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  • The Athletic: AJ Dybantsa, leads U.S. to gold: Takeaways – NBA

    The Athletic: AJ Dybantsa, leads U.S. to gold: Takeaways – NBA

    1. The Athletic: AJ Dybantsa, leads U.S. to gold: Takeaways  NBA
    2. FIBA U19 winners and losers: College basketball takeaways on AJ Dybantsa, Mikel Brown Jr. and Olivier Rioux  CBS Sports
    3. Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd and Koa Peat Bring Home the Gold  Sports Illustrated
    4. McCasland, Team USA top Germany in FIBA World Cup  dailytoreador.com
    5. USA Win 2025 FIBA U19 Men’s World Cup Gold Medal  USA Basketball

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  • South Africa begin WAFCON title defence with confident win over Ghana

    South Africa begin WAFCON title defence with confident win over Ghana


    Published:

    Reigning champions South Africa got their 2025 TotalEnergies CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations campaign off to a perfect start with a convincing 2-0 victory over Ghana in their Group C opener in Oujda on Monday.

    Goals from Linda Motlhalo and Jermaine Seoposenwe inside the opening 35 minutes gave Banyana Banyana the result they needed to assert their status as title contenders in the expanded 12-team competition.

    Desiree Ellis’ side looked composed from the outset and took the lead on 28 minutes after a VAR review confirmed a penalty for a foul on Noxolo Cesane.

    Motlhalo stepped up and slotted home coolly to the bottom right corner, giving South Africa the advantage their early pressure deserved.

    Moments later, they struck again. Full-back Lebohang Ramalepe surged forward and threaded a clever pass into the path of Seoposenwe, who calmly finished low into the far corner to double the lead.

    Ghana, making their return to WAFCON after missing the last edition, struggled to match the pace and organisation of their more experienced opponents.

    While they grew into the contest in the second half, they were wasteful in front of goal, with both Evelyn Badu and Alice Kusi hitting the crossbar.

    Despite several promising spells of pressure after the break, the Black Queens were repeatedly denied by South African goalkeeper Andile Dlamini, who made key saves to preserve the clean sheet.

    South Africa managed the game well in the closing stages, introducing fresh legs through Hildah Magaia and Ronnel Donnelly to control possession and absorb Ghana’s late push.

    The result extends Banyana Banyana’s impressive record in opening WAFCON matches, having now won their last three tournament openers, including previous wins over Nigeria in 2018 and 2022.

    Ghana, meanwhile, will need to regroup quickly if they are to progress from a tricky Group C that also includes Mali and Tanzania.


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  • Retinal cells rewire to preserve vision in retinitis pigmentosa

    Retinal cells rewire to preserve vision in retinitis pigmentosa

    Scientists at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA have discovered that certain retinal cells can rewire themselves when vision begins to deteriorate in retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic eye disease that leads to progressive blindness. In a study using mouse models, researchers found that rod bipolar cells, neurons that normally receive signals from rods that provide night vision, can form new functional connections with cones that provide daytime vision when their usual partners stop working. The study appears in Current Biology.

    Why it matters

    Retinitis pigmentosa affects millions of people worldwide and is a leading cause of inherited blindness. While the disease often progresses slowly, with some patients maintaining a surprising amount of usable vision into middle age, little is known about how retinal circuits adapt to cell loss. Understanding these natural adaptation mechanisms could reveal new targets for treatments aimed at preserving vision.

    What the study did

    Researchers used rhodopsin knockout mice that model early retinitis pigmentosa, where rod cells cannot respond to light and degeneration proceeds slowly. They made electrical recordings from individual rod bipolar cells, neurons that normally connect to rods, to see how these cells behaved when their usual input was lost. The team also used additional mouse models lacking different components of rod signaling to determine what triggers the rewiring process. They supported their single-cell findings with whole-retina electrical measurements.

    What they found

    Rod bipolar cells in mice lacking functional rods showed large-amplitude responses driven by cone cells instead of their normal rod inputs. These rewired responses were strong and had the expected electrical characteristics of cone-driven signals. The rewiring occurred specifically in mice with rod degeneration, but not in other mouse models that lacked rod light responses without actual cell death. This suggests that the cellular rewiring is triggered by the degeneration process itself, rather than simply the absence of light responses or broken synapses.

    The findings complement the research team’s previous 2023 work showing that individual cone cells can remain functional even after severe structural changes in later disease stages. Together, these studies reveal that retinal circuits maintain function through different adaptation mechanisms at various stages of disease progression. The research shows that retinal adaptation occurs through different mechanisms at various disease stages, which could help scientists identify new targets for preserving vision in patients with inherited retinal diseases.

