"Swallows, swifts and house martins were once a common sight over UK towns and cities, dextrously catching insects on the wing. But these spring and summer visitors are becoming increasingly rare, according to the definitive survey of the country’s birds."

"California Governor Gavin Newsom called former President Donald Trump's request for $1 billion from the oil industry to support his reelection campaign "open corruption." Newsom, a Democrat, made the accusation in a speech Thursday at the Vatican Climate Summit, where he addressed other governors, mayors and civic and faith leaders from around the world."

"In scorching heat on a busy Kolkata street last month, commuters sought refuge inside a glass-walled bus shelter where two air conditioners churned around stifling air. Those inside were visibly sweating, dabbing at their foreheads in sauna-like temperatures that were scarcely cooler than out in the open."

"The number of U.S. oil refineries exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s action level for benzene in 2023 was cut in half compared to 2020, according to a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project."

"The Interior Department issued plans Thursday to throttle future coal mining in the nation’s largest coal-producing region." "The Bureau of Land Management proposal would end new federal coal leases in the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming, which dominates U.S. coal production."

"In the DRC’s copper belt, pollution from the mining of cobalt and copper, critical minerals for the energy transition, is on the rise and polluters are ignoring their legal obligations to clean it up. Cases of pollution have caused deaths, health problems in babies, the destruction of crops, contaminated water and the relocation of homes or an entire village, residents and community organizations say."

"In the first two months of the year, the pipeline company Targa Northern Delaware vented more climate-damaging natural gas from its operations in New Mexico than all other oil and gas producers in the state combined — 250% more, an amount equivalent to the carbon footprint of nearly 26,000 gasoline-powered cars driven for a year."

"A barge slammed into a bridge pillar in Galveston, Texas, on Wednesday, spilling oil into waters near busy shipping channels and closing the only road to a small neighboring island. No injuries were reported."

"Beyond a chain-link fence topped with spiraled barbed wire, swaying coastal grasses conceal a cache of buried radioactive waste and toxic pesticides from a bygone chemical plant."