**The Trump administration is scrambling to rescue Americans after the deadly mudslide in Nepal and Tibet, **in a visceral example of how climate skeptics will have to face the reality of climate change.
The images from the massive flooding in Nepal and Tibet this week have been as terrifying as they have been heartbreaking. A massive tsunami of brown water
▶gushing throughtowns and villages, crashing over homes and buildings as locals sprint for safety. A pristine mountain valley transforming into a𝕏chaotic disaster zonewithin four minutes. A crew of workers♪spotting rushing watersflowing down the nearby river, then running for their lives. “Oh my God. Oh my God,” the man filming the moment gasps, before narrowly escaping the torrent.
The world witnessed one of the most violent natural disasters in recent memory on Wednesday, as a mudslide tore through the region and sparked flash floods. More than 380 people have been killed,
according to officials, and the death toll is expected to rise. Hundreds more are missing fromdozens of countries, including up to 90 people from the United States,𝕏according to the State Department.
Scientists believe the flood was caused by
a collapsing glacier, a phenomenon linked to rising global temperatures due to climate change. Researchers have repeatedly warned that natural disasters will get worse as the climate warms, increasing the ferocity and speed of storms, floods and wildfires. The world’s poorest will suffer the most, and this week’s catastrophe is exactly the kind of thing we’ve been warned will happen more often.
“These catastrophic floods are becoming more frequent,” one geographer told
Nature. Because researchers can’t track and study every glacier, “you can’t predict these events,” he added.
**Trump has called climate change a “hoax” and has paid billions to stop clean wind energy projects. **But in the end, the climate doesn’t care what he thinks.
Trump, and America, will have to face up to the reality of climate change — whether we believe in it or not. The U.S. offered to help with rescue and relief efforts in Nepal, President Donald Trump
𝕏told reporters today. “It’s terrible,” he said. “That was mud and water as a mixture. Nobody’s ever seen anything quite like that… Strong, well-built buildings were wiped out like they were toothpicks, that’s a terrible thing.”
Trump then pivoted and made a grim prediction about the Americans caught in the floods: “Somebody will be lost, unfortunately.”
The mudslide is a stark reminder that, as the U.S.
rolls back its policiesto fight climate change, the whole world will suffer the consequences.
Global warming is “no big deal,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright
recently said. Regulating greenhouse gas emissions is a “giant scam,” Trump saidearlier this year. Defense Secretary Pete Hegsethdismissed studiesabout the security threat that warming temperatures pose as “climate change crap.”
**I highly recommend reading this piece by a journalist for The Kathmandu Post: **“My eldest aunt was swept away. So was her son, my dai Madhu, and his wife. My other aunt — gone too,” he writes. “My maternal uncle had gone out that morning to cut grass for the cattle. He never came back.”
** Donald Trump signed an executive order **renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America.” In response, Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL)
** The American military has a “beyond critical” shortage** of interceptors that can shoot down missiles, largely because of Trump’s war with Iran, according to the Associated Press. That’s especially concerning as
** An ICE agent who faces state charges for a shooting **in Minneapolis was released from jail in Texas today, after a judge ruled that Texas officials don’t have to extradite him to Minnesota. It’s unclear whether the agent will face the state charges in court; Trump officials argue that the charges are illegitimate. Minnesota officials have said they’re concerned the agent will escape to Mexico.
** A former staffer for Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) **— who is running against Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) for Senate — recently posted an image of a swastika, a picture of himself in Ku Klux Klan robes, and described himself as a “twink fascist” on his X accounts, the
** A swarm of about 700 AI agents from OpenAI participated** in the hack on HuggingFace last month, according to the company and independent investigators. What concerns me the most, however, is that many of the agents
** Swiss officials asked the U.S. to help them arrest** a Venezuelan businessman — and the Trump administration effectively told them to shove it, the
** CEOs of America’s lowest-paying corporations made **an average of 614 times more than their average worker, according to a new report. The McDonald’s CEO, for instance, makes more than 1,000 times what a worker earns. “To me, it seems like these CEOs are just living on a remote economic planet from the one that their employees are living on,” the lead author of the study told the
** Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy now has a puppy.** He accepted the American pit bull terrier, named Freya, as a gift from former boxer Terence Crawford this week. The dog’s grandfather reportedly survived the brutal Russian attack on Bucha in 2022.
** Marmots may be adorable, but they’re wreaking havoc **on hikers in Sequoia National Park. This article is so funny: Hikers complain about marmots stealing their shoes, swiping their hiking poles, charging toward them, and even chewing hoses underneath cars and rendering them undriveable. One man woke up to a marmot licking his ear: “It scared the s— out of me,” the man said. “You don’t expect to get licked when you go to sleep in the woods.”
** Betty Crocker figured out how to win over Gen Z: **Sell accessories that look like food. The brand released a line of purses that look like cake slices this week and sold out within hours. The name of the line? “Betty Ate.” Very clever! Though I predict that young people carrying around whimsical purses that look like dessert will age as well as millennials who
** Are you drinking water right now? STOP!!! **Just kidding, you don’t
** Are you eating tiramisu right now? KEEP GOING!!!** Apparently there’s a Tiramisu World Cup in Treviso, Italy soon, and organizers are looking for 130 people to join a “public jury” to judge the opening rounds. Securing a spot is not as simple as scarfing down dessert: You’d have to pass a 15-question online test about tiramisu lore first. I found the
