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Today's top stories
At least 82 people have died in central Texas after a flash flood last week. Searchers are continuing to look for victims. In Kerr County alone, 68 deaths have been reported, including 28 children, according to the county's sheriff. Many of the deaths come from those staying in youth camps on the banks of the Guadalupe River. Since the storm, local officials have been hit with challenging questions about why the children in the camps and others living along the river were not warned to evacuate. Here's a timeline of the catastrophic events.
- 🎧 NPR's Greg Allen tells Up First he spent time along the Guadalupe River yesterday, where he saw horrific scenes, including cars piled up in trees and mounds of rubble. Wendy Barker, who lives in Hunt, a community devastated by the flooding, says she wonders why she and others in the community never received any alerts. Barker says she woke up throughout the night, heard the rain, but never got any warnings on her phone about any flash flooding. The National Weather Service began warning of potential flooding on Wednesday, upgraded it on Thursday, and declared a deadly flash flood emergency after nearly a foot of rain fell. Local officials say the current focus is on recovery efforts and questions will be answered later.
- ➡️ Texas is working to pick up the pieces after the devastation. Here's a look at photos of how communities were impacted and a time-lapse video showing Texas' Llano River flooding in just minutes.
President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are expected to meet today, when they could discuss a ceasefire deal in Gaza. It will be Netanyahu's first visit to the White House since both leaders joined forces in attacking Iran's nuclear sites two weeks ago. Israel and Hamas started ceasefire talks in Qatar yesterday.
- 🎧 Mediators in the region have informed NPR's Daniel Estrin that the Israeli and Hamas delegations are on different floors of the same hotel. The mediators are shuttling between floors. Estrin says he saw that a recent draft deal under negotiation starts with a 60-day ceasefire. Hamas would release 10 of the 20 living hostages it still has, and Israel would release Palestinian prisoners. On day one of the deal, terms would be discussed for a final end to the war. Netanyahu's latest stance is that Hamas will no longer exist in Gaza, and U.S.-Israel talks this week will likely address what that would entail.
The White House says Trump's sweeping tariff rates will be imposed on Aug. 1. The rates were supposed to go into effect this week. In April, the president imposed a 10% tariff on basically every item imported into the U.S. The stock market plunged after the announcement. Trump then implemented a 90-day pause, with the idea that countries would make trade deals with the U.S.
- 🎧 Trump says countries will receive letters today outlining their tariff rate, NPR's Deepa Shivaram says. The administration believes this could spark more deals rapidly, as only a few have been made during the pause. The pause since April has provided some stability in financial markets. But recently, Trump stated that the new tariff rates on countries that fail to negotiate deals could be even higher than those originally announced.
Deep dive
The credit scoring company FICO announced it will begin tracking debt from buy-now, pay-later loans. These loans from services like Affirm and Klarna allow shoppers, usually online, to break up a purchase into installments. This form of payment has become increasingly popular, especially among young and low-to-middle-income shoppers. Here's what this could mean for your credit score:
- ➡️ Starting this fall, two of FICO's 15 scoring products will include information about buy now, pay later loans.
- ➡️ The impact on individuals' credit scores depends on timely payments: Paying on time can improve your credit, while missed payments may harm it.
- ➡️ FICO conducted a yearlong study using Affirm data, which revealed that incorporating these scores had a minimal impact — within 10 points up or down — for over 85% of the consumers in their study.
Living better
Living Better is a special series about what it takes to stay healthy in America.
Continuous glucose monitors, which are inserted into the skin and estimate your blood sugar every few minutes, can greatly help people with diabetes manage the disease. In 2024, the FDA approved the first continuous glucose monitors for people without diabetes. Studies of thousands of people without diabetes wearing the monitors while they ate found that a large portion of people are dippers. This means their blood sugar rises quickly after eating, and sometimes plummets below their baseline hours later. These dips can trigger overeating, make it harder to lose weight, and make people feel more fatigued. If you're concerned about fluctuations in your blood sugar and would like to stabilize it, here are some suggestions:
- 🩸 Don't eat meals and snacks that consist mostly of carbohydrates. Instead, add more fiber and protein to your diet, which can help slow down your digestion, preventing extreme spikes and dips in blood sugar.
- 🩸 You want your gut to slowly drip carbs into your blood. To do this, sprinkle your carbs throughout the day instead of all in one meal.
- 🩸 The order in which you eat your food matters. Eat the protein, fiber and fat first and the carbs last.
3 things to know before you go
- North Korea has opened a splashy resort on its eastern seacoast called Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area, featuring some 400 buildings.
- A jury in Australia found Erin Patterson guilty of the murder and attempted murder of her estranged husband's elderly relatives. She hosted four guests, three of whom died after eating her home-cooked meal containing poisonous death cap mushrooms.
- Just a few days after her sister died earlier this year, Maureen Futtner was on the subway when a stranger asked how she was doing. In that moment, Futtner felt she needed to be honest. In response, the unsung hero provided insight into how she handled her own grief, which helped Futtner continue her own healing journey.
This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.
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