Up First from NPR - Texas Flooding Update, Trump And Netanyahu Meeting, Tariff Plans

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

In central Texas, crews are continuing the search for victims of last week's flash flooding, and local officials have been fielding questions about why residents were not warned to evacuate. Also, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with President Trump to advance a cease-fire deal for Gaza and see Hamas release some hostages, and the President says his administration is on the verge of many new deals with countries regarding tariff rates.Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Russell Lewis, Miguel Macias, Dana Farrington, Janaya Williams and Lisa Thomson. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Claire Murashima and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In central Texas, the search continues for victims of last week's floods. I woke up multiple times during the middle of the night, heard it raining, but never got any warnings on our phone. Why didn't officials warn people to evacuate? I'm Leila Fadl, that's Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. President Trump is hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House today. Trump has been pushing for a ceasefire that would see the return of some hostages. I think there's a good chance we have a deal with Hamas during the week, during the coming week.

What would a deal look like and would it end the war permanently? And steep tariff increases set to take effect this week were put on pause again. As the Trump administration says, it is close to making deals with several countries. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day. This message comes from SADFA. Everyone has a unique skill or ability.

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What memories will your loved ones cherish when you're gone? At Dignity Memorial, the details aren't just little things, they're everything. They help families create meaningful celebrations of life with professionalism and compassion. To find a provider near you, visit DignityMemorial.com. In central Texas, crews are continuing the search for victims of last week's flash flooding. At least 82 people died with 68 of the deaths in Kerr County. Kerr County Sheriff says 28 of those deaths were children. Many of

them were staying in youth camps on the banks of the Guadalupe River. In the days since the storm, local officials have been dealing with tough questions about why children in the camps and others who live along the river were not warned to evacuate. And Piaz Greg Allen is with us now from Kerrville. Greg, good morning. Good morning. So first let's just talk about the ongoing search for victims. What are some of the obstacles facing rescuers? Well, you know, Michelle, it's a very difficult environment for a recovery crews here. I spent some time along the Guadalupe River yesterday and just saw horrific scenes.

The river rose 26 feet in just 45 minutes early Friday morning. And when it did, it swept trees, cars and houses into the flood and carried them downstream. I saw cars piled up in trees, huge mounds of rubble and debris that were left by the river. Now crews are going to have to sort through all that stuff to look for victims. And there's still about 30 victims, adults and children, who've not been identified. Look, I know this is a difficult thing to talk about right now, but why didn't local officials warn people along the river to evacuate? Well, it's a question that keeps coming up repeatedly since Friday

You know some of the people who were asking it or the people who live in that area down by the river I talked to Wendy Barker yesterday She lives in hunt which is a community that was just devastated by the flooding Barker's home is high enough that she wasn't flooded But she wonders why she and others in the community never received any alerts I woke up multiple times during the middle of the night, heard it raining, but never got any any warnings on our phone about any flash flooding or anything like that. I did not personally from the Weather Service or anybody, but

we didn't get those until later on in the morning. The National Weather Service did begin warning of the potential for flooding on Wednesday and upgraded it on Thursday. The declaration of a deadly flash flood emergency didn't go out until nearly a foot of rain fell, which wasn't until the early morning hours on Friday. The question is, what did local emergency managers do with all that information?

So what are local officials saying? Well, they say the focus now should be on recovery and the questions about why alerts didn't go out and why evacuations weren't ordered should wait for later. But at a briefing yesterday, Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice got repeated questions about it, about why alerts didn't go out and why evacuations weren't ordered should wait for later. But at a briefing yesterday, Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice got repeated questions about it and he became defensive. And so as we're preparing for it, unfortunately, the rain hit at the most inopportune time

