Before the Spanish study, some scientists had been sceptical about the mammals attacking migratory birds
Bats are generally viewed as harmless, if spooky, creatures of the night. But scientists have revealed a more savage side, after witnessing a greater noctule bat – Europe’s largest bat species – hunting, killing and devouring a robin mid-flight.
The grisly recording reveals the bat as a formidable predator, climbing to 1.2km (4,000ft) before embarking on a breakneck-speed dive in pursuit of its prey. On capture, the bat delivered a lethal bite and subsequent chewing sounds, recorded between echolocation calls, indicated that the bat consumed the bird continuously during flight for 23 minutes without losing altitude.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
10/09/2025 - 13:00
10/09/2025 - 12:09
Prince of Wales’s decision welcomed as a means of drawing attention to the event and galvanising talks
The Prince of Wales will attend the crunch Cop30 UN climate summit in Brazil next month, the Guardian has learned, but whether the prime minister will go is still to be decided.
Prince William will present the Earthshot prize, a global environmental award and attend the meeting of representatives of more than 190 governments in Belém.
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10/09/2025 - 11:45
Ørsted plans to shrink company after Trump administration causes share price to plunge to all-time low
One of the world’s biggest windfarm developers will cut its workforce by a quarter in the next two years after a series of setbacks for the industry.
Danish wind giant Ørsted plans to remove about 2,000 positions from its 8,000-strong workforce by the end of 2027 through a combination of redundancies, natural attrition and selling off parts of its business.
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10/09/2025 - 10:00
Official reports are likely to overlook heat’s role in a death. As US temperatures rise, experts say the true toll needs to be counted
Among the autopsy reports that made my heart skip a beat was Hannah Rose Moody.
One morning last May, the 31-year-old set out on a favourite desert hike near her home in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was already 91F (33C) when she set off. On Instagram, she told her 50,000 followers: “Conquering this trail as a last hurrah before summer hits ☀️… I have like 5 gallons of water with me don’t worry .”
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10/09/2025 - 07:05
Exclusive: Government failure to close loophole allows 600,000 tonnes to be shipped abroad each year
A plastic recycling industry potentially worth £2bn and 5,000 jobs is dying in the UK because of government failure to close a loophole that allows 600,000 tonnes of plastic waste to be exported each year.
The Guardian can reveal that in the past two years 21 plastic recycling and processing factories across the UK have shut down due to the scale of exports, the cheap price of virgin plastic and an influx of cheap plastic from Asia, according to data gathered by industry insiders.
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10/09/2025 - 06:00
Study shows high-magnitude temblor in north-west could set off another in California, causing unrivaled disaster
Warnings about the looming threat of “the big one” – a catastrophic earthquake that could devastate cities – have stoked fears across the US west coast for decades. But according to a new study, a high-magnitude earthquake in the Pacific north-west could set off a secondary one on California’s San Andreas fault, causing an unrivaled catastrophe.
“The bigger one” would have the potential to wreak havoc up and down the coast at once, researchers say.
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10/09/2025 - 06:00
Struggling fishers in Hastings say the industry is dying after a deal giving away access to its waters made a tough job impossible
A small flotilla of gaily coloured fishing boats line the shingle beach at Hastings, East Sussex. Behind them are the bulldozers that shunt them into the waves and beyond, in neat rows, are black wooden fishermen’s huts and fish stalls, where on a good day teenage daughters, wives and retired skippers sell some of the day’s catch.
This is the Stade, a Saxon word for “landing place” from where wooden boats have set off since before William the Conqueror arrived in 1066.
Peter White outside his shed. He has been fishing for 52 years
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10/09/2025 - 03:06
Labor backbencher is calling for drastic intervention to secure supplies for the east coast
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The Labor backbencher Ed Husic is demanding an intervention to combat Japanese gas companies re-selling Australian exports to other markets, breaking ranks from the government and risking diplomatic blowback from Tokyo.
The former industry minister said the government must send a “powerful signal” to overseas multinationals, in particular in Japan, to stop “playing us off as mugs” by profiting off the resale of Australian gas while households and industry on the east coast face high prices and potential supply shortages.
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10/09/2025 - 03:00
If we really want to grasp what animals are ‘saying’, we need to understand their communication on their terms, not ours
Another day, another cute story about how dogs can grasp elements of human language and use them to communicate with us.
First, there was Mr Waffles, the Yorkshire terrier that“talks” to his owners by pressing electronic buttons that have been pre-programmed with words and phrases. In one of his videos, viewed more than half a million times, the pint-sized pooch stares defiantly at the camera and responds to an empty packet of treats by pressing the “I don’t give a damn” button. Followed by the “bitch” button. Bad dog, Mr Waffles.
Helen Pilcher is a science writer and the author of Bring Back the King: The New Science of De-Extinction. To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
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10/09/2025 - 01:49
Competition watchdog agrees to requests from Anglian, Northumbrian, South East, Southern and Wessex to increase charges
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Water bills for millions of households in England are to increase by even more than expected after the competition regulator gave the green light for five water suppliers to raise charges to customers – but rejected most of the companies’ demands.
An independent group of experts appointed by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decided provisionally to let the companies collectively charge customers an extra £556m over the next five years, it said on Thursday. That was only 21% of the £2.7bn the companies had sought.
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