Today: World Cup organizers wrangle with rising temperatures and freak weather; Major chemical accidents are on the rise in the U.S.; Lynas's longtime chief executive exits the Australian rare-earths powerhouse.

Welcome back: As players in the World Cup battle it out on the pitch, organizers are facing off against Mother Nature.

Soaring temperatures could make this year’s World Cup the hottest in history, WSJ Pro Sustainable Business reports, and keeping players on the pitch, fans in the stands and all the workers behind soccer’s biggest event safe from punishing heat and sudden storms is a challenge at venues across North America.

It’s a growing struggle for organizers of all kinds of sporting events across the world as average temperatures rise, and the developing El Niño weather pattern could only make it worse.

The heat has been bearing down on spectators at games from California to Miami, but there have been other weather disruptions, too. Fans in Houston were told this past weekend to take shelter from lightning risks after the Netherlands played Sweden, and organizers are planning for possible thunderstorms at tonight’s game in Philadelphia between France and Iraq.

For the host cities this year, the frequency of extremely hot days in June and July has tripled on average since the tournament was held in Mexico in 1986 and in the U.S. in 1994, according to a report from Climate Central, a climate nonprofit.

FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, said it is monitoring conditions and “stands ready to apply established contingency protocols should extreme weather events occur.”

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In just the last month, two major chemical incidents rocked communities on the West Coast: A 900,000-gallon tank containing a toxic chemical used to make paper collapsed at a Longview, Wash., plant, killing 11 workers, and a chemical tank belonging to a jet-parts maker in California overheated, forcing the evacuation of more than 40,000 residents from Garden Grove, Calif., a densely populated city near Los Angeles.

The WSJ's Shalini Ramachandran and Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky report that these incidents are part of an alarming trend: Serious chemical accidents are on the rise in the U.S., according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data submitted to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, or CSB.

There were 131 serious chemical accidents in 2025, the data show, up 20% from the year before. Of these, 89 resulted in at least one death or serious injury. All told, chemical accidents killed 48 people in 2025—almost double 2024’s toll—and seriously injured 142.

Since 2020, companies have been required to report serious chemical releases—those resulting in deaths, injuries or more than $1 million in estimated damages—to the CSB, a small U.S. agency that investigates the cause of chemical accidents. Companies have reported more than 600 serious chemical incidents in 46 states since then.

When Amanda Lacaze became chief executive of Australian rare-earths mining company Lynas in 2014, few in the industry gave her much of a chance, the WSJ's Jon Emont reports.

Her predecessor had lasted 14 months. The company’s stock had fallen more than 90% over the past few years. Lacaze’s background was in marketing, not mining.

And somehow she had to crack China’s near-total dominance of the world’s rare earths—a strategically important but commercially thankless task.

She righted the ship. After 12 years as CEO, Lacaze, 66, will be leaving the company at the end of June having built a Western rare-earths powerhouse. In March, Lynas announced a preliminary deal to sell rare earths to the Pentagon, including the elusive “heavy” rare earths that Beijing has used as a lever to threaten global industry over the past year.

The company’s stock price is about 15 times higher than when she stepped in, and revenue hit around $470 million in the three quarters that ended in March, 70% higher than the same period a year earlier.

• OPEC forecasts oil will retain the largest share of the global energy mix through midcentury, with no peak demand on the horizon. (WSJ)
   
• The Trump administration is buying back another energy company’s U.S. offshore wind leases for four more wind projects. (AP)
   
• Colombia passed a law to track cattle from their origins all the way to the supermarket in a bid to stem deforestation. (Inside Climate News)
   
• A huge slice of global data center capacity faces elevated risk to acute climate hazards like flooding and fire. (CNBC)
   
• People are flocking to see the algae-streaked Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and are eager to weigh in on the solution. (WSJ)
   
• A California pilot program is building solar panels over irrigation canals to generate power. The shade is preventing evaporation. (NYT)
   

• Michael Bloomberg is pledging almost $300 million to help renewable energy industry associations counter a well-financed oil lobby. (FT)

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business gives you an inside look at how companies are tackling sustainability. Send comments to bureau chief Perry Cleveland-Peck at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com and reporters Clara Hudson at clara.hudson@wsj.com and Yusuf Khan at yusuf.khan@wsj.com. Follow us on LinkedIn at wsjperry, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.