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Americans are facing a deepening affordability crisis but at least Trump and co have ... 250 new Cadillac Escalades

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Gas prices are up almost a dollar a gallon since the day Donald Trump took office; mortgage rates just hit their highest level in nearly a year, and over the weekend a prominent economist said the Iran war is costing the average US household more than $1,200.

Americans are struggling through a deepening affordability crisis caused largely by Trump’s ill-fated war against Iran. They are in need of a boost, something to lift the spirits. Perhaps the president could give a speech, letting the people know that we are all in this together.

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Welcome to today’s Trump Tyranny Tracker…

Musk's multimillion-dollar push to boost Republicans, new revelations about Secret Service pressure to surveil James Comey, and renewed U.S. strikes on Iran were among today's biggest stories.

Today at a Glance

• Trump overruled FEMA to deny disaster aid to Democratic-led states.

• California’s largest ICE detention center failed to provide adequate medical care.

• Federal judge rejects DOJ bid for New Jersey’s unredacted voter rolls.

What We Need to Pay Attention To

DHS testimony confirms raid of Newsom press conference was ‘political,’ ‘a stunt’

What Happened: Homeland Security Investigations agents testified in court that an immigration operation outside California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press conference was “purely political” and “a political stunt,” contradicting DHS’s earlier claim that it was an immigration enforcement action.

Why It Matters: DHS agents admitted under oath that the operation was political. Using federal agencies for political theater and intimidation sets a dangerous precedent for elections and other politically sensitive events.

Source: MS NOW

In Corruption News

Musk plans massive push for GOP in midterms

What Happened: Elon Musk plans to spend millions through his America PAC to help Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections by turning out voters. The effort comes as his companies continue to receive and pursue billions of dollars in federal contracts.

Source: Axios

This MAGA Influencer Runs a Charity to Teach Kids Civics. Much of the Money Goes to Him Instead.

What Happened: A ProPublica investigation found that the Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness, founded by Nick Adams, whom Trump appointed earlier this year as a special presidential envoy, paid Adams and his mother more than half its revenue while raising $7.7 million over the past decade. The investigation found little evidence the charity carried out its stated civics education mission or that its advertised $1 million sweepstakes prize was ever awarded.

Why It Matters: Nick Adams is the latest Trump appointee to face allegations of self-dealing or financial misconduct, adding to a growing pattern of ethics concerns among Trump officials.

Source: ProPublica

Judge orders Trump to turn over financial documents in BBC defamation case

What Happened: A federal judge ordered Trump to turn over financial records from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust as part of his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC. The records will help determine whether Trump suffered the financial losses he claims.

Source: The Hill

In Power Consolidation News

Trump overrode his own agencies to deny 4 Democratic disaster requests

What Happened: Trump overruled FEMA and NOAA recommendations to deny disaster aid to New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York after federal officials determined the states met the requirements for assistance.

Why It Matters: Trump rejected disaster aid after federal agencies determined the states qualified. It’s another example of federal dollars being used to reward allies and punish political opponents.

Source: Politico

Trump’s attacks on mail balloting and concerns over delays turn midterms spotlight on Postal Service

What Happened: State election officials in California, Kansas, Michigan, and Wisconsin raised concerns about mail ballot delays as the Postal Service prepares for the midterm elections. This comes as Trump asks the Supreme Court to reinstate key parts of his executive order restricting mail voting, including a requirement that the Postal Service use a federal voter eligibility list when distributing ballots.

Source: Associated Press

In Weaponization of Institutions News

Secret Service felt pressure from administration to surveil James Comey, new documents reveal

What Happened: Newly released court filings show Secret Service officials raised legal concerns after senior Trump officials pressured them to secretly track former FBI Director James Comey’s phone following his “86 47” social media post. Internal records show some agents believed there was no imminent threat and questioned whether the surveillance was legally justified.

Why It Matters: Trump officials sought to use the Secret Service to track his political adversary despite internal concerns that the surveillance was not legally justified. That's a dangerous expansion of how federal protective resources are used.

Source: MS NOW

With Blanche Nomination at Stake, Payouts to Trump Allies Continue

What Happened: The Justice Department agreed to a seven-figure settlement with anti-abortion activist Paul Vaughn, whom Trump pardoned after his conviction for blocking access to an abortion clinic. The payment makes Vaughn the latest Trump ally to receive taxpayer-funded compensation. This comes as senators questioned Todd Blanche about the department’s proposed $1.776 billion fund for additional payouts, including to insurrectionists.

Source: New York Times

ICE’s New Detention Center Contracts Declare State Laws ‘Shall Not Apply’

What Happened: One day after a federal judge ruled an ICE detention center in Washington must allow state health inspectors access, ICE released draft contract language stating that state and local laws “shall not apply” to four privately run detention centers.

Why It Matters: Instead of complying with a federal court ruling, ICE is trying to insulate its detention centers from state oversight by writing state-law exemptions into its contracts.

Source: WIRED

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In Media Suppression and Authoritarian Tactics News

The professor facing prison in ‘antifa’ case: ‘They want to scare all who oppose ICE’

What Happened: Federal prosecutors charged Erik Davis, a Minnesota college professor, with conspiracy to impede ICE officers, alleging he helped organize protests and coordinate resistance to immigration enforcement. The indictment does not accuse Davis of personally committing violence, and he has denied the allegations.

Why It Matters: A professor who is not accused of committing violence is facing federal conspiracy charges tied to protests against ICE. Using conspiracy charges against protest organizers is an authoritarian tactic meant to discourage others from organizing and protesting.

