Weekly News Roundup - 7/11/25
Texas reels from historic flood // Trump resurrects tariff chaos // U.S. reasserts weapons support for Ukraine after suspension
This is the 28th Weekly News Roundup of 2025. The archive for all weekly news roundups is here.
These weekly dispatches are designed for those who may not have time to do more than glance at the headlines, or those who want to stay informed without becoming obsessed by politics and news. These roundups are a targeted way to get a sense of the shape of the past week on the national level. Without such a map, we can be disoriented, not knowing where we have been over the past several days, or where we may be going.
But by spending concentrated, limited time thinking about the big picture, we can devote more of our time to where “agency and justice begin and end,” as Karen Swallow Prior put it: “on the ground, bodily, in community and real relationships, in flesh and blood.”
Quotes of the Week
Reaction is not tradition. Reaction is nostalgia, and nostalgia is false memory. - Andrew Krivak
What Washington is set to spend on detention centres alone is greater than the USAID budget that was gutted earlier this year. - Ed Luce
ICE will now have more resources than all but 15 countries’ military budgets, and is set to grow from an annual budget of $10 billion to $150 billion over four years. - Andrew Sullivan
I stayed inside during the July 4 weekend ... with people too scared to venture out, many typically bustling streets in Los Angeles are empty. - Claudia Avila Cosnahan
The dysfunctional approach to immigration is driven by the deeper crisis of public and social life. On a fundamental level, these are signs that we are losing the story of who we are as a country. This is a crisis of narrative. Are we no longer a country of immigrants? Are we no longer a country that values the dignity of the human person, individual liberties, and checks and balances? - Bishop Mark J. Seitz
It goes both ways. Mystical experience needs some form of dogma in order not to dissipate into moments of spiritual intensity that are merely personal. And dogma needs regular infusions of unknowingness to keep from calcifying into the predictable, pontificating anti-intellectual services so common in mainstream American churches. It means that conservative churches that are infused with the bouncy brand of American optimism one often finds in sales pitches are selling shit. It means that liberal churches that go months without mentioning the name of Jesus — much less the dying Christ — have no more spiritual purpose or significance than a local union hall. - Christian Wiman
Big Stories This Week
One of the deadliest floods in the last century of American history killed at least 121 people in central Texas, and 170 others remained missing. In "about 90 minutes, the Guadalupe River ... swelled from three feet to 34 feet, according to a river gauge near the town of Comfort, Texas," the New York Times reported. The Guadalupe River Basin has long been dangerous for flash flooding, and a flood warning system was considered by Kerr County in 2017, but rejected as too expensive.
President Trump resurrected his trade war, coming back to his pet issue that he had to back away from in April when financial markets began to crater in response to his last attempt to impose penalties on imports from other countries. A research group at Yale estimated that Trump's tariffs will cost the average U.S. family $2,300 this year. "Six months into his new administration, President Trump’s assault on global trade has lost any semblance of organization or structure," the Times reported. "The resulting uncertainty is preventing companies and countries from making plans as the rules of global commerce give way to a state of chaos ... Gone is the idea that the White House would strike 90 deals in 90 days after a period of rapid-fire negotiation, as Mr. Trump pledged in April. Instead, Washington has signed bare-bone agreements with big trading partners including China, while sending many other countries blunt and mostly standardized letters announcing hefty tariffs to start on Aug. 1."
A few days after the Trump administration was reported to be suspending weapons shipments to Ukraine, President Trump said he was resuming shipments and that he was unhappy with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
Week in Review
Friday, July 4
A torrential downpour falls on central Texas, dropping a month's worth of rain in just a few hours. The Guadalupe River in Kerr County rises more than 20 feet in just an hour or so during the middle of the night. The river roars through a girls summer camp, Camp Mystic, sweeping at least 27 young girls to their deaths. News of the tragedy trickles slowly around the nation while most Americans celebrate a long holiday weekend.
President Trump says new tariffs will go into effect Aug. 1, “from maybe 60% to 70% tariffs to 10% and 20% tariffs."
Saturday, July 5
Elon Musk says he is forming a new political party, after calling Trump's $4 trillion spending bill "insane."
