A look at one Texas city’s weather warning system, as questions swirl about the timing of flash flood warnings. Donald Trump will push back a critical tariff deadline. And conservative figures express anger over the FBI and DOJ’s Epstein memo.
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The death toll as a result of devastating floods in Central Texas rose to at least 104 people across six counties, officials said yesterday. The majority, 84, were killed in Kerr County, including 27 campers and counselors at the 99-year-old Camp Mystic. Seven people were killed in Travis County; four in Burnet County; six in Kendall County; and one in Tom Green County.
Search and recovery efforts are still underway, though the likelihood of finding survivors is growing slimmer.
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As the aftermath of the floods comes into clearer view, questions and criticisms have emerged about the timing of the weather alerts sent to people in the area. Some Texas officials have blamed the National Weather Service, arguing it didn’t do a good enough job of forecasting rainfall and issuing timely flooding alerts.
In Kerr County, a flood watch was issued Thursday afternoon, and an urgent flash flood warning was issued at 1:14 a.m. Friday morning. Downriver in the town of Comfort, a flash flood alert for Kendall County came at 7:24 a.m. Friday — and a wailing siren urging residents to flee provided a last-minute alarm for anyone who hadn’t responded to previous warnings.
There were zero fatalities in Comfort, according to Danny Morales, assistant fire chief of the city’s volunteer fire department.
It’s impossible to know whether a siren system in Kerr County would have saved lives. The systems are meant to alert people who are outdoors, not in bed indoors, as many victims were. And many people in Kendall County were already awake and aware of the dangerous flooding when they were alerted of the threat to their area.
But Tom Moser — a former Kerr County commissioner who began looking into a warning system for his area 10 years ago, after deadly floods in nearby Hays County — believes a system would have been valuable. Records show there were disagreements among officials about the need for a siren system, and the county didn’t have the funding it needed.
“I don’t know if it could have been 100% preventable,” Moser said of the current disaster’s death toll. “But it could have been improved.”
A pause on reciprocal tariffs that had been set to end this week will be extended to the end of the month, the White House said, after President Donald Trump pushed the deadline to Aug. 1. The announcement from press secretary Karoline Leavitt that Trump would sign an executive order came hours after the president published two letters addressed to Japan and South Korea, threatening them with 25% duties and higher ones for items deemed to have been transshipped through their countries. Later in the day, Trump posted letters threatening duties as much as 40% on goods from Laos and Myanmar, 30% on goods from South Africa and 25% on goods from Malaysia and Kazakhstan.
However, Trump’s ability to impose the tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act is under court review.
The pushed-back deadline and threats represent a return to the back-and-forth, on-again, off-again state of affairs that has prevailed before and after Trump’s April 2 speech announcing extreme import duties on dozens of countries. While some markets saw dips in light of Trump’s threats, some Wall Street analysts are optimistic that this new round of uncertainty may not weigh as heavily on stocks this time around — though it could prove to be a setback for the Federal Reserve. Read the full story here.
A new two-page memo published by the FBI and Justice Department concluded after an “exhaustive review” that there is no evidence of an “incriminating ‘client list’” or evidence that would lead to additional prosecutions in the case of convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein. The memo also concluded that Epstein died by suicide in his New York City jail cell in 2019 and that no evidence was found to suggest he had participated in blackmail.
The findings closely mirror what news outlets have reported for years, but the findings have done little to quell conservative internet and media personalities who have reacted to the memo with skepticism and anger. Elon Musk, who has recently feuded with Donald Trump, reposted a post that suggested a larger government cover-up. Several conservative personalities echoed that idea, including Mike Benz, who worked in the State Department during Trump’s first term, and said he believes there is a vast “deep state” conspiracy. Another commentator said the memo is part of a “shameful chapter” in U.S. history. Read the full story here.
When the Trump administration announced sweeping tariffs at the beginning of April, we wanted to better understand how these policies could affect readers’ daily lives. After hearing concerns from home builders about the effects on their businesses, we decided to explore how the cost of building a new house could change due to tariffs.
To get the numbers we needed for a representative sample, we designed a model house, determined every material required to build it and then used trade data to identify which countries the U.S. most relied on for each item. Our interactive visualization takes readers through the step-by-step construction of a house, showing how tariffs could add thousands to home prices at a time when the U.S. is already grappling with a severe housing shortage.
Industry experts we spoke with explained that tariffs don’t just add direct costs. They create downstream effects that force builders to pause projects and scramble for alternatives. As additional tariffs loom on the horizon, builders face mounting pressures to make decisions about materials and pricing. According to Robert Dietz, chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders, it’s only a matter of time before consumers feel the effects. — Alex Ford, interactive visual designer
This week is stacked with deals. To start, Amazon Prime Day is officially here, and NBC Select has a roundup of the 33+ best deals. We also have a list of everything to shop for or skip during the four-day sale. And while we’re at it, we dug into the history of Prime Day, and our editors rounded up their 100 favorite Amazon finds.
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