Europe Is Drying Out: Dutch Dikes Are Cracking, the Rhine Is Losing Its Cargo
The heat is now eating its way through Europe's rivers, farmland, and flood defenses. In the Netherlands, volunteer dike patrols are walking across dried-out embankments, pushing metal rods into the hardened ground and searching for patches of green that could reveal a hidden leak. What used to begin with flooding now starts with drought. Many inland dikes are built from peat, which has to remain moist to stay strong enough to hold back water. Once it loses too much moisture, the material shrinks, becomes brittle, and starts letting water seep through. The danger is especially serious in places like Waddinxveen, where parts of the country lie about 16 feet below sea level. There, 140 volunteers are inspecting roughly 60 miles of dikes. So far, they have not found any major damage, but inspections will continue through the fall because cracks often do not appear until much later.
The Netherlands is now battling a problem that turns centuries of water management on its head. During the winter, the country has to move water away as quickly as possible to prevent flooding. During the summer, that same water is desperately missing from fields, canals, and the soil itself. Researchers are now looking for ways to slow down rainwater and help the ground retain more moisture. Even hedgerows along rivers can slow the flow enough to let water soak deeper into the soil. While inspectors search dikes for tiny cracks, freight traffic on the Rhine is facing an even bigger crisis.
At Cologne, the river level dropped below the previous record low set in October 2018. People are now walking across parts of the dried-up riverbed while cargo ships can carry only a fraction of their normal loads. A vessel that would normally transport between 2,000 and 2,500 tons can now carry only about 400 to 600 tons without running aground, depending on its design. That means several ships are now needed to move the same amount of cargo, shipping schedules have to be rewritten, and additional freight must be shifted onto trucks and railroads. Port operators describe the consequences as devastating for the entire supply chain. The Rhine is not some secondary waterway. It is one of Europe's most important transportation corridors for raw materials, chemicals, fuel, and industrial goods. When cargo capacity drops to one-fifth of normal, transportation costs do not rise eventually. They rise immediately.
Water is disappearing across the Netherlands as well. In Nijmegen, a rusted bicycle and a shopping cart now lie exposed on the bed of the Waal River, the Rhine's largest Dutch branch. Houseboats that once floated freely now sit stranded on sandbars. Residents say low water used to last perhaps a month. Now it often lasts the entire summer. Farmers face another growing problem. Saltwater is pushing farther into fields and canals across the country's dry western regions. Fruit and vegetable growers in some areas are no longer allowed to pump water from canals because authorities are trying to protect the remaining freshwater supplies. Smaller harvests and higher food prices are no longer just a possibility. They become more likely every day the drought continues. The drought is hitting dikes, shipping, agriculture, and residential areas all at the same time.
Meanwhile, France and Spain continue battling major wildfires, the Danube and the Rhine have fallen to historic lows, and even a country famous around the world for its water engineering is discovering that protection from water does not automatically mean protection from water shortages. Europe's hotter summers are changing far more than the weather. They are changing how safe dikes remain, how much cargo a ship can carry, and ultimately how much people pay at the grocery store.
The Military Jammed GPS, Four People Flew Straight Into a Mountain
The flight should have been one of the easiest of the day. A twin engine Beechcraft King Air took off from Roswell, New Mexico, in May to pick up a patient in Ruidoso. On board were two pilots and two flight medics. The weather was clear, the route covered only about 60 miles, and under normal circumstances the aircraft would have landed roughly half an hour later. But about 100 miles west of their position, the U.S. Air Force was conducting a GPS jamming exercise at the White Sands Missile Range. The Federal Aviation Administration had warned beforehand that navigation systems could be disrupted within a radius of up to 400 miles. Eight minutes after takeoff, the pilots reported losing their GPS. Suddenly, the technology modern cockpits now depend on almost entirely was gone. Instead of following a clearly displayed line across a screen, they had to rely on radio beacons, magnetic headings, and instructions from air traffic control. Both pilots were young and relatively new in their positions.
