“Western Europe officially experienced its hottest June on record, as scientists warned such an “exceptional heatwave” was likely to become more frequent and intense because of climate change exacerbating extremes of heat, dryness, cold and wet around the world,” the Financial Times reports.

“California leaders on Monday rolled back a landmark law that was a national symbol of environmental protection before it came to be vilified as a primary reason for the state’s severe housing shortage and homelessness crisis,” the New York Times reports.

“For more than half a century, the law, the California Environmental Quality Act, has allowed environmentalists to slow suburban growth as well as given neighbors and disaffected parties a powerful tool to stop projects they found objectionable.”

Wall Street Journal: “Some environmentalists and other defenders of the longstanding law were furious, and warned that developers will now go unchecked.”

“The Trump administration has moved from outright denying the science of global warming to simply dismissing it,” Bloomberg reports.

“In the high glare of a summer evening in Fairbanks, Alaska, Ciara Santiago watched the mercury climb. A meteorologist at the National Weather Service office, she had the dubious honor of issuing the state’s first-ever official heat advisory as temperatures were expected to hit the mid-80s,” Grist reports.

“Trump administration officials have concluded that President Donald Trump has the authority to entirely abolish protected areas set aside as national monuments by past presidents, according to a legal opinion released Tuesday by the Department of Justice,” the Washington Post reports.

Reuters: “The risk of a public backlash against Trump if conditions at the national parks prove unpleasant for visitors this summer is significant. While Americans are increasingly divided on a range of key issues, the vast majority cherish the parks as national treasures and beloved, affordable vacation getaways.”

“And they are visiting them in record numbers. Last year, national parks welcomed more than 331 million visitors, a new high, up 6 million from 2023.”

Thirteen House Republicans are urging Senate leaders to “substantially and strategically” improve clean energy tax credit provisions in the House-passed megabill, Politico reports.

New York Times: “In its proposed regulation, the agency argued that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from power plants that burn fossil fuels ‘do not contribute significantly to dangerous pollution’ or to climate change…”

“But in the United States, the power sector was the second biggest source of greenhouse gases … The proposed regulation is part of a broader attack by the Trump administration on the established science that greenhouse gases threaten human health and the environment.”

“President Trump’s campaign to dismantle FEMA is on the verge of a high-stakes stress test, as the U.S. hurtles toward peak disaster season under uniquely dangerous conditions,” Axios reports.

“Extreme weather is growing deadlier and more destructive. But instead of strengthening the systems that help states respond, the Trump administration is gutting FEMA, banning climate change research and urging governors to go it alone.”

“Some National Weather Service forecasting teams are so critically understaffed that the agency is offering to pay moving expenses for any staff willing to transfer to those offices,” the Washington Post reports.

“The 155 vacancies the agency is seeking to fill by May 27 include key weather forecasting positions at offices in coastal Texas and Louisiana that could soon face hurricane threats when the Atlantic season begins in a few weeks.”

“The Trump administration is ending an air-quality monitoring program at national parks across the country,” the Washington Post reports.

“Trump officials are analyzing whether to remove federal protections for national monuments spanning millions of acres in the West in order to spur energy development on public lands,” the Washington Post reports.

“Interior Department aides are looking at whether to scale back at least six national monuments.”

“White House officials are preparing executive orders that would strip some environmental nonprofits of their tax-exempt status, setting up a possible Earth Day strike against organizations seen as standing in the way of President Donald Trump’s push for more domestic oil, gas and coal production,” Bloomberg reports.

“The effort comes alongside other administration moves to use the US tax code or government funding to single out groups that oppose the president’s agenda.”

“A North Dakota jury on Wednesday awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to the Texas-based pipeline company Energy Transfer, which had sued Greenpeace over its role in protests nearly a decade ago against its Dakota Access Pipeline,” the New York Times reports.

“The verdict was a major blow to the storied environmental organization. Greenpeace had maintained that it played only a minor part in demonstrations led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. It had portrayed the lawsuit as an attempt to stifle oil-industry critics, but a jury apparently disagreed.”

“A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on Tuesday blocking the Environmental Protection Agency from pulling $14 billion in climate grant funding out of accounts at Citibank, where it has been held since late last year,” the New York Times reports.