dozens

Officials say the crash killed the train’s driver and injured at least 50 others, with 25 of them in serious condition.

A passenger train carrying 100 people has derailed in Germany, killing at least three people and wounding dozens of others, according to officials.

The crash happened on Sunday evening in a forested area near the town of Riedlingen in southwestern Baden-Wurttemberg state, roughly 158km (98 miles) west of the city of Munich.

Charlotte Ziller, the district fire chief, told reporters that the three victims included the train driver and an employee of Germany’s state-owned rail operator, Deutsche Bahn.

She said 50 people were injured in the crash, 25 of them seriously.

Deutsche Bahn confirmed several deaths and numerous injuries, and said that two train carriages had derailed “for reasons yet unknown”.

Authorities were currently investigating the circumstances of the accident, the operator said, and traffic had been suspended over a 40km (25-mile) stretch of the route.

Thomas Strobl, the interior minister of the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, said severe storms had swept through the region earlier, and that investigators are looking at whether the rains had caused the accident.

“There have been heavy rains here, so it cannot be ruled out that the heavy rain and a related landslide accident may have been the cause,” he said.  “However, this is currently the subject of ongoing investigations.”

The train had been travelling from the town of Sigmaringen to the city of Ulm when it derailed.

In a post on social media, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed his condolences to the families of those killed.

He added that he was in close contact with both the interior and transport ministers, and had asked them to “provide the emergency services with all the support they need”.

Footage from the scene of the accident showed yellow- and grey-coloured train carriages lying on their sides, as firefighters and emergency services tried to get to the passengers.

According to the local television station SWR, helicopters arrived shortly after the accident to transport the injured to hospitals in the area, and emergency doctors from nearby hospitals were alerted.

Richard Lutz, the chief executive of Deutsche Bahn, said he would visit the scene of the accident on Monday.

He said the operator was deeply shocked and dismayed by the accident, and thanked all the emergency services and volunteers on the site.

“My heartfelt sympathy and condolences go out to the relatives of the deceased. I wish the injured a quick and full recovery,” he added.

The rail operator has set up a free special hotline for those affected and their relatives, according to the official DPA news agency. Emergency chaplains and psychologists are also available for affected travellers and employees, it added.

German transport is regularly criticised by passengers for its outdated infrastructure, with travellers facing frequent train delays and various technical problems.

The government has pledged to invest several hundred billion euros over the next few years, in particular to modernise infrastructure.

In June 2022, a train derailed near a Bavarian Alpine resort in southern Germany, killing four people and injuring dozens.

Germany’s deadliest rail accident happened in 1998 when a high-speed train operated by state-owned Deutsche Bahn derailed in Eschede in Lower Saxony, killing 101 people.

Travel by train in Germany remains far safer than travelling by car, with 2,770 people killed in crashes on Germany’s roads in 2024, according to Germany’s Federal Statistical Office.

Video shows extensive damage to a residential area of Kharkiv after the latest Russian strike on the eastern Ukrainian city. Officials say at least 37 people were injured, including a 28-day-old baby. The attack comes a day after the latest fruitless round of talks between the two sides.

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed while trying to get food from aid sites run by the notorious US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. As Israel starves Palestinians, the Arabic hashtag ‘Gaza is dying of hunger’ is trending, with thousands trying to raise awareness of their plight.

The boat carrying 53 people tipped over as Storm Wipha approached the country across the South China Sea.

At least 27 people were killed after a tourist boat capsized in stormy weather in Vietnam‘s Halong Bay.

The boat carrying 53 people tipped over around 2pm local time (07:00 GMT) on Saturday as Storm Wipha approached the country across the South China Sea. Strong winds, heavy rainfall and lightning were reported in the area.

Rescue teams found 11 survivors and recovered 27 bodies, eight of them children, the state-run Vietnam News Agency reported, citing local authorities.

There has been no official announcement on the nationalities of the tourists. Most of those on board were families visiting from the capital Hanoi, with more than 20 children among the passengers, the news outlet VNExpress said.

One of the rescued children, a 10-year-old boy, told state-run VietnamNet: “I took a deep breath, swam through a gap, dived, then swam up. I even shouted for help, then I was pulled up by a boat with soldiers.”

