The Guardian

• US national parks staff in ‘survival mode’ to keep parks open amid Trump cuts

  Park bosses say they’re running visitor centers and even cleaning bathrooms as remaining staff try to keep sites open

  Across the US’s fabled but overstretched national parks, unusual scenes are playing out this summer following budget cuts by Donald Trump’s administration. Archeologists are staffing ticket booths, ecologists are covering visitor centers and the superintendents of parks are even cleaning the toilets.

  The National Park Service (NPS), responsible for maintaining cherished wildernesses and sites of cultural importance from Yellowstone to the Statue of Liberty, has lost a quarter of its permanent staff since Trump took office in January, with the administration seeking to gut the service’s budget by a third.

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• Three major chemical companies agree to pay $875m to New Jersey over Pfas claims

  Settlement follows another one reached with Ohio in 2023 for similar claims related to ‘forever chemicals’

  Chemours, DuPont and Corteva have agreed to pay $875m over 25 years to the state of New Jersey to settle environmental claims including pollution linked to Pfas, or “forever chemicals”, the companies said on Monday.

  Lawsuits accusing major chemical companies of polluting US drinking water with toxic Pfas chemicals led to more than $11bn in settlements in 2023, with experts predicting that new federal regulations and a growing awareness of the breadth of the contamination will spur more litigation and settlements.

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• First-of-a-kind US class-action lawsuit would force EPA to reinstate $3bn climate program

  Coalition of non-profits, tribes and local governments sued EPA chief for halting climate justice grants

  The Trump administration’s decision to abruptly terminate a $3bn program helping hundreds of communities prepare for climate disasters and environmental hazards is unconstitutional and should be overturned, a court will hear on Tuesday.

  A coalition of non-profits, tribes and local governments is suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the agency’s administrator, Lee Zeldin, for terminating the entire Environmental and Climate Justice (ECJ) block grant program – despite a legally binding mandate from Congress to fund the Biden-era initiative.

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• Central California issues evacuation orders after wildfire burns 72,000 acres

  At least three people injured and over 450 structures under threat by Gifford blaze, with only 3% of perimeter contained

  A huge wildfire in central California has threatened hundreds of homes, with blazes churning through the brush-covered hillsides in Los Padres national forest.

  At least three people were reported injured, and more than 450 structures were under threat by the Gifford fire, officials said on Monday.

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• Canada wildfires prompt severe air quality alerts across country and US

  More than 700 active wildfires burning across Canada and about two-thirds are currently out-of-control

  Billowing smoke from hundreds of out-of-control wildfires – most of which are in the Canadian Prairies – have caused severe air quality alerts across Canada and the United States.

  Detroit, Michigan, and the Canadian cities of Montreal and Toronto, recorded some of the worst air quality in the world on Monday, according to a ranking by IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company.

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