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Pollution plan ‘must cut intensive farming for Lough Neagh to survive’

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Monday, July 22, 2024

There will have to be a move away from intensive farming around Lough Neagh if it is to survive, say campaigners, as the noxious algal blooms that last year devastated the vast body of water returned to its shores earlier than ever.Lough Neagh is the UK’s largest lake and supplies more than 40% of Northern Ireland’s drinking water. But vast amounts of phosphorus, nitrogen and other substances draining into the lough have left it at crisis point for some years now.Late last week an action plan was finally agreed for the lake by the power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland. The strategy promises a range of farming support measures aimed at reducing pollution pressures across the lough’s 4,860 sq km cross-border catchment area. Additionally, it includes real-time water quality and safety monitoring, and a pilot programme for buffer zones and tree planting around the banks, in an effort to limit contamination input. It also promises a “scientific review” of industrial sand extraction, which is scarring the lough bed.skip past newsletter promotionOur morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it mattersPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionHowever 17 of the plan’s 37 measures could not be taken forward prior to the summer break, with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) reportedly blocking a number of the “most controversial” actions – some of which cut across more than one Stormont department. It has been reported that the DUP’s opposition was linked to proposals on farming and environmental penalties. The agriculture and environment minister, Andrew Muir, hailed the plan as “an important milestone in charting a new course for Lough Neagh”. However, a number of campaigners criticised Stormont’s document for “vague language” and for dilution of certain actions following political opposition. A proposed restriction on the use of chemical fertilisers became a commitment to consult on the issue in the final text. Alongside prioritising investment in wastewater treatment works, it was one of a number of “key recommendations” put before the executive earlier this year. Agriculture accounts for 62% of the lough’s phosphorous inputs – which create the conditions for cyanobacteria, or ‘blue-green algae’, to thrive – while wastewater and sewage discharges make up 24%. Twelve per cent comes from septic tanks, of which there are more than double the UK average within the lough catchment. Mary O’Hagan, the co-founder of the Save Our Shores grassroots initiative, said that although her organisation is “happy to see the Lough Neagh action plan has now been approved … it falls far short of what’s actually needed in many areas”. She added: “Where are the targets for reduction of sewage going into our rivers and slurry run-off into the lough?” O’Hagan’s group is calling for a moratorium on sand extraction and a move away from intensive farming activity that has created waste disposal headaches for decision-makers. Dr Les Gornall, a slurry expert who worked at Lough Neagh’s last major research station (now closed), told the Guardian that the overwhelming priority for any clean-up effort is to drastically bring down the levels of phosphorous entering the watershed. “The algal bloom has accelerated this year,” he said. “In other words, it’s appeared 14 days earlier this year than it did last year. That tells me that Lough Neagh’s phosphorous inputs are higher than ever before.” Between 15,000 and 20,000 tonnes more phosphorous have gone into the lough system, he added, since 2023’s algal bloom. Scientists have modelled timescales of between 20 and 40 years for adequate phosphorous removal from the lough’s sediment, if significant reduction measures are taken right away. “The last thing we want to see is images of standpipes in Belfast,” Gornall said. “It’s a very serious situation – for the drinking water supply, for the people drinking that water, for the people using the lough. Tourism here is a £1bn industry and some very good businesses had to close last year. “We have to remove 50% of the phosphorous going into the lough immediately.” The executive’s rescue plan was agreed the same week Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, the 12th Earl of Shaftesbury, whose estate owns the lough’s bed, banks and soil, met with stakeholders to discuss the lake’s future. Controversy over the Earl’s income from the lough – which include royalty payments for sand extraction and wildfowling activity – saw a keynote speaker pull out of a festival hosted on the grounds of his stately home in Dorset last month. Ashley-Cooper has now suggested he may seek to transfer ownership of the inherited asset to a charity or a community development trust. He said he “had a constructive discussion with the minister on the issues facing Lough Neagh”, adding: “I reiterated my commitment to work with his team and other stakeholders to find solutions as I firmly believe we need to work together to secure the lough’s long-term future.” Both the devolved Department of Agriculture, the Environment and Rural Affairs and Department for Infrastructure have been contacted for comment.

Stormont’s rescue proposal for UK’s largest lake criticised by campaigners for dilution of sewage reduction targetsThere will have to be a move away from intensive farming around Lough Neagh if it is to survive, say campaigners, as the noxious algal blooms that last year devastated the vast body of water returned to its shores earlier than ever.Lough Neagh is the UK’s largest lake and supplies more than 40% of Northern Ireland’s drinking water. But vast amounts of phosphorus, nitrogen and other substances draining into the lough have left it at crisis point for some years now. Continue reading...

