Federal court restores Obama-era freeze on coal leasing on public lands
A federal judge on Friday restored a 2016 moratorium on coal leasing on federal lands that had been overturned by the Trump administration. In the ruling, Judge Brian Morris of the District of Montana, an Obama appointee, ordered the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to reimpose the moratorium until it has conducted a more thorough environmental analysis. Former Trump-appointed Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke had reversed the Obama-era hold in 2017. In January, the Biden administration rescinded Zinke’s specific order but did not fully reimpose the moratorium.
Read MoreWithout new antibiotics, the superbugs will keep winning
“It is a very scary moment.” That’s how former NFL player Brandon Noble recently described his career-ending, antibiotic-resistant infection — and the disclosure from his doctors that the available antibiotics might not be able to save his life. The same could be said of the moment we find ourselves in now: a nearly 40-year drought of urgently needed new types of antibiotics, leaving us not even close to keeping pace with the
Read MoreWomen's rights groups call on Biden administration to update Title IX rules for transgender athletes
Story at a glance In a letter organized by the National Women’s Law Center and the Women’s Sports Foundation, dozens of gender equity groups asked the Biden administration to release a Title IX athletics rule that will protect the rights of transgender student athletes. The administration in June announced a series of proposed updates to Title IX, but said a separate rule would be drafted to
Read MoreThe lesson of the fourth Taiwan Strait crisis
China’s live-fire drills in six maritime areas surrounding Taiwan were the biggest interruptions to stability across the Taiwan Strait since 1996. The past few weeks, which began with speculation around whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) would visit Taiwan during a trip to Asia, will be remembered as the fourth Taiwan Strait crisis. But what will – and should – come next is unclear. In the United States, one popular viewpoint is that the latest cy
Read MoreAntarctica’s ice shelves may be melting faster than anticipated: study
Antarctica’s ice shelves may be melting much faster than scientists previously anticipated — a phenomenon that could ultimately accelerate sea level rise, a new study has found. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory came to this conclusion by deploying a new model showing how dense, warm ocean water can get trapped along Antarctica’s icy coast and speed up melting. Their model, detailed in Science Advances on Friday, homes in on a “narrow ocean
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