New data reveals the inadequacy of FEMA flood maps : NPR

Published

21 hours ago

July 10, 2025

More cabins and buildings at Camp Mystic — the tragic site of more than two dozen deaths in the Texas flood — were at risk of flooding than what the federal government had previously reported, according to new analysis from NPR, PBS’s FRONTLINE and data scientists.

Maps by First Street, a climate risk modeling company in New York City, show at least 17 structures in the path of flood waters, compared to maps produced by FEMA, highlighting a longstanding risk facing many Americans. The analysis also shows at least four cabins for young campers were in an area designated by FEMA as an extreme flood hazard, where water moves at its highest velocity and depth.

For decades, FEMA’s maps have failed to take rainfall and flash flooding into account, relying instead on data from coastal storm surges and large river flooding, even as climate change is supercharging rainfall intensity. Nationwide, First Street found more than twice as many Americans live in dangerous flood-prone areas than FEMA’s maps suggest, leaving many homeowners and even local officials unaware of the risk.

“The unknown flood risk is bad from a preparation, financial standpoint, but there’s a human element here that often gets overlooked,” said Jeremy Porter, head of Climate Implications at First Street.

FEMA’s maps can serve as critical warnings to the public about potential danger, but they are also one of the few ways the federal government can require people to take precautionary measures. FEMA requires homeowners in certain flood prone areas to build in ways that could help them withstand a flood, often by elevating their homes.

But in recent years, many properties affected by disasters are turning up outside FEMA’s floodplains. When Hurricane Helene struck western North Carolina last year, 98 percent of the damaged homes were not included in FEMA’s maps. This meant that not only were most homeowners unable to claim flood insurance, most of them had not been obligated to build in a way that could have helped them better survive the storm.

FEMA has known about this problem for years, but the agency lacks the mandate and funding from Congress to address it, according to Porter.

“You think in principle people would say we should have better flood coverage, look what just happened,” Porter says, “but it’s so heavily politicized that you can’t get anybody to bring it forward because they don’t want to be the people that raised flood insurance costs.”

A recent investigation by NPR and FRONTLINE found special interests were also playing a role. Groups like home developers’ associations have lobbied Congress for less flood regulation and in some cases, delays in updating the nation’s flood maps. Developers told NPR they are trying to keep homes affordable.

Business Of Disaster: Insurance Firms Profited $400 Million After Sandy

Outdated FEMA maps played out in a significant way along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County. Using FEMA’s data, First Street found just 2,560 homes at risk in the area. Using their own data, the group discovered more than 4,500 homes were actually in danger.

Even when FEMA does mark the most dangerous flood areas, though, those warnings are not always heeded. At Camp Mystic, NPR found at least eight buildings, including four cabins used to house younger campers, are located inside what FEMA designates a floodway, the most dangerous area of the floodplain where water is expected to move rapidly during a storm.

While many of the camp’s cabins may date back nearly a century, FEMA imposes strict limits on development in these areas, and often outright prohibits it altogether.

Map showing the location of Kerr County, Texas, west of Austin and San Antonio

“No one should be in a floodway,” says Jim Blackburn, co-director of the Severe Storm Prevention, Education and Evacuation from Disaster Center at Rice University in Houston. “Floodways are the most dangerous of a danger zone.”

A painted broken heart is seen near Camp Mystic along the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas, on July 8, 2025, after severe flash flooding over the July 4 holiday weekend.

Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images

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Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images

Camp Mystic’s dining hall, recreation hall, and four cabins all appear to be in the floodway, less than a couple of hundred feet from where the river makes a tight bend.

Blackburn says it’s been difficult to get Texas officials to act on the severity of the threat from floodways and floodplains.

“In Texas, we don’t think the floodplains are that serious,” he says. “We treat floodplains as a kind of good old boy, kind of wink and nod, [as though] it’s environmental red tape. And that’s going to get a lot of people killed.”

Kerr County officials declined NPR’s request for an interview, citing the ongoing emergency. In 2020, the county passed two ordinances to tighten rules on building in high-risk areas and prevent development in floodways. FEMA did not respond to NPR’s request for comment.

