Category: 2. World

Two seafarers on a bulk carrier have been killed in a drone and speedboat attack in the Red Sea blamed on Yemen’s Houthi rebels, the second incident in a day after months of calm.

The Red Sea, which passes Yemen’s coast, is a critical waterway for oil and commodities but traffic has dropped since the Iran-aligned Houthi militia began targeting ships in November 2023 in what they said was solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

The deaths on the Liberian-flagged, Greek-operated Eternity C are the first involving shipping in the Red Sea since June last year and bring the number of killed in attacks on vessels there to six. The Houthis have not claimed responsibility for the incident but Yemen’s exiled government and the European Union said it was the group’s work.

Hours before the attack, the Houthis claimed they had sunk another Liberia-flagged, Greek-operated bulk carrier, the MV Magic Seas, off south-west Yemen on Sunday.

The crew were rescued by a passing merchant vessel and arrived safely in Djibouti on Monday, port authorities said.

“Just as Liberia was processing the shock and grief of the attack against Magic Seas, we received a report that Eternity C again has been attacked, attacked horribly and causing the death of two seafarers,” Liberia’s delegation told a London session of the United Nations shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization.

Since November 2023, the Houthis have disrupted commerce by launching hundreds of drones and missiles at vessels in the Red Sea, saying they were targeting ships linked to Israel.

The Houthis reached a ceasefire with the US in May but say they will keep attacking ships connected with Israel.

Arsenio Dominguez, the IMO’s secretary general, said on Tuesday. “After several months of calm, the resumption of deplorable attacks in the Red Sea constitutes a renewed violation of international law and freedom of navigation. Innocent seafarers and local populations are the main victims of these attacks and the pollution they cause.”

The Eternity C and Magic Seas were part of commercial fleets whose sister vessels have made calls to Israeli ports over the past year.

Ellie Shafik of Vanguard Tech, a UK-based maritime risk management company, said: “The pause in Houthi activity did not necessarily indicate a change in underlying intent. As long as the conflict in Gaza persists, vessels with affiliations, both perceived and actual, will continue to face elevated risks.”

At least two other crew members were injured on Eternity C and the vessel was listing, according to its operator, Cosmoship Management.

Eternity C and its crew – 21 Filipinos and one Russian – were attacked with sea drones and rocket-propelled grenades fired from speedboats, maritime security sources said.

Filipino seafarers, who form one of the world’s largest pools of merchant mariners, should exercise their right to refuse to sail in “high-risk, war-like” areas, their country’s department of migrant workers said on Tuesday.

Red Sea shipping has declined by about 50% from normal levels since the first Houthi attacks in 2023, according to Jakob Larsen of the shipping association, Bimco.

The security expert said: “This reduction in traffic has persisted due to the ongoing unpredictability of the security situation. As such, Bimco does not anticipate the recent attacks will significantly alter current shipping patterns.”

Monday’s attack on Eternity C, 50 nautical miles south-west of the Yemeni port of Hodeidah, was the second on merchant vessels in the region since November 2024, according to an official at the EU’s Operation Aspides, which helps protect Red Sea shipping.

The German foreign ministry summoned the Chinese ambassador in Berlin on Tuesday after a Chinese warship used a laser to target a German aircraft taking part in Aspides.

The death toll from catastrophic flooding in Texas surged past 100 on Monday, as rescue teams waded through wreckage and rising waters in a desperate search for those still missing after days of relentless downpours.

Among the dead were at least 27 girls and counsellors who were staying at a youth summer camp on a river when disaster struck over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

Forecasters have warned of more flooding as rain falls on saturated ground, complicating recovery efforts involving helicopters, boats and dogs, as the number of victims is expected to rise still.

President Donald Trump is planning to visit Texas on Friday, the White House said, as it slammed critics claiming his cuts to weather agencies had weakened warning systems.

“Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie, and it serves no purpose during this time of national mourning,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday.

She said the National Weather Service, which The New York Times reported had several key roles in Texas unfilled before the floods, issued “timely and precise forecasts and warnings.”

