While Visiting Flood Survivors, Trump Suggested Eliminating FEMA

In his first trip since returning to the White House, President Trump traveled today to two areas of the country recently devastated by disasters. He first stopped in the parts of North Carolina ravaged by Hurricane Helene, and then headed for Los Angeles, where catastrophic wildfires continue to burn.

In North Carolina, Trump met with families struggling with an extremely slow and costly recovery from last year’s flooding. There, the president said he was considering shutting down the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “FEMA’s not good,” Trump said.

He also said that states should respond first to disasters, which is already how the system works. FEMA steps in only if a state can’t handle a disaster on its own, or at the request of a governor. Officials in both parties have suggested improving the agency, but few have called to shutter it. It has long been supported by members of Congress, who control its funding.

In Los Angeles, where Trump was set to land around the time this newsletter arrived in your inbox, the president was planning to visit neighborhoods destroyed by one of the most damaging fires in California’s history.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to withhold aid from the state unless it changed environmental policies that he claimed had prevented enough water from going to Southern California. But experts have said that the problems with fighting the fires had nothing to do with water transfers from the north.

The latest in California: Much-needed rain is expected to help firefighting efforts this weekend.

Trump moved to quickly expel migrants Biden allowed in

The Trump administration gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials the power to quickly deport migrants who were allowed into the country temporarily under Biden-era programs, according to a memo obtained by The Times.

The Biden-era programs were a self-service scheduling app that Trump shut down on Monday, and an initiative that let in some migrants fleeing Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti. They had allowed more than a million people to enter the country temporarily.

Egg prices are high. They’re likely to get worse.

Stores and restaurants are now paying around $7 for a dozen eggs, according to the price-tracking firm Expana. That’s a record high, up from $2.25 last fall.

Part of the problem is inflation, but it’s also because of a bird flu outbreak that has infected or killed 136 million birds since 2022, including many egg-laying chickens. Experts expect egg prices to rise in the coming months because the outbreak has recently intensified.

Scott Turow brought back his most famous hero

The author and lawyer Scott Turow is best known for his 1987 blockbuster novel “Presumed Innocent.” It is centered on the former prosecutor Rusty Sabich and widely considered the gold standard for the modern courtroom thriller. (You may have seen the 1990 movie with Harrison Ford, or the 2024 mini-series starring Jake Gyllenhaal.)

The titans of wheelchair tennis continue their dominance

It took an epic rally to secure their final point. But when it was all said and done today in Melbourne, Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid took home their sixth successive Australian Open wheelchair doubles title.

The British pair have now won 22 Grand Slam titles together, making them two of the most decorated players in the sport’s history. Next, they will go for a sixth straight French Open win.

The perfect cacio e pepe, according to science

Cacio e pepe is a recipe you don’t dare tinker with. It’s a pillar of Roman cuisine, in which just three ingredients — pasta, pecorino cheese and black pepper — produce a bold and memorable flavor. However, a group of Italian physicists decided it could be improved.

The scientists claim that to be truly “optimized,” cacio e pepe needed a fourth ingredient: cornstarch. By adding a teaspoon or so, they said, even a novice could mix the pasta together without turning it into a gooey mess. It remains unclear if any Italian nonnas will be convinced.

Have a well-balanced weekend.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back on Monday. — Matthew

Anna Ruch was our photo editor today.

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