Volunteers help clean up a house after flooding in Kerrville, Texas.

Chad Berginnis, head of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, said that recent delays with grants and agreements have impeded state and local efforts to better map flood risk in their communities, adding that cuts from the Trump Administration could make it even harder.

“When I look at the flood map in the area of Camp Mystic, there is a small water course that comes in right there that doesn’t have good flood mapping data,” he says. “The action is simple. Get the notice of federal funding opportunities out and get those grants approved for funding. Those are things right off the bat that the administration could do.”

Blackburn, from Rice University, says it’s no longer helpful for officials to call these events rare, or unpredictable. He says while no one can know which area will be hit next, the risk is known and communities should prepare for a catastrophe.

“It is happening,” he says. “The science is solid. What we need is reasonable decision making based on the best available science and we don’t have that right now.”

NPR Correspondent Rebecca Hersher contributed to this report.

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Amanda Anisimova stuns Wimbledon favorite Aryna Sabalenka to reach first Grand Slam final

Published

1 hour ago

July 10, 2025

Matthew Futterman

CENTRE COURT, THE ALL ENGLAND CLUB — Amanda Anisimova has arrived.

The former teen sensation, who spent several years in the tennis wilderness following the sudden death of her father and coach when she was 17, upset the world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 under a broiling sun on Centre Court Thursday to make her first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon. She also becomes the first American finalist at Wimbledon since Serena Williams in 2019.

In a duel of power, periods of inconsistency and tight games at important times, Anisimova kept her nerve when the match was on the line to keep Sabalenka from making the only major final she has never played. She came alive with just enough belief, just when Sabalenka looked to be clawing her way back— as she had done so many times during this tournament and during this match.

“I knew that I was going to really have to go for it,” Anisimova said when it was over. “Her level just kept increasing and getting better and better throughout the match. So to be able to come on top, I knew that I wasn’t just going to win off of her mistakes.”

For Sabalenka, it was another tough upset loss at the hands of an American seizing an opportunity in the final stages of a Grand Slam. She has played three Grand Slams since becoming the world No. 1 for a second time last fall, having spent two months at the top of the sport in 2023.

She now finds herself in a curious position. Her consistency at majors — 11 semifinal-or-better finishes at her past 12 — is remarkable. But her record when things get tight in those late stages is unspooling. She is now 3-9 in deciding sets of semifinals and finals at the Grand Slams.

She lost to Madison Keys in the Australian Open final, and to Coco Gauff last month in the French Open final. She looked across the net Thursday and saw another talented American woman — there are loads of them these days. Sabaleka came up just short once more.

This one was different than a month ago, when she blew up on the court, yelling at herself and her box as the match against Gauff slipped away. Then she exploded in her post-match news conference, arguing that Gauff had not won the match. She had lost it, in part because of the windy conditions. She said Iga Świątek, the player she had beaten in the semifinal, would have beaten Gauff that day.

On Centre Court Thursday, as Anisimova got closer to the win, Sabalenka mostly kept her cool.

“We all can lose control over our emotions, it’s absolutely normal,” Sabalenka said in her news conference.

“Every time when I was really that close in that match today to completely lose it and start… I don’t know… yelling, screaming, smashing the rackets, I keep reminding myself that’s not an option, and it’s not going to help me to stay in the match and to fight for my dream.”

She hugged Anisimova at the net and was magnanimous in her comments about her after. She did admit that Anisimova had “pissed her off,” when she reacted to the chair umpire telling her she had celebrated a shot too early by saying that she was doing what Sabalenka does “all the time” by extending her grunt through the ball.

“She was more brave today,” Sabalenka said.

“When I was just, like, trying to stay in the point, she was playing more aggressive.

“Sometimes I was just stopping my arms, making mistakes which I shouldn’t be making. I think I should have been a little bit more brave today and remember that I’m on the top of the ranking, and I can do that. I think at some point at the match I forgot about that.”

For the third major in a row, Aryna Sabalenka lost a tight match in the final stages to an American. (Henry Nicholls / AFP via Getty Images)

When she did, Anisimova was there to become the protagonist in a stirring narrative that is still unfolding.

