Day: July 7, 2025

Extreme Weather and Its Connection to Climate Change as Trump and DOGE’s Cuts Impacted The National Weather Service’s Response to the Tragic Flash Floods in Texas

We begin with the White House’s overheated pushback against questions of whether cuts to The National Weather Service by Trump and DOGE contributed to the tragic loss of life from flash floods in Texas costing 91 lives of mostly children with 10 girls and a counsellor still missing from a Christian girls camp. We discuss extreme weather and its connection to climate change as Trump’s “drill baby drill” attack on alternative energy at the behest of big oil and dirty coal has rolled back the clock in the race to prevent a tipping point from which the planet may not recover. Joining us is Jeff Masters who worked as a hurricane scientist with the NOAA Hurricane Hunters from 1986-1990. After a near-fatal flight into category 5 Hurricane Hugo, he left the Hurricane Hunters to complete a Ph.D. in air pollution meteorology from the University of Michigan. In 1995, he co-founded the popular website, the Weather Underground, and served as its chief meteorologist until 2012. He currently writes about extreme weather and climate change for Yale Climate Connections where his latest article is, “Devastating flash floods slam Texas Hill Country; Tropical Storm Chantal heads for Carolinas.”

Putin’s Cabinet Officials Commit “Suicide” as More Top Oil Executives Fall From 10th Floor Windows

Then, with Putin’s cabinet officials allegedly committing “suicide” and more top oil executives falling from 10th floor windows, we will speak with Olga Lautman, a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis who is also the creator and co-host of the Kremlin File podcast series, which features expert discussions on the Kremlin’s internal affairs, global operations, and tactics used from their hybrid warfare toolkit to destabilize Western democracies. She has a Substack newsletter covering Russia, Ukraine, Eastern, and Central Europe with a focus on Russia’s intelligence operations available at olgalautman.substack.com where her latest article we discuss is “When Intelligence Serves the President, Not the Truth.”

The BRICS Summit and Trump’s Threats to Countries That Side With BRICS

Then finally, with Trump threatening countries who side with BRICS, whose leaders met this weekend in Rio de Janeiro, that he will slap 10% tariffs on them, we speak with  Sarang Shidore, director of the Global South program at the Quincy Institute. His focus areas are geopolitical risk, grand strategy, and climate security, with a special emphasis on Asia and the Global South. We discuss his article at Foreign Policy “How BRICS Can Survive ‘America First.“