James' World 2

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CLIMATEWIRE | Texas knows it isn’t prepared for floods.

But the state has done little to address the risk, and the federal government under President Donald Trump is unlikely to help Texas cover the cost.

The threat was underscored last week when floodwaters ravaged central Texas, killing more than 100 people, including more than two dozen children and staff at a riverside summer camp. About 160 people were still missing as of Tuesday evening, according to Texas public safety officials.

Officials have vowed to take action, and state lawmakers are scheduled to meet July 21 for a special legislative session that’s intended to bolster Texas’ emergency response.

Yet the latest disaster isn’t the first time Texas has dealt with mass casualties from a flood event. Nor is the upcoming Statehouse session the first time that Texas has tried to address flood risk.

The lack of meaningful progress highlights the challenge of preparing for natural disasters such as floods and wildfires that are being made worse by climate change. And it reinforces the risk of shifting more of that responsibility to states, as proposed by the Trump administration.

“Hopefully this tragic event will open everyone’s eyes,” said Marie Camino, government affairs director at the Nature Conservancy in Texas.

Texas has faced devastating floods before, including 2017, when Hurricane Harvey dumped more than 48 inches of rain on Houston and other Gulf Coast communities. The storm left dozens dead and caused more than $125 billion in damages.

In response, state lawmakers in 2019 created the Texas Flood Infrastructure Fund and began planning projects to control high water around the state.

The fund, overseen by the Texas Water Development Board, has identified $54 billion in flood control needs across Texas. But lawmakers so far have devoted just $1.4 billion to fix them.

The lack of funding can be attributed to two factors, observers say.

The first is ideological. Texas Republicans — who control the Statehouse and governor’s mansion — are big believers in fiscal conservatism. So there isn’t a groundswell of enthusiasm to fund major government projects.

There’s a practical concern, too.

Before lawmakers were willing to commit money to flood projects, they wanted to make sure that plans were written to address each river basin in the state.

Otherwise, there’s the risk that a project in one city would simply steer floodwaters to other communities, said state Sen. Charles Perry, who chairs the Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

“We created this very detailed, very elaborate watershed planning, where every watershed would coordinate with all the municipalities and cities up and down that watershed to make sure that as you’re moving water from one place, you’re not just dumping it on the next place,” he said.

Texas legislators have tried recently to steer more money to the effort.

This spring, lawmakers passed a plan that would devote up to $500 million annually over the next 20 years to flood projects. But the proposal must first earn the support of Texas voters in a statewide referendum, now set for November.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other state officials have described the plan as a “Texas-sized” commitment to water infrastructure and flood prevention.

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One noteworthy addition to this “smart” technology category is smart bird feeders, which can detect motion, identify birds, and capture videos so you know exactly who is visiting your backyard. Pretty much the only thing this tech can’t do is refill itself with birdseed — everything else is automated and sometimes even self-charging thanks to solar pads.

If you’re on the market for a bird feeder that can up your birdwatching game, it might feel overwhelming to sift through the many options now crowding the market. We did the hard part for you and compiled some of the best smart bird feeders on Amazon based on cost, quality, reviews, and features.

Spoiler alert: Given its relatively affordable price and convenient features like ease of setup, the Osoeri bird feeder is a great way to go.

The Osoeri bird feeder seems to have everything you could possibly want in a smart bird feeder, and it even comes in multiple colors that you can match to your own aesthetic. The Osoeri comes with a strap and pole fasteners that allow you to attach it to a pole. However, the feeder can also lay completely flat, which is something other models like the PeckPerk I own (more on that later) can’t do. Drawbacks: Some users reported that some of their motion alerts were false alarms, and complained about the camera quality.

Bottom line: The Osoeri seems to be well worth its relatively affordable price and has all the features you could want in a bird feeder. If you plan to give this as a gift, expect tons and tons of cute bird videos.

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Snart Bird Feeders

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U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna said he will attempt to force a vote in Congress to release all the government’s files pertaining to the notorious financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“On Tuesday, I’m introducing an amendment to force a vote demanding the FULL Epstein files be released to the public,” Khanna (D-Calif.) tweeted Saturday night. “Speaker [Mike Johnson] must call a vote and put every Congress member on record.”

The administration of President Donald Trump has been accused in recent days of covering up information about the extent of the financier’s crimes and his connections to powerful individuals, including President Donald Trump himself.

“Why are the Epstein files still hidden? Who are the rich and powerful being protected?” Khanna asked.

Since Epstein’s death in 2019 in federal custody following charges of child sex-trafficking, the billionaire investor has been the subject of rampant speculation.

