|
|
|
|
Top headlines
Lead story
The news out of Washington can seem overwhelming lately, from the U.S. seizing Venezuela’s president and oil and vowing to take over Greenland to ICE’s shooting of a woman in Minnesota.
The tumult can make it harder to notice the dismantling underway of national policies and programs that were created to reduce the risks the world is facing from climate change.
Last week, President Donald Trump announced he was pulling the U.S. out of the world’s most important climate treaty, one signed in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush. The EPA also sent the White House a final draft rule to rescind the Endangerment Finding, a determination that underpins most U.S. climate policies. A few weeks earlier, the administration moved to weaken vehicle gas mileage standards and freeze five offshore wind farm projects.
Gary Yohe, an economist at Wesleyan University who has contributed to international climate research for years, explains why Trump’s moves to dismantle America’s climate policies, programs and scientific research matter, particularly as Americans face worsening wildfires, storms and flooding.
[ Understand what’s going on in Washington and around the world. Get our Politics Weekly newsletter. ]
|
|
Stacy Morford
Senior Environment, Climate and Energy Editor
|
|
Severe storms triggered flooding across the central and eastern U.S. in April 2025, including in Kentucky’s capital, Frankfort.
Leandro Lozada/AFP via Getty Images
Gary W. Yohe, Wesleyan University
At the same time, Americans have been facing worsening storms, wildfires and deadly heat waves.
|
Economy + Business
|
-
Skip York, Rice University
US oil companies have never stopped investing and operating in Venezuela’s petroleum industry, despite many changes in the terms of their engagement.
|
|
Politics + Society
|
-
Maurizio Valsania, Università di Torino
For the nation’s first president, friendliness was strategy, not concession: the republic would treat other nations with civility in order to remain independent of their appetites and quarrels.
-
Kathy Kiely, University of Missouri-Columbia; Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky, University of Florida
The president has sued multiple media companies. He may care less about winning in court than intimidating news outlets, suggest two media scholars.
|
|
Science + Technology
|
-
Daniel Apai, University of Arizona
The findings from Pandora will complement data from the James Webb Space Telescope to give astronomers more insight into stars and planets outside our solar system.
-
Jeff Moersch, University of Tennessee
Which way is ‘down’ has a different answer depending on where you are on Earth, in the solar system, in our galaxy and beyond.
|
|
Education
|
-
Caroline Levander, Rice University
The cost of college is on the rise – but college grads still earn more than those without a degree.
|
|
Health + Medicine
|
-
Beth Hoffman, University of Pittsburgh
TV shows can be misleading when it comes to educating viewers on hands-only CPR, along with who experiences cardiac arrest and where.
-
Moul Dey, South Dakota State University
Older adults whose diets consisted of only 15% ultraprocessed foods – rather than the usual 50% – had lower weight, insulin and cholesterol.
|
|
International
|
-
Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Rice University
Initially, the two gulf states were in alignment over Yemen’s civil war. But the Arab coalition’s unity has long since gone.
-
Peter Harris, Colorado State University
Ukraine may need a major, system-level change or crisis in Russia to regain any lost territories.
|
|
Ethics + Religion
|
-
Art Jipson, University of Dayton
Christian Reconstructionism, a little-known movement to rebuild society on biblical law, can often shape US debates over religion, politics and education.
|
|
|
|
|
| | |