There will have to be a move away from intensive farming around Lough Neagh if it is to survive, say campaigners, as the noxious algal blooms that last year devastated the vast body of water returned to its shores earlier than ever.

Lough Neagh is the UK’s largest lake and supplies more than 40% of Northern Ireland’s drinking water. But vast amounts of phosphorus, nitrogen and other substances draining into the lough have left it at crisis point for some years now.

Late last week an action plan was finally agreed for the lake by the power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland. The strategy promises a range of farming support measures aimed at reducing pollution pressures across the lough’s 4,860 sq km cross-border catchment area. Additionally, it includes real-time water quality and safety monitoring, and a pilot programme for buffer zones and tree planting around the banks, in an effort to limit contamination input. It also promises a “scientific review” of industrial sand extraction, which is scarring the lough bed.

skip past newsletter promotion

after newsletter promotion

However 17 of the plan’s 37 measures could not be taken forward prior to the summer break, with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) reportedly blocking a number of the “most controversial” actions – some of which cut across more than one Stormont department. It has been reported that the DUP’s opposition was linked to proposals on farming and environmental penalties.

The agriculture and environment minister, Andrew Muir, hailed the plan as “an important milestone in charting a new course for Lough Neagh”.

However, a number of campaigners criticised Stormont’s document for “vague language” and for dilution of certain actions following political opposition.

A proposed restriction on the use of chemical fertilisers became a commitment to consult on the issue in the final text. Alongside prioritising investment in wastewater treatment works, it was one of a number of “key recommendations” put before the executive earlier this year.

Agriculture accounts for 62% of the lough’s phosphorous inputs – which create the conditions for cyanobacteria, or ‘blue-green algae’, to thrive – while wastewater and sewage discharges make up 24%. Twelve per cent comes from septic tanks, of which there are more than double the UK average within the lough catchment.

Mary O’Hagan, the co-founder of the Save Our Shores grassroots initiative, said that although her organisation is “happy to see the Lough Neagh action plan has now been approved … it falls far short of what’s actually needed in many areas”.

She added: “Where are the targets for reduction of sewage going into our rivers and slurry run-off into the lough?”

O’Hagan’s group is calling for a moratorium on sand extraction and a move away from intensive farming activity that has created waste disposal headaches for decision-makers.

Dr Les Gornall, a slurry expert who worked at Lough Neagh’s last major research station (now closed), told the Guardian that the overwhelming priority for any clean-up effort is to drastically bring down the levels of phosphorous entering the watershed.

“The algal bloom has accelerated this year,” he said.

“In other words, it’s appeared 14 days earlier this year than it did last year. That tells me that Lough Neagh’s phosphorous inputs are higher than ever before.”

Between 15,000 and 20,000 tonnes more phosphorous have gone into the lough system, he added, since 2023’s algal bloom.

Scientists have modelled timescales of between 20 and 40 years for adequate phosphorous removal from the lough’s sediment, if significant reduction measures are taken right away.

“The last thing we want to see is images of standpipes in Belfast,” Gornall said.

“It’s a very serious situation – for the drinking water supply, for the people drinking that water, for the people using the lough. Tourism here is a £1bn industry and some very good businesses had to close last year.

“We have to remove 50% of the phosphorous going into the lough immediately.”

The executive’s rescue plan was agreed the same week Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, the 12th Earl of Shaftesbury, whose estate owns the lough’s bed, banks and soil, met with stakeholders to discuss the lake’s future.

Controversy over the Earl’s income from the lough – which include royalty payments for sand extraction and wildfowling activity – saw a keynote speaker pull out of a festival hosted on the grounds of his stately home in Dorset last month.

Ashley-Cooper has now suggested he may seek to transfer ownership of the inherited asset to a charity or a community development trust.
He said he “had a constructive discussion with the minister on the issues facing Lough Neagh”, adding: “I reiterated my commitment to work with his team and other stakeholders to find solutions as I firmly believe we need to work together to secure the lough’s long-term future.”

