"Ahead of President Donald Trump’s trip to China next week, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers — including about two-thirds of the Senate — is urging him to seek the release of publisher Jimmy Lai, an ardent critic of the Chinese Communist Party who has been imprisoned in Hong Kong since 2020."

"More than 12 million people now have Parkinson’s Disease, nearly double the number from just six years ago. From kids who pedaled behind mosquito trucks in the 1950s and ‘60s to veterans exposed to Agent Orange to landscapers and farmers who attribute their Parkinson’s to pesticides, a generation of elders–and increasing numbers of young-onset patients–now suffer from what we didn’t know about chemicals in the 20th Century. "

"The U.S. Geological Survey announced a massive lithium deposit in the Appalachian Mountains, large enough to replace years of imports of the mineral." "While the figure is an official USGS estimate, extracting the mineral poses major technical and environmental challenges."

"President Donald Trump has yet to launch a crucial part of his workforce agenda that could rip civil service protections from thousands of federal employees." "A new employee classification is meant to purge the career workforce of impartial expertise and instead steer it toward the president’s political goals, critics say."

"The emails continually fill my inbox: Startups exclaiming they have engineered a solution to protect homes from wildfires."

"The National Weather Service is struggling to recover from last year’s deep staff cuts, raising doubts among some meteorologists about whether the agency is ready for severe storms or hurricane season, which starts next month."

"Texas lawmakers have for years rejected legislation that could have protected residents in the state’s flood-prone areas. Three bills would have banned youth camps or nearly all development in areas most at risk of dangerous flooding. Experts said the bills could have saved lives."