and right in the most inopportune areas where the north and south fork hit, it converged. And so here we are. So again, we want to continue to focus on those rescue operations and at that we're not taking any more questions. Thank you. Okay, Greg, you know you've done a lot of reporting on the growing threat of inland flooding related to tropical systems, so tell us why is it happening? Well, the rain bomb that fell on Kerr County was fueled by the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry, which hit Mexico last week and then curved up into Texas. It's the kind of thing we also saw last year when Helene weakened from being a hurricane but then dumped as much as 30 inches of rain over parts of Tennessee

and North Carolina. Now these are areas where people are familiar with flash flooding, so much so that they sometimes call it nuisance flooding. Texas Governor Greg Abbott talked about it yesterday. There's the potential for flash flooding but there's no expectation of a water wall of almost 30 feet high. What we've been seeing in recent years is more and more of these big rain events and deaths from freshwater flooding. One factor is climate change, which scientists say is making tropical systems larger and

wetter. It's a challenge for emergency managers and also for people who live in areas where rivers sometimes flood. The question is how to stay alert for flash floods that can quickly become deadly and how to get residents to do the same thing. That is NPR's Greg Allen in Kerrville, Texas. Greg, thank you. You're welcome. President Trump says there could be a ceasefire deal in Gaza this week with some hostages in Gaza going free.

I think there's a good chance we have a deal with Hamas during the week, during the coming week pertaining to quite a few of the hostages. That's what Trump will be discussing this evening with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House. It will be their first meeting since the U.S. joined Israel in attacking Iran's nuclear sites two weeks ago. And PRS Daniel Estrin has been following all this from Tel Aviv. Daniel, good morning.

Good morning, Michelle. So how close is a ceasefire deal in Gaza based on your reporting? We are not expecting a ceasefire deal to be announced today. It could take a few more days or longer. Israel and Hamas just began talks in Doha, Qatar yesterday, and mediators in the region tell us that the Israeli and Hamas delegations are on different floors of the same hotel in Doha, and mediators are shuttling between them. They're discussing issues like what the humanitarian aid situation would

look like at the start of a ceasefire and other gaps that remain between the sides. But remember, Netanyahu just landed today in Washington. A person who was briefed on the matter, who was not authorized to speak publicly, told me that Netanyahu is expected to meet Trump's Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoffff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to talk over the details of what a Gaza deal would look like before Netanyahu meets Trump for dinner. Netanyahu is staying in Washington through Thursday and Netanyahu says his talks with Trump can help bring about a deal. Can you just give us a sense of what a ceasefire deal might look like? I mean, is it temporary? Would it actually lead to the end

of the war in Gaza? We saw a recent draft of the deal that is being negotiated. It starts with a 60 day ceasefire. During that time, Hamas would release 10 out of the 20 living hostages it still holds. Israel would release Palestinian prisoners. And starting on day one of the ceasefire, the two sides would begin discussing the terms of a final end of the war. Now Netanyahu's latest mantra is that there will be no more Hamas in Gaza. So we are expecting discussions between the US and Israel this week in Washington about what that would look like. Does that mean expelling the few remaining senior Hamas militants from Gaza? What would it look like for Hamas to lay down its arms? Who would replace Hamas in governing Gaza? Those are the issues that need to be discussed.

Danielle Pletka So it was just two weeks ago that the U.S. joined Israel's attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities. Now Trump is looking for a ceasefire deal in Gaza. Is this all connected, Daniel? Is there a bigger strategy at play here? Daniel Hickman I think it is all connected, Michelle. We spoke to a person briefed on the matter who was not authorized to speak about it publicly, who said that Netanyahu and Trump will be discussing what kind of diplomatic deal Israel would want to see with Iran. What would want the US to forge with Iran over the future of its nuclear program. You know Trump did attack Iran's nuclear

sites with bombs that Israel does not possess. That is something Netanyahu had long wanted. And now Netanyahu knows what Trump wants. Trump wants an end to the Gaza war. Trump promised his voters when he was running for election that he would end wars. He wants to be the president to end the Gaza war so that he can broker diplomatic ties between Israel and other Arab or Muslim countries. But that puts Netanyahu in a tough spot. His far-right political partners in government do not want the war to end,