For the 23-year-old Floridian, the win was the next high watermark in a remarkable journey over the past year. Last June, as she muddled through her comeback from nearly a year of battling injuries and burnout, Anisimova fell in the final round of Wimbledon qualifying.

During the next year, each time she achieved an encouraging result, playing deep into tournaments in Washington, D.C. and Canada and even winning in Doha in February for her first WTA 1,000 title, just below the level of a Grand Slam, her body would abandon her. She struggled with injuries to her back and hip that prevented her from practicing, training and competing as much as she liked.

In April, she hired a physiotherapist named Shadi Soleymani to take charge of her health and fitness, and she has been on the upswing ever since.

For a few minutes, it appeared that Sabalenka had turned the match. She drew even as Anisimova finally faltered on serve at 3-3 in the second set, missing two forehands and double-faulting to give Sabalenka her first service break of the afternoon. Anisimova made a gallant effort to get back in the set as Sabalenka tried to serve it out. However, Sabalenka snuffed out those efforts with a couple of massive serves, the last one clanking off Anisimova’s strings and frame.

On to a third set they went, with Sabalenka starting it just as she had finished the last, breaking a faltering Anisimova at love. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, Sabalenka went off the boil, her forehands going wide and long at the absolute worst time. One let Anisimova break right back for 1-1. With a sitter at the net, she pounded another just long, and all of a sudden Anisimova had a 3-1 lead.

The American had kept her opponent’s variety out of the contest for most of the match, with Sabalenka playing just nine points at the net through three sets when it was done. However, the world No. 1 brought it to the party at the end, trying to bring Anisimova to the net as she had done in Paris at the last major. Then, she fileted Anisimova in the front of the court. Here, Anisimova responded in kind, hitting drop shots of her own, refusing to let Sabalenka draw her into a battle she thought she would win easily.

From there, destiny seemed to take over. As Anisimova tried to survive a tight game at 4-2, she cracked a forehand down the line that might have missed. It ticked the net and dropped into the front of the court for the game. She pumped her fist, foregoing the usual apology for good luck. It was that kind of match, with Sabalenka having complained about an early celebration from Anisimova on a winner.

On her first match point, Anisimova missed on her vaunted backhand on a ball right in her slot. She missed again on the same shot to allow Sabalenka a last chance to do what she has done all year and retrieve a seemingly lost position. Instead, the world No. 1 gave her three opportunities to win, one earned by a stunning Anisimova short slice — the kind Sabalenka would so normally put into play.

Sabalenka played two without fear, but Anisimova returned the favor on the third, blasting a forehand to the postage stamp on the most high-stakes point of her career to date.

She turned to her box with a look of disbelief, though really, this is where she was supposed to be all along.

In tennis though, as in most sports, there is no “supposed to” or “destiny” without hard work and smart decisions.

When her father and main tennis guru, Konstantin, died of a sudden heart attack at 52 in 2019, Anisimova took a brief break, but she largely played through her grief. She spent the next two seasons tumbling down the rankings, before she climbed back to the top 30 in 2022.

By early in 2023, tennis had became too much.

That’s when she made the smart decision to take a break, to figure out whether she wanted to play any more. She took college courses. She pursued her interests in art, as she put the rackets away and stopped doing the main thing she had done since she was a small girl, one of countless young Russians whose parents had emigrated to America and watched Maria Sharapova’s father turn her into a champion and millionaire many times over. Anisimova even looked a bit like her, nearly six-feet tall with a long blond ponytail flowing behind her visor.

By 2024, she was ready to give tennis a go again. The comeback happened in fits and starts, often stalled by that series of recurring injuries. She worked with a coach and a trainer, but until she found Soleymani earlier this year, she never had someone keeping watch over her nutrition, her sleep habits, and searching for the reasons she kept getting injured.

First Soleymani helped her get healthy, increasing her strength and flexebility down her problematic left side that seemed to be at the root of her back and hip problems. Then she was able to train hard enough to get fitter and stronger. Then the wins began to pile up, and the confidence that she could play long matches day after day returned.

All of that has been on display this week. She survived a three-set battle against Londa Nosková in the fourth round. She overcame her jitters and a resurgent Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to prevail in a marathon second-set tiebreak in the quarterfinal.

