November 4, 2025 ❧  The health dangers of EPA deregulation, MAGA for Mamdani?, U.K. renters get more rights, and baby elephant trunk binkies

Plus: A News Briefing exclusive interview with an environmental scientist who resigned because of censorship, cancer in the Corn Belt, and China's Fourth Plenum 

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HERE & ABROAD

❧ DEEP DIVE: Censorship and the human dangers of environmental deregulation with Kimberly Terrell ❧

If you don’t like something, don’t measure it. In our empirically-inclined bureaucracy, the lack of evidence for something is as good as saying it doesn’t exist. This simple idea has shaped the Trump administration’s approach to the Environmental Protection Administration, where it has slashed scientists’ jobs, program funding, and data collection efforts that track industrial emissions implicated in all sorts of social ills, from climate change to cancer. 

As scientist Kimberly Terrell knows, the Trump administration didn’t invent this kind of data damnation. Chemical companies have run this playbook for years, and Terrell has spent much of her career finding data where industry probably doesn’t want it found. At Tulane University’s Environmental Law Clinic, where Terrell was a research scientist and Director of Community Engagement, her work put scientific evidence behind community complaints that the industrial plant down the road was making them, or their environment, sick. “Every study that I’ve done has started with a community member telling me, ‘Hey, I think there’s a problem with x.’” Terrell said. “I say, ’Oh, well, let me go see if there’s data on x.’ And sure enough, there’s data.”

Most famously, Terrell’s work at the law clinic linked the toxic air pollution in “Cancer Alley,” the highly industrialized corridor between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, to an increased incidence of cancer, an association even then Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards had tried to dispute. In 2022, major Louisiana newspaper The Advocate published Terrell’s op-ed, “Tulane study shows that Cancer Alley is real.”

Art from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 1, Issue 4

In June, Terrell returned to national headlines after she publicly resigned from the law clinic and released a statement describing Tulane’s new censorship of her work. The study that set it all off was comparatively tame: it documented the lack of racial diversity in the petrochemical industry, which, as Terrell pointed out, is obvious just by looking at companies’ websites. “Funny thing, under the last federal administration Tulane was really happy about my research, and all excited about things like environmental justice,” Terrell told the News Briefing. “There had never been an issue before.” 

The News Briefing sat down with Terrell, who now conducts her research at the Environmental Integrity Project, to discuss environmental deregulation, its consequences for community health, and how research will survive as academia deals with mounting political pressure.

Emily Carmichael: If you had to describe the state of environmental research and protection in the United States right now, how would you describe it?

Kimberly Terrell: I think it really varies by state. In Louisiana, it feels like just putting your head in the sand. There’s very little air monitoring in our state. I would say 99 percent of the information we have access to about pollution levels is theoretical and based on calculations as opposed to actually going out and measuring things. The state of environmental protection is bad generally, but the Clean Air Act allows individual states to go above and beyond. It provides a floor as opposed to a ceiling. So the Clean Air Act says, “Here’s the bare minimum that you have to do.” And in Louisiana, our state says, “Hey, we’re doing the bare minimum. That’s all we need to do.”

EC: One of the major tools that I’ve seen that the administration is using to change policy is defunding, as well as firings. Are there other means of pressure, censorship of climate data that aren’t getting as much air time?

Art from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 1, Issue 4

KT: Yeah, definitely.[…] And this is more of a local air quality perspective as opposed to a climate impact perspective, but oftentimes, it’s the case the community has no information about overall air quality. And so the biggest thing that I see consistently is this conflation of legal versus safe. I think that is only going to become more and more relevant as the legal piece becomes looser and looser. But even under the last EPA administration, facilities are able to do things legally that put communities at risk. One example is that in Louisiana, we have ambient air standards for toxic air pollutants, but they haven’t been updated since they were established in 1992. So our state agency responds to people’s concerns about asthma, cancer, and other pollution impacts by simply saying, “we’re complying with all the legal requirements.” Never mind that the legal limits for many toxic air pollutants are insanely high in our state because they don’t reflect current science. Scientists have learned a whole lot about the toxicity of different chemicals in the last 30 years, and none of this knowledge is reflected in Louisiana’s air pollution limits.

Read the rest of the conversation at the end of this newsletter.

❧ In Other News ❧

❧ YOU’RE CALLING THIS A CEASEFIRE? Israel killed over 100 Palestinians in Gaza in a series of airstrikes last week. The Israeli government is again using the hostages to justify its mass killings, claiming that Hamas has returned body parts of one deceased captive while saying they belonged to another. It also cited “an exchange of gunfire in Rafah” that killed an Israeli soldier, Drop Site News reported. Hamas said they were not involved in the incident. Also from Drop Site News: “Vice President JD Vance said the ceasefire ’is holding,’ characterizing the Israeli attacks that killed dozens of children as ’little skirmishes here and there.’”

