"Since April, an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo has ballooned to 1,114 confirmed cases and 279 deaths, already the third-largest such epidemic since the disease was identified 50 years ago. Despite its worrying size, this outbreak is threaded with mystery — particularly regarding its origins."
"A covid vaccine study that the CDC’s chief halted this spring over methodological concerns was published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open, a leading peer-reviewed medical journal."
"The database of federal global warming research recreates a website that was closed amid the administration’s broad retreat from climate science."
"In January 2025, the Trump administration began shutting down projects within the EPA’s independent science division that touched on climate change and environmental justice. Air quality researcher Thomas Luben, who had worked at the agency for 18 years, was fired for objecting."
"The National Science Foundation on Thursday reversed a decision to dismantle a sprawling ocean monitoring network after vigorous objections from Democratic lawmakers and scientists who rely on it to track everything from ocean circulation to extreme weather."
The news has been full of warnings about a larger-than-normal El Niño, the periodic weather pattern that portends drastic fluctuations in everything from temperatures and precipitation to ocean currents and hurricanes. The latest Issue Backgrounder takes a step back to help explain exactly how this phenomenon works and what its impacts may be, while offering a parting thought on smart coverage.
"Few public universities get more federal research funding than the University of Washington."
"A hidden circulatory system pulses just beneath the planet’s surface. There, embedded in the soil, are dense networks of microorganisms known as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. These fungi attach themselves to the roots of plants, sending long, thin filaments out through the soil. These ferry water and nutrients to plants and whisk away carbon, helping to keep vast quantities of it out of the atmosphere."
"El Niño has developed in the Pacific Ocean, a climate pattern that can reshape weather around the globe into 2027. The last El Niño was in 2023-24, and forecasters say this one is developing earlier than many typically do."
“In a world where people accept global heating is bad, news that we had avoided a boiling-in-our-own-juices version of the planet’s future might have been welcomed. Instead, the news that a group of climate scientists had officially retired their very worst scenario for the future of the planet was proof – according to Donald Trump – that the scientists had been (in all caps) WRONG! WRONG! WRONG."