Rescue efforts continued into the night to find people still missing.

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh sent his condolences to the families of the deceased.

Authorities will “investigate and clarify the cause of the incident and strictly handle violations”, a statement on the government’s website said.

Halong Bay is one of Vietnam’s most popular tourist destinations, with millions of people visiting its blue-green waters and rainforest-topped limestone islands each year.

Last year, 30 vessels sank at boat lock areas in coastal Quang Ninh province along Halong Bay after Typhoon Yagi brought strong winds and waves.

Weather linked to Storm Wipha also knocked down several trees in Hanoi, 175km (110 miles) away from Halong Bay, and disrupted air travel.

Noi Bai Airport said nine arriving flights were diverted to other airports, and three departing flights were temporarily grounded on Saturday.

July 18 (UPI) — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced that an unknown illness sickened more than 100 people aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship earlier this month.

According to a press release from the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program, a “gastrointestinal illness outbreak” occurred on the Navigator of the Seas that traveled round-trip to Mexico from Los Angeles between July 4 and11.

Out of the 3,914 passengers, 134 reported being ill, as did seven crew members. The victims experienced symptoms that included abdominal cramps, diarrhea and vomiting, but the CDC reports that the “causative agent” has not been determined.

The ship’s crew took preemptive measures for passengers by isolating sick and then collected stool specimens from them for testing. Cleaning and disinfection procedures were also implemented and the CDC notified.

Statistics from the Vessel Sanitation Program show 18 bouts of gastrointestinal illness aboard cruise ships under the program’s authority in, which ties for the total amount in all of 2024.

There were only 14 in all of 2023, but a CDC spokesperson told USA Today in April that although “the number of recent cruise ship outbreaks has been higher than in years prior to the pandemic, we do not yet know if this represents a new trend.”

Torrential rain has triggered flooding, destroyed hundreds of houses, and killed more than 150 people in the past month.

Heavy monsoon rains across Pakistan’s Punjab province have killed at least 63 people and injured nearly 300 in the past 24 hours, provincial officials said, bringing the nationwide death toll from the rains to at least 159 since late June.

The downpours on Thursday caused flooding and building collapses, with most of the deaths caused by the roofs of weaker homes failing. Lahore, the eastern provincial capital, reported 15 deaths, Faisalabad nine, and the farming towns of Okara, Sahiwal and Pakpattan several more.

Rescue teams used boats to evacuate families from villages along riversides further south in the morning, but the water had begun to recede by the afternoon.

“Children were screaming for help, and women stood on rooftops, waving their shawls and begging to be rescued,” said Tariq Mehbood Bhatti, a 51-year-old farmer in Ladian village.

Residents living in low-lying areas near the Nullah Lai River, which runs through Rawalpindi city, neighbouring the capital Islamabad, were ordered to evacuate after a sharp rise in the water level.

“Rescue teams are on standby for more evacuations,” a spokeswoman for the disaster agency said.

The Rawalpindi government declared a public holiday on Thursday to keep people at home.

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Punjab’s Chakwal district, said “heavy rains [are] causing extensive damage and also loss of life” across the Punjab region.

Rains have “swept away small dams which have burst at banks,” he said, adding that the military is using helicopters to evacuate people who are now surrounded by water.

“Pakistan has seen devastating floods over the last few years. This monsoon season is not different,” Hyder added. Experts have warned that the country can see extreme weather in the coming years, he said.

Since late June, the monsoon rains have killed 103 people and injured 393 in Punjab alone, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA). More than 120 homes were damaged and six livestock animals killed.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) gave the toll of at least 159 deaths nationwide since June 25 and said more than 1,000 homes had been damaged.

A high flood alert was issued for the Jhelum River at the northern town of Mangla, where water inflows were expected to surge to high levels, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department. Authorities warned that adjoining streams could also overflow in the next 24 hours, putting nearby communities at risk.

Monsoon rains are a routine part of South Asia’s climate and are essential for crop irrigation and replenishing water supplies. However, their adverse impact has worsened in recent years due to rapid urban expansion, poor drainage systems, and more frequent extreme weather events linked to climate change.

