Dubai, one of the world’s drier cities, spent much of the week underwater after getting hit with the heaviest thunderstorm it’s ever recorded. And yesterday, the United Arab Emirates dismissed early reports that the nation’s weather modification program might’ve been to blame.

ICYMI: Dark clouds dumped half a foot of rain on Dubai, which is two years’ worth, from Monday night to Tuesday night local time. The arid city lacks many storm drains and green spaces for absorbing such a downpour, so it flooded roads, buildings, and airport tarmacs, shut down schools and businesses, and killed at least one person in the UAE and 18 people in bordering Oman.

Even after the rain stopped…delays and cancellations at Dubai International Airport, which is the second-busiest airport in the world, continued yesterday, and Emirates suspended passenger check-ins through the morning for trips beginning in Dubai (though not ones connecting there).

No, Dubai did not do this to itself

In the early aftermath of the flooding, claims circulated on social media attributing the hefty rainfall to the UAE’s use of cloud seeding, which is when planes spray salt particles into rain clouds to give water vapor more to latch on to in an effort to boost precipitation. Californians also became unfoundedly suspicious of this geoengineering strategy after storms rocked their state in February.

Causing some confusion…Bloomberg reported Tuesday that a UAE meteorology official said the country worsened the flood by seeding the approaching clouds in the preceding days, but the UAE denied this, and the same official later told CNBC that seeding planes flew but did not seed clouds, though CNBC couldn’t verify that.

Even if the clouds were seeded, the tactic only boosts rainfall by 20% to 25% at best, experts say.

The real culprit: Climate change, which is projected to make the UAE 15% to 30% rainier in the coming years, per Nature, and cost $38 trillion in lost global income every year by 2049, according to a study released yesterday.—ML

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Tesla shareholders asked to re-up Elon Musk’s pay package that judge tossed. The electric vehicle company said that at its June 13 annual meeting, it will ask shareholders to vote to reinstate Musk’s $56 billion compensation package, which a Delaware judge had nixed as unfair. Though shareholders voted in favor of the plan in 2018, the new vote is coming as Tesla’s value is slipping amid increased competition from Chinese manufacturers and slowing demand for electric cars. The company also wants shareholders to greenlight Musk’s plan to move the company’s incorporation from Delaware to Texas.

NBA player banned for life for betting on his own sport. The NBA said yesterday that Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter can never play in the league again after its investigation found evidence of “disclosing confidential information to sports bettors, limiting his own participation in one or more games for betting purposes, and betting on NBA games.” The investigation determined that Porter had bet more than $54,000 on NBA games this year—and won upward of $76,000. The punishment comes as sports leagues contend with the reality of legalized betting across the US.

Biden wants to triple tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum. President Joe Biden wants to boost the current 7.5% tariff on steel and aluminum imports from China to 25%, an idea he not-so-subtly introduced while campaigning in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, where US Steel is based. US Steel has become a thorny election issue for the president, since the company’s efforts to sell itself to Japan’s Nippon Steel have drawn ire from unions and raised concerns over foreign ownership.

Anybody who distrusts mainstream media is getting more company: journalists from mainstream media. Uri Berliner, an editor at NPR who published an essay critical of the institution last week, resigned yesterday.

How it started: On April 9, Berliner, who had been at NPR for 25 years, opined in The Free Press that the outlet lost the public’s trust due to left-leaning bias. He cited NPR’s coverage of ”Russiagate,” and noncoverage of the Covid-19 lab leak theory and Hunter Biden’s laptop. He also blamed NPR’s internal culture, citing a “burgeoning number of employee resource (or affinity) groups based on identity.”

How it’s going: NPR suspended Berliner for five days without pay for talking about the org without permission, and he quit. Some conservatives hailed him as a brave truth-teller. Meanwhile, some fellow journalists had a harder time reconciling his complaints with his statement that NPR is “a place I love” than they did accepting that Gerry Turner is divorcing Theresa Nist despite saying he’s still in love with her.

Zoom out: Recent clashes between journalists and management at NPR, the New York Times, and NBC reflect a “broader rise in employee activism in US corporations” since the murder of George Floyd, per the WSJ.—HVL

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After only eight years of doing flips for internet clout, the Boston Dynamics humanoid robot Atlas is being put out to pasture. The good (or scary, if you’re concerned about the robo revolution) news is the robotics company already has a replacement: an electric-powered Atlas it plans to sell.

What does it do? Besides rising from the floor in a way that will forever bedevil your nightmares:

• The new Atlas will be able to lift stuff too heavy for most humans (and the previous hydraulic version of Atlas).
• It also bends in a way no human can. For instance, its knees swivel backward, and its torso can do a full 360-degree rotation.

The OG Atlas was originally pitched for search and rescue missions, but the company now envisions the bot carrying weirdly shaped, heavy items around a warehouse quickly.

Looking ahead…Boston Dynamics said it will start testing the new Atlas in its parent company Hyundai’s factories next year. And, unlike the last Atlas, this one will become commercially available, with plans to roll out the bot to other manufacturers in the next few years. Other companies like BMW and Amazon have also started investing in other humanoid robots for warehouse tasks.—MM

Stat: If you’ve ever felt like you’re throwing money away by impulse-buying that gadget you saw on TikTok or forgetting to turn the lights off when you go out, know that many Americans are literally trashing cash. According to Reworld, a company that fishes coins out of garbage for profit, ~$68 million worth of change gets chucked per year. The company says it collected $10 million in discarded coins in the past seven years—though only $6 million was in good enough shape to use, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Quote: “As is common with entirely innocent people, they are offering me an enormous sum of money to keep this matter out of court.”

Hugh Grant said yesterday that as much as he’d like to keep fighting his lawsuit accusing British tabloid the Sun of invading his privacy by illegally spying on his phone calls, car, and home, he’s taking their money to settle the case. The actor said he was persuaded to sign onto the deal because of litigation rules that could have put him on the hook for paying the publisher’s lawyers even if he won the case if he was awarded less than the settlement offer. The settlement amount (characterized by Grant as “enormous”) wasn’t disclosed, and the Sun, which is still facing claims from Prince Harry and other celebrities, admitted no liability.

Read: The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat. (The Verge)

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