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In a move clearly meant to celebrate a facility that has raised serious human rights and environmental concerns, online merchants are now selling merchandise that promotes the Everglades-based migrant detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz. The website for the Florida GOP is promoting a shirt, hat, and beverage cooler in support of the quickly constructed, controversial building. The shirt and cooler feature an image of a nondescript building in a swamp with an alligator and snake in front of it. [Screenshot: Florida GOP store] Alligator Alcatraz shirts and hats are also being sold by merchants on Amazon, featuring everything from a buff alligator with a gun to one behind bars for some reason. Theres even one dubbed retro vintage, which features a sunbathing alligator. Fast Company has reached out to the Florida GOP and Amazon for comment. [Screenshot: Amazon] The detention center, meant to hold up to 3,000 beds, has faced backlash from immigrant rights activists, Floridas indigenous community, and countless others, CNN reports. Trump visited the controversial migrant detention center on Tuesday, July 1, alongside Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. A pro-Trump influencer joined the visit and posted on social media that he had received official Alligator Alcatraz merch. [Screenshot: Amazon] Treating the entire experience as amusing rather than evil, Trump emphasized the alligators and snakes surrounding the center. At one point, he stated, Were going to teach them how to run away from an alligator if they escape prison. Dont run in a straight line, according to the New York Times. Yes, thats the American president joking about alligators eating migrants.
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E-Commerce
Donald Trumps Big Beautiful Bill Act has passed through the Senate thanks to Vice President JD Vances tiebreaking vote. But alongside the late-night drama in the chamber this week, another wave of developments has unfolded online. Elon Musk, once President Trumps closest confidante during the early months of his second presidency, has broken his social media silence to criticize what he calls the insane spending bill and has even threatened to launch a competing political party to challenge both Republicans and Democrats. If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day. Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 30, 2025 The Musk-Trump relationship, once warm, soured last month and has taken a new turn. The president has now threatened to consider deporting the South African businessman over his outspoken opposition. Musk argues the utterly insane and destructive bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country! According to the SpaceX and Tesla CEO, the bill provides handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future. The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future. https://t.co/TZ9w1g7zHF— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 28, 2025 He contends that the bill removes subsidies for electric and clean-fuel vehicles, reduces the value of tax credits for new wind and solar projects, and speeds up the phaseout of existing ones. In doing so, Trump is undermining the United States energy transition toward cleaner fuelscrucial for combating climate change and keeping the American economy competitive. Putting aside the name-calling and dramatic threats that mark any clash between Musk and Trump, some experts agree with Musk. This bill is a huge setback for clean energy development in the United States, says Daniel Cohan, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice University. He warns that current decisions risk stalling clean energy growth, while other countries, including China, push forward with renewables. It takes away support for the technologies that matter most for cutting emissionssolar, wind, batteries, and electric carswhile wasting money on ones that don’t, such as biofuels and carbon capture for oil recovery, explains Cohan. Beyond the environmental consequences of cutting subsidies and benefits for clean energy, the bill may have economic impacts likely to concern Trump more directly. One analysis by the Rhodium Group predicts that the bills provisions could cost 300,000 jobs and result in $220 billion in lost clean energy investment in the U.S. by 2030. Still, not everyone agrees with Musk. Musk’s faith in the economic viability and value of unconventional power, and the need to maintain the subsidies and other subventions, is wholly misplaced, says Benjamin Zycher, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank. There are some silver linings for forward-looking energy sectors. The removal of fuel sourcing restrictions and retention of PTCs confirm strong federal support for advanced nuclear technologies, says Julien Dumoulin-Smith, energy analyst at investment bank Jefferies. These provisions are expected to accelerate next-gen reactor deployment and reinforce the value of existing assets. Dumoulin-Smith calls the bill as best an outcome that could have been expected [for renewables] after direct intervention by Trump earlier on renewable credits, though he acknowledges it may still hurt the industry. Whether the bill will damage the countryor Trumps presidencymay depend on how aggressively Musk chooses to fight back. But it could also come down to employment. This bill will reverse progress on bringing clean energy manufacturing and deployment jobs to the United States at a time when China and other countries are dramatically ramping up their efforts, says Cohan, the Rice University professor. For a president fixated on putting America first, that may prove to be the most consequential outcome.