Then, on Thursday, she played some of her best tennis at the end, as the match stretched past the two-hour mark on a day that felt far more like Florida than London and had multiple fans requiring medical attention in the sun-splashed seats of Centre Court.

She stayed cool enough to find a way into her first Grand Slam final, in this case, the biggest one of all. As each match point slipped away, her nerves rose. Then she saw the forehand in her strike zone and thumped it.

Now she gets Swiatek on Saturday, a five-time Grand Slam champion also playing in her first Wimbledon final.

“Obviously I haven’t been in a Grand Slam final before, but I’ve experienced a lot of moments similar and a lot of high-stakes matches,” Anisimova said of what lies ahead.

“I always tell myself ahead of the game to enjoy every moment, not really concentrate on the finish line or the outcome, and just to really stay in the present. So I’ll just keep telling myself that.”

Another good decision.

(Photo: Julian Finney / Getty Images)

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The UN warns millions will die by 2029 if US funding for HIV programs isn’t replaced

Published

3 hours ago

July 10, 2025

Maria Cheng

LONDON (AP) — Years of American-led investment into AIDS programs has reduced the number of people killed by the disease to the lowest levels seen in more than three decades and provided life-saving medicines for some of the world’s most vulnerable.

But in the last six months, the sudden withdrawal of U.S. money has caused a “systemic shock,” U.N. officials warned, adding that if the funding isn’t replaced, it could lead to more than 4 million AIDS-related deaths and 6 million more HIV infections by 2029.

A new UNAIDS report released Thursday said the funding losses have “already destabilized supply chains, led to the closure of health facilities, left thousands of health clinics without staff, set back prevention programs, disrupted HIV testing efforts and forced many community organizations to reduce or halt their HIV activities.”

It also said that it feared other major donors scaled back their support, reversing decades of progress against AIDS worldwide — and that the strong multilateral cooperation is in jeopardy because of wars, geopolitical shifts and climate change.

A ‘lifeline’ removed

AP AUDIO: UN says if US funding for HIV programs is not replaced, millions more will die by 2029

AP correspondent Karen Chammas reports on the impact of cuts to US funding for international HIV programs.

The $4 billion that the United States pledged for the global HIV response for 2025 disappeared virtually overnight in January, when U.S. President Donald Trump ordered that all foreign aid be suspended and later moved to shutter the U.S. AID agency.

Andrew Hill, an HIV expert at the University of Liverpool who is not connected to the United Nations, said that while Trump is entitled to spend U.S. money as he sees fit, “any responsible government would have given advance warning so countries could plan,” instead of stranding patients in Africa where clinics were closed overnight.

The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, was launched in 2003 by U.S. President George W. Bush, the biggest-ever commitment by any country focused on a single disease.

UNAIDS called the program a “lifeline” for countries with high HIV rates, and said that it supported testing for 84.1 million people, treatment for 20.6 million, among other initiatives. According to data from Nigeria, PEPFAR also funded 99.9% of the country’s budget for medicines taken to prevent HIV.

U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Angeli Achrekar, a UNAIDS deputy executive director who was PEPFAR’s principal deputy coordinator until January 2023, said the program is under review by the Trump administration though Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a waiver “to continue life-saving treatment.”

““The extent to which it will continue in the future, we don’t know,” she told a video news conference with U.N. reporters in New York. “We are cautiously hopeful that PEPFAR will continue to support both prevention and treatment services.”

A gap impossible to fill

In 2024, there were about 630,000 AIDS-related deaths worldwide, per a UNAIDS estimate — the figure has remained about the same since 2022 after peaking at about 2 million deaths in 2004.

Even before the U.S. funding cuts, progress against curbing HIV was uneven. UNAIDS said that half of all new infections are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Tom Ellman of Doctors Without Borders said that while some poorer countries were now moving to fund more of their own HIV programs, it would be impossible to fill the gap left by the U.S.

“There’s nothing we can do that will protect these countries from the sudden, vicious withdrawal of support from the U.S.,” said Ellman, head of the group’s South Africa medical unit.

