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A collapsing Himalayan glacier unleashed a torrent that killed hundreds, left more than 1,300 missing, and turned entire communities into mud-covered wreckage—Mother Nature apparently skipped the warning shot and went straight to the wrecking ball.
Nepal-Tibet Glacier Collapse Kills 353 as More than 1,300 Remain Missing
A catastrophic glacier collapse sent floods and mud tearing through communities along the Nepal-China border, killing at least 353 people and leaving more than 1,300 missing as rescuers struggled to reach devastated areas. Hundreds have been displaced, bridges and roads have been wiped out, and the missing include more than 500 foreigners.
The water reportedly rose as much as 27 feet in just 30 minutes.
Videos showed people running as a torrent several stories high swallowed buildings, bridges, and everything else in its path. Nepal has reported at least 826 people missing, while authorities in Tibet reported 558 missing. Helicopters have become essential because dozens of bridges and roughly 25 miles of roads were damaged. Nepal’s army says it has rescued more than 100 people by air, while bodies have been recovered hundreds of kilometers downstream.
For families, the statistics are turning into an agonizing wait. Shova Shrestha has spent more than a day watching helicopters arrive in Bidur, hoping her missing husband will emerge from one. “I keep looking at each helicopter, hoping he will step out of it,” she said. Another Nepalese journalist, Nirajan Paudyal, was waiting for word about his parents and relatives in the village of Soley: “There is no update till now. I fear there won’t be any update.”
The international reach of the disaster is enormous. Nepal’s Tourism Board says 517 foreigners are among the missing, including 178 Indians, more than 60 Americans, and people from dozens of other countries. Many may have been traveling on pilgrimages to Mount Kailash in Tibet. Meanwhile, scientists say what was initially reported as an earthquake was actually a massive glacier collapse. The U.S. Geological Survey revised its analysis to a magnitude 5.2 glacier collapse, while regional climate experts said a glacier avalanche likely triggered the flash flood. As Himalayan ice becomes increasingly unstable in a warming climate, this isn’t merely a freak disaster—it’s another warning from a mountain system with millions of people living downstream.
Editor: When a river rises 27 feet in half an hour, “extreme weather” starts sounding like an awfully polite description for what just happened.
Source: Associated Press
CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a rare trip to Moscow to warn Russia against attacking NATO after new U.S. intelligence raised concerns Vladimir Putin could test the alliance with a limited strike—apparently “Don’t start World War III” now requires an in-person meeting.
CIA Chief Flew to Moscow with a Blunt Warning: Don’t Test NATO
CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s surprise trip to Moscow had a specific and rather consequential purpose: Sternly warn Russia not to attack a NATO country. The visit followed new U.S. intelligence assessments indicating Russian President Vladimir Putin could attempt a limited assault against a NATO member within the next few years, potentially betting that the alliance would hesitate before responding.
When the CIA director personally flies to Moscow to say “Don’t attack NATO,” that’s considerably more than diplomatic small talk.
U.S. officials are reportedly considering scenarios ranging from a cyberattack to a small-scale ground incursion, with a Baltic NATO member viewed as a possible target. One complicating factor is the West’s supply of critical munitions, strained by weapons sent to Ukraine following Russia’s 2022 invasion and by expenditures during the Iran war. In other words, Putin wouldn’t necessarily need to believe he could defeat NATO—only that he could create enough uncertainty over a limited attack to test whether the alliance would actually respond as one.
The Kremlin confirmed Ratcliffe met Russian intelligence officials but said he did not meet Putin, although Putin was briefed afterward. President Trump described the visit as “semi-routine” and connected it to efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
“Something may come out of it,” Trump said. “We’re working very hard to get that war ended and frankly they both want to see it ended at this point.”
Remember when Trump claimed on the 2024 campaign trail that he’d end the war “on Day 1?” Yeah, nobody else does, either.
Ratcliffe’s visit also follows multiple Moscow trips by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff as Washington continues its diplomatic push over the Russia-Ukraine war.
The historical echo isn’t subtle. The last publicly known visit to Moscow by a CIA director came in November 2021, when William Burns warned Putin against invading Ukraine. Russia invaded three months later.
Ratcliffe is now delivering another warning, this time involving NATO itself and the alliance’s collective-defense commitment. Nobody needs a decoder ring to understand the stakes: Washington apparently believes the possibility of Putin testing NATO is serious enough to send the CIA director straight to Moscow to spell out the consequences.
Editor: The last time a CIA director went to Moscow to warn Putin not to invade somebody, the warning didn’t exactly enjoy a long shelf life. Here’s hoping Moscow’s listening comprehension has improved.
Source: The Wall Street Journal (free)
A former Mike Collins staffer posted Nazi and KKK imagery, joining a growing list of Collins associates accused of racist or antisemitic behavior—which is becoming less of an awkward coincidence and more of a campaign résumé problem.
