Hey readers! Happy Tuesday and welcome back. Today, we’re covering the Texas flash floods, Trump’s new tariffs, Israel’s “humanitarian” city, a Kenyan crackdown, a measles outbreak record, the Epstein list, and Elon Musk’s crazy weekend.

Here’s the good news: according to Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, homicides in his city have hit a historic low. More specifically, Baltimore’s homicide rate has hit its lowest point since 1975 – here’s to hoping that trend continues for the rest of the year.

“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” – Pelé

A Tragedy In Flash Flood Alley

Over the July 4 weekend, central Texas was devastated by massive flash floods. At least 104 people (including 28 children) were killed in the catastrophe, with the majority of the fatalities – 84 – concentrated around Kerr County. Adding to the tragedy, over two dozen of the deaths involved campers and counselors at Camp Mystic, a summer camp located on the banks of the flooded Guadalupe River.

The incident began last Thursday, when authorities issued a flood watch for south-central Texas. Early on Friday morning, heavy rains quickly swelled the Guadalupe River, which grew from 3 to 34 feet within an hour and a half. Authorities warned Camp Mystic and nearby areas about the “particularly dangerous situation” at 4 a.m. local time, but the warnings came a bit too late – while most of the camp’s 750 attendees were safely evacuated, at least 24 are among the dead and 10 more girls remain unaccounted for.

Now, Americans are left questioning why important seats at local branches of the National Weather Service (NWS) were left empty while the storms were rolling in. One possible answer? The Trump White House. Washington has very publicly cut back budgets for federal emergency agencies just like the NWS, and Senate Democrats are now pushing for investigations into whether the cuts “contributed to the catastrophic loss of life and property during the deadly flooding.” Those cuts were aided by Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who was caught vacationing in Greece while his constituents were fighting for their lives. This isn’t the first time that Cruz has been caught on vacation while Texas faces a disaster, either – in 2021, he took a trip to Cancun while millions of Texans were left without power in the dead of winter.

Liberation Day Comes After Independence Day

Trump got everything he wanted with the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill last week, but apparently he hungers for more. Yesterday, the president announced that he would be changing up his tariff plans for U.S. trade partners, with some allies including Japan, South Korea, and South Africa facing rates as high as 40%. Alongside those tariff changes, he also announced that his previous “Liberation Day” tariffs scheduled to take effect on Wednesday would be postponed until August 1, the same date that the new tariffs will kick in.

The announcement took place over Trump’s TruthSocial platform – he simply posted images of the mostly-identical letters he’d sent to leaders of each tariffed country. According to the letters, each country will escape tariffs if they “decide to build or manufacture product within the United States.” However, they go on, “if for any reason you decide to raise your tariffs, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added onto that 25% we charge.” Highlights of the new rates include 25% tariffs on Japan and South Korea; 35% duties on Bangladesh and Serbia; and 40% tariffs on Myanmar and Laos.

Israel’s Very Humanitarian Plan

• Israel has unveiled a plan to force all of Gaza’s population into a camp in the ruins of Rafah, a city on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt. According to Israeli defense minister Israel Katz, the plan would see IDF soldiers establish a perimeter around a so-called “humanitarian city” in Rafah. After that perimeter is set up, the IDF would then “move” 600,000 Palestinians through a “security screening” process before allowing them into the camp. The plan was announced as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid a visit to the White House in order to work out a ceasefire deal with Trump.

• “(Katz) laid out an operational plan for a crime against humanity. It is nothing less than that,” said one of Israel’s leading human rights lawyers in response to Katz’ announcement. “It is all about population transfer to the southern tip of the Gaza Strip in preparation for deportation outside the strip. While the government still calls the deportation ‘voluntary’, people in Gaza are under so many coercive measures that no departure from the strip can be seen in legal terms as consensual. When you drive someone out of their homeland that would be a war crime, in the context of a war. If it’s done on a massive scale like he plans, it becomes a crime against humanity.”

Kenyan Cops Go Crackdown-Crazy

• Yesterday, police clashed with protestors across Kenya as a wave of anti-government sentiment swept across the African nation. At least 10 protestors were killed by police during the violence, and the Kenyan capital of Nairobi was eventually locked down in order to quarantine the unrest.

