Just in case anyone needed reminding, the Dutch know how to play football. Clicking back into gear after a stumble against Austria, the Netherlands brushed aside the challenge of Romania – literally in the case of Cody Gakpo bursting beyond Radu Dragusin to set up the decisive second goal – and head into the quarter-finals in form.

This was a vindication for coach Ronald Koeman, whose selection was spot on and his substitutions even more so. For their opponents, this still counts as a good tournament, and their fans made one heck of a noise. However, the gulf in class between Romania and the Oranje in blue was clear and only grew larger as the game went on. Donyell Malen scored a brace in the last 10 minutes after coming on at half-time, consolidating a first-half lead delivered clinically by Gakpo.

The Romanians had the first 20 minutes, driven on by the support prized so much by coach Edward Iordanescu. Unfurling a banner that read “give everything for the final” (this may be a loose translation) they were not in the mind to go home. The players were of the same persuasion it seemed and began the game at a furious pace. Led by Ianis Hagi who suffered an early cut to the head that left him wearing a bandage and a hairnet, the Ena Sharples of the Carpathians, they crafted the best of the early chances. But much like a famous resident of Transylvania, the apparently dormant Dutch woke up when the Romanians least desired it.

The opening goal came in the 20th and it was a delicious move, begun by the unassuming Jerdy Schouten. His little pass ran only 10 yards, but it bisected the Romanian midfield entirely and found Xavi Simons in a pocket of space. Simons spun and released Gakpo out wide. The Liverpool forward took Andrei Ratiu towards the touchline then cut back away, took a touch across the corner of the box and drilled a low shot inside Florin Nita’s near post. Could the keeper have saved it? Perhaps, but at 125kph, at least it was over quickly.

Koeman spoke afterwards of his satisfaction with his team’s “ball position”. It sounded like ball possession at first but he meant what he said; the spaces and places in which his team picked up the ball and made use of it. His midfield played like a unit here after being a rabble against the Austrians and Koeman had especial praise for Simons, returning to the starting XI and adapting to a new role for this team between the lines. His link-up with the confident, strong and well-drilled Gakpo was key.

It was also the case, however, that the Romanians had a pulsating bruise, the left-back position where Nicosur Bancu was unavailable through suspension. The Dutch chose to punch that bruise again and again. Iordanescu, with his team under pressure, chose to reshape his defence before half-time, but with little effect. Simons should have scored after Denzel Dumfries robbed the substitute Bogdan Racovitan just before the break, but missed the moment thanks to an unnecessary touch.

Koeman doubled down on exposing the left-back black spot, replacing Steven Bergwijn – who had played just fine but was carrying injury – with Malen and his lightning pace at the break. Sure enough the Borussia Dortmund forward got in behind almost instantly and his cut-back should have been finished by first Simons then Memphis Depay, but wasn’t. Just before the hour Malen sprang clear once again, but crossed when he perhaps ought to have shot. From the resulting corner Virgil van Dijk hit the post with a header. Four minutes later and Nita denied Gakpo dramatically after the Dutchman had run the length of the field. From that corner, Gakpo got the ball into the net only to be denied by VAR for offside.

The tide was unrelenting, but the longer the score stayed as it was, everyone knew the laws of football physics would point towards a Romanian comeback. Iordanescu rolled the dice with 20 minutes to go, taking off Hagi, striker Denis Dragus and midfield linchpin Marius Marin for fresh legs. There was a controversial moment when a promising break was cut short for a foul on Dumfries which, on camera, was less than convincing. In truth, though, Romania only became more open as the game went on and Iordanescu made no complaints about the outcome.

With the clock running down, substitute Joey Veerman took a cute Gakpo backheel and shot just wide, Gakpo had a close-range shot blocked when played in by a driving Malen. With five minutes remaining, the roles reversed and Gakpo bustled into the box, knocked his way past Dragusin on the byline and gave Malen a tap-in, an invitation the Dortmund man duly accepted. Malen scored again with the final kick of the match, bursting through for the umpteenth time and driving in at that same near post.

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City and adviser to Donald Trump, has been disbarred in New York for making false statements about the results of the 2020 election.

A New York appeals court made the decision on Tuesday.

