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US To Experience Another Summer Of Extreme Heat As Trump Administration Cuts Key Agencies 

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This summer is already set to be one of the hottest on record in the United States. With worsening weather conditions and a multitude of extreme climate events, the US is preparing the best they can for the coming months. 

While preparation measures are in place, there is major concern over the lingering impacts of the Trump Administration cutting funding for key agencies that assist the nation for these conditions. Funding and staff for federal science, forecasting resources, and disaster response agencies have been cut drastically throughout the US, which could leave many citizens vulnerable. 

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According to the latest forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the extreme heat this summer will be “widespread.” Many parts of America have already begun to feel the impact in these beginning weeks of summer. 

The NOAA reported that throughout the spring this year there was a lack of precipitation. That combined with high temperatures and dry conditions could lead to increased levels of drought and wildfires this summer. 

Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” has made major cuts to the National Weather Service, specifically in Texas where the Houston office for the service has been left understaffed and without any permanent leadership, according to reports from the Guardian. 

Despite the fact that the US, and the world, has been continuously left susceptible to threatening weather conditions, federal science agencies like NOAA have been forced to operate at a reduced capacity and without proper funding. 

These cuts have led to hundreds of meteorologists leaving the National Weather Service. Now, Americans are turning to their local and state officials for guidance when it comes to handling heat and extreme weather. Non-profits and universities have also become a reliable source of information when it comes to handling our changing climate. 

From Rice University in Houston, climate scientist Sylvia Dee and her colleagues have described the major heat we’ve experienced as a “slow violence” against humanity. Climate change as a whole is a major threat to our health. Air pollution combined with extreme weather creates an environment that will become unsustainable for a healthy life. 

“There’s just so many things that center around heat stress. Extreme heat can hijack our brain’s ability to think clearly. Those executive functions like decision-making and inhibition and sequencing tasks, they all become harder,” Adrienne Heinz, a clinical research psychologist at Stanford University, said to reporters. 

“It becomes like walking through mud. It affects your ability to learn if you’re a student or your ability to perform if you’re an employee. It doesn’t leave anything untouched, really.”

The NOAA reports that excessive heat levels are the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the US. According to a 2024 report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, heat-related deaths in the US have increased by 117% since 1999. 

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Dee has stated that Texas is a prime example of what the US should look at to see the devastating impacts of climate change. 

“I feel like Houston is ground zero for climate change. I think there’s some level of frustration amongst us because, you know, we have been living through these conditions for many years,” she said. 

“We’re going to have more people in harm’s way. The exposure of Houstonians to weather and climate disasters will only increase. We’re very overwhelmed and trying desperately to sound the alarm.”

Heinz emphasized these points regarding the current, and worsening, impacts that our climate conditions have on human health. 

“These prolonged heat waves affect sleep, the cornerstone of our mental health. Our ability to weather adversity and emotionally regulate is compromised when we’re not getting good sleep.”

With staffing and funding cuts, it’s unclear how much federal bodies will be able to prepare and respond to extreme weather such as heat emergencies. 

An anonymous climate scientist from the Department of Energy said: 

“It’s pretty scary. Summers are only getting hotter, and wildfire seasons have been getting longer and more intense for years. These disruptions to federal science infrastructure and emergency response capacity come at the worst possible time.”

As a means of combatting the removal of necessary protections and funding from the Trump administration, many heat-prone cities and states, such as Arizona, California, and Nevada, have written and passed legislation, regulations, and ordinances to create a baseline for combatting extreme heat, and climate change in general. 

Mandy Ikert, the head of climate resilience with C40, an international group of cities working together on climate issues, said “with the health, safety, and economic impacts of extreme weather increasing, mayors know that inaction is not an option.” 

“Cities are taking a broad range of approaches to help their residents stay safe during the heat season, including investing in cooling centers, increased communication to residents, and new policies to make buildings and the people inside them safer.”

weather

US To Stop Tracking Costs Of Extreme Weather Caused By Climate Change 

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has stated that they will no longer be tracking the cost of climate change-fueled weather disasters including flooding, heat waves, wildfires, and more. This is all a part of the Trump administration’s efforts to limit federal government resourcing regarding climate change. 

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The NOAA is under the US Department of Commerce. They’re responsible for providing the US with daily weather forecasts, severe storm and hurricane warnings, and general climate monitoring. The NOAA is the parent of the National Weather Service.

