly every part of our bodies – but initiatives such as cycle zones can make our cities safer

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Air pollution affects nearly every person on this planet. Yet global efforts to combat the scourge – which is associated with about 8 million premature deaths worldwide every year, can damage nearly every part of our body and is linked to everything from miscarriages to dementia – lag decades behind our knowledge of its impacts.

Tens of millions of people in Indonesia are now suffering in swathes of thick smoke caused by “slash and burn” agriculture and exacerbated by the hot conditions. In India, ground-level ozone from vehicle fumes and industry has emerged as the key summer threat, while outside its megacities there have been protests in areas affected by toxic coal dust. Across the northern hemisphere this summer, wildfires driven by the climate crisis have spread poor air across continents – already, 1.5 million people globally die every year from the impacts of wildfire smoke.

Nearly 1,400 missing, mostly tourists, after Nepal-Tibet flash flood kills at least 270

Two planned datacentres will have higher UK carbon emissions than ExxonMobil, analysis finds

‘Environmental violence’: inside the fight to save indigenous land from becoming a nuclear dumping ground

Risk of fresh flooding had forced rescue teams to withdraw as residents rushed up hills to escape possible river surge

• Nepal-Tibet flash flood – latest updates

• Visual guide: how the deadly flooding unfolded

• Tell us: have you been affected by the flash floods?

Rescuers searching for survivors of deadly flash floods on the Nepal-Tibet border have resumed their efforts after suspending operations when a debris dam burst its bank on Friday, increasing the risk of fresh flooding.

Residents in Nepal’s Rasuwa district, on the border with Tibet, were seen rushing up hillsides ⁠on Friday to escape a possible surge in the river, ⁠according to witnesses. Fears of another flood came as authorities in Nepal and China said that at least 543 people had been killed in the disaster.