Source: The Guardian

In Human and Civil Rights Abuses News

California’s largest ICE facility did not provide adequate medical care, monitor says

What Happened: A court-appointed monitor found that California’s largest ICE detention center failed to provide adequate medical care and violated a federal court order requiring improvements. The findings were based on a site inspection, interviews with staff and detainees, and a review of more than 140 medical records.

Why It Matters: A federal court ordered the facility to improve medical care, yet detainees remain in immediate and long-term danger. The latest findings show ICE continues to commit serious human rights abuses and ignore court orders.

Source: Reuters

Trump policy clears way for civil commitment of homeless in some states

What Happened: Federal agencies have begun implementing Trump’s executive order on homelessness by encouraging states to institutionalize homeless people with mental illness or substance use disorders. The policy also prioritizes federal funding for states that adopt broader commitment laws and stricter enforcement against homeless encampments.

Why It Matters: Trump is using federal funding to push states toward institutionalizing homeless people instead of housing them. It marks a major shift away from the decades-long “Housing First” approach and toward criminalizing homelessness.

Source: CBS News

Loss of work authorization sows confusion for thousands of Haitian immigrants and their US employers

What Happened: Hundreds of thousands of Haitians with Temporary Protected Status lost their work authorization after Trump allowed their employment protections to expire following a Supreme Court ruling. Employers across the country have begun suspending workers as uncertainty spreads over their legal status.

Source: Associated Press

Trump administration forced treatment on hunger striker in ICE detention

What Happened: An internal ICE Health Service Corps document states that at least one immigration detainee on a hunger strike was subjected to forced medical treatment, including force feeding, hydration, urinary catheterization, or involuntary blood draws. The report also documented at least seven hunger strikers in ICE custody during the reporting period.

Source: The Guardian

Government Services Disruption and Collapse Watch

US Patriot interceptor stockpile diminished by some 65% during Iran war, think tank estimates

What Happened: A new analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates the U.S. has used about 65% of its Patriot interceptor stockpile since Trump’s Iran war began. The report says replenishing the missiles will take years at the current production rates.

Why It Matters: The longer Trump's war continues, the more it will strain U.S. weapons stockpiles. Replacing those interceptors will cost taxpayers billions of dollars while leaving the military less prepared for other crises.

Source: ABC News

Data shows some veterans wait months to see a therapist for the first time. The VA secretary has his own numbers

What Happened: The VA’s Access to Care data found that about two-thirds of VA facilities exceeded the agency’s 20-day target for an initial mental health appointment, with some veterans waiting more than five months. The findings contradict VA Secretary Doug Collins’ public claim that veterans wait an average of 15 days for their first mental health visit.

Source: CNN

The IRS Is Imploding

What Happened: IRS customer service has deteriorated after the agency lost nearly one-third of its workforce, according to the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service and tax professionals. A June report found fewer calls were answered by live agents, hold times increased significantly, and many callers were disconnected before receiving assistance.

Source: Mother Jones

HHS violated 5,000 probationary employees’ rights with 2025 terminations

What Happened: A third-party arbitrator ruled that HHS violated its collective bargaining agreement by firing about 5,000 probationary and trial employees in 2025. The arbitrator found the agency carried out the purges without following required procedures or negotiating with the union.

Why It Matters: HHS was found to have bypassed required procedures by disguising a mass layoff as routine probationary terminations. The ruling adds to a growing number of decisions finding Trump’s purges violated legal protections.

Source: Federal News Network

How Trump’s “America First” Administration Could Shut U.S. Scientists Out of the Next Nobel-Worthy Discovery

What Happened: The White House proposed a rule granting political appointees greater authority to award and terminate billions of dollars in federal grants, including scientific research funding. Scientists, universities, state officials, and nonprofits warn it would inject politics into funding decisions and discourage international research collaborations.

Why It Matters: The proposal would expand political control over hundreds of billions of dollars in federal grants, allowing the White House to exert influence over decisions that have been made independently.

Source: ProPublica

Imperial and Geopolitical Watch

US Launches New Strikes Against Iran as War Escalates Again

What Happened: U.S. forces launched a new wave of strikes against Iranian targets after Iran fired ballistic missiles at a U.S. military base in Jordan in a surprise attack. The attacks ended another brief pause.

Why It Matters: As Trump’s Iran war drags on, the risk of broader regional escalation, additional U.S. military involvement, and disruptions to global energy markets continues to grow with no end in sight

Source: Bloomberg

Two Ships Hit in Apparent Drone Strike at Egyptian Port

What Happened: Two ships, including a U.S.-owned natural gas storage tanker, caught fire after an explosion at Egypt’s Port of Damietta. Maritime security firms said the incident appeared to be caused by a drone strike. Egyptian authorities have not confirmed the cause or identified who was responsible.

Source: New York Times

Canadian visits to U.S. plummet amid Trump tariffs, ‘51st state’ talk

What Happened: Canada reported that travel to the United States fell 25% in 2025, dropping from 39 million to 29.1 million visits. Canadians spent $2.3 billion less in the U.S. while increasing travel elsewhere, reflecting a sharp shift in sentiment following Trump’s tariffs and repeated and unhinged “51st state” threats.

Source: The Washington Post

Far-Right & Russian Influence Watch

8 killed, 15 injured across Ukraine as Russia launches massive ballistic missile, drone attack

What Happened: Russia launched another large-scale overnight attack across Ukraine, firing dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles along with hundreds of drones at cities across the country. At least eight people, including two children, were killed and 15 others injured as residential buildings, warehouses, and other civilian sites were struck from Kyiv to Lviv.