Within the NOAA is the National Centers for Environmental Information, which has a billion-dollar Weather and Climate Disasters database. The agency will now cease updating the database beyond 2024, and will be archiving all of its information which dates back to 1980. 

The database has a very detailed record of hundreds of major events across the US and the trillions of dollars worth of damage that hurricanes, storms, droughts, and more cause. 

Kim Doster, the NOAA Communications Director, released a statement saying that the changes are “in alignment with evolving priorities, statutory mandates, and staffing changes.” 

Scientists are now warning that extreme weather events across the US have become more and more frequent, and the damage has worsened due to climate change. Many experts have connected recent weather events to the impacts of climate change. 

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“The NOAA database is the gold standard we use to evaluate the costs of extreme weather, and it’s a major loss, since it comes at a time when we need to better understand how much climate change is increasing disaster losses,” Jeff Masters, a meteorologist for Yale Climate Connections, said to AP. 

“[This doesn’t] change the fact that these disasters are escalating year over year. Extreme weather events that cause a lot of damage are one of the primary ways that the public sees that climate change is happening and is affecting people,” Kristina Dahl, vice president of science at nonprofit climate organization Climate Central.

“It’s critical that we highlight those events when they’re happening. All of these changes will make Americans less safe in the face of climate change.”

President Donald Trump and his administration have been increasing their efforts to remove practically all references to climate change and its impact from the federal government’s lexicon and documents. The administration has prioritized aligning themselves with oil and gas industries, which are linked to climate change and damage. 

The Trump Administration also fired hundreds of weather forecasters and federal NOAA employees as a part of their effort to downsize the federal government’s workforce.

Laptop Google Search

Google Introduces New Tool To Help Minors Delete Their Photos From Search 

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Google is now making it easier for minors or their parents to delete photos from search results within their devices. 

Google posted a blog post this week in which they detailed how they’ll be rolling out a tool that allows parents and their kids, younger than the age of 18, to request the removal of images from Google’s imaging tab, as well as request to have the images no longer appear as thumbnails in search inquiries. 

Google previously released methods for users to request the removal of personal information and photos that are deemed as “non-consensually explicit” or reveal “financial, medical, and national identification” information. The company’s newest security measures extend that protection to images of minors. 

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“We know that kids and teens have to navigate some unique challenges online, especially when a picture of them is unexpectedly available on the internet. We believe this change will help give young people more control over their digital footprint and where their images can be found on Search.”

The company’s blog post explained how the new form allows users to flag certain URLs that contain any images or search results that they want removed. Google will then review each submission and reach out to the user if additional information is needed. 

Google did emphasize, however, that these requests won’t result in the total removal of a particular image from the internet, and users will likely need to contact a website’s webmaster to ask for specific content to be removed. 

The company announced this new tool back in August as a part of their larger plan to protect minors across its platforms. Other features within Google such as “Family Link” allow parents to better monitor their kids accounts and internet activity. 

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Big tech companies all over the world have been called out for their lack of efforts when it comes to protecting minors from the harmful content that’s on the internet. David Monahan, campaign manager at Fairplay, a child advocacy group, recently spoke to the media about Google’s newest efforts, and hopes for the future. 

“We’re glad to see Google take this overdue step to give children and teens and their families more control over what images show up in search results. We hope Google will go farther to reverse its collection of sensitive data and give families the ability to erase the digital footprint that Google and its partners maintain on every young person in the US.”

Alexandra Hamlet, a clinical psychologist who works with teenagers, said Google’s request process could also “help parents talk more openly with their kids about managing their online presence. That could include discussing what’s worthy of consideration for removal, such as a photo that could harm their future reputation versus one where they perceive to look less than perfect.”

“While some parents may believe that their teen can handle the removal of various pictures without help, I do suggest that they still have conversations about values and how they tie into image online. They could be missing out on a great opportunity to help their teen to build insight and assertiveness skills,” she explained.

Britney Spears Files To Have Accountant Replace Father As Conservator 

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An attorney working for Britney Spears has officially filed to make the pop star’s new conservator her accountant Jason Rubin; a position that’s currently being held by her father. Lawyer Matther Rosengard made the official request in a Los Angeles court filing this week. 

The Los Angeles Times reported that Rosengart filed a petition to remove Jamie Spears, her father, as a conservator and replace him with Rubin. In a recent court hearing. Spears spoke for herself and stated that she wanted her father removed immediately, and would like to sue him for abuse. 

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Rosengart just recently started representing Spears after she was able to choose her own lawyer in a landmark decision made in her conservatorship case last month. Spears has been enduring this arrangement for 13 years now. 

