A satellite image of the oil slick as it looked in late May 2010, a month after the Deepwater Horizon well exploded. The oil plume looks grayish white.
NASA/Goddard/Jen Shoemaker and Stu Snodgrass
Donald Boesch, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
The BP Deepwater Horizon blowout on April 20, 2010 triggered the largest offshore oil spill in history. Ten years later, post-spill reforms are being undone and the Gulf of Mexico remains vulnerable.
Washing your hands frequently is just one of the things you can do to stay healthy during the coronavirus outbreak.
Getty Images / Jena Ardell
Declaring an issue is a national emergency lets presidents act quickly and with few constraints. But once they get this kind of power, it’s hard to take it back – and it can produce bad policies.
SNAP can help low-income families eat a more balanced diet.
Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images
This pillar of the American safety net originated as a solution to the paradox of hunger in the midst of plenty.
A Palestinian reacts to tear gas fired by Israeli forces during protests against U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mideast initiative in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed
The Israel-Palestine “peace” plan concocted by Donald Trump’s administration openly violates the principles of international law and, if implemented, would set a dangerous precedent.
Automated algorithms – not humans – are increasingly making decisions about who’s eligible for welfare benefits.
gorodenkoff/Getty Images
States are increasingly turning to machine learning and algorithms to detect fraud in food stamps, Medicaid and other welfare programs – despite little evidence of actual fraud.
The U.S. Supreme Court building, completed in 1935, is considered a neoclassical masterpiece.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Federal building guidelines say that ‘development of an official style must be avoided’ – which is exactly what a leaked executive order is trying to do.
Colorized scanning electron micrograph of filamentous Ebola virus particles (blue) budding from an infected cell (yellow-green).
NIAID
The Trump administration has cut funding for infectious disease research and reduced high-level staffing for global health security, leaving the nation less prepared for major outbreaks.
Trump and Macron agreed to a detente in their trade spat.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
France agreed to postpone implementing its law to tax US technology giants as negotiators from nearly 140 countries seek agreement on reforms to the international tax system.
Starting Feb. 6, 2020, California growers will be barred from using the insecticide chlorpyrifos on grapes and other crops.
AP Photo/Eric Risberg
Gina Solomon, University of California, San Francisco
Starting Feb. 6, 2020, California farmers will be barred from using chlorpyrifos on their crops. The Trump administration says more study is needed, but other states are also moving ahead.
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He after signing the trade agreement.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Brexit represented British voters’ desire to reclaim more control over their economic future, but some worry the cost will be some of the prosperity gained from globalization.
Trump is seen in the Oval Office in early January 2020. Viewing him as a cult leader and his supporters as cult followers doesn’t help us understand why he appeals to some voters.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
There are many legitimate ways to critique Donald Trump, but demonizing his voters as cult followers doesn’t help us understand why they are attracted to him and how their world view has developed.
Sheep grazing on BLM land near Shoshone, Idaho.
BLM/Flickr
Do public lands in the West belong to Westerners, or all Americans? Moving a federal agency’s headquarters from Washington, DC to Colorado is the latest skirmish in a longtime struggle.
Blood samples from pediatric health screenings can provide valuable data for public health research.
AP Photo/Carlos Osorio
The EPA has just adopted a rule that limits what kinds of science regulators can use in setting rules. A scholar explains how this shift could impede his work mapping child lead poisoning.
Seven democratic candidates convened in Los Angeles for a debate.
AP Photo/Chris Carlson
Border wall construction through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona is encroaching on a site where people from many cultures have interacted for thousands of years.
America’s military presence in Somalia could be causing more harm than good.
Mazen Mahdi/EPA