Trump has described the floods that struck in the early hours of Friday as a “100-year catastrophe” that “nobody expected.”

The president, who previously said disaster relief should be handled at the state level, has signed a major disaster declaration, activating fresh federal funds and freeing up resources.

Tragedy

Kerr County in central Texas has been hardest hit of the counties devastated by the floods, with 56 adults and 28 children killed, according to the local sheriff´s office.

They include the 27 who had been staying at Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian camp that was housing about 750 people when the floodwaters struck.

Camps are a beloved tradition in the long US summer holidays, with children often staying in woods, parks and other rural areas.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz described them as a chance to make “lifetime friends — and then suddenly it turns to tragedy.”

In a terrifying display of nature’s power, the rain-swollen waters of the Guadalupe River reached treetops and the roofs of cabins as girls at the camp slept.

Blankets, teddy bears and other belongings were caked in mud. Windows in the cabins were shattered, apparently by the force of the water.

Volunteers were helping search through debris from the river, with some motivated by personal connections to the victims.

“We’re helping the parents of two of the missing children,” Louis Deppe, 62, told AFP. “The last message they got was ‘We’re being washed away,’ and the phone went dead.”

Months’ worth of rain fell in a matter of hours on Thursday night into Friday, and rain has continued in bouts since then.

The Guadalupe surged around 26 feet (eight meters) — more than a two-story building — in just 45 minutes.

Flash floods, which occur when the ground is unable to absorb torrential rainfall, are not unusual in this region of south and central Texas, known colloquially as “Flash Flood Alley.”

Human-driven climate change has made extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and heat waves more frequent and more intense in recent years.

Did US government cuts contribute to flood tragedy?published at 00:52 British Summer Time 8 July

00:52 BST 8 July

Image source, Getty Images

By Ben Chu, Jake Horton, Kayla Epstein & Marco Silva

In the aftermath of the fatal Texas floods, some have hit out at the Trump administration’s spending and staffing cuts may have impeded the ability of the National Weather Service (NWS) to adequately predict the floods and raise the alarm.

But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has said: “These offices [of the NWS] were well staffed../ so any claims to the contrary are completely false.”

BBC Verify has examined the impact of cuts under Trump, and while there has been a reduction in the workforce at the NWS, experts who we spoke to said the staffing on hand for the Texas floods appears to have been adequate.

The Trump administration has proposed a 25% cut, external to the $6.1bn (£4.4bn) budget at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA), the agency which oversees the NWS, though these cuts do not take effect until October.

Staffing levels at the NWS have already been separately reduced by the Trump administration’s wider personnel cuts, which began in January.

In total, the NWS lost 600 of its 4,200 staff, says Tom Fahy, the director of the NWS union, causing several offices across the country to operate without the necessary staffing.

But Andy Hazelton, a climate scientist who modelled hurricane paths for the NOAA until he was fired during the layoffs in February, says of the Texas floods: “I don’t think the staffing issues contributed directly to this event. They got the watches and the warnings out.”

Among the current NWS job vacancies in Texas is a senior hydrologist, a scientist who specialises in flooding events, in the San Angelo office, NSW union director Fahy tells BBC Verify.

The San Antonio office also lacks a “warning coordinating meteorologist”, who coordinates communications between local forecasting offices and emergency management services in communities, Fahy says.

However, he notes that both offices had temporarily upped their staffing in anticipation of a dangerous weather event, which is typical in these circumstances.

Read BBC Verify’s investigation into whether spending cuts played a role in the flooding disaster: Did US government cuts contribute to the Texas tragedy?

THE recent airstrikes by the United States targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan have reignited global concerns about nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. While analysts debate whether or not Iran’s programme has been set back by months or years, a more pressing question looms: will Iran abandon its nuclear ambitions? The most likely answer is in the negative.