Though his death was officially ruled a suicide, some have speculated that Epstein was murdered to prevent him from implicating other elite “clients” in his sex-trafficking ring. Epstein had relationships with powerful individuals, including former President Bill Clinton and the U.K.’s Prince Andrew.

Trump also has a well-documented history with Epstein. They have been extensively photographed together. And last year, an audio tape was released in which Epstein described himself as “Donald Trump’s closest friend.”

In June, amid a public falling-out with the president, billionaire Elon Musk said that the Trump administration, which he’d just departed, was covering up the files to protect Trump.

“Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files,” he wrote. That is the real reason they have not been made public.”

During the 2024 campaign, Trump said he would “probably” release the so-called “Epstein files” to the public. Meanwhile, many members of his Department of Justice—including FBI Director Kash Patel—rose to prominence in part by accusing Joe Biden’s administration of covering up secrets about Epstein to protect powerful Democrats and other elites.

During his confirmation hearing, Patel said he would “do everything if confirmed as FBI director to make sure the American public knows the full weight of what happened.”

In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the DOJ would be “lifting the veil” on “Epstein and his co-conspirators.” She said she had Epstein’s client list “sitting on

my desk right now to review” and promised that “a lot of names” would be revealed. Though in subsequent days, little was released beyond information that was already public.

A memo released July 7 by the DOJ later stated that there was “no incriminating client list” and that Epstein indeed committed suicide. It also said that “no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.”

This reversal resulted in widespread anger, including from many Trump supporters directed at Bondi, who they accused of covering up information that might damage the president.

“Pam Blondi [sic] is covering up child sex crimes that took place under HER WATCH when she was Attorney General of Florida,” wrote one of Trump’s closest confidantes, Laura Loomer. “Bondi needs to be fired.”

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Hmmmm… If this is true, we are in more trouble with Trump than we thought!

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Trump Asked Zelenskyy If Ukraine Could Strike Moscow With U.S. Long-Range Weapons: Report

Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy whether his country’s forces could hit Moscow if the U.S. supplied them with long-range weapons during their call on July 4, The Financial Times reported, citing sources briefed on their conversation. 52White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt sought to downplay the report, which claims Trump urged the wartime leader to increase deep strikes on Russia, claiming the outlet “is notorious for taking words wildly out of context to get clicks.””President Trump was merely asking a question, not encouraging further killing. He’s working tirelessly to stop the killing and end this war,” Leavitt said in a statement to HuffPost.The report comes a day after Trump expressed frustration with Vladimir Putin, warning the U.S. would punish Moscow if the Russian president doesn’t end the war within 50 days.

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Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) launched a searing critique of the Trump administration’s sweeping tariff policies Sunday. During an appearance on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” Beshear labeled the strategy pure “chaos,” undermining the U.S. economy.

He warned these unpredictable tariffs are harming working families.

“The people of Kentucky, many of them, voted for [President] Donald Trump because they thought he’d make paying the bills a little bit easier at the end of the week. And he’s just making it harder,” Beshear said.

Asked if Kentuckians had backed the current tariff agenda, Beshear was unequivocal.

“No, not at all,” he said. “This is, what was it, first across the board, then reciprocal, then industry-specific. I think there was a company-specific tariff proposed. Now, we have tariffs on countries if he doesn’t like who that country is prosecuting. It is chaos. It is increasing costs.”

The governor detailed real-world consequences, noting layoffs among small businesses in Kentucky hit by rising costs of imported raw materials.

“And when a small business is laying somebody off, it’s somebody they go to church with. It’s somebody who their kids play soccer with. This is going to impact the economy in such negative ways,” he added.

In April, Trump announced “reciprocal” tariffs on numerous countries, tying rates to bilateral trade deficits. Though rates were reduced to 10 percent for a 90‑day negotiation window, the move sent shockwaves through markets.

Beshear’s statements echo bipartisan dismay in Kentucky — including from Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul — as local industries like bourbon, auto manufacturing, and agriculture warn of escalating costs, production delays, and retaliatory foreign tariffs.

On Saturday, Trump announced that, effective August 1, a 30 percent tariff will be levied on imports from both Mexico and the European Union. This escalation follows several weeks of trade talks that did not yield a comprehensive agreement, with both sides unable to finalize a deal.

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Marine plastic litter tends to grab headlines, with images of suffocating seabirds or bottles washing up along coastlines. Increasingly, researchers have been finding tiny microplastic fragments across all environments, from the most densely populated cities to pristine mountaintops, as well as in human tissue, including the brain and placenta. A study published today reveals yet another hidden source of this deadly waste: nanometre-scale particles are literally everywhere, says co-author Dušan Materić, an environmental analytical chemist at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany.

