Climate Change & Environment
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Verdict in Oregon wildfires case highlights risks utilities face amid climate change

A jury verdict that found an Oregon power company liable for devastating wildfires — and potentially billions of dollars in damages — is highlighting the legal and financial risks utilities take if they fail to take proper precautions in a hotter, drier climate.

Utilities, especially in the U.S. West, are increasingly finding themselves in a financial bind that's partly of their own making, experts say. While updating, replacing and even burying thousands of miles of powerlines is a time-consuming and costly undertaking, the failure to start that work in earnest years ago has put them on the back foot as wildfires have grown more destructive — and lawsuits over electrical equipment sparking blazes have ballooned.

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Heat wave triggers storms, power outages in US Southeast, raises wildfire concerns in Southwest

Forecasters warned people celebrating Father's Day outdoors to take precautions as triple-digit temperatures prompted heat advisories across much of the southern U.S., triggered thunderstorms that knocked out power from Oklahoma to Mississippi and whipped up winds that raised wildfire threats in Arizona and New Mexico.

A suspected tornado struck near Scranton, Arkansas early Sunday, destroying chicken houses and toppling trees onto homes, the National Weather Service said. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries.

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Kamau, 'iconic' African lion at California's Sacramento Zoo, dies at 16

Kamau, the African lion who was a star attraction at California's Sacramento Zoo, has died at age 16, officials said.

The zoo said Kamau was euthanized Saturday, a day after the big cat was pulled off an exhibit because of declining health due to his advanced age.

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Cyclone Biparjoy kills 2, uproots power lines after landfall in India, churns toward Pakistan

Cyclone Biparjoy knocked out power and threw shipping containers into the sea in western India on Friday before aiming its lashing winds and rain at part of Pakistan that suffered devastating floods last year.

A man and his son died trying to save their livestock in Gujarat state, where the storm came ashore late Thursday after more than 180,000 people took shelter in the two countries.

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Wolves that nearly died out from inbreeding recover in remote US island

Gray wolves are thriving at Isle Royale National Park five years after authorities began a last-ditch attempt to prevent the species from dying out on the Lake Superior island chain, scientists said.

Meanwhile, the park's moose population continues a sharp but needed decline. Overpopulation of the lumbering mammals were causing their own starvation as they outstripped available balsam fir trees — their primary food during long, snowbound winters, Michigan Technological University biologists said.

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Let it bee: The women on a mission to save Mexico City's bees

"Knife," Adriana Velíz says with the concentration of a brain surgeon.

Shrouded in a white bee suit, she lies stretched out on the ground in one of Mexico City's most buzzing districts. Taking the knife, she pries open the side of a light post and flashes a glowing red lantern on a humming bee hive.

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Climate protesters throw paint and glue at Monet painting in Swedish museum

Two women were detained in Stockholm after they threw "some kind of paint" at a painting by French artist Claude Monet and then glued themselves to the frame, Sweden's National Museum said Wednesday.

The painting, "The Artist's Garden at Giverny," was on display as part of an exhibition at the museum. Spokesperson Hanna Tottmar said artwork was encased in glass and "is now being examined by the museum's conservators to see if any damage has occurred."

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Climate measures bring Germany closer toward national goals

An array of climate measures being introduced by Germany's government will bring the country closer but not all the way toward meeting its national goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, officials said.

Germany's Climate Ministry said that measures already in place or soon to become law will reduce emissions by about 900 million metric tons of carbon dioxide for the period from 2022 to 2030 — about 80% of the 1,100 million tons of the planet-warming gas the government is aiming to cut.

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Punishing winds, possible tornadoes inflict damage as storms cross US South

Damaging winds and possible tornadoes toppled trees, damaged buildings and blew cars off a highway Wednesday as powerful storms crossed the South from Texas to Georgia.

The National Weather Service issued numerous tornado warnings, mainly in southeast Alabama and southwest Georgia, and cautioned that gusts of hurricane-force winds exceeding 90 mph (145 kph) were possible in parts of northeast Louisiana and central Mississippi. Some areas also were pelted with large hail.

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Shell ditches lower oil production target but insists it's committed to cutting emissions

Shell has effectively abandoned a plan to cut oil production by 1-2% per year until the end of the decade, instead maintaining output at current levels in a move that risks angering climate activists.

Ahead of an investor update in New York on Wednesday, Europe's largest energy company argued that it had already met the target it had set for itself in 2021 through asset sales.

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