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The Worst of The Worst
Well damn, we sure feel safer knowing ICE pulled 5-year-old Liam Tadeo and his construction worker dad Victor off Austin's streets on their way to a soccer game before Liam could start kindergarten the next day; also that they were held at a family concentration camp, ICE refused to let Liam's mother take him, and both father and son will "self-deport" to not further sully our pristine white shores. Question: How do these sick fucks sleep at night?
Thanks to the obscene $200 billion-plus gifted to DHS and ICE by their evil overlords, arrests of undocumented or at least unwanted immigrants surged to nearly 50,000 largely innocent people in July, a 15% spike from a month earlier and the regime's highest monthly arrest total to date. So yes, the sadists are still at it, just more quietly than when a psychotic Noem and Bovino were blasting out histrionic videos of daredevil agents dropping from helicopters onto apartment rooftops to grab terrified families - images reportedly, inexplicably "provoking a lot of ordinary people." Wusses, all.
Many recent arrests come during "traffic stops," increasingly with the help of partnering state and local law enforcement lured by "generous financial incentives," especially in Texas and Florida; ICE is also arresting more Haitians whose protections have been stripped away. Among those detained are over 6,200 kids, 10 times more than during Biden's tenure, despite ongoing, fantastical DHS claims they're going after the "worst of the worst" murderers, drug traffickers, sex offenders - and despite ghastly data showing up to 85% of ICE thugs themselves have sex offenses on their records, most against children. New data, like old data, also shows less than a quarter of those arrested have any criminal convictions.
Elsewhere, ICE abuses go on apace. A sailor aboard the troubled USS Lincoln said ICE has taken his father, who had a work permit, into custody. “Having a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation’s laws,” said a DHS statement "in the same support-our-troops spirit Trump is so famous for." In an interview, the mother, father and sister of Alex Pretti family said no officials have come forward in the last seven months to retract or apologize for the "disgusting" claims of "assassin" and "domestic terrorist" they made about Alex - "We still hear those words about our child,” said his mother Susan - nor have any criminal charges been filed against his killers.
Meanwhile, J.D. Vance just came to Maine to spew racist lies, flaunt his "trademark absence of charisma," and claim, "If you bring in millions and millions of illegal aliens and give them houses that ought to go by right to American citizens, it's going to increase the cost of housing for everybody else." He also dismissed ICE's killing of Colombian Johan Durán Guerrero, who had a social security card, two jobs, a wife and a three-year-old daughter. Worried residents, he said, should "have a little bit of perspective" to ensure "that poison stops coming into our country." Troy Jackson called J.D. "a dirtbag": "I mean, he had a life." As to Susan Collins, who declined to regret giving ICE "$70 billion more to pull this shit off": "I’m sick of your ‘concerns.’"
And on Aug. 16, brave ICE thugs stopped five-year-old Liam Tadeo - their second small Liam like the bunny-hat-wearing Liam Ramos in Minnesota - and his father Victor Martinez Nieto on their way to play soccer. Without bothering with the nicety of pretending it was a legit traffic stop, they asked Victor, originally from Mexico, if he had legal status. Candidly, he said no; in 2025, he'd been arrested by ICE, "voluntarily" left, then "criminally" reentered the U.S. to (horrors) be with his wife and son. Heart-rending video soon surfaced of Liam crying beside his father and trying to hold one of his hands, cuffed behind him, as Victor tried to console his tearful son, talking to him as they walked. It was the day before Liam was set to start kindergarten.
They were both taken to the for-profit Dilley concentration camp, which rights groups have repeatedly accused of medical neglect, poor living conditions and abuse. According to Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, their family's attorney, Victor begged ICE to release Liam to his mother Maria, also not a legal citizen, at home, or another member of the family. ICE refused, though DHS proudly, routinely declaims ICE "will place the children with a safe person the parent designates," like how they also contend Dilley is "retrofitted for families, with access to teachers, classrooms, and curriculum booklets...generously funded by the U.S. taxpayer." Instead, they had Victor sign papers in English he didn't fully understand, and booked both father and son.Lincoln-Goldfinch says Maria is "desperate and distraught, separated from her child and worrying about his well-being." Back at their home, "It feels like when you go to someone’s house after a sudden death, and there’s a wake or a gathering. Everybody is just stunned." Maria released a statement: "Liam was supposed to start kindergarten this week. Instead he is (in) detention. He should be in school, playing soccer, and at home with his family." Saturday, CNN aired emotional video of her talking by phone to her five-year-old. “I love you so much and I miss you so much, my love,” she tearfully told Liam in Spanish. “Don’t despair, my love, okay?” Lacking options, Liam timidly responds, "Okay." One furious, horrified online comment: "Anyone!!??!!"
This week, Austin's KUT News reported Victor has decided to be deported to Mexico along with his son, rather than risk Liam being separated from him and placed in a dystopian regime's custody as an "unaccompanied migrant child.” Said Lincoln-Goldfinch, "His family did what any family would do: Agree." As Maria reportedly struggles to find a way to re-unite with her family - "My son is only five years old" - Americans fume about "sadistic barbarians harming humanity every single day." "How sick can these people be? I used to think merciless psychopathic villains were only found in movies and fiction," said one. Also, "America has concentration camps. I. Hate. It. Here." and, "That poor little boy, That poor family. I am so tired."
Meanwhile, Texas' Dem lawmakers have called for Liam to be released and for Dilley to be shut down. "I just sat with Liam's mother as she found out what it means to have your child held hostage by ICE. It was horrifying," wrote Rep. Greg Casar, who charged Liam's arrest showed Trump uses children “as bait and leverage to fuel his mass deportation machine.” "Liam should be starting kindergarten this week, and instead he's sitting in a trailer prison." Rep. Joaquin Castro said ICE denied his request to visit Liam at Dilley in what he called "shady stuff," and he vowed to return; he also cited human rights violations, privacy concerns, and untenable phone, video call and e-mail strictures: “I’m telling y’all, ICE is getting worse."Because this is ghoul-filled America in 2026, Liam's aunt Patricia Resendiz has begun a Gofundme to help with legal expenses and her sister Maria's household costs, as Victor was the sole provider. "If we manage to get Liam and his dad to go free, Liam will also need psychological support, as the detention has left him traumatized. These funds will be to mitigate all aspects of child detention," she wrote. "The detention of Liam and my brother-in-law was cruel. They are not criminals - they were simply on their way to a soccer match. Liam is a beautiful, intelligent, and big-hearted little boy. My sister is devastated, as are we. Liam was detained right in front of my son, his cousin. My son told me that ICE agents said to Liam, 'You can't escape.'"
We feel safer already.
‘Perfect Storm’ of Trump’s War and Super El Niño to Drive Food Prices Even Higher
Experts are warning that a combination of a super El Niño climate pattern and two separate wars is threatening to put further upward pressure on food prices over the next several months.
A study released by Oxford Economics on Wednesday projects that global food prices will rise by 12% in 2026 and by 5% in 2027 due in large part to the fertilizer shortage caused by the closure in the Strait of Hormuz and increased grain prices caused by Russia's war with Ukraine.
