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Texas floods: 120 confirmed dead as Camp Mystic cabins ‘found to be in extremely hazardous’ flood zone – Latest

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Aerial photos show devastation near Guadalupe River

Rescue crews stand on a roadway surrounded by debris along the Guadalupe River. Crews are still searching for at least 173 missing people on the seventh day of rescue efforts (AP)
Crews clear fallen trees along a roadway near the Guadalupe River. At least 120 people in central Texas died amid the floods
Crews clear fallen trees along a roadway near the Guadalupe River. At least 120 people in central Texas died amid the floods (AP)
The ruins of a building pictured in Hunt, Texas after Friday's devastating floods. Rescue crews say they're navigating 'mounds' of debris as they search for people
The ruins of a building pictured in Hunt, Texas after Friday’s devastating floods. Rescue crews say they’re navigating ‘mounds’ of debris as they search for people (AP)

Katie Hawkinson10 July 2025 20:20

Camp Mystic counselor describes escaping floodwaters

Camp Mystic counselor Laney Owens shared her experience escaping her cabin on social media Thursday, CNN reports.

“In the early morning on July 4th, 2025, the lord reached down to wake my co-counselors, campers, and myself up as water started to puddle on our cabin floor,” Owens said in a now-private post. “We are so blessed to have woken when we did and were able to alert the office staff to start evacuating cabins.”

“The hours to continue are a blur of prayer, singing, and confusion,” she added. Once the sun rose, we began to attempt to navigate what had happened, find our mystic sisters, and pray to find the ones not currently with us.”

Twenty-seven campers and staff died at the all-girls summer camp when the Guadalupe River flooded early Friday. Five girls and one staffer are still missing.

Katie Hawkinson10 July 2025 20:09

Full story: Noem demanding to sign off on all FEMA expenditures over $100K and staff says it’s impacting emergency response

Ariana Baio has the story:

Katie Hawkinson10 July 2025 19:54

How Americans are helping Texas flood victims – and what you can do

At least 120 people dead and 173 are missing in central Texas, nearly one week after devastating floods thrashed the region.

Julia Musto has the details on how Americans are helping aid flood victims:

Katie Hawkinson10 July 2025 19:40

Community members assist search and rescue missions

People near and far are coming together in Texas to assist with search and rescue missions in the wake of the deadly floods.

Kerrville Police Officer Jonathan Lamb told reporters that one off-duty officer tied a garden hose around his waist while two other officers held the hose and waded into rushing water to save two people.

One man from Colorado has even traveled to Texas to help with the efforts, telling local outlet Fox 26 he was inspired to assist in any way he could after seeing photos of the devastation.

Some are also using innovative methods to help the community recover.

Kourtney Rand, a volunteer in Ingram, Texas, told CNN the local volunteer fire department is using horses to navigate water-logged areas. That’s because they can typically navigate the treacherous terrain better than people can on foot.

NASA has also deployed two aircraft to help map the damage from the floods, while the Texas National Guard is helping the search via land and air.

Katie Hawkinson10 July 2025 19:30

Local BBQ business serves first responders and rescue crews

Texan Brandon Ayers, owner of the restaurant Buddy’s BBQ, is serving free food to local first responders and rescue crews working in the aftermath of the devastating floods.

“No matter what you go through in life, as a state, we all come together,” Ayers told NBC News.

“Everybody wants to work together, everybody wants to help each other…every person we’ve met has been amazing,” he added.

Katie Hawkinson10 July 2025 19:23

FEMA faced bureaucratic obstacles to Texas response: report

The Federal Emergency Management Agency faced bureaucratic obstacles as staff tried to coordinate a response to the deadly Texas floods, CNN reports, citing four officials.

These officials say Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s new cost-cutting measures are to blame.

Noem has ordered that all grants and contracts over $100,000 require her approval. This has stripped the agency of the autonomy it needs and hinders preparation efforts, one long-time FEMA staffer told CNN.

