By Fiona Harvey , The Guardian.  Excerpt: Leaping flames, searing heat, copious sweat and scorchingly inventive swearing – restaurant kitchens are never a place for the faint-hearted, but this summer they have been sweltering in successive heatwaves to a dangerous degree. Some restaurants, cafes and bakeries in the UK grew so hot that they were forced to close , or reduce their hours , for the safety of their staff. ...tens of thousands of kitchen staff are thought to have carried on working in “furnace-like” conditions . Now a number of chefs are calling for one route to cooling kitchens.... Swapping gas hobs for electric induction cooking can reduce temperatures by as much as 10C, as induction cookers only heat the food in the pans . They are more efficient, ...are safer as they avoid the harmful pollutants emitted by gas cookers, and make it easier for air conditioning to work in crowded kitchen environments. ...A report from the Global Cooksafe Coalition found that restaurant...

By Preeti Jha , Semafor.  Excerpt: Africa is set for a record year of solar installations, according to new analysis. The continent is on track to install 17 gigawatts of solar in 2026 , up 45% year-on-year, according to the global energy think tank Ember and the African Tech Futures Lab. ...International Renewable Energy Agency...IRENA said solutions such as solar mini-grids were “ crucial for expanding access to dispersed and underserved populations ” in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Senegal, where rural electrification rates can range from 2% to 10% in certain areas. Inadequate energy and infrastructure investment has meant nearly 600 million people in Africa still lack access to electricity. Many countries are turning to the potential of solar power: Last year, Nigeria struck a $200 million deal with a renewable energy company to connect rural areas with solar mini-grids....  Full article at https://www.semafor.com/article/08/28/2026/africa...

By Hannah Richter , Science.  Excerpt: Global cooperation revealed a landslide, not a glacial collapse, likely initiated the cascade of events. ...hundreds of scientists around the globe...working tirelessly to piece together the sequence of events that led to the massive flood, which has killed nearly 600 people, left nearly 2000 missing, and destroyed numerous towns and hydropower plants along the Nepal-Tibet border. ...imagery soon led to reports that the explanation was a glacial collapse. ...The mystery could only be fully resolved with cloud-free satellite imagery. And by Wednesday evening, it arrived, both from a satellite operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation and Landsat-9, a joint NASA-USGS satellite. Now, the underlying mountain was visible—and it revealed a huge rock landslide had indeed occurred. “The glacier just came along for the ride,”....  Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/how-scientists-unraveled-cause-devastating-flood-tibe...

By Quinn Glabicki , The New York Times.  Excerpt: More than 3,000 miles of railways crisscross the Swiss countryside, linking Alpine villages to big cities like Zurich and Geneva. It’s the most dense rail network in Europe. Now, a start-up company and a local rail operator have found a way to use that land to generate clean electricity: Lay solar panels between the rails. Starting last April, in the shadow of a craggy mountaintop in the village of Buttes, the company, Sun-Ways, began running a test project on a short stretch of track that proved the idea can work. Similar projects are now expanding to France, Italy and South Korea....  Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/28/climate/solar-power-railway-train-tracks.html . 

By Ivan Penn , The New York Times.  Excerpt: California lawmakers passed a bill late Wednesday that would allow residents to install solar panels that can be plugged into standard electrical outlets in a bid to lower their electricity costs and reduce their contribution to climate change. The bill passed with broad bipartisan support in both chambers of the Legislature despite opposition from the state’s investor-owned utilities, highlighting the growing political salience of energy affordability . California has the highest residential electricity rates in the 48 contiguous states, and those prices have climbed sharply in recent years. If Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signs the measure, California will become one of nearly a dozen states that have legalized plug-in solar systems, often referred to as balcony solar. These systems, typically made up of a handful of panels, first became popular in Germany , where the panels are sold online and in stores. Last year, Utah became the...

By Maxine Joselow and Leo Sands , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Climate change is heating up the Himalayas and supercharging the risk of disasters like the deadly flash flooding in Nepal and Tibet, though scientists are still determining the exact cause of this week’s catastrophe. A group of glaciologists and geologists said on Thursday that the flooding was probably unleashed after an enormous chunk of bedrock collapsed underneath a glacier, triggering a landslide high in the mountains. At the same time, a chunk of ice snapped off the glacier itself and cascaded thousands of feet to the valley below, the scientists said. As humans warm the planet by burning fossil fuels, the Himalayas are losing their permafrost, a mixture of soil, rocks and organic matter that has remained frozen for thousands of years. The thawing permafrost is destabilizing the foundation underneath glaciers, raising the risks of precisely these kinds of landslides and glacial collapses....  Full article...