A panel of judges ruled that Giuliani would be “disbarred from the practice of law, effective immediately, and until the further order of this Court, and his name stricken from the roll of attorneys and counselors-at-law in the State of New York”, the Associated Press reported.

The decision comes after Giuliani already had his New York law license suspended for making false statements after the 2020 election.

In May, Giuliani was also suspended by New York radio station WABC for using his show to declare that Trump had lost the 2020 presidential election because of supposed electoral fraud.

In an interview with the New York Times, billionaire John Catsimatidis, the Republican owner of WABC, said that Giuliani had been “warned” to not discuss lies about the 2020 election.

“We’re not going to talk about fallacies of the November 2020 election. We warned him once. We warned him twice. And I get a text from him last night, and I get a text from him this morning that he refuses not to talk about it … So he left me no option. I suspended him,” said Catsimatidis.

Despite the slew of legal trouble, Giuliani has said he has no regrets for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election.

Last month, after posting bond in the Arizona fake electors case against him, Giuliani said he didn’t regret his actions.

“I’m very, very proud of it,” Giuliani said while leaving the state courthouse.

Giuliani has plead not guilty to criminal charges for reportedly pressuring Arizona legislators and the Maricopa county board of supervisors to change the state’s 2020 presidential election results. Giuliani also told Arizona Republican electors to vote for Trump.

Water companies could face a spate of legal challenges by people and businesses affected by sewage pollution after a ruling that United Utilities could be sued by a private company for damage caused by the dumping of human waste.

Lawyers said it was a “watershed moment” as the courts had previously ruled that penalties for water companies were a matter for the regulator, and companies could not sue firms for damage caused to their property by sewage pollution.

The Manchester Ship Canal Company, which has been trying since 2010 to bring a claim against United Utilities, has alleged that discharges from 121 sewage outfalls within its networks constituted a trespass.

In February 2012, the high court ruled in favour of United Utilities, but this was later overturned by the court of appeal, and then restored by the supreme court in 2014. Then, in March 2021, the high court ruled it was the role of regulators and not the courts to address problems caused by sewage dumping.

The Environmental Law Foundation, supported by the Good Law Project, challenged this decision, arguing that there should be legal options for people directly affected by sewage pollution. But the court of appeal found against them and said the only option for recourse in issues caused by pollution was through the regulator, and that the law did not allow people or companies directly affected to bring private claims against the water companies.

The case then went to the supreme court, which overturned the previous rulings and found that United Utilities can be held to account for damage caused by discharges.

The court said the 1991 Water Industry Act does not prevent the company from bringing a claim for nuisance or trespass when a canal is polluted by sewage discharges from United Utilities’ sewers, even if there has been no deliberate misconduct or negligence.

Lord Reed and Lord Hodge said: “The supreme court unanimously allows the canal company’s appeal. It holds that the 1991 act does not prevent the canal company from bringing a claim in nuisance or trespass when the canal is polluted by discharges of foul water from United Utilities’ outfalls, even if there has been no negligence or deliberate misconduct.”

The Good Law Project’s interim head of legal, Jennine Walker, said: “This is a sensational victory. It gives us stronger legal tools to turn the tide on the sewage scandal and hold water companies to account, after repeated failures from our toothless and underfunded regulators.”

A United Utilities spokesperson said: “We are considering the implications of the supreme court’s ruling and the clarification of the circumstances in which private owners could bring proceedings in respect of discharges. We understand and share people’s concerns about the need for change and we have already made an early start on an ambitious proposed £3bn programme to improve over 400 storm overflows across the north-west which would cut spills by 60% over the decade to 2030. These proposals form part of our business plan, which is currently under consideration as part of Ofwat’s price review process.”

Name: Chalfont St Giles.

Age: The Buckinghamshire village is mentioned in the Domesday Book, published in 1086, so at least 938 years old.

Appearance: Snuggled up to the Chilterns, Chalfont St Giles has everything you’d want and expect in a village often referred to as “quintessentially English”: village green, duck pond, Norman church …

Sounds lovely. Which is why it has attracted celebrity residents. It’s the birthplace of Nick Clegg.

