内容摘要：Fires were the main cause, overtaking land clearances from agriculture for the first time on record, with the Amazon faring particularly badly amid record drought.

Fires were the main cause, overtaking land clearances from agriculture for the first time on record, with the Amazon faring particularly badly amid record drought.

Trump's cuts to biomedical research didn't help, but the mistrust surrounding Chinese researchers was also a factor. Allegations and rumours of espionage, especially in sensitive subjects, have loomed over Chinese nationals at US universities in recent years, even derailing some careers."One of the professors even told me, 'We rarely give offers to Chinese students these days, so I cannot give you an interview," Mr Cao told the BBC in February.

"I feel like I am just a grain of sand under the wheel of time. There is nothing I can do."For those who did graduate from US colleges, returning home to China has not been easy either.They used to be lauded as a bridge to the rest of the world. Now, they find that their once-coveted degrees don't draw the same reaction.

Chen Jian, who did not want to use his real name, said he quickly realised that his undergraduate degree from a US college had become an obstacle.When he first came back in 2020, he interned at a state-owned bank and asked a supervisor if there was a chance to stay on.

The supervisor didn't say it outright, but Chen got the message: "Employees should have local degrees. People like me (with overseas degrees) won't even get a response."

He later realised that "there really weren't any colleagues with overseas undergraduate background in the department".In the absence of a federal law, the states have chosen to come up with their own legislation.

Laws that call for age-verification has long pitted app store providers like Apple and Google against social media companies.Meta, which owns the social media network Facebook and photo sharing app Instagram, has lobbied for Apple and Google to be responsible for verifying the age of users.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple chief executive Tim Cook called Governor Abbott earlier this month in a bid to stop the passage of the state's bill.An Apple spokesperson said the tech giant shares "the goal of strengthening kids' online safety" but added it was "deeply concerned" by the threat it believes the law poses to the privacy of all users.