Materić and his colleagues sampled water at three depths representative of different environments in the North Atlantic Ocean. Throughout the water column, they found three types of nanoplastic: polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polystyrene (PS), and polyvinylchloride (PVC). These were present at average concentrations of 18 milligrams per metre cubed, which translates to 27 million tonnes of nanoplastics spread across just the top layer of the temperate to subtropical North Atlantic. “Nanoplastics make up the dominant fraction of marine plastic pollution,” Materić says. In the entire world’s oceans, it is estimated that there are around 3 million tonnes of floating plastic pollution, excluding nanoplastics.

What are plastic nanoparticles, and how different are they from microplastics?

The tiniest of pieces of plastic, nanoplastics are defined by the researchers as having a diameter of less than one micrometre (one one-thousandth of a metre). Microplastics are between one micrometre and 5 millimetres across. At the smaller scale of nanoplastics, materials behave differently. Materić and his colleagues found that the particles were distributed throughout the water column, rather than settling to the bottom. The movement of the nanoplastic particles was dominated not by gravity, but by the random movement called Brownian motion, and by collisions with water molecules.

How did the team find the nanoplastics?

The scientists took water samples during a November 2020 cruise on research vessel Pelagia, which is owned by the Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research in Texel. They sampled at 12 locations: 5 in the system of circular currents called the North Atlantic subtropical gyre; 4 in the open ocean; and 3 from coastal areas on the European continental shelf. At each location, they gathered samples at depths of 10 metres and 1,000 metres below the surface, and then 30 metres off the ocean bottom.

The nanoplastics were detected using a technology called thermal-desorption proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry. “We faced multiple challenges,” says Materić, including the need to remove contaminants other than nanoplastics. Each 10-millilitre sample was run through a filter with micrometre pores to clear out microplastics. Samples were then slowly heated, releasing any organic matter and allowing the remaining plastics to be identified.

Not all was as expected. “We faced a big mystery,” says Materić. One major class of plastics, polyethylene (PE), was missing from the data, even though fragments almost certainly enter the ocean. The fragments probably transform into something else, or might fall to the sea bed, says Materić. “This suggests that PE nanoplastic cycling in the ocean environment follows some unusual pathway — either rapid chemical alteration or mineralization, or fast sinking.”

Should we be surprised that nanoplastics are an overlooked source of plastics pollution? Should we be worried?

“This does not come as a surprise to me, as I have been aware of the extent and magnitude of the problem for some time,” says Tony Walker, an environmental scientist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. “Nanoplastics, unlike microplastics, are able to pass through cell walls, meaning that they are already incorporated into the ocean phytoplankton, which serve as the base of the marine food web and are able to be transferred through the marine food web,” he explains.

The ubiquitousness of nanoplastics means they should be taken seriously, says Materić. “Given their toxicological potential, they may represent the most problematic plastic size fraction for ocean life,” he says. Walker agrees: “This should be a wake-up call to all of us,” he says. “The extent to which nanoplastics can infiltrate every ecosystem and living cell on the planet is even far worse than what we already know about microplastics and larger plastic pollution.”

What can be done to mitigate the pollution?

The next and likely final round of negotiations for a legally binding United Nations treaty on plastics pollution will kick off in August in Geneva, Switzerland. On the table is a limit on future plastic manufacture, but this is being resisted by some countries, including those that rely on oil and gas exports to power their economies.

“One of the best strategies to mitigate future nanoplastic pollution or release into the environment is to cap plastic production,” says Walker. “Turn off the tap.”

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Former President Barack Obama issued a call to action for Democrats at a private fundraiser in New Jersey on Friday evening, urging those frustrated by the state of the country under President Donald Trump to “stand up for the things that you think are right.”

“I think it’s going to require a little bit less navel-gazing and a little less whining and being in fetal positions. And it’s going to require Democrats to just toughen up,” Obama said at the fundraiser, according to excerpts of his remarks exclusively obtained by CNN.

“You know, don’t tell me you’re a Democrat, but you’re kind of disappointed right now, so you’re not doing anything. No, now is exactly the time that you get in there and do something,” he said. “Don’t say that you care deeply about free speech and then you’re quiet. No, you stand up for free speech when it’s hard. When somebody says something that you don’t like, but you still say, ‘You know what, that person has the right to speak.’ … What’s needed now is courage.”