“We were operating under a clear set of guidance: lean forward, be prepared, anticipate what the state needs, and be ready to deliver it,” the official said. “That is not as clear of an intent for us at the moment.”

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told CNN that FEMA is “shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens.”

Katie Hawkinson10 July 2025 19:13

In pictures: Rescue crews from Oklahoma support search efforts as they enter seventh day

Search crews from Oklahoma Task Force One search for missing people near the Guadalupe River
Search crews from Oklahoma Task Force One search for missing people near the Guadalupe River (AP)
A rescue crew member searches for missing people with a dog in Kerr County. At least 120 people have died and more than 170 are missing
A rescue crew member searches for missing people with a dog in Kerr County. At least 120 people have died and more than 170 are missing (AP)

Katie Hawkinson10 July 2025 19:00

Texas floods mapped: Here are the affected areas as death toll rises

Here are the latest maps of the affected areas:

Katie Hawkinson10 July 2025 18:40

Father describes desperate search for 22-year-old son

Thad Hartfield told CNN he is still searching for his 22-year-old son Aiden after he was caught in the devastating floods on Friday.

“I received a call from Aiden at 4 a.m. on the Fourth. He was telling me that there was four inches of water in the house.”

Hartfield told his son to get to the highway — which was higher ground — but the water was too fast and too high, blocking their path.

Another person who was with Aiden said he was hit by debris and swept into the water as he tried to help his friends stabilize themselves, Hartfield told CNN.

“Aiden is a very kind and gentle soul,” Hartfield said. “I know that his spirit is motivating me to continue this search and stay strong.”

Katie Hawkinson10 July 2025 18:39





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Meet the Real Meg Stalter, Star of Lena Dunham’s New Show ‘Too Much’

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M
eg Stalter was fighting in a hot tub. She had come to a water park in Wisconsin to relax between stops on her comedy tour, which was styled as a series of fake rallies for a rich, famous, and clueless person running for president. (I know this is a difficult political scenario to imagine, but please stay with me.) While Stalter soaked, she became enraged by a group of hot-tub dwellers who were not embodying what she considered to be the spirit of the aquatic center, and she began screaming back and forth with them. “Wow, you seem like a lot of fun,” Stalter yelled, informing them that there were three other sections of the park they could move to if they had a problem with this particular one. Then she stood up, said, “You know what? I’m going to show you that if you don’t like to be around someone, you get up and leave,” turned, and banged her head on the wall.

This is probably tracking for those who know Stalter from her live performances, or Hacks, on which she plays the indefatigably clueless nepo-agent Kayla, or Stalter’s Instagram, which showcases her myriad well-­meaning, clueless characters, such as the personification of a business attempting to project allyship to the LQBTQIA+ community. (“Hi, gay! Happy Pride Month. We are sashaying away with deals.”) These talents are deployed to great effect on Too Much (July 10), the new Netflix series from married co-creators Lena Dunham and Luis Felber, in which Stalter plays a fictionalized version of Dunham, a voice of a clueless generation.

But Meg Stalter is not so much clueless as compassionately guileless. See, she was at the water park with her girlfriend, and there was a tiny child swimming alone in the hot tub. Some adults started sticking their arms out and pushing the boy away so he couldn’t enter “their area” because he was allegedly “scratching and splashing.” (At an all-ages water park, this seems like a barrier of entry.) When Stalter told them they could not touch another person’s kid but could feel free to steep elsewhere in the massive facility, the man in the group started cursing at her. And then she was so upset, actually shaking with anger as she went to go find the little boy’s parents, that she clonked her skull in front of those assholes. “It was so embarrassing,” Stalter says. “It was, like, out of a movie.”

Stalter’s protective instincts for the innocent extend to her own inner child, who is close enough to the surface as to be visible; her grooming tends toward pigtails and the kind of glittery makeup job one applies after receiving a fully stocked Caboodles makeup kit from Santa. Today, sitting in the empty audience of her favorite Los Angeles performance spot, Largo, before it opens, Stalter is wearing Hello Kitty Crocs and a one-shoulder dress in Lisa Frank-lite pastels. When we greet each other, she gives me tangerines she’d picked the day before on a trip to a farm with her girlfriend. The produce bag is sweetly tied with a sextuple-looped yellow ribbon.

