Climate

Insde Climate News   - As global warming continued to reshape Earth’s climate, the planet’s oceans reached record high temperatures for the third year in a row in 2025. Some northern forests and tundra released more carbon dioxide than they absorbed. And the Greenland Ice Sheet lost about 129 gigatons of ice, enough to form a cube of ice about three miles wide on each side.

Those were among the findings in the 2025 State of the Climate report, released Monday by the American Meteorological Society and led by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The report identified continued burning of fossil fuels as the primary source of record-high greenhouse gas levels, which are raising global temperatures and intensifying extreme weather. In Europe, for example, average temperatures have risen about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1960s, while extreme high temperatures have shot up by as much as 18 degrees Fahrenheit.

The findings carry added significance in light of an advisory opinion on climate change issued last year by the International Court of Justice, which concluded that countries may be liable for cross-border climate damage they knowingly cause or fail to prevent. As a result, governments that continue to promote fossil fuel use face increasing legal scrutiny and could be held responsible for ongoing and future climate-related harm.

NY Times -   Another round of intense heat is expected to sweep across large swaths of Europe this week, following a record-breaking start to the summer in Western Europe. Forecasters warned that rapidly rising temperatures, combined with persistently bone-dry conditions, could worsen the severe threat of wildfires.

The latest heat wave will be Europe’s fifth since May, as a broad area of high pressure — also known as a heat dome — intensifies across the continent.

The new heat wave comes after Western Europe recorded its hottest June to July period on record, according to Copernicus, the European Union’s climate monitoring service. The average temperature across the region during the two-month period was 21.62 degrees Celsius (70.92 degrees Fahrenheit), 2.79 degrees Celsius (5.02 degrees Fahrenheit) above average, which surpassed the previous record set in 2022.

The most extreme heat is expected initially across parts of France, Spain and Italy before shifting toward Central Europe, where some of the highest temperatures are forecast across Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Money

America's best states

WalletHub compared the 50 states across 51 key indicators of livability. They range from housing costs and income growth to the education rate and hospital systems.
 

Top 20 States to Live in America
1. Idaho	11. Iowa
2. New Jersey	12. New York
3. Wisconsin	13. Virginia
4. Massachusetts	14. Montana
5. New Hampshire	15. Maine
6. Wyoming	16. North Dakota
7. Utah	17. South Dakota
8. Minnesota	18. Illinois
9. Pennsylvania	19. Vermont
10. Florida	20. Nebraska

 
Best vs. Worst

• Maine has the fewest violent crimes (per 1,000 residents), which is 7.2 times less than in Alaska, the state with the most.
   
• New Hampshire has the lowest share of residents living in poverty, which is 2.6 times lower than in Louisiana and Mississippi, the states with the highest.
   
• South Dakota has the shortest average commute time, which is 1.8 times shorter than in New York, the state with the longest.
   
• Kansas has the highest quality of roads, which is 7.1 times higher than in Rhode Island, the state with the lowest.

To view the full report and your state’s rank

Middle East

New Republic -   New Republic-  President Donald Trump may be willing to end the Iran war without a nuclear deal.  The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the president floated declaring victory in the war if Iran reopened the Strait of Hormuz without a deal on the country’s nuclear program. But that seems increasingly unlikely with Iran now demanding that U.S. soldiers leave the area, as well as an end to the American blockade and billions of dollars in payment.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to escalate the war with more intense bombing of Iranian targets, but he hasn’t followed through, claiming that a deal is imminent. In reality, the America’s allies in the Middle East urged Trump not to ramp up bombing, and U.S. commanders have told him that missile and bomb stockpiles have dwindled.

Voting

 NPR  - American voters are open to sweeping changes as they grow tired of the two-party system, according to a new poll. The data shows that voters support a system that allows multiple representatives to be elected from a single district, with seats roughly proportional to each party's vote share.

Health

Intermed - Medicare Annual Open Enrollment is coming soon. Starting October 1, 2026, you will be able to review information about 2027 Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans. Open Enrollment runs from October 15 through December 7, 2026. Any changes you make during this time will begin on January 1, 2027.

As we shared this spring, InterMed will no longer accept Martin’s Point insurance plans beginning in 2027. We understand that choosing a Medicare plan can feel confusing, and this year may bring extra questions for some patients. Open Enrollment is a good time for all Medicare-eligible patients, no matter which insurance plan they currently have, to review their options and choose the coverage that best meets their needs.