Experts also fear another significant loss — data.

The U.S. paid for most HIV surveillance in African countries, including hospital, patient and electronic records, all of which has now abruptly ceased, according to Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of the Global Health Institute at Duke University.

“Without reliable data about how HIV is spreading, it will be incredibly hard to stop it,” he said.

A new drug revives hope

The uncertainty comes in the wake of a twice-yearly injectable that many hope could end HIV. Studies published last year showed that the drug from pharmaceutical maker Gilead was 100% effective in preventing the virus.

At a launch event Thursday, South Africa’s health minister Aaron Motsoaledi said the country would “move mountains and rivers to make sure every adolescent girl who needs it will get it,” saying that the continent’s past dependence upon US aid was “scary.”

Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug, called Yeztugo, a move that should have been a “threshold moment” for stopping the AIDS epidemic, said Peter Maybarduk of the advocacy group Public Citizen.

But activists like Maybarduk said Gilead’s pricing will put it out of reach of many countries that need it. Gilead has agreed to sell generic versions of the drug in 120 poor countries with high HIV rates but has excluded nearly all of Latin America, where rates are far lower but increasing.

“We could be ending AIDS,” Maybarduk said. “Instead, the U.S. is abandoning the fight.”

___

Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

___

A previous version of this story was corrected to show that the name of the drug is Yeztugo, not Sunlenca.

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Galaxy Unpacked 2025 LIVE: All the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Flip 7 and Watch 8 news

Published

3 hours ago

July 10, 2025

Philip Michaels

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Row 0 – Cell 0	Galaxy Watch 8	Galaxy Watch 8 Classic	Galaxy Watch Ultra
Starting price	$349	$499	$649
Colors	Graphite, Silver	Black, White	Titanium Blue, Titanium White, Titanium Gray, Titanium Silver
Sizes	40mm, 44mm	46mm	47mm
Dimensions	40mm: 42.7 x 40.4 x 8.6 mm / 44mm: 46 x 43.7 x 8.6 mm	46.4 x 46 x 10.6 mm	47.4 x 47. 1 x 12.1 mm
Weight	40mm: 30.0 g / 44m: 34.0 g	63.5 g	60.5 g
Display	40mm: 1.34″ (438×438) / 44mm: 1.47″ (480×480)	1.34″ (438×438)	1.5″ (480 x 480)
Processor	Exynos W1000	Exynos W1000	Exynos W1000
Battery capacity	40mm: 325mAh / 44mm: 435mAh	445mAh	590 mAh
Durability	5ATM + IP68	5ATM + IP68	10 ATM + IP68
Storage	32GB	64GB	64GB
Connectivity	LTE (optional), Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 2.4+ 5 GHz, NFC	LTE (optional), Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 2.4+ 5 GHz, NFC	LTE, Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 2.4+ 5 GHz, NFC
Compatibility	Android 12 or higher	Android 12 or higher	Android 11 or higher

Row 0 – Cell 0	Galaxy Z Fold 7 (rumored)	Galaxy Z Fold 6
Starting price	$1,899	$1,899
Main display size	8 inches	7.6 inches
Cover display size	6.5 inches	6.3 inches
Chipset	Snapdragon 8 Elite	Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
Rear cameras	200MP main, 12MP ultrawide, 10MP telephoto	50MP main, 12MP ultrawide, 10MP telephoto
Selfie cams	10MP (outer), 4MP (inner)	10MP (outer), 4MP (inner)
Battery size	4,400 mAh	4,400 mAh

Row 0 – Cell 0	Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 (rumored)	Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6
Main screen size	6.85 inches	6.7 inches
Cover screen size	4 inches	3.4 inches
Chipset	Snapdragon 8 Elite / Exynos 2500	Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
RAM	12GB	12GB
Storage	256GB, 512GB	256GB, 512GB
Cameras	50MP main, 12MP ultawide, 10MP selfie	50MP main, 12MP ultawide, 10MP selfie
Battery size	4,300 mAh	4,000 mAh

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New data reveals the inadequacy of FEMA flood maps : NPR

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Amanda Anisimova stuns Wimbledon favorite Aryna Sabalenka to reach first Grand Slam final

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