Source: Kyiv Independent

In Trump Economic Downturn News

Oil prices jump up as US-Iran tensions escalate

What Happened: Oil prices rose above $90 a barrel after Iran fired missiles at a U.S. base in Jordan and Trump vowed a forceful military response, raising fears of a broader regional conflict.

Why It Matters: Trump’s escalating war with Iran is hitting Americans at the pump. Higher oil prices will ripple through the economy and raise the cost of transportation, groceries, and other everyday goods.

Source: The Hill

In Resistance News

Check out 50501 for local and nationwide events…

Source: 50501

Federal judge rejects DOJ attempt to obtain unredacted NJ voter rolls

What Happened: A federal judge dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit seeking New Jersey’s unredacted voter rolls, ruling the state can continue withholding voters’ driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers. The decision is the latest in a series of court rulings rejecting similar DOJ efforts to obtain detailed voter registration data.

Source: Politico

By the Numbers

• 4 — Disaster aid requests Trump rejected after FEMA recommended approval

• 65% — Share of the U.S. Patriot interceptor stockpile used since Trump’s Iran war began

• 1/3 — Share of the IRS workforce lost, worsening customer service

• 5,000 — HHS employees whose terminations were ruled illegal

• 350,000 — Haitians who lost work authorization after TPS protections expired

• 7 — ICE detainees on hunger strike during the reporting period

• 140+ — Medical records reviewed exposing systemic medical failures at California's largest ICE facility

• 25% — Drop in Canadian travel to the U.S. in 2025

• $2.3 billion — Reduction in Canadian visitor spending in the U.S.

• $1 million — Sweepstakes prize a Trump appointee’s charity promoted with no record it was awarded

• $10 billion — Damages Trump is seeking from the BBC in his defamation suit

What to Watch Next

Trump's Iran war keeps expanding — How much higher will the economic and military costs climb if the fighting continues?

ICE keeps testing the limits — Will the courts stop the agency from bypassing state oversight and expanding its powers?

The crackdown on Haitians begins — How many people will lose their jobs or face detention as Temporary Protected Status protections expire?

Government services keep deteriorating — How much longer will agencies be able to function after staffing purges and political interference?

Trump’s legal battles continue — What will Trump’s financial records reveal as more courts order them turned over?

Key Takeaways

Affordability Crisis — Rising oil prices, higher transportation costs, and growing economic uncertainty are making it harder for Americans to afford everyday essentials.

Military Strain — Renewed strikes on Iran and a 65% drop in Patriot interceptors are leaving the U.S. military less prepared for future crises.

Political Weaponization — Pressure to surveil Comey and a political ICE raid on Gavin Newsom’s press conference underscore federal law enforcement being used against Trump’s perceived opponents.

Unchecked Enforcement — Forced treatment of a hunger striker, inadequate medical care at California’s largest ICE facility, and contracts declaring state law “shall not apply” leave ICE operating with no oversight or accountability.

Abuse of Power — Disaster aid, taxpayer-funded payouts to Trump allies, and control over scientific research funding are being used to reward political allies.

Call to Action

Document Everything: Document purges, corruption, and power grabs. Share credible information with journalists, watchdogs, and legal experts. Silence enables authoritarianism—see something, say something.

Defend Press Freedom: Support independent journalism by subscribing to and sharing reporting that challenges Trump’s power grab.

Contact Lawmakers: Demand accountability for Trump’s unchecked power and war on oversight.

Mobilize for Action: Organize or join legal efforts and resistance movements to protect democracy and human and civil rights.

Thanks for reading the Trump Tyranny Tracker. Stay tuned for more updates.

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Republican John Cornyn says he will not back nomination without written confirmation $1.8bn slush fund is dead

Todd Blanche’s hopes of becoming US attorney general seemed to be in jeopardy on Wednesday after the Department of Justice did not provide written assurances to a key Republican senator that a $1.8bn slush fund was dead.

The US Senate judiciary committee postponed a vote scheduled for Thursday on whether to advance Blanche’s nomination.

Planned overhaul forms part of president’s broader pattern of directing changes in Washington after arch and ballroom

Donald Trump announced on Wednesday a $22bn plan to rebuild Washington’s Dulles international airport on Wednesday after the US president personally weighed in on the design of the capital’s main international gateway.

“In the end, you can end up with – I think – maybe the best airport, and one of the biggest airports, anywhere in the world, and it’s going to be a great thing for Washington DC,” the president said during an announcement at the Oval Office on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump has blamed improper forest management for Canadian wildfires whose smoke drifted into the Midwestern and Northeastern U.S. earlier this month. But climate change — and not a lack of “Debris Removal,” as Trump suggested — is the main factor leading to worsening Canadian wildfires and smoke pollution, experts from both sides of the border told us. 

Large-scale strategies to manage Canada’s vast boreal forest — part of the belt of high-latitude forests circling the North Pole — would be both infeasible and likely ineffective at solving the problem, they said.

Trump claimed in a July 17 Truth Social post that Canada is “not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable!”

“Canada has refused to engage in basic Forest Management and Debris Removal, knowing that such refusal will lead to exactly this result,” he continued. “This is Willful Negligence, and becoming a yearly occurrence,” he added, threatening to add the cost of the pollution to tariffs on Canadian goods.

The president, who has in the past called climate change a “hoax” and “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,” did not mention a role for the warming climate in worsening the fires.

On July 19, Trump again blamed the fires on Canada’s “forest management” while telling members of the press that “if you go back four or five years, I don’t remember ever having a problem like this.”