Obama’s comments come as the Democratic Party searches for its path forward in the second Trump term and beyond. Many in the party’s base have called for a more forceful response from Democratic leaders at a time when the party is locked out of power.

As Democrats debate who should lead the party, Obama encouraged them to channel their energy into the governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia, saying the off-year elections could be “a big jumpstart for where we need to go.”

“Stop looking for the quick fix. Stop looking for the messiah. You have great candidates running races right now. Support those candidates,” Obama said, calling out the New Jersey and Virginia elections, according to the excerpts of his remarks.

“Make sure that the DNC has what it needs to compete in what will be a more data-driven, more social media-driven cycle, which will cost some money and expertise and time,” he continued.

Obama spoke at a private fundraiser hosted by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and his wife, Tammy Murphy, at their home in Red Bank, New Jersey. The intimate dinner drew in $2.5 million through in-person and online donations for the Democratic National Committee, a source familiar with the event said.

A portion of the haul will be allocated to Democratic efforts in the governor’s race in New Jersey. The Democratic nominee, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, and and DNC Chair Ken Martin were on hand for the event.

Obama described Sherrill and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic nominee for governor in Virginia, as “powerful spokespersons for a pragmatic, commonsense desire to help people and who both have remarkable track records of service.”

“The most important thing you can do right now is to help the team, our candidate to win,” he said. “And we’ve got to start building up our coffers in the DNC.”

Obama also argued that Democrats need to focus on how to “deliver for people,” acknowledging the different views within the party about how best to do that.

“There’s been, I gather, some argument between the left of the party and people who are promoting the quote-unquote abundance agenda. Listen, those things are not contradictory. You want to deliver for people and make their lives better? You got to figure out how to do it,” he said.

“I don’t care how much you love working people. They can’t afford a house because all the rules in your state make it prohibitive to build. And zoning prevents multifamily structures because of NIMBY,” he said, referring to “not in my backyard” views. “I don’t want to know your ideology, because you can’t build anything. It does not matter.”

Obama has spoken selectively since Trump’s return to power in January. He has criticized the president’s tariff policy and warned the White House was infringing on Americans’ rights. Last month, Obama warned the country was “dangerously close” to a more autocratic government.

At the closed-press fundraiser on Friday, the former president said he has not been “surprised by what Trump’s done” or that “there are no more guardrails within the Republican Party.” He repeated his calls for institutions, including law firms and universities, to push back on intimidation efforts by the Trump administration.

“What’s being asked of us is make some effort to stand up for the things that you think are right. And be willing to be a little bit uncomfortable in defense of your values. And in defense of the country. And in defense of the world that you want to leave to your children and your grandchildren,” he said. “And if we all do that, if we do our jobs over the next year and a half, then I think we will rebuild momentum and we will position ourselves to get this country moving in the direction it should.”

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Former FBI agent Michael Fienberg has gone public, pointing out that the agency, under the leadership of Dan Bongino and Kash Patel, is purging itself of people who are not members of the Trump cult (my phrase, not his).

Similar cult-like behavior is on vivid display with the White House press secretary, the head of DHS, and the head of the Department of Justice — among numerous other administration officials and elected Republicans — regularly spouting lies and half-truths that target women, immigrants, and Democrats.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is implying that the children who died in the Texas floods were the victims of a nefarious plot — presumably by Democrats or Jews who operate space lasers — to modify the weather, completely ignoring the fact that Republican-aligned fossil fuel billionaires have been engaged in a half-century-long scheme to sabotage our atmosphere with their carbon dioxide emissions in exchange for trillions of dollars in profits. Some of which, no doubt, have been shared with Greene or her campaign.

Multiple administration officials, elected Republicans, and rightwing media cult leaders on platforms like Fox “News” have been amplifying the racist, antisemitic “Great Replacement Theory,” that wealthy Jews are paying to “replace” white people in America with Blacks, Mexicans, and other people of color. This has led to ICE becoming the largest police force in America, with a budget larger than that of the entire Russian military, soon to be sweeping a neighborhood near you in their never-ending hunt for brown-skinned people.

Donald Trump didn’t need to lure his followers into a remote jungle, like Jim Jones did in Guyana. He didn’t need to physically isolate them from the rest of the world. Instead, Trump built his Jonestown right here at home, within the boundaries of our republic, brick by brick. He did it using over 30,000 documented lies, fear, rage, and the intoxicating promise of belonging.

Today, tens of millions of Americans are trapped inside Trump’s reality-warping cult. And just as Jones’ followers drank poisoned Kool-Aid believing it was salvation, Trump’s followers have swallowed his Big Lies and are now willing to sacrifice our Constitution, our democracy, and our future on the altar of one man’s insatiable ego.