• Kenya’s protests have been going on for weeks at this point, with young people speaking out against police brutality and government corruption. The protests began when a blogger died in police custody in June, and increased in intensity when a police officer used a shotgun to shoot a protestor at close range at a demonstration. Kenyans are calling for the resignation of President William Ruto over allegations of corruption and mismanaging the economy.

More Mixed Nuts

• As US abruptly ends support, Liberia faces empty health clinics and unplanned pregnancies (AP)

•  Russian minister dies by suicide hours after getting fired by Putin, officials say (CNN)

• The War on Gaza’s Children (New Yorker)

• This Is BYD, the Chinese Car That’s Taking Over the World (NYT, $)

• Poisoned water and scarred hills: BBC visits world's rare earths capital in China (BBC)

• Why China's ultimatum to Myanmar rebels threatens global supply of heavy rare earths (Reuters)

The Most Preventable Outbreak Ever

• The U.S. turned 250 last Friday, but it doesn’t look like the country is aging gracefully at all. According to a recently-published report, the U.S. is currently dealing with the largest amount of measles cases it’s experienced in over 30 years thanks to a massive outbreak in Texas. The report, published by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Outbreak Response Innovation, the U.S. had 1,277 measles cases on July 4, including an eye-watering (literally!) 753 cases in Texas alone. 

• In case you forgot – not that we’d blame you, as the disease was basically eradicated before antivaxxers resurrected it – measles is an incurable disease which is easily preventable with two jabs of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR). Measles can cause rashes, high fevers, runny noses, and watery eyes; more severe measles infections can hospitalize 20% of infected children, and it can also cause pneumonia in 5% of cases. So far, three otherwise-healthy children have died of the disease in 2025, and that number is likely to go up as vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr remains the White House’s secretary of health.

The Epstein List Just Doesn’t Exist

• According to Trump’s Justice Department, accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was never murdered, and never kept a “client list” of influential people who solicited his “services.” Yesterday, the department released a memo regarding theories about Epstein’s death, accompanied by 10 hours of security footage from a camera pointed at the door to his cell which showed that nobody entered the room before he committed suicide. Interestingly, the video released to the public is missing a full minute between 11:58:58 p.m. and 11:59:59 p.m…

• “This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list,’” announced the DOJ with an unsigned memo released on Monday. “There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”

More Nuts In America

• Is the New York Times trying to wreck Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral bid? (Guardian)

• America’s fastest-growing suburbs are about to get very expensive (Vox)

• ‘Reality TV spectacle’: outrage as federal agents raid LA neighborhood with horses and armored cars (Guardian)

• Scott Ruskan: This US Coast Guard rescue swimmer saved over 100 people from Texas flood (CNN)

• Caltech Settles Case Accusing It of Misleading Students (NYT, $)

• Is the Hispanic Red Wave for Donald Trump Starting to Crash? (New Yorker)

Musk Makes Some Mildly Concerning Moves

• It was a wild weekend in the world of Elon Musk. Grok, the AI chatbot built by Musk’s xAI firm, was updated to “assume subjective viewpoints sourced from the media are biased” and “not shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect.” Users, according to Musk, would “notice a difference” following the patch – and notice they did. Since its update, Grok has been spotted in the wild making inflammatory remarks, including blaming “Jewish executives” for “forced diversity” in Hollywood and encouraging X users to use the R-word. At one point, it pinned the blame for the Texas flood deaths on Musk himself, writing that “Trump’s NOAA cuts, pushed by Musk’s DOGE,” actually “contributed to the floods killing 24” people.

• At the same time, Musk announced plans to set up a new political party. The “America Party” is designed to challenge both Democrats and Republicans, and follows up on Musk’s promises of vengeance against his former ally Trump. According to Musk, the party will likely focus “on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts,” which he believes will be “enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people.” Tesla stock dropped 7% on the news. 

More Loose Nuts

• TikTok’s ‘ban’ problem could end soon with a new app and a sale (Verge)

• The AI Birthday Letter That Blew Me Away (Atlantic)

• Why Jolly Ranchers Are Banned in the UK but Not the US (Wired)

• The life swap dream – or a marketing gimmick? The Italian towns selling houses for €1 (Guardian)

• Inside the Media’s Traffic Apocalypse (NYMag)

• Find meditation really boring? You’re not the only one (Psyche)

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