"Democrats who control the [Virginia] state Senate thwarted a Republican effort on Tuesday to revive the Cabinet bid of former Trump administration official Andrew Wheeler, leaving Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) embattled appointee in limbo."

"Negotiators from around the world will start work this month on a treaty to reduce plastic pollution, in what diplomats say is the most ambitious round of climate diplomacy since the 2015 Paris agreement that focuses on global warming."

"A new study emphasizes the need to stop pandemics before they start, stepping beyond the quest for new vaccines and treatments for zoonotic diseases to also aggressively fund interventions that prevent them from happening in the first place."

"The third weekend of August 2020 was a hectic time for California. Wildfires raged, smoke filled the air, and power shortages had forced state officials to order rolling blackouts, meaning hundreds of thousands of homes lacked air conditioning during a brutal heat wave."

"Policymakers can’t hide behind a lack of research anymore when it comes to enacting meaningful conservation measures to protect dwindling wolverine populations."

"President Biden vowed Monday that a major European energy pipeline would be abandoned if Russia sends forces into Ukraine, intensifying pressure on the Kremlin as Western leaders attempt to stave off a renewed assault on the continent’s eastern edge."

"Nearly $725 million in federal funding is available this fiscal year to 22 states and the Navajo Nation for the reclamation of abandoned coal mines and cleanup of acid mine drainage, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced Monday."

"A corroded pipeline that ruptured and spilled 350,000 gallons (1.6 million liters) of diesel fuel into a New Orleans area wetland did not have a fully functioning leak detection system at the time, according to federal records, which also show the spill was larger than previously reported."

"Oil and gas regulators are assuring Texans the natural gas system will keep functioning this winter, saying they’ve done more than 3,000 inspections to check on it. What they’re not saying is many of those inspections found that gas production and transmission facilities can’t guarantee they’re prepared for another hard freeze."

"Cyclone Batsirai rammed into Madagascar’s coast on Feb. 5, bringing further devastation to a country already reeling from the effects of another tropical storm, Ana, that struck on Jan. 22."