International

"An experimental solar-powered airplane has left Spain for Egypt in the penultimate leg of its globe-circling voyage."

"Last month was the hottest June on record for the Lower 48. If this kind of headline is starting to feel like a record on repeat, you’re correct — it’s the second June in a row that’s become the warmest on record for the U.S., although that fact is dwarfed by the string of globally hot months we’ve experienced over the past year."

"Insect populations are declining dramatically in many parts of the world, recent studies show. Researchers say various factors, from monoculture farming to habitat loss, are to blame for the plight of insects, which are essential to agriculture and ecosystems."

"The summer sea ice cover over the Arctic raced towards oblivion in June, crashing through previous records to reach a new all-time low."

"Christiana Figueres, the UN official who helped steer the Paris climate change accord to success in December, has entered the race to succeed Ban Ki-moon as the organisation’s next secretary-general."

"Bucking the trend of conserving cash at a time of low oil prices, the American oil giant Chevron said on Tuesday that it would go ahead with a $37 billion expansion of a gargantuan oil field on the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan."

"A blue whale found tangled in plastic rope off California has become a symbol for a little-known but growing hazard faced by the ocean's largest creatures along the U.S. Pacific Coast - commercial crab traps dotting the sea floor and drifting astray by the thousands."

"Florida health officials confirmed 10 new Zika infections on Friday, the largest number of infections found on a single day and a sign of the United States’ faltering response to a looming crisis."

"SEABROOK, N.H. — The cod isn't just a fish to David Goethel. It's his identity, his ticket to middle-class life, his link to a historic industry."

"Nearly three decades after the world banned chemicals that were destroying the atmosphere’s protective ozone layer, scientists said Thursday that there were signs the atmosphere was on the mend."