The Exmoor Dark Skies Festival returns from 16 October to 1 November for its 10th anniversary, with about 80 events planned across villages and towns surrounding Exmoor National Park. Walks, talks, astronomy sessions, moonlit swimming, bioluminescence walks and planetarium shows invite visitors to experience the night sky.

The festival celebrates Exmoor’s Dark Sky Reserve status, granted by the International Astronomical Union in 2011. The designation aims to protect people’s ability to enjoy the night sky by helping limit light pollution. Festival organiser Julie Colman said Exmoor has very little light pollution, and that darkness makes it possible to see clear skies and constellations across a large area of the reserve.

The event was designed in 2017 partly to bring business to the area as the traditional tourism season winds down. In Dunster, the Yarn Market Hotel runs festival trips led by a local astronomer and visits to sites and events around the park. Hotel manager Antony Brunt said the festival has become better known, with people calling to book and some visitors returning twice a year. This year, many festival events sold out before opening day.

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Tesla has unveiled a new version of its Roadster electric sports car, fitted with thrusters that apparently let it hover and turn in mid-air. The presentation took place at a Texas facility owned by SpaceX, which helped develop the model.

CEO Elon Musk said an audience was needed to prove the car “is not AI.” In a demonstration, the Roadster drove up and off a steep ramp, spun in the air and landed using air jets. A flying car is unlikely to appear on roads anytime soon.

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A bipartisan group of US senators is calling for an urgent investigation into reported restrictions on SpaceX’s Starlink internet service in Ukraine. The letter, led by Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, asks the US defence department inspector general to determine whether the restrictions were imposed by the department or its contractors.

The senators cited reported speed limits between 12 and 14 October, saying the curbs may have weakened Ukraine’s ability to defend against Russian drone and missile attacks on civilian infrastructure. Starlink reportedly capped speeds at 100mph (160km/h), cutting network access for weapons travelling faster. A US official told the BBC that President Donald Trump had not requested the slowdown. Elon Musk, who owns SpaceX, wrote on X that limits on Starshield systems are decided by the US military and ultimately the president. Starshield is designed for government and military use and relies on the Starlink network.

The letter also raises concerns about reported disruptions to intelligence-sharing and threat warnings, including incidents in which US diplomatic, military and security personnel could not reach designated bunkers during Russian air raids. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in Brussels on Friday that Starlink service was still being restored. He has also accused the US of withdrawing intelligence-sharing to pressure Kyiv over attacks on Russian energy sites. Zelensky said Ukraine’s attacks would continue after Russia struck Ukrainian energy infrastructure during a proposed “energy ceasefire”; the Kremlin did not say it had agreed to the arrangement.

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Evacuation orders are in effect as several wildfires burn across Southern California. The Norte Fire erupted Friday in Orange County and grew to 465 acres by Friday evening. Six homes in the San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano communities were damaged or destroyed, and one firefighter suffered heat exhaustion while fighting the blaze.

The Norte Fire is one of 13 fires burning in the state. In Malibu, the Bryson Fire has grown to 147 acres and prompted evacuation orders throughout the Santa Monica Mountains. Farther south, the Henderson Fire, which began Thursday, has burned more than 2,000 acres, including areas around Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. The fire has twice forced the closure of Interstate 5.

Santa Ana winds are driving the fires and are expected to remain dangerous into early Saturday. Gusts topped 40 mph in the Los Angeles area, with debris on roads posing a hazard to motorists. A red flag warning is in effect for several counties because of strong winds, low humidity and dry vegetation. Southern California is also experiencing temperatures far above average for this time of year. A heat advisory is in place, and Saturday’s forecast calls for temperatures reaching 95F (35C).

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As November approaches, the UK is still waiting for its first named storm of the season. High pressure has steered deep Atlantic low-pressure systems away, while the jet stream has often stayed north or north-west of the country. That pattern has brought warmer-than-normal south or south-westerly winds and less rain for many areas. Stronger winds have been occasional and mostly confined to the north-west, while the heaviest rain has fallen in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Parts of England and Wales have remained unusually dry. Herefordshire had received just a tenth of its normal rainfall for the month by mid-October. In southern England, exceptionally low reservoir levels led the Environment Agency to declare “severe drought” in some areas.

