The Guardian

• North Carolina Christmas tree farmers are optimistic after Hurricane Helene

  More than a year after the storm ripped apart families and farms, growers are bullish about strength of their industry

  Christmas tree farmers in western North Carolina are still rebuilding from last year’s devastating Hurricane Helene, but growers are optimistic about business and the overall strength of their industry in the region.

  “There’s still a lot of recovery that needs to happen, but we’re in much better shape than we were this time last year … sales are good,” Kevin Gray, owner of Hickory Creek Farm Christmas Trees in Greensboro, said earlier this month, while the buying season was in full swing.

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• Yellowstone hot spring spews forth spectacular muddy plumes

  Black Diamond Pool eruption provides dramatic footage after being captured on official camera

  A hot spring in Yellowstone national park that erupts sporadically was captured on an official camera exploding in spectacular muddy plumes at the weekend.

  Volcanic experts at the US Geological Survey described the eruption as simply “Kablooey!”

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• Trump officials halt offshore wind-farm projects over ‘national security risks’

  Interior department move affects five projects under construction in latest blow to industry targeted by Trump

  The Trump administration has said it is immediately pausing all leases for offshore wind farms already under construction, in the heaviest blow yet to an industry that the administration has relentlessly targeted throughout the year.

  Trump’s Department of the Interior said that it was halting the building of five wind projects due to “national security risks”. The department said it would work with the US Department of Defense to mitigate the risk of the wind turbine towers creating radar interference called “clutter” that could in some way hamper the US military.

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• US farmers say Trump’s $12bn package not enough to undo damage from tariffs

  Thousands of farms set to go bankrupt as grain farmers in particular hit by trade disruptions caused by price hikes

  Donald Trump, having promised to “NEVER LET OUR FARMERS DOWN”, appeared to come through for them this month when he unveiled a $12bn aid package. Industry leaders say thousands of farms will still go bust this year.

  While the US president has vowed to increase domestic farm production, and even claimed this formed a “big part” of his plan to lower grocery prices for Americans, many US farmers are grappling with mounting financial issues – compounded by Trump’s agenda.

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• Trump’s shuttering of the National Center for Atmospheric Research is Stalinist | Michael Mann and Bob Ward

  This is the latest in the relentless purge of climate researchers who refuse to be co-opted by the fossil fuel industry

  The Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin would no doubt have understood and even appreciated the latest attack by the Trump administration on climate researchers and their work.

  The National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, is to be dismantled after more than 50 years at the forefront of global research on climate science and monitoring.

  Professor Michael Mann is the presidential distinguished professor and director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania, and co-author with Peter Hotez of Science Under Siege; Bob Ward is policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science

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