Both the devolved Department of Agriculture, the Environment and Rural Affairs and Department for Infrastructure have been contacted for comment.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

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Can Genetic Testing Predict Type 1 Diabetes? Experts Say Earlier Treatment Is Possible

Genetic screening can mean that people at risk of type 1 diabetes get earlier treatment and better outcomes

This article is part of “Innovations In: Type 1 Diabetes,” an editorially independent special report that was produced with financial support from Vertex.In 2024 Stephen Rich and his colleagues published a study in which they assessed the genetic risk of developing type 1 diabetes for more than 3,800 children from across Virginia. Almost immediately Rich, a genetic epidemiologist at the University of Virginia, was inundated by e-mails and calls from parents who had read the article and wanted their kids tested, too. Unfortunately the study was over, so Rich couldn’t help them. But the experience exemplified the growing interest in genetic risk tests for the disease, he says.There is currently no cure for type 1 diabetes, a chronic condition in which the body’s immune system attacks and kills insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Knowing someone’s genetic predisposition to type 1 diabetes, however, can help doctors identify whom to flag for follow-up tests. It can also lead to earlier adoption of therapeutics to manage the disease or delay its onset. “There’s tremendous power in terms of understanding the genetics of type 1 diabetes,” says Todd Brusko, director of the Diabetes Institute at the University of Florida. As more therapies become available, he adds, the eventual hope is to use genetic profiling to determine who will respond best to one drug versus another.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Recent advances in genetic screening tools have not only revealed an intricate interaction between a person’s genes and their immune system but also made it possible to imagine a future in which every newborn is screened for type 1 diabetes risk. Some health-care authorities are already beginning to consider universal screening. “It’s very exciting times,” says Maria Jose Redondo, a physician and professor of pediatric diabetes and endocrinology at the Baylor College of Medicine. “A lot of progress has been made, and now we’re at the point of applying it.”In the U.S., around one in 300 people develops type 1 diabetes. Although the disease is best known for manifesting in children, adults account for almost half of new diagnoses. Scientists still don’t know what triggers it. Environmental factors seem to play a crucial role in promoting the disease’s development and progression, but the exact causative agents are unknown. “We know less about the environmental factors than we know about the genetic factors,” Redondo says.In a large study called TEDDY (for “the environmental determinants of diabetes in the young”), launched in 2004 in Europe and the U.S., researchers followed 8,676 individuals with high genetic risk to try to identify triggers for type 1 diabetes. They found just one consistent environmental factor linked to higher likelihood of acquiring the disease: early infection with enteroviruses, a type of virus that can infect beta cells. Not all children who get these common infections go on to develop type 1 diabetes, though, so additional factors are probably at play. In addition, the incidence of the disease has been increasing steadily over the past 60 years, suggesting that some change in environmental exposures or the removal of protective factors—or both—may be involved.Genetics accounts for about half of a person’s risk of developing the disease, meaning what is written into someone’s DNA is “not destiny,” Rich says. “If you have a high [genetic] risk, it doesn’t mean you’ll get it, and if you have a not-high risk, that doesn’t mean you’re protected.”For people with a close relative with type 1 diabetes, the risk goes up to about 18 in 300. Those with an identical twin with the disease have the highest risk—about one in two. They are 150 times likelier to develop the illness than someone with no family history and eight times likelier than someone with a parent or sibling who has been diagnosed. Even so, around 90 percent of people who are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes have no relatives with the disease. Until recently, population-level genetic screening, which would include individuals regardless of their known risk factors for the condition, was not a practical option. But new breakthroughs have begun to change that.Scientists have identified at least 90 regions in the human genome that hold genes connected to type 1 diabetes. Researchers are most interested in a gene cluster called the human leukocyte antigen system (HLA), which encodes proteins that help the immune system distinguish self from nonself. This gene group accounts for around half of a person’s genetic risk of developing the disease. Because it helps to protect us from infections, HLA is also highly variable, says Mark Anderson, director of the Diabetes Center at the University of California, San Francisco. “There’s selective pressure for us to have different HLA genes because that way, a virus or bacterium that comes along won’t wipe everyone out.”Most people who acquire type 1 diabetes have at least one of two specific-risk-conferring gene variants, or alleles, in this region. “This region is so critically important to whether we’re susceptible to autoimmune diseases that just by measuring variation there, we can capture risk,” says Richard Oram, a professor of diabetes and nephrology at the University of Exeter in England. Some HLA variants increase risk up to 20-fold, he adds, whereas others decrease risk by the same amount. In effect, it’s as if 10 to 15 percent of people with European ancestry carried a genetic vaccine to type 1 diabetes, Oram says, referring to the HLA gene alleles that decrease risk.In 2015 Oram and his colleagues developed the first version of what is now one of the most widely used tests for type 1 diabetes genetic risk, administered primarily in research settings (the U.S. has yet to approve any test for type 1 diabetes risk for real-world use in doctor offices). Rather than just adding up the contribution of each variant, Oram and his colleagues’ test incorporates the complex interactivity of various alleles with one another, including ones with protective effects. They also incorporated dozens of other non-HLA sites—mostly from genes also related to the immune system—that contribute small amounts of individual risk but can add up to larger cumulative risk.The original version of the test examined just 10 alleles and “worked pretty well,” Oram says. The latest version, developed in 2019, uses 67 alleles and produces “highly sophisticated” results, Redondo says, adding that it now represents “the golden standard to date.”When Oram originally developed his test, he did not have risk prediction in mind; rather he was trying to decipher the type of diabetes in a group of his patients. The individuals he was working with, who were 20 to 40 years old, had overlapping features of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. People who fall into this “gray area” of symptoms are commonly misdiagnosed, he says. While