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🎧 Abbott stated that investigations into the preparation and response will most likely start later this week as state lawmakers prepare for a special session to address the disaster. The governor refused to assign responsibility for what residents say was a lack of warning, Dominic Anthony Walsh, of NPR network station Houston Public Media, tells Up First. Kerr County, which saw the worst flooding, doesn’t have an outdoor warning system that sounds during flash flooding, but does have a text-based system. Walsh spoke with Kyle McCormick, who was cleaning out his father-in-law’s home in Kerr County. McCormick said they have rebuilt after floods before, even though they were not like this one, and they will rebuild again. 
➡️ The majority of deaths from the flood happened along the Guadalupe River. These graphics show where the floods happened and how high the water rose.
➡️ Thad Heartfield’s son and three of his son’s friends disappeared in the flood. Now, he is leading nearly 100 volunteers searching for flood victims.

🎧 During a Cabinet meeting yesterday, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff expressed optimism that an agreement between Israel and Hamas could be reached by the end of the week. Witkoff believes that such an agreement could lead to lasting peace in Gaza, although it remains uncertain whether Hamas and Israel will agree to the final terms. The president acknowledged that resolving the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine is proving to be more complex than anticipated. He also voiced growing frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the ongoing attacks on Ukraine, NPR’s Tamara Keith says. William Taylor, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, suggested that Putin has been stringing Trump along in an effort to gain more time to continue advancing on the battlefield.

🎧 This order is a big deal that impacts close to 20 agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Treasury Department, NPR’s Andrea Hsu says. Around 10,000 employees with HHS have already received layoff notices and the only reason they have stayed on payroll was due to the lower court order. This will not impact the entire federal government. The Department of Veterans Affairs announced this week it wouldn’t need to carry out the large-scale layoffs because it is already on pace to reduce its staff by some 30,000 employees through other means. Hsu says it is known that a lot of people left the VA out of fear that they would be fired.