Day: July 15, 2025

Dear Girls, 

At your Aunt Cassie’s wedding, the emergency alert blared on my phone: FLASH FLOOD WARNING. I scanned our surroundings. We were half-way up a hill, but in a flimsy tent, with you all scattered, playing with your cousins.

My mind raced through scenarios about how to collect you and get to safety, if necessary. At the same time, I didn’t actually know what to do.

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Just days later, on our drive to school, you couldn’t believe how high the Potomac River looked. That very same day, in Westernport, Maryland, floodwaters quickly filled the first floor of an elementary school trapping 150 students and their teachers inside. Emergency workers had to shuttle them to safety in rescue boats.

Now, as we check-off the summer camp packing list, parents in Texas are mourning their daughters, just your age, who will not be coming home from their summer camp.

The harsh reality of parenting today is this: our children are living in a changing climate. Above-average rainfall, once-in-a-hundred-year storms, severe drought, and record-breaking heat are part of your present and future. What my generation perceived as extremes, you will know as average. What we perceived as volatility, you will experience as your norm.

I remember Hurricanes, like Andrew when I was 11 and Hugo when I was 8. Since 2017, you’ve experienced Harvey, Ian, Maria, and Ida—each of these, individually, causing more damage in adjusted dollars than Andrew and Hugo combined. Last year, Hurricane Helene wiped out entire North Carolina towns previously considered safe from that type of destruction.

As our planet warms, in places that are more wet, the air holds more water vapor. With more water vapor in the air, rainstorms bring more rain in shorter periods of time. This makes flooding, like the tragic floods in Texas, more likely to occur and more dangerous. Flooding can occur across the entire U.S., inland and on the coasts. In fact, a 2023 rainstorm in New York City flooded over 150 school buildings in a single day.

And 2024 surpassed 2023 as the hottest year ever recorded. Plus, the top ten hottest years on record have all occurred in the last decade. Kids in places like Philadelphia, Detroit, and Milwaukee have had schools close for “heat days.” In Phoenix, kids couldn’t go to the park in the middle of the day when temperatures exceeded 110 degrees for a record-breaking 70 days last year. Just a few weeks ago, your lacrosse camp canceled sessions when extreme heat blanketed the east coast.

What this means is that you will face more devastating floods and other extreme weather events than I could have ever imagined. 

From the first moment I held each of you in my arms, I dreamed of your futures, wishing for your well-being, safety, and happiness. Now, when I see your futures, I worry about limitations as climate change accelerates.

I am sorry. We, those in my generation and older, have not done enough to protect you or prepare you for success in our changing world. We continue to release heat-trapping pollution in our atmosphere, federal action on climate change is taking a massive backslide, and significant barriers to action persist. 

While many are concerned about what they are witnessing all around them, still far too many don’t fully grasp what’s happening, don’t know how to talk about it, or feel unsure about what to do.

I used to be one of those people as well. That changed when I had my climate moment. The UN released a report on 1.5 degrees warming, and all the major media outlets indicated we had a decade left to address climate change to avoid the most devastating effects. I felt paralyzed looking at the three of you playing in the basement. My misconceptions shattered: this wasn’t a distant problem, this wasn’t something technology would just fix. I knew your lives would be fundamentally shaped by our changing climate, and I needed to learn and do more. 

What I’ve learned is that we all have a role to play in securing our shared future, even if we don’t have all the answers. We need to help people, especially your generation, understand this to drive lasting solutions. That begins by talking about it, challenging our own misconceptions, and committing to action.

And as a parent, it means committing to advocating for policies that keep you safe, protect your future, and empower you to make a difference. 

Childhood has changed, and that means parenthood must as well. We must all step up to secure a livable world for you and your entire generation to inherit.

Love, 

Mom

Both of the warring sides in Ukraine had reason to feel relieved on Monday when President Donald Trump announced his latest plan for peace. For the Ukrainians, the proposal included an influx of desperately needed American weapons, which will help shield civilians from Russian bombs and rearm the Ukrainian military. For the Russians, the plan left plenty of room to maneuver, and did not impose nearly as much pain as many in Moscow had feared.

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Indeed, the only punishment built into Trump’s proposal would impose tariffs of 100% against Russia and its trading partners if the Kremlin does not accept a ceasefire soon. But those tariffs would only kick in after 50 days without a peace deal, leaving Russia enough time to continue its summer offensive in Ukraine, aiming to conquer four regions before the autumn rains make it more difficult for the invasion to move forward. If they succeed, Vladimir Putin would be able to claim victory rather than negotiating on Trump’s terms.

“Putin will not negotiate as a loser,” one of his longtime associates tells TIME by phone from Moscow. “He knows that winners don’t get punished, and if he wins, all of this” — the sanctions, the tariffs — “will go away.” 

Even if the Russians fail over the next 50 days to conquer the territory Putin wants, the threatened tariffs of 100% would not be likely to dissuade him from pushing ahead into the fall. Trump’s own allies on Capitol Hill had urged the White House to set tariffs at 500% on Russia and any country that buys its oil. The proposal, championed by Senator Lindsey Graham, was meant to stop India and China from financing Russia’s military through the oil trade. The idea had broad bipartisan support, but last week the White House urged lawmakers to hold off, according to a source close to Senate leadership. “Trump doesn’t want it,” the source said, asking not to be named in order discuss the sensitive deliberations.

What Trump wanted became clear on Monday, when he presented a watered down version of Graham’s proposal. Known as the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025, the bill had the support of more than 80 Senators, and Graham expressed confidence last week that it would soon pass. But on Monday, Trump seemed unsure whether the sanctions bill should move forward toward a vote. “I’m not sure we need it,” he said.

The sense of relief was clear on the Moscow Stock Exchange, as traders absorbed Trump’s latest threat. The main Russian stock index jumped by 2.7% and the ruble strengthened against the dollar on Monday. Apart from the 50-day grace period, Russian investors appeared to appreciate the fact that the White House tends to back away from its tariff threats as often as it makes them. “Trump performed below market expectations,” one financial analyst in Moscow told Reuters, adding that the U.S. president “likes to postpone and extend such deadlines.”

Trump’s proposal may also have a deeper weakness—a failure to account for how much Putin has already wagered in Ukraine, and how much pain he is willing to suffer to avoid defeat. Three and a half years into the full-scale war, he has already sacrificed hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers, and Trump said on Monday that more than 5,000 of them continue to die every day. No sitting president in the world has faced more sanctions and international isolation than Putin has over the war in Ukraine. The International Criminal Court indicted him for war crimes in 2022, making it difficult for him to travel without the fear of arrest and extradition to the Hague.

“He’s too deep into it now,” says Putin’s associate in Moscow. “He can’t give up, and he’s far from feeling like he is about to lose. On the contrary, he feels like he has the upper hand.” 

Despite the plodding pace of the Russian advances and the enormous losses they have faced, Putin’s troops have crept forward in recent months toward his goal of taking all of Ukraine’s eastern regions. Nothing in the proposal Trump announced on Monday is likely to force Putin to abandon that objective.