Your World Tonight - Texas floods, The psychology of drunk driving, Swimming in the Seine, and more

Episode Date: July 5, 2025

Devastating flash flooding has killed more than 30 people in Texas - including at least a dozen children. More than two dozen young girls are missing after being swept away from a campsite by rising waters. You'll hear more on the damage - and how State and federal officials are responding.Also: A Toronto woman is facing impaired driving charges after allegedly crashing her car into a downtown café early Saturday morning. Toronto police say large numbers of people still do it every year. We take a look at what makes people take that risk.And: One way to beat the summer heat is take a dip in your local watering hole. But for Parisians, that's been difficult. For over a century, swimming in the River Seine has been banned because of high levels of human waste in the waters. But not anymore. We'll take you to Paris to hear how people are jumping in - or not.Plus: Israel to send mediators to Qatar for ceasefire talks, The dance school in Mumbai's largest slum, AI identifying whales in Newfoundland and Labrador, and more.

I'm Joshua Jackson, and I'm returning for the Audible original series, Oracle, Season 3, Murder at the Grandview. Six forty-somethings took a boat out a few days ago. One of them was found dead. The hotel, the island, something wasn't right about it. Psychic agent Nate Russo is back on the case, and you know when Nate's killer instincts are required, anything's possible.

This world's gonna eat you alive. Listen to Oracle Season 3, Murder at the Grandview, One thing I want to tell you to assure y' all is that we will not stop until every single person is found. A desperate search in Texas. More than two dozen young girls are missing after being swept away by rising waters. You'll hear more about the devastating flash floods and the response from state and federal officials. Also on the podcast, a day after Hamas responded positively to a ceasefire proposal, Israel says it's sending a delegation to Qatar for talks,

reviving hopes and a possible breakthrough. And we'll have a whale of a tale. It's just like fingerprints face recognition, it just recognizes the whales easier. Whale watchers use AI to identify humpbacks off the coast of Newfoundland. MUSIC In Texas, they're still adding up the fatalities and searching for survivors after massive flash floods. The torrents hit an area northwest of San Antonio, near the small city of Kerrville.

At least 32 people are dead, 14 of them children. Many are still missing, including more than 20 girls from a summer camp located right on the Guadalupe River. Steve Futterman reports. Keep the faith. That's all we can do. Ty Badden's daughter, her boyfriend, and two others are among those missing. We pray that all four of them are still alive. But as each hour goes by it becomes less and less likely. Today in Texas people were trying to simply grasp the enormity of the tragedy. The flash flood came without warning. Rain was predicted but not this much and not nearly this fast.

The river rose nearly 8 meters in 45 minutes. Rob Kelly is a judge in Kerr County. We know we get rains. We know the river rises, but nobody saw this coming. The Guadalupe River suddenly became a river of death. Scott Walden's home was right on the river. Before he could escape, he was swept in. We got washed down three houses and we finally ended up snagged on a on a big bush. So we hung on to the bush until we got rescued. It took 30 minutes, but he and his wife were

brought to safety. Among the confirmed victims of the flood are a number of children who attended Camp Mystic, a Christian girls summer camp. Others who attended the camp are among the missing. The wilderness area near the Guadalupe River is a popular vacation spot, and many were there celebrating the Fourth of July weekend. You could hear the emotion this morning in the voice of Joe Herring. He is the Mayor of Kerrville, Texas. Today will be a hard day. Please pray for our community. When Texans face a challenge, we come together. We unite.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott says everything is being done to find the missing. We will be relentless in ensuring that we locate every single person. More than 800 rescues have taken place, some by helicopter, some by boat, some by hand with first responders forming a human chain. But not every story has a happy ending. Area resident Jerry Adams saw the body of one of the victims today. It's just sad. It's just really sad for the community.

And I'm sorry. There will be questions asked in the days ahead about why the forecasts failed to predict such a violent event. Much of this will likely focus on drastic cuts by the Trump administration to the National Weather Service. When the cuts were made, some predicted it could lead to missed forecasts. Steve Futterman for CBC News, Los Angeles. Meanwhile, parts of the U.S. southeast

are bracing for severe weather. Tropical storm Chantel has formed over the Atlantic about 200 kilometers off the coast of South Carolina. It's expected to make landfall Sunday morning, bringing heavy rain throughout the weekend that could result in flash flooding for a different area of the U.S. The National Hurricane Center in Miami

has issued tropical storm warnings for portions of the U.S. The National Hurricane Center in Miami has issued tropical storm warnings for portions of the Carolinas. From too much rain to too little, communities in northern Manitoba are being evacuated once again. Wildfires are threatening multiple areas. Hundreds of people are being forced from their homes, some of them only just returned.