Iran regards Israel as its primary adversary, and the former’s nuclear aspirations appear to be driven largely by deterrence. Despite a religious edict in Iran forbidding the production of nuclear weapons, and Tehran’s repeated insistence that its programme is peaceful, it perceives a nuclear-armed Israel, backed rather unconditionally by the US, as an existential threat.

Although Israel has never officially acknowledged its nuclear arsenal, it is widely believed to possess dozens of warheads. In such an asymmetric en-vironment, Iran views nuclear capability as a strategic necessity, one aimed at establishing a degree of parity.

Expecting Iran to just meekly accept Western-imposed setbacks to its nuclear programme, while ignoring Israel’s arsenal, is short-sighted. This approach may offer temporary relief, but cannot deliver a lasting solution. Feeling strategically vulnerable and unfairly singled out, Iran is likely to persist; covertly, if necessary.

The recent bombings may have delayed Iran’s technical progress, but they have not altered its strategic calculus. Tehran’s pursuit of nuclear capability is deeply embedded in its national security doctrine, and the scientific knowledge behind it cannot be erased by airstrikes.

For lasting peace, the international community must look beyond containment and coercion. The root cause of tension is the region’s nuclear imbalance. Only when Israel’s undeclared arsenal is subjected to international scrutiny, and ultimately dismantled, can Iran be expected to halt its nuclear ambitions. Such a step would lend moral authority to efforts pressuring Iran to abandon its programme.

Moreover, rectifying this imbalance could pave the way for a Middle East nuclear weapons-free zone; a proposal repeatedly raised at the United Nations, but consistently blocked primarily due to Israeli resistance and Western double standards.

Enduring peace cannot be built on selective enforcement. As long as one state is permitted to maintain a clandestine arsenal while others are penalised for seeking strategic parity, instability will persist. Disarmament must be universal to be meaningful and sustainable. The path to durable peace lies not in airstrikes or sanctions, but in fairness, dialogue and mutual security guarantees. The sooner the international community recognises this fact, the better it surely would be.

Ahmad Fakir Muhammad
Karachi

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2025

WASHINGTON: The United States on Monday announced it was revoking its designation as a “foreign terrorist organisation” of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), a group once linked to Al Qaeda that toppled Syria’s government in December.

“In consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury, I hereby revoke the designation of Al Nusrah Front, also known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (and other aliases) as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation,” said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a memo.

An armed coalition led by HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa overthrew then-Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last year, ending half a century of brutal rule by the latter’s family.

Sharaa took over as interim president, a move that has been cautiously welcomed in Washington, Europe and elsewhere, with historic foe Israel seeking to build ties with the new government. Washington’s move will formally take effect on Tuesday, and comes after US President Donald Trump last week formally dismantled his country’s sanctions against Syria.

Trump had lifted most sanctions against Syria in May, responding to appeals from Saudi Arabia and Turkiye to help reintegrate the war-battered country into the global economy.

The United States had already removed a bounty on Sharaa’s head after he came to power. HTS was earlier known as Al Nusra Front, and was formerly the branch of Al Qaeda in Syria, but it broke ties with the jihadist group in 2016 and sought to soften its image.

As of 2017, HTS claimed control of swaths of the province of Idlib, in Syria’s northwest, and went on to develop a civil administration in the area, amid accusations of brutal abuses against those who dared dissent.

In January, after overthrowing Assad’s regime, the new authorities announced the dissolution of all armed factions, with some groups including HTS being integrated into bodies such as the country’s new police force.

International reengagement

On Friday, Syria said it was willing to cooperate with the United States to reimplement a 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel. The United States and European countries have moved steadily to reengage with Syria since Sharaa took over as interim president, with Britain reestablishing diplomatic ties on Saturday after more than a decade.

Britain has also lifted sanctions on Syria’s interior and defence ministries, as well as on various media groups, intelligence agencies and some sectors of the economy.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2025

• July 9 deadline set to be postponed until next month: White House
• Countries aligning with BRICS threatened with steeper tariffs

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump announced tariffs of 25 per cent on Japan and South Korea on Monday, stepping up pressure on the two key US allies and a dozen other economies to reach trade deals with Washington.

