ICYMI: Naked Mole Rat Queen, Polar Bear Invasion & More

A weekly roundup for busy people

By Paul Rauber

February 15, 2019

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Illustration by Peter Arkle

After a bloody struggle, the naked mole rats at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., choose a new queen

A Sumatran tiger at the London Zoo is killed by its intended mate. At a safari park 100 miles to the west, a rare Amur tiger is killed in a fight when it enters an enclosure with two other tigers. 

By a vote of 92 to 8, the Senate passes a sweeping lands package that designates 1.3 million acres of wilderness in California, Oregon, Utah, and New Mexico, establishes three new national monuments, and permanently funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

President Trump will declare a national emergency in order to bypass Congress’s refusal to pay for his border wall.

The Tennessee Valley Authority closes an aging coal-fired power plant, ignoring a Twitter plea from President Trump that it keep open the plant, which was supplied by a company chaired by Robert Murray, one of the president’s top donors. 

An Australian court rejects a proposed coal mine because of the effect it would have on the world’s climate.

rare black leopard is spotted in Kenya. 

Spain intends to close its seven nuclear power plants by 2035 and to generate all the country’s electricity from renewables by 2050. 

Instead of replacing three aging natural-gas-fired power plants, Los Angeles will abandon them and invest in more renewable energy instead. 

Officials in the Russian archipelago of Novaya Zemlaya declare a state of emergency after dozens of polar bears invade its main town, scavenging at the local dump and entering houses. 

California governor Gavin Newsom appears to back away from building a high-speed rail line from Los Angeles to San Francisco.  

The Bureau of Land Management cancels plans to allow oil and gas drilling within 10 miles of New Mexico’s Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

TransCanada admits that its Keystone pipeline is the likely source of an oil spill in Missouri. Since US sanctions have largely cut off oil imports from Venezuela, Gulf Coast refineries are importing larger amounts of tar-sands oil from Canada. 

Polipoli State Park in Maui closes on account of snow.