memeorandum: Knives, bullets and thieves: the quest for food in Gaza (Anas Baba/NPR)

4:15 PM ET, July 6, 2025

Top Items:

Christopher Flavelle / New York Times:

As Floods Hit, Key Roles Were Vacant at Weather Service Offices in Texas — Some experts say staff shortages might have complicated forecasters' ability to coordinate responses with local emergency management officials. — Crucial positions at the local offices of the National Weather Service …

Discussion: Mother Jones, Balanced Weather, CNN, To the Contrary, Semafor, The Independent and Raw Story

Politico:

Texas officials face scrutiny over response to catastrophic and deadly flooding … The destructive fast-moving waters that began before sunrise Friday in the Texas Hill Country killed at least 43 people in Kerr County, authorities said Saturday, and an unknown number of people remained missing.

Discussion: Forbes, Austin American-Statesman, Off the Kuff, Reuters and New York Times

The Guardian:
Texas flooding latest: 43 dead, including 15 children, as search for some two dozen girls continues - as it happened

Scott Lemieux / Lawyers, Guns & Money:
The NWS apparently did its job

Discussion: Newsweek, The Fulcrum, Wired, The Texas Tribune, Meidas+ and The Daily Beast

Ivan Pereira / Associated Press:
‘This came at night’: Texas officials say they were caught off guard by deadly rainstorms, flooding

Discussion: Bloomberg, Reuters, Dallas Morning News, New York Times, FOX 11 Los Angeles, The Gateway Pundit, Breitbart, Raw Story, The Texas Tribune, WBUR and Associated Press

Jeff Flake / New York Times:

The Republican Fever Must Break — Eight years ago, I stood on the floor of the Senate and announced that I would not run for re-election. I spoke then of a fever in our politics, a fever that I hoped would soon break. I noted that in today's Republican Party, anything short of complete …

Michelle L. Price / Associated Press:
Musk forms new political party after split with Trump over president's signature tax cuts law

Discussion: New York Post, Vanity Fair, Business Insider, NewsMax.com, Newsweek, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, Raw Story, The Independent, Washington Times and The Post Millennial

Christina A. Cassidy / Associated Press:
Trump, GOP target ballots arriving after Election Day that feed conspiracy fears

Discussion: The Daily Signal and Daily Kos

Maegan Vazquez / Washington Post:
6 of the biggest challenges facing Musk's new political party

Discussion: USA Today, Reuters, Mother Jones, Al Jazeera, Wall Street Journal, CNBC and Gizmodo

Zac Anderson / USA Today:
Elon Musk announces new ‘America’ party after slamming Trump's megabill

Discussion: New York Sun, One America News Network, The Independent, The Gateway Pundit, HuffPost, The Kyiv Independent, The Guardian, NewsNation, New York Post, Forbes and Washington Examiner

Theodore Schleifer / New York Times:
Elon Musk Says He Will Start a New Political Party

Discussion: Boston Herald, No More Mister Nice Blog, Bloomberg, twitchy.com, Fox News, Townhall, The Gateway Pundit, Rolling Stone, Raw Story, The Hill, The Independent and Politico

Catherine Bouris / The Daily Beast:

ICE Barbie Dodges Blame for Disastrous Texas Flooding on Trump's Watch — DODGE AND WEAVE — Kristi Noem was grilled over the delayed warning residents received during the flash floods in Texas. — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has defended the Trump administration from suggestions …

Discussion: NBC News, New York Post, NewsMax.com, USA Today and Reuters

David Strom / HotAir:

The Party of Empathy... I have a bookmark folder on X called “Democrat hate.” — When I think about it, I toss especially hateful posts into the folder as potential fodder for articles. I rarely dip into them unless some particularly prominent person utters some particularly hateful thing.

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Examiner and RedState

Kenneal Patterson / The Daily Beast:

MAGA Congressional Candidate Calls Texas Floods ‘Fake’: It's ‘Murder’ — ‘JESUS, GUNS & BABIES’ — Kandiss Taylor, who is running for Congress in 2026, insists that someone manipulated the weather. — A MAGA congressional candidate is facing backlash after spreading conspiracy theories …

Discussion: PJ Media, Washington Examiner, PennLive, RedState, Alternet.org, The Dean's Report and Raw Story

Ramon Antonio Vargas / The Guardian:

‘I want my vote back’: Trump-voting family stunned after Canadian mother detained over immigration status — Family of Cynthia Olivera reconsiders support for president after Ice detained her at green card interview — The family of a Canadian national who supported Donald Trump's plans …

Discussion: Raw Story

Ben Berkowitz / Axios:

Tariffs return to April rates on August 1 without deals, Bessent says — Countries that don't make trade deals with the U.S. by August 1 can expect tariff rates to return to the levels announced in April, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday.