Erm, celebrity? Sorry. Noel Gallagher used to live there. The Osbournes – Ozzy and Sharon – are up the road. It has been used as a filming location for the BBC sitcom As Time Goes By, an episode of Peep Show, and Dad’s Army (where it filled in for Walmington-on-Sea). “Chalfonts” is also cockney rhyming slang for haemorrhoids.

Mmm, less lovely. Got anything more … highbrow? You want highbrow, I’ve got highbrow. John Milton retired here in 1665 to escape the plague in London. It’s where he completed Paradise Lost, which now becomes rather fitting.

How so? I understand the paradise part. Chalfont St Giles has won the county’s best kept village competition, organised by the Campaign to Protect Rural England, six times since 2002. If keeping village was playing tennis, Chalfont would be Novak Djokovic.

Oh, I see. Presumably it’s going for the title again this year? Sadly not.

Why? Sabotage by Chalfont St Peter? Foul play? Foul smell more like it – the stench has been wafting across the green for months.

Djokovic pulls out due to chronic flatulence! OK, maybe let’s drop that analogy now. Anyway, can you guess the source of the smell?

I’m going to go right out on a limb here and take a wild stab in the dark. Would it have anything to do with a private water company? It would! Thames Water. The Amersham Road Balancing Tank has been overflowing, discharging sewage into the River Misbourne.

Bet the locals are delighted about that. “We’re all gutted,” the parish council’s Robert Gill said. They’ve had to close the playground, the river walk, the duck pond. And, now, pull out of the best kept village contest. “It’s important to villagers that we enter these competitions but we were left with no choice,” Gill added.

And it’s definitely that? Not just the normal countryside smells? Gill said he worried that contamination levels in the river were high after Thames Water took samples. A Thames Water spokesperson told the BBC the wet winter had resulted in high water levels, and that diluted wastewater had been discharged into the Misbourne “for which we are sorry”.

Do say: “Nationalise utilities now!”

Don’t say: “Anyone for a dip?”

When Richard Forrest walks along the Lyme Regis beach on the Jurassic coast in Dorset, he carries in his small backpack a pointed pick, a geological hammer and an old kitchen knife. But he very rarely uses them until he is back home with a rock or two to work on. “The most important thing to take with you is your eyes,” he says. “And learn what it is you’re looking for.”

Forrest is a fossil finder and has spent more than 50 years on Britain’s beaches hunting for evidence of the country’s prehistoric past. The Jurassic coast, stretching 95 miles (150km) across Devon and Dorset, is world famous for its treasure trove of ammonites and other fossils that lie, in many places, conspicuous beneath visitors’ feet. Others are hidden within the cliffs, only exposed after heavy rains bring on one of the regular landslips. “The best feeling is when you find something you think is potentially interesting and then you get it home and discover that wow, this is really interesting,” he says. “That feeling is amazing.”

On the day that we take a walk along the beach, the sun is dipping in and out from behind a blanket of pale grey clouds and there is a fresh breeze in the air. A dozen people in raincoats wander across the rocks slowly, crouching down intermittently to examine what’s at their feet.

The coast attracts thousands of visitors a year who descend on the most popular fossil beaches of Lyme Regis and Charmouth, often with picks and hammers. Some of them come to find what they may view as prehistoric treasure, others to walk in the footsteps of Dorset’s famous daughter, Mary Anning, who became known around the world for the discoveries she made here in the early 19th century.

But few have the level of expertise of the truly dedicated fossil finder. Walking with Forrest is like having the lights turned on in a shop full of jewels – suddenly seeing treasures surrounding you.

Recalling the first time he came to Charmouth as a teenager with his then-girlfriend’s brother, Forrest says: “I remember he said ‘hit that rock and there’s an ammonite inside it’. So I hit it and a beautiful ammonite appeared and he said ‘that’s the first time it has seen the light of day in 180m years’. That felt like fireworks going off. It was really extraordinary to me.”

Even the most experienced fossil hunter is not always successful, as the tiny fragment of rib framed in Forrest’s downstairs toilet attests. The words around it read: ‘Total finds from four days of collecting at Lyme Regis and Charmouth. Sometimes it’s only the beer that makes it worthwhile.”

