"The National Park Service (NPS) is in hot water with ethics watchdogs for a slickly produced video promoting President Trump along with its plans to host a fireworks spectacle after his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention."

"An abrupt shift this week in government testing guidelines for Americans exposed to the novel coronavirus was directed by the White House’s coronavirus task force, alarming outside public health experts who warn the change could hasten the disease’s spread."

"With great fanfare, the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday gave emergency approval to a disinfectant it said would kill the coronavirus on surfaces for up to a week. ... But health and chemical experts say the cleanser might actually harm passengers and flight attendants and do little to protect against the virus, which is mainly transmitted through the air in closed spaces."

"The top U.S. infectious diseases expert is warning that distributing a COVID-19 vaccine under special emergency use guidelines before it has been proved safe and effective in large trials is a bad idea that could have a chilling effect on the testing of other vaccines."

"Environmental groups filed lawsuits aimed at halting efforts by the Trump administration to open up wide swaths of Alaska’s Arctic to oil drilling. Two separate lawsuits were filed late Monday challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s plan to allow drilling on more than 18 million acres of land in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska."

"Senate Democrats today issued a 260-page climate report recommending trillions of dollars in investments and a wide-ranging federal effort to slash greenhouse gas emissions, a preview of the party's priorities if it's able to claw back control of government in November."

"On an early December morning last year in the state of Maranhão, Brazil, half a dozen members of the Indigenous Guajajara people packed their bags with food, maps and drone equipment to get ready for a patrol. They said goodbye to their children, uncertain when, or whether, they would see them again. Then, they hoisted their bags over their shoulders and set out to patrol a section of the 173,000 hectares (428,000 acres) of the primary rainforest they call home."

"PFAS Contamination Divides an Alabama Town".

"Environmentalists and Alaska natives are challenging the Trump administration’s decision to sell drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, arguing the government gave short shrift to the impact on polar bears and the region’s other wildlife. The groups said they filed a pair of lawsuits Monday in a U.S. district court in Alaska, setting up an election-year battle over the controversial plan, even as the Interior Department prepares for a possible auction."

"The Interior Department is set to auction oil and gas drilling rights to an area of federal land roughly twice the size of Los Angeles over the next six weeks, as part of its first oil and gas lease sales since March."