    From the experts

    “Our findings show that the retina adapts to the loss of rods in ways that attempt to preserve daytime light sensitivity in the retina,” said senior author A.P. Sampath, Ph.D. of the Jules Stein Eye Institute at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “When the usual connections between rod bipolar cells and rods are lost, these cells can rewire themselves to receive signals from cones instead. The signal for this plasticity appears to be degeneration itself, perhaps through the role of glial support cells or factors released by dying cells.”

    What’s next

    One of the open questions is whether this rewiring represents a general mechanism used by the retina when rods die. The group is currently exploring this possibility with other mutant mice that carry mutations to rhodopsin and other rod proteins that are known to cause retinitis pigmentosa in humans.

    Source:

    University of California – Los Angeles Health Sciences

    Journal reference:

    Bonezzi, P. J., et al. (2025). Photoreceptor degeneration induces homeostatic rewiring of rod bipolar cells. Current Biology. doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.057.

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  • Increased COVID-19 Testing Skewed Understanding of Respiratory Disease Trends

    Increased COVID-19 Testing Skewed Understanding of Respiratory Disease Trends

    Testing practices during and after the COVID-19 pandemic were found to have significant implications on the post-pandemic understanding of respiratory diseases, according to a study published in the Journal of Infection and Public Health.1 Because of increased COVID-19 testing for healthy individuals, researchers uncovered a potential for overdiagnosis of infectious diseases including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, and invasive pneumococcal disease.

    “RSV is a major cause of infant hospitalizations, while influenza tends to affect toddlers and school-aged children more commonly,” wrote authors of the study. “Bacterial infections, though less frequent, remain a concern. Especially, children with complex chronic diseases are more susceptible to invasive infections caused by Streptococcus Pneumonia, known as invasive pneumococcal disease, which is a severe and potentially life-threatening condition.”

    Indeed, researchers’ understanding of how respiratory diseases interact with one another was crucial during times like the COVID-19 pandemic. Even more important for pediatric patients, major pandemic-level events have been found to significantly impact epidemiology patterns of respiratory diseases.2

    The current study’s researchers wanted to place the focus on the pandemic and the non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) that came from it. | image credit: Drobot Dean / stock.adobe.com

    READ MORE: ACIP Votes to Expand RSV Vaccine Recommendation to Include Adults 50 Years and Older

    Along with older adults over 65, children too are deemed at risk of contracting respiratory illnesses; a risk that was significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to BMC Pulmonary Medicine, rhinovirus/enterovirus and RSV were the most prominent among children during the COVID-19 era.3

    Many researchers and health care professionals are aware of the complex interplay between various respiratory viruses and how they are manifested in children. However, researchers of the current study wanted to place the focus on the pandemic and the non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) that came from it.

    “A potential consequence of these interventions has been the phenomenon known as ‘immunity debt,’ which refers to the reduction in population immunity due to lack of exposure to common pathogens during the pandemic,” continued the authors.1 “The concept of immunity debt has been hypothesized to explain the post-pandemic surge in respiratory infections, and the focus of this study is to present empirical data scrutinizing and quantifying these patterns.”

    Focusing on the 3 aforementioned respiratory diseases, researchers’ goal was to explore the overall impact NPIs that emerged during the pandemic had on RSV, influenza, and invasive pneumococcal disease. They conducted a national, population-based analysis of children in Denmark over a 10-year period lasting from 2012 to 2022.

    Throughout the time period, researchers scanned microbiology tests and hospital contacts for infection rates and testing patterns before, during, and after the pandemic. All participants included in the study were born in Denmark and between 0 and 17 years old during the study period.

    “The outcomes of interest were the occurrences of tests for 3 different pathogens, specifically RSV, influenza virus, and pneumococcus,” they wrote.1 “Testing for COVID-19 was also included to provide context within the study period. Testing patterns were described based on both the absolute number of tests performed and the percentage of positive tests.”

    Researchers included a total of 1,790,464 unique individuals in the final analysis.

    Overall, COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns led to decreased cases of respiratory diseases. Once those lockdowns were lifted, respiratory infections experienced a resurgence. With COVID-19 emerging at this time as a notable respiratory illness alongside RSV, the flu, and pneumococcus, testing for respiratory pathogens noticeably increased among children in Denmark.