Discussion: New York Post, Politico, Washington Examiner, NBC News, CNBC, New York Times, The Independent, New York Sun, Euractiv, Raw Story, Washington Times, NewsMax.com, CNN and The Post Millennial

New York Times:

Can Democrats Find Their Way on Immigration? — The party's leftward shift in the Biden administration arguably laid the groundwork for President Trump's aggressive approach. Deciding the next move won't be easy. — Many Democratic presidential candidates in 2019 supported decriminalizing …

Discussion: Althouse

Anas Baba / NPR:

Knives, bullets and thieves: the quest for food in Gaza — Editor's note: Anas Baba is NPR's producer in the Gaza Strip. His report is a rare account by a journalist inside a new food distribution site that the United States and Israel helped establish in the Palestinian territory.

Discussion: Al Jazeera, Mondoweiss and Reuters

Roxana Saberi / The Boston Globe:

Don't look away from what's happening in Iran — Now that a ceasefire is in place with Israel, the Islamic Republic again has turned its attention to cracking down on dissent at home. — Roxana Saberi is a journalist and author of “Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran.”

Discussion: The National Interest

Patpicha Tanakasempipat / Bloomberg:

Thailand to Offer US More Trade Concessions to Avert 36% Tariff — Thailand is making a last-ditch effort to avert a punitive 36% export levy threatened by the Trump administration with offers of greater market access for US farm and industrial goods, along with increased purchases of energy and Boeing jets.

Larry Diamond / The UnPopulist:

Trump Is Gutting Every Source of America's Greatness — The most lasting and catastrophic legacy of Donald Trump's presidency might well be the loss of America's strength and standing in the world—and with it, the liberal international order that has preserved global peace and security …

Sarah Fortinsky / The Hill:

Johnson on Texas floods: ‘We feel just as helpless as everyone else does’ — Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on Sunday that there's not much more Congress can do to help victims of the Texas floods until the supplemental funding requests come in. — In an interview on Fox News's …

Discussion: Washington Times

Joe Nocera / The Free Press:

Things Worth Remembering: Lady Liberty's Open Arms — It was a poet who transformed America's favorite statue from a celebration of independence to a symbol of welcome. — Upgrade to Listen … My grandfather, Lorenzo Nocera, immigrated to America in 1904 from a small town south of Naples, Italy.

Discussion: CBS News

Financial Times:

Tony Blair's staff took part in ‘Gaza Riviera’ project with BCG — Former UK prime minister's institute participated in meetings on plan to turn shattered enclave into trading hub — The Tony Blair Institute participated in a project to develop a postwar Gaza plan that envisaged kick-starting …

Discussion: Eschaton

NBC News:

From lumber to lighting: How Trump's tariffs drive up home construction costs — NBC News modeled out a 3-bedroom home and found tariffs added more than $4,000 to total costs. — Lumber from Canada? That will be another $534. — Major appliances from China? Add a cool $445.

Emily Peck / Axios:

An increasing share of American adults are going hungry — More Americans are going hungry, per new data from Morning Consult. … - The rise is like a slow-moving train wreck, says John Leer, chief economist at Morning Consult. … - In May, 15.6% of adults were food insecure, almost double the rate in 2021.

Axios:

Inside Trump's supercharged version of Bush's “War on Terror” — Mass surveillance. … Citing national security to hide information from the courts. Labeling people as “terrorists” as a political and legal strategy. … But now Trump is supercharging many of the post-9/11 legal, tactical and political strategies Bush used.

Discussion: NewsMax.com

Ashifa Kassam / The Guardian:

‘The American system is being destroyed’: academics on leaving US for ‘scientific asylum’ in France — Almost 300 researchers have applied for positions at Aix-Marseille University after Trump unleashed his attack on academia — It was on a US-bound flight in March, as Brian Sandberg stressed …

Wall Street Journal:

The Advertisers Spending Big in West Palm Beach Just to Reach Trump — More than a dozen groups have focused on the tiny Florida market, often with ads praising the president — Watching television in West Palm Beach, Fla., this year meant being a bystander to an array of groups seeking an audience with a single viewer.

Discussion: Raw Story