July 17 (UPI) — Several people are dead and an investigation is underway after a fire destroyed a five-story shopping mall in Iraq on Wednesday evening.

In a press release, the Iraqi Interior Ministry announced Thursday that 61 people died in the blaze, which occurred in a mall located in the city of Kut, in the province of Wasit.

The ministry reported that most of the victims “suffocated inside the bathrooms as a result of heavy smoke,” and that 14 were so badly burned they remain unidentified.

However, 45 people were also rescued from the fire by civil defense teams.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani announced Thursday that he has directed the Minister of the Interior, Abdul Amir al-Shammari, to form an investigation committee.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry then announced Thursday the committee has been formed to “investigate the real causes of the fire, and identify the locations of the defect and the responsibility accurately and transparently.”

The head of the Wasit security committee, Habib al-Badri, told the New York Times that the fire was caused by an electric malfunction, and that the situation was worsened by subpar building construction and an overwhelmed rescue service.

“There was a lack of emergency exits and emergency ladders and extinguishers,” al-Badri said. “And unfortunately, the province was not prepared for such an incident.”

Wasit Province Governor Mohammed al-Miyahi said Thursday that “we will not show leniency toward those who were directly or indirectly responsible for this incident, which is surrounded by suspicious circumstances.”

July 15 (UPI) — Dozens of U.S. ice cream manufacturers are pledging to eliminate the use of artificial food colors from their ice cream products made with real milk by the end of 2027, the U.S. dairy manufacturing and marketing trade association said.

Announced Monday by the International Dairy Foods Association, the companies have agreed to remove certified artificial colors Red No. 3, Red No. 40, Green No. 3, Blue No. 1, Blue No. 2, Yellow No. 5 and Yellow No. 6 from their frozen dairy products by 2028.

According to the dairy trade association, the commitment is from companies that together make more than 90% of the ice cream sold in the United States.

“Americans are passionate about their ice cream, and the IDFA Ice Cream Commitment will ensure wholesome, indulgent ice cream products made with real milk from American dairy farmers remain a special part of our lives as state and federal policies evolve,” Michael Dykes, president and CEO of IDFA, said in a statement.

The announcement comes as the Food and Drug Administration has been seeking to remove artificial food colorings from the U.S. market.

During the final days of the previous Biden administration, the FDA announced it had revoked authorization for the use of synthetic food dye Red No. 3 after a linkage to cancer was found in animal studies, with its use to be phased out by 2028.

Under the Trump administration, the FDA announced in April plans to phase out petroleum-based dyes, including those U.S. ice cream makers pledged Monday to eliminate from their products.

“These poisonous compounds offer no nutritional benefit and pose real, measurable dangers to our children’s health and development,” Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement making the announcement. “That era is coming to an end.”

While phasing out artificial color dyes, the FDA has been approving natural color additives, announcing the authorization of galdieria extract blue, butterfly pea flower extract and calcium phosphate, in May.

The FDA also approved the use of a new blue color additive from the gardenia fruit on Monday.

The IDFA said the Monday commitment from U.S. ice cream makers only applies to products made with real milk sold at food retail and does not apply to products made with non-dairy ingredients or those made in-house by small ice cream shops or restaurants.

On Friday, the Consumer Brands Association announced a voluntary commitment to encourage U.S. food and beverage makers to remove certified Food, Drug and Cosmetic colors from products served in schools nationwide by the start of the 2026-27 school year.

Wizz Air has announced that it will suspend operations from its Abu Dhabi hub. The budget airline currently operates more than 30 routes from the Middle Eastern base.

Wizz Air has scrapped a number of routes as “hot and harsh” weather is damaging its planes.

On Monday, the Hungarian airline announced that it would discontinue its Abu Dhabi operations starting in August.

Ticket sales have been halted from the Middle Eastern capital to Varna from July 14, followed by Belgrade on July 19, Tirana on July 20, Kutaisi on July 29, and Sarajevo on August 31.