    “The NPIs for COVID-19 not only limited the spread of the targeted virus but also substantially decreased the incidence of RSV, influenza, and pneumococcus,” wrote the authors.1 “The subsequent lifting of restrictions led to a notable resurgence of these infections, likely attributable to immunity debt arising from reduced pathogen circulation.”

    With further evidence regarding immunity debt uncovered, studies like this are constantly being conducted to further the knowledge of health care professionals and their understanding of COVID-19. Like many of the ongoing studies regarding COVID-19’s impact on health care and respiratory health, evidence from the current study can now be used to inform future policy regarding respiratory viruses, infectious diseases, and how they interact with each other among children.

    “Our study comprehensively described the impact of behavioral changes and immunity debt on infectious disease epidemiology,” concluded the authors.1 “The rising number of tests among healthy children contributes to ongoing discussions regarding overdiagnosis and the implications for health care policy.”

    READ MORE: Respiratory Resource Center

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    References
    1. Jensen A, Stensballe LG. Impact of COVID-19 on testing, positive cases, patient characteristics, and hospital contacts for respiratory syncytial virus, influenza, and pneumococcus in Danish children. J Infect Public Health. 2025;18(2):102660. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2025.102660
    2. Dallmeyer LK, Schüz ML, Fragkou PC, et al. Epidemiology of respiratory viruses among children during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis. IJID. 2023;138:10-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2023.10.023
    3. Khales P, Razizadeh MH, Ghorbani S, et al. Prevalence of respiratory viruses in children with respiratory tract infections during the COVID-19 pandemic era: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Pulm Med. 2025;25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12890-025-03587-z

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  • Milan second at the end of a chaotic Tour de France Stage 2

    Milan second at the end of a chaotic Tour de France Stage 2

    The Italian sprinter was finally able to challenge for the stage win after two stressful opening days of racing at his debut Tour de France.

    It was a crash-marred third stage to the Tour de France with tensions still high in the bunch despite no breakaway going clear at any point throughout the 178.3km stage from Valenciennes to Dunkerque.

    Lidl-Trek remained well-positioned and out of trouble all day with their first key point, the intermediate sprint with around 60 kilometers of racing to go.

    There Milan added maximum points to his growing tally but it was also, unfortunately, where the race took its first victim with Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin Deceuninck), who started the day in the lead of the green jersey standings, crashing out of the race. Another crash inside five kilometers to go saw some riders go down before another just round the final turn but, thankfully, Lidl-Trek were able to avoid getting caught up.

    Milan’s teammates appeared to be one of the most organized teams heading into the final couple of kilometers before the Italian launch sprint after the final corner. However Soudal-QuickStep’s Tim Merlier was able to carry enough speed to come up and pass Milan right at the last moment with the Belgian beating Milan in a photo finish as the pair were separated by only centimeters on the line.

    Of course, I am a little bit disappointed. You cannot be super happy for second place. I mean, it is always a big result, and I am happy for the jersey that we achieved today. It was a little bit of a tough final but I tried my best in the sprint and, maybe I should have waited a but more, but after the stage it’s always easier to say what you could have done. We just have to learn from this finish and keep fighting for the victory.

    With the headwind it is more tough but chapeau to Tim [Merlier] for the win. The green jersey was always something we have been thinking about and now we have to keep believing in it. I have to say, that I am sorry for Jasper [Philipsen] who crashed out today and I hope he will be okay.

    Stage 3 Zac Williams Photo Gallery


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  • Zap teams up with TrueLayer and DNA Payments for new payments offering

    Zap teams up with TrueLayer and DNA Payments for new payments offering

    Source: Leila PR

    Zap, a leading digital design and marketing agency, has launched its new payments product alongside Zap Cashier, a service that promises a seamless payment experience, embedded directly into Zap’s technology platform.

    Zap Pay’s functionality is secured by TrueLayer, Europe’s foremost Pay by Bank provider, and DNA Payments, one of Europe’s leading independent players in card payments. Over a quarter of Zap’s clients are already using the service.

    The launch comes on the back of rising demand from end users and merchants to deliver faster, smoother payment journeys, features that are essential in the highly competitive gaming space. With Zap Cashier, end-users will enjoy a fully integrated pay-in and pay-out journey, eliminating the need for manual bank transfers.

    For merchants, Zap Cashier is already delivering significant time and cost savings, with less administration needed thanks to its full integration with the Zap platform. The service will also deliver enhanced customer support for Zap’s clients and their users.

