Record $6.7bn expected to be spent from Friday to Monday but some brands choosing to opt out over overconsumption concerns
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Black Friday used to be an American thing. But, like Halloween before it, the phenomenon of a blockbuster end-of-November sales period has taken off outside the US.
Across Australia, a wave of advertising has surged – promoting discounted appliances, electricity plans, clothes and just about anything else you could think of – reaching its climax this week.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
11/28/2024 - 20:44
11/28/2024 - 19:55
Government approves up to four days of paid leave so workers can avoid travelling during weather emergencies
Spain’s leftwing government has approved “paid climate leave” of up to four days to allow workers to avoid travelling during weather emergencies, a month after floods killed at least 224 people.
Several companies came under fire after the 29 October catastrophe for ordering employees to keep working despite a red alert issued by the national weather agency. The firms said the authorities failed to inform them sufficiently and sent telephone alerts too late during the European country’s deadliest floods in decades.
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11/28/2024 - 11:00
Scientists warn Fifa’s ‘wet bulb’ temperature policy underestimates strain players undergo during matches
Footballers face a “very high risk of experiencing extreme heat stress” at 10 of the 16 stadiums that will host the next World Cup, researchers have warned, as they urge sports authorities to rethink the timing of sports events.
Hot weather and heavy exercise could force footballers to endure temperatures that feel higher than 49.5C (121.1F) in three North American countries in 2026, according to the study. It found they are most at risk of “unacceptable thermal stress” in the stadiums in Arlington and Houston, in the US, and in Monterrey, in Mexico.
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11/28/2024 - 10:55
Temperatures of this week would be exceptional for summer, says climatologist, never mind late November
Towns in south-west France roasted in “completely extreme” heat in the early hours of Tuesday, with overnight temperatures hitting 26.9C (80.42F).
“It’s very exceptional temperatures – even for the summer, let alone late November,” said Matthieu Sorel, a climatologist at Météo France.
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11/28/2024 - 09:00
Exclusive: Environment minister agreed detail with Greens but the PM intervened after lobbying from WA premier and miners
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Tanya Plibersek struck a deal in writing with both the Greens and the independent senator David Pocock on supporting her nature positive legislation before Anthony Albanese vetoed it hours later in a private meeting with Adam Bandt and Sarah Hanson-Young.
Guardian Australia understands that Plibersek notified Albanese on Tuesday of what had been agreed before writing to her negotiating partners setting out the detail.
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11/28/2024 - 06:00
Restoration projects awarded grants to convert defunct bogs to bring environmental benefits and restore wildlife
As millions of cranberries were being harvested for Thursday’s US Thanksgiving holiday, Massachusetts farmers were working to convert defunct cranberry bogs to back to wild wetlands, amid climate crisis woes.
Several restoration projects were awarded $6m in grants to carry out such initiatives, state officials announced this week.
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11/28/2024 - 02:00
In a booming sector where the biggest ships have doubled in size since 2000, pressure is growing to make cruising a greener, more sustainable way to travel
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Toxic, filthy and cheap, the sludge-like substance known as heavy fuel oil has powered the shipping industry since the 1960s. What is perhaps less well known is that this same substance is still used to power more than half of cruise ships today, making what many choose as an alternative to flying one of the most environmentally damaging ways to travel.
The good news is that the industry, under pressure from environmentalists and new regulations, is adopting new technologies, energy saving designs and studying alternative fuels.
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11/28/2024 - 00:43
As Australia’s natural environment declines, Labor appears to cave to vested interests, writes Felicity Wade
On Thursday we were hoping to be celebrating the Australian parliament passing legislation to create a federal Environmental Protection Agency, an expert watchdog to oversee our country’s natural bounty. This was going to be a major moment for which my organisation, the Labor Environment Action Network (LEAN) and many others had worked for years. Promised on the eve of the 2022 election, it was the centre-piece of the Labor’s commitment to the environment. But late on Tuesday afternoon the legislation was moth-balled.
It is a sad and sorry tale.
Felicity Wade is national co-convener of the Labor Environment Action Network
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11/28/2024 - 00:40
The case, brought by the EDO on behalf of three Tiwi Island traditional owners, was dismissed in January in a scathing judgment
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The federal court has ordered the Environmental Defenders Office to pay $9m in costs to Santos after a failed legal challenge to the company’s Barossa offshore gas project.
The case, brought by the EDO on behalf of three Tiwi Island traditional owners, was dismissed in January when Justice Natalie Charlesworth delivered a scathing judgment that made adverse findings against the legal firm.
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11/28/2024 - 00:00
Devastated by quota changes post-Brexit, fishers are pinning all their hopes on Ireland’s politicians as they head into a general election
Words and pictures by Finbarr O’Reilly
Gale force winds gusting across the North Atlantic Ocean kicked up thick spumes of spray from the heaving swell soon after the Ocean Crest and Carmona trawlers left the main Irish fishing port of Killybegs in County Donegal. No other boats were fishing in the area when the storm swept over Ireland’s north-west coast. This was February, and the window for catching migrating mackerel was quickly closing but the two trawlers had yet to fill their quotas.
“This weather is about the limit of what we can fish in,” said skipper Gerard Sheehy as the nose of the Ocean Crest plunged into the trough of a swell, sending a wall of white water crashing over the hull and wheelhouse windows, momentarily obscuring the view before the vessel tilted back upwards into an oncoming wave.
Skipper Gerard Sheehy (centre) with his crew aboard the Ocean Crest in February
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