Six additional routes will be temporarily suspended, including Krakow (July 29–September 19), Budapest (paused until September 1), Vienna (paused until September 21), Katowice (paused until October 26), and both Astana and Samarkand (paused until November 1). Services to Sofia and Cluj have already been discontinued, Aviation Weekly reports.

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The publication also notes that Pratt & Whitney GTF engine issues have led to 20% of Wizz Air’s Airbus A320neo-family fleet being grounded over the past financial year.

The budget airline currently operates more than 30 routes from its Abu Dhabi base.

Last month, Wizz Air CEO József Váradi said the carrier was strategically reducing operations in “hot and harsh” environments. He explained that capacity would be reallocated to lower-risk areas to help reduce operating costs and prolong engine life.

“Hot and harsh is a significant issue which we are going to address,” the CEO said. “That will not only lower operating costs and extend engine lifetime, but it will also increase productivity on sectors.”

In a statement issued this morning, the airline said three main “operational challenges over the past year” led to the decision to “suspend all locally based flight operations effective 1 September 2025”. They are:

• Engine reliability constraints, particularly in hot and harsh environments, which have impacted aircraft availability and operational efficiency.

• Geopolitical volatility, which has led to repeated airspace closures and operational disruptions across the region, as well as weakened consumer demand.

• Regulatory barriers, which have limited the company’s ability to access and scale in key markets.

Mr. Váradi added: “We have had a tremendous journey in the Middle East and are proud of what we have built. I thank our highly dedicated employees for their relentless efforts and commitment to developing the WIZZ brand in new and dynamic markets. However, the operating environment has changed significantly.

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“Supply chain constraints, geopolitical instability, and limited market access have made it increasingly difficult to sustain our original ambitions. While this was a difficult decision, it is the right one given the circumstances. We continue to focus on our core markets and on initiatives that enhance Wizz Air’s customer proposition and build shareholder value.”

Passengers with existing bookings beyond 31 August will be contacted directly via email with options for refunds or alternative travel arrangements. Customers who booked through third-party providers are advised to contact their respective agents. The suspensions do not affect other flights of the Wizz Air group.

The announcements come as Wizz extends its operations in other markets, including by adding several new routes from its UK base at Luton Airport.

From last month, Wizz Air started whisking passengers away four times weekly from Gatwick to the quaint Polish city of Wroclaw. Come the start of August, Londoners will also have the chance to jet off from the same bustling hub to the Polish capital, Warsaw, and even Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Birmingham hasn’t been left behind; the heart of the West Midlands gained thrice-weekly connections to Rome as of June, with future plans to link up with Sibiu and Suceava in Romania.

Last week Mirror Travel sat down with Yvonne Moynihan, the new managing director of the UK wing of the airline.

In a wide-ranging interview, she wanted the bag fees to be set for a hike due to upcoming European Union legislation. Ms Moynihan also admitted that she had recently been stung by the airline’s hand-luggage rules, forking out for a £60 fine as a result.

Demonstrators gather in British capital for second week in a row in support of recently banned activism group.

United Kingdom police have arrested dozens of people at a protest in London calling for a ban on the campaign group Palestine Action to be lifted.

The protest at London’s Parliament Square on Saturday was the latest demonstration against the UK’s crackdown on Palestinian rights activism.

“Officers have made 41 arrests for showing support for a proscribed organisation. One person has been arrested for common assault,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

The arrests followed last Saturday’s detention of 29 people, including a priest and some health professionals, who had gathered at Parliament Square after a last-ditch legal bid to stop the group from being proscribed under “anti-terrorism” legislation failed.

The ban, which cleared Parliament in early July, was passed after activists broke into a military base last month and sprayed red paint on two planes in protest at the UK’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza, which leading rights groups have described as a genocide.

The move has raised fears about freedom of expression in the country, putting Palestine Action on a par with armed groups like al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) in the UK, making it a criminal offence to support or be part of the protest group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Protesters at this week’s demonstration had gathered near a statue of former South African President Nelson Mandela outside the British Parliament, silently holding up placards saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”

The last of the protesters was lifted from the Nelson Mandela statue shortly after 2:30pm local time (13:30 GMT).