Speaking of Canada, he told the press on July 21: “If they managed their forests, they wouldn’t have the fires.”

Experts told us it would be neither possible nor desirable to eliminate fires in the boreal forest, which is the primary forest type in Canada and the main source of the smoke.

“This forest is built to burn,” Jen Beverly, an associate professor of wildland fire at the University of Alberta, told us, explaining that in most parts of the boreal forest, fires return every 100 to 150 years. It’s an “ecosystem that thrives and is resilient and persists with regular disturbance,” she said. “The problem is human-induced climate warming that’s making it easier for those forests to burn.”

It is unclear what exactly Trump was suggesting Canada should do to better manage its forests, and the White House did not reply to our email asking for more information. In some contexts, so-called fuel treatment strategies that reduce flammable vegetation, such as thinning trees or prescribed burns, can help mitigate fires or make it easier to defend communities.

However, Beverly and others said the boreal forest’s fundamental characteristics make any sort of extensive fuel management impractical.

“The boreal forest in Canada is a large, near contiguous forest ecosystem. The largest in the world,” Cordy Tymstra, a consultant and formerly a wildfire science coordinator for the province of Alberta, told us via email. “It is not possible to manage this ecosystem at scale,” he said, adding that climate change is the “primary cause” of the increased fires. 

“I don’t think the evidence supports the notion that forest management in infrequent, high intensity fire regimes in remote locations is a silver bullet for smoke or even feasible at scale,” Matthew Thompson, a Colorado-based wildfire risk consultant who formerly worked for the U.S. Forest Service, told us. “And the evidence does support the notion that climate change is making hotter and drier conditions where these forests are more receptive to burning.” 

Researchers also criticized the logic behind blaming Canada for the smoke.

Carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels are driving climate change, Peter Frumhoff, a lecturer at Harvard University and senior science policy adviser at the nonprofit Woodwell Climate Research Center, told us via email. “As the historically largest emitter of these emissions, the US has distinctive responsibility for the warming that is driving increases in Canadian wildfires and the increased smoke and harms to public health that are resulting from them.”

Moreover, “smoke doesn’t respect boundaries” and travels both ways over the border, said Beverly, who formerly worked as the leader of a helicopter crew fighting wildfires, including traveling to help fight fires in the U.S. She spoke to us last week while on a camping trip in British Columbia as smoke from wildfires in Washington and Oregon drifted across the border into the province. “The U.S. right now is sending smoke into Canada,” she said. “I’m breathing it.”

Tymstra pointed out that four “large fires in Minnesota contributed to smoke as well” during the recent smoke event Trump was referencing.

Fire in the Boreal Forest

Trump has a long history of blaming wildfires in his own country on poor forest management. During his prior administration, he suggested “raking and cleaning” forest floors and that authorities “do burns and cut fire stoppers,” while also falsely implying that it’s possible to eliminate fires from California.

As we wrote previously, forest management strategies such as thinning trees and prescribed burns can be helpful in mitigating fires in certain areas of the American West. But even within the U.S., Trump has often applied this idea to regions or situations where this would likely not help, while omitting a role for climate change or other factors in worsening fires.

In now applying these comments to fires in Canada’s boreal forest, Trump is again off base, wildfire scientists said.

The smoke Trump was referencing mainly came from northwestern Ontario, Beverly said. On July 20, Ontario Premier Doug Ford reported that fires in the province covered 735,000 hectares, or more than 2,800 square miles. Overall, 2.8 million hectares had burned in Canada this year as of mid-July, on pace for a slightly higher-than-typical but not record-setting fire year, according to the blog the Climate Brink.

Compared with the dry forests in parts of British Columbia and the U.S, boreal forests naturally burn less frequently but more intensely, Beverly said.

Forests in the boreal regions, which make up 75% of Canada’s forests, “are born of fire and they die of fire,” she explained.

The trees there “evolved to be a fuel ladder,” with branches starting near the ground that bring fire up to the canopy, Carly Phillips, a senior research scientist at the nonprofit advocacy group the Union of Concerned Scientists who has studied boreal forest fires, said.

The tendency toward such high-intensity crown fires means “prescribed burning in the boreal is not really an option” in most cases, Beverly said, since people have “little control” over such fires once started.

Speaking from the U.S. context, Thompson explained that a goal of forest management is to reduce density and prevent crown fires. This can include removing some trees, followed by burning so-called residual fuels like cut branches, brush or grass, he said.

These strategies are effective in dry forests in the U.S. and southern British Columbia because the trees there evolved to survive low-intensity fire, Beverly said. “The natural regime is a softer kind of a fire that comes through and kind of just maintains the clean forest floor,” she said.

Beverly said she has seen tree thinning strategies fail in the boreal forest. A black spruce forest, for instance, has “small, stick-like” trees, with branches going down to the ground, that grow close together, she said. After they are thinned, the trees “just die and fall over, and now you’ve got an even worse mess from a fire and fuel perspective,” she said. 

And of course, even if one did want to try to thin the trees in the boreal forest, “the sheer scope of it is staggering in terms of how vast an area it is,” Beverly said.

“Land management is really important,” Tianjia Liu, an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia who studies remote sensing of wildfires and fire-related air quality, told us. “But we also have to consider the sheer scale of the number of fires and how they’re spread out all across Canada, and especially in these very remote areas where people don’t live.”

Part of the logic for fuel treatment in certain areas is that fires were successfully fought and suppressed over long periods and fuels built up to unnatural levels, leading to more intense fires, Thompson said.