brainstorming solutions over coffee with a colleague, Oram realized a genetic test could offer clues for people with a less clear presentation of the disease.After successfully developing the test, Oram learned that other research groups were interested in tests to determine genetic risk for type 1 diabetes. Fortunately his test “also turned out to be really good for that,” he says.With Oram’s test, doctors can identify the highest-risk individuals, who can then get tested for the antibodies that attack the body’s beta cells. “If you do HLA screening followed by antibody testing at specific ages, you’ll pick up far and away the vast majority of cases,” says William Hagopian, a research professor of pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Investigators leading vaccine and pharmaceutical trials for type 1 diabetes are also using genetic tests to maximize efficiency and funding by identifying participants who are most likely at risk for the disease.Genetic risk scores can also help doctors identify people who should be prescribed teplizumab, the first therapy able to delay the onset of an autoimmune condition. Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2022, this monoclonal antibody is given before the body becomes dependent on insulin, and it can delay more severe illness by two to three years. “The whole field has changed because now we have something we can do to delay progression to clinical diabetes,” says Kevan Herold, an immunologist and endocrinologist at Yale University. “Any time without diabetes is a gift, particularly for children and their families.” Other drugs are in various stages of clinical testing.People aware of their risk might also be on the lookout for symptoms such as excessive urination and lethargy; when those pop up, people can seek treatment before they develop diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a potentially life-threatening condition caused by a lack of insulin. Among those who don’t know they are at risk, about 40 percent wind up in this critical state, but that number drops as low as 4 percent for those who are aware. “If people can identify some of the symptoms of progression toward disease, they could go to a GP instead of an ER and prevent a real crisis,” Brusko says.There is some evidence to support these benefits, based on outcomes from one of the largest testing efforts to date, launched in 2020 by investigators at Sanford Health, a nonprofit health-care system based in Sioux Falls, S.D. As of July 2025, the study had enrolled more than 13,000 children for genetic risk testing and antibody screening for type 1 diabetes and celiac disease. Children with persistent positive antibodies are offered ongoing monitoring. Of the 75-plus children in monitoring, five have progressed to hyperglycemia, warranting clinical care, and none of these children developed DKA. Kurt Griffin, principal investigator of the study and a pediatric endocrinologist at the Benaroya Research Institute in Seattle, says the findings have already demonstrated that it is feasible to integrate type 1 diabetes screening into routine pediatric care.Type 1 diabetes has been most prevalent among people of European ancestry. It does occur in those of African, Hispanic and Asian ancestry, but the vast majority of data used to inform genetic screening results is from people of white, European descent, Rich says. This lack of representation is problematic for people of different ancestries because genetic risk factors differ across populations.In an unpublished study, Rich and his colleagues tested how well the most common HLA variants used in genetic tests predicted risk in people with European, Hispanic, African American or Finnish ancestry. They found that genetic ancestry for important HLA regions—and the many other regions of the genome associated with type 1 diabetes risk—does not transfer well from one population to another. “One of the biggest needs in the field is to understand what confers genetic risk in a much more diverse genetic ancestry,” Brusko says.Scientists are working to fill this gap. For instance, Breakthrough T1D, a nonprofit organization funding research on type 1 diabetes, provides grants of up to $900,000 for research aimed at improving the prediction power of genetic risk scores across diverse populations. For the next version of the genetic risk score test, the plan is to incorporate specific HLA types present in Africans, East Asians, and several other groups, says Hagopian, who collaborates with Oram.Genetic risk tests for type 1 diabetes are inching closer to use in clinical care. Last year Randox , a company based in Northern Ireland, released one developed with Oram and his colleagues. Commercial tests are not available yet in the U.S., but they are becoming more affordable for researchers who use them in laboratory-based settings. This affordability will translate to clinical settings once tests make their way to doctor offices. “The price has dropped and is predicted to drop even more,” Redondo says. Now the biggest remaining obstacles are political and logistical rather than scientific or financial, experts say. “All the tools are there; we just haven’t quite got countries over the line to figure out how they’re going to do it,” says Colin Dayan, a professor of clinical diabetes and metabolism at Cardiff University in Wales.Europe has been at the forefront of these efforts, Brusko says. In 2023 Italy became the first nation to pass a law mandating type 1 diabetes genetic screening across its population, but it has yet to implement this screening in practice, Dayan says. Other countries, including the U.K., are debating whether they should do the same. This past June the U.K. also announced plans to sequence the genomes of all babies within the next decade. The data obtained could be used for risk screening as well, says Emily K. Sims, a pediatric endocrinologist at the Indiana University School of Medicine. In the U.S., genetic screening for type 1 diabetes is still done primarily in research environments. “We really need federal and state authorities to decide that this testing is worth it and that they want to adopt it into general practice,” Hagopian says. The easiest way to implement such a program would be to screen at birth.What to do with the information that testing would generate, though, is a more complicated question. Health-care officials would have to set up a system for contacting the families of babies at high risk to appropriately communicate the results. There would also need to be a system to remind families to get their child checked for autoantibodies at certain intervals. States handle newborn screenings differently, so each would have to come up with its own solutions. This issue is “a major complication that has to be figured out,” says Rich, who continues to field e-mails and calls from parents interested in the testing.As the science is refined, more treatment options will be made available, and the uncertainty surrounding who will and will not go on to develop type 1 diabetes is likely to be narrowed. Redondo and her colleagues are pursuing a large project using genetic risk scores and other variables to try to more accurately predict disease development. They are also working on models to determine who will respond best to new disease-modifying therapies. As Redondo says, “personalizing prevention of type 1 diabetes is the goal.”