The strait's closure, which began after President Donald Trump launched an illegal war with Iran in February, cut off a major shipping lane for fertilizer, whose price Oxford Economics projects will surge by 22% this year.
The four-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine, meanwhile, is putting a strain on grain supplies, as the two countries combined account for 30% of global wheat exports.
And the two wars might not be the biggest driver of higher food prices.
The Independent on Friday reported that the Met Office, the UK's official weather forecasting service, is projecting this year's El Niño will be "the largest since the 19th century," with sea temperatures projected to reach 3ºC above their long-term average in the coming months.
Professor Adam Scaife, head of long range forecasting at the Met Office, told The Independent that he has "never seen an El Niño signal this intense in our forecasts," describing the projected increase in ocean temperatures as "an unprecedented event."
Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical hazards at University College London, told The Independent that the Met Office's forecasts "suggest that the world is in for one hell of a ride."
“The astonishing and unprecedented amount of heat building across the eastern Pacific Ocean," McGuire said, "is all but certain to make this the most powerful El Niño in living memory possibly even the biggest in several centuries."
McGuire said that this heat would manifest itself in several destructive ways over the next year, such as "bringing drought and wildfire conditions to the Amazon and parts of Australia, torrential rainfall and floods to California, and a reduced South Asian monsoon."
In an interview with CNBC published Friday, trade and agriculture analyst Noel Fryer noted that North America and Europe have experienced very hot summers that has "decimated" some crops and has hurt grazing prospects by reducing the available supply of grass and hay.
And all this occurred, Fryer added, before the full impact of El Niño has arrived.
“It’s just a huge mix of different issues and we don’t know how they’re going to end," said Fryer. "It’s a perfect storm."
'Canada Must Respond': Ottawa Slaps Retaliatory Tariffs on US Goods After Trump Trade War Escalation
Canada announced Tuesday that it will impose roughly $20 billion in retaliatory tariffs on American imports in response to President Donald Trump's 50% tariff on many of its goods after bilateral negotiations collapsed amid what Ottawa said were last-minute concessions that damaged the Canadian economy and intruded on its sovereignty.
The government of center-left Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said its countermeasures will cover roughly C$27.6 billion ($20 billion) worth of American products, with tariffs ranging from 15% to 50% on hundreds of categories including steel, aluminum, appliances, clothing, seafood, electronics, furniture, and dairy. The measures are scheduled to take effect September 8. Ottawa also unveiled billions of dollars in assistance for workers and businesses expected to be hurt by the conflict.
"Canada must respond, and today we are, in a proportionate, targeted, and strategic way," Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said during a press conference in Ottawa. "Today I'm announcing that Canada will match the United States tariffs dollar for dollar, rate for rate."
"Canada's counter-tariffs are designed primarily to provide protection for Canadian industry impacted by US tariffs and allow them to compete against US products in the Canadian market," he added. "It's all about fairness, it's all about a level playing field, it's all about supporting Canadian workers and Canadian businesses."
It's also apparently about political calculation ahead of November's midterm elections, in which the congressional balance of power—and therefore Trump's ability to pursue his agenda—is at stake.
The administration's trade war with Canada is hitting industries concentrated in states where Republicans are fighting to defend vulnerable US Senate seats, including Maine's lobster industry and Michigan's auto sector, while Ohio and other Midwestern states face exposure via cross-border manufacturing and supply chains.
Whatever you call it, you just made all the goods we buy that come across our border more expensive. Michigan, he’s asking us to pay for his vanity trade war with our money.
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— Abdul El-Sayed (@abdulelsayed.bsky.social) August 25, 2026 at 7:12 AM
On Monday, Trump told Canadian leaders to "fall in line" or face "far WORSE" consequences than the new tariffs.
Carney retorted that Canadians are not "going to accept" an "attitude at the negotiation table that Canada is a subsidiary of the United States."
Canadian anger toward Trump has surged as the US president has repeatedly threatened Canada's sovereignty, including his frequent talk of making Canada the "51st state." Canadian political leaders and labor organizations have largely rallied behind a tougher response, while a growing grassroots boycott of US products has become a symbol of national resistance.
"Canadians understand that maintaining our sovereignty and independence will entail consequences and sacrifices," Calgary-based commentator Jen Gerson wrote Tuesday in The Guardian. "We did not bring this trade war on ourselves; we have merely refused to comply in advance to the unreasonable demands of a bad-faith actor. We will be punished for it. We have accepted this."
"If nothing else, let the [United States'] retaliation be a warning to the rest of the Western alliance," Gerson added. "Run, run. Protect yourselves. Move faster."
Trump—the self-proclaimed “peace president" who has attacked more countries than any other US leader in modern history—has menaced a string of allies. He's threatened to retake the Panama Canal, launch armed attacks on Colombia and Mexico, "bomb the shit" out of Oman, and take over Greenland.
Longtime US allies have taken notice—and action. Just as Russia's invasion of Ukraine spooked Sweden and Finland into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Trump's erratic aggression has pushed other countries in directions once thought highly unlikely. European Union membership for Iceland, long a politically moribund proposition, is now politically plausible amid developments including Trump's Arctic saber-rattling. US tariff pressure on India is even incentivizing India to seek closer economic ties with China, a traditional adversary.
Trump's increasingly aggressive and condescending rhetoric has left many Canadians feeling like their relationship with their southern neighbor has irreparably changed.
"America has changed, and... we will not return to our old relationship," Carney said after Trump announced the 50% tariffs over the weekend.
"You’re at war when you get attacked," the prime minister also said. "We got attacked."
Such rhetoric was once the realm of comedy, like the 1995 satirical film Canadian Bacon, directed by Michael Moore and starring John Candy and Dan Aykroyd, about a struggling US president who manufactures a shooting war with Canada, invasion and all, in hopes of rallying Americans around a foreign enemy.
The premise was absurd because the notion of Washington deliberately provoking its peaceful northern neighbor into war seemed preposterous. Many critics have noted that under Trump, absurdity has become the new normal.
On Tuesday, Trump said he's considering changing the name of Lake Ontario to "Lake America," because, as one Bluesky account noted, "Trump likes to slap the name of America on everything."
President Trump likes to slap the name of America on everything. Gulf of Mexico? Gulf of America. Strait of Hormuz? Strait of of America. Lake Ontario? Lake America. Epstein Island? America Island.
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— Missing The Point (@missingthept.bsky.social) August 25, 2026 at 7:27 AM
"Gulf of Mexico? Gulf of America. Strait of Hormuz? Strait of America. Lake Ontario? Lake America," the account quipped, adding one more suggestion: "Epstein Island? America Island."
'Still Crickets': Warren Reminds RFK Jr. of Pledge to Publish Secret Trump Deals With Big Pharma
Nearly two weeks after US Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote to the Trump administration's top health official in her latest attempt to get answers on "secret pricing deals" with Big Pharma, the Massachusetts Democrat said Wednesday that she is still waiting for the White House to make the terms of the agreements public.
