NSW Maritime executive director says balls appear to be made up of fatty acids, chemicals found in cleaning and cosmetic products, and fuel oil

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A baffling tar ball emergency that closed major beaches in Sydney’s eastern suburbs appears to be over.

The remaining beaches closed to bathers at Coogee, Maroubra and Clovelly have been cleared to reopen on Saturday after Bondi and several others reopened on Friday.

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Samoa says 200,000 litres of diesel has leaked into the sea after HMNZS Manawanui hit a reef, with officials now racing to remove tons more fuel ahead of cyclone season

From the sky you can see it. A long white blot in the perfect blue. The HMNZS Manawanui lies about 35 metres beneath the surface of Samoa’s southern coastal waters, now just the ghost of a navy ship.

But what can’t be seen is the damage left in its wake – to the reef nearby and to the clear waters off the Pacific country, whose way of life is dependent on the ocean.

Readers respond to an editorial on falling numbers and debate what can be done to help fish and the wider ecosystem

Your editorial ( 15 October ) lamented the “dismaying” decline in wild salmon in British waters, commenting rightly that climate change and failures of marine conservation have contributed to this collapse. Another significant contributing factor has been the explosive growth, enthusiastically promoted by the Scottish government, in salmon farming around the Scottish coast. This activity has been shown to be damaging to wild salmon stocks, through the transmission of disease and parasites when farmed salmon escape, as they do in large numbers, from the nets that contain them.

The day after your editorial, you ran an article on the “gifts” being declared by Labour ministers ( More ministers declare gifts after Keir Starmer’s decision to repay £6,000, 16 October ). These include a declaration by Ian Murray, the Scottish secretary, that he accepted £320 of tickets to a football match in Liverpool in September thanks to Salmon Scotland. He was in Liverpool to meet the chief executive of the industry body that describes itself on its website as “the voice of the Scottish salmon sector”.

Democratic presidential nominee has raised alarm about Trump’s plans but has not said much about her own

As the US south-east struggles to rebuild after two deadly and climate-fueled hurricanes, some environmental advocates are demanding Kamala Harris flesh out a strong climate plan.

Since Hurricanes Helene and Milton ravaged parts of the country, the vice-president has slammed Donald Trump’s climate record by airing a new campaign ad showing the oft-criticized moment the former president redrew a hurricane’s path with a marker, and taking aim at Trump’s spread of climate misinformation and history of withholding disaster aid .

Campaigners point out it is often cheaper to drive or even fly within the UK than take the train

Fuel duty is expected to rise by up to 7p per litre after the budget, with speculation intensifying that the chancellor will restore inflationary rises as well as ending the temporary cut.

Environmental and transport campaigners have urged Rachel Reeves to bring the cost of motoring more in line with other forms of transport, after more than a decade of fuel duty freezes at the pumps and heavy increases in rail fares.

Government accused of ‘shocking’ choice to dilute protection standards in first animal welfare policy

Labour is using its first animal welfare policy since entering government to dilute standards by legalising the harmful practice of carrying chickens by their legs, charities have said.

European transport regulation 1/2005, which still applies in the UK, prohibits lifting chickens by their legs on farms and during loading and unloading, but the government is going to change the law to permit the widespread but illegal method, according to the Animal Law Foundation.

Ed Miliband seems happy to see the landscape blighted. We value townscape – everywhere else has to fend for itself

Does Labour believe in beauty? The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, celebrated his arrival in office this summer by permitting three of the largest solar panel arrays in Britain. One, a Suffolk array covering nearly 2,800 acres, was described by a county councillor as “the poorest infrastructure application that I have ever dealt with”.

Now Miliband is demanding a procession of pylons filling the glorious Amber Valley in the Derbyshire uplands. Another parade of 420 pylons, each nearly as tall as Nelson’s column, will run down the east of England from Grimsby to Walpole, near King’s Lynn in Norfolk. The government also wants to allow the return of onshore wind turbines , overriding local objections.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

Using the toxin for gold extraction is banned in the Philippines, but the practice remains widespread. Now one town is trialling a technique that could end its use and protect the world’s 15 million small-scale miners

For a small, rural town in the central Philippines, Paracale has a lot of pawn shops. That’s because the ground underneath it has a lot of gold. There is so much that a decade ago local officials had to tell people to stop digging under their houses to stop them collapsing, says Shirley Suzara, vice-president of a local mining association.

But the precious metal comes at a cost. “Way back we started noticing these mysterious illnesses – in our lungs, some kind of poisoning,” says Suzara, gesturing to her chest. “But we couldn’t work out where it was coming from.”

For one night only … This dramatic sun-lover produces flowers that last for just for a single evening

Why will I love it?
Invite a piece of the Brazilian landscape into your home with the Cereus jamacaru . In the wild, this plant has clusters of long, fierce spines along its stem; however, those found in plant shops will usually be the spineless variety – that is where their common name comes from. It’s still a cactus that makes a bold statement, thanks to its architectural form and showstopping blooms.

Light or shade?
It will thrive in bright, direct sunlight.