A pediatrician for a chain of clinics affiliated with a prominent Houston hospital system is “no longer employed” there, according to officials, after a social media account associated with her published a post wishing the “Maga” voters of a Donald Trump-supporting county in Texas to “get what they voted for” amid flash flooding that killed more than 100 people, including many children.

“We were made aware of a social media comment from one of our physicians,” read a statement from Blue Fish Pediatrics circulated late Sunday. “The individual is no longer employed by Blue Fish Pediatrics.”

The statement also said: “We strongly condemn the comments that were made in that post. That post does not reflect the values, standards or mission of Blue Fish Pediatrics. We do not support or condone any statement that politicizes tragedy, diminishes human dignity, or fails to clearly uphold compassion for every child and family, regardless of background or beliefs.”

Blue Fish Pediatrics’ statement neither named the physician in question nor specified whether she had resigned or was dismissed. But multiple publicly accessible social media posts identified her as Dr Christina Propst. A Guardian source familiar with the situation confirmed the accuracy of the posts naming Propst. And, at the time it issued the statement, Blue Fish Pediatrics had recently unpublished Propst’s biographical page from its website.

Attempts to contact Propst weren’t immediately successful.

The post attributed to Propst prompted many – including on social media – to pressure Blue Fish Pediatrics to take action against her. For one, while they are entitled to the same constitutional free speech rights everyone else in the country is, many US healthcare providers are required by their employers to avoid publicizing opinions which could undermine trust in their profession among members of the public.

But the timing of the post also caused offense, coming after communities along Texas’s Guadalupe River were overwhelmed early Friday from flash flooding triggered by torrential rain. The river rose 26ft (8 meters) in 45 minutes after 1.8tn gallons of rain fell over a region including Kerr county, Texas, about 286 miles (460km ) west of Texas.

As of Monday, officials were reporting more than 90 people had died – with others missing – during the flood. Many of those reported dead were in Kerr county. And many were children, including some who were attending Camp Mystic, a 99-year-old, all-girls, nondenominational Christian institution.

In the post that preceded the end of her time at Blue Fish Pediatrics, Propst alluded to how Kerr county had – like Texas as a whole – voted in favor of Trump as he defeated former vice-president Kamala Harris in November’s White House election. Trump’s administration has since eliminated mentions of the ongoing climate crisis and its consequences, one of which is downpours like the one that devastated Kerr becoming more common. He has also mused about “phasing out” the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), in part so that the president’s office could be in charge of distributing disaster relief funds and ultimately “give out less money”.

“May all visitors, children, non-Maga voters and pets be safe and dry,” said the post, which invoked an acronym for Trump’s “Make America great again” slogan. “Kerr county Maga voted to gut Fema. They deny climate change. May they get what they voted for.”

The post concluded with the phrase: “Bless their hearts,” which in the US south is often used as a condescending insult.

Kerr county residents who survived the flood have since spoken about losing all of their possessions, including their homes. They have also recounted seeking what have proven to be elusive answers about the level of preparedness from authorities in charge of protecting their communities.

In short order, the post made its way to Blue Fish Pediatrics, which is described as an independent partner of Houston’s well-known Memorial Hermann hospital network. The clinic chain – which was tagged by users demanding that it act against Propst – said in a statement that the group was immediately placing the message’s author on leave. A subsequent statement indicated that the post’s author was no longer an employee of the chain while expressing “full support to the families and the surrounding communities who are grieving, recovering and searching for hope”.

Meanwhile, a statement from Memorial Hermann said that the post’s author was not directly employed by the network. The statement, though, made it a point to say, “We … strongly condemn these statements … [and] we have zero tolerance for such rhetoric which does not reflect the mission, vision or values of our system.”

Propst’s unpublished biography described her as a native of New York who graduated from Princeton University in 1991. She later graduated from New Orleans’s Tulane medical school, received certifications from the American board and academy of pediatrics and spent 17 years in group practice in Houston before joining Blue Fish in 2018.

According to the unpublished biography, Propst was voted “best pediatrician” in numerous reader polls conducted by Houston’s Bellaire Examiner newspaper.

Roman Starovoit was found dead near his car in the Moscow region hours after President Vladimir Putin dismissed him.

Russia’s top criminal investigation agency is probing the death of Roman Starovoit, a former transport minister whose body was found with a gunshot wound near his car, hours after President Vladimir Putin dismissed him from his post.

Authorities on Monday said the 53-year-old politician’s body was discovered near a Tesla vehicle abandoned near a park in the Moscow region, with a pistol, registered in Starovoit’s name, located nearby.

The Investigative Committee has opened a case to determine the full circumstances of his death, suggesting it could be suicide. Russian media, citing law enforcement sources, said the gunshot appeared to be self-inflicted.

However, the timing of the death has prompted speculation.

Putin issued a decree earlier on Monday, removing Starovoit as transport minister, a role he had held for just more than a year. No explanation was provided.

Political commentators quickly linked the decision to a long-running corruption investigation in the Kursk region, where Starovoit previously served as governor.

The probe centres on whether 19.4 billion roubles ($246m) allocated in 2022 to bolster border defences in Kursk were embezzled.

The funds were meant to reinforce Russia’s frontier with Ukraine, but Ukrainian forces launched a cross-border assault into the region three months into Starovoit’s ministerial term – the largest such incursion since World War II.

In April, his successor and former deputy in Kursk, Alexei Smirnov, was charged with embezzling defence funds. Several Russian outlets reported on Monday that Smirnov, who denies wrongdoing, had told investigators Starovoit was also involved in the alleged fraud.

The incident casts a shadow over Russia’s transport sector, already grappling with wartime pressures.

Western sanctions have left the aviation industry struggling for spare parts, while soaring interest rates have pushed Russian Railways – the country’s largest employer – into financial strain.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s drone attacks continue to disrupt domestic air traffic, forcing temporary airport closures and leading to logistical uncertainty.

Following Starovoit’s dismissal, the Kremlin announced that Andrei Nikitin, former governor of the Novgorod region, had been appointed as acting transport minister. Photographs released by state media showed him shaking hands with Putin.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin believed Nikitin had the necessary experience to steer the ministry through current challenges. At his meeting with the president, Nikitin pledged to modernise the sector by boosting digital infrastructure to improve cargo flows and cross-border trade.