The Trump administration is working carefully to stamp out conspiracy theories about "weather modification," wading into a viral, recurring debate that reignited in the wake of Texas' deadly flooding.
Why it matters: Some Trump allies have amplified baseless claims that cloud seeding or geoengineering caused the disaster, complicating the government's efforts to reassert scientific facts without alienating the MAGA base.
New Mexicans impacted by the Trinity Test are getting closer to receiving compensation after eight decades of health problems and rare cancers stemming from the world's first atomic explosion.
The big picture: President Trump's recently signed the "big, beautiful bill," which includes an extension of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) and, for the first time, covers victims of the Trinity Test.
The appearance of Neil Jacobs, President Trump's NOAA nominee, before a Senate panel on Wednesday was fairly revealing by the standards of these kinds of things.
Why it matters: NOAA is a major climate research agency, and its National Weather Service plays a huge public safety role — especially as climate change intensifies some extreme weather events.
President Trump announced Wednesday he'll impose a 50% tariff on copper imports from Aug. 1 "after receiving a robust" national security assessment.
The big picture: Copper is the third most widely used metal globally and the U.S. imports almost half of the commodity that it uses — mostly from Chile, per U.S. Geological Survey data.