To help, InterMed is offering educational sessions for InterMed patients ages 64 and older. These sessions are meant to explain Medicare in clear, easy-to-understand terms, answer common questions, and help you feel more confident as you prepare for Open Enrollment.

Artficial Intelligence

The Guardian - Chinese AI labs reportedly narrow the frontier-model gap by purchasing the same training data used by leading U.S. developers rather than relying solely on domestic resources. A Forbes investigation says firms including Tencent source data through U.S. labeling companies such as Mercor and Surge AI, whose customers include Anthropic and U.S. government agencies. The report estimates the data supply chain is worth about $500 million and highlights growing scrutiny over cross-border AI infrastructure and data procurement.

Trump regime

The Guardian -   The Trump administration is offering grants of tens of millions of dollars to cities across the US to create more Memphis-style enforcement surges – on the condition that they abandon progressive ideologies on policing.

The US Department of Justice says it will announce up to four finalist cities which will split $300m in grant funding under a federal “Model Cities” policing initiative (MCI) next month, setting the stage for some of the largest federal policing grants ever awarded to individual US cities.

In exchange for the funding, cities are required to comply with federal immigration enforcement requests, enact conservative policies on anti-homelessness rules, and potentially repay millions of dollars in the event of a surge in violent crime or “civil unrest”, according to a grant document.

The document cites Washington DC and Memphis, Tennessee – two cities with national guard troops patrolling the streets – as a model to emulate. The administration has so far defied calls to suspend its controversial taskforce in Memphis, following four officer-involved deaths since its launch last September.

Melania Trump

Alternet - First Lady Melania Trump's glaring absence from the public eye has exposed a grim new dynamic for President Donald Trump, as one of his former officials told The Daily Beast, one that is making his behavior more and more unstable.

Over the weekend, the Daily Beast released an extensive "audit" of the first lady's schedule of public appearances throughout 2026, finding that she has only appeared at official events or been spotted in public less than 40 times this year, with her 2025 schedule also being notably scarce.

Speaking with the outlet for a recent podcast episode, Anthony Scaramucci, the infamously short-lived White House press secretary from Trump's first term, said that this situation with his wife exposes a grim wider reality of his second term: the president is no longer as close with his family as he used to be. Scaramucci observed that he appears to have "nobody in there," in comparison to his first term, and argued that the distance from his wife in particular has made him more erratic and unstable.

“When she was more friendly with him, she would tell him to tone it down and he would actually listen to her,” he explained. “There’s very few people that Trump listens to.”

He added, speaking about the couple's relationship: "I think it’s distant for a number of different reasons, but I think they probably have grown apart."

Scaramucci further noted that Trump's family was not fond of the experience they had in Washington, D.C., when they accompanied Trump during his first term, leading them to avoid it more upon his return. Beyond his wife, Trump's sons have been more preoccupied with their business ventures, while his oldest daughter, Ivanka, has kept her distance, reportedly out of concern for the reputational damage her association with his first term caused her.

Trump ballroom fight

NY Times - The proposed "Arc de Trump" in Washington is less a monument than a … travesty that, if built, would dramatically change the landscape of the nation's capital. This is probably why President Trump is so eager to get it made as fast as he can. It would be an unavoidable monument to a presidency and a man whom many Americans would rather not honor so conspicuously, if at all. He understands that once it is there, it will be hard for anyone to make it go away.

America's weapons shortage

The Hill - America’s depleted arsenal of premier offensive and defensive weapons is undermining President Trump’s leverage with Iran.  The military’s supply of its premium long-range missiles and interceptors for key missile defense systems is nearly exhausted after more than five months of airstrikes against Iran, recent news reports revealed, constraining Trump in authorizing major combat operations against the Islamic Republic. 

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta characterized the shortage of munition stockpiles as “poor planning” by the Pentagon at a time when not only is there is a real chance of renewed attacks against Iran if diplomatic talks fail, but also when there are potential threats from Russia and China — particularly should Beijing decide to invade Taiwan.

How's the economy?

Robert Reich

Meanwhile. . .

 NPR  - Virtually everyone has heard of New York City's Wall Street, but have you heard of Dallas' financial hub, dubbed "Y'all Street?" Wall Street banks are setting up camp in the city. It's already home to Goldman Sachs' second-largest U.S. presence after its Manhattan headquarters. The company plans to dwarf that office with a   $700 million, 800,000-square-foot campus in Dallas, expected to open in 2028. The state's business-friendly laws make it easier for companies to protect themselves against lawsuits and other challenges from shareholders.

Treating addiction

Brittney Melton, NPR  - Many of us have someone in our lives who struggles with a substance use disorder. One study found nearly one-third of Americans know someone who died from a fatal overdose.
But studies also show that many doctors, nurses and other clinicians actively avoid treating this vulnerable group of patients.

It’s not that they don’t have tools. There are low-cost, life-saving prescription medications, proven for decades to reduce cravings for alcohol and opioids in ways that save lives. Most American medical professionals simply don’t offer these treatments to their patients. 

Instead, research shows, many clinicians view people experiencing addiction with fear, distrust and hostility. … This kind of stigma among health workers remains widespread, and it affects decisions about how and when physicians care for patients.

…. Nearly a decade after President Trump declared opioids a national public health emergency, most U.S. medical schools still don’t teach addiction care as a core, normalized part of the profession.

New federal data released just last month shows that in 2025 — as Trump was extending the national opioid public health emergency — 80% of Americans facing addiction still received no treatment at all for their substance use.

I think about this a lot when I talk to people on the street experiencing severe addiction and when I interview family members grieving loved ones lost to alcohol and drugs.

What would their path have been like if the first doctor or nurse they encountered early in their illness said, “What you’re experiencing is treatable, we have good medications, and we can help.”

California hit with decline in wine sales

NY Times - - In California, a place famous around the world for its viticulture, winemakers produced less wine last year than at any point in the last quarter century. It’s often cheaper to let grapes rot on the vine than to harvest them because so many unsold bottles clog the shelves of storerooms and wine shops.  So on a sunny morning in Soledad, Calif., in a valley made famous by the author John Steinbeck, Jason Smith acquiesced to simple economics.

A worker unceremoniously drove a tractor and ripped out Mr. Smith’s pinot noir grapes from the ground. Another set fire to the wooden posts that for years had propped up the vines. And Mr. Smith leaned against his white Suburban, under the shade of a coastal oak, watching one of his pinot vineyards go up in smoke.

He had decided to sell all of his land and shut down his family business, which had survived for 51 years. “There’s literally no way for me to make money,” Mr. Smith, 57, said.

Trump war on history

Art News - For fiscal year 2027, the White House has proposed giving the Smithsonian $961.3 million in federal funding, roughly an 11 precent cut from the $1.08 billion Congress provided to it fiscal year 2026 and the institution’s lowest proposed funding level since at least 2020.

The reductions would fall most heavily on facilities spending, which would drop by about 21 percent from $152 million in fiscal 2026 to $120 million under the new proposal, reducing it from roughly one-seventh to about one-eighth of the Smithsonian’s overall budget….

The proposal would reduce the Smithsonian’s federally funded staffing by about 6 percent, cutting the equivalent of full-time positions from 4,047 in fiscal 2026 to 3,804 under the fiscal 2027 request. It would also cut the salaries and expenses account by $87.2 million, bringing it from $928.5 million in the current fiscal year to $841.3 million.

…. President Trump has kept the Smithsonian in the headlines for months as a target of his second administration’s push against what it calls “anti-American” interpretations of history. her patriotism. Hartig defended the museum’s scholarship as “fact-based” and said it was committed to telling a complex story of America through “competing perspectives.”….

President Trump’s second term has already brought major proposed cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Park Service.

Wildfires

Congressional Insider - Fast-moving wildfires in British Columbia forced more than 20,000 people from their homes and pushed the province into a state of emergency. Officials said the Bald Range wildfire spread fast along Okanagan Lake and reached several towns in hours.

Summerland, home to about 12,000 people, was ordered evacuated, along with about 8,000 people in and around Peachland. Premier David Eby said the fire caused major losses, trapped some residents, and led to air evacuations. British Columbia already had more than 100 wildfires burning, with many still out of control in hot, windy, dry weather.

Anthony Fauci

The Hill -  The push to charge former COVID czar Anthony Fauci with contempt of Congress is full of pitfalls for prosecutors, should the Justice Department choose to take up the case.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved the criminal referral Thursday, arguing that Fauci's assertion of his Fifth Amendment rights 111 times during a hearing the week before amounts to contempt. 

Spearheaded by Chair Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the resolution has not been vetted by the full Senate, something former prosecutors say is key in building a contempt case.

But even if the measure is taken up and approved after the August recess, experts see other issues with a potential case, questioning grand jurors' interest in bringing charges after an individual asserted a valid constitutional right, as well as Trump administration appetite for a case that could diminish the power of a presidential pardon.

"Fauci would have a bulletproof motion to dismiss on Fifth Amendment grounds. He may invoke the right if he has reasonable fear that his testimony could be used against him in a criminal proceeding. Based on Rand Paul's statements that he would like to see Fauci 'behind bars,' Fauci has that reasonable fear," said Barb McQuade, a former U.S. attorney in Michigan.

Paul and the committee's Republicans argue the pardon received by Fauci from former President Biden negates his right to a Fifth Amendment claim, as he has no reasonable fear of prosecution.

But that pardon only covers the period from January 1, 2014, through January 19, 2025, meaning Fauci could still face charges for things such as perjury before the committee or any state-level crimes.  Indeed, three state attorneys general have all issued subpoenas to Fauci after launching investigations into him.

Middle East

Daily Beast - Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine is reportedly quietly working toward an exit from Donald Trump’s Iran war, even as the president appears to believe more air strikes could force a deal.

 NBC News - Israel will not accept the 15-point plan from President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.

“I want to clarify this: Israel rejects the 15-point document. I have heard people saying, ‘You didn’t say that.’ So here I am saying it again,” he told a Cabinet meeting. “The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed,” he added.

Trump, who last month touted a breakthrough in his Gaza peace plan, said Hamas has agreed to lay down its arms. However, the Board of Peace’s proposal calls for a phased Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza alongside the disarmament of Hamas.

The Guardian - Iran has issued tough new demands for reopening the strait of Hormuz, while the United Arab Emirates said one of its ships was targeted by an Iranian missile, as a deal to open the strategic waterway remained out of reach on Saturday.

Iran’s politburo-like body known as the supreme national security council said the strait of Hormuz will not open until the United States “corrects its behaviour”, and its state broadcaster published a statement from the council’s secretary, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who is also a commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The US must never threaten Iran again, the statement said, and must permanently end the war with Iran and its armed allies in the region. The US must lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports and withdraw its military from the area. It also must “completely compensate” Iran for war damage, lift sanctions and “unconditionally” release frozen assets.

There was no immediate comment from the US, which has wanted an acceptable deal on the strait before ending the blockade. According to the interim deal signed in June, a schedule to end sanctions and a plan for compensation would be part of the final deal, and negotiations would address frozen assets.

Polls

Pew Research -   As the Trump administration and some states seek to expand the use of capital punishment, 66% of Americans now favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder, up 6 percentage points since 2021. But majorities also say the death penalty does not deter serious crimes and see some risk of an innocent person being put to death.

Donald Trump

Epoch Times -   President Donald Trump announced on Friday nearly $2 billion in investments for critical mining projects, as well as more than $180 million in grants to expand the American mining workforce. He unveiled his plans at a mining industry roundtable at the State Department, which brought together nearly 200 business leaders, educators, and government officials to support domestic mining companies.

Climate

Patriotwise - A climate-education program backed by a Washington nonprofit has quietly trained more than 2,000 American judges while a new national security report accuses it of advancing Communist China’s energy agenda.

A report says the Environmental Law Institute’s Climate Judiciary Project has trained over 2,000 U.S. judges on climate and energy law.

National security analysts claim the group’s work helps constrain American energy producers while lining up with Chinese strategic interests. Senate and House Republicans are demanding investigations into alileged foreign influence and ideological bias in judicial trainings.

The Environmental Law Institute insists its climate curriculum is neutral, science-based education and denies telling judges how to rule.

Middle East

NY Times - A top Iranian national security official delivered a sweeping set of demands on Saturday that he said the United States must meet before the Strait of Hormuz can reopen to maritime traffic, throwing the fate of the critical trade waterway into question.

Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, issued a statement carried by state media laying out multiple requirements for reopening the strait. He called for the United States to lift its naval blockade and sanctions on Iran, withdraw the U.S. military from around Iran, pay war reparations and release frozen Iranian assets, as well as end attacks on Iran’s allies in the region and threats against the country.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Iran’s demands. A previous cease-fire between Iran and the United States, agreed to in June, had said that sanctions would be fully lifted only in the event of a final deal regarding Iran’s nuclear program. And U.S. officials have said in the past that Iran could only access its frozen funds if it committed to giving up its highly enriched uranium first.

The statement from Mr. Zolghadr came as Iran and Oman have been negotiating an agreement on the future management of the Strait of Hormuz, which sits between the two countries. Iran effectively closed the strait in retaliation for being attacked by the United States and Israel in February.

