Heavy rain and strong winds have also caused disruption across British Columbia, Canada, over the last week
Storm Charles has brought destructive weather to the Iberian peninsula this week, particularly in Portugal and the far south of Spain. Heavy rain and strong south-westerly winds arrived first in the Portuguese island of Madeira, before the system headed towards the mainland on 11 November. A wind gust of 84.5mph (136 km/h) was recorded at Funchal airport, alongside rainfall totals reaching 355mm (13.97in) in 12 hours. In Lisbon, 183 flights were cancelled on Wednesday, about a third of its normal daily traffic, while Madrid Barajas airport had 155 cancellations.
After causing widespread flooding in Spain and Portugal, the system moved on a north-easterly track through southern France and then towards northern Italy. This resulted in significant flooding in parts of Cannes, some of which caused rock falls and led to the closure of roads along the French Riviera. The Italian weather service issued a red rainfall warning, its highest level, for the area extending from Tuscany to Venezia. Further heavy rain is expected to fall in Italy and the Balkans over the next few days, with the latest forecast models indicating an additional 100mm could accumulate widely, while totals close to 200mm are likely in more mountainous areas.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
11/13/2026 - 03:49
11/13/2026 - 03:00
This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world
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11/13/2026 - 02:55
Debate over climate science, transition away from fossil fuels, electrification and climate finance can begin in earnest as world leaders leave UN summit
Given Sheldon Whitehouse’s often lonely climate advocacy in American politics, it is grimly suitable that he is the only US senator here at Cop31.
The Rhode Island lawmaker is with a group of other Democrats who are, in a sort of unofficial way, representing the US. Donald Trump has, for the second year in a row, not sent a delegation to Cop and has recently spent time talking about solar panels frying animals to death and how he won’t allow any “loser” wind turbines.
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11/13/2026 - 01:00
Research finds highest levels of cancer-related PAH pollutants in cities that have widespread wood heating
Children’s exposure to home wood-burning could be as significant as exposure to traffic exhaust, suggests new research across six European towns and cities.
Scientists measured the air in buildings where children spend much of their time; in schools, sports centres and homes. Specifically, they looked at polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), a family of pollutants that are given off when fuels are burned.
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11/13/2026 - 00:00
Exclusive: Fossil fuels no longer dominant energy source, IEA leader says, as summit considers electrification pledge
The world has left behind the age of coal, oil and gas and is now firmly in “the age of electricity”, the world’s leading energy economist has said.
Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said more than twice as much electricity generation would be added to the global economy in the next decade than in the last, as countries scramble to secure their energy supplies against fossil fuel price volatility and supply shocks, such as the Iran war.
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11/13/2026 - 00:00
Owning an electric car, driving an electric motorbike taxi, riding scooters – we speak to people in Oslo, Kigali and Shanghai about their everyday routines
The race to electrification has emerged as a key theme of this year’s UN climate summit: increasing the use of electricity – particularly from clean sources – has the potential to improve daily life for people around the world.
The summit’s co-hosts are now trying to get countries to promise to increase their electricity use to 35% of all energy used by 2035. The global figure currently stands at 23%, but some countries are already striding ahead. As 100,000 delegates, negotiators and world leaders thrash out the details in Antalya, Turkey, the Guardian spoke to three people in Norway, Rwanda and China to find out what life looks like in more highly electrified countries.
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11/12/2026 - 17:12
Protesters with the Sunrise Movement youth climate group push for new Senate leadership and ending the filibuster
Dozens of protesters with the Sunrise Movement, a youth climate organization, were arrested after staging a sit-in inside Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer’s Washington DC office Thursday
According to the Sunrise Movement, 54 people were arrested, among a few hundred who joined the protest from across the country, including some from New York, which Schumer represents. On its Instagram, the group is fundraising $24,000 to cover the bail fees and any potential legal fees for those arrested.
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11/12/2026 - 17:00
Decision disappoints experts hoping for world’s biggest emitter to take global lead on climate crisis
China has ruled out hosting the Cop33 UN climate summit in 2028 after months of deliberations, leaving the field open for other Asian countries to hold it, the Guardian understands.
The decision will disappoint many countries and climate experts, who had hoped the world’s biggest emitter would take the lead on the global stage, as the US under Donald Trump has vacated all forms of international cooperation on the climate.
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11/12/2026 - 15:53
Sightings of the species are becoming increasingly common as experts worry about danger posed by busy waterways
A humpback whale was spotted on Thursday swimming in New York’s Hudson River, sparking a social media frenzy.
Brad Hoylman-Sigal, president of Manhattan borough, was among those to share a photograph of the whale on Facebook, an image taken on Thursday morning and provided by Gotham Whale, a citizen science and education group that tracks marine mammals in New York’s waterways.
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11/12/2026 - 12:51
Andy Burnham’s newly appointed climate adviser used report to warn of national security risk from collapsing ecosystems
The UK government still has no plans to publish an explosive report showing the national security risk from the collapse of ecosystems around the world – even after handing the key official behind the report a new advisory role.
Andy Burnham addressed the Cop31 climate summit in Turkey on Thursday and said the UK was determined to reach net zero by 2050 and work with its partners to build a clean energy future.
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