On social media, Warren noted that she asked Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to publicize the deals for medicines listed on President Donald Trump's direct-to-consumer website, TrumpRx, at a hearing in April.
"Will you make the deals available to us so we can see them, a little transparency?" the senator had asked.
Kennedy replied that he would be "happy to make the deals available except for proprietary information and trade secrets."
But as the agreements have appeared to do little to reduce drug costs, Kennedy responded to Warren's request in writing without providing "copies of the questionable agreements" or answers to her questions about "unproven claims that the website is saving patients money," the senator noted.
Instead, Kennedy's response raised "fresh questions about whether the Trump administration’s savings estimates are reliable."
Months after her initial request, Warren said Wednesday, "still crickets."
"Why should Americans believe this isn't just another Trump handout to fatten Big Pharma's pockets?" she asked.
As Common Dreams reported last week, experts have pointed to the Biden administration's policy allowing Medicare to directly negotiate the prices of some drugs as the major driver of falling prescription prices, which dropped 3.1% over the past year.
But Trump has claimed that the "most favored nation" deals his administration negotiated with 17 pharmaceutical companies were behind the falling prices, despite the fact that just one aspect of his MFN policy—TrumpRx—has been enacted, and the website has only been found to deliver savings on one out of 54 listed medications.
"While TrumpRx has since added a wider selection of generic drugs and added some information about generic alternatives to select pages, not every brand drug on TrumpRx with an existing generic alternative has that alternative readily available on the site, and a recent analysis finds that the TrumpRx deals represent only around 12% of brand drugs made by participating Big Pharma companies," wrote Warren to Kennedy on August 13. "Thus, consumers still risk overpaying for branded drugs despite the availability of cheaper generics."
She added that the administration recently made the "unfounded claim that TrumpRx has already saved more than $700 million for American patients," while saving the average user of prescription medications only about $5.
"Your response to me raises questions about whether even that estimate was made up out of thin air," wrote Warren, noting that Kennedy had admitted TrumpRx “does not store any patient, health, or prescription information."
She emphasized that drug manufacturers who signed the MFN deals with Trump "have benefited from huge tariff exemptions for branded drugs and received vouchers to fast-track approvals for new products. That is on top of billion-dollar handouts President Trump and Republicans in Congress gave to the pharmaceutical industry last year in their tax law."
"This is a huge win for giant drug companies that will reap billions in additional revenues from higher prices abroad, while doing absolutely nothing to lower drug prices for Americans in need," wrote the senator. "Americans are paying more on everything from school supplies to furniture thanks to Trump’s across-the-board tariffs, and instead of negotiating deals to help workers and American families, he’s using that leverage to go to bat for Big Pharma."
"Americans deserve to know whether the deals the administration is cutting with Big Pharma will lower their prescription drug costs—or just further enrich big drug companies," said Warren. "Despite my request that you make the administration’s MFN deals with giant drug companies public, and your commitment to do so, you have yet to follow through."
Trump Admin Declares UK Anti-Genocide Group Palestine Action a Terrorist Organization
A top First Amendment advocacy group on Wednesday warned of the "broad speech implications" of the Trump administration's sanctions on the British anti-genocide group Palestine Action, which it designated an international terrorist organization for leading direct actions in opposition to the Israeli government.
Under the designation, Americans will be blocked from doing business with Palestine Action, and providing the group with funds, goods, or services will be prohibited.
British citizens who continue to donate to the group or take part in protests supporting it—which thousands of people have been arrested for doing since the UK government proscribed Palestine Action last year—could face sanctions and visa bans in the US, according to The Telegraph, which first reported the news Wednesday that the US designation was expected.
The group's co-founders, Richard Barnard and Huda Ammori, will face lifetime bans from entering the US due to the sanctions.
Chip Gibbons, policy director for Defending Rights and Dissent, said his group was "especially disturbed that Palestine Action, a nonviolent, direct action organization, has been sanctioned under a [President George W.] Bush-era executive order issued in response to the September 11th attacks, essentially putting civil disobedience for Palestinian rights on equal footing with al-Qaeda."
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the sanctions of Palestine Action, along with sanctions targeting the Italy-based group Autistici Inventati—which supplies digital services to left-wing groups—and Masar Badil, a Palestinian organization.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) was imposing the sanctions under Executive Order 13224, which prohibits transactions between people in the US and groups that commit or support terrorism.
“Far-left extremists, their fronts, and their enablers should be on notice: We will bring the full weight of our economic tools to bear,” said Bessent. “Political terrorism has no place in our society, and we will continue to cut the financial lifelines of these groups until they are eliminated.”
The curtailing of Palestine Action's ability to participate in the global financial system and its new US label as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" group, said Gibbons, were not only "retaliation against the sanctioned for holding political views the Trump administration dislikes, but they severely curtail and criminalize US citizens' ability to engage in otherwise lawful associations with these groups.”
A US official told The Telegraph before the sanctions were officially announced that Palestine Action had "supported numerous acts of terrorism since July 2020, including acts that have physically injured UK law enforcement personnel, as well as acts intended to intimidate lawful commercial enterprise and coerce the British government."
The designation comes just over a year after UK lawmakers voted to proscribe Palestine Action after some of its members vandalized two aircraft at a Royal Air Force base.
In August 2024, activists with the group also raided a facility of Elbit Systems, an Israeli-owned weapons manufacturer, and attacked a police officer.
Organizers maintain that Palestine Action's overarching goal is to demonstrate against and disrupt "the Israeli war machine, which is committing a genocide in Gaza with the support of the US government," as Ammori told Al Jazeera Wednesday.
They organized the recent actions to protest Israel's bombardment of Gaza, which has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians since 2023 and is continuing to decimate the exclave despite a ceasefire reached last October.
Ammori added that President Donald Trump "has been at the center of the mass murder of Palestinians, enabling the Zionist regime at every turn.”
Many of the people arrested for supporting Palestine Action in the UK have been detained simply for holding signs that express opposition to genocide and solidarity with the group.
The new designation comes a month after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted representatives from more than 60 countries at the Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism, where he warned that "for far too long... our counterterrorism doctrine has had a blind spot when it comes to extremist violence from the political left," and called for a global crackdown.
Rubio and top White House adviser Stephen Miller warned in July that numerous arrests and prosecutions of people and groups deemed by the administration to be left-wing extremists would be coming, under the guidance put forward by National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, which called for a national strategy to crack down on left-wing organizing.
In the UK, five Palestine Action organizers won a legal victory after a judge ruled that they would not be sentenced as terrorists, and three UK Supreme Court judges granted Ammori the right to challenge the government's ban on the organization.
More than 250 academics and legal experts on Wednesday wrote to British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, calling on him to both end UK military support for Israel and to terminate the proscription of Palestine Action.
'Lawless Killing Spree at Sea Resumes' as US Announces Fresh Boat Bombings
The US military has resumed its campaign of bombing alleged drug-trafficking vessels after a two-month pause in a campaign that many legal experts and human rights groups believe constitutes a murder spree.
