The UK’s biggest seagrass restoration projects is to take place off the coast of Wales.

Five million seagrass seeds are to be planted off the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd and Anglesey, with the aim of creating 10 hectares (25 acres) of seagrass meadow by the end of 2026.

The Seagrass Ocean Rescue project is inviting communities to get involved.

It said a single hectare of seagrass meadow could harbour up to 80,000 fish and 100 million invertebrates.

The Welsh government has recognised protecting and restoring seagrass meadows in Wales as a priority.

Its aims include showing the benefits that community-engaged conversation can bring and reconnect people with the sea and coast on their doorstep.

Farmers have been banned from taking water from the River Eden in Fife after it fell to a “critical” level, the second-lowest ever recorded.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) said the majority of water abstraction licences would be suspended from midnight on Saturday.

A significant scarcity warning was also issued for the River Tweed in the Borders – where a ban could follow.

The National Farmers Union said it was “devastating” for vegetable growers.

Sepa said the suspensions would be lifted as soon as possible.

David Harley, Sepa’s chief officer circular economy, said: “Having to impose suspensions on water abstractions underlines the severity of the conditions being experienced in the east of Scotland this summer.

“It is not a step we take lightly, but the evidence is clear, and it is one we can no longer avoid.”

Abstraction is the process of taking water from a river, loch or other natural source.

Sepa said the main stem of the River Eden had only been lower in 1989.

Flows in Kemback in Fife have not been as low for this long since 2003 and Strathmiglo is also experiencing its most prolonged low flow period on record.

Large parts of southern, central and eastern England have been declared drought areas.

The announcement was made by the National Drought Group, which said it was responding to the driest summer in 50 years.

It says “essential supplies of water are safe”, but water companies in the affected areas could now introduce further restrictions on water use.

Where the drought zones?

The Environment Agency (EA) says eight areas are now in drought:

It says that the West Midlands and Yorkshire are likely to be declared drought areas in the near future.

Map of existing and likely future drought areas in England

What is a drought?

A drought relates to a lack of water, but there are different types of drought.

The Royal Meteorological Society says a drought is not simply a lack of water for a specific time. For example, there can be agricultural droughts where there is not enough water to grow a crop.

The decision on whether to declare a drought in England is taken by the EA, which coordinates the response with water companies.

It says the drought announcement was based on data including rainfall, river flows, groundwater levels, reservoir levels, and the dryness of soils, as how that is affecting the public water supply, commercial water users such as farmers, and the environment.

The EA’s latest water situation report shows some river levels are at the lowest levels ever recorded.

Why are there droughts in Britain this year?

In the first three months of the year, England’s rainfall was down 26% and in Wales it was down 22%.

This meant that even before the summer started, that average river flows were “below normal” or “exceptionally low”.

Chart plotting the top ten hottest UK days on record since 1900

July saw temperature records broken multiple times and rainfall was down 76%.

These conditions have been made worse by the overconsumption of water. More than 28% of underground water sources are overused, the government says.

Drought is declared area by area, rather than for the country as a whole.

The EA says this does not automatically trigger water restrictions, but means it and the water companies will put into effect pre-arranged drought plans.

People around the world have been enjoying the fourth and final supermoon of 2022.

Known as the Sturgeon Moon, it was at its closest point to Earth at 02:36 BST on Friday.

Photographers captured the lunar event alongside stunning landscapes and famous landmarks.

The rare lunar phenomenon occurs when there is a full moon while it is also at its closest point to the Earth in its orbit. The effect is that the moon appears larger and brighter in the sky.

And on an exciting night for astronomers, shooting stars from the Perseids Meteor Shower also danced across the night sky.

Stargazers were treated to amazing views as most of the UK – apart from a few unlucky parts of northern Scotland – enjoyed clear skies.

The Supermoon reached its full brightness at 2.36am.

Incredible pictures were taken in Northumberland, London, the Isle of Wight and all across the southern coast of England.

Beautiful pictures were captured by photographers in other parts of the world too such as Jordan and Turkey.