Sunday, July 6
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says tariffs will go into effect Aug. 1 on countries which have not reached deals with the U.S.
Monday, July 7
The death toll from the Texas flooding rises to almost 100 people. Camp Mystic says at least 27 girls are dead.
Trump says the U.S. will send more weapons to Ukraine, just days after the Pentagon had suspended shipment of weapons. "The comments by Trump appeared to be an abrupt change in posture after the Pentagon announced last week that it would hold back delivering to Ukraine some air defense missiles, precision-guided artillery and other weapons because of what U.S. officials said were concerns that stockpiles have declined too much," the AP reports.
"A review ordered by President Donald Trump-appointed leadership of the Justice Department and the FBI found no evidence that notorious deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein kept a 'client list' of associates whom he blackmailed or conspired with to victimize dozens of women," ABC News reports. A DOJ memo says that the government's "highest priorities is combatting child exploitation and bringing justice to victims ... Perpetuating unfounded theories about Epstein serves neither of those ends." The news angers many Trump supporters who believed comments by Attorney General Pam Bondi in the last few months that suggested there was a list of powerful figures who would be exposed for sex trafficking.
Trump announces 25% tariffs on Japan and South Korea, but says that tariffs on other countries set to go into effect two days later would be delayed until Aug. 1.
Tuesday, July 8
The death toll from the Texas flooding rises above 100 people, and it's announced that at least another 161 people are still missing.
The Supreme Court rules 8-to-1 that the president can fire federal employees en masse, removing temporary restraining orders put in place by several lower courts.
Trump reacts to a question about Jeffrey Epstein from a reporter. "Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years," Trump says.
Trump announces a 50% tariff on copper imports.
Trump says he does not know who approved a suspension of military aid to Ukraine, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sitting next to him. “We get a lot of bull---- thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless," Trump says.
Wednesday, July 9
Trump says the U.S. will impose a 50% tariff on goods from Brazil, complaining that former President Jair Bolsonaro is on trial in his country for inciting an insurrection to try to overturn his own election loss in 2022, an episode that carried many similarities to the riot at the U.S. Capitol in 2021 by Trump supporters.
Thursday, July 10
The leaders of Britain and France announce an agreement "that for the first time, their countries would work together to deploy nuclear weapons if allies in Europe came under extreme threat. While each will retain control over its arsenal, both will coordinate on policy and more closely align their nuclear doctrines," the Times reports.
Friday, July 11
Trump tours flood damage in Texas.
Interesting Reads
A Texas Dad Tried to Kayak to His Daughters. The Girls Texted, ‘I Love You', by Patience Haggin for The Wall Street Journal
We Can Adapt and Prepare for Floods. But Will We? by David Wallace-Wells for The New York Times
Both Sides Misplace Blame for the Texas Floods, by NewsGuard
As the Texas Floodwaters Rose, One Indispensable Voice Was Silent, by Zeynep Tufekci for The New York Times
Texas inspectors approved Camp Mystic’s disaster plan 2 days before deadly flood, records show, by Jim Mustian, Christopher L. Keller, Sean Murphy and Ryan J. Foley for The Associated Press
Immigration, Epstein, Ukraine: Trump’s moves roil MAGA base, by Natalie Allison for The Washington Post
Trump’s trade blitz produces few deals but lots of uncertainty, by Paul Wiseman for The Associated Press
Croatian right-wing singer Marko Perkovic and fans perform pro-Nazi salute at massive concert, by the Associated Press
Foreign medical residents fill critical positions at US hospitals, but are running into visa issues, by Adithi Ramakrishnan and Devi Shastri for the Associated Press
Is Trump Out of the Loop, Again? by Gabe Fleisher for Wake Up to Politics
Why Do So Many People Think That Trump Is Good? by David Brooks for The Atlantic
‘The Living Vein of Compassion’: Immigration & the Catholic Church at this moment, by Bishop Mark J. Seitz for Commonweal
With Broken Promise on Epstein, Pam Bondi Draws the Ire of Trump’s Supporters, by Sadie Gurman for The Wall Street Journal
Novak Djokovic, I Was Wrong About You, by Kelly Corrigan for The New York Times