The 30 year old captain had been promoted only one month earlier, while the 23 year old first officer had been working for the operator for just two months. The nearly moonless night made the situation even more dangerous. Below them were only scattered lights separated by mountains that could not be seen in the darkness. Air traffic control promised to guide the aircraft in by radio, but controllers were simultaneously dealing with three other airplanes that had also lost GPS. While waiting for new heading instructions, the King Air flew about 10 miles beyond the planned approach path. When GPS apparently started working again, the pilots chose not to fly another satellite based approach. Instead, they requested a visual landing. From where they were, they could see the airport lights. What they could not see were the nearly 10,000 foot Capitan Mountains standing between them and the runway. The aircraft turned toward the lights and began descending. Only when the dark mountain ridge blocked the lights below must the crew have realized something was terribly wrong. The pilots briefly reduced their descent and climbed again, but they continued flying straight ahead. Moments later, the King Air slammed into the mountainside at high speed.
All four people on board were killed instantly. It was the first known fatal civilian aircraft crash in the United States in which military GPS jamming played a decisive role. The accident shows how electronic warfare has already spread into civilian aviation. Militaries jam satellite signals to deny drones the ability to navigate, but those same signals are also relied upon by air ambulances, commercial airliners, and collision avoidance systems. Since 2023, aircraft flying over the Middle East, the Black Sea, and the Baltic Sea have repeatedly reported false or completely lost position data. Similar incidents are becoming more common inside the United States as well. In March 2025, several aircraft had to abort landings at Reagan National Airport after the Secret Service tested electronic warfare equipment near the vice president's residence. In Texas, military and Border Patrol operations against drones resulted in airspace restrictions and disruptions to commercial aviation. At least ten additional military GPS jamming exercises have been announced within a single year. The technology is designed to stop hostile drones, but it also affects aircraft flying hundreds of miles away from the exercise area. The danger becomes even greater when inexperienced crews, darkness, heavy workloads, and rarely used backup procedures all come together.
Another crash in July demonstrated where this trend could lead. A Boeing 737 operated by a Pakistani cargo airline reported navigation problems near the Strait of Hormuz, climbed and descended thousands of feet within just a few minutes, and then plunged almost vertically into the sea. The cause has not yet been determined, but the region was experiencing widespread GPS interference because of the U.S. Iran war. Electronic warfare no longer stops at the edge of the battlefield. It now reaches directly into civilian air routes while governments and militaries continue acting as though the consequences can somehow be contained within the boundaries of a map. The people aboard the King Air did not die in a war. They died because the technology of war found its way into a medical evacuation flight.
Simply Sick: China Tracks Foreigners All the Way to Their Train Seats
The image shows part of a Chinese police surveillance system used to monitor foreign nationals. On the left, the system records every registered movement of an individual with exact timestamps and locations, including residential compounds, shopping malls, restaurants, and supermarkets. The entries are generated through automated facial recognition and make it possible to reconstruct nearly every step of a person's day. On the right, the system visualizes the individual's social network. The circles represent people, while the connecting lines show detected relationships or shared movements. Various filters allow authorities to search by coworkers, nationality, year of entry into China, shared residential area, or places where people were recorded together. The profile also contains personal information such as nationality, gender, age, and passport number, allowing contacts and movement patterns to be systematically analyzed.
An unsecured police system in northern China has revealed just how far surveillance of foreign visitors and residents has gone. Security researcher and former China correspondent Marc Hofer discovered a platform earlier this year called the "Dynamic Control Platform for Foreign Personnel." The system was built for the city of Zhangjiakou, host of the 2022 Winter Olympics, and contained records on nearly 12,000 people. It included information on more than 700 long term foreign residents, people from Hong Kong and Taiwan, wanted individuals, and more than 300 foreign journalists. Hofer even found his own file, complete with a photograph from immigration records, his passport number, and the phone number he had used while living in China. The platform stored names, dates of birth, gender, marital status, home addresses, occupations, and in some cases even religious affiliation. It also logged hotel stays, hospital visits, gas utility bills, airline and train travel, right down to assigned seat numbers. Cameras equipped with facial recognition recorded when people left residential compounds, entered shopping malls, visited restaurants, or appeared at street intersections.
One woman from Mongolia could be tracked over several days as she moved between her apartment complex, a supermarket, a restaurant, and a shopping mall. The system was also designed to identify relationships between people whenever cameras captured them together. Foreign students were listed with their fields of study, marital status, religion, and every appearance they made at university entrances. People from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand were grouped together under a category labeled "Five Eyes Alliance." Egypt, Iran, Israel, Morocco, Pakistan, and Sudan were classified as "key countries." Visitors from Taiwan and Hong Kong were placed into separate categories as well. The platform also contained records of foreigners who had been cited for failing to report a change of address, lacking work permits, or committing other administrative violations. Some entries even identified the individual police officer who created them. That officer had previously been praised for monitoring online discussions and stepping into conversations to steer citizens toward what authorities considered the "correct" opinions. A police laboratory was later named in his honor.