Beverly said this logic does not apply in the boreal forest. “If fire is supposed to come back every 15, 20, 25 years, and you put fire out for 60 or 70 years, you’re creating an ecosystem that’s now outside of its natural structure,” she said. But the effects of suppressing fires are less significant when a forest’s normal cycle of burning is very long, she said, particularly under extreme weather conditions.

Furthermore, in remote northern areas of the boreal forest without timber harvesting and with few people, “they don’t actively suppress fire because it’s not even possible to,” Beverly said. “There hasn’t been suppression, and there’s still lots of fire there.”

Canada’s Efforts to Manage Forests and Fires

Despite Trump’s claim that “Canada has refused to engage in basic Forest Management and Debris Removal,” various groups in Canada do engage in forest management practices. These include fuel treatments, prescribed fires and cultural burning — or burning as part of historical practices of Indigenous peoples.

However, these activities are concentrated in more populated areas, and not in remote stretches of the boreal forest.

A spokesperson for Natural Resources Canada told us the government agency was “unable to comment on political commentary” but sent us several links to government websites with information on wildfire, climate change and forest management.

“Preventing and reducing the risk of wildland fire is a key component of climate change adaptation,” one page said. “Equally important is reducing [greenhouse gas] emissions, which contribute to climate change. Proactive forest management has the potential to decrease fire intensity and/or fire risk by altering fuel load type and quantity.”

Fuel management strategies are especially part of the conversation in southern British Columbia and the more densely populated regions of Canada near the U.S. border, Phillips said.

“In terms of fuel management and land management, Canada is doing some — mostly in areas where people are living because those are the priority areas,” Liu said. “But it’s really impossible to do fuel treatments in the far north in the boreal forest, where it’s very remote and hard to access.”

“The fires that may be most problematic from a broader regional — if not international — public health perspective are not necessarily coinciding with the locations where we would want to actively do forest management,” Thompson explained. 

There is evidence that Indigenous people in the boreal forest have done burns in the “shoulder seasons, particularly in the spring, to kind of clear brush to protect a community,” Phillips said, or to increase food production or access to certain animals. But these sorts of smaller-scale community efforts are different from attempting to manage the boreal forest at scale. “I am not aware of any evidence that suggests fuel treatments of any type could be used to reduce fire severity in boreal forests,” she said.

Boreal communities in some cases clear areas and make fuel breaks, which firefighters can use while fighting fires, Phillips said, giving people time to evacuate. The goal is to “help humans stay safe and give firefighters a fighting chance,” she said.

Climate Change Worsens Fires and Smoke

Trump’s perception that large fires and major smoke events have become more common is based in reality. But a warming climate is driving this change.

“Wildfire in northern boreal forests is natural and important,” Harvard and Woodwell Climate Research Center’s Frumhoff said. “But climate change is lengthening fire seasons, and increasing temperatures, causing fuels to dry out more intensely than in the past. Climate change is also increasing lightning strikes, the main ignition source for these wildfires. As a result, wildfires in boreal Canada (and also Alaska) are more frequent and severe.” 

These intensifying fires are a “key driver of the very high levels of wildfire smoke that we’ve been seeing this summer and in other recent years, notably 2023,” he said.

Liu said that areas at higher latitudes are warming faster than the world on average. “In the Arctic boreal, it’s warming about four times faster than the global average,” she said. “So, you can imagine how temperatures are increasing much more rapidly in those regions and contributing to these fire weather days that we see.” She also said that with warmer nights, fires are now “burning through the night,” rather than stopping or slowing with cooler conditions as they used to.

Climate change makes fuel management even more challenging, researchers said.

The windows where conditions to do prescribed burns are safe are “rapidly narrowing” due to climate change, Phillips said. “And again, that would not be feasible or appropriate in a boreal forest.”

Climate change also makes thinning less effective, Beverly said. “Fires under the explosive conditions that they’re burning under these days — and that’s due to climate change, that’s due to weather — they burn right through” recently harvested areas of the forest or areas that have been thinned, she said. “If there’s any kind of fuel, it becomes available to burn when you’ve got extended drought,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re spaced out.”

She added that climate change is challenging a natural feature of the boreal forest that has historically limited the size of fires. The periodic fires in the forest have created a patchwork, with trees of varying ages in different areas, including areas of younger trees that are less liable to burn.

“That patchwork is sort of acknowledged as a constraining factor for large fires,” she said. “But here’s the thing: Under extreme weather, fires burn through regardless of the age.” Climate change is causing more of these extreme conditions. “When you have drought, when you have really hot, dry, windy conditions, fires are burning young stands just as much as they’re burning older stands,” Beverly said.

Large forest fires in the boreal regions are a source of carbon, both from the burning trees themselves and from stored carbon released from the soil, Phillips said. This creates a positive feedback loop, with more warming leading to more of these fires and more fires leading to more warming. 

Unlike in regions with more frequent fires, increasing fire suppression in the boreal forest could help return fires to their historical, infrequent patterns, some researchers have suggested. In a 2022 paper, Phillips, Frumhoff and their colleagues calculated the costs of stepping up fire suppression in the boreal forest, finding that this might be cost-effective compared with other climate mitigation strategies.

However, Phillips said that these conclusions were based on Alaska, and not the boreal forest of Canada. “Alaska is obviously huge, but to my knowledge, is very different from the vast boreal forest in the northern part of Canada,” she said. And even in Alaska, the suggestion has raised questions about whether it would divert limited resources from communities needing protection, she said.

“California and Canada have around the same amount of population, the same number of people,” Liu said. “But in terms of land area, Canada has about 25 times the land area. And so it’s a lot to ask for, suppressing all of the fires, and there’s not enough manpower to do that.”