“It’s always frustrating to come back again and again empty handed,” he says. “But you learn to deal with that because what matters, at the end of the day, is the number of hours you spend out there looking.”

For Forrest, fossil finding is much more than a pastime. It helped him recover from a deep personal tragedy, which left him repressing feelings that came back to haunt him later in life.

He found a love of fossils thanks to a palaentologist at his local museum, Arthur Cruickshank, who took him under his wing and encouraged him to piece together a plesiosaur, bone fragment by fragment. Forrest later went on to become one of the country’s leading experts on the marine reptiles, subsequently writing academic papers on his findings and giving talks.

Once hours of scouring the beach are done, we head over to Charmouth to see Forrest’s friend of 20 years, Chris Moore. A fellow fossil hunter, Moore is a longtime friend of David Attenborough who has made two documentaries with him, Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster, which aired earlier this year, and Attenborough and the Sea Dragon. The latter is about an icthyosaurus Moore and his son Alex discovered, and whose painstakingly reconstructed bones are now displayed in the Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre.

Conflicts and environmental disasters are stretching humanitarian resources, and a new UK government will have to decide what role it will play on the world stage in dealing with global problems, especially after budget cuts and closure of the Department for International Development by the Conservatives, and with priorities so focused on Ukraine. We’ve talked to the main parties and looked at their manifestos to see what their plans are.

Sudan

The war and resultant humanitarian crisis that has ravaged Sudan since April 2023 has become the world’s largest emergency, with famine already taking hold. The advance of the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group on the city of El Fasher in Darfur has once again raised alarm about a potential genocide. But most of the parties make no mention of Sudan at all in their manifestos, while pledging to stand by Ukraine and referencing Israel and Palestine.

Conservatives The current government has been concerned about the situation in Darfur and Sudan as a whole, tabling a resolution at the UN security council in June to call for an end to the RSF’s siege of El Fasher. The party’s manifesto mentions Sudan as among several conflicts where it will “redouble our efforts” for a diplomatic breakthrough.

“It’s an enormous worry and it’s occupying a great deal of time. Ukraine and Gaza mean the focus on the world is elsewhere and we need to correct that,” said Andrew Mitchell, the deputy foreign secretary.

Labour The shadow Africa minister, Lyn Brown, has been pushing for more pressure on the warring parties to improve humanitarian access and to agree a ceasefire. A Labour spokesperson said: “The UK has a leadership role on Sudan in the United Nations security council. Labour will support stronger and more coordinated international efforts for an immediate ceasefire, protection of civilians, accountability for violations of international law, and the restoration of peaceful civilian governance.”

Liberal Democrats Layla Moran, the party’s spokesperson for foreign affairs, said the Liberal Democrats would increase humanitarian assistance to Sudan and have a greater role in pursuing a “long-term peace where civilians form a democratic government and war crimes are prosecuted”.

Green party “The situation in Sudan is appalling. We would work within the UN and leverage the UK’s privileged role as a member of the UN security council to push for peace, and uphold human rights and international law,” a Green party spokesperson said.

The Scottish National party, Plaid Cymru and Reform UK did not mention Sudan in their manifestos and did not offer comment to the Guardian global development team on plans to lobby on the conflict and humanitarian crisis.

What the experts say Sudanese activists in the country and abroad have been crying out for more support for their cause. With more than 7 million people internally displaced, Sudan is in the world’s largest internal displacement crisis. There has been a lack of momentum towards a ceasefire, despite several rounds of talks, and the fall of Darfur to the RSF has left the country more fractured. There needs to be a bigger push towards a ceasefire and for humanitarian access but also to ensure farmers can produce food. Sudan is entering a rainy season that is projected to be heavier and possibly last longer than usual, raising concerns about damage to agriculture and the spread of disease.

In the UK, Sudanese diaspora activists have talked about a lack of support for some of those evacuated by the UK in the early stages of the war, especially the dependents of British citizens who have not been given any clear legal status and, unlike Ukrainians, have no pathway for staying in the country.

Development spending

Conservatives In November 2020, Rishi Sunak, then chancellor of the exchequer, announced he was breaking a manifesto promise by cutting the overseas aid budget by a third and ending the Conservative party commitment to the UN’s recommended spend of 0.7% of gross national income on aid.