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The federal workforce purge begins

OMB confirms sweeping layoffs across major agencies as unions sue and the shutdown grinds on

The Trump administration began large-scale firings of federal workers this week as part of an aggressive strategy to pressure Democrats during the ongoing government shutdown, marking one of the most sweeping workforce purges in modern U.S. history. According to the Office of Management and Budget, “substantial” layoffs are underway across at least seven federal departments, including Treasury, Health and Human Services, Education, Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Early estimates suggest more than 4,000 employees are being terminated under “reduction in force” (RIF) procedures, with thousands more facing potential dismissal if the budget impasse continues. The RIFs have begun. — Russ Vought (@russvought) October 10, 2025 The White House framed the move as a necessary step to “restore accountability” and eliminate “politically motivated obstruction” within the federal bureaucracy. OMB Director Russ Vought confirmed the action publicly, posting, “The RIFs have begun.” Administration officials argue that many affected positions are tied to programs misaligned with the president’s priorities. Critics, including labor unions and civil service advocates, have called the firings unlawful and politically driven. The American Federation of Government Employees and other unions plan to challenge the dismissals in court, citing violations of due process and long-standing federal employment protections. Even Congressional politicians are joining the conversation. While few details have been shared about Russell Vought’s latest layoffs, there is no question this is poorly timed and yet another example of this administration’s punitive actions toward the federal workforce. The termination of federal employees in a shutdown will further hurt… — Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) October 10, 2025 The cuts go far beyond typical furloughs associated with past shutdowns, raising questions about service disruptions, long-term staffing gaps, and the precedent it sets for future administrations. Analysts warn that permanent layoffs could cripple key agencies and deepen dysfunction in an already strained federal system. The government remains in partial shutdown as negotiations over a funding bill stall on Capitol Hill. Meanwhile, confusion continues over whether terminated employees will receive retroactive pay once the shutdown ends — an issue that could soon add another legal battle to the widening crisis. Read more about the 2025 Shutdown Federal agencies go MAGA amid shutdown Democrats are winning the health care shutdown war How the government shutdown is hitting the health care system The post The federal workforce purge begins appeared first on Salon.com.

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Gavin Newsom signs law overhauling local zoning to build more housing

After weeks of waiting, California’s governor signed a bill that will allow mid-rise apartment buildings near major transit stops in California’s biggest metro areas.