As Europe lives through a long, hot summer, one of the continent’s major rivers is getting drier – posing major problems for the people and businesses that rely on it.

Captain Andre Kimpel casts an experienced, but worried, eye across the river Rhine, where water levels have dropped significantly in recent days.

Several ferry services in and around the town of Kaub have been forced to a standstill, but he’s still carrying people and their cars across the water to the opposite bank – for now.

“It’s no joke,” he says as he navigates the water which sparkles in the summer sunshine. “We have 1.5m [5ft] of water and our boat sits 1.20m deep. So we have 30 centimetres of water left beneath us.”

It’s not unusual for water levels to drop here but, Captain Kimpel says, it’s happening more frequently. “We used to have a lot of floods. Now we have a lot of low waters.”

On the riverbank nearby, there’s an old measuring station. Any skipper wanting to enter the Upper Rhine will refer to the official water level recorded here.

Swiss army helicopters have been drafted in to airlift water to thousands of thirsty farm animals sweltering under this summer’s soaring temperatures in the country’s Alpine meadows.

Lower rainfall this year forced farmers to call on the army to swoop in with much-needed refreshments for their animals and prevent a drought causing feed shortages later in the year.

A two-week operation is now under way with Super Puma helicopters flying to refill the near-empty reservoirs used by farmers for their cows, whose milk is often used to make Gruyere cheese, and other animals such as pigs and goats.

Without the emergency water supply, the animals would have to be brought down from their elevated fields to graze in lowlands, where normally their winter hay is produced during the summer months.

Swiss territorial army commander Mathias Tuescher said six helicopters had been mobilised for the effort, which will run until Aug. 19.

Overall some 400,000 tonnes of water could be dropped by the helicopters into the reservoirs, he said, with 1.5 tonnes delivered each trip.

The operation was also carried during the droughts of 2015 and 2018.

Poland has deployed soldiers to help clean up the Oder River, which runs along the border with Germany, after 10 tons of dead fish surfaced from the waterway in what one official described as an “ecological catastrophe.”

An association of fishers in Zielona Gora, a city in Western Poland, said Friday that it was suspending fishing in the river due to still-unconfirmed reports in the German media saying the river could be contaminated with mercury.

Investigations are underway to determine the cause of the mass die-off of fish. Huge numbers of dead fish were first spotted near the southwestern Polish town of Olawa in late July, along with animals such as beavers.

“We are most likely dealing with a crime where a substance was introduced into the water that causes the death of fish and other organisms. This is currently being verified,” Jacek Ozdoba, Poland’s deputy climate and environment minister, said.

Poland’s political opposition and local residents have accused the government of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of being too slow to confront the problem.

Przemyslaw Daca, the head of Polish Waters, the national water management authority, said Thursday that 10 tons of dead fish already were removed from the river.

“This shows that we are dealing with a gigantic and outrageous ecological catastrophe,” he said at a news conference held near the river, where officials faced angry local residents.

Environmental protection authorities in the southwestern city of Wroclaw had earlier notified local prosecutors that the country’s second-longest river appeared to have been poisoned.

Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak announced Thursday that both regular soldiers and reservists were being deployed to help remove pollutants from the river, which is known as the Oder in German and the Odra in Polish and Czech. It flows northward for hundreds of miles from the Oder Mountains of Czechia and empties in the Baltic Sea.

German officials have complained that Poland failed to honor an international treaty by not notifying them immediately about the possible contamination of the river. A boat captain first alerted German authorities about the dead fish in the river on Aug. 9.

“We know that the chain of reporting that’s envisaged for such cases didn’t work,” Christopher Stolzenberg, a spokesperson for Germany’s Federal Environment Ministry, said.

“We finally got the message yesterday that should have come from the Polish side,” he told reporters in Berlin. “But in fact, the pollution on the German side was already known about by then.”

Stolzenberg said German authorities were in contact with their Polish counterparts to get further information about the situation, including about substances found in the water, and to provide any assistance requested.