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Climate

9 Dramatic Photos of Tropical Storm Hilary in California​

The storm left a record amount of summer rain and a host of images rarely seen in the region.

Tropical Storm Hilary has dumped a record amount of summer rain on Los Angeles and San Diego, but, as of mid-day on Monday, those Southern Californian cities seem have avoided the worst case scenarios of the storm. Still, in its wake, the deluge left roads flooded, drivers stranded, and a host of images rarely seen in that part of the country.

A woman looking at the sea.A person and dog stand near the Pacific Ocean as Tropical Storm Hilary approaches Imperial Beach, California.Mario Tama/Getty Images

People on the beach.People walk along Imperial Beach as Hilary approaches.Mario Tama/Getty Images

Cars on a flooded street.Vehicles drive along a flooded street as Hilary approaches Palm Springs, California.Mario Tama/Getty Images

Stranded motorists.Stranded motorists attempt to push their car out of floodwaters on the Golden State Freeway in Sun Valley, California.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A tow truck driver attempting to pull a stranded car out of floodwaters.A tow truck driver attempts to pull a stranded car out of floodwaters on the Golden State Freeway in Sun Valley.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Workers attempting to unclog a drain.Workers attempt to unclog a drain on a flooded street in Rancho Mirage, California.Mario Tama/Getty Images

A partially submerged car.A partially submerged car in Cathedral City, California.Mario Tama/Getty Images

Road damage.Road damage near In-Koh-Pah, California.Caltrans San Diego/X

Dodger Stadium.Flooding around Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.Los Angeles Dodgers Aerial Photography/X

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Economy

AM Briefing: Liberation Day

On trade turbulence, special election results, and HHS cuts

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Current conditions: A rare wildfire alert has been issued for London this week due to strong winds and unseasonably high temperatures • Schools are closed on the Greek islands of Mykonos and Paros after a storm caused intense flooding • Nearly 50 million people in the central U.S. are at risk of tornadoes, hail, and historic levels of rain today as a severe weather system barrels across the country.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Trump to roll out broad new tariffs

President Trump today will outline sweeping new tariffs on foreign imports during a “Liberation Day” speech in the White House Rose Garden scheduled for 4 p.m. EST. Details on the levies remain scarce. Trump has floated the idea that they will be “reciprocal” against countries that impose fees on U.S. goods, though the predominant rumor is that he could impose an across-the-board 20% tariff. The tariffs will be in addition to those already announced on Chinese goods, steel and aluminum, energy imports from Canada, and a 25% fee on imported vehicles, the latter of which comes into effect Thursday. “The tariffs are expected to disrupt the global trade in clean technologies, from electric cars to the materials used to build wind turbines,” explained Josh Gabbatiss at Carbon Brief. “And as clean technology becomes more expensive to manufacture in the U.S., other nations – particularly China – are likely to step up to fill in any gaps.” The trade turbulence will also disrupt the U.S. natural gas market, with domestic supply expected to tighten, and utility prices to rise. This could “accelerate the uptake of coal instead of gas, and result in a swell in U.S. power emissions that could accelerate climate change,” Reutersreported.

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The Least-Noticed Climate Scandal of the Trump Administration

Rob and Jesse catch up on the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund with former White House official Kristina Costa.

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The Inflation Reduction Act dedicated $27 billion to build a new kind of climate institution in America — a network of national green banks that could lend money to companies, states, schools, churches, and housing developers to build more clean energy and deploy more next-generation energy technology around the country.

It was an innovative and untested program. And the Trump administration is desperately trying to block it. Since February, Trump’s criminal justice appointees — led by Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia — have tried to use criminal law to undo the program. After failing to get the FBI and Justice Department to block the flow of funds, Trump officials have successfully gotten the program’s bank partner to freeze relevant money. The new green banks have sued to gain access to the money.

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Funding Cuts Are Killing Small Farmers’ Trust in Climate Policy

That trust was hard won — and it won’t be easily regained.

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Also anxious are staff at the sustainability and conservation-focused nonprofits that provided technical support and enrollment assistance for these grants, many of whom worry that the USDA grant pause could undermine the trust they’ve carefully built with farmers over years of outreach. Though enrollment in the programs was voluntary, the grants were formulated to serve the Biden administration’s Justice40 priority of investing in underserved and minority communities. Those same communities tend to be wary of collaborating with the USDA due to its history of overlooking small and family farms, which make up 90% of the farms in the U.S. and are more likely to be women- or minority-owned, in favor of large operations, as well as its pattern of disproportionately denying loans to Black farmers. The Biden administration had counted on nonprofits to leverage their relationships with farmers in order to bring them onto the projects.

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