The Week in Brief: We lost a butterfly, gained a Lake, suffered a catastrophe and await the Fed

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Lake Ontario becomes “Lake America”

President Trump signed an order Thursday directing U.S. agencies to call Lake Ontario Lake America on federal maps and in government records. Canada and New York State say they will keep the old name. About half the lake’s surface is Canadian. The White House says most of the water volume and the deepest parts are on the American side.

The order landed in the middle of a trade fight. Talks with Ottawa collapsed last week. Both countries have imposed 50 percent tariffs on large lists of goods. Trump said Canada has treated the United States badly and joked that the Atlantic or the Pacific might be next.

Presidents have renamed landmarks before. In 2015 the Obama administration changed Mount McKinley to Denali on federal maps. The Biden Interior Department later replaced about 650 official names that included the word “squaw,” restored large Utah monuments, and renamed other features. The new lake name applies only to U.S. government use. It does not change Canadian charts.

Why the Fed speech matters

Fed Chair Kevin Warsh speaks Friday morning at Jackson Hole. There is no rate decision today. Markets will treat the speech as a preview of the September 15–16 meeting.

The federal funds rate has sat at 3.50–3.75 percent for five meetings. Inflation, measured by the Fed’s preferred gauge, is still 3.7 percent. Three officials wanted a hike in July. September is also a meeting that publishes a new set of rate forecasts.

Warsh has talked more about long-term issues than about the next move. Bond traders want to know whether he thinks inflation is high enough to force a rate increase. A clear answer can move the dollar, Treasuries, and stocks into the weekend.

Nepal and Tibet: the flood

A glacier and a mass of rock collapsed Wednesday on the Nepal–Tibet border. Early reports called it an earthquake. The U.S. Geological Survey later said the shaking was the landslide itself. Ice, mud, and stone tore down the Lhende / Bhotekoshi river, wrecked villages, and smashed the Gyirong border crossing.

Nepal’s death toll has climbed through the high 300s and higher in some Friday counts. More than 1,400 people are missing on both sides of the border. Debris has dammed a new lake. China and Nepal warn it could burst and send another flood downstream. Rescue work has been halted in places for that reason.

Americans among the missing

The State Department is tracking about 90 Americans who may have been in the area. Three have been rescued. Officials say they know of no confirmed U.S. deaths. Nepal’s tourism board has listed a smaller number of missing Americans. The totals keep changing because pilgrims, tour groups, and people on both sides of the border are counted separately.

India has the largest group of missing foreigners. Dozens of Ukrainians are also unaccounted for. Many travelers were on the Kailash pilgrimage route or the road between Kathmandu and Lhasa. Trump said the United States would give Nepal whatever help it asked for.

The Chinese building corridor

The valley is not empty mountain. It is a China–Nepal trade and hydropower route: Gyirong Port, dams, and roads tied to Beijing’s Belt and Road work. Hydropower workers are among the missing. China says about 100 of its citizens are missing in Nepal and hundreds more around Gyirong, including foreigners.

There is no confirmed evidence that blasting set off the glacier. Scientists describe an ice-and-rock collapse. Nepali critics say hill cutting, river work, and settlements high in glacial country made the valley more dangerous. China says the ice failed on the Nepali side. What is not in dispute is that Chinese construction sat in the path when the mountain moved.

Russia and Ukraine

Russia fired missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities overnight. At least two people were killed and more than a dozen wounded. Homes, warehouses, and power sites were hit in and around Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia. Ukraine said it shot down most of the drones and several ballistic missiles, and that it struck a large oil refinery in Yaroslavl.

Fighting on the ground remains heaviest near Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka. After reports of a CIA director visit to Moscow, Trump said he did not believe Russia would attack NATO territory.

Iran and the strait

Iran said it is drafting conditions to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. A senior security official named an end to the regional war and prior U.S. steps among them. Qatar’s prime minister was in Tehran on the same file.

U.S. commanders say a shipping lane has been cleared of mines. Tanker traffic is still far below the old pace of about 15 million barrels a day. Another ship was reported hit this week. Oil and insurance markets remain on edge until the strait looks ordinary again.

Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton died Tuesday in Nashville at 80 after a short fight with cancer. The news went around the world in a few hours and the world’s landmarks were illuminated in pink in her honor. Flowers piled up on her star in Nashville. Buckingham Palace sent a tribute. So did Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, and John Mayer. Her sister Stella wrote that her big sister had “got her wings.”

President Trump called her one of the greatest country singers ever and ordered U.S. flags to half-staff through September 1. The funeral will be private. She is to be buried in Nashville beside her husband, Carl Dean, who died last year. People who never owned a country record still knew the voice, the jokes, the books she sent to children, her philanthropy and her large than life personality.

Also this week

King Harald V of Norway died at 89. Crown Prince Haakon succeeds him.

Palestinian authorities banned kites after Israel said a kite blown the wrong way could be treated as an act of war. They have a point.