Mitchell fought against the government’s decision. “I would like it brought back as soon as possible,” he said. “But the position is that it will return when the two fiscal tests [not borrowing to finance day-to-day spending and underlying debt is falling] are satisfied.”

The party is promising to introduce a “strict national interest test” for all future international development spending.

Labour The manifesto commits to return to 0.7% “as soon as fiscal circumstances allow”. Labour has not clarified exactly what the criteria and timelines are for this, or whether these might differ from the Conservatives’ commitments.

Liberal Democrats The cut to development spending was “misguided”, according to Moran, and “has tied our hands when it comes to responding to civilian conflict, famine and other humanitarian crises around the world”.

The party would restore the UK’s international development spending to 0.7% of national income and re-establish an independent Department for International Development.

Green party The Greens would restore international aid to 0.7% of global national income, raising this to 1% by 2033. The party would also increase the climate finance budget to 1.5% of global national income by 2033, with an additional contribution to a newly established loss and damage fund.

Scottish National party The SNP has promised to immediately restore the UK international aid budget to 0.7%. Chris Law, a member of the international development committee, said that should be the minimum requirement for all parties. “If we are going to be serious about our place in the world, we need to return to 0.7% as soon as possible … I’ve said before that I would like to raise it to 1% for an independent Scotland.”

The party also promises to increase investment into loss and damage caused by the climate crisis.

Plaid Cymru The party supports “the UN target for countries to spend 0.7% on international aid and calls on the next UK government to reinstate that commitment as a matter of urgency”.

Reform UK In its manifesto, Reform UK has called for cuts of 50% to international development spending and states a “major review is needed into the effectiveness of overseas aid”. It also calls for a review of the “global quangos” to which the UK pays more than £7bn a year. Bond, the UK network for organisations working in international development, said this “presumably refers to multilateral development spending through bodies such as the Global Fund”, which invests more than $5bn (£3.9bn) a year to fight HIV, TB and malaria.

What the experts say When it was announced in 2020, charities, aid experts and MPs decried the slash in funding, labelling it “unprincipled, unjustified and harmful”. The cut left a £4.6bn black hole in the budget compared to 2019, leading to many programme closures in 2021, including in key areas such as health and humanitarian work. Last year, the government admitted that thousands of lives would be lost as a result of ongoing cuts. In January, an international development committee report found the cut had a devastating impact on women and girls, damaging the UK’s reputation as a credible and serious partner in advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights globally.

Biggest international development challenges

Conservatives If the Conservatives form the next government, their manifesto states that their international development white paper would continue to inform their overall international development priorities. Mitchell said: “[The white paper] is about getting the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) back on track, the fight against climate change and turning climate funding from billions into trillions.”

Mitchell said he was most worried about Africa and added that more money is needed for adaptation to the impact of the climate crisis, especially in poorer countries on the continent.

Labour The party blames the Conservatives for undoing Britain’s “world-leading” reputation in the international development sector but plans to immediately order a review of how the UK can rebuild its capacity and leadership in development to work towards a poverty-free world.

“With multiple crises around the world demanding our immediate attention, and years of Tory chaos to overturn, we have no time to waste,” said Lisa Nandy, the shadow cabinet minister for international development, in a letter after the manifesto’s release.

Liberal Democrats “As we tackle the enormous development challenges facing the world, from insecurity and conflict to the growing impact of the climate crisis, it is vital that the UK’s place on the world stage as a development superpower is restored,” said Moran.

The party’s manifesto includes pledges on increasing humanitarian assistance to Sudan, on official and immediate recognition of a Palestinian state, and a foreign policy agenda “with gender equality at its heart”.

Green party Climate is the number one foreign development challenge, according to a party spokesperson. “We need to support and work with low and middle-income countries to face the challenge of our heating planet,” they said.

The party outlines the importance of upholding international law regarding the conflict in Gaza and the West Bank. “The UK’s diplomatic isolation over Gaza does not give us a strong voice to tackle climate,” said the spokesperson.

The Greens are focused on Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar and Ukraine and say all conflicts should be dealt with in the same way, without discrimination.

Scottish National party According to Law, the climate crisis and conflict are the two biggest challenges any government is facing in terms of international development and humanitarian aid.

