Today’s Big Story

The Summer of Flooding

And many scientists say they know why

It’s summer. A season that’s supposed to be all about leisure and relaxation. However, this time of year has increasingly become a time marked by anxiety and disruption. Fossil fuel pollution—alongside other compounding climate factors—has transformed these months into a time of mounting peril, punctuated by relentless heat waves, rampant wildfires and catastrophic flooding.

This summer, in particular, has been defined by a tragic surge in deadly flash floods across the United States, underscoring the escalating new reality of volatility. Just yesterday, much of the Eastern U.S. and Midwest were faced with the threat of severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall, while heat alerts were issued Sunday for over 50 million people from Kansas to the Carolinas.

And if it feels like it’s getting worse and worse, you’re right. Hourly rainfall intensity—a key factor in flash floods—has increased since 1970 in most cities across America. Over 88% of U.S. cities have experienced an increase in hourly rainfall over the past four decades. And climate change is supercharging the water cycle, bringing heavier rainfall extremes and related flood risks.

For much of the summer, the atmospheric conditions over America have funneled humid air north from the unusually warm Gulf and western Atlantic, including the Gulf Stream, UCLA climate researcher Daniel Swain told CNN. This has yielded unusually high levels of moisture at all levels of the atmosphere across the U.S. east of the Rockies, Swain said. It has led to record levels of what meteorologists call precipitable water, which is the amount of rain that would result from instantaneously extracting all the water in the air. The result? One dangerous flash flood after another.

Making matters worse, summer storms also tend to move more slowly. That’s partly because upper-level winds in the atmosphere weaken during summer when there’s less of a temperature difference between the equator and the Earth’s poles and the jet stream shifts farther north.

Trump Is in His ‘Pop Era’

The president is coming for American lore for his latest distraction from bigger issues

Nearly two weeks after President Donald Trump and his administration announced they had nothing more to say about Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal case, the topic continues to dog him, presenting a potential new political liability at the six-month mark of his second term as he tries to sell more Americans on his accomplishments. But if there’s one thing Trump knows how to do, it’s survive a scandal.

And as Axios points out, his “voracious appetite for generating attention and marketing his policies has bred ideas that inject the power of the presidency into deep recesses of American life and culture.” Welcome to Trump’s “pop agenda”. He is now taking action on topics plucked from America’s popular imagination that had previously been non-existent in Washington's policy playbook.

As we mentioned last week, he’s trying to bring real sugar back into bottles of Coca-Cola. And his administration took action on the ultimate pocketbook issue by announcing plans to discontinue the penny. Of course, he caught Americans off guard when he edited U.S. maps on his first week in office by renaming the Gulf of Mexico—a seemingly superficial move that led to a profound fallout over press freedom and geopolitics. And just over the weekend, Trump said he may move to block the Washington Commanders’ new stadium as he called on the NFL team, and also MLB’s Cleveland Guardians, to restore their old names. Will all this work to help tamp down the Epstein drama? Time will tell.

Global Hack on Microsoft

Unknown attackers exploited a “significant vulnerability” to hit targets around the world

Microsoft issued an alert about "active attacks" on server software used by government agencies and businesses to share documents within organizations, and recommended security updates that customers should apply immediately. The company said the vulnerabilities apply only to SharePoint servers used within organizations. It said that SharePoint Online in Microsoft 365, which is in the cloud, was not hit by the attacks.

Officials and private researchers said that hackers exploited a major security flaw in the widely used software to launch a global attack over the past few days, breaching U.S. federal and state agencies, universities, energy companies and an Asian telecommunications company. Tens of thousands of such servers are at risk, experts said, and Microsoft has issued no patch for the flaw, leaving victims around the world scrambling to respond.

The “zero-day” attack, so called because it targeted a previously unknown vulnerability, is only the latest cybersecurity embarrassment for Microsoft. Last year, the company was faulted by a panel of U.S. government and industry experts for lapses that enabled a 2023 targeted Chinese hack of U.S. government emails, including those of then-Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. With access to these servers, which often connect to Outlook email, Teams and other core services, a breach can lead to theft of sensitive data as well as password harvesting, Netherlands-based research company Eye Security noted. What’s also alarming, researchers said, is that the hackers have gained access to keys that may allow them to regain entry even after a system is patched.

Two Scoops of Ice Cream Inflation

Just in time for the dead of summer

The world is a seeming dumpster fire and during times of great stress, or just plain uncomfortably hot weather, one of the few pleasures we can enjoy is some ice cream. That is, if it’s not too expensive. Otherwise, people (especially kids) get pissed. But at the height of summer, prices for this beloved frozen treat are hitting new highs, according to federal data.

The average price of a half gallon of ice cream was $6.49 in June, up nearly 6% from 2024, per the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics via FRED. The price of a half gallon is up nearly 33% since June 2021, when it was $4.89.

What’s causing the prices to get jacked up? A few things: Soaring ingredient costs —everything from cocoa and milk to coconut oil—along with extreme weather and high demand that’s fueling the higher prices. Of course, people are still buying. The average American spent $289 on ice cream in 2024 and $170 in the first five months of 2025, according to data from Empower. Of course, that will go up if you’re buying the $22 treats they’re selling out of an ice cream truck by the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Your Summer Wardrobe Building Blocks

Effortless and elegant warm-weather essentials from MR PORTER

Tiny steps compound.