"The Justice Department took the extraordinary step of seeking to force reporters for The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal to testify before a federal grand jury — but withdrew the subpoenas earlier this month after they were challenged by the news organizations, according to a Justice Department official familiar with the matter."
"More than 40 million people in the United States and Canada depend on the Great Lakes for drinking water. Each glass of treated lake water is laden with tiny bits of plastic — microplastics — made of toxic chemicals linked to cancer and other diseases. Also contaminated are fish, staples of Midwestern fish fries and fish boils, and an important part of the diet of Indigenous tribes, certain immigrant populations and communities of color."
"The database of federal global warming research recreates a website that was closed amid the administration’s broad retreat from climate science."
"The Trump administration is providing $17.5 billion to speed the development of 10 new large nuclear reactors to meet the skyrocketing power demand from massive data centers."
"Attorneys general in seventeen states are suing California over its landmark single-use plastic law, which went into effect on May 1."
"At least 358 human rights defenders were killed last year, according to a report released last week by Front Line Defenders, a Dublin-based group that provides support for global human rights activists. Nearly a quarter, 84, were targeted because of their often unpaid work protecting land and the environment."
"The Trump administration on Monday proposed looser rules for oil and gas drilling operations on federal lands, including a dramatic cut to clean-up costs for abandoned wells."
"Sixteen countries have adopted the Mombasa Declaration to combat illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing. The biggest weapon in their arsenal: transparency."
"Millions of people around the world are having their lives upended by floods, storms and heatwaves worsened by the climate crisis. Those forced to flee their home countries, however, are finding that the door to the US is more firmly shut than ever."
"President Donald Trump’s nominee for the No. 2 post at the White House budget office told lawmakers Wednesday that the administration will stop federal cash from flowing to “divisive ideologies” under new grant rules in the works."