Outfit by Reformation. Scarf by Mads Allen. Jewelry by Loren Stewart

In person, with her comedic cutie-brat persona tucked away, Stalter is earnest and vulnerable, frequently invoking the importance of her faith. “I’m very, like, a God girl,” she says. “So I believe that God has a plan for me, and if something happens, then he’ll have another plan.” Stalter is also, against all evidence, quite soft-spoken. “If I was in a store and someone shushed me in a scary way, that would affect me,” Stalter says. “If someone was mean to me, I could feel like the little girl. ‘Why would they be mean to her?’ ”

During Stalter’s childhood in Ohio, they were mean to her. After graduating from Catholic elementary school, she attended civilian middle school and struggled to understand why everyone wasn’t friends. The popular girls “tortured” her, she says. In an effort to facilitate the missing camaraderie, Stalter invited everyone to a Hawaiian-themed party at her house. She discovered invitations she’d lovingly handed out tossed in the trash at school. Two people wound up attending.

Stalter’s mom was (perhaps unsurprisingly) an early ally. She found Stalter funny for the things she still perceives to be true about herself: being “embarrassing or nervous and confident at the same time.” Stalter would do interpretive dances on the sidewalk; the joke was that her mom was the only one who knew she wasn’t crazy.

That tension of not everyone getting it is Stalter’s comedic modus operandi. She recalls a show at the Laugh Factory in Chicago, before she was famous, where the audience was full of drunk tourists — and a lone friend of Stal­ter’s. She had a bit where she would take the stage with blood pouring out of her mouth and open by saying, “Sorry if my mouth bleeds tonight. My mouth bleeds when I get nervous, but I think I’m OK tonight.” The only person who laughed at that show, and hysterically, was her buddy. It was a great night.

“It’s fun if it’s even just one person,” she says of connecting with an audience. “And sometimes that could be me.”

When she performs, Stalter says, “It’s something that comes over me like a trance. One of my best friends, [Saturday Night Live star] Sarah Sherman, told me that when she does stand-up, it feels like meditation. And I was like, ‘Oh, my God. It feels like that.’ ” Stalter says when she’s performed with a headache, she stops feeling it until she leaves the stage. “I think that’s when [I know] I’m meant to do that,” Stalter says. Any pain goes away while she enacts God’s purpose for her. 

In Too Much, Stalter’s Jessica is a celebration of the show’s title. The character is caught between a manic id fueled equally by a painful breakup and the lust of new love, and the debilitating superego induced by the same life events. Jess records a series of videos she doesn’t intend to release, directly addressing the woman her ex is now engaged to (played by the comically hot Emily Ratajkowski), and whips herself into self-­sabotage by questioning her new relationship with Felix (Will Sharpe of The White Lotus Season Two fame), who is loosely based on Felber. Any time you fear things are getting unsustainably tumultuous, you need only remind yourself that every episode is a play on the title of a famous rom-com (e.g., “Notting Kill”) and that its creators are now happily married enough to want to work together.

“When I’m performing, something comes over me like a trance. That’s when I know I’m meant to do it.”

The show gives Stalter her first major leading role. She is perhaps the only person besides Dunham who could have played it, which is why Dunham wrote it for her. 

Andrew Scott, who also appears in Too Much, introduced Dunham to Stalter’s work. Dunham says he’d shown her Meg’s videos “in the heart of Covid and said, ‘Do you know this girl? She’s your sister.’ ” (Dunham does play Stalter’s onscreen sister, hilariously despondent after her husband decides to explore bisexuality and polyamory while she languishes in a series of increasingly sedentary supine positions.) “I became totally transfixed,” Dunham says. “Someone whose characters operate on the edge of delusional, on the edge of cringe, but is always ultimately in on the joke — that, to me, is my comedy DNA.” Dunham cites the characters David Brent on the U.K. Office, Patsy and Edina on Absolutely Fabulous, and Valerie Cherish of The Comeback as Stalter’s fictional ancestors.