Mike Collins’ Senate Campaign Has a Nazi and KKK Problem that Keeps Getting Bigger
A former staffer for Republican Rep. Mike Collins posted a swastika, depicted himself in apparent Ku Klux Klan robes, and repeatedly used racist language online, adding another ugly controversy to the Georgia Senate candidate’s political orbit. The Washington Post found the posts while examining Collins’ former staffers and associates as he campaigns against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in a race that could help determine control of the Senate.
At some point, a politician’s collection of “former staffers” stops looking like bad luck and starts looking like a hiring philosophy.
The former staffer, 24-year-old Preston Parra, interned for Collins in 2024 and later worked as a contractor for Collins’ leadership PAC, receiving $7,700 for fundraising consulting in 2025. Parra told The Post that much of his online material was “satirical” and described himself as a provocateur. His posts included the phrase “White Power,” racial slurs, and Nazi and KKK imagery.
Asked about his views, Parra said he wasn’t a white supremacist but added: “I do think that the white race contributes more to the world.”
Collins’ campaign did not answer detailed questions about Parra, instead issuing a statement saying Collins condemns antisemitism as “abhorrent.”
And Parra isn’t the only headache. Collins has faced scrutiny over his own social-media posts, while other former staffers and associates have generated controversies involving alleged antisemitism, white nationalists, and Nazi imagery. Former chief of staff Brandon Phillips was dismissed after an unauthorized campaign post Collins called “despicable.” Another chief of staff, Kip Talley, was replaced after reporting about his participation in a group chat that included white supremacists Nick Fuentes and Richard Spencer. CNN previously reported that Collins’ son-in-law shared Nazi imagery online, while another former Collins staffer apologized after directing antisemitic insults at Republican Rep. Mike Lawler. Collins has repeatedly rejected racist and antisemitic views and said his son-in-law had no campaign role.
The political problem is that some Georgia Republicans now see a pattern—and they’re saying so publicly.
Conservative activist Debbie Dooley put it memorably: “In the South, we have a saying: You lay down with dogs, you get up with fleas. Well, Mike Collins has got a lot of fleas on him.”
Conservative radio host Shelley Wynter says he’ll support Ossoff after Collins won the Republican primary, while Collins is separately facing a House Ethics Committee review over allegations involving government funds, which Collins denies. Georgia is exactly the kind of state where Republicans don’t have much room for self-inflicted wounds, and Collins appears to be arriving at the general election carrying enough baggage to require its own carousel.
Editor: One extremist-adjacent controversy can be explained away. Two gets uncomfortable. When you need a flowchart to keep track of everybody who posted Nazi imagery, used antisemitic language, or hung around white supremacists, the “nothing to see here” defense starts running out of runway.
Source: The Washington Post (free)
Nearly 30,000 pounds of Argentine beef sold in Texas and Florida are being recalled after missing required import re-inspections, and the USDA gave it its highest-risk classification—which is an interesting way to describe what otherwise sounds like somebody forgot to check a box.
30,000 Pounds of Argentine Beef Recalled in Texas and Florida as Import Questions Mount
Nearly 30,000 pounds of raw beef imported from Argentina and distributed in Texas and Florida are being recalled because the meat missed required import re-inspections, according to the USDA. No specific contaminant was identified, but the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service classified the recall as Class I, its highest health-hazard category.
That’s the part raising eyebrows: No contaminant has been named, yet the government assigned the recall its most serious risk classification.
Food-safety expert Dr. Darin Detwiler questioned that apparent contradiction, arguing the designation makes the episode difficult to dismiss as routine bureaucracy.
“I find this curious because it’s kind of like saying, hey, this is a paperwork problem; this is a bureaucratic problem. We forgot to do this, we missed this inspection, and we have no indication that there’s any problem, but we’re going to give it the highest classification of risk,” he said.
The distributor did not respond to the station’s request for comment, and it wasn’t immediately clear which retailers sold the recalled beef.
Then comes the political timing. President Trump recently announced a plan allowing up to 300,000 pounds of foreign beef over the next 90 days to be sold at prices 25% below current market prices. Detwiler noted that the announcement arrived within days of controversy surrounding the Argentine recall, creating what he called conflicting pieces of information and fueling online confusion over imported beef.
The issue has also landed in Texas politics, where Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico criticized the broader import plan as harmful to domestic ranchers, saying it would “boost foreign competitors and make life harder for Texas cattlemen.”
CBS Austin said it sought comment from Republican candidate Ken Paxton’s campaign but received no response.
Whatever the political argument over beef imports, the immediate consumer question is considerably simpler: Nearly 30,000 pounds of meat missed import re-inspection, received the USDA’s highest-risk recall classification, and reached the market without consumers yet being told which retailers sold it.
Editor: “We haven’t identified a contaminant, but we’re calling it our highest health risk” is exactly the kind of government sentence that sends consumers straight to the freezer to interrogate their hamburger.
Bottom line: Can’t eat vegetables (explosive diarrhea) and now can’t eat beef. What’s left? Potatoes.