In a Monday social media post, US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said it carried out a "lethal kinetic strike on a low-profile vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes" in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday. Two people were killed as a result of the attack, SOUTHCOM claimed.
In announcing the strike, SOUTHCOM Commander Gen. Francis Donovan said the attack was part of a campaign of "imposing total systemic friction on narco-terrorists—disrupting their operations, dismantling their leadership, and eliminating cartel terror across the region."
Donovan's boasts about the effectiveness of the boat strikes in combating the drug trade come less than a month after a leaked a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) analysis revealed that the boat-bombing campaign has not "reduced the amount of cocaine entering” the country, as drug cartels have found alternate methods for shipping their product into the US.
With the latest two casualties, the boat bombing campaign launched nearly a year ago by President Donald Trump's administration has now claimed the lives of at least 223 people.
Adam Isaacson, director of the Defense Oversight program at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), criticized the administration for resuming its boat bombings despite "overwhelming evidence that they are murder; that many, likely most, of the dead are either super-low-level or uninvolved with drugs; and that cocaine supply is unaffected."
Brian Finucane, senior adviser to the US Program at the International Crisis Group, delivered a similarly scathing assessment, commenting that "the Trump administration's lawless killing spree at sea resumes."
Nicholas Grossman, professor of international relations at the University of Illinois, described the boat strike campaign as "murderous" and "illegal," adding that its victims are "not terrorists" and "may not even be drug traffickers."
Investigative journalist Camila Lourdes Galarza observed that "there’s still no proof any of the victims" of the boat strikes were involved in the drug trade.
Lourdes Galarza sarcastically added that if the victims had been drug traffickers, "the US would probably give them a deal" like the one given to Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras who was pardoned by Trump last year despite being previously convicted on narcotics trafficking charges.
Big Oil Stocks Surged Due to Iran War—and New Filings Show How President Trump Cashed In
The president is making "significant profits on the global instability he's inciting," said one government ethics expert. "It's profoundly unethical."
In a mandated filing with the Office of Government Ethics released Thursday, President Donald Trump was found to have made more than 1,000 stock transactions in June, including thousands of dollars invested in energy companies that were reaping record profits from the war Trump started with Iran.
Trump submitted financial disclosure forms to the OGE covering the second quarter of 2026, during which the Iran War continued, was paused for a ceasefire, and restarted again.
CBS News pointed to a "notable large transaction" on April 7, the day Trump declared a ceasefire with Iran after having threatened to destroy the country's "entire civilization." His investment accounts sold between $500,000 and $1 million of ExxonMobil stock that same day.
The filings were submitted days after Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) estimated that Trump's oil and gas stocks have soared in value since before he began attacking Iran in February—an act that raised oil prices due to Iran's retaliatory closing of the Strait of Hormuz. The holdings were estimated at $13 million to $46 million at the start of 2026 and $17 million to $61 million this month.
"President Trump saw his wealth go up by as much as $15.5 million just through stocks he owned in oil and gas companies at the end of 2025," said the JEC Democrats. "These companies’ profits and stock values are rising because Trump’s reckless war in Iran has caused gas and oil prices to skyrocket."
The JEC's estimates were based on his holdings in 2025 and did not account for the trades he continued to make as the war dragged on.
"Trump's war in Iran has inflicted higher energy and gas prices on the American people," said Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). "Meanwhile, Trump's brokers have been trading oil and gas stocks for him, helping him profit on the global instability he's inciting. It's profoundly unethical."
The White House said the president does not make trades himself, but CREW president Donald Sherman told CBS News that Trump should not be making "significant profits on the global instability he's inciting."
"President Trump's war of choice in Iran has cost the American people in the form of higher energy and gas prices and higher shipping costs," Sherman said. "Meanwhile, Trump's brokers have been trading oil and gas stocks for him... It doesn't matter whether he's trading the stocks himself—the president has a duty to avoid conflicts of interest between his finances and what's best for the American people."
Unlike other US presidents, Trump has refused to place his assets in a blind trust, instead continuing to hold stocks that are visible to him in all 11 sectors involved in the stock market.
In June, the president's stock portfolio made a series of energy trades, including two sales and one purchase of ExxonMobil stock that were valued between $1,001 and $15,000. He also bought and sold Chevron stocks three times and made three sales of ConocoPhillips holdings.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said that the new filings show "Trump's only focus is enriching himself at the expense of the American people."
Trump-Loving FIFA Boss Faces Criminal Probe for Scheme to Sell World Cup Profits to Jared Kushner's Brother
Gianni Infantino has long been a target of criticism from football fans, in no small part due to his relationship with President Donald Trump.
Gianni Infantino, president of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, is facing a criminal probe over his ill-fated scheme to sell profits generated by the World Cup to private equity investors.
According to a Thursday report in The Associated Press, attorneys representing the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the governing body of European football, filed discovery requests with two US courts seeking documents related to the scheme, which Infantino abandoned earlier this month after near-universal pushback from other football organizations.
In New York, UEFA asked the court to subpoena Thrive Capital Management, a venture capital firm founded by Josh Kushner, the younger brother of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law.
"Thrive and Kushner were to be the anchor investors intending to pay FIFA $4.2 billion for a 20% stake in a subsidiary that would run the soccer body’s commercial events, including the World Cup," reported the AP.
In Florida, UEFA requested subpoenas for files held by FIFA Americas and FWC2026, two FIFA businesses based in the state.
UEFA attorneys revealed that they "are contemplating a Swiss criminal proceeding against Infantino and possibly other FIFA officials for criminal mismanagement" related to the failed sell-off scheme.
The attorneys also accused the FIFA boss of creating a vehicle so that he and his allies could "acquire a permanent stake in and otherwise profit from FIFA’s most valuable assets to the detriment of FIFA, its members, and other parties within the football family."
Infantino has long been a target of criticism from football fans, in no small part due to his relationship with Trump.
The FIFA boss was widely ridiculed last year when he awarded Trump the first-ever "FIFA Peace Prize" less than two months before the president would launch an illegal war against Iran.
And during this year's World Cup, Trump and his administration led a pressure campaign that successfully got FIFA to drop a one-game ban for Folarin Balogun, a top player on the US Men’s National Team, drawing widespread accusations of corruption and favoritism.
'Playing With Constitutional Fire': Texas Gov. Abbott Lets ICE Agent Wanted in Minnesota Walk Free
"By refusing to extradite Castro, Greg Abbott is turning Texas into a sanctuary state for violent criminals," said Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer accused of shooting an unarmed man in Minneapolis and then lying about the incident walked free from a jail in Texas on Thursday as Gov. Greg Abbott refuses to honor Minnesota's extradition request.
Christian Castro, 52, was released from the Cameron County jail shortly after dawn, roughly three months after his May 29 arrest on a Minnesota warrant. Castro faces four felony counts of second-degree assault and one misdemeanor count of falsely reporting a crime.
