William Brangham:
As residents clean up from the storms, forecasters say the weather is set to improve across much of the region, though more storms are possible in parts of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic through the end of the week.
In Texas, search efforts are ongoing for those still missing after the deadly Fourth of July flooding. At least 132 people are known to have died, with the vast majority of those in Kerr County. Officials say 101 people are still unaccounted for as officials look to drain reservoirs to search for victims.
Rainfall this week has hampered recovery operations and a flood watch remains in effect for parts of South Central Texas, which includes Kerr County.
Turning to Gaza, health officials say Israeli airstrikes overnight killed at least 93 people, including dozens of women and children. One strike hit the Shati refugee camp in the north. Hospital officials there say a Hamas politician was killed along with a couple and their six children. Israel did not comment on that attack, but it frequently blames Hamas for civilian deaths, saying its militants hide in populated areas.
Syria’s defense minister announced a cease-fire today after sectarian clashes killed dozens of people in the country’s south. The truce came shortly after government forces entered a vital city in the southern Suwayda province. The fighting began with kidnappings and attacks between local bedouin tribes and fighters from the Druze minority group.
Officials say more than 30 people were killed yesterday. A U.K.-based monitor says at least 135 people died over two days. Neighboring Israel had launched strikes on the area, saying they were aimed at supporting the Druze and preventing further fighting near its own border.
A judge in the U.K. sentenced two men today to more than four years in prison for cutting down England’s iconic Sycamore Gap Tree. Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers were convicted of two counts each of criminal damage, one for cutting down the tree, as seen in this grainy video that was used as evidence, and the other for damaging the ancient Hadrian’s Wall, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The tree stood for nearly 150 years before it was chopped down in 2023 in what prosecutors called a moronic mission.
A team of private astronauts is safely back on earth after a nearly three-week visit to the International Space Station.