In summary After weeks of waiting, California’s governor signed a bill that will allow mid-rise apartment buildings near major transit stops in California’s biggest metro areas. Ever since the Legislature narrowly passed Senate Bill 79 last month, legislation that will pave the way for more apartment buildings around major public transit stops in the state’s biggest metro areas, the California political universe has been impatiently awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature or veto in a heated statewide game of “will he, won’t he.” Today, he did.  Newsom’s sign off on the bill means that apartment developers will soon be able to pack more homes into neighborhoods within half a mile of major rail, subway, and bus rapid transit stops, overriding local zoning restrictions and any possible objections of surrounding neighbors. Buildings immediately surrounding these transit hubs will be entitled to max out as high as nine stories, with those further out topping out at roughly four. “The world looks to California for leadership — it’s time to build modern, connected communities that fulfill California’s promise, meeting the needs of today and the next generation,” the governor wrote in a signing statement. The signature caps off a legislative year full of housing policy overhauls that even just a few years ago would have seemed unthinkable. It also reaffirms the governor’s political alignment with the “Yes In My Backyard” movement, which has been championing the cause of building more housing in the face of a statewide housing shortage for nearly a decade. This summer Newsom signed YIMBY-backed legislation to exempt most urban apartment projects from review under one of the state’s signature environmental protection laws. “Go YIMBYs,” Newsom said when signing that bill into law.  Senate Bill 79 is, indeed, a signature victory for the movement. The bill’s author, San Francisco Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat, introduced an earlier version of the policy in 2018 with the support of the then still relatively new political organization California YIMBY. This year’s version, which narrowly passed both the Senate and Assembly last month with few votes to spare, marks Wiener’s fourth attempt. Learn more about legislators mentioned in this story. Scott Wiener Democrat, State Senate, District 11 (San Francisco) “In California we talk a lot about where we don’t want to build homes, but rarely do we talk about where we do—until now,” said Wiener in a statement. “SB 79 unwinds decades of overly restrictive policies that have driven housing costs to astronomical levels, forcing millions of people away from jobs and transit and into long commutes from the suburbs or out of the state entirely. It has been a long road to tackling these decades-old problems, but today’s signing marks a new day for affordable housing in California.” Newsom’s signature comes as a grave disappointment for many local governments and neighborhood groups, particularly in Southern California. Last month, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass urged Newsom to veto the bill, saying that it would “erode local control, diminish community input on planning and zoning, and disproportionately impact low-resource neighborhoods.” Irate homeowner groups and state legislators raised concerns that mandating higher levels of housing density would “fundamentally reshape” suburban-style neighborhoods. The “upzoning” policy was meant to be a two-fer: Allow for much more housing construction as a way to alleviate the state’s housing shortage and its resulting affordability crisis, while also steering more residents towards cash-strapped public transportation systems.  Despite the ferocity of the opposition, the bill that Newsom signed is considerably more modest than the version introduced at the beginning of the year. After 13 separate rounds of amendments, the law will be restricted to just eight highly urbanized counties — Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Santa Clara, Alameda, Sacramento, San Francisco and San Mateo — and apply only to select transportation stops (train, subway, light rail and high-frequency buses routes with designated lanes). The law will also give local governments alternative means to comply with their own local programs, require a certain share of units constructed under the bill to be set aside at below-market rents and go into effect on a delayed schedule in certain lower income neighborhoods. Even in that more muted form, the law is one of most consequential changes to statewide zoning rules in modern California history.  Over the last weeks, Newsom has come under sustained pressure from both supporters and opponents. Advocates for historic preservation, tenant rights, local control and affluent neighborhood groups, along with Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton and former reality TV star Spencer Pratt, have rallied their respective audiences to inundate the governor’s office with calls and emails urging a veto. Supporters — among them national political commentators, billionaire megadonor Tom Steyer and every corner of the organized YIMBY online universe — have urged their supporters to do the opposite.  Popular interest in the outcome of the bill seemed to escape the confines typical of California legislative debate. Earlier this week, an online betting pool popped up (the odds were always good for Newsom’s signature). The topic even came up during the governor’s guest appearance on the recent livestream of the popular online gamer known as “ConnorEatsPants.”  Responding to a stream of public comments from his audience packed with incessant inquiries about the bill, the streamer prompted Newsom: “I don’t know what this is, but they’re saying you need to talk about SB 79.”

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Government
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Trump Is Setting the National Parks Up to Fail

Workers say the real crisis is happening behind the scenes.