    Capital Competitions have been an early adopter of Zap’s payment proposition. Jamie Jackson, director at Capital Competitions said: “Since moving to Zap Pay our customer feedback has been great. The flow is clear and easy to use. We have noticed a much higher acceptance rate with less payment declines. The interface is simple and easy to use with great reporting tools on revenue received.”

    Steven Sefton, digital director at Zap, said: “This is the culmination of over a year’s worth of development to deliver our customers a better player experience. It’s a pleasure to be working with DNA Payments and TrueLayer to deliver better services to platforms and their users alike.”

    “Pay by Bank is redefining how platforms handle payments,” said Mariko Beising, VP partnerships at TrueLayer. “Zap’s move reflects the broader shift we’re seeing: businesses across industries are turning to Pay by Bank to deliver better user experiences and lower payment costs.”

    Colin Neil, head of corporate at DNA Payments, added: “Simple, unified payments are the foundation of a great user experience and are an absolute necessity across a number of sectors. With our market-leading payment platform and Zap’s drive to deliver the best competition system in the UK, we’re able to deliver a best-in-class experience for site owners and users.”

    DNA Payments has direct plugins with leading ecommerce CMS platforms like Big Commerce and WooCommerce, underpinned by its leading checkout payments gateway. This unrivalled expertise in online payments allowed the team to help bring this product to market.

    Further reading: TrueLayer surpasses 15m active users in consumer network

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  • Trade grades: Norman Powell bolsters Heat offense as Clippers take new path

    Trade grades: Norman Powell bolsters Heat offense as Clippers take new path

    Another summer of curious trades continues as we move through the first weeks of July. This time, it’s the Utah Jazz, Los Angeles Clippers and Miami Heat teaming up to provide a head-scratcher. The Jazz are trading John Collins to the Clippers, with Los Angeles sending Norman Powell to the Heat, and Miami dealing Kevin Love and Kyle Anderson to Utah, which also receives a 2027 second-round pick.

    League sources confirmed the deal to The Athletic. 

    ESPN first reported the trade.

    Two of the involved teams makes sense, but I’m a little confused by a third squad being involved. So, let’s bust out the red pen and throw some grades down to see if we can figure it out together:

    Miami Heat receive Norman Powell

    If the Heat are getting the Powell we saw for the Clippers last season, this is a massive addition. That version of Powell was a borderline All-Star, and I thought he should have received the nod for the Clippers over James Harden. He was a tremendous scorer, averaging a career-best 21.8 points on 48.4/41.8/80.4 shooting splits. That’s with Powell tailing off in the second half of the season as he dealt with multiple injuries, including his hamstring.

    Prior to the All-Star break, Powell was even more destructive with his scoring. Through his first 45 games, he averaged 24.2 points with 49.6/42.8/81.9 splits. The 32-year-old Powell took his scoring to new heights, so injecting anything close to that production into Miami’s 21st-ranked offense would be huge. Some of Miami’s struggles on offense were due to the Jimmy Butler debacle that dominated the first half of the season. It improved a little bit to 19th once he was officially done playing for the team prior to the trade, but the Heat still struggled to generate good, easy buckets.

    That’s Powell’s sweet spot.

    He’s so efficient scoring off the catch or attacking defenders on the move. You can isolate him, run him off screens, use him with dribble hand-off action and lean on him as a floor-spacing threat. The Heat can trust him to alleviate the scoring load for Tyler Herro and give Bam Adebayo a weapon to use in their two-man game. Powell just has to stay healthy, which is another key component. He’s missed at least 22 games in three of the last four seasons. Powell is also headed into a contract season, so it’s mutually beneficial for both parties that he replicates the season he just had for the Clippers.

    Grade: A-

    Los Angeles Clippers receive John Collins

    Admittedly, this is the part of the trade I’m having a little trouble with understanding. I loved the dynamic the Clippers had with Powell and felt they really needed what he gave them throughout the season. With most teams, you can’t assume injuries and should approach most seasons expecting everybody to be healthy. I don’t think you can do that with the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard. You have to bake in the idea of him missing many games. I have even offered up the theory he should consistently have his season begin in early January to keep him healthy for the playoffs, which sort of worked last season.

    Losing Powell’s production will be a blow to the Clippers’ attack. Will acquiring Collins make up for that loss? It’s possible! Collins is a solid scorer at the 4, and he’s been a good enough 3-point shooter during his career to believe he can stretch the floor some. Adding him to the mix gives the Clippers a lob threat when he’s running a pick-and-roll with Harden or Leonard. The offense they can execute with Collins could definitely add certain dynamics Powell’s presence didn’t provide.

