Sherwood's Major Oak dies as bird flu kills seal pups on Heard Island

Scientists confirmed that the Major Oak, a 1,000-year-old tree in Sherwood Forest, had died. It failed to produce new leaves this year after being stressed by a series of hot, dry summers over the last decade. The confirmation closed the question of whether the tree would recover this season.

Australian researchers said an H5 avian flu outbreak on Heard Island and the McDonald Islands had killed more than 13,000 southern elephant seal pups and infected local birds and penguins. It was the virus's first detection in an Australian external territory. The pup deaths were the scale of the wildlife loss.

MapBiomas reported that water levels in the Brazilian Amazon rose to 2.6 percent above the historical average in 2025 after more rain. The group warned that climate change and land-use change still affect long-term water stability. A wetter year did not erase that warning.

A magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck Palu in Central Sulawesi, killing one person and injuring 38. A magnitude 6.3 quake in Da Qaidam, Qinghai, killed one person and injured at least five. The quakes were geological hazards in the same week as the climate and wildlife reports.

A fire at a Wyndham resort in Bayahibe in the Dominican Republic killed one person, injured several others, and forced nearly 1,700 tourists to leave. Authorities blamed combustible roofing and wind for the spread. The resort fire was an accident, not a climate study, but it shared the disaster list.

Mona Khalil's death from wounds sustained in southern Lebanon removed an advocate for endangered sea turtles. The environmental item and the war item were the same person. Her work was the reason the obituary sat with wildlife news as well as with the Lebanon toll.