Nearly 40,000 pieces of litter were found on Guernsey’s beaches over a year, a charity has said.

The Clean Earth Trust said findings from its 2022 marine litter report would bolster its campaign to ban single-use plastics.

The report also recorded more than 10,000 cigarette butts were found by volunteers across 38 beaches and bays.

A charity spokesman said: “Over a thousand pieces of litter were found per mile of coastline.”

Of these items, 66% were plastic, highlighting the “importance of reducing our plastic consumption”, it said.

It added the 2022 survey provided a “snapshot of waste found on Guernsey’s beaches” – but many litter pickers outside the charity would not have recorded their findings.

The trust said it would use the data to support its campaign to ban the supply of specific single-use plastic products, including plastic cutlery, plates, straws and cotton bud sticks.

Plastic carrier bags also feature in the proposed ban, which has been presented to the President of the Environment and Infrastructure Committee.

The Scottish government has approved plans to expand Argyll’s Hollow Mountain underground power station.

Renewable power developer Drax proposes building a new £500m pumped hydro storage plant at its existing Cruachan facility near Oban.

The company said the extension could be operational in 2030 and support 1,000 jobs during its construction.

But before it can go ahead, the project needs new UK government policy that would support private investment.

Developers of pumped storage hydro schemes argue that the current UK energy market does not have the mechanisms to make such major projects attractive to investors.

The UK government said it did intend to enable investment in pumped hydro storage technology.

The existing underground power station at Cruachan was opened by the late Queen in 1965.

At the time, it was the first large-scale reversible turbine storage energy project of its kind in the world.

It is housed within a huge cavern dug out inside Ben Cruachan, which is nicknamed Hollow Mountain because of the project.

Unseasonably stormy weather moved eastwards across northern Italy as intense rain and 100km/h (62mph) winds battered the region.

In some places, tennis ball-sized hailstones injured people, damaged cars and uprooted trees.

A 16-year-old girl was killed when a tree fell on the tent she was sleeping in at a summer camp near the city of Brescia, while a middle-aged woman died after also being hit by a falling tree in Lissone, north of Milan.

The mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, said: “I have never seen anything like this…

The bodies of two children missing for three days after devastating floods in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia have been found by police.

The children were traveling in a car with three others when the vehicle became submerged over the weekend.

Authorities have also recovered the body of a 52-year-old man, while another youth remains missing.

The flooding was caused by the heaviest torrential rains to hit the Atlantic Canada region in 50 years.

Hundreds had been evacuated at one point and several highways, local roads and properties have been damaged.

The children were travelling in one car, while the man and the missing youth were travelling in another when both became submerged in flood waters.

They were all from the town of West Hants, north of Halifax, home to about 15,000 residents.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they recovered the bodies of one of the missing children on Tuesday morning, around 10:45 local time (14:45 BST).

The remains of the second child were found on Monday. Police did not confirm the ages of the children or the names of those dead and missing.

Three people survived after escaping from the car carrying the children, while two people escaped from the second car, which was carrying the man and the missing youth.