Nearly a decade before catastrophic flooding in south Texas killed at least 95 people, including 27 girls and counselors from a beloved summer camp, the state’s Division of Emergency Management denied requests from the county where the camp is held for a $1 million grant to improve its flood warning system.
Summer camps were top of mind during county leaders’ discussions of the project, meeting minutes show. Then-County Commissioner Tom Moser envisioned designating point people at each camp who would monitor a website and alert camp counselors and attendees if evacuation was needed.
The Division of Emergency Management did not answer USA TODAY's specific questions about why the county's applications were rejected.
Texas county where campers died was denied money to boost warning systems
First round of Gaza ceasefire talks ends without breakthrough
The latest round of indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas have ended without a breakthrough, a Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations told the BBC.
According to the official, the session lasted for nearly three and a half hours and took place in two separate buildings in Doha.
Messages and clarifications were exchanged between the two sides through Qatari and Egyptian mediators, but no progress was achieved.
Moscow and Kyiv trade aerial attacks as Zelensky signs deals to boost drone production
Russia and Ukraine struck each other with hundreds of drones over the weekend, forcing shutdown of airports in Moscow and throwing Russian air travel in disarray.
Russia’s defence ministry said its air defences shot down 120 Ukrainian drones during the nighttime attacks, and 39 more before 2pm Moscow time (1100 GMT) yesterday.
The Ukrainian drone attack caused flight disruptions at Moscow's Sheremetyevo and St Petersburg's main Pulkovo airports. Other airports in western and central Russia also faced disruptions.
Russia also fired large-scale drone strikes on Ukraine yesterday, injuring three civilians in Kyiv and at least two in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the northeast.
The continuing onslaught comes as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky announced deals with his European allies and a leading US defence company that would allow Kyiv to scale up drone production to “hundreds of thousands” more this year.
NASA spots a new comet flying in from a distant star system
Astronomers have spotted a new comet, moving on a trajectory that indicates that it whizzed into our solar system from interstellar space and is just passing through.
It's only the third time scientists have discovered this kind of visitor from outside our solar system. The first two, 'Oumuamua and Comet Borisov, intrigued astronomers because of the chance to observe pieces from another star system beyond our own.
"This is like our chance to randomly sample what's going on in the rest of the galaxy," University of Oxford astrophysicist Chris Lintott recently told NPR, saying he and most other researchers really hadn't given much thought to interstellar objects until the discovery of the first one in 2017.
Astronomers have spotted a new comet, moving on a trajectory that indicates that it whizzed into our solar system from interstellar space and is just passing through.
It's only the third time scientists have discovered this kind of visitor from outside our solar system. The first two, 'Oumuamua and Comet Borisov, intrigued astronomers because of the chance to observe pieces from another star system beyond our own.
"This is like our chance to randomly sample what's going on in the rest of the galaxy," University of Oxford astrophysicist Chris Lintott recently told NPR, saying he and most other researchers really hadn't given much thought to interstellar objects until the discovery of the first one in 2017.
"I think the idea that we could see bits of other solar systems flying through our own really captivated the attention of a whole lot of people who started trying to work on these things," says Lintott.
NASA has named this latest interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, after detecting it this week with the NASA-funded ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) survey telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile.
Knives, bullets and thieves: the quest for food in Gaza
NEAR THE NETZARIM CORRIDOR, Gaza Strip — What does it take to get food today in Gaza? It involves a perilous journey that I took myself.
I faced Israeli military fire, private U.S. contractors pointing laser beams at my forehead, crowds with knives fighting for rations, and masked thieves — to get food from a group supported by the U.S. and Israel called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF.
Every day since the group began offering food on May 26, thousands of hungry Palestinians seeking food at these sites have been wounded and hundreds have been killed by Israeli military fire, according to Gaza health officials and international medical teams in Gaza. Many others have returned empty-handed after crowds grabbed all the food.
This is the story of what I witnessed from inside what GHF calls a "Secure Distribution Site."
The United Nations calls the food program a "death trap."
In Iran, Israel’s attack has shattered any trust in the west – even for those with no love of the state
A trembling ceasefire has brought a pause to what had become the familiar sounds of explosions over Tehran. I was born in 1988, a year before the Iran-Iraq war came to an end. For my generation, war was something that belonged to the past – an impossible event, until this summer.