Art from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 1, Issue 4

❧ CANCER RATES RISING IN THE CORN BELT. Communities around petrochemical plants in Louisiana are not the only ones with an increased incidence of cancer. In the heart of America’s corn and soybean country—Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, and Kansas—cancer rates among people aged 15 to 49 are roughly five percent higher than the national average, with overall rates just as elevated, the Washington Post reported in its deeply researched feature. No one yet knows why, but residents and researchers alike are eyeing the crop fields, saturated with industrial chemicals, like fertilizers, pesticides, and nitrates, that have made the region enormously productive—and, perhaps, quietly toxic. 

❧ HAPPY ELECTION DAY! It’s election day across the country, and multiple states are heading into races (here’s one guide) considered a referendum on Trump, the democratic response to Trump, or some secret third thing. In New York City, Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, is poised to take the reins of the largest city in the country, winning over millions of people with a platform of free buses, community run grocery stores, rent freezes and making the city affordable again. Though still the favorite to win, the most recent polls have shown Mamdani’s lead shrinking into the single digits. Depending on the poll you look at, either nursing home nightmare Andrew Cuomo is gaining a few points or Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa is having a surge in popularity. Elon Musk and Trump delivered last minute endorsements to Cuomo yesterday. THE CITY, on the other hand, found a “MAGA for Mamdani” supporter at Mamdani’s rally on Oct. 26, though there is a nonzero chance that he was a troll. But New York doesn’t have a monopoly on young, Muslim democratic socialists. In Minneapolis, state Senator Omar Fateh has a good shot at unseating incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey. Frey is also a Democrat, but Fateh is the mayoral candidate going into election day with an endorsement from Rep. Ilhan Omar.

Sam, 17, holds up a handmade sign at the New York City Marathon on Sunday. Photo by Emily Carmichael.

CURRENT-EST AFFAIRS

What’s new in the magazine this week?

Reading the Dictators’ Newspapers

“Everybody’s got their favorite newspaper or magazine—the one they turn to first thing in the morning, breakfast fork in hand, for a look at what’s going on in the world,” Current Affairs associate editor Alex Skopic writes. But unlike most people, Skopic is “a loyal reader of the Pyongyang Times and the Tehran Times.” They aren’t informational, but strategic, providing “a blueprint for how to recognize more subtle forms of propaganda when we encounter them right here at home.” Trust me, you’re going to want to read the quotes in this piece.

❧ In More News ❧

❧ CHINA’S FOURTH PLENUM PLAN. China had its Fourth Plenum last month, a major meeting during which Communist Party Central Committee members decide the country’s policy direction for the next five years. Confusingly, the Fourth Plenum is the 15th such meeting, and this one will carry China through 2030. The committee decided technological advancement will be the country’s primary goal and primary economic engine. More so than gross domestic product, China wants to focus on decreasing its dependence on other countries for high end tech and becoming a world leader in technological innovation, particularly in manufacturing, Chatham House reported. (It already has solar on lock.) On this front, China has already made strides. Futurism wrote that American executives were floored by the robotic manufacturing capabilities they observed in Chinese factories and feared their own factories will be left in the dust. China’s ambitions are bound to create tension with the United States as it, too, pushes for technological dominance, The Diplomat observed. 

The bigger takeaway, of course, is that China has a plan for its economy. By contrast, the U.S. “plan” appears to be letting a million increasingly unregulated crypto and AI companies run wild, and hoping everything turns out for the best. Oh, and sports gambling. Buckle up for the next few decades, folks.

Art by Shawn Vulliez  from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 1, Issue 4

❧ RENTERS GET MORE RIGHTS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. Good news, courtesy of a Current Affairs reader tip. (Thank you! Readers, send more tips!) The Renters’ Rights Act, a massive tenant protection bill, was formally approved in the United Kingdom, and it’s being “described as the biggest shake-up to renting in England for more than 30 years,” according to the BBC. The law’s provisions are the stuff of American renters’ dreams. It converts fixed term leases (think: a standard 12 or 24 month lease) to periodic ones, allowing tenants to rent on a rolling basis and leave with two months’ notice. Landlords will be limited to charging market-rate rent, and tenants will have the right to challenge excessive increases in a housing tribunal or civil court. You can read a guide to the bill, which will be fully implemented next year, here.

Art by Tyler Rosebush from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 1, Issue 4

❧ TRUMP OFFICIALS MOVE ONTO MILITARY BASES. At least six Trump officials have made their primary residence a military base, the Atlantic reported. Among them are White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, architect of the immigration policy that has seen masked officers disappearing people off the streets. According to the article, the Miller family felt uncomfortable with protesters outside their home calling them Nazis, among other arguably evidence-based accusations. A military base will insulate the Millers, as well Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, from the outrage of the electorate, and provide an extra layer of protection from what administration officials see as a rising threat of political violence. As for the fate of that electorate, the Guardian reported that the National Guard is forming “’a standing National Guard quick reaction force … available for rapid nationwide deployment’ in ’quelling civil disturbances’”—which, as we’ve seen in Chicago in Portland, can simply be a peaceful protest.