Hennepin County, Minnesota prosecutors allege that Castro fired through the front door of a Minneapolis home, striking 24-year-old Venezuelan immigrant Julio César Sosa-Celis in the leg on January 14 during the Operation Metro Surge enforcement blitz in the Twin Cities Area, part of the Trump administration's deadly mass deportation effort.
Castro claimed afterward that Sosa-Celis and another man had attacked an ICE officer with a broom and snow shovel—an account investigators say was contradicted by surveillance footage, witness statements, and physical evidence. Criminal charges initially filed against Sosa-Celis were later dismissed.
On Wednesday, US District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. of the Southern District of Texas—an appointee of President Donald Trump—denied Minnesota's request for a temporary restraining order that would have prevented Castro's release and declined to compel Abbott to sign the extradition warrant. The Republican governor has so far not yet formally responded Minnesota's extradition request.
Abbott has argued that Castro did not flee Minnesota to escape prosecution but was instead ordered back to Texas by federal authorities. And while Rodriguez acknowledged the possibility that Castro could flee to Mexico, the judge concluded that the court lacked any authority to force Abbott to act before he makes his decision on extradition.
The Texas governor has also attempted to condition resolution of the extradition request upon Minnesota officials' acknowledgment of the alleged fraud Trump used as a pretext for Operation Metro Surge.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Democrat, denounced Castro's release in a social media post asserting that "Greg Abbott has a black-letter legal and constitutional duty to sign the rendition warrant to return fugitive Christian Castro to Minnesota—full stop."
"By refusing to extradite Castro, Greg Abbott is turning Texas into a sanctuary state for violent criminals," Ellison added. "Regardless of today’s ruling, I will keep fighting so that Agent Castro will face justice in Minnesota."
Abbott retorted: "You guys are such bad lawyers. You showed up unprepared, uninformed, and unpersuasive. You don't know the law, and it showed."
Minnesota "is the literal definition of a sanctuary state because you refuse to assist in enforcing immigration laws," the Texas governor said. Minnesota does not have a statewide sanctuary law.
"I'll put Minneapolis at the top of the list for future bus drop-offs if we ever have a president like Joe Biden again," Abbott added, referring to his deadly campaign of busing migrants to Democrat-led sanctuary cities and even the home of former Vice President Kamala Harris at a cost to Texas taxpayers of over $221 million.
Anders Folk, a former federal prosecutor now running for Hennepin County attorney, agreed with Ellison, writing on X that "Gov. Abbott is playing political games."
"Christian Castro should be extradited to Minnesota to stand trial," he added. "Accountability requires nothing less. This ruling essentially makes Texas a sanctuary state for ICE agents accused of violating state law."
Suspecting 'Insider' Dealings and 'Corruption,' Raskin Probes Donald Trump Jr.'s Venture Capital Firm
After the president's son came on board, "a trio of businessmen with heretofore lackluster records in the market was suddenly running the hottest firm in the United States."
Just two years ago, 1789 Capital Management "was a struggling venture capital firm that earned consistently disappointing results by serially investing in total market flops," but after recruiting President Donald Trump's eldest son in the wake of the 2024 US election, it "suddenly had the Midas touch," a key congressional Democrat highlighted this week, launching an investigation.
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.)—a lawyer who managed the historic second impeachment of the president—revealed Thursday that the previous day he had sent a letter demanding answers from Donald Trump Jr., who is a partner at 1789 Capital, as well as company president Omeed Malik and chief investment officer Christopher Buskirk.
After the president's son joined the firm, just four days post-election, Raskin wrote, "you became the overnight darling of the venture capital world, rocketing from $150 million in assets under management to an astonishing $3 billion. A trio of businessmen with heretofore lackluster records in the market was suddenly running the hottest firm in the United States, picking out with almost clairvoyant accuracy winner after winner by investing in companies that would soon come to win hugely lucrative federal government contracts and grants and favorable regulatory actions."
"How did this miraculous transformation in the fortunes of your LLC come about?" he wondered. "Was it indeed magic? Or was it rank corruption, a toxic blend of trading on insider knowledge, and the use of insider political influence to steer major federal contracts and other financial benefits to Donald Trump Jr.'s new favorite businesses?"
"Based on his own personal business resume, Don Jr. may have been an unlikely choice to originate investments for an upstart venture capital company. His rare solo ventures—outside the paternal eye of the Trump Organization—have been well-documented flops, including investing in dry oil wells, hydroponic lettuce farms, and an African mining company," Raskin noted. "But despite his proven record of business investment failure, Don Jr. has become the lucky charm for 1789 Capital."
Raskin's letter provides a series of examples in which 1789 Capital has identified "companies that are about to receive massive influxes of cash from the Trump administration or to benefit from significant changes in federal policies and regulations."
"On the day Donald Trump was elected, Vulcan Elements was a small startup with no active manufacturing facilities and no history of fulfilling government contracts," he detailed. "Then 1789 Capital invested several million dollars. Soon after this investment, Vulcan Elements boasted that it had been raking in federal dollars throughout its capital raise, securing nine different government contracts in the past eight months."
"While the list of 1789 Capital portfolio companies that have benefited from favorable administration decisions is too long to explore in full here, three additional companies with strikingly similar success stand out," he wrote.
There's Anduril Industries, "an American technology company founded in 2017 by Palmer Luckey, a prominent Trump donor who has been dubbed 'the godfather of Republican fundraising on the West Coast,'" which got an enormous $22 billion contract that was previously assigned to Microsoft just weeks after Trump's inauguration, the letter notes. Then, it was reported that the VC firm was acquiring a stake in the company, which in March won another $20 billion contract from the US Army.
The letter also points out Juul, which "notoriously ushered in an epidemic of youth vaping in the United States by aggressively marketing its e-cigarettes to young people" and "had suffered a series of setbacks that nearly bankrupted the company" before Trump's return to office. Just months after 1789 Capital quietly acquired a $5 million stake in the company, the Food and Drug Administration ditched previous efforts to ban its products and allowed the marketing of five products.
Raskin's final example is the online prediction market Polymarket—which, at the time Trump was reelected, was banned from operating in the country by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and faced a federal investigation. Last summer, the Department of Justice closed that probe and the CFTC signed off on an acquisition that allowed the company to enter the US market. The letter notes that "a few short weeks later, it was revealed that 1789 Capital had already acquired a sizable stake in Polymarket."
"Alas, it is now impossible to believe that your firm's astonishing growth and success are due to anything other than insider political influence and thoroughgoing corruption," the congressman wrote to the trio. "Indeed, President Trump recently admitted that his oldest sons have 'inside information' with 'almost anything they do.'"
In a statement to MS NOW, which had early access to Raskin's letter, counsel AJ Merton dismissed the accusations as "unsubstantiated talking points," adding that "repackaging press clippings on congressional letterhead does not turn news headlines into evidence, and that practice is a hallmark of partisan stunts and politically motivated harassment, not oversight."
However, Raskin still wants answers from 1789 Capital by September 9. He's demanding a list of investments, communications with federal officials or contractors, records on how government policies may impact the firm, documents on the hiring of Trump's son, and more. He also told the firm to preserve all communications between its employees and the administration.