Trump issued similar letters to Malaysia, Myanmar, Kazakhstan, South Africa and Laos, saying he would slap duties on their products ranging from 25pc to 40pc.

However, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday that Trump would sign an executive order later in the day to delay his original July 9 deadline for steeper tariffs to take effect — postponing their imposition to August 1.

Besides Japan and South Korea, she added, there would be approximately 12 other partners receiving letters from Trump soon.

With the deadline extension, Leavitt noted that Trump would set out the “reciprocal tariff rate” for partners in the coming month as negotiations continue.

Asked why Trump opted to start with South Korea, Leavitt said: “It’s the President’s prerogative, and those are the countries he chose.”

“This announcement will send a chilling message to others,” said Asia Society Policy Institute Vice President Wendy Cutler, referring to Trump’s initial announcements on Tokyo and Seoul.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent believed there would be a number of deals coming up: “We are going to have several announcements in the next 48 hours.”

Trump imposed a 10 per cent tariff on imports from almost all trading partners in early April, but some economies including the European Union were slated to have this rate increase further. As markets plunged at the time, Trump halted the steeper levies to allow for talks. That pause expires on Wednesday.

‘Anti-American policies’

Also, in a social media post on Monday, Trump threatened another 10pc tariff on countries aligning themselves with the emerging BRICS nations, accusing them of “Anti-American policies” after they slammed his duties at a summit.

On Sunday, BRICS leaders described Trump’s stop-start tariff wars as “indiscriminate”, damaging, and illegal, drawing a quick rebuke from the pugilistic US president.

The 11-nation grouping — which also includes US allies Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia — is concluding a two-day summit in Rio de Janeiro.

BRICS members account for about half the world’s population and 40pc of global economic output.

Some US allies inside the bloc had tried to blunt criticism by not mentioning Trump by name in their summit statement.

Saudi Arabia — one of the world’s biggest purchasers of US high-tech weapons — even kept its foreign minister away from Sunday’s talks and a BRICS “family photo” of leaders, seemingly to avoid Washington’s ire.

Climate financing

Earlier, the leaders of the BRICS addressed the shared challenges of global warming on Monday, the final day of their summit in Rio de Janeiro, demanding that wealthy nations fund mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions in poorer nations.

In his opening remarks, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva blasted denialism of the climate emergency, indirectly criticising President Trump’s decision to pull his country out of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

“The Global South is in a position to lead a new development paradigm without repeating the mistakes of the past.”

A joint statement from BRICS leaders released on Sunday argued that petroleum will continue to play an important role in the global energy mix, particularly in developing economies.

In their joint statement, BRICS leaders also underscored that providing climate finance “is a responsibility of developed countries towards developing countries,” which is the standard position for emerging economies in global negotiations.

The BRICS leaders also blasted policies such as carbon border taxes and anti-deforestation laws, which Europe recently adopted, for imposing what they called “discriminatory protectionist measures” under the pretext of environmental concerns.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2025

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Monday set a 25 percent tax on goods imported from Japan and South Korea, as well as new tariff rates on a dozen other nations that would go into effect on Aug. 1.

Trump provided notice by posting letters on Truth Social that were addressed to the leaders of the various countries. The letters warned them to not retaliate by increasing their own import taxes, or else the Trump administration would further increase tariffs.

“If for any reason you decide to raise your Tariffs, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added onto the 25 percent that we charge,” Trump wrote in the letters to Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung.

The letters were not the final word from Trump on tariffs, so much as another episode in a global economic drama in which he has placed himself at the center. His moves have raised fears that economic growth would slow to a trickle, if not make the US and other nations more vulnerable to a recession. But Trump is confident that tariffs are necessary to bring back domestic manufacturing and fund the tax cuts he signed into law last Friday.

He mixed his sense of aggression with a willingness to still negotiate, signaling the likelihood that the drama and uncertainty would continue and that few things are ever final with Trump.