Campaign group Defend Our Juries, which had announced it was holding rallies in several UK cities, called the ban “Orwellian” – a reference to the late English writer George Orwell, who wrote about totalitarianism and social injustice.

“Who do the police think they are serving in this?” challenged a spokesperson.

Defend Our Juries posted on X that police had also made arrests at other demonstrations in support of Palestine Action in Manchester, Cardiff and in Northern Ireland. Police have not yet confirmed the alleged arrests.

Launched in July 2020, Palestine Action says it uses “disruptive tactics” to target “corporate enablers” and companies involved in weapons manufacture for Israel, such as Israel-based Elbit Systems and French multinational Thales.

Even before the start of the war on Gaza, rights groups and UN experts have accused Israel of imposing a system of apartheid against Palestinians.

The British government has accused the group of causing millions of pounds of damage through its actions.

Opponents of the ban say using “anti-terrorism” law is inappropriate against a group focused on civil disobedience.

At least 79 Palestinians have been killed since dawn in Israeli attacks across Gaza, with dozens of children dying from malnutrition during Israel’s punishing months-long blockade, as ceasefire talks reportedly stall.

Among the victims on Saturday, 14 were killed in Gaza City, four of them in an Israeli strike on a residence on Jaffa Street in the Tuffah area, which injured 10 others.

At least 30 aid seekers were killed by Israeli army fire north of Rafah, southern Gaza, near the one operating GHF site, which rights groups and the United Nations have slammed as “human slaughterhouses” and “death traps”.

According to Al Jazeera Mubasher, Israeli forces fired directly at Palestinians in front of the aid distribution centre in the al-Shakoush area of Rafah.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said the Israeli army opened fire indiscriminately on a large crowd during one of the attacks.

“Many desperate families in the north have been making dangerous journeys all the way to the south to reach the only operating distribution centre in Rafah,” he said.

“Many of the bodies are still on the ground,” Mahmoud said, adding that those who were wounded in the attack have been transferred to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

Amid relentless daily carnage rained upon starving aid seekers and the ongoing Israeli blockade, Gaza’s Government Media Office said 67 children have now died due to malnutrition, and 650,000 children under the age of five are at “real and immediate risk of acute malnutrition in the coming weeks”.

“Over the past three days, we have recorded dozens of deaths due to shortages of food and essential medical supplies, in an extremely cruel humanitarian situation,” the statement read.

“This shocking reality reflects the scale of the unprecedented humanitarian tragedy in Gaza,” the statement added.

Israel is engineering a “cruel and Machiavellian scheme to kill” in Gaza, the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Friday, as the world body reported that since May, when GHF began its operations, some 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid.

“Under our watch, Gaza has become the graveyard of children [and] starving people,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said.

Mass displacement, expulsion ‘illegal and immoral’

As the Israeli military announced on Saturday that its forces attacked Gaza 250 times in the last 48 hours, Israeli officials have continued to push a plan to forcibly displace and eventually expel Palestinians.

Earlier this week, Defense Minister Israel Katz announced a plan to build a so-called “humanitarian city” which will house 2.1 million Palestinians on the rubble of parts of the city of Rafah, which has been razed to the ground.

But Palestinians in Gaza have rejected the plan and reiterated that they would not leave the enclave. Rights groups, international organisations and several nations have slammed it as laying the ground for “ethnic cleansing”, the forcible removal of a population from its homeland.

Israeli political analyst Akiva Eldar told Al Jazeera on Saturday that the majority of Israelis are “really appalled” by Katz’s plan, which would be “illegal and immoral”.

“Anybody who will participate in this disgusting project will be involved in war crimes,” Elder said.

The message underlying the plan, he said, is that “there can’t be two people between the river and the sea, and those who deserve to have a state are only the Jewish people.”

As Israel announces its intention to force the population of Gaza into Rafah, Middle East professor at the University of Turin, Lorenzo Kamel, told Al Jazeera that the expulsion of Palestinians from their land and their concentration in restricted areas is nothing new.

In 1948, 77 years ago to this day, 70,000 Palestinians were expelled from the village of Lydda during what became known as the “march of death”.

