Global Warming

• FEMA Staff Bracing for Dismissal of 1,000 Disaster Workers - The job cuts expected this month are part of a plan by the Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, to remake the agency.
• The Trump Administration Approved a Big Lithium Mine. A Top Official’s Husband Profited. - Karen Budd-Falen, the No. 3 at the Interior Department, didn’t disclose a $3.5 million water-rights contract between her husband and the developers of a Nevada mine, records show.
• Tatiana Schlossberg, Kennedy Daughter Who Wrote of Her Cancer, Dies at 35 - An environmental journalist and child of Caroline Kennedy, she recently wrote of her battle with leukemia in The New Yorker, drawing worldwide sympathy.
• Cheap Solar Is Transforming Lives and Economies Across Africa - Chinese panels are now so affordable that businesses and families are snapping them up, slashing their bills and challenging utilities.
• How a Research Trip to Antarctica Deals With Time Zones - The clocks aboard our icebreaker will be changed several times en route to Antarctica. It’s one of many things that make the expedition feel otherworldly.
• The World Wants More Ube. Philippine Farmers Are Struggling to Keep Up. - Soaring demand and extreme weather worsened by climate change have wiped out harvests of the popular purple yam.
• In Which I Try Valiantly to Cheer You Up - OK, 2025 wasn’t the best year ever. But we’re arguably still in the best decade in the history of humanity.
• Downpours Ease in Southern California, but Flood Risks Remain - Another wave of rain was hitting the Los Angeles area on Friday, adding to the record-setting precipitation over Christmas.
• Trump Tosses Lifelines to the Struggling Coal Industry - The Energy Department ordered two coal-burning power plants to remain open, and the Environmental Protection Agency gave utilities more time to tackle toxic coal ash.
• The Pentagon and A.I. Giants Have a Weakness. Both Need China’s Batteries, Badly. - As warfare is reinvented in Ukraine, and Silicon Valley races to maintain its A.I. lead, China’s battery dominance is raising alarms far beyond the auto industry.