'I'm Going to Ask Tom': Maine GOP Nominee for Governor Calls for ICE at Polling Stations
"His plan to ask Trump’s border czar to send ICE agents to Maine polling places just weeks before Election Day is not only deeply alarming—it is likely illegal," said the head of the state Democratic Party.
By letting attendees at a Maine Young Republicans event in on his "secret" plan for the midterm elections, the state's Republican nominee for governor detailed a proposal that, according to one public policy think tank, is wholly illegal.
In an audio clip released Wednesday by the Bangor Daily News, Bobby Charles, a lawyer and former Reagan administration staffer, boasted about his connections to the Trump administration's border czar, Tom Homan, a key figure in President Donald Trump's mass deportation operation.
"Here's my secret. I have a friend named Tom Homan," said Charles, drawing applause from the GOP voters. "I'm going to ask Tom... three or four weeks before the election, maybe three, I'm going to make an appeal for ICE and Marshals to be at our voting booths."
🚨 NEW Audio: Bobby Charles reveals "secret" plan to invite ICE to Maine three weeks before Election Day. pic.twitter.com/nSx2o9yxjJ
— Maine Democrats (@MaineDems) August 26, 2026
Charles was referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the US Marshals, both armed federal law enforcement officers whose presence at polling sites to intimidate voters would be against the law, according to the Brennan Center for Justice .
Trump has also alluded to sending ICE and other armed federal agents to polling places during the midterm elections in November, saying in May when he was asked about the idea that he would "do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections."
At the Brennan Center for Justice last month, senior counsel Hayne Yoon wrote that "despite the implied threat, the law is clear."
"Sending armed federal agents, including those from ICE, to election sites is illegal," wrote Yoon. "Federal law and many states’ laws prohibit not only armed federal agents at polling sites, but also interference in elections or voter intimidation by any officials or private citizens. More important, using these tactics would be a flagrant attempt to hold on to power through force and intimidation and an affront to free and fair elections."
In his comments at the Young Republicans event, Charles also asked rhetorically whether “illegals who are being paid money” to vote would "like" the deployment of ICE agents at polling places. The remark made the gubernatorial candidate one of several Republicans to push the baseless claim that undocumented immigrants or noncitizens have committed voter fraud in order to sway elections.
There are no documented reports of immigrants ever being paid to vote, and a 2024 American Immigration Council analysis of data collected by the right-wing Heritage Foundation found only 68 cases of proven noncitizen voting dating back to 2000, "amounting to less than 0.0001% of total votes."
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Hannah Pingree said Wednesday that Charles' comments make clear that he would push Trump's MAGA agenda, despite his recent attempts to distance himself from the president, who is unpopular with Mainers.
"He is begging Trump's ICE to come interfere with our free and fair elections," said Pingree. "I think that conduct speaks for itself and I trust the Maine people to see it for what it is."
Devon Murphy-Anderson, executive director of the Maine Democratic Party, added that Charles "continues to prove that he is a MAGA extremist who will stop at nothing to put himself and his MAGA agenda ahead of Mainers. His plan to ask Trump’s border czar to send ICE agents to Maine polling places just weeks before Election Day is not only deeply alarming—it is likely illegal. This is a blatant attempt to intimidate voters and yet another reason Bobby Charles is too extreme for Maine.”
Charles' comments come six weeks after an ICE agent fatally shot Biddeford, Maine resident Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in an incident that the Trump administration has not appeared to investigate. ICE has made more arrests in Maine so far this year than it did in all of 2024-25 combined, and out of 491 arrests made, 89% of those detained had no criminal convictions.
Homan recently told a Republican state lawmaker that the state would soon "see a lot more enforcement action" due to Trump's decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Syrians.
The Justice Department announced this month that it would deploy at least 1,000 federal officers to polling places as people vote in the November 3 elections. The administration has suggested the public should not be alarmed by the plan because anyone who is a citizen will not be targeted by the agents, but as the ACLU noted, at least 155 citizens in eight states last year, including 32 children, were detained, targeted, or subjected to misconduct by federal immigration agents.
In Trump's Second Term, Average US Family Forced to Spend $3,800 More on Essentials
"Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration have made life more expensive for everyday Americans in virtually every area—all so they could give billionaires another massive tax break."
The average family in the United States has had to pay a total of $3,800 more for housing, groceries, utilities, and other essentials during President Donald Trump's second term in the White House, according to an analysis released Thursday by Democrats on the congressional Joint Economic Committee.
Grocery prices were more than 4% higher in July than when Trump took office in January 2025, the new analysis notes, and the average family spent an additional $310 for groceries last year than in 2024.
The JEC report—which provides state-by-state and district-level fact sheets—also points to energy costs, which have surged due in large part to Trump's illegal war on Iran. Since the start of the conflict in late February, the average family has spent an additional $604 on gas while the president has added millions to his personal fortune due to fossil fuel stock holdings.
“Every trip to the grocery store, every tank of gas, and every electricity bill costs families more under President Trump,” Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), ranking member of the JEC, said in a statement. “Americans shouldn’t have to drain their paychecks just to cover the basics, but Trump’s tariffs, war with Iran, and other misguided actions continue to drive up everyday costs and leave hardworking families to foot the bill."
The updated analysis underscores Trump's utter failure to fulfill his campaign pledge to "end inflation" and "bring down the prices of all goods."
The JEC attributed rising costs to deliberate policy decisions by the Trump administration and his Republican allies in Congress, including the Iran war, erratic tariffs, and the refusal to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, which has sent premiums skyrocketing.
The Unrig Our Economy coalition said in a statement that the JEC report "makes clear that Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration have made life more expensive for everyday Americans in virtually every area—all so they could give billionaires another massive tax break."
"From reckless tariffs to an unnecessary war in Iran to cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, Republicans in Washington have done everything they can to make life less affordable for working families,” said Robyn Patterson, a spokesperson for the coalition. “This latest JEC report puts a number to the reality that millions of Americans are feeling: Life keeps getting more expensive, while the rich keep getting richer."
Watchdog Finds Trump Crypto Schemes Have Left Investors on the Hook for Over $4 Billion in Losses
Trump's personal meme coin alone has left its investors $3.2 billion underwater, Public Citizen found.
A report released Thursday by government watchdog Public Citizen estimates that President Donald Trump's assorted cryptocurrency products have left investors on the hook for billions of dollars in losses.
In total, Public Citizen found that Trump's crypto schemes have left investors at least $4.7 billion in the hole, with the majority of those losses coming from investments into the president's personal meme coin, which he launched just three days before the start of his second term.
The value of Trump's meme coin peaked at over $73 per token two days after its launch. Since then, its value has completely cratered and it is currently trading in the $2 range.
Early investors in the coin scooped up tokens that they quickly unloaded to other buyers, who were left holding the bag after the value of the digital assets collapsed.
In all, Public Citizen explained, 1% of wallets that invested in the coin reaped 80% of all gains, while 65% of wallets that put money into it are underwater to the tune of $3.2 billion.