    With that being said, other questions do remain.

    Does this deal clog up things at the rim with Ivica Zubac already there? Does this team need to be bigger after bringing in Brook Lopez as a backup big man? Should the Clippers be more traditional with their power forward position or continue Ty Lue’s approach of swapping in rangy wings for defensive versatility? Collins is not a defensive player, so having him and Harden on the floor together could be difficult.

    Like Powell, Collins is on an expiring deal, so this deal isn’t necessarily a long-term play. The 27-year-old is a one-year rental that they can assess. The Clippers do get younger and more athletic, but I think I’d rather get volume scoring from a guard than at power forward. Unless Bogdan Bogdanović can completely replace Powell’s production, I think this is a risky and potentially poor swap by the Clippers.

    Grade: C+

    Utah Jazz receive Kyle Anderson, Kevin Love and a 2027 second-round pick

    It cost the Jazz a second-round pick and Rudy Gay to acquire Collins two years ago. In this deal, they receive a future second-round pick, Love and Anderson to move him. I guess it’s a wash after having Collins for a couple of seasons. Given Utah’s goals, this trade makes sense. The Jazz can talk the good talk about competing because that helps sell tickets, but this team will be awful and tanking at some point again next season. The latter endeavor didn’t work out for getting Cooper Flagg in 2025, but the Jazz are hoping it works out for the top of the loaded 2026 draft class, which is headlined by BYU star freshman AJ Dybantsa.

    I would assume Love is getting bought out and won’t spend time with the Jazz. Being on a rebuilding team at this point in his career doesn’t make sense for either side. I could see them trying to make Anderson part of their rotation and flipping him some time before the trade deadline. He is a valuable role player a lot of teams would like to have. The Jazz could even flip him before the season even starts if they wanted to. They are leaning into the tank, though, and, even though Collins wasn’t going to truly add enough wins to their roster to ruin the losing effort, they shouldn’t take any chances with it.

    Grade: C+

    (Photo of Norman Powell: Rich Storry / Getty Images)

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  • Brian Lara’s 400 survives as Mulder declares at 367*

    Brian Lara’s 400 survives as Mulder declares at 367*





    Brian Lara’s 400 survives as Mulder declares at 367* – Daily Times



































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  • CoreWeave to acquire Core Scientific in $9 billion all-stock deal

    CoreWeave to acquire Core Scientific in $9 billion all-stock deal

    CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator, left, testifies before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation in Washington on May 8, 2025.

    Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images

    Artificial intelligence-oriented cloud infrastructure company CoreWeave said Monday it will acquire Core Scientific, a data center infrastructure provider, in an all-stock deal valued at approximately $9 billion.

    CoreWeave stock was down about 2% in trading on Monday afternoon, while Core Scientific stock was about 16% lower. Shares of both companies rallied at the end of June after the Wall Street Journal reported that talks were underway for an acquisition.

    “I think that, like many things that we do, it takes the market some time to internalize the value proposition that we are representing to the market and how it all fits together,” CoreWeave CEO Mike Intrator told CNBC in an interview.

    In a presentation to investors, CoreWeave said the move will eliminate $10 billion in future lease obligations and significantly enhance operating efficiency.

    “We’re not paying rent, right, for the next 15 years,” Intrator said.

    The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025, pending regulatory and shareholder approval.

    The deal expands CoreWeave’s access to power and real estate, giving it ownership of 1.3 gigawatts of gross capacity across Core Scientific’s U.S. data center footprint, with another gigawatt available for future growth.

    Of Core Scientific’s 1.3 gigawatts, 840 megawatts are allocated to CoreWeave’s contracts at five locations, Nitin Agrawal, CoreWeave’s finance chief, said on a call with analysts. After the deal closes, CoreWeave said it will be able to choose to divest Core Scientific’s cryptocurrency mining business, which was responsible for 89% of Core Scientific’s first-quarter revenue.

    “We have gone through the conversion process,” Intrator said. The cost associated with converting cryptocurrency sites is less than it is for setting up new AI data centers, he said.

    Plus, CoreWeave will be able to pursue investments from infrastructure-oriented vehicles and other sources that could result in a lower cost of capital, Agrawal said.

    Core Scientific has increasingly focused on high-performance compute workloads since emerging from bankruptcy and relisting on the Nasdaq in 2024. It employs over 300 people. It has worked with CoreWeave since 2018, Intrator said.