“Many of them ended up in the Gaza Strip,” Kamel said, adding that the Israeli authorities have been forcing Palestinians into spaces similar to concentration camps for decades.

“This is not something new, but it has accelerated in the past months,” he said. The plan to gather the Gaza population on the ruins of Rafah is therefore “nothing but another camp in preparation for the deportation from the Gaza Strip”.

Ceasefire talks hang in the balance

Negotiations taking place in Qatar to cement a truce are stalling over the extent of Israeli forces’ withdrawal from the Strip, according to Palestinian and Israeli sources familiar with the matter, the Reuters news agency reported on Saturday.

The indirect talks are expected to continue, despite the latest obstacles in clinching a deal based on a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire.

A Palestinian source said Hamas has not accepted the withdrawal maps which Israel has proposed, as they would leave about 40 percent of the territory under Israeli occupation, including all of Rafah and further territories in northern and eastern Gaza.

Matters regarding the full and free flow of aid to a starving population, and guarantees, were also presenting a challenge.

Two Israeli sources said Hamas wants Israel to retreat to lines it held in a previous ceasefire, before it renewed its offensive in March.

Delegations from Israel and Hamas have been in Qatar since Sunday in a renewed push for an agreement.

Texans gather in Kerrville to mourn 120 flood victims and pray for more than 160 still missing.

Several hundred people have gathered in Tivy Antler Stadium in Texas to mourn the many lives lost and pray for those still missing from the catastrophic flash floods that battered the state over the United States July Fourth holiday.

The vigil, held on Wednesday in Kerrville – one of the worst-affected areas – brought together grieving families, local clergy, and volunteers. “Our communities were struck with tragedy literally in the darkness,” youth minister Wyatt Wentrcek told the crowd. “Middle of the night.”

At least 120 people have been confirmed dead, with more than 160 still unaccounted for, making it the deadliest inland flooding in the US since 1976. No survivors have been found since Friday.

Blue shirts bearing the school’s slogan, Tivy Fight Never Die, and green ribbons for Camp Mystic – a century-old all-girls Christian camp where at least 27 campers and counsellors died – were worn by many attendees. Officials said five campers and one counsellor from the camp remain unaccounted for.

Ricky Pruitt of the Kerrville Church of Christ addressed the crowd, noting the emotional weight of holding the vigil at a stadium more often used to celebrate sporting triumphs. “Tonight is very different than all of those nights,” he said, as reported by The Associated Press.

As mourners held each other and wiped their tears, search crews continued scouring the Guadalupe River – on foot, horseback, and by air – for those still missing. Search dogs were deployed to sniff through trees and piles of debris. Officials admitted hope of finding survivors had all but faded, with efforts now focused on giving families closure.

Worst flood in 50 years

Meteorologist Bob Henson said the disaster ranks as the most lethal inland flood in nearly five decades, surpassing the 1976 Big Thompson Canyon flood in Colorado, which killed 144.

Governor Greg Abbott said many of those who were in the Hill Country during the holiday were never formally registered at a camp or hotel, making it harder to account for everyone.

He has faced growing criticism over the state’s flood preparedness, with many asking why warnings were delayed and evacuation measures insufficient.

Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha assured residents that accountability would come but said the immediate priority remains to recover the missing.

Abbott has urged state legislators to approve a new flood warning system and boost emergency communication networks. He is pushing for the issue to be addressed during a special legislative session already scheduled to begin on July 21. He also called for financial aid to support recovery efforts.

For years, local officials have debated installing a flood siren system, but concerns over cost and noise meant the idea was shelved – a decision now under intense scrutiny.

US President Donald Trump has pledged full federal support and is expected to visit the affected areas on Friday.

At least eight people were killed and dozens are missing after monsoon rains triggered severe flooding at the Nepal-China border. Trade was halted after flooding washed away the Friendship Bridge, which links the two countries.

The death toll from the catastrophic floods that hit the state of Texas in the United States has risen to 82, as the search for the missing continues and officials face questions over a failure to evacuate people in hard-hit Kerr County.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Sunday that at least 41 people remain unaccounted for across the southern state, three days after the deluge, and that more could be missing.

