"128 “Grazer” made Fat Bear Week history Tuesday night by becoming the first competitor to win the tournament while caring for a cub. Her victory over 32 “Chunk” also felt deeply personal for legions of her online fans; earlier this summer, Grazer’s enormous rival attacked the second of her offspring, who later died of the injuries."

"The largest dam removal project in U.S. history was completed Wednesday, marking a major victory for tribes in the region who fought for decades to free hundreds of miles of the Klamath River near the California-Oregon border."

"The adoption of ship scrubbers—technology meant to clean up dirty fuel—has caused a surge in heavy metal pollution."

"Voting started Wednesday in the annual Fat Bear Week contest at Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve, with viewers picking their favorite among a dozen brown bears fattened up to survive the winter."

"Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bipartisan bill Friday making it a crime to farm octopuses for human consumption in California."

"Drought is devastating Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, and some rivers are falling to historic lows. Images of one of the Amazon River’s main tributaries, the Negro River, show just how dramatically water is dwindling."

"A lawsuit filed by Mississippi Gulf Coast local governments, representatives of its tourism industry and Mississippi fishers against the Army Corps of Engineers to protect bottlenose dolphins from death or injury caused by openings of the Bonnet Carre Spillway has been thrown out by a federal judge in Gulfport."

"A new study suggests osprey chicks are starving in parts of the Chesapeake Bay because of a lack of menhaden, a primary source of food but also a major industry."

"Activists greet decision over killings of British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous expert with ‘indignation’"

"A tiny, vibrant world thrives along the rocky bottom of most streams. As sunlight filters through the water, mayfly nymphs, no larger than your fingernail, cling to algae-coated cobbles. Six spindly legs anchor them against the current, while feathery gills wave gently, drawing oxygen from the flowing water."