Brittany Greenslade reports. Through the thick smoke you hear the help before you see it. The sounds becoming all too familiar for families being forced to flee wildfires yet again. But this time for some into Tascuac Cree nation like Sheila Flett, there'll be nothing to come home to. It's really emotional. The fire spread into the community and destroyed about seven homes. Her home, one of more than half a dozen now gone. People from the community known as Split Lake were evacuated on May 30th.

While that order was lifted two weeks ago, people were told not to go back because the water treatment plant had stopped working. Now the fire is in the town. And the roughly 175 people who were there have been told they must get out. Everybody has to leave the community. It's not safe right now. Chief Doreen Spence says a new fire ignited and spread quickly. Relentless winds making the escape nearly impossible. The RCMP are knocking on doors here again just to make sure everybody is out of their homes. The road connecting the

community to the largest city in the north is also blocked. Thompson is dealing with its own fire just eight kilometers from its airport. Mayor Colleen Smook says while there is no immediate concern, she's warning people to be on alert. It would be a good time anyway to fuel up your vehicles, get any of your personal belongings that, you know, should you happen to happen, it's better to be prepared and not have to go anywhere than be in a panic situation. Meantime, nearly 600 people from Lynn Lake are also being flown out of their community. Many hadn't even unpacked like Gabriel Moose. He says it's

been a trying few weeks. We're feeling pretty pretty overwhelmed and exhausted. Clint Farrow's family of six had only been home for nine days when they were told to leave again. I really miss home. Mayor Brandon Delwich says lightning sparked a new fire. Hydropoles are at risk of burning. Leave the community and the neighboring community of Black Surgeon Falls without power for the foreseeable future. Leaving hundreds in both communities, waiting and watching from afar. Brittany Greenslade, CBC News, Winnipeg. Still ahead, Paris takes a historic plunge.

The clouds have lifted. It's about 25 degrees. I'm told it's the same temperature in the water. So I'm going in. A 100-year-old ban on swimming in the River Seine comes to an end, but some Parisians are still skeptical about the water's cleanliness. We'll dive into that story later in the show. A Toronto woman is facing impaired driving charges after allegedly crashing her car through the façade of a downtown cafe early Saturday morning. Despite all the public education

and advocacy around the dangers of drunk driving, Toronto police say a large number of people still do it every year. Kirtanasa Sitaran looks at what makes those people take that risk. I used to drink and drive all the time in this car. Holding up a picture of her 1939 Jaguar kit car, Judy Wells recalls all the times she got blackout drunk and decided to get behind the wheel. Wells was an alcoholic and nothing could stop her. This is the car I was in the night someone took my keys away in Sutton.

They took the wrong keys and I drove this vehicle to my parents' cottage. Not even losing her brother Paul. He died while being driven home from a party by a drunk driver when he was only 13. He was picked up by two 16-year-old boys in a station wagon and they raced through town. The car flipped into the lake and the two boys got out without a scratch and he died in the ambulance on the way to the Newmarket Hospital. Wells was 15 at the time of Paul's death but for 22 years the successful business owner drank heavily.

Alcoholism was a problem that ran in her family. She never thought twice about her decision to drink and drive. She never thought twice about her brother Paul. So I went out into the parking lot, got into that car and drove in the very road my brother died and I always thought I was okay. You know nothing's going to happen. I'm invincible. Wells stopped only after a drunken episode while on a business trip made her seek help. Recent high-profile incidents of drunk driving show such high-risk acts can lead to harmful outcomes. Two months ago, 19-year-old Ethan L'Huillier

allegedly drove drunk in northwest Toronto. L'Huillier lost control of his vehicle and smashed into a van, stopped at a red light, killing three children and sending three others to hospital. He is now facing 12 charges, including three counts of impaired driving causing death. Dr. Christine Wickens is a senior scientist at the Center for Addictions and Mental