He promised authorities will continue to work around the clock to find the missing, and warned that additional rounds of heavy rains lasting into Tuesday could produce more life-threatening flooding.

In Kerr County, Sheriff Larry Leitha said on Sunday that searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, many of whom went missing from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp for girls.

Leitha said 10 more girls and a counsellor remain missing and pledged to keep searching until “everybody is found”.

President Donald Trump sent his condolences to the victims and said he would probably visit the area on Friday. His administration had been in touch with Abbott, he added.

“It’s a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible. So we say, ‘God bless all of the people that have gone through so much, and God bless… God bless the state of Texas’,” he told reporters as he left New Jersey.

The flooding occurred after the nearby Guadalupe River broke its banks after torrential rain fell in the central Texas area on Friday, the US Independence Day holiday.

Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd said the destruction killed three people in Burnet County, one in Tom Green County, five in Travis County and one in Williamson County.

Kidd said rescuers were evacuating people from more places along the river, “because we are worried about another wall of river coming down in those areas”, with rain continuing to fall on soil in the region already saturated from Friday’s rains.

Questions over preparedness

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was activated on Sunday and is deploying resources to first responders in Texas after Trump issued a major disaster declaration, the Department of Homeland Security said.

US coastguard helicopters and planes were aiding search and rescue efforts.

Freeman Martin, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said on Sunday that he expected to “see the death toll rise today and tomorrow”.

Authorities, meanwhile, have faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding, and whether enough preparations were made.

Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi, reporting from central Texas, said several communities along the Guadalupe River were evacuated after the National Weather Service sent out repeated warnings about the rising water levels, but not those in Kerr County.

“There are still no answers as to why those here weren’t alerted,” he said.

Rattansi said while Trump has activated FEMA assistance for Texas, the president had “made it clear in the past that he wants to phase out such aid, even once saying that if a state governor needs to ask for federal emergency help, perhaps they’re not up to the job”.

Trump, when asked by reporters whether he was still planning to phase out FEMA, said that it was something “we can talk about later, but right now, we are busy working”.

Rattansi also said that the Trump administration is phasing out “research and analysis of the changing climate because it feels it’s politicised and divisive”, even though “it’s exactly that sort of analysis that led to the warnings from the National Weather Service to municipal authorities to evacuate residents up and down the Guadalupe River”.

“Climate scientists have long warned that warmer air will hold more moisture and result in ever more intense storms,” he said. “Yet just as their predictions are being realised, federal resources to predict, mitigate and manage extreme weather events are at risk as never before.”

Rick Spinrad, a former director at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told Al Jazeera that less research will lead to less accurate predictions, making it harder for people to prepare.

“Without research, without staff to do the work, we can assume that the predictions, [for] hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, drought, wildfires, tsunamis, for that matter, are undoubtedly going to degrade, and that means that people’s ability to prepare for these storms will be compromised,” Spinrad said.

In February, the Trump administration announced cuts affecting the jobs of hundreds of staff at NOAA, including meteorologists at the National Weather Service.

Abbott, the Texas governor, declared Sunday a day of prayer for the state.

“I urge every Texan to join me in prayer this Sunday – for the lives lost, for those still missing, for the recovery of our communities, and for the safety of those on the front lines,” he said in a statement.

In Rome, Pope Leo XIV also offered special prayers for those affected by the disaster.

“I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in summer camp, in the disaster caused by the flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas in the United States. We pray for them.”

At least 50 Palestinian families from a Bedouin community in the occupied West Bank have fled their homes, following repeated assaults and harassment from Israeli settlers under the protection of Israeli forces, according to media reports and a local rights group.

Thirty Palestinian families were forcibly displaced on Friday morning from the Arab Mleihat Bedouin community, northwest of Jericho, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, while 20 others were displaced on Thursday.

Before the forced displacement, the community was home to 85 families, numbering about 500 people.

A Palestinian rights group, the Al-Baidar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights, said the families were forced to leave after years trying to defend themselves “without any support”. Attacks by Israeli forces and Israelis from illegal settlements have surged across the occupied West Bank since Israel’s war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023.

