Environment

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Federal officials have released their review on removing or changing vegetation over a huge swath of the U.S. West to stop wildfires on land used for cattle ranching, recreation and habitat for imperiled sage grouse.

The work would occur on strips of land up to 165 yards (150 meters) wide and up to 11,000 miles (18,000 kilometers) long in Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada and Utah, according to an environmental analysis released Friday. It didn’t give specific details on what the impact to the land could be.

Bhopal, Jun 24 (PTI) Monsoon Monday hit the eastern and southern parts of Madhya Pradesh and was likely to cover more parts of the state in the next 48 hours, IMD Bhopal Office Duty Officer Gurudutt Mishra said.

He told PTI that Balaghat, Mandla, Chhindwara and Khandwa districts of MP experienced monsoon rains as well as parts of Jabalpur, Indore and Ujjain divisions in the last 24 hours.

Mishra said heavy rainfall is expected in Ratlam, Jhabua, Alirajpur, Dhar, Barwani, Ujjain, Agar-Malwa and Indore districts in the next 48 hours.

BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Beijing's observatory issued a blue alert on Monday for high temperatures over the next two days.

The temperature could rise to over 35 degrees Celsius in most parts of Beijing from Monday to Tuesday and could top 38 degrees Celsius in parts of the city on Monday.

The observatory advised residents to guard against the heat wave and said workers exposed to high temperatures should take protective measures.

New Delhi, Jun 23 (PTI) South Korean auto major Kia Motors Corporation is considering a low-cost electric vehicle (EV) for India in collaboration with group firm Hyundai Motors and wants personal usage for EVs to be included for government support under the FAME II scheme in India, according to a top company official.

The company, which is a part of the Hyundai Motor Group, plans to launch four new models, including its upcoming SUV Seltos, in the next two years in India but said the low-cost EV would be a separate project.

BERLIN (AP) — Hundreds of climate activists are keeping up their protest inside one of Germany’s biggest open-pit mines despite police orders to leave the place immediately, citing life-threatening danger.

Authorities pulled out some of the protesters from the Garzweiler lignite coal mine in western Germany on Sunday, the third day of protests in the Rhineland region since Friday, when 40,000 students rallied for more action against climate change in the nearby city of Aachen.

TRENTON, N.C. (AP) — Nine months after Hurricane Florence inundated much of eastern North Carolina, the tiny town of Trenton is still struggling to rebuild as a new hurricane season begins.

The Jones County courthouse and jail have yet to reopen. Judges hear cases in county office buildings and inmates are housed in another county. Even the mayor has yet to move back into her house, because construction workers are in short supply.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Capitol will be closed Saturday due to a “possible militia threat” from right-wing protesters as a walkout by Republican lawmakers over landmark climate change legislation drags on.

Republican state senators fled the Legislature — and some, the state — earlier this week to deny the majority Democrats enough votes to take up the climate bill, which would dramatically reduce fossil fuel emissions by 2050. It would be the second program of its kind in the nation after California if passed.

20 June 2019; DW: Satellite images demonstrate that the Himalayan glaciers are melting at twice the speed they were before the turn of the century.

The Asian mountain range has been losing ice at a rate of about 1% a year since 2000, according to a study published Wednesday in Science Advances.

That equates to a decrease in size by more than a foot-and-a-half (50 centimeters) each year — double the rate of the previous 25 years.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on an environmental rule covering coal-fired power plants (all times local):

6:10 p.m.

The Trump administration has ordered a sweeping about-face on Obama-era efforts to fight climate change, easing restrictions on coal-fired power plants.

Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler signed a measure Wednesday that scraps one of President Barack Obama’s key initiatives to rein in fossil fuel emissions. The replacement rule gives states more leeway in deciding whether to require plants to make limited efficiency upgrades.

19 June 2019; AFP: In the forest undergrowth of northern Corsica, two wildlife rangers open a cage to reveal a striped, tawny-coated animal, one of 16 felines known as "cat-foxes" in the area and thought to be a new species.

"We believe that it's a wild natural species which was known but not scientifically identified because it's an extremely inconspicuous animal with nocturnal habits," says Pierre Benedetti, chief environmental technician of the National Hunting and Wildlife Office (ONCFS).