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E-Commerce
A European heat wave helped fuel a virulent wildfire in Spain that killed two farmers before hundreds of firefighters brought it under control thanks to a timely rainstorm, authorities said Wednesday.The blaze that broke out late on Tuesday in the rural province of Lleida created an enormous thick plume of ash and smoke that reached 14,000 meters (45,000 feet) of altitude, making it the largest registered by firefighters in Catalonia, a northeastern region of Spain.Firefighters said that the fire spread at 28 kph (17 mph) at one point, making it one of the fastest fires registered in Europe, they said.Catalan regional president Salvador Illa announced the deaths, which occurred late Tuesday, in a social media post around midnight. Firefighters said that the two victims were found near the small village of Coscó in the county of La Segarra near a vehicle. Regional official Nuria Parlón said that the two victims were a farmer and one of his workers. She said that it appears that they were caught by the flames as they were trying to flee the farm.Two firefighters also needed to be treated a local hospital for injuries. Rain played a helping hand A total of 6,500 hectares (16,000 acres), mostly of fields growing grains and cereals, was burned before firefighters got some help from a rainstorm and established a perimeter. Authorities issued warnings to residents via messages to smartphones and ordered 14,000 people to stay indoors, firefighters said. That order was lifted late Tuesday as more than 500 firefighters participated in the deployment.Firefighters said that the rainstorms “quickly changed the situation and helped speed up getting the fire stabilized.”The fire destroyed mostly farmland, but it also incinerated at least three old farmhouses and some other farm buildings before it was declared under control early Wednesday.“Wildfires today are not like they were before,” Illa, the regional president, said. “These are extremely dangerous. From the very first moment, it was considered to be beyond the capacity of extinction. I mean that not even with two or three times the number of firefighters, they have told me, it would have been possible to put out.”The heat wave in parts of Europe has set record high temperatures for June in Spain and Portugal.More hot weather is expected on Wednesday with temperatures in the Lleida region forecast to reach a high of 39 C (102 F).“It will be a difficult day due to the high temperatures and until we get past the hottest part of the afternoon we will have to be on our guard,” Illa said. Spain bakes Spain has been sweltering under its first heat wave of the year since the weekend. Its weather service said that the national average for June of 23.6 C (74 F) was a new record. It was the first time that June was hotter than the average temperatures for both July and August.Except for Spain’s northern Atlantic coast, the country remained under alert for high temperatures and for wildfire risk on Wednesday.In Spain’s southern city of Malaga, the international Red Cross set up a “climate refuge” that is air-conditioned down to the low 20s C (about 70F) to help residents “cope with the heat in comfort and with company, avoiding the isolation and loneliness” that extreme heat can impose as people stay indoors.The Spanish Red Cross was also providing an “assisted bathing service” to help people with reduced mobility to cool down in waters at the beach.The European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts said that it was closely monitoring the abnormally hot temperatures for the continent. Weather experts link the heat wave to climate change.More than two-thirds of the severest heat waves in Europe registered since 1950 have occurred since 2000, the World Meteorological Organization says.France’s national weather agency kept four departments under red alert on Wednesday after temperatures exceeded 40 C (104 F) in many towns. The summit of Paris’ iconic Eiffel Tower remained closed until Thursday for “everyone’s comfort and safety.” Air conditioning strains Italian power Heat alerts were issued for 17 Italian cities Wednesday. The corresponding surge in air conditioning was straining the electric grid and causing periodic blackouts. On Tuesday, parts of Florence’s historic centerwhich is packed with hotels, restaurants, and shopshad a blackout following a surge in electricity use, energy company Enel said.Italy’s labor ministry, meanwhile, summoned union representatives to a meeting Wednesday to finalize a protocol on protecting farm, construction and other workers who labor outdoors from heat exposure.This came after a construction worker died in Bologna this week. Switzerland protects river In Switzerland, one of the two reactors at the Beznau nuclear power plant was shut down as part of efforts to prevent excessive warming of the Aare River, so as not to further burden wildlife and the overall ecosystem in already hot weather, operator Axpo said. Samuel Petrequin in Paris, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, and Nicole Winfield in Rome, contributed to this report. Joseph Wilson, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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