This summer, many of Americans’ fears about their national parks—that budget cuts and staffing shortages would lead to unsafe, or at least unpleasant, vacations—did not come to pass. Gates and visitor centers were open (with reduced hours) and toilets were usable (mostly). Visitors to the Grand Canyon who developed heat exhaustion were still rescued. To the public, a trip to the national parks must have seemed normal enough, down to tourists getting way too close to bison at Yellowstone.But rangers say the real crisis is happening beyond the trails and campgrounds, where visitors can’t see it. Park employees’ experiences, which several people described to me and dozens more have shared publicly, suggest that the Department of the Interior sacrificed long-term stewardship of American lands to maintain a veneer of normalcy for this summer’s crowds. “We are really pulling out all the stops to make sure that the impacts are being hidden,” an emergency-services ranger in the western United States told me. (She and other park employees I spoke with for this story requested anonymity, out of fear of losing their job.)The National Park Service lost about a quarter of its permanent staff to mass firings, buyouts, early retirements, and resignations this winter and spring. In April, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum made the department’s priorities for the remaining staff clear: In an order, he declared that parks had to stay “open and accessible” and “provide the best customer service experience for all visitors.” Any facility closures or reduced hours would need to be approved by NPS and Department of Interior leadership in Washington. The order alluded to the general importance of conservation but showed little interest in research, monitoring, or maintenance.This work has always happened at the periphery of the public’s experience of national parks, but it’s what keeps both their natural and human-made features from deteriorating. National Park Service researchers conducted 28,000 studies from 2000 to 2016, working at 412 parks, historical sites, memorials, and battlefields at any given time. The studies help workers protect what’s inside park boundaries by spotting early signs of trouble in time to help, and by contributing to general knowledge about climate change, ecological restoration, and wildfires.All of that research required an army of employees, many of whom are now out of a job. Ryan Valdez, the senior director of conservation science at the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), told me that the Park Service’s science arm, which once employed hundreds of people in land, water, air, wildlife, and climate-change programs, is “pretty much dismantled.” (The Department of the Interior declined to confirm this account.) The ranger in the West told me that her park lost its only wildlife biologist. According to the NPCA, Olympic National Park no longer has permanent fisheries biologists to help assess damage resulting from a nearby gas-and-diesel spill, and layoffs have left only one employee to oversee archaeology and cultural-resource protection for Alaska’s 23 park sites. NPS staff members from across the country have reported to Resistance Rangers, a group of off-duty and former rangers documenting cuts and policy changes within the NPS, that they were forced to pause their monitoring of tree health, glacier size, and other measures of ecological well-being. North Cascades National Park has no lead wildlife biologist to monitor bear movements (and wrangle human-bear conflicts), according to Save Our Parks, another advocacy group. The scientists still working at the parks haven’t reliably been doing science, either: In April, for instance, biologists in Yosemite were cleaning toilets.Preserving the parks’ ecologies in the face of climate change and heavy visitor traffic requires active work. Without the copious, current data collected through research, parks workers may be caught off guard by environmental and ecological upheavals. Researchers help track and maintain the well-being of imperiled species in the parks: bats in Acadia, grizzly bears in Glacier, numerous native-plant species in Everglades. Stephanie Adams, the conservation-programs director at NPCA, told me that the cuts to science and conservation work threaten such species’ long-term health. Any one species’ loss could trigger collapse up and down an ecosystem’s food chain—a crisis that park workers will be poorly equipped to adapt to if they can’t see it coming.The Department of the Interior disputed its employees’ characterizations of this summer’s staffing levels. “Conservation and access are not mutually exclusive, they are the foundation of the NPS mission, and we are achieving both,” Elizabeth Peace, a spokesperson for the department, told me in an email. She also wrote that “science, monitoring and preservation efforts remain active across the National Park System,” and that staffing levels at the national parks this summer were “on par with previous years.” Independent accounts, though, have documented delays in seasonal hiring for the busy summer months, and a hiring freeze across most of the federal government is still in effect, keeping vacant positions at the National Park Service unfilled.[Read: The national-park tours of Trump’s dreams]Meanwhile, parks across the country are in need of crucial maintenance. Before this year, NPS already had a long-standing and growing maintenance backlog for roads, bridges, historic structures, campgrounds, and trails; last year, the agency estimated that needed repairs would cost nearly $23 billion. And the bill keeps mounting: Take this summer’s Dragon Bravo Fire, which burned more than 145,000 acres, destroying a historic lodge, a visitor center, and other park buildings in the Grand Canyon. Besides emergencies, the parks’ natural landscapes need care too. But NPS’s ability to provide it could be endangered by the rollback of the Inflation Reduction Act, which funded projects such as salt-marsh restoration on the East Coast and a hazardous-landfill cleanup in Yosemite. According to recent reporting by The New York Times, 30 parks reported cuts to maintenance this year.The more that projects pile up without being addressed, the greater the likelihood that NPS simply won’t have the money or workers to keep the parks in a safe condition. The Trump administration’s proposed budget for the 2026 fiscal year—which suggested $1.2 billion in cuts to NPS funding, the largest in the history of the agency—would only worsen the parks’ infrastructure problems. (Congress has yet to approve a final budget; the House Appropriations Committee proposed $176 million in cuts to NPS operations and $37 million in cuts to construction funding.) The parks risk remaining open with neglected landscapes, ragged trails, and disappearing biodiversity.The national parks, perhaps more than any other American project, represent a hopeful commitment to the future. The 1916 Organic Act, which established the NPS, states that parks must “provide for the enjoyment” of the scenery, wildlife, and natural and historic objects within them and also leave them “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” A fully functioning National Park Service doesn’t just serve a given summer’s visitors. It also ensures that the unique flora, fauna, and geologic wonders under its care survive in the decades to come, despite the stresses of climate change, invasive species, and the parks’ own popularity.[Read: A new danger at America’s national parks]But the rangers I spoke with fear that their mission is unraveling. “Part of what we do is making sure that our kids will be able to experience the same thing, that we’re protecting these places responsibly for the next generation,” one ranger, who was fired in February and reinstated in late March, told me. “We are losing the ability to do that.”