    CoreWeave went public in March, and even after Monday’s pullback, its shares are worth four times more than they were at it was looking to join the Nasdaq.

    When CoreWeave began working on infrastructure for AI, some people said the company should be building its own data centers, but it would have been a difficult pitch to investors, Intrator said.

    But now CoreWeave is a public company, with nearly $1 billion in quarterly revenue and a broad investor base. It’s constructing its own data centers, separate from Core Scientific, as it competes with major cloud infrastructure sellers such as Amazon Web Services.

    “When you look at the hyperscalers, they have some infrastructure that they build, and they have some infrastructure that they use third parties to deliver, and there’s a reason that they do that, and those reasons kind of are applicable to us, too, and so that’s what you’re seeing,” Intrator said.

    Shareholders of Core Scientific will receive 0.1235 CoreWeave shares for each share they hold. That implies a $20.40 per-share valuation and a 66% premium to Core Scientific’s closing stock price before deal talks were reported.

    After the deal closes, Core Scientific shareholders will own less than 10% of the combined company.

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  • Billie Eilish, Shakira & More Stars React

    Billie Eilish, Shakira & More Stars React

    Billie Eilish, Shakira and more stars are speaking out amid the deadly floods in Texas.

    Starting on the Fourth of July, natural disaster swept through much of central Texas as torrential rains caused catastrophic damage across multiple counties. At press time, CNN reports that at least 89 people — including 27 young girls and counselors belonging to the Camp Mystic summer camp along the Guadalupe River — have died as a result, while others are missing.

    In response, Eilish shared a video capturing some of the flood damage and wrote Sunday (July 6) on her Instagram Story, “this is so sad.”

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    “sending love to Texas,” she added, following it up with a reshared video of a meteorologist warning how budget cuts to the National Weather Service under Donald Trump’s administration would inhibit its ability to properly warn people of disastrous weather crises such as the floods.

    Shakira encouraged fans to join her in donating to Texans in need, sharing a link to a local crisis response charity and revealing that a portion of the proceeds from her July 5 concert in San Antonio would go toward the cause. “Our hearts and prayers are with those affected by the flood in Central Texas,” she wrote on X. “Your help is important and appreciated.”

    Miranda Lambert also sprung into action, sharing posts on Instagram about how her pet charity, Mutt Nation, would be assisting displaced animals in her home state. “I can’t even come up with the words for the loss everyone is suffering,” the country star says of the floods in a video posted on her Instagram, after which she shared resources about fostering pets, dropping off supplies and donating on her Story.

    Other Texas natives who posted about the disaster were Maren Morris and Hilary Duff. Sharing old photos of herself performing in the Lone Star State, the former wrote on Instagram that she was “thinking of my home state right now.”

    “the floods are devastating and people are still missing,” she added in her post. “there are several places to donate but i’ll be donating to an incredibly impactful fund called the Texas Hill Country Community Foundation.”

    The Lizzy McGuire actress shared a statement decorated with bluebonnets — the state flower of Texas — on Instagram. “Heartbroken doesn’t begin to cover it,” she wrote. “Praying for even a shred of a miracle — to find a child alive in the wake of this boundless disaster … I’m just so deeply, absolutely sorry. Your loss is felt across the world.”

    Lana Del Rey mourned the loss of lives in both the Texas floods and the ongoing conflict in Gaza, sharing in a statement on Instagram, “We’ve been thinking of you every day since the floods … May all the angels be with you as you search for even more lost loved ones.”

    “And yes of course we pray for Palestine every day,” Del Rey added in a comment on the post. “There is never a good way of wording things that will make all people happy but that is my personal truth. Politically I do keep up and have been very much hoping for cease fire.”

    The musicians’ posts come as responders are still searching for survivors on rescue missions across the impacted areas in Texas. Even days after the disaster began, active flood warnings are currently still in place across the state.

    State representatives are also now grappling with how they could have better protected citizens amid the crisis. Sen. Ted Cruz told reporters Monday (July 7) that “if we could go back and do it again, we would evacuate,” while Mayor Joe Herring Jr. of the heavily affected Kerrville, Texas, revealed in an interview with CNN that he hadn’t even received an alert before the floods hit seemingly out of nowhere.

    “It all happened upriver at the worst possible place,” he told the news network. “And I think everyone in Kerrville, everyone in Kerr County, wishes to God we had some way to warn them. To warn those people … Everyone here, if we could’ve warned them we would have done so. And we didn’t even have a warning. We did not know.”


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