Around 2022, Dunham DM’d Stalter on Instagram and said she had a project in mind. Stalter was a mega Girls fan and had felt a kinship with Dunham through the screen. “I’d connect to this person,” she’d thought about a hypothetical but unlikely future meeting while watching Dunham play Hannah Horvath, the series’ divisive protagonist. 

When Stalter and Dunham got on Zoom, Stalter’s instinct was confirmed. Dunham had made a deck of the show — kind of a mood board/game plan for a television series — and there were photos of Stalter on it as the main character. Then Dunham told Stalter, “Girls was about sex, and this is about love.” It was kismet; Stalter had met her now-partner only four months earlier and refers to her this way: “No one’s perfect except for my girlfriend.”

“We’re very different, just like Lena and Luis,” Stalter says. “When me and Lena first talked, we were bonding over that. I feel like I’m the Lena, and I’m the one bringing home a thing.

Stalter is referring to the chaos of her life, but sometimes the “thing” is literal. Imagining a conversation between Felber and Dunham, Stalter riffs, “She could be like, ‘Honey, I bought a pig today.’ And then he’s like [affectionately], ‘Oh, Lena.’ ” Working with the couple proved the premise of the show. “It just feels like Luis fully lets Lena, and Lena lets Luis, be exactly who they are,” Stalter says. “I think sometimes you could be with someone who likes all the differences.”

Top and Shoes by Reformation. Bra by Norma Kamali. Scarf by Mads Allen. Jewelry by Loren Stewart.

In her own menagerie, Stalter currently has two cats — one rather more aloof, and one hairless snuggler named Suki — and a dog called Bunny, who manages an anxiety disorder with medication and as much physical contact with Stalter as possible. On Too Much, Jess, like Dunham, has a bald dog, procured after giving up a rescue (in this case named Cutesie) because of behavioral issues. 

In 2017, Dunham went through several heinous press cycles, including one around the saga of her and then-partner Jack Antonoff’s real-life dog, Lamby, whom they surrendered to a canine rehabilitation center after multiple instances of aggression. In Too Much, Jess’ boyfriend forces her to “get rid” of their dog after it nearly bites someone. It’s one of many moments that invite a close read, especially in the context of Dunham’s autobiographical pieces of writing about her wrenching breakup with Antonoff and her subsequent move to London — the city where Stalter’s character decamps after the end of a relationship with a Jewish ex-boyfriend.

“People love when they see something and they’re like, ‘Is that from that person’s real life?’ ” Stalter says. “Even if it’s not all factual or it’s not literally a biography, someone so open about sharing their real experiences or at least putting them into certain characters, it’s really beautiful, because we get to learn about her. That’s why when I saw Girls, even though [Lena is] not Hannah, there’s parts of her in her stuff. That’s the most beautiful thing to see, someone who’s putting their heart and energy into something and you get to learn about them — but then you’re not taking everything that happened as truth.”

At the precipice of her highest-profile role yet, Stalter is contemplating what the project might mean for nonconsensual probing into her own life. People watching her videos is fine, because she has complete control over them, and people are seeing them in their homes. When audiences come to her stand-up shows, well, that’s what she’s always wanted, and the work is begetting fans who want to see more work. “It feels contained or something,” Stalter says. “And then with Hacks, it’s been so huge and life-changing. But in my mind, I could be safe because I’m not the lead in it.

“Lena is someone I’ve been such a huge fan of, so it was really crazy to wrap my mind around being in the show,” Stalter says slowly. “But then when I got to know her, she felt like a sister and a friend. So now the show feels like a play that we did for each other, and that this really contains a special thing.”