Alia Mleihat told Wafa that her family was forced to flee to the Aqbat Jabr refugee camp, south of Jericho, after armed settlers threatened her and other families at gunpoint.

Separately, Mahmoud Mleihat, a 50-year-old father of seven from the community, told the Reuters news agency that they could not take it any more, so they decided to leave.

“The settlers are armed and attack us, and the [Israeli] military protects them. We can’t do anything to stop them,” he said.

Hassan Mleihat, director of the Al-Baidar Organization, said families in the community began dismantling their tents, following sustained provocation and attacks by Israeli settlers and the army.

Footage posted on social media and verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency showed trucks loaded with possessions driving away from the area at night.

Hassan told Wafa that the attacks also threatened to erase the community, and “open the way for illegal colonial expansion”.

‘We want to protect our children’

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has documented repeated acts of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in Mu’arrajat, near Jericho, where the Mleihat tribe lives.

In 2024, settlers armed with clubs stormed a Palestinian school, while in 2023, armed settlers blocked the path of vehicles carrying Palestinians, with some firing into the air and others hurling stones at the vehicles.

“We want to protect our children, and we’ve decided to leave,” Mahmoud said, describing it as a great injustice.

He had lived in the community since he was 10, Mahmoud said.

Alia Mleihat told Reuters the Bedouin community, which had lived there for 40 years, would now be scattered across different parts of the Jordan Valley, including nearby Jericho.

“People are demolishing their own homes with their own hands, leaving this village they’ve lived in for decades, the place where their dreams were built,” she said, describing the forced displacement of 30 families as a “new Nakba”.

The Nakba, meaning “catastrophe” in Arabic, refers to the mass displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes during 1948 at the birth of the state of Israel.

Israel’s military has not yet commented on the settler harassment faced by the Bedouin families or about the families leaving their community.

Asked about violence in the occupied West Bank, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters on Monday that any acts of violence by civilians were unacceptable and that individuals should not take the law into their own hands.

Activists say Israeli settlement expansion has accelerated in recent years, displacing Palestinians, who have remained on their land under military occupation since Israel captured the occupied West Bank in the 1967 war.

Most countries consider Israeli settlements illegal and a violation of the Geneva Conventions, which ban settling civilians on occupied land.

At least four people have died and dozens are missing after a ferry sank off Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali, rescuers said.

The boat was carrying 53 passengers and 12 crew members when it sank at 23:20 local time (15:35 GMT) on Wednesday while on its way to Bali from Banyuwangi on the eastern coast of Java island, the Surabaya office of the National Search and Rescue Agency said.

Twenty-nine survivors have been rescued, authorities say, as the search continues.

Photos published by Antara news agency showed ambulances on standby and residents waiting for updates by the roadside.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the sinking.

The ferry operator told local media that the vessel had reported engine trouble shortly before it sank.

The vessel’s route is often used by locals going between the islands of Java and Bali.

Four survivors who were found on a lifeboat were all residents of Banyuwangi, the Surabaya search and rescue team said.

Marine accidents are frequent in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of around 17,000 islands, where uneven enforcement of safety regulations is a longstanding concern.

An Australian woman died in March after a boat capsized off Bali with 16 people on board.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

National Search and Rescue Agency says rescuers searching for 43 people after vessel sank off resort island.

Rescuers are searching for 43 people missing in rough seas overnight after a ferry carrying 65 people sank near Indonesia’s resort island of Bali.

The KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya sank almost half an hour after leaving East Java’s Ketapang port late Wednesday, the National Search and Rescue Agency said in a statement.

It was bound for Bali’s Gilimanuk port, a 50-kilometre (30-mile) trip.

The ferry carried 53 passengers, 12 crew members and 22 vehicles, including 14 trucks, it said.

Two bodies have been recovered and 20 were rescued, many of them unconscious after drifting in choppy waters for hours, said Banyuwangi police chief, Rama Samtama Putra.

Nine boats, including two tug boats and two inflatable boats, have been searching for the missing people since Wednesday night, battling waves up to two metres (6.5ft) high in the overnight darkness.

Ferry tragedies are common in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, where ferries are often used as transport and safety regulations can lapse.

More to follow…