Crisis
Climate
Food

Bees, Once Buzzing in Honey-Producing Basra, Hit by Iraq's Water Crisis

By Mohammed AttiBASRA, Iraq (Reuters) -Bees once thrived among the date palms along the Shatt al-Arab, where Iraq's mighty Tigris and Euphrates...

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) -Bees once thrived among the date palms along the Shatt al-Arab, where Iraq's mighty Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet, but drought has shrivelled the green trees and life in the apiaries that dot the riverbank is under threat.In the historic port city of Basra, beekeepers following centuries-long traditions are struggling to produce honey as the salinity of water in Shatt al-Arab rises, along with extreme heat and persistent droughts that have disturbed the bees' delicate ecosystem."Bees need clean ... water. The lack of this water leads to their death," said Mahmoud Shaker, 61, a professor at Basra University who has his own apiary.BASRA WAS KNOWN FOR ITS HONEYThe banks of the Shatt al-Arab were once a lush jungle where bees would feast, producing high-quality honey that was a good source of income for Iraqi beekeepers in the southern city.But decades of conflict and a changing climate have slowly diminished the greenery, putting the bee population at risk. Less than a quarter of the palm trees on the riverbanks of Shatt al-Arab have survived, with fewer than 3 million trees now, from a peak of nearly 16 million.There were more than 4,000 bee hives in at least 263 apiaries around the city, the assistant director of the Basra office in the agriculture ministry, Dr. Mohammed Mahdi Muzaal Al-Diraoui, told Reuters. But due to conflict and the harsh environmental conditions, around 150 apiaries have been damaged and at least 2,000 hives lost, he said."Environmental conditions and salt water have harmed the bees, causing significant losses. Some beekeepers have completely lost their apiaries," Al-Diraoui said.As a result, honey production in the area is expected to decline by up to 50% this season compared to the previous year, Al-Diraoui said.At its peak, honey production from the Basra region was around 30 tons a year, he said, but has been declining since 2007-2008, falling sharply to 12 tons in the past five years, with production this season expected to reach just six tons.DECADES OF WAR, AND NOW A WATER CRISISIraq has endured decades of warfare - from war with Iran in the 1980s, to the Gulf War of the early 1990s, the 2003 U.S.-led invasion followed by insurgent violence and rise and fall of the Islamic State group. Its latest challenge, however, is a water shortage that is putting its whole ecology at risk.Water security has become a pressing issue in the oil-rich nation as levels in Euphrates and Tigris have declined sharply, worsened by upstream dams, mostly in Turkey. For Shatt al-Arab that meant a surge of seawater from the Arabian Gulf into the waterway, raising salinity to unprecedented levels.Its riverbanks, once lined with groves rich in nectar and flowers, have been devastated as salinity levels soared, while bees also struggle with extreme heat, with summer temperatures in Basra reaching 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), Shaker said.As the salinity of Shatt al-Arab's water rises, the bee population remains at risk, and some areas on the riverbanks of southern Basra have already stopped production, Al-Diraoui said."I expect that if the water crisis continues at this rate over the next year, especially if salt water reaches areas in northern Basra, honey production will come to a complete halt."(Reporting by Mohammed Atti in Basra, Writing by Nayera AbdallahEditing by Ros Russell)Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.Photos You Should See – Sept. 2025

Crisis
Water
Climate

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Culture
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