Sydney Anderson

Kilauea's summit eruption is paused, and the volcano's alert level has returned to ADVISORY with an aviation color code of YELLOW, after Episode 53 of the ongoing Halemaʻumaʻu eruption ended abruptly at 1:23 a.m. HST on August 13 following 9.6 hours of continuous lava fountaining. The most recent Hawaiian Volcano Observatory daily update available for this report, issued at 9:55 a.m. HST on August 14, set no forecast window for Episode 54.

A European research team has published design guidelines for electric vehicle battery packs built around a problem American fire departments have flagged for years: when a damaged battery arrives at a crash scene or a tow yard, nobody on site can easily tell what is inside it or how it will behave.

Two U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regulations published in the Federal Register on July 21 took effect on August 20, and the more consequential of the pair changes the default legal status of animals and plants the agency lists as threatened from this point forward. The agency has removed what biologists and land-use attorneys call the "blanket rule," a longstanding provision that automatically extended

Federal energy regulators have put a date on the calendar for one of the most heavily litigated energy projects on the Texas Gulf Coast. In a notice published August 19, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said its staff intends to prepare an environmental assessment for a capacity amendment sought by Rio Grande LNG and its Train 4 and Train 5 affiliates, and that the document will be issued on August 25.

A newly described lizard from western Thailand has been recorded in exactly one place: high-elevation evergreen forest inside Mae Wong National Park, above 1,300 meters (about 4,265 feet). Researchers reported no records of the animal anywhere else.

The U.S. International Trade Commission voted on Aug. 20 to open a patent investigation into imported rechargeable cylindrical batteries and the products built around them, a case that could eventually block certain cells and finished goods at the U.S. border. The notice of institution was published in the Federal Register on Monday, Aug. 24.

From left, astronauts Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) and Anil Menon of NASA work together during a six‑hour, 23‑minute spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Aug. 18. 2026. Roscosmos/Anna Kikina | NASA

Half the chemicals covered by a pending Environmental Protection Agency rule cannot be identified by name in the public record, because their manufacturers claimed the identities as confidential business information.

Grassland birds are declining inside some of the best-protected prairie remnants left in the United States, according to research published in Ecological Applications on August 25.

Federal nuclear regulators have approved a redesigned internal basket for a widely used dry storage system that holds spent fuel at U.S. reactor sites, and the public has until late September to weigh in before the change becomes final.