“Getting to know Lena, she felt like a sister and a friend. So now the show feels like a play that we did for each other.”

Sharpe remembers filming an episode — one of the best of the series — that takes place over one night, in Stalter’s character’s apartment. The couple has had sex too many times, and Sharpe’s character has hit his refractory limit. Sharpe’s line after aborting the encounter was supposed to be something like, “I’m in my thirties, queen. I’m all out.” After an exhausting day of filming, it came out, in a posh accent, as, “That’s me done for the evening, I’m afraid.” Stalter named this imaginary interloping gentleman “the Midnight Man,” and pointed out every time Sharpe strayed into Midnight Man territory during production. Then she made him a shirt with the moniker on it. “Because of the energy of Lena — and Meg, in particular — it put you in quite a positive, hopeful, loving mindset,” Sharpe says of shooting the series. “Just seeing the best in everything and in everyone.”

The setting allowed Stalter the confidence and space to play a role that both exercises her obvious comedic virtuosity and shows previously untapped dramatic ability, from dealing with insecurity (not a state expressed by a typical Stalter character) to a breakdown during a breakup. “Some of the stuff that’s in the show I feel is like, Oh! Nobody would ever see me do this if it wasn’t on TV,” Stalter says. “When you’re crying in your room alone, people don’t see that unless it’s on TV. I’m really crying.”

Embodying what Dunham describes as Stalter’s “incredible mix of warm/fuzzy and boundaried strength,” Stalter explains how she approached fictional sex with the advice of intimacy coordinator Miriam Lucia: “During kissing scenes or during vulnerable stuff, it’s not actually you, and you don’t have to do it the way you do, because you can save that part for yourself.” As for Stalter’s corporeal being — beautifully showcased on a series in which her character is implicitly contrasted with one played by an actual supermodel — she says, “I’m very about taking care of my body and being healthy, but I have not wanted to be skinny or lose weight for cosmetic reasons since high school.” A beacon for us all.

To make public the kind of deeply personal moments fostered by Dunham’s writing is, by definition, exposing. “It just feels really vulnerable,” Stalter says. “It’s hard or strange to think of it being on such a huge platform. It’s exciting … but also, just, Netflix is so big.”

Stalter points to her career-long luck of collaborating with people like Dunham and the Hacks team. “I’ve not worked with evil people,” she says. “I don’t know how.” But she also considers the world this project is opening her up to. “I think there is power in Hollywood that is gross,” she says. “There’s a lot of darkness in the industry, and things that can corrupt you, like money and power.” 

Stalter isn’t particularly concerned. “I feel so connected to God and grounded that I feel like I would not get swept up by anything in Hollywood,” she says.

Stalter sees herself representing — in her life, in a movie she’s developing called Church Girls, and in the “evil, crazy, weird villain” version of herself she plays onstage — people like her, who grew up with God in places like the Midwest, and who maybe didn’t finish college either. “Their lives are just as big as ours,” she says, finally daring to group herself in with her famous peers.

“I’m always going to be sensitive,” Stalter says. “I am still that little girl in middle school being like, ‘Why don’t they want to come to the Hawaiian party?’ But it’s like, there’ve been so many other parties.”

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Production Credits

Produced by PATRICIA BILOTTI at PBNY PRODUCTIONS. Styled by KAT TYPALDOS. Hair by ERICKA VERRETT at A-FRAME using ROZ. Makeup by MELISSA HERNANDEZ at A-FRAME using HAUS LABS. Photo assistants: SCOTT TURNER and SANDRA RIVERA. Styling assistant: LYDIA GINGRICH. Photographed at DUST STUDIOS



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Feds offer $50,000 reward in apparent firing of gun at agents after clash with protesters

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LOS ANGELES — The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward in the search for someone who appeared to fire a pistol at federal immigration agents during protests Thursday near Los Angeles, the U.S. attorney for the region said.

U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor for the Central District of California based in Los Angeles, announced the reward Thursday night, hours after what appeared to be tear gas was used against protesters near Camarillo in Ventura County.