Other potentially helpful developments for fighting fires include a wildfire-monitoring satellite Canada plans to launch in 2029, Liu said.

But the root causes of the increasing fire and smoke come back to climate change.

“In terms of climate change, we all know that fossil fuel usage has to slow down,” Liu said. “Otherwise, with the kind of temperature changes in especially the Arctic boreal region, if this continues, we’re going to see more fires, and then also more fires moving into higher latitudes as well. It becomes even harder to control.”

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The post Major Driver of Worsening Canadian Wildfires Is Climate Change, Not Forest Mismanagement appeared first on FactCheck.org.

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Welcome to today’s Trump Tyranny Tracker…

Court rulings against Trump, an expanding deportation campaign, and growing judicial condemnation of the Justice Department were among today’s biggest stories.

Today at a Glance

• Federal judges openly question the Justice Department’s credibility.

• DOJ expands denaturalization campaign.

• Appeals court blocks Trump’s mail-in voting order.

What We Need to Pay Attention To

Trump administration takes steps to gain access to personal emergency room records

What Happened: The Consumer Product Safety Commission is seeking personally identifiable emergency room records from major hospital systems, including patients’ names, addresses, diagnoses, and other medical information. The data would be shared with a private contractor as part of a new injury surveillance system.

Why It Matters: A consumer safety agency is seeking access to medical records it never collected before. It is another example of the federal government expanding the collection and sharing of sensitive personal data.

Source: MS NOW

Corruption

Republicans spent years targeting progressive dark money. That could now boomerang on Trump.

What Happened: A House Republican tax bill would require charities to disclose more information about fiscal sponsorship arrangements. The proposal could also apply to Freedom 250, the nonprofit helping organize Trump's America250 celebration. The bill would require additional disclosure about the project's finances and management, but not its individual donors.

Source: CBS News

Company at center of US cyclospora outbreak complained to White House, source says

What Happened: Taylor Farms, whose lettuce has been linked by the FDA to the cyclospora outbreak, privately met with White House and FDA officials to complain about the government's inspection process while the investigation was underway. House Oversight Democrats have opened an inquiry into whether the company sought to influence the federal response.

Why It Matters: A company linked to a foodborne illness outbreak sought White House intervention while federal investigators were preparing to announce a recall. It’s actions like this that further undermine public trust in the government.

Source: Reuters

Power Consolidation

Federal Judges Chastise Trump’s Justice Department for “Unlawful,” “Unethical” and “Unseemly” Conduct

What Happened: There were more than 40 cases where federal judges questioned whether the Justice Department could still be trusted to act in good faith. Judges accused government lawyers of misleading courts, withholding information, making false statements, and ignoring court orders. Judges appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents said they could no longer rely on the government's representations.

Why It Matters: The Justice Department's credibility is essential to the rule of law. When federal judges no longer trust the government's lawyers to act in good faith, the system built on that trust begins to break down.

Source: ProPublica

Weaponization of Institutions

Pentagon relabels U.S. casualties caused by Iran amid scrutiny of wartime transparency

What Happened: The Pentagon moved U.S. troops killed and wounded in the Iran war into a new “Overseas Contingency Operations” category instead of listing them under Operation Epic Fury, after lawmakers questioned the temporary removal of casualty records. Veterans’ advocates warn the change could also affect how service members and their families access benefits and medical care in the future.

Why It Matters: Every service member killed or wounded in war deserves to be counted. Reclassifying casualties makes it harder for the public to track the true human cost of the war and could complicate access to benefits and care for troops and their families.

Source: The Washington Post

Trump’s Interim Spy Chief Makes Deep Cuts to Intelligence Staff

What Happened: Acting DNI Bill Pulte announced a fifth round of cuts across the U.S. intelligence community, purging staffing by about 30% in recent weeks. The announcement came hours before the Senate was scheduled to vote on Jay Clayton's nomination.

Source: Bloomberg

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Media Suppression & Authoritarian Tactics

Records Reveal How Homeland Security Agents Surveilled ICE Protesters

What Happened: Internal Spokane Police records show a Homeland Security Investigations task force officer collected license plate numbers, identities, vehicle information, and social media data on peaceful anti-ICE protesters and others near an ICE facility. The records do not allege any crimes. Some of the information was entered into the Evidence.com digital evidence management system.

Why It Matters: Peaceful protesters who weren’t accused of breaking any laws had their personal information entered into a law enforcement evidence database. Treating protected First Amendment activity like investigative evidence is a dangerous expansion of government surveillance.

Source: Mother Jones

Senate Democrats Press Blanche on Times Subpoenas

What Happened: Senate Democrats demanded answers from acting AG nominee Todd Blanche after the Justice Department subpoenaed NYT journalists who reported on security concerns involving Trump's Qatari jet. Lawmakers are investigating whether Trump or White House officials pressured the department to issue the subpoenas before they were withdrawn.

Source: New York Times

Trump's diversity crackdown reverberates through US boardrooms

What Happened: Appointments of women and racial minorities to S&P 500 corporate boards fell to their lowest level since 2014. Recruiters and analysts told Reuters the decline follows Trump's crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and growing legal and political pressure on companies to crack down on diversity initiatives.

Source: Reuters

Human & Civil Rights Abuses

Asylum seekers could be sent directly to deportation court under new rule

What Happened: Trump officials implemented a rule allowing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to transfer up to 444,724 pending asylum cases directly to immigration court. The rule took effect immediately and allows some asylum claims to be dismissed without a full hearing.