For 12 days, we lived in the capital under incessant Israeli attacks, and what we saw has changed us for good: dead neighbours, buildings gutted and worry – endless, deep-etched worry – on the faces of people.
There is comfort in speaking of “the Iranian people” as though we are one unified bloc. But like most societies, Iranians hold divergent views. When fighting first broke out, there were people who were glad to see a foreign power targeting the widely disliked Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) top brass, at least in the beginning. But others – though dissidents themselves – deeply resented the idea of foreign invasion. Some hardliners saw this war as a messianic mission to be carried through to the bitter end; others were numb to what was happening.
But as the news filled with footage of civilian casualties, and the attacks grew harsher and less targeted, different social factions began to unite around the notion of watan, homeland. Patriotism gained new currency, and national pride was on most lips. Scenes of solidarity – whether lasting remains to be seen – abounded: landlords cancelling rent in light of the crisis; people outside Tehran hosting those fleeing the capital; no rush to grocery stores, no chaos, no panicked evacuations.
The destruction of Palestine is breaking the world : Moustafa Bayoumi
Sereen Haddad is a bright young woman. At 20 years old, she just finished a four-year degree in psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in only three years, earning the highest honors along the way. Yet, despite her accomplishments, she still can’t graduate. Her diploma is being withheld by the university, “not because I didn’t complete the requirements”, she told me, “but because I stood up for Palestinian life.”
Haddad, who is Palestinian American, had been raising awareness on her campus about the Palestinian fight for freedom as part of her university’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. The struggle is also personal for her. With roots in Gaza, she has lost more than 200 members of her extended family to Israel’s war.
She was part of a group of VCU students and supporters who attempted to set up an encampment in April 2024. The university called in the police that same night. Protestors were pepper sprayed and brutalized, and 13 were arrested. Haddad was not charged, but she was taken to the hospital “because of the head trauma that I endured”, she told me. “I was bleeding. I was bruised. Cuts everywhere. The police slammed me down on the concrete, like, six different times.”
But last year’s attempted encampment wasn’t even the reason Haddad’s degree is being withheld. This year’s peaceful memorial of it was. And how that scenario played out, with the university and campus police constantly changing the rules, illustrates something worrisome far beyond the leafy confines of an American campus.
Vacant National Weather Service Positions May Have Hurt Flood Coordination: NYT
Local offices at the National Weather Service had staffing shortages that might have led to a harder time forecasting Central Texas's severe rain and deadly floods, according to The New York Times.
Former officials told the Times the staffing shortages meant there were less experienced workers who could have helped communicate with local authorities after the flash flood warnings were issued.
Along with the staffing shortages, it seems local communities weren't properly prepared.
Rob Kelly, the Kerr County judge, told the Times that the county did not have a warning system because residents are hesitant to spending money on something so expensive.
“Taxpayers won’t pay for it,” Kelly said.
He added that he doesn't know if residents might reconsider getting them after this deadly flood.
Donald Trump orders entry fee, DEI changes at national parks
Visiting America's national parks is about to get more expensive for international tourists, but that's not the only change President Donald Trump ordered that will impact park visitors.
A new executive order calls for charging non-U.S. residents higher fees for park entry and recreation passes, like the yearlong America the Beautiful pass, which grants access to public lands across federal agencies.
"From the awe-inspiring Grand Canyon to the tranquility of the Great Smoky Mountains, America’s national parks have provided generations of American families with unforgettable memories," Trump said in the order issued July 3.
"It is the policy of my Administration to preserve these opportunities for American families in future generations by increasing entry fees for foreign tourists, improving affordability for United States residents, and expanding opportunities to enjoy America’s splendid national treasures," he said.
More Articles...
- Flood-ravaged Texas faces more rain; death toll at 70; 11 campers missing
- Dozens killed in Gaza as the UN says hundreds have died while seeking aid near sites run by U.S. group
- UK arrests 83-year-old priest for backing Palestine Action and opposing Gaza genocide
- Immigrants with no criminal convictions represent sharpest growth in ICE detention population
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