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"Investigators believe a cyberattack this week on dozens of municipal water systems in Minnesota was probably the work of Iranian hackers, according to U.S. and state officials and others familiar with the matter, a potential act of aggression that comes at a precarious moment in the U.S. war against Iran." "There were no indications that any water supply had been rendered unsafe to drink."
"Climate change’s fingerprints are all over the extreme fire weather that sparked this week’s devastating wildfires in Spain and France and has spiked Southern Europe’s burning the past eight years, two new studies conclude."
"In a fiercely divided Washington, there is bipartisan anger at the stalled progress in cleaning up toxic chemicals at military bases. The delays have emerged as a rare issue uniting Democrats and Republicans in their criticism of the Pentagon."
"President Donald Trump overruled his own agencies when he denied disaster aid for four Democratic-led states this month."
"A proposed expansion of an Elk Valley Resources’ coal mine in southeast British Columbia is moving through the environmental assessment process despite concerns over pollution. Decades of coal mining in the valley has led to harmful selenium concentrations and loads downstream, in British Columbia and the U.S. states of Montana and Idaho."
"Trump’s order keeping an Orlando coal plant online renews environmental justice concerns over who pays AI’s pollution bill." "The fight over Stanton Unit 1 illustrates how America's AI boom could prolong coal pollution that has historically fallen hardest on Black communities."
Scientists say climate change, caused mainly by burning oil, coal and gas, is making the Mediterranean Sea hotter, bringing hundreds of new and invasive fish species that decimate indigenous populations. As biodiversity diminishes, coastal communities will struggle to make ends meet in the ways they’ve known for generations."
"The U.S. Department of Energy is harnessing the artificial intelligence boom in its bid to convert another Cold War-era uranium enrichment site, tapping private equity to fund a $100 billion data center complex that will include its own new natural gas and battery storage power plant in Kentucky."
"The Trump administration is looking to reopen closed oil refineries, including an embattled one in the Virgin Islands, amid high gasoline prices caused by the Iran war."
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A first-of-its-kind U.S. study suggests invasive mold infections may be an underappreciated — and potentially deadly — threat. The researchers detected about 450 cases in Atlanta-area hospitals over five years. About a third of the patients died in the hospital."
"The Trump administration is repurposing large chunks of federal land to host enormous data centers and the power plants needed to run them as officials seek to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence and overcome growing local opposition to the facilities."
"More than a month has passed since Venezuela’s devastating earthquakes, and the constant sound of heavy machinery still echoes through the hardest-hit neighborhoods of La Guaira on the northern coast. Dust from collapsed buildings hangs in the humid air. Garbage has piled up. Families camp outside homes deemed too dangerous to enter. Water trucks weave through damaged streets."
"Last week, a flood devastated portions of north central West Virginia and killed two people in Upshur County. Lawmakers have done little to fund prevention and recovery as climate change puts more of the state at risk of flooding."
"The state is a major importer of fracking wastewater, which gets pumped underground but doesn’t always stay there. The city of Marietta is fighting back."
"Research that used a federal grant to pay for asthma patients to have their gas stoves replaced showed a dramatic fall in asthma attacks. The program was cut short after President Donald Trump took office."