He shared on X helicopter news footage from ABC affiliate KABC of Los Angeles that showed a man in a black T-shirt point what appeared to be a handgun during the protest and tear gassing. He and U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the incident happened around 2:26 p.m.

There were no reports of anyone being struck by gunfire during the incident.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said Thursday night that the farm was a marijuana grow, and that 10 juveniles who are in the country without authorization were found there.

“It’s now under investigation for child labor violations,” Scott said.

Glass House Brands, a cannabis company, said that officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement visited its farm Thursday.

“The company fully complied with agent search warrants and will provide further updates if necessary,” the company said. Cannabis is legal in California under state law approved by voters.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, on social media shared video showing tear gas being used and children running. Newsom said in reply to another comment on X that he condemns any assault on law enforcement.

Recent federal immigration operations in the Los Angeles area have infuriated some local officials, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, who said they are motivated by a political agenda “of provoking fear and terror.”

U.S. Rep. Julia Brownley, a Democrat whose district includes Camarillo, said Thursday that there has been a lack of transparency from ICE and the federal government and that she will demand answers.

“These militarized raids are not routine immigration enforcement. They are part of a deliberate, disruptive, and ongoing campaign of cruelty that is an unacceptable assault on our way of life,” she said in a statement. “ICE should be focused on individuals who pose real threats to public safety, not carrying out broad sweeps that destabilize entire communities.”

The U.S. attorney, Essayli, was appointed by President Donald Trump and was sworn in on April 2.

He has said that Los Angeles’ “sanctuary city” policies are “deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration law.” The Department of Justice on June 30 filed a lawsuit against the city over those policies.

Camarillo is a city of around 70,000 in Ventura County, around 50 miles west of downtown Los Angeles. The region is known for its agriculture.



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Justin Bieber Surprise-Releases New Album Swag: Listen

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Justin Bieber has surprise-released a new album called Swag. The album features Dijon, Lil B, Sexyy Red, the comedian Druski, Gunna, Cash Cobain, 2 Chainz, and others. Production comes from Dijon, Mk.gee, Knox Fortune, Daniel Caesar, and more, and a key songwriter across the album is Tobias Jesso Jr. Listen to the album below.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bieber had been hosting “jam sessions” at his Los Angeles home in recent months. The publication also reported that the singer decamped to Iceland to jam, “vibe out,” and finish his album.

One of the new album’s collaborators, Mk.gee, had previously spoken about his work with Bieber for a New York Times feature. “He’s searching,” the guitarist told The Times’ Joe Coscarelli last year. “Anything that comes out of his mouth: That’s pop music,” he continued. “You can really do pretty wild stuff behind that, just because it represents something.”

Swag is Bieber’s seventh studio album and first since 2021’s Justice. He began his Justice World Tour the next year, but he had to cancel it early due to health issues. The tour cancellation apparently led to financial issues with his then-manager Scooter Braun, who allegedly helped Bieber cover the more than $20 million that the singer owed to the tour’s promoter, AEG Presents. Bieber and Braun recently settled their dispute, according to The Hollywood Reporter and TMZ.

In 2023, Bieber sold his catalog to Recognition Music Group (then known as Hipgnosis) for a reported $200 million. It marked the company’s largest catalog acquisition at the time.

Bieber has limited his musical output in the time since Justice. He teamed up with SZA on “Snooze (Acoustic),” Kehlani on “Up at Night,” and Omah Lay on “Attention,” to name a few of his collaborative efforts. He also shared the songs “Honest,” “I Feel Funny,” and “Beautiful Love (Free Fire).”

Justin Bieber soundtracked one of his promotional posts for Swag with Florida rapper Bossman Dlow’s Mr Beat the Road standout “Talk My Shit.” Read more about the pop superstar’s fascination with regional hip-hop in Alphonse Pierre’s column “What the Hell Is Justin Bieber Doing on Rob49’s ‘WTHelly?’





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