The conservatorship means she has no control over her finances, estate, career, social media, or reproductive rights; she claimed in court that the individuals working in her conservatorship refuse to let her take out her IUD. 

After Spears delivered an emotional testimony last month that spread throughout social media, the icon has gained a slew of public support, including a message from Congress who invited Spears to the White House to better break down the issues with abusive conservatorships all throughout the US.

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Spears claimed that throughout her conservatorship she was forced to perform and take medication against her will. Her top priority has now become terminating the conservatorship, but mainly removing her father from the role of conservator. 

Spears also claimed that she would not be performing as long as her father still had control over her career and finances. 

“There’s a real question as to why Mr Spears does not voluntarily step aside today. Today. Does anybody really believe that Mr Spears’s involvement in the case is in the best interest of Ms Spears?” said Rosengart earlier this month in court. 

Spears is due back in court on September 29th, where a final decision over her father’s removal as conservator will be made.

The White House

Majority of Americans Believe Evidence Supports Removing Trump from Office, Poll Finds

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A poll conducted by Ipsos and FiveThirtyEight, an organization that aggregates and analyzes opinion poll data, has found that 52% of Americans believe enough evidence exists with respect to Trump’s conduct with Ukraine and his refusal to cooperate with Congress to warrant his removal from office. An aggregate of polls conducted to determine whether Americans support impeaching Trump has found that roughly half of Americans have supported the impeachment inquiry since Pelosi announced it, whereas the other half oppose impeachment. Though the impeachment inquiry lasted several weeks and produced devastating evidence directly implicating the president in withholding aid money to Ukraine in exchange for campaign assistance, these revelations have not changed Americans’ minds about impeachment, as poll results have remained remarkably consistent throughout the process. However, this most recent poll suggests that some Americans are slowly beginning to realize the extent of the president’s misconduct, though Trump’s remarkably steady approval rating indicates that it is unlikely that an overwhelming majority of Americans will ever support removing the president while he remains in office.

Although a majority of Americans (57%) believe Trump engaged in impeachable conduct, just 47% of Americans favor removing him from office, apparently believing that the question of whether Trump should remain the president should be determined by American voters this November. This means that roughly 15 percent of Americans believe that Trump committed impeachable conduct that warrants his removal from office but do not support removing the president before the election. Predictably, public opinion is split along party lines; 82% of Democrats support removing Trump from office, whereas only 9.7% of Republicans hold the same opinion.

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One thing that both Democrats and Republicans seem to agree on, however, is that the upcoming Senate trial should feature witnesses who were not present during the phase of the process controlled by the House in order to expand on the evidence unearthed over the past few months. 57% of Americans want to see a Senate trial with new witnesses, whereas 39% believe the focus should be kept on the evidence presented by the House. That being said, Democrats and Republicans largely disagree on who should be called as witnesses—Democrats think that officials like John Bolton and Mick Mulvaney, who have direct knowledge of the conduct for which the president was impeached, should participate in the trial, whereas Republicans want senators to question people like Hunter Biden, who is the subject of Trump’s allegation of his opponent’s political corruption. 

When it comes to how lawmakers are handling the impeachment process, which is currently in a stalemate as Nancy Pelosi continues to withhold the articles of impeachment from the Senate as leverage to negotiate the terms of the trial, Americans are almost evenly split on their approval of this tactic as well. Pelosi’s tactic may end up backfiring on Democrats, depending on how long she continues to withhold the articles, as withholding them for too long could give credibility to allegations that the impeachment process was motivated by political concerns instead of by constitutional obligation as the Democrats claim. 

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The poll also found that Americans are becoming increasingly unlikely to change their mind on the question of impeachment as time goes on. In mid-November, roughly 75% of respondents who believed Trump’s conduct was impeachable felt “absolutely” or “pretty” sure that they were right, whereas now 81 percent of respondents profess this degree of certainty. However, when it comes to Americans who think Trump’s conduct was not impeachable, this degree of certainty has not seen a similar increase, as 71% of this group reported being “absolutely” or “pretty” certain of their view in mid-November and 72% of this group reported being this certain in this latest poll.

Though the holiday season is officially over, the parameters of the Senate trial remain unclear, as lawmakers have made little progress in their negotiations over the rules of the trial. As such, at this unprecedented moment in history, it’s difficult to predict what, if any, effect the trial will have on public opinion, though trends over the past several years suggest any change will be minimal.