Source: CBS Austin
Nvidia says revenue could grow 70% in fiscal 2028 while CEO Jensen Huang says actual demand is running even hotter—the AI boom apparently hasn’t received Wall Street’s memo that it was supposed to start slowing down.
Nvidia Jumps 7% as AI Demand Forecast Says the Boom Isn’t Done Yet
Nvidia shares jumped more than 7% in premarket trading Thursday after the AI chip giant delivered a revenue outlook suggesting demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure remains ferocious well into 2028. The enthusiasm spilled across the semiconductor sector, lifting Micron, Marvell, Arm, Intel, and AMD while AI cloud companies Nebius and CoreWeave also rallied.
Nvidia’s biggest problem right now isn’t finding customers—it’s making enough chips to sell them.
CFO Colette Kress said Nvidia expects revenue growth of 70% for fiscal 2028, which begins in February 2027. CEO Jensen Huang went further, saying underlying demand “is much greater than 70%,” with supply limiting how much Nvidia can actually deliver. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Nvidia’s primary manufacturing partner, remains capacity-constrained, while shortages of memory chips are adding another bottleneck. That’s a rather luxurious corporate problem: Customers are apparently standing in line faster than the factories can feed them.
Huang said artificial intelligence has “reached its inflection point,” arguing that demand has broadened dramatically beyond a handful of giant technology companies. “This time last year, one lab alone was driving the build-out,” Huang said. “Today, we have a golden age of new AI labs and startups, multiple frontier labs scaling in parallel, a thriving open-model ecosystem, and physical AI coming online—with strong momentum across the U.S. and around the world.”
Nvidia said its AI Clouds, industrial, and enterprise customers generated $40.3 billion in quarterly sales, up 138% from a year earlier.
There are still clouds hanging over the AI party. Investors have questioned enormous tech-company capital spending, circular financing arrangements (it’s real), and whether all those billions pouring into AI will eventually produce acceptable returns. (It will, eventually, years down the road that will be littered with dead companies for miles.)
Nvidia also faces growing competition from custom chips developed by hyperscalers (get used to seeing this term) and AI companies.
Meanwhile, reports say Nvidia has agreed to acquire open-source AI platform Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, potentially giving the company an even larger footprint beyond chips and into the software and model ecosystem. For now, though, Wall Street heard the number it wanted: 70% growth—and then heard Huang say demand is even stronger.
Editor: Wall Street has spent months asking when the AI bubble pops. Nvidia just responded with 70% growth, supply shortages and, essentially, “Sorry, can’t hear you over all these purchase orders.”
Source: CNBC
The FBI says it disrupted proxy tools used by Chinese state-sponsored hackers to target major U.S. agencies and critical infrastructure for years.
FBI Disrupts Chinese Hacking Network that Targeted NASA, the Senate, and U.S. Infrastructure
The FBI and Justice Department have disrupted a sprawling proxy network allegedly used by Chinese state-sponsored hackers to target NASA, the U.S. Senate, the Federal Reserve, and other government agencies, along with American power companies, hospitals, telecommunications providers, and defense contractors. The operation targeted two tools called QTRouter and QScan, which prosecutors say helped Chinese hackers disguise their attacks behind networks of compromised devices and commercial proxy services.
The unsettling part isn’t simply that China was hacking America—it’s how much of America was apparently on the menu.
The Justice Department identified the hacking group as QTFY and linked it to Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Company, a Chinese government contractor whose alleged customers included China’s Ministry of State Security and People’s Liberation Army. According to the government, hackers using the infrastructure breached agencies including NASA, the Senate, Federal Reserve, Department of Energy, Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, and the Justice Department itself.
Other targets included financial institutions and critical infrastructure, although officials haven’t said which of those targets were successfully breached or how deeply.
The system worked partly by turning hacked Internet-of-Things devices into digital middlemen. QScan allegedly searched for vulnerable devices that could be compromised and added to botnets, while QTRouter managed access to those machines and other commercial proxies. More recently, the hackers allegedly began hijacking VPN services used by Chinese citizens to circumvent China’s Great Firewall, mixing malicious activity into ordinary internet traffic. “It made it difficult for us to see the bad, state-sponsored traffic because there was so much typical user VPN traffic in the nodes they were co-opting,” Lumen Technologies researcher Damon Rouse told WIRED.
The FBI seized domains embedded in the hacking tools while Lumen disabled additional infrastructure, delivering what researchers believe will be a significant setback. But nobody involved seems to believe the problem has disappeared. The operations appear to have focused largely on espionage rather than preparing destructive attacks, and Rouse expects the hackers to rebuild. “I think we can also safely assume they’ll pivot and stand up new infrastructure,” he said.
Translation: The FBI knocked down the scaffolding, but the people who built it still know where the hardware store is.
Editor: When the victim list includes NASA, the Senate, the Federal Reserve, hospitals, power companies, and defense contractors, calling it a “hacking campaign” feels almost quaint. China apparently went with the Costco approach to espionage: Why target one institution when you can cripple America in bulk?
Source: WIRED