HERE & ABROAD. CONTINUED

❧ The rest of our conversation with Kimberly Terrell ❧

KT: There’s also a law that was passed last year in Louisiana limiting community air monitoring programs. It’s called the Community Air Monitoring Reliability Act (CAMRA). On its face, the idea is that the legislature wants to make sure that air monitoring results are reliable. In reality, it seems to be a response to the last EPA administration funneling a lot of money into community air monitoring programs. All of a sudden you had a bunch of people doing air monitoring in Louisiana, and I think industry was freaking out about the potential for lawsuits. So the law basically says that any community air monitoring program has to use EPA gold standard equipment, and has to communicate the results in a certain way that emphasizes the uncertainty of the data. Obviously that’s a First Amendment violation. You can’t enact a law restricting free speech about air monitoring data. But also, you might say, “Okay, well, what’s the problem with requiring the use of gold standard equipment?” Well, that gold standard equipment is prohibitively expensive, and it’s not always necessary to answer the question at hand. It’s kind of like saying you shouldn’t use a hammer because a hammer is old technology. Instead, you should use a nail gun. Ultimately, it’s a question of using the right tool for the job. 

EC: What do you think is the biggest change to environmental regulation that is the most impactful from your perspective?

Art from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 1, Issue 4

KT: It’s a hard question, because honestly, the very cynical part of me wants to say that not much really changed, even under the last EPA. Louisiana is kind of a free for all. Yeah, there’s a permitting process, but the facility is pretty much always going to get the permit that it wants. Honestly, to me, it feels like we are now dragging everybody else down to the bottom where Louisiana has been the whole time.

EC: As a researcher, you understand the lived consequences of environmental injustice, probably more than most people. What are you watching out for right now as we deregulate, in the health of communities?

KT: One thing I’ve been thinking about more and more is reproductive health, and more specifically, developmental health. We obviously hear a lot about concerns surrounding cancer, but what is less talked about is concerns surrounding miscarriages, birth defects, and other reproductive health outcomes. But the potential connection between industrial pollution and reproductive health has been a longstanding concern in Louisiana. Last year I published a study looking at low birth weight and preterm birth in Louisiana, and unsurprisingly, I found that those problems were more common in areas with higher levels of toxic air pollution. This shouldn’t be a surprise because there’s been so much research in other parts of the country and other parts of the world connecting air pollution exposure with unhealthy births. That’s an area that I’m still actively researching and thinking about. 

EC: So when it comes to the study that caused the—the word that came into my head was the hullabaloo, which is probably not the best, and I think that’s my bias from having worked for that newspaper—But the studies that caused the hullabaloo. Why do you think it was this study? Because you’ve published studies I think would be more of a thorn in the side of industry.

KT: I was also pretty surprised by the controversy. And honestly, I think ego played a role. This study coincidentally hit the media on the very day that the Tulane president was at the state capitol lobbying for funding for a downtown expansion. According to the Provost, the visit was going well, and then all of a sudden there was this “ripple[...] through the crowd,” and somebody accused Tulane of being anti-chemical industry because of the study that had just hit the media. And in the provost’s words, people were left feeling "embarrassed and uncomfortable.” So to me, it seems very much like an emotional response that was born out of the timing of my study’s publication. Because you’re right. Previous studies have focused on health outcomes and issues that I would have expected to be just as controversial.

Art from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 1, Issue 4

EC: You’re not the only one to leave academia or to stop your research. At the EPA hundreds of scientists have been reassigned, let go. People are moved, but the science isn’t stopping. I think that people forget what a scientist’s drive is, what that internal motor is like. What’s filling the gap left by the degradation of these traditional avenues of scientific inquiry?

KT: I think we’re going to see the nonprofit sector become increasingly important to high quality research. 10 years ago, that might have been hard to imagine. We have always envisioned universities as the bastion of independent, free inquiry. But now that there’s so much political interference with higher education, more and more scientists are going to move to the nonprofit sector. And the great thing is that, at least for me, in my own personal, professional experience, I’m doing the exact same kind of work that I was doing before. I’m just now doing it for an organization [the Environmental Integrity Project] who is not going to let itself be manipulated by political pressure.

EC: How can we support researchers?

KT: I think having a little bit of scientific literacy goes a long way and helps people understand why we need certain research.

ANIMAL FACT OF THE WEEK

Baby elephants use their trunks as binkies! 

Maybe you remember the ecstasy that was sucking your thumb when you were a baby. (Or maybe you picked different digits to wet and wrinkle, like the peace sign of your first two fingers or your pinkie.) Nothing was more soothing. Elephants have taken our system and improved it by orders of magnitude. Elephant calves suck their trunks for comfort. Imagine if you were a baby, and your thumb was also a straw. And a nose. Mind bending.

Image via Christoph Strässler from Oberdorf BL, Schweiz, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Writing and research by Emily Carmichael. Editing and additional material by Alex Skopic and Nathan J. Robinson. Header graphic by Cali Traina Blume. This news briefing is a product of Current Affairs Magazine. Subscribe to our gorgeous and informative print edition here, and our delightful podcast here.

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