WHO Head on Hawaii: This Is the “New Normal.” Actually, “Normal” No Longer Exists.

Wildfires in Hawaii have now claimed at least 55 lives. One thousand more are still missing. Blazes leveled large parts of Western Maui, home to the original kingdom of Hawaii and the ancestral land of the Kānaka Maoli.

The drumbeat of climate disasters this summer have had many asking whether heatwaves, fires, and floods are signs of a “new normal” in an overheating world. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, suggested as much in a tweet on Thursday:

The phrase has also been thrown around liberally by politicians and major news outlets, including the The New York Times, looking to describe this summer’s extreme weather.

As experts have routinely pointed out, though, the climate crisis doesn’t promise a new normal so much as the abolition of normal as a means to understand our reality. There are a few things to expect: More people will become acquainted with tragedies they might have thought were confined to certain parts of the world, like when smoke from unprecedented Canadian wildfires blanketed the East Coast. There will be more instances of weather-induced mass death in the news. Climate science doesn’t broadcast a list of coming attractions so much as it coheres more and more data as reality unfolds, offering slightly more useful pictures of what might come next.

Many of the horrors climate change will fuel over the coming decades are the result of emissions unleashed before many of us were born; the payoff for climate actions taken now might not be realized until after we’re dead. For those feeling helpless in the face of climate-fueled tragedies, weary of the mismatch between the difficulty of emissions reductions and the destruction happening around us, there are some more proximate changes to work toward too.

Deep decarbonizarion is essential. Climate change consistently hits the poorest and (typically) least white corners of society hardest. The climate anxious among us—especially those with the capacity to donate and organize—might do well to push for more affordable housing and awarding tenants more power, while also taxing real estate magnates who make homes unaffordable and displace people. Building an economy that’s more welcoming to residents than tourists is every bit as essential to navigating the twenty-first century as cutting carbon.

There is no normal when it comes to climate change, but plenty of norms dictating governments’ response to it that can be upended.

Democratic lawmakers are calling for Justice Clarence Thomas to resign, after it was revealed that he has accepted gifts from billionaires for decades in exchange for access to the Supreme Court.

A new ProPublica report found that Thomas has happily accepted—and did not disclose—at least 38 luxury vacations from four different billionaires: Harlan Crow, David Sokol, H. Wayne Huizenga, and Paul Novelly. In return, Thomas hosts an annual fundraiser at the Supreme Court for an exclusive society to which they all belong. Experts have called Thomas’s behavior an “abuse of office” and “the height of hypocrisy.”

Representative Ted Lieu said Thomas “has brought shame upon himself and the United States Supreme Court” and should resign “immediately.” Pramila Jayapal also said Thomas should resign, calling his actions “disgusting.”

Bill Pascrell Jr. called Thomas “corrupt as hell,” and Gerry Connolly said Thomas has “repeatedly brought dishonor and ethical malpractice to our highest Court.” Robert Garcia and Hank Johnson also called for Thomas to resign.

They join nine other Democratic representatives and two Democratic senators who have been calling for Thomas to either step down or be impeached. Representatives Alma Adams, Don Beyer, Cori Bush, Chuy Garcia, Ro Khanna, Summer Lee, Ilhan Omar, and Nydia Velazquez, as well as Senators Richard Blumenthal and Ed Markey began clamoring for Thomas to leave the court after the news of his relationship with Crow first broke in the April.

Johnson and Pascrell also called for Thomas’s resignation at the time. So did Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but she had already been demanding Thomas resign for more than a year by then, according to The New Republic’s Pablo Manríquez.

Some of the gifts Thomas has accepted from his billionaire friends include a trip on Sokol’s private jet to his private ranch in Wyoming (valued in the low eight figures), a deep-sea fishing trip in the Caribbean on one of Novelly’s yachts, and a standing invitation to Huizenga’s members-only golf club. Huizenga sold the club in 2010, and it currently has a $150,000 initiation fee.

Thomas was already under fire for failing to report the many gifts he received from Crow, which include island-hopping yacht vacations and tuition for Thomas’s nephew. The Nazi memorabilia collector Crow also bought and renovated a Thomas family property, where Thomas’s mother still lives.

Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen has decided that the best next career move is to run for Congress. Too bad America hates him.

Cohen is a former personal attorney and longtime fixer for Donald Trump. Given the fact that Trump has now been impeached twice, indicted thrice, and found liable for sexual abuse and defamation, it doesn’t seem like Cohen was all that good at his job. Cohen has also become an outspoken Trump critic (which could have something to do with his now-settled lawsuit alleging Trump owed him $1.3 million in unpaid legal fees).

Now, Cohen wants to run as a Democrat. He told Semafor Thursday night that he is considering challenging New York Representative Jerry Nadler in the primaries.

“There’s a multitude of folks encouraging me to run,” Cohen said.

It’s unclear who those folks are, though. A poll conducted in April by The Economist and YouGov found that just 15 percent of Democrats view Cohen very favorably. And switching tickets wouldn’t work, either, because Cohen is even less popular among independents and Republicans.

Nadler also has long-standing, solid support in his district. The 31-year-incumbent has name recognition and is backed by powerful Jewish communities in his district. He handily defeated primary challenger Carolyn Maloney in August 2022 with 55 percent of the vote, compared to her 24 percent.

Rupert Murdoch’s media empire is slowly but surely disintegrating, as his News Corporation reported more than a 75 percent drop in profit.

News Corp on Thursday recorded just $187 million in net profit for the 2023 financial year, down from $760 million the previous year. The company has arms in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, including the Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Company, The Sun, and News Corp Australia.

The plunge in profit was primarily due to lower print and digital advertising at News Corp Australia, as well as low print advertising in the U.K. News Corp said it was confident it could use AI going forward to create new content while also reducing overall costs.

News Corp is separate from Murdoch’s other notorious conglomerate Fox Corp, the parent company of Fox News. Murdoch split the companies in 2013. He briefly considered re-merging them in late 2022, but he abandoned the plan at the start of the following year because, according to The Economist, “some News Corp investors [were] unhappy at the prospect of being lumped together with Fox News, which they consider a toxic brand.”

Unlike the rest of News Corp, Fox profits seem to be surpassing expectations post–Tucker Carlson. But both of Murdoch’s news corporations, though, have been embroiled in costly legal battles. Prince Harry is suing News Corp’s British arm for multiple unlawful acts allegedly committed over several decades, including hacking his phone. And in the U.S., Fox Corp is fending off multiple lawsuits for spreading falsehoods about the 2020 election and defamation. Earlier this year, the company reported a $54 million loss thanks to the costly Dominion settlement.

Republican Representative Nick Langworthy tried to defend the GOP investigation into Joe Biden’s alleged corruption—only to end up admitting that they still don’t have any proof.

Republicans have insisted for months that Biden is guilty of corruption and influence peddling overseas, despite producing no actual evidence. But they continue to claim they have proof that he and his son Hunter Biden accepted millions of dollars in bribes.

But Langworthy fumbled that point big time on Thursday during an interview with Fox News. Fox correspondent Gillian Turner pointed out that Republicans have yet to produce “a smoking gun: clear-cut, undeniable proof of the president’s involvement.”

“Well, we’ve never claimed that we have direct money going to the president, but many members of his family have received money from foreign governments,” Langworthy said.

Turner interrupted to correct him: “That is precisely the claim that the chairman of your committee, James Comer, and also Jim Jordan have made many times,” she said, referring to House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, who alongside Comer has spearheaded the charge against Biden.

“We are putting an investigation together laying out the facts on the business dealings of this family,” Langworthy said awkwardly, trying to recover.

Langworthy did not fare much better in the rest of the interview. He also said that Hunter Biden’s former business partner Devon Archer had testified to the Oversight Committee under oath, which Turner again pointed out was not true. (And regardless of how he testified, Archer also refuted many of Republicans’ talking points against Joe Biden.)

Republicans’ main justification for continuing to investigate Biden is that they already have proof of his wrongdoing and are now just trying to expose the breadth of his crimes. Many Republicans, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, are starting to suggest opening an impeachment inquiry into Biden so that they can access more information and witnesses that will lead them to the truth.

But Langworthy’s stumble reveals the actual truth: Republicans have nothing on Biden. The reason they keep pushing forward is because they are looking for something to actually substantiate their allegations.