Why It Matters: The new rule speeds asylum seekers into deportation proceedings and could deny some applicants a full hearing before an immigration judge. It fundamentally changes how hundreds of thousands of asylum cases are handled.

Source: The Washington Post

ICE Arrests Surge at Airports, Opening New Front in Deportation Drive

What Happened: ICE expanded airport arrests to include travelers with expired visas, people with pending green card or work visa applications, spouses of U.S. citizens, and asylum seekers. The operation has expanded to at least 15 U.S. airports as Trump pushes ICE to increase daily arrest totals.

Source: New York Times

Thousands of children, sponsors arrested by ICE after tips from US child migrant agency

What Happened: Internal government data shows the Office of Refugee Resettlement shared more than 460,000 records with ICE since January 2025, leading to the arrests of more than 12,000 migrant children, sponsors, and household members. The policy dismantled longstanding protections separating child welfare programs from immigration enforcement and increased the average time children spend in government custody from 30 to 194 days.

Why It Matters: Families gave this information to reunite with their children. It is now being used to find and arrest them, turning a child welfare agency into an immigration enforcement tool that separates more families and deepens the trauma children experience.

Source: Reuters

Federal judge orders release of witness to Houston ICE shooting

What Happened: A federal judge ordered the release of Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego, the key witness to the fatal ICE shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, ruling his continued detention without an individualized bond hearing was unconstitutional. Rojas Pliego was a passenger in the vehicle when ICE officers killed Salgado Araujo during a July 7 traffic stop.

Source: ABC News

Government Disruption

U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve faces stress as emergency releases strain old infrastructure

What Happened: The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve has fallen to its lowest level since 1983 after emergency oil releases during Trump’s war with Iran. A Government Accountability Office report found aging infrastructure has left more than a quarter of the reserve unavailable for emergency use, with Energy Department officials warning parts of the system are being held together with “Band-Aids.”

Why It Matters: The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a critical emergency energy stockpile, and reduced capacity and aging infrastructure weaken America’s ability to respond to future energy crises.

Source: CNBC

DHS official resigns, cites administration’s ‘war on immigrants’ after exiting

What Happened: Marc Rosenblum, the Department of Homeland Security's top statistics official, resigned, saying he was leaving because of Trump's "war on immigrants," "war on feds," and "war on facts." Rosenblum oversaw DHS's Office of Homeland Security Statistics and is one of the highest-ranking career officials to publicly criticize Trump after leaving government.

Source: MS NOW

Trump Administration to End Medicare Drug Plan Subsidy

What Happened: Trump announced the Medicare Part D premium stabilization program will end after 2026. Officials estimate about 45% of Part D enrollees will see higher monthly premiums next year, while others will see smaller increases or none.

Why It Matters: The program has provided billions of dollars to stabilize Medicare drug plan premiums. Millions of seniors will pay more for prescription drug coverage next year after Trump ends the subsidy program.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Congress Budgeted Billions for Big Transit Projects. Trump Isn’t Spending It.

What Happened: Trump has not approved a single new grant under the Federal Transit Administration's Capital Investment Grants program since returning to office, leaving more than $7 billion in congressionally approved transit funding unspent. Projects across the country are stalled despite Congress approving the funding.

Source: New York Times

Imperial & Geopolitical Watch

US says it intercepted Iranian ballistic missile attack on American forces in the Middle East

What Happened: U.S. Central Command said Iran launched multiple ballistic missiles at American forces in the Middle East one day after Trump announced the U.S. had halted strikes on Iran. U.S. forces intercepted every missile, and no casualties were reported.

Why It Matters: Trump sold the war as a way to restore stability, but five months later U.S. forces remain under attack. His quagmire continues to destabilize the region, threatening U.S. personnel, global energy markets, and the economy.

Source: CNN

Houthis Claim Strike on Another Saudi Oil Tanker

What Happened: The Iran-backed Houthis claimed they targeted a Saudi oil tanker in the Red Sea with missiles, the latest reported attack since declaring a blockade of Saudi shipping. Saudi officials did not immediately confirm the strike, though the military said it intercepted drones launched by Iran-aligned militias for a second straight day.

Why It Matters: Iran and its Houthi proxies are squeezing two of the world's most critical shipping routes at the same time. The result is higher energy costs, disrupted global trade, and a more unstable Middle East.

Source: New York Times

U.S. Walks Out In Protest During France’s United Nations Remarks. Here’s Why

What Happened: The U.S. delegation walked out of a U.N. Security Council meeting after France criticized the United States’ human rights record and condemned its opposition to a second term for U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. U.S. officials called France’s remarks “disingenuous grandstanding.”

Source: TIME

Far-Right & Russian Influence Watch

NATO member Romania shoots down stray drones from Ukraine war after years of incursions

What Happened: Romania shot down three Russian drones over its territory in three days, the first time it has used force against drones entering its airspace since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Romania also summoned Russia’s ambassador and expelled a Russian diplomat after determining the drones were Russian.

Source: Associated Press

Trump says he’ll ask Putin about Russia’s role in assisting Iran during U.S. war

What Happened: Trump said he will ask Putin whether Russia assisted Iran during the U.S.-Iran war, despite U.S. officials publicly stating that Moscow supported Tehran. Pete Hegseth told Congress Russia was “enabling some of the things Iran is doing,” and Ukrainian officials say they shared intelligence showing Russian assistance to Iran.

Why It Matters: Trump is looking to Putin, not his own intelligence and defense officials, for information about Russia's assistance to Iran. Once again, he is publicly elevating Putin over the assessments of the U.S. government and endangering the U.S. in the process.