but for Netanyahu, ending the war and freeing the hostages from Gaza is a kind of image of victory that could help Netanyahu. He is eyeing a potential new election here in Israel. That is NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv. Daniel, thank you. You're welcome. President Trump's sweeping tariff rates were supposed to go into effect this week. But now the White House is saying those rates won't kick in until August 1st. It's yet another shift in Trump's economic policy that's moved markets and will increase costs for

consumers in the U.S. according to economists. And here White House correspondent Deepa Shivram is with us now to talk about all this. Good morning to you, Deepa. Hi, good morning, Michelle. Okay, so this tariff back and forth has been going on for three months now. What has the administration been doing during all this time? Yeah, well, to put all this in context, Trump originally made this big tariff announcement back in April, right? He called it Liberation Day and imposed a 10% tariff on basically every item being imported into the US. And then on top of that, there were much higher tariffs for countries like China and Vietnam.

And the announcement sparked reciprocal tariffs and conflict with long-time trading partners and allies. And a major problem was that the stock market plunged after that announcement. Banks like JP Morgan were warning of a recession if the tariffs stayed in place. So Trump then implemented a 90-day pause. And that pause was set to expire this coming Wednesday. And the idea was that in that 90 day window, countries would make trade deals with the US.

Peter Navarro, who's a White House trade advisor, even said there could be 90 deals in 90 days. And Trump said countries were quote, dying to make deals. So how many deals have actually been made? Yeah, so only a few. The United Kingdom and Vietnam have negotiated with the US and the US and China have been talking, but there's no final deal there yet. And there aren't a lot of official details regarding Vietnam.

It's more of a framework than a deal, which I think just generally speaks to how unorthodox this trade process has been. So there really hasn't been a lot of deal making, at least with most countries. So where does that leave most of the countries that the U.S. trades with? So now ahead of this July 9th deadline, that's this Wednesday when this pause was supposed to end, the president is now saying that some countries are going to get letters starting today which will outline what their tariff rate will be. And the administration thinks that these letters will spark more deals very quickly.

This is Treasury Secretary Scott Besson speaking to CNN yesterday. We are close to several deals. As always, there's a lot of foot dragging on the other side. And so I would expect to see several big announcements over the next couple of days. And officials say whether it's a trade deal that's reached or not, and countries end up getting hit with those original tariff rates Either way those new rates will now take effect on August 1st And I know I've thrown out a lot of dates

But this is now the third time a date has been set for when tariffs will kick in and as you were just reminding us The markets reacted strongly the first time these tariffs were announced and then as you said You know all these changes in the deadlines and the dates, like you were just telling us, is there any sense of how and when the new tariffs will start to affect consumers? Yeah, well, this pause since April has provided like a bit of stability after the volatility in the markets from that original announcement. But Trump said a few days ago that the new tariff rates on countries that don't make deals could maybe even be higher than what was originally announced. And just last night, he went a step further and targeted countries that align themselves with BRICS nations.

That's a block of developing countries, including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. They're gathering in Rio right now for a summit and put out a statement criticizing US tariffs So in retaliation Trump posted online and said that any nation that aligns with bricks will face an additional 10% tariff Though he didn't specify any further details So all of that to say there's still a lot of uncertainty in how all of this is getting implemented But the bottom line is that economists have widely said that an increase in tariff rates will be passed on to consumers, so higher costs are likely coming. That is NPR's Deepa Shivram. Deepa, thank you. Thank you.

And that's our first for Monday, July 7th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Leila Falded. Your next lesson is Consider This from NPR. We here at Up First give you the three big stories of the day. Our Consider This colleagues take a different approach. They dive into a single news story and what it means to you. Learn about a big story of the day in less than 15 minutes. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Russell Lewis, Miguel Macias, Dana Farrington,

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