"North Carolina lawmakers agreed Wednesday to spend another $528 million on still-pressing needs from Hurricane Helene’s historic flooding nearly six months ago, with an emphasis on home and private road repairs, agriculture and infrastructure to aid businesses."

"The devastating impacts of the climate crisis reached new heights in 2024, with scores of unprecedented heatwaves, floods and storms across the globe, according to the UN’s World Meteorological Organization."

"Near the western New Mexico town of Grants, the toxic legacy of Cold War uranium mining and milling has shattered lives, destroyed homes and created a contamination threat to the last clean source of groundwater for an entire region"

"Every Friday, as he’s done for the last year and a half, Mark Broyles hops in his truck and drives 20 minutes from his home in Big Stone Gap to Duffield, Virginia, to pick up two boxes of free food. Though their contents are always a surprise, as the retired mechanic describes it, he’s able to get “fresh produce and stuff that a lot of us can’t afford because of the price of groceries.”"

"The first thing Amanda Cronin did when her supervisor offered her a job at the Environmental Protection Agency was buy herself a big piece of chocolate cake."

"In a sweeping interview, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, outlined a strategy for containing the measles outbreak in West Texas that strayed far from mainstream science, relying heavily on fringe theories about prevention and treatments. He issued a muffled call for vaccinations in the affected community, but said the choice was a personal one. He suggested that measles vaccine injuries were more common than known, contrary to extensive research."

"In mid-February, Trump administration leaders received a desperate warning from their diplomats posted in Vietnam, one of the most important American partners in Asia. Workers were in the middle of cleaning up the site of an enormous chemical spill, the Bien Hoa air base, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio abruptly halted all foreign aid funding."

"Widespread sewage spills contaminate Britain’s waterways and hit the broader economy"

"Democratic lawmakers and veterans’ groups are fuming over a provision in a stopgap federal spending bill passed by House Republicans this week that would cut a Department of Veteran Affairs fund meant to cover costs for illnesses linked to military burn pits and other chemical exposure."

"A dynamic storm that prompted foreboding predictions of dangerous weekend weather spawned tornadoes, dust storms and wildfires that killed at least 39 people and destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses."