curated news excerpts & citations
… trying to ‘unbury the lede’
Ajit Niranjan @ Guardian:
‘We can’t make it better again’: what Europe’s wildfires tell us about the climate crisis
When Stefan Rahmstorf walked through the ruined streets of Dresden after the river Elbe flooded in 2002, and again when severe heat killed 70,000 people in Europe the following summer, the German climatologist wondered if worsening weather would make the political world “wake up and do something really decisively” to cut emissions.
But two decades and 750bn tons of atmospheric carbon pollution later, Rahmstorf is still wondering when the wake-up call will come. Last week, as he was surfing off France’s Atlantic coast with his partner, he watched towering smoke plumes darken the sky as a ferocious inferno raged outside Bordeaux.
“The sun through the smoke was looking really blood red, and it put the whole landscape into an eerie orange-coloured tint, like being on Mars or in some dystopian sci-fi movie,” says Rahmstorf. “It felt totally surreal.”
(Ajit Niranjan @ Guardian more…)
Nayla Razzouk, Clara Hernanz Lizarraga, Sabrina Nelson Garcinuño, Olivia Rudgard, Joe Wertz, Raeedah Wahid, Vivien Ngo, Alastair Marsh @ Bloomberg:
Europe’s Summer of Blazes Heralds the Era of Global Megafires
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Rook T. Winchester:
HELP FIND GABRIELThe Government Knows Where He Is. His Daughter Is Fighting to Reach Him.
Sixteen days.
That is how long Rev. Gabriel L. Johnson III, a man who has held lawful status in the United States since he was fifteen years old, spent in ICE custody while, his daughter says, he begged for food, water, and the medication prescribed to keep him alive.
His daughter says they shackled his wrists. They shackled his ankles. They forced him [to] sit upright as his condition deteriorated.
Then he suffered a stroke and was transferred to some hospital somewhere in Texas.
(Rook T. Winchester more…)
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Heather Delaney Reese: Donald Trump wants to be paid
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Before abruptly ending the meeting and his staff jumping into action to remove the press as quickly as possible, he went on a long outburst declaring, “I was abused. They attacked my house, Mar-a-Lago, where I live… big damages should have been given to me,” before adding, “I probably was abused more than anybody in the history of our country.”Allison Gill: 90 Minutes After Trump Appealed his Slush Fund ruling, the DOJ Moved to Dismiss my Slush Fund Case as “Moot”
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yesterday, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that the fund is important to him, and that it was indeed meant to reward those who attacked the Capitol. He said he might withdraw Blanche’s nomination until Sens. Cornyn and Tillis are out of Congress, and then went so far as to appeal Judge Williams’ order in Miami that nullified referring to the slush fund as a “settlement” pursuant to a legitimate court proceeding.Then just 90 minutes after appealing the federal court’s ruling on his slush fund, the same administration filed a motion to dismiss my slush fund lawsuit, claiming (among other things) that my lawsuit is MOOT because the “fund is not moving forward.”
(Allison Gill more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – July 31, 2026
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Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not appear to have a strategy for their war on Iran. Instead, they had an ideology. That ideology elevates individualism over the idea behind the modern American state: that government should regulate business, maintain a basic social safety net, promote infrastructure, protect civil rights, and support an international order based in rules rather than in military might.
…Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth brought this ideology into the Defense Department, which he tried to rebrand the “Department of War.” In 2024, Hegseth published a book titled The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free. In it, he claimed that the U.S. military was weak and “effeminate” because its leaders had embraced diversity, equity, and inclusion.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)Alexander Ward, Michael R. Gordon, Philip Wegmann @ WSJ: Trump Orders Fresh Attack Against Iran as War Enters Sixth Month
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Jennifer Rubin:
Standing up to AI oligarchsOnly a few months ago, the political influence of AI companies, boosted by the avalanche of dark-money operatives, was successfully fueling a mad rush to build energy-hungry data centers across the country. But then a remarkable popular surge in opposition, a grassroots movement demonstrating the limits of third-party dark money and the power of genuine local political engagement, began to take hold.
(Jennifer Rubin more…)
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Snopes: Here’s how many times Trump invoked Fifth Amendment in civil fraud trial, according to a judge
David Gilbert: Can Republicans Actually Send Anthony Fauci to Jail?
Brian Allen: Fauci’s Diary Reveals Obama’s Brutal Private Verdict on Trump
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Fauci’s diary also indicates that Obama offered to use his relationships inside the Biden White House to organize a coordinated defense of the nation’s most prominent public-health official as Fauci faced escalating attacks from Trump allies, conservative organizations and Republican lawmakers.
(Brian Allen more…)
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James Eagle: Rich countries have ten times more doctors per person
(James Eagle more…)
Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting
resources tracking the “Andes” hantavirus outbreak
Apocalypse Early Warning System
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
Mike Ludwig @ truthout: ICE Says 51 People Died in Custody Under Trump. Experts Say That’s an Undercount.
ICE Accountability Project
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Ximena Bustillo, Jasmine Garsd @ NPR: Deaths of migrants in ICE custody hit record high under Trump
- July 14: Juan Jairo Coronilla Duran
- July 13: Joan Sebastian Guerrero
- July 7: Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
- June 4: Mamuka Artmeladze
- April 16: Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt
- March 25: Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano
- March 16: Royer Perez-Jimenez
- March 14: Naseer Paktiawil
- February 25: Nurul Amin Shah Alam
April 1 – Jennifer Peltz and Jake Offenhartz @ AP: Death of a refugee left at a Buffalo doughnut shop by Border Patrol is ruled a homicide - January 24: Alex Pretti
- January 14: Heber Sanchaz Dominguez
- January 14: Victor Manuel Diaz
- January 9: Parady La
- January 7: Renée Good
- January 6: Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
- January 5: Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
- January 3: Geraldo Lunas Campos
- December 31, 2025: Keith Porter
Suffering Under President Obama
NACDL Criminal Case Tracker
Texas Tribune: A Walk for Peace: photos of Fort Worth monks’ journey to Washington
Walk for Peace – Dhammacetiya – The Ancient Sacred Buddhist Scripture Stupas
Margaret Chase Smith: Declaration of Conscience
NPR: January 6, 2021: A visual archive
Accountability Initiative ICE List
GriftMatrix
Trump Action Tracker
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