The jet stream’s position and strength are expected to change in the coming week, allowing deeper low-pressure systems to bring wetter and windier weather to more parts of the UK. Forecasts will be monitored for the possibility of the season’s first spell of widely disruptive weather later in the week. The Met Office’s October-to-December outlook gives twice the normal chance of wetter conditions and 1.3 times the normal chance of windier weather, a pattern consistent with previous El Niño events.

Named storms are usually designated when damaging winds are expected, but flooding rain or disruptive snow can also prompt a name. The UK, Ireland and the Netherlands began naming storms together in 2015. Storms are most common in winter, and in about half of the years since naming began, the first arrived after 1 November.

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Brazil’s government says deforestation in the Amazon and Cerrado has fallen to record lows ahead of a presidential election run-off where the rainforest’s future is a key issue. Satellite data shows that in the year to July 2026, deforestation in the Amazon fell 41.8%, the biggest annual drop since records began in 1988. The decline in the Cerrado, Brazil’s savanna region, was 23.8%.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who pledged to end Amazon deforestation by 2030 when he took office three years ago, will face Bolsonaro’s son Flavio in the 25 October run-off. Polls suggest a close race. Flavio is expected to continue his father Jair Bolsonaro’s policies if elected, though he has pledged to fight organised crime in the Amazon.

Under Jair Bolsonaro, who promoted mining in Indigenous lands, forest clearance soared as resources for forest protection were cut. From 2019 to 2022, the Amazon lost nearly 60% more forest than during the previous four years. Lula tightened environmental monitoring and penalties for illegal logging, and deforestation fell to a six-year low in his first year in office. “Our goal is to achieve zero illegal deforestation by 2030,” he wrote on X on Friday. Environment Minister Joao Paulo Capobianco called the decline “absolutely stratospheric”; Marcio Astrini of Observatorio do Clima called it an “historic achievement.” Tropical rainforests absorb carbon dioxide and are home to millions of species, but face pressure from land clearance for agriculture and logging, as well as climate change that can create conditions for wildfires.

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From November, all captive birds at Castle Espie will be moved to other Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) sites across the UK. The County Down centre once held around 500 birds; fewer than 100 remain. WWT Director of Operations Alex Lane said avian influenza and increased difficulty transporting birds since Brexit contributed to the decline. She said there is no aligned system for bringing birds into Ireland from mainland UK, and movements require an export health certificate and checks on arrival in Northern Ireland.

The bird transfer and closure of the captive bird programme are part of wider WWT cost-cutting measures. Lane said rising costs and income challenges have left the charity with a sizeable deficit. The centre will also end guided school tours, though self-guided school visits will continue. Lane said too few schools book guided tours to cover their costs, and transport expenses may contribute to low attendance. SDLP MLA Cara Hunter called the loss of guided educational visits “disappointing” and said the changes could reduce access for schools with limited resources. WWT plans to refocus Castle Espie as a hub for wetland nature conservation.

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Jai Mazumdar has served vegetarian curries, samosas, gulab jamun and other Indian dishes at Spice N Curry for almost 20 years. The cafe and grocery is in a strip mall near Florida International University in Miami. When the Covid-19 pandemic devastated the business, Mazumdar took out a $370,000 federal economic injury disaster loan in early 2021.

The loan offered a lifeline, with a 3.75% interest rate, a 30-year term and a 30-month deferment period. Mazumdar expected that business would return to normal and that he could then begin repaying the debt. But Spice N Curry did not recover enough to do so. Low-interest pandemic loans kept many restaurants afloat, but the industry has not rebounded enough for eateries to repay what they borrowed.

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Polls show that Democrats and Republicans in battleground states want candidates to talk more about the climate crisis. Most Americans feel uneasy or alarmed about climate change and, in red and blue states alike, want to know how political leaders plan to address it. Yet candidates in midterm campaigns across the country have responded with near silence.

This year, people in the US have endured a record-hot summer and roughly $2,000 per household in additional energy and mortgage costs. The higher costs are linked to the country’s dependence on fossil fuels, with the fuel supply disrupted by Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran.

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