curated news excerpts & citations
… trying to ‘unbury the lede’
Laura Millan @ Bloomberg:
Nepal Glacier Collapse Reveals New Scale of Climate Perils
Once considered outliers, these types of catastrophic incidents are now happening more regularly
Outliers become the norm
The giant wave of rock, ice and debris that swept through 100 kilometers (62 miles) of Nepalese valleys last week is the deadliest illustration yet of how climate change is fueling mountain disasters of epic proportions.
Scientists have long predicted quicker melting of snow and ice and accelerated thawing of permafrost in high mountain areas that are warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. For years they have documented the results: more frequent rockfalls, avalanches, lake outbursts, flash floods and landslides.
Even so, the sheer scale of the disaster in Nepal shocked experts. “There are things that we’re completely unprepared for,” said Noah Diffenbaugh, a climate scientist at Stanford University. The floods fall into the category of “things that are just completely outside of our experience.”
The event was triggered on Aug. 26 when the bedrock gave way below a glacier near the Langtang Lirung peak in the Nepalese Himalayas. A huge section of the glacier, measuring between 1 and 1.3 kilometers wide, detached from the mountain. The fast-moving deluge that ensued raised water levels in rivers downstream by as much as 9 meters within just half an hour.
It’s among the catastrophic mountain incidents that climate scientists would have classed as outliers not long ago, but that are now happening more regularly. …
(Laura Millan @ Bloomberg more…)
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Jewel Bright @ NPR:
The U.N. backs a new world map showing Africa in its true relative size…
The United States was the only country to vote against it.James Cirrone @ Fox:
United Nations votes 164-1 for Equal Earth map after US brands it ‘radical ideological project’The resolution backs equal-area maps over the Mercator projection, which makes Africa appear far smaller than it actually is
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Coral Davenport @ NY Times:
Trump Officials Draft Plan to Pay At-Home Parents, Using Funds for Working OnesThe proposed benefit, a top policy priority for Vice President JD Vance, would apply only to married couples and tap a fund intended to provide federal child care subsidies to working parents.
(Coral Davenport @ NY Times more…)
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Heather Delaney Reese:
Trump was WARNED not to give this interview
(Heather Delaney Reese more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson:
Letters from an American – September 5, 2026Events of Friday, September 4, showed the Trump administration in a nutshell.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani of the District of Massachusetts blocked Trump’s plan to use the United States Postal Service to screen mail-in voters. …
…Meanwhile, a day after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the administration was starting work on the 250-foot (76-meter) triumphal arch Trump wants in Washington, D.C., U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered the administration to give the court at least 48 hours’ notice before doing anything except dig pits to identify cultural artifacts at the site. She noted that in April the administration agreed to provide 14 days’ notice before any construction started, an agreement ordered by the court.
Burgum’s announcement suggested the administration is pushing the project forward without going through any of the required permitting or obeying the law that requires Congress to pass a law allowing another memorial in the protected area of Washington, D.C., known as Area I.
Questioned about the war in Iran, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that it is actually not a war but “a military conflict because it’s small potatoes for us.” …
…In the White House on Friday, Trump appeared to misunderstand not only that since World War II trade has made the United States wealthy, but also the concept of trade itself. “We could do tremendous good for ourselves by just not trading with other countries,” he said. “We lose with Mexico $195 billion a year. They have nothing that we have to have, I mean, hot tamales, tomatoes, a couple of things.”
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
Last Days in Two Nations
Climate.us
formerly Climate.gov
Climate Solutions Explorer
Have I Been Flocked?
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
- August 31: Pierre Damas Bel
- August 1: Edwin Lopez-Cornejo
- July 19: Jose Chajon-Raxon
- 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
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