The platform was linked to a Beijing company that sells robotics, surveillance technology, and law enforcement equipment to police agencies. Public procurement records and a 2023 patent application describe a nearly identical system. What makes the discovery even more alarming is how easily the information could be accessed. The login page already contained a preset username and password, meaning anyone who found the address could access highly sensitive personal information. The list of recently logged in users included several police stations. Hofer began preserving the data in January. By May, the platform had disappeared. It remains unclear exactly how extensively police used it in their daily work. What is clear, however, is that camera footage, government records, medical information, billing records, and travel histories had all been merged into a single system. Foreign visitors were not treated as guests. They became data profiles sorted by nationality, religion, occupation, and personal relationships. The surveillance did not end at the border or with passport control. It followed people to hospitals, ski resorts, shopping malls, and even to their assigned train seats.
With a Lasso Against the Yellowstone: How a 14 Year Old Saved a Drowning Man's Life
When a small boat and a stand up paddleboard capsized after striking a bridge on the Yellowstone River, one man was left clinging desperately to a gray cooler to stay alive. The powerful current carried him farther and farther downstream. While others managed to swim to shore, 14 year old Jory Thomas took off running. His father called 911, but the teenager reached for the one tool he knew best: his roughly 20 foot lasso. He waded chest deep into the river, swung the rope over his head, and caught the man on the very first throw, looping the rope around his arm and head. Jory then fastened the lasso to his belt buckle and slowly pulled the drowning man toward shore one step at a time. By the time emergency crews arrived about ten minutes later, the man was already safe. According to the county sheriff, without Jory's actions the rescue team might have been searching for a body instead of a survivor.
For Jory, it never felt like a heroic act. It was simply an instinctive decision. He has been practicing roping on his family's Montana ranch for the past year and now regularly helps catch cattle. He never imagined those same skills would one day save someone's life. For his actions, the ninth grader received a commendation from the sheriff and was named Montana's Citizen of the Month by Senator Steve Daines. Despite the recognition, Jory is already thinking about the start of school and basketball season. His mother says that is exactly who he is. When someone needs help, he acts without stopping to think twice.
Trump Looks for a Way Out: After Six Months of War, Diplomacy Is Suddenly Supposed to End the Iran Conflict
Trump on Iran: "It would have been a massive strike. Then our allies asked us to call it off. They believe there will be an agreement on the Strait of Hormuz, followed by progress in the nuclear negotiations. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and even Iran asked me to do it."
Just days ago, Donald Trump was threatening what would have been the largest American military strike since World War II. Now the same president says allies in the Middle East urged him to cancel the attack because the outlines of a broader agreement have already been worked out. A new round of talks is scheduled to begin as early as Monday. At the same time, Oman and Iran are reporting progress in negotiations aimed at partially reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which has disrupted global trade and energy markets for months. That waterway has now become the place where it will be decided whether the current pause develops into something more lasting or whether the region slides back into another military escalation. Since the war began at the end of February, 18 American service members have been killed, according to U.S. officials. Iran has launched multiple attacks against U.S. allies, including Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait, while Tehran backed militias have carried out drone strikes against Saudi Arabia.
At the same time, fuel prices have climbed sharply, strategic petroleum reserves have been tapped, and political pressure on the White House has continued to grow. Republicans are now increasingly demanding clear answers about what objective this war is still supposed to achieve and how it is expected to end. Trump says he changed course after appeals from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states that wanted to prevent further military action. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly argued specifically for a negotiated settlement instead of another bombing campaign. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who until recently had been seen as the strongest advocate of a tougher military response, apparently played no visible role in this decision. Whether the new round of negotiations will succeed where previous efforts failed remains completely uncertain. If the talks collapse once again, Trump could return to military threats within days. This constant back and forth between escalation and negotiations has now defined the conflict for months, without bringing Washington any meaningfully closer to its stated goal of ending the war and bringing Iran under lasting control.