Imports from Myanmar and Laos would be taxed at 40 percent, Cambodia and Thailand at 36 percent, Serbia and Bangladesh at 35 percent, Indonesia at 32 percent, South Africa and Bosnia and Herzegovina at 30 percent and Kazakhstan, Malaysia and Tunisia at 25 percent.

Trump placed the word “only” before revealing the rate in his letters to the foreign leaders, implying that he was being generous with his tariffs. But the letters generally followed a standard format, so much so that the one to Bosnia and Herzegovina initially addressed its woman leader, Željka Cvijanović, as “Mr. President.” Trump later posted a corrected letter.

Trade talks have yet to deliver several deals

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump was by setting the rates himself creating “tailor-made trade plans for each and every country on this planet and that’s what this administration continues to be focused on.”

Following a now well-worn pattern, Trump plans to continue sharing the letters sent to his counterparts on social media and then mail them the documents, a stark departure from the more formal practices of all his predecessors when negotiating trade agreements.

The letters are not agreed-to settlements but Trump’s own choice on rates, a sign that the closed-door talks with foreign delegations failed to produce satisfactory results for either side.

Wendy Cutler, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute who formerly worked in the office of the US Trade Representative, said the tariff hikes on Japan and South Korea were “unfortunate.”

“Both have been close partners on economic security matters and have a lot to offer the United States on priority matters like shipbuilding, semiconductors, critical minerals and energy cooperation,” Cutler said.

Trump still has outstanding differences on trade with the European Union and India, among other trading partners. Tougher talks with China are on a longer time horizon in which imports from that nation are being taxed at 55 percent.

The office of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement that the tariff rates announced by Trump mischaracterized the trade relationship with the US, but it would “continue with its diplomatic efforts toward a more balanced and mutually beneficial trade relationship with the United States” after having proposed a trade framework on May 20.

Higher tariffs prompt market worries, more uncertainty ahead

The S&P 500 stock index was down 0.8 percent in Monday trading, while the interest charged on 10-year US Treasury notes had increased to nearly 4.39 percent, a figure that could translate into elevated rates for mortgages and auto loans.

Trump has declared an economic emergency to unilaterally impose the taxes, suggesting they are remedies for past trade deficits even though many US consumers have come to value autos, electronics and other goods from Japan and South Korea. The constitution grants Congress the power to levy tariffs under normal circumstances, though tariffs can also result from executive branch investigations regarding national security risks.

Trump’s ability to impose tariffs through an economic emergency is under legal challenge, with the administration appealing a May ruling by the US Court of International Trade that said the president exceeded his authority.

It’s unclear what he gains strategically against China — another stated reason for the tariffs — by challenging two crucial partners in Asia, Japan and South Korea, that could counter China’s economic heft.

“These tariffs may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your Country,” Trump wrote in both letters.

Because the new tariff rates go into effect in roughly three weeks, Trump is setting up a period of possibly tempestuous talks among the US and its trade partners to reach new frameworks.

“I don’t see a huge escalation or a walk back — it’s just more of the same,” said Scott Lincicome, a vice president at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank

Trump initially roiled the financial markets by announcing tariff rates on dozens of countries, including 24 percent on Japan and 25 percent on South Korea. In order to calm the markets, Trump unveiled a 90-day negotiating period during which goods from most countries were taxed at a baseline 10 percent. So far, the rates in the letters sent by Trump either match his April 2 tariffs or are generally close to them.

The 90-day negotiating period technically ends on Wednesday, even as multiple administration officials suggested the three-week period before implementation is akin to overtime for additional talks that could change the rates. Trump plans to sign an executive order on Monday to delay the official tariff increases until Aug. 1, Leavitt said.

Congressionally approved Trade agreements historically have sometimes taken years to negotiate because of the complexity.