He singled out the situation in Gaza as of particular concern. “Gaza is clearly on the horizon in terms of needing immediate support,” he said. As aid continued to be blocked from entering Gaza, it appeared to many people that starvation was being inflicted on people by Israel, he said. “It’s really serious. Getting more humanitarian aid into Gaza would be a top priority.”

Plaid Cymru The party did not respond to the Guardian but its manifesto calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and supports statehood for Palestine. It “supports peaceful and negotiated outcomes to all conflict”.

Reform UK The party’s manifesto makes no mention of international development challenges and no spokesperson responded to the Guardian’s request for comment.

What the experts say The next government faces several conflicts that are splitting humanitarian and diplomatic resources. Those in Gaza and Ukraine continue to demand attention but fighting and displacement continues in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Haiti. Record numbers are internally displaced and the problem is not only new conflicts but the lack of solutions to old ones that mean people are not able to return to their normal lives. While aid agencies clamour for more money to fund their responses to all of these crises, they will simply drag on without actual solutions.

Everyone loves bees and butterflies, but now moths are coming into the spotlight (as long as they don’t fly around it).

The moth expert Charles Waters has seen a surprisingly rapid increase in interest in moths from the younger generation as, he believes, people become more aware of their beauty and diversity, as well as their importance as pollinators.

“Moths are more significant pollinators because there’s so many of them. In the UK, there are 59 butterfly species, but there are 2,500 moth species,” he said.

At the Moonshadow moth garden at the Hampton Court Palace garden festival, which began this week, he showed off a variety of caterpillar- and moth-friendly plants.

British native wildflowers which moths love include wild strawberry, scabious and knapweed. The Moodshadow garden also boasted a large and colourful buddleia bush that is enjoyed by butterflies and moths alike, and has “messy” areas with long grass, and wood and twigs for the moths to rest on.

“I’m secretary of the Sussex Moth Group,” Walker said, “and the number of members is growing quickly, and that’s because people are much more aware and much more interested, which can only be a good thing.” The increase includes young people, too. “The age range used to be old fuddy-duddies – I would say like me but I’m only 65. There are some 85-year-olds who have been catching moths for 50 years but we are now getting an influx of younger people.”

Moths have often been ignored in favour of other pollinators, according to Walker, as they are largely nocturnal. They have also been unfairly maligned because of some particularly disliked species, such as clothes moths and box tree moths.

In fact only five species, out of the 2500, will eat fabric. “Then you’ve got the box tree moths and the oak processionary caterpillars, which can cause allergic reactions, so it’s understandable people don’t like those,” he added, “but that is a tiny fraction of the huge number of species of moths we have.”

To demonstrate the diversity and number of moths, he set up a nonlethal moth trap in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace the night before the show which caught 400, including elephant hawk-moths and buff-tip moths. They were all released in a beautiful cloud.

He traps moths all over Sussex and has noticed their decline, which is largely due to habitat loss. Caterpillars feed on native wildflowers and grasses, which have been stripped from the landscape by intensive farming and infrastructure building. “They are faring at least as badly if not worse than other pollinators,” said Waters.

Studies have found the overall number of moths in the UK has decreased by 33% since 1968. Some species have faced steep declines. The garden tiger is down 90% since 1968, the blood-vein has declined by 59%, and the white ermine numbers have plummeted by 71%. Conservation efforts are starting to show glimmers of hope for some species.

Trees are very important for moths, Waters added: “Oak trees are the best trees for the moths because they are well established in the UK and have been for hundreds of thousands of years. You ideally want a mix of trees, shrubs, wildflowers. They’ll all have their moth species, which have a caterpillar which prefers to feed on it.

“We’ve got to try to reverse this decline, and making your garden a bit more moth friendly can really help as the decline is mostly driven by habitat loss.”

Saving the moths also means protecting Britain’s birds, which feed on the caterpillars and eggs.

“As well as being important pollinators they provide food for birds,” said Waters. “So without the insects you’ll lose the birds and the ecosystem breaks down. So I think that’s the awareness that we’ve got to try to bring forward.”

