7 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Environment

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Trump administration hits disaster relief team with layoffs.

Trump plans to “all but eliminate” the Office of Community Planning and Development as part of widespread layoffs across the federal government, the New York Times reports. It would slash the workforce within that office by 84 percent, the Times says, citing a document it obtained.

The office oversees payments for recovery efforts after major disasters, opening up questions about how North Carolina communities rebuilding after the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene could be affected.

The women who made America’s microchips and the children who paid for it

The US wants to bring back domestic chipmaking. But the first generation of factory workers never got answers about their kids born with birth defects.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Federal employees who work to protect the environment are getting the ax.

That includes at least 168 employees at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who worked in its Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. The Trump administration is following a play out of Project 2025, which calls for “eliminating” the office.

Across the federal government, Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are targeting programs and employees that have worked to make initiatives more inclusive of communities of color and other groups that face disproportionate health and environmental risks.

‘Scared and betrayed’ — workers are reeling from chaos at federal agencies

Federal employees face a flood of executive orders, termination notices, and a breakdown in communication.

Justine Calma, Mia Sato and 1 more
AI is ‘an energy hog,’ but DeepSeek could change that

DeepSeek claims to use far less energy than its competitors, but there are still big questions about what that means for the environment.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Lee Zeldin, who wants to “make America the AI capital of the world” will lead the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Senate confirmed his nomination today. Zeldin has been tasked by Donald Trump to “ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses.” That seems to include removing roadblocks to building energy-hungry AI data centers in the US.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
The world is closer to “doom” than it’s ever been.

It’s 89 seconds to midnight on the Doomsday Clock. Rest assured, the clock merely “visualizes humanity’s metaphorical proximity to global catastrophe,” according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that sets the time each year and updated it today.

They moved the clock forward this year, citing risks posed by nuclear weapons, climate change, “misuse of biological science,” and the potential use of artificial intelligence in warfare and to spread disinformation.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Logitech globally expands its DIY repair program.

There are repair guides and replacement parts available for more than 20 Logitech devices, including keyboards, headsets, and MX / G series mice, on the iFixit-hosted Logitech Repair Hub — and now you can get them in 62 countries.

That includes the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, and across the EU, following Logitech’s iFixit partnership initially launching in the US. Repair guides are also available in multiple languages.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
NASA’s climate website is ‘moving.’

It’s “going to look a little different” as it migrates to a more general science site, according to NASA. President Donald Trump has called climate change a “hoax,” and researchers have been archiving environmental data in case it starts to disappear from federal websites.

The Biden administration’s climate and economic justice screening tool, a federal website on reproductive rights, and NASA’s diversity and inclusion pages appear to be down.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Donald Trump is repeating incorrect information about whale deaths.

Necropsies tie whale deaths off the east coast to ship strikes, not offshore wind, as Trump claimed during his inauguration eve rally. The US has very few offshore wind turbines anyway.

“We’re not going to do the wind thing,” Trump said. He has pledged to end federal leasing for wind energy development.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Donald Trump’s EPA pick ‘believe[s] climate change is real.’

“Emissions of greenhouse gasses trap heat,” Lee Zeldin, said during today’s Senate confirmation hearing when pressed about climate science. Whether he’ll take action is another issue.

Zeldin accepted over $269,000 from the oil and gas industry while running for Congress, and has said he’ll work to “unleash US energy dominance” and “make America the AI capital of the world” while leading the Environmental Protection Agency.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Honolulu will take fossil fuel companies to court over misinformation.

The US Supreme Court denied petitions from fossil fuel companies seeking to thwart a climate lawsuit filed against them — allowing the case to go to trial.

The city and county of Honolulu filed suit against Sunoco, Shell, and other oil companies accusing them of a “coordinated, multi-front effort to conceal and deny their own knowledge” of threats their products pose through climate change.

Alex Heath
Alex Heath
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel’s childhood home was burned in the Palisades fire.

The LA-based tech company has 150 employees who have been displaced from the wildfires, Spiegel wrote in a letter published on the company’s website. Snap has donated $5 million to local relief efforts and “will do more,” he says.

Side by side photos of Snap’s original office burned in the LA fires.
From Spiegel’s post on Snap’s website.
Snap
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Don’t be a drone dummy.

Two people have been arrested in California for flying unauthorized drones in areas impacted by the LA wildfires, according to a police report seen by Deadline.

The arrests follow a collision last Thursday between a civilian drone and a “Super Scooper” that was fighting the blazes, grounding the plane. The FAA says it’s investigating the incident. LA airspace restrictions are in place until January 25th.

How Watch Duty’s wildfire tracking app became a crucial lifeline for LA

‘We view what we are doing as a public service,’ says the cofounder of the nonprofit that millions of people are relying on to stay safe.

Abigail Bassett
Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
2024 is officially the hottest year on record.

As expected. Insert smiling cartoon dog sitting at a table, coffee mug in hand, as Los Angeles goes up in flames. This is fine.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
A wildfire tracking app topped App Store charts.

Watch Duty: Wildfire Maps, a crowdsourced app that tracks nearby fires, evacuation notices, and other key information, was more popular than ChatGPT, Threads, and Temu today as wildfires burn out of control across Southern California.

Top iPhone apps chart showing Watch Duty in the number one slot.
Screenshot: App Store