Administration officials have said Trump is relying on tariff revenues to help offset the tax cuts he signed into law on July 4, a move that could shift a greater share of the federal tax burden onto the middle class and poor as importers would likely pass along much of the cost of the tariffs. Trump has warned major retailers such as Walmart to simply “eat” the higher costs, instead of increasing prices in ways that could intensify inflation.

Josh Lipsky, chair of international economics at The Atlantic Council, said that a three-week delay in imposing the tariffs was unlikely sufficient for meaningful talks to take place.

“I take it as a signal that he is serious about most of these tariffs and it’s not all a negotiating posture,” Lipsky said.

Trade gaps persist, more tariff hikes are possible

Trump’s team promised 90 deals in 90 days, but his negotiations so far have produced only two trade frameworks.

His outline of a deal with Vietnam was clearly designed to box out China from routing its America-bound goods through that country, by doubling the 20 percent tariff charged on Vietnamese imports on anything traded transnationally.

The quotas in the signed United Kingdom framework would spare that nation from the higher tariff rates being charged on steel, aluminum and autos, though British goods would generally face a 10 percent tariff.

The United States ran a $69.4 billion trade imbalance in goods with Japan in 2024 and a $66 billion imbalance with South Korea, according to the Census Bureau. The trade deficits are the differences between what the US exports to a country relative to what it imports.

According to Trump’s letters, autos would be tariffed separately at the standard 25 percent worldwide, while steel and aluminum imports would be taxed on 50 percent.

This is not the first time that Trump has tangled with Japan and South Korea on trade — and the new tariffs suggest his past deals made during his first term failed to deliver on his administration’s own hype.

In 2018, during Trump’s first term, his administration celebrated a revamped trade agreement with South Korea as a major win. And in 2019, Trump signed a limited agreement with Japan on agricultural products and digital trade that at the time he called a “huge victory for America’s farmers, ranchers and growers.”

Trump has also said on social media that countries aligned with the policy goals of BRICS, an organization composed of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, would face additional tariffs of 10 percent.

 

 

HUNT: Rescuers in Texas searched on Monday for bodies swept away by flash floods that killed more than 90 people, including 27 girls and counsellors at a summer camp destroyed by torrents of water.

The United States was shocked at the disaster over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, and forecasters warned of more flooding as rain falls on saturated ground.

“Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy,” Camp Mystic said in a statement confirming the 27 deaths at the all-girls camp, located next to a river.

The White House on Monday put the overall number of dead from the flooding at 91, while Texas Senator Ted Cruz told reporters that the toll was continuing to rise.

27 girls, camp counsellors among the deceased

“Texas is grieving right now — the pain, the shock of what has transpired these last few days has broken the heart of our state,” Cruz told reporters.

“The children, little girls, who were lost at Camp Mystic, that’s every parent’s nightmare.” Camps are a beloved tradition in the long US summer holidays, with children often staying in woods, parks and other rural areas.

Cruz described them as a chance to make “lifetime friends — and then suddenly it turns to tragedy.”

President Donald Trump is planning to visit Texas on Friday, the White House said, as it slammed critics claiming his cuts to weather agencies had weakened warning systems.

Helicopters and boats were taking part in the grim search across an area popular with tourists as well as summer camps.

Camp Mystic was a Christian camp where about 750 people had been staying when the floodwaters struck.

In a terrifying display of nature’s power, the rain-swollen waters of the Guadalupe River reached treetops and the roofs of cabins as girls at the camp slept.

Blankets, teddy bears and other belongings were caked in mud. Windows in the cabins were shattered, apparently by the force of the water.

Months’ worth of rain fell in a matter of hours on Thursday night into Friday, and rain has continued in bouts since then.

The Guadalupe surged around 26 feet (eight metres) — more than a two-story building — in just 45 minutes.

“Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy,” the camp said in a statement on Monday.

Richard Eastland, 70, the co-owner and director of Camp Mystic, died trying to save the children at his camp during the flood.

“If he wasn’t going to die of natural causes, this was the only other way, saving the girls that he so loved and cared for,” Eastland’s grandson, George Eastland, wrote on Instagram.