Even as many investors in the Trump coin saw the value of their investments deteriorate, the president profited handsomely, hauling in $635 million in licensing fees from the coin last year alone.
Trump was also not personally hurt by the coin's drop in value given that he invested no money to acquire his own share of the digital tokens, which Public Citizen estimated is worth $271 million.
While the Trump meme coin accounted for the lion's share of losses suffered by investors, Public Citizen also highlighted the damage done by governance tokens issued by World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency venture co-founded by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump in 2024.
As explained by Public Citizen, a governance token is "a digital commodity that conveys to holders certain 'rights with respect to the associated functional crypto system,' according to the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)."
In practice, however, Public Citizen said that owning such tokens is akin to having "membership in a condo board—but without actually getting to vote on many issues or even own the condo."
The price of the tokens reached a peak of $0.33 per unit in September 2025, but they're now trading at under $0.06 per unit.
And much like the Trump meme coin, a small group of early investors made a killing on the tokens while most others racked up losses totaling at least $1 billion.
"The accredited and foreign investors who got in on the private sale paid $0.015 or $0.05, meaning they’re up anywhere from 15% to 283%," wrote Public Citizen. "Almost everyone who bought the tokens on the public market, though, is down—possibly as much as 83%, if they bought at the peak."
Public Citizen also highlighted the money lost by people who bought nonfungible tokens (NFTs) that Trump marketed as digital trading cards and that sold for $99 a piece.
While the cards were initially worth $12.3 million at the time of their release, their aggregate value has since fallen to $3 million, leaving investors $9.3 million underwater. But regardless of how well investors in the cards fared, Trump still made $7.2 million in licensing fees and royalties on secondary market sales, Public Citizen found.
Zach Everson, research director for Public Citizen's Trump Accountability Project and author of the report, cautioned Trump critics against ridiculing people who invested in the president's crypto products in a Thursday social media post.
"Trust me, I get the desire to sneer," wrote Everson. "People decided to put their money into virtual currencies backed by the word of a man who: admitted to misusing charitable funds; took six companies into bankruptcy; was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. But these people got screwed over nevertheless."
Lowest-Paying US Corporations Have Poured Over $700 Billion Into Buybacks Since 2019
A new report shows that Walmart could have funded a nearly $4,000 bonus for every single one of the company's employees with the amount of money it spent buying back its own stock last year.
A report published Thursday shows that the top 100 lowest-wage corporations in the US pay their CEOs 614 times more than their median workers on average while also pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into stock buybacks, which further boost the wealth of top executives and rich shareholders.
The new report, released by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), examines the 100 corporations in the S&P 500 index that pay their median workers the least—a list that includes Walmart, Amazon, Target, DoorDash, and Home Depot. Between 2019 and 2025, the IPS report shows, the "Low-Wage 100" spent a combined $718 billion on stock buybacks.
IPS characterizes share repurchases as "a financial maneuver that artificially inflates CEOs’ stock-based pay and siphons resources out of worker wages and long-term investments."
"Walmart ranked No. 1 in buyback spending among Low-Wage 100 firms in 2025," the report observes. "The giant retailer spent $8.1 billion on share repurchases—a sum that could have funded a $3,851 bonus for each of the firm’s 2.1 million employees."
The CEOs at the Low-Wage 100 have seen their compensation rise by over 41% on average—without adjusting for inflation—since 2019, more than double the increase that the companies' median workers have seen during the same period, lagging behind rising costs.
"Average CEO compensation within the Low-Wage 100 hit $17.5 million in 2025. The group’s average median worker pay sat at just $36,571 last year," IPS found. "The average CEO-worker pay ratio of Low-Wage 100 firms has widened from 574 to 1 in 2019 to 614 to 1 in 2025. Seventeen of the 100 corporations reported pay ratios of 1,000 to 1 or higher."
The company with the highest CEO-worker pay ratio in 2025 was Lumentum, which paid its top executive 2,884 times as much as its median worker last year.
"Over the past year," the IPS report notes, "the CEOs of the Low-Wage 100 pocketed huge paychecks while looking the other way as their employees grappled with fears of ICE actions, the loss of vital healthcare and food assistance programs, and attempts to roll back key protections against racial and gender discrimination."
Far from wielding their power and influence to advocate on behalf of their own employees, IPS observed, the 100 leading corporations deployed their armies of lobbyists to push "tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, legislation that slashed Medicaid and SNAP programs on which many of these firms’ employees rely."
“The Low-Wage 100 includes many of the world’s most influential CEOs,” said Sarah Anderson, director of the Global Economy Project at IPS and lead author of the new report. “They could be using their political and economic clout to defend their workers against multiple threats. Instead, at this precarious moment in our democracy, they’ve chosen to remain silent.”
IPS concludes its report by recommending that lawmakers pursue three policy solutions: Increasing taxes on companies with large CEO-worker pay gaps, expanding the excise tax on stock buybacks, and "leveraging government contracts and subsidies" to force changes at major corporations.
"A bipartisan provision in the pending Senate defense authorization bill would bar military contractors from engaging in stock buybacks," the report notes. "This builds on modest Biden administration progress to use the power of the public purse to rein in CEO pay. But governments at all levels could be doing much more to leverage this power against executive excess."
With 350+ Dead and 1,300 Missing, Nepal Carnage Seen as Climate Disaster
"Delay is deadly," said one campaigner. "Without a rapid transition away from fossil fuels, the planet will continue to heat up and lives can be lost in a flash.”
Scientists and climate action campaigners on Thursday pointed to the collapse of a glacier as a likely cause of disastrous flash flooding in Tibet and Nepal's Rasuwa district, where emergency workers are searching for more than 1,300 missing people after water and mud poured into the Trishuli River valley, crashing through villages where thousands of people live and sweeping away bridges, homes, and miles of roads.
An initial assessment by geologists and glaciologists found that in satellite imagery taken before the flooding, a glacier was seen about 4,000 feet above the valley where at least 353 people were later killed Wednesday by the rushing waters and mudslide.
The glacier appeared about 2 million square feet smaller after the flooding, while the valley was "strewn with ice and mud" and the nearby river was "swollen beyond its banks, submerging the surrounding vegetation beneath murky brown floodwaters.
The scientists said an "ice avalanche"—a massive chunk of ice that fell off a glacier in the mountainous region and into the valley below, was likely at least partially to blame for the flash flooding, but noted that it was too early to rule out other or additional causes.
The satellite imagery appeared to show that "a glacier in the area basically snapped off in a clean break, allowing it to fall just over a vertical kilometer to the valley bottom,” Daniel Shugar, a geologist at the University of Calgary in Canada, told The New York Times. "The bottom looks like a bomb exploded—it’s just deposits from the broken-up glacier."
The chunk of ice was likely about 2,000 feet wide, Shugar told the Times, and fell nearly 4,000 feet—a fall that would have "pulverized" the ice into water.