Source: MS NOW

Unmasking RussiaHow Ukraine's Strike on a Russia-Iran Supply Route Sparked an Information WarWithin hours of Ukraine’s weekend strike against Russian vessels in the Caspian Sea, the conversation almost immediately shifted away from the strike. Instead of discussing Russia and Iran’s continued use of the Caspian Sea to move military cargo more than four years into Russia’s genocidal invasion of Ukraine, the countless warnings Kyiv has issued about this logistics corridor since 2022, or even whether Russia was transporting weapons to Iran for use in its war against the United States and Israel, much of the discussion shifted to whether Ukraine had “attacked Iran” and whether Volodymyr Zelenskyy was trying to “merge two wars” to drag the United States into Russia’s war against Ukraine…Read more2 days ago · 160 likes · 9 comments · Olga Lautman

Economy Watch

U.S. Consumer Sentiment Edged Down in July, Conference Board Says

What Happened: The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index fell from 92.2 in June to 90.8 in July, missing economists’ expectations. Consumers reported weaker views of business conditions and the job market for a third straight month.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Resistance

Check out 50501 for local and nationwide events…

Source: 50501

By the Numbers

• 1983 — Last time the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was this low

• 444,724 — Asylum cases now eligible for direct transfer to deportation court

• 40+ — Cases where federal judges have questioned the DOJ’s good faith

• 30% — Intelligence community staffing purged in recent weeks

• 15 — U.S. airports where ICE has expanded arrests

• 460,000+ — Records shared between the child migrant agency and ICE since January 2025

• 12,000+ — Migrant children, sponsors, and household members arrested as a result of records being shared

• 194 days — Average time children spend in custody, up from 30

• 45% — Medicare Part D enrollees facing premium increases next year

• 4,100+ — Confirmed cases nationwide

• 7,400 — Additional suspected cyclospora cases

• $7 billion — Congressionally approved transit funding left unspent

What to Watch Next

Nearly 450,000 asylum cases are being fast-tracked — How many cases will be dismissed without a full hearing before courts intervene?

The intelligence community keeps shrinking — How much experience and expertise will be lost before a permanent DNI is confirmed?

A child welfare agency is an ICE pipeline — Will Congress restore the separation between protecting vulnerable children and enforcing immigration laws?

The oil reserve sits at a 40-year low — What happens if the war with Iran escalates while the U.S. has so little emergency oil in reserve?

Consumer confidence keeps falling — Will three straight months of decline turn into a broader economic slowdown?

Key Takeaways

Rising Costs — Falling consumer confidence, planned Medicare premium hikes, and higher energy costs are putting even more financial pressure on Americans.

Trust Erodes — Judges repeatedly questioning the Justice Department’s credibility and a senior DHS official resigning over a “war on facts” show confidence in federal institutions breaking down.

Surveillance Expands — Medical records, child welfare data, and protest monitoring are being used to expand government surveillance and immigration enforcement.

Mass Deportation Accelerates — Fast-tracked asylum cases, arrests of legal visa holders, and expanding immigration enforcement show Trump's deportation campaign rapidly widening.

America Grows More Isolated — Growing friction with allies, Russian aggression in Europe, and Trump publicly siding with Putin over his own defense officials underscores an erratic foreign policy.

Call to Action

Document Everything: Document purges, corruption, and power grabs. Share credible information with journalists, watchdogs, and legal experts. Silence enables authoritarianism—see something, say something.

Defend Press Freedom: Support independent journalism by subscribing to and sharing reporting that challenges Trump’s power grab.

Contact Lawmakers: Demand accountability for Trump’s unchecked power and war on oversight.

Mobilize for Action: Organize or join legal efforts and resistance movements to protect democracy and human and civil rights.

Support Whistleblowers: Encourage funding for legal defense for government workers facing retaliation for exposing corruption.

Thanks for reading the Trump Tyranny Tracker. Stay tuned for more updates.

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Fifa’s president hopes to sell stakes in the planet’s most watched sporting event. In the wider interests of football, he must be resisted

Like a sporting Dr Pangloss, Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, would like to persuade football followers that they are living in the best of all possible worlds. Maddeningly for him, many disagree. On Monday, Mr Infantino published a 15-page Instagram rant in which he bemoaned the “hate and false rumours” in circulation during the recent men’s World Cup. White House interference over a crucial refereeing decision, prohibitive ticket prices, unnecessary but lucrative hydration breaks; it was all, as his best friend in politics, Donald Trump, would say, “fake news”.

But where the president of world football’s governing body sees haters, others see lovers of the game rightly concerned over where he is taking it. On Tuesday, Fifa confirmed that it hopes to sell stakes in the World Cup and other tournaments to private investors who may include Joshua Kushner, the brother of Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared. The investors would buy into a new $20bn company, Fifa Forward Enterprise, which would sell all of Fifa’s commercial rights, including ticketing, and take charge of “operational delivery” of World Cups.

With fewer than 100 days left until Election Day, how are Democrats faring in their effort to retake the House and maybe even the Senate?

Whether it’s generic ballot polls or specific polls of some of the top tier House and Senate races, as November approaches we are getting a better sense of how the winds are blowing for Democrats this cycle.

In tomorrow’s piece, digs into the most-watched races, what the polls say about them, and how past blue waves such as 2006 and 2018 can give us clues to how November will go.

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And in case you missed it, yesterday dug into the details of Donald Trump’s corrupt mail-in ballot executive order, now that he has appealed to the Supreme Court to reverse lower court decisions blocking it in most of the blue states. But as Jay noted, the damage and distrust Trump hopes to sow is already in motion no matter how SCOTUS rules.