In Hill County, where the worst flooding occurred, two to four inches of more rain were expected to fall, with isolated areas getting up to 10 inches of rain.

The weather service issued a flood watch through Monday night in the region. State emergency management officials had warned on Thursday, ahead of the July 4 holiday, that parts of central Texas faced the possibility of heavy showers and flash floods based on weather forecasts.

Confluence of disaster

But twice as much rain as was predicted ended up falling over two branches of the Guadalupe just upstream of the fork where they converge, sending all of that water racing into the single river channel where it slices through Kerrville, a local official said. Governor Greg Abbott said the circumstances of the flooding, and the adequacy of weather forecasts and warning systems, would be scrutinised once the immediate situation was brought under control.

In the meantime, search-and-rescue operations were continuing, with hundreds of emergency personnel on the ground contending with a myriad of challenges.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2025

DOHA: Israel and Hamas held indirect talks in Qatar on Monday, according to a Palestinian official, ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting in Washington with President Donald Trump, who is pushing for a ceasefire deal on Gaza.

The latest round of negotiations on the war in Gaza began on Sunday in Doha, aiming to broker a ceasefire and reach an agreement on the release of Israeli prisoners in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

A Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations told AFP a second session was held on Monday and ended with “no breakthrough”.

The Hamas and Israeli delegations were due to resume talks later on Monday, the official said.

Palestinian group’s response to US-backed ceasefire proposal, had ‘unacceptable’ demands, says Israeli PM

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the delegations had exchanged views on Sunday via mediators, with representatives of the two sides seated in different rooms in the same building.

Ahead of Netanyahu’s third visit since Trump’s return to office this year, the US president said there was a “good chance we have a deal with Hamas… during the coming week”.

“We’ve gotten a lot of the out, but pertaining to the remaining [prisoners], quite a few of them will be coming out,” he told journalists.

Netanyahu, speaking before heading to Washington, said his meeting with Trump could “definitely help advance this” deal after 21 months of war.

Netanyahu said he had dispatched the team to the Qatari capital with “clear instructions” to reach an agreement “under the conditions that we have agreed to”.

He previously said Hamas’s response to a draft US-backed ceasefire proposal, conveyed through Qatari and Egyptian mediators, contained “unacceptable” demands.

Two Palestinian sources close to the discussions had earlier told AFP the proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living Israeli prisoners and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel.

However, they said, the group was also demanding certain conditions for Israel’s withdrawal, guarantees against a resumption of fighting during negotiations, and the return of the UN-led aid distribution system.

Trump is scheduled to meet the Israeli premier on Monday, the White House said, without the usual presence of journalists.

In Israel’s coastal hub of Tel Aviv, hours before the meeting, an AFP photographer said dozens of people including relatives of Israeli prisoners demonstrated to demand their release.

“President Trump — make history. Bring them all home. End the war,” read a sign held by protesters outside the US diplomatic mission in the city.

Of the 251 Israeli prisoners taken by Palestinian fighters during the Hamas attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, but the Israeli military believes that 27 of them are dead.

Recent efforts to broker a truce have repeatedly failed, with the primary point of contention being Israel’s rejection of Hamas’s demand for a lasting ceasefire.

In Gaza, the civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 12 people on Monday, including six in a clinic housing people displaced by the war.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean media are unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency.

Salman Qudum, who survived the attack on the clinic in Gaza City, said: “We don’t know where to go or what to do.” Qudum said the negotiators and mediators in Doha must “apply pressure” to secure a ceasefire “because the people can’t take this anymore”.

In a statement on Monday, the Israeli military claimed it had struck “dozens of terrorists, weapons depots, observation posts, military buildings and other terror infrastructures” across Gaza over the past 24 hours.

The war has created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip.

A US- and Israel-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), took the lead in food distribution in the territory in late May, when Israel partially lifted a more than two-month blockade on aid deliveries.

But its operations have had a chaotic rollout, with repeated reports of aid seekers killed near its facilities while awaiting rations.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2025