Mr. Zolghadr’s list of demands upended expectations that a deal with Oman would soon allow commerce to flow through the strait once more and ease global energy prices. They will likely put pressure on President Trump to consider Iran’s conditions if he wants to lower consumer prices for Americans, which pose a risk for Republicans ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Greenland

The Guardian - An American oil company connected to Donald Trump is preparing to sink wells in remote Greenland despite not having received permission from the local authorities.

As the US president renews his threats to claim the vast Arctic territory, materials to prepare for drilling were brought ashore in recent days on Greenland’s eastern coast.

That has prompted Greenland’s government to issue a “strong warning” that no approval had been granted to land the kit. “All future logistical matters must be advised and approved by the mineral resources authority – before they are carried out,” the government said in a statement.

Trump's immigrant policy will cut health facility jobs for thousands of Haitians

Newsworthy News -  As over 300,000 Haitians lose legal status at once, the United States is about to test whether it can keep hospitals, nursing homes, and hotels running after pushing out a huge share of the workers who make everyday life possible.

Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are losing Temporary Protected Status and work permits, exposing deep dependence on immigrant labor in healthcare and hospitality.

Reports say tens of thousands of Haitian workers staff nursing homes, home care, hospitals, and hotels, in jobs that were already hard to fill before this change.

….President Trump’s move to end Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status cuts off legal status and work permits for more than 300,000 Haitians who have lived and worked in the United States for years. Temporary Protected Status was designed as a short-term shield from danger in home countries, but in practice many Haitians built stable lives and steady careers under it. A Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for the termination, and the Department of Homeland Security set hard deadlines when their Employment Authorization Documents expire, turning long-time legal workers into people at risk of arrest or deportation almost overnight.

Senate takes a break after approving Blanche

The Hill - The Senate adjourned for a five-week recess early Saturday morning after passing a bill to fund the federal government until Dec. 11 and confirming Todd Blanche as attorney general. Senate Republicans also agreed to set aside — for the moment — President Trump’s demand to approve another budget resolution to pave the way for tens of billions of dollars in new military spending and to pass the SAVE America Act.

Senators will return to their home states or take congressional delegation trips abroad for the next several weeks and are not due to return to Washington until Sept. 14.

Passage of the continuing resolution to fund the government past the election takes a lot of pressure off senators in both parties ahead of the September work period as both Democrats and Republicans were eager to avoid stumbling into another government shutdown before the midterm election.

The stopgap funding measure passed 90 to 6…The funding bill was held up by an intense fight within the Senate GOP conference over a provision added at the behest of the White House to delay the implementation of a ban on  intoxicating hemp-derived products that Congress enacted in November.

….The Senate later voted largely along party lines to narrowly confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general.

Keeping quiet about congressional wrongdoing

Roll Call -Four months ago, calls denouncing misconduct came swiftly, and all at once. Now, it’s near silence.

Allegations surrounding two House Republicans reached a fever pitch this week, as Rep. Chuck Edwards of North Carolina dropped out of his reelection campaign due to a report detailing “inappropriate conduct” toward two female staffers and Rep. Max Miller of Ohio doubled down on denying domestic abuse allegations made by his ex-wife. 

With the House gone for August recess, lawmakers often rely on social media and press releases to comment on the issues of the day. But so far it’s crickets from many who previously condemned a pair of colleagues accused of sexual misconduct by their staff earlier this year. 

“It’s a leadership problem. Mike Johnson should be saying, ‘I have a problem in my caucus. I have a problem in my Congress, and it is my job to fix that,’” said Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center. 

When asked about Miller, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told Politico that “domestic events” are “not my business.” He said he spoke with Edwards briefly about the “serious allegations” against him. On social media, Johnson most recently posted about communism in America.

“What should a speaker do in this case?” Johnson told Politico. “I mean, I call out alarming behavior. … We have a very active and engaged Ethics Committee; they’ve done more work than they need to. I wish it wasn’t necessary. But there’s been a lot in this Congress on both sides of the aisle.”

“There’s all sorts of domestic events going on with 435 members of Congress all the time; it’s not my business to get engaged in it,” he added.

 

Federal appeals court rejects Trump's ballroom construction

The Hill - A federal appeals court panel blocked President Trump’s White House ballroom in a 2-1 vote on Friday, saying that work must stop except for below-ground construction, including installations Trump says are needed for security. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit panel ruled that Congress retains control over funding for development at the White House and had not authorized Trump’s project.

The court paused its order for two weeks to allow the Trump administration to seek emergency relief from the Supreme Court.  “We are aware of no instance in American history in which a President unilaterally and using privately collected funds demolished substantial portions of the White House that Congress authorized to be built and American taxpayers paid for. Until now,” the majority wrote.