This is an old story in new packaging.

Jim Jones wasn’t always a madman. In the beginning, he offered something people desperately wanted: community, belonging, equality. He drew in the lonely, the marginalized, the disillusioned. He offered them meaning, dignity, and the hope of a better world. But slowly, he twisted that

hope into a tool of control, weaponizing his followers’ trust for his own wealth, power, and self-aggrandizement.

Donald Trump followed a similar cult leader’s path.

He didn’t invent the grievances he exploited. For decades, America’s middle class was gutted by Reaganomics and neoliberal trade policies. Jobs were shipped overseas. Unions were crushed. Wages stagnated while billionaires like Trump amassed obscene wealth.

Trump didn’t cause that pain, but he channeled it. He told working-class Americans that he alone could restore their lost greatness. At the 2016 Republican National Convention, he bellowed: “I alone can fix it.”

That wasn’t a campaign promise. It was a cult leader’s declaration. Like Jones, Trump positioned himself not as a servant of the people, but as their savior, the one indispensable man without whom all hope would be lost.

All cults, whether religious or political, thrive on division and a sense of victimhood. Jim Jones taught his followers that outsiders were out to destroy them, that they were surrounded by enemies, traitors, and saboteurs. He warned that the CIA, the media, and shadowy conspirators would annihilate Jonestown unless his people followed him without question.

Trump operates from the same playbook.

His enemies list is long: immigrants, Black voters, Muslims, women, Democrats, journalists, scientists, the “deep state,” election officials, even members of his own party who dare to tell the truth. He has spent years feeding his followers a steady diet of paranoia, victimhood, and grievance, convincing them that the only thing standing between them and ruin is him.

And just as Jones’ followers were taught to see dissent as treason, Trump’s followers are conditioned to see any criticism of him as an attack on themselves. They’ve surrendered their own personal identities to him and his cult. When he tells them that an election they lost was stolen, they believe it; not because the evidence says so, but because Trump says so. And in a cult, the cult leader’s word is truth.

Jones kept his followers in a physical jungle, cut off from the outside world. Trump does the same psychologically with the help of billionaire-backed media. His repeated attacks on the press as “the enemy of the people” are no accident: they are a deliberate strategy to isolate his followers in an information silo, where only his voice matters.

Fox “News,” Truth Social, MAGA podcasts, and a network of social media influencers form the walls of this new Jonestown. Alternative facts replace real ones. And when reality intrudes — when courts reject Trump’s lawsuits, when audits confirm his losses — his followers simply double down. “That’s just what the enemy wants us to believe.”

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A quarter-century later, lithium-ion batteries are everywhere, from our ubiquitous phones to implanted medical devices to satellites blinking at us in the night sky. And Jeevarajan, now vice president and executive director of the Electrochemical Safety Research Institute (ESRI) at ULRI, continues to lead the charge toward making them safe, wherever they’re used. 

As much as she relished her time as a senior scientist at NASA, Jeevarajan joined ULRI in 2015, eager to embrace the organization’s broader safety goals. In 2021, she was tapped to lead ESRI, newly created with the mission to “advance safer energy storage through science.” She quickly built the institute to a staff of 21 chemical engineers, electrical engineers, fire engineering scientists, materials scientists, computer-modeling experts, and other specialists. 

Located in a University of Houston technology park, the team collaborates with researchers in academia and industry to understand the workings of

different energy-storage systems—particularly advanced batteries and hydrogen—including what may cause them to break down and when they may become dangerous. The question that drives ESRI’s work, says Jeevarajan, is “what can we do to make the world a safer place, especially with respect to energy… and sustainability?”  

It’s a question of particular pertinence now, as battery-powered devices are crucial in the move toward renewable energy. Lithium-ion batteries—light, powerful, rechargeable—are the most widely used. But if improperly manufactured or managed, they are subject to uncontrollable overheating known as thermal runaway, which can lead to disastrous fires, smoke, and chemical emissions. 

Newer energy-storage alternatives could help mitigate these threats, says Dhevathi Rajan Rajagopalan Kannan, a research scientist at ESRI who is in charge of that project. Among the alternatives: sodium-ion batteries, which, given the abundance of sodium, are cheaper and more sustainable to produce. “What I’m trying to understand is whether the sodium-ion battery that is being used, or that is available, is safe or not,” he says. And it’s a race against time: “That is a fundamental understanding we are trying to get to before it gets more commercialized and mass-produced and adopted within the U.S.” 

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