A controversial competition that allows children to hunt feral cats in rural New Zealand for cash prizes has produced its biggest haul yet, with roughly 340 animals killed – about 100 more than last year’s event.

The annual North Canterbury fundraising event, which wrapped up this weekend, is open to children and adult participants and targets deer, pigs, ducks, possums and rabbits.

In 2023, it introduced feral cats to its suite of other hunting categories, prompting furious backlash from animal rights activists.

Event organiser Matt Bailey said the feline category was created to help manage feral cats, which threaten native wildlife and carry diseases that put farmers’ livestock at risk. A NZ$500 cash prize is awarded to the hunter with the largest number of cats killed, while the largest cat caught is awarded $1,000.

Feral and domestic cats are a serious threat to New Zealand’s biodiversity and native wildlife. The predators hunt endangered native birds and eggs, lizards, bats and insects. But the issue of their control ignites furious debate in New Zealand, which has one of the world’s highest rates for cat ownership per capita, with close to half of households owning one. Conservation groups regularly call for feral cats to be added to one of the world’s most ambitious pest-eradication regimes, which aims to eliminate all possums, rats, stoats and ferrets by 2050.

Just over 1,500 people took part in the North Canterbury event this year, with roughly 440 of those under 14 years old.

Animal rights activists have condemned the competition, arguing it is cruel to animals, desensitises children to violence and puts domestic cats at risk.

Animal Save Movement protesters attended the event, where they said they were quickly approached by young people dressed in animal costumes with the words ‘Animal Slay Movement’ printed on them.

The group criticised the event’s attempt to justify violence towards animals by claiming it was conservation.

“There is nothing conservative about encouraging children to kill animals and people attempting to throw dead possums at us,” said Sarah Jackson, who attended the protest.

Bailey said he is “not too worried about people who don’t understand, and not too worried about their feelings.”

Children in the rural region grow up in an environment where animals are hunted, skinned, processed and eaten, Bailey said. “It’s usual rural life.”

There are safeguards in place to ensure domestic cats are not targeted and cats are humanely killed, he said. Feral cats must be trapped first to ensure they can be identified as feral, and must then be killed using a minimum of a .22 rifle. Hunting is restricted to areas outside any residential areas, with traps set a minimum of 10km away. Bailey said it is easy to differentiate between feral and domestic cats.

“When [ferals] are caged, it’s pretty obvious – they are like the devil on methamphetamine, they will try to attack you.”

This year, the general competition raised roughly $60,000 for a local school and community pool, meanwhile venison from the deer hunt has been processed and frozen to donate to food banks.

The hunters and animal rights groups share one area of common ground: calling for more emphasis on responsible cat ownership.

The Animal Justice Party said alternative methods to managing cat populations should be investigated, including trap-to-neuter programmes.

“If we genuinely care about bird conservation and wildlife protection, we need individuals to take responsibility for their cats by neutering to prevent unplanned breeding and the subsequent dumping of unwanted litters,” it said.

Bailey believes a law change is needed to ensure cats are microchipped and desexed.

“They are an apex predator – the time’s come that if we want to be predator-free, we need to stem the flow of people breeding and dumping in the countryside.”

Donald Trump’s lawyers on Monday asked the New York judge who presided over his hush-money trial to set aside his conviction and delay his sentencing, scheduled for later this month.

The letter to Judge Juan M Merchan cited the US supreme court’s ruling earlier Monday and asked the judge to delay the former president’s sentencing while he weighs the high court’s decision and how it could influence the New York case, according to the letter obtained by the Associated Press.

The lawyers argue that the supreme court’s decision confirmed a position the defense raised earlier in the case that prosecutors should have been precluded from introducing some evidence they said constituted official presidential acts, according to the letter.

In prior court filings, Trump contended he is immune from prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office. His lawyers did not raise that as a defense in the hush-money case, but they argued that some evidence – including Trump’s social media posts about former lawyer Michael Cohen – comes from his time as president and should have been excluded from the trial because of immunity protections.

The supreme court on Monday ruled for the first time that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution, extending the delay in the Washington criminal case against Trump on charges he plotted to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss.

Trump was convicted in New York of 34 counts of falsifying business records, arising from what prosecutors said was an attempt to cover up a hush-money payment just before the 2016 presidential election.