Aakriti Dotel, national network coordinator for the climate action group Nepalese Youth for Climate Action said the floods were "another painful reminder of the growing climate crisis facing Nepal and the Himalayas."
"As our glaciers melt and extreme weather events become increasingly unpredictable, communities living downstream are bearing the devastating consequences," said Dotel. "We mourn the lives lost and the livelihoods affected and call for urgent global climate action. There must be stronger support for vulnerable mountain communities, and accountability from those most responsible for the climate crisis.”
The disaster stunned officials in the area, where there had been no rainfall before the floodwaters and mudslide overtook the region.
Intense videos circulating on social media Wednesday showed people attempting to run away as water and mud crashed into villages in the region.
🇳🇵🌊 Nepal flash flood kills at least 95, hundreds missing
➤ A massive flash flood swept away villages in Nepal’s mountainous Rasuwa district near the Tibet border Wednesday, killing at least 95 people and leaving hundreds missing, including 384 tourists and eight South Korean…
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) August 26, 2026
Tom Fletcher, the United Nations humanitarian chief, said he had mobilized $2 million from the UN Global Emergency Fund "to save lives with emergency medical care, shelter, water."
The secretary-general of the Nepal Red Cross told CNN that about 20,000 houses have been "swept away" in the region.
"These people do not have anything," said Rishi Khanal. "To feed them for some time, some days is a very serious thing to us... The shelter problem is there. The drinking water problem is there."
A truly desperate assessment out of Nepal from the Secretary General of @NepalRedCross: pic.twitter.com/QrJ4vZhmSz
— Becky Anderson (@BeckyCNN) August 26, 2026
A police officer in the village of Syabrubesi told the Times that waves of water crashed into his police station Wednesday morning, right after he got off the phone with a friend who had warned him a flood was headed toward the town.
“One of my senior officers and I were together when the wave struck. I was thrown out, but he was unlucky and was buried or swept away,” he told the newspaper. “I cannot explain how big the waves were. They engulfed several-meters-high buildings in a fraction of seconds... It wasn’t just water. It was a combination of boulders, sand, and thick sludge.”
Seven people were working at the station when the flood hit, and the officer is one of three who have been found alive. He said he was concerned that the other four are among the missing.
Homes, schools, government buildings, and the office of a hydropower project are among the infrastructure destroyed in Syabrubesi.
More than 160 glaciers in Nepal have entirely melted in recent decades, as scientists have warned that continued fossil fuel extraction is heating the planet and causing dangerous extreme weather. The area of the country's glaciers also shrank by about one-quarter between 1970-2010.
At The Conversation, Levan Tielidze, a research fellow in glacial geomorphology at Monash University, wrote that "it’s too early to say this was the exact cause. But we know that the great ice stores of the Himalayas—known as the world’s 'third pole' because it contains the largest amount of snow and ice after the Arctic and Antarctic—are no longer safe."
Tielidze continued:
What happened in Nepal is likely due to an enormous ice-and-rock landslide sweeping down a mountain pass and gathering up ice, water, rock, trees and dirt.
The landslide was so large it was originally thought to be an earthquake, as the seismic energy registered as a 4.4 magnitude quake on seismographs.
By the time it reached Gyirong Port—a China-Nepal border crossing—the wall of debris resembled a tsunami of dirt. Early estimates suggest the wave may have been 30 meters high.
Rising global temperatures have been linked to previous collapses of glaciers, including in Switzerland last year when the Birch Glacier wiped out nearly an entire town of 300 residents, who had evacuated before the disaster. Eleven mountain climbers were also killed by a glacier collapse in Italy in 2022.
“Every destabilized glacier in a warming Himalaya is a ticking time bomb that can go off unannounced, and when it does, those least responsible for the climate crisis pay with their lives," said Savio Carvalho, head of campaigns and networks for 350.org. "This moment of grief has a clear message for world leaders: Delay is deadly. Rich countries must finally deliver the finance and protection they owe frontline communities. Without a rapid transition away from fossil fuels, the planet will continue to heat up and lives can be lost in a flash.”
RFK Jr. Dismisses Impact of SNAP Cuts as Data Shows 5 Million People Have Lost Aid
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the head of the US Health and Human Services Department, said he doesn't think the Republican Party's unprecedented cuts to food aid would have "that much effect."
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday dismissed the impact of massive food aid cuts signed into law last summer by President Donald Trump, saying he doesn't believe the cuts will have "that much effect" as new data showed at least 5 million people have lost assistance so far—including roughly 1.5 million children.
Speaking at a news conference on children's nutrition in Florida, Kennedy falsely claimed that "the only people kicked off of" the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) under the GOP budget law signed by Trump "were people who were not eligible for it," either "because their income is too high or because they were illegal aliens."
Kennedy's remarks came as a new analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) found that SNAP enrollment nationwide has fallen to a 17-year low following enactment of the Trump-GOP budget law, which will cut the program by around $190 billion over the next decade, enact stricter work reporting mandates, and require states to contribute a portion of benefit costs for the first time.
"'Not much effect?' Based on available data from 25 states, we estimate that well over 1.5 million kids nationwide have lost SNAP in the wake of the unprecedented cuts in the Republican reconciliation law," Katie Bergh, a policy analyst at CBPP, wrote in response to Kennedy's remarks. "Many of those kids and their families lost SNAP despite still being eligible."
Watch Kennedy's comments:
Q: “Are either of you concerned that the reduction in funding for SNAP and the reduction in eligibility for SNAP will reduce access to food for children and families?”
Sec. Kennedy: “I don't think it's gonna have that much effect.” pic.twitter.com/1h97NP6rcN
— BulwarkClips (@BulwarkClips) August 26, 2026
News reports, anecdotal accounts from impacted families, and expert assessments contradict Kennedy's insistence that only those who were no longer eligible for SNAP due to income or immigration status have lost benefits. An explosion of red tape due to the new work reporting requirements imposed by the Trump-GOP budget law has made it more difficult for eligible beneficiaries to continue receiving SNAP, forcing many to seek aid from food banks and take desperate measures—such as skipping meals and doses of medication—to make ends meet.
CBPP warned that the impacts of the cuts are likely to intensify once the budget law's provision shifting benefit costs to states takes full effect next year.
"The magnitude of the cost shift and the urgency surrounding error rates may incentivize states to take drastic measures to reduce their payment error rates quickly and cut program costs, even if it means delaying or improperly denying benefits to eligible people," the think tank said on Wednesday. "We’re likely seeing some of those initial effects in SNAP participation data."
A report published last month by a pair of food policy experts argued that the unprecedented assault on SNAP undercuts Kennedy's so-called "Make America Healthy Again" initiative, which purports to place nutrition "at the center of health."
“If we are serious about improving Americans’ health, we need policies that make healthy food more accessible, not less,” said Priya Fielding-Singh of George Washington University’s Global Food Institute. “Cutting off food assistance for millions of families undermines MAHA’s stated goals of improving diet quality and preventing chronic disease. Food security and public health go hand in hand.”

