Merchan instituted a policy in the run-up to the trial requiring both sides to send him a one-page letter summarizing their arguments before making longer court filings. He said he did that to better manage the docket, so he was not inundated with voluminous paperwork.

A brutal and long-lasting heatwave is threatening to wreak havoc across California this week, as sweltering conditions, power shutoffs and a severe uptick in wildfire risks coincide with 4th of July celebrations.

The dangerous weather event is expected to stretch for days with little reprieve. Starting Wednesday, parts of the state will be subject to “extreme” levels of heat risk – reaching the highest level on the National Weather Service’s index – that will last until Sunday or longer. In some areas, life-threatening triple-digit temperatures could linger for longer than a week.

“This is going to be a severe, prolonged, potentially record-breaking heatwave that may have large impacts for much of California,” said climate scientist Dr Daniel Swain during a broadcast discussion of the heat event on Monday. The long duration will only add to the potential impacts and intensity, especially because little relief can be expected even after the sun sets. “It just isn’t going to cool off – even at night,” he said.

While central and northern California are expected to bear the brunt of this event, areas in the southern part of the state are also going to cook. Heavily populated centers and rural agricultural enclaves alike could see record-setting highs during the day as well as record overnight temperatures. In the Central Valley, the state’s agricultural hub, temperatures are expected to hover near 110F through the week without dropping below 70F.

Forecasters have warned the dangerous weather conditions will pose health risks to the majority of the population, especially those unable to access cooling. “These are places where, yes, it is hot in summer – but it’s not often hot like this, and certainly not for this duration,” Swain said.

The extreme weather will also set the stage for new wildfire ignitions that can quickly turn into infernos. An abundantly wet winter left landscapes across California coated in grasses that quickly dried as the weather warmed. The yellowing hillsides and valleys are thick with fuel for fast-burning brush fires. Even deserts, typically-barren this time of year, are now primed to burn. “Unfortunately, I am not using the term ‘if wildfires develop’ because I think it’s inevitable during this event,” Swain said.

Fire risks always rise on the 4th of July, when hot dry weather aligns with explosive celebrations. Across the country, more than 18,500 fires ignite on average due to Independence Day celebrations, whether from errant fireworks or badly tended campfires. But as the temperatures rise, so do the dangers. Both fire activity and fire behavior this week will likely be extreme and new ignitions may become difficult to contain.

“It’s going to be a challenge both day and night – so the message is prevention,” said the Cal Fire deputy director Nick Schuler. The agency is at peak staffing levels to prepare for what’s expected to be an extremely busy week, extending into an extremely busy summer. Already, California has seen more than 131,400 acres burn, with months left before the risks peak.

“The important takeaway is that 95% of wildfires in California are human-caused, and the majority of them are preventable,” Schuler said, noting that careless barbequing, a spark from a trailer chain hitting the road or even some well-intended brush clearing can rapidly turn disastrous during the hottest days.

But the heat won’t only amplify the fire risks and intensity this week – it will also work to dry out more vegetation that could help fuel future fires.

A fiery start to July only adds to what’s been an incredibly hot spring. May wrapped up the 12th consecutive month of record warmth across the world. The trend continued in June in many places, including parts of California, and the summer is on track to be a scorcher. 2023 was declared the hottest year on record, and 2024 may quickly claim the title.

“Heat sucks the moisture out of vegetation and soil,” said Dr Alexander Gershunov, a research meteorologist with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, noting that, while this may be the worst heatwave to hit California this year, it will be far from the last.

While individual weather events can be difficult to connect to global heating more broadly, “heatwaves are the most directly impacted” by the climate crisis, Gershunov explained. Fueled by human-caused warming, heatwaves are increasing in both intensity and frequency, but they are also lasting longer and covering wider areas than before. This has only added to their potential to affect human health and put strain on systems.

“Heatwaves are certainly the weather extremes that are impacted by the steroids of climate change,” he said, explaining that the effect is similar to an athlete taking performance-enhancing drugs.

Summer weather has been extreme before, but it’s going to get hotter.

“The trend is toward more frequent, more extreme, longer-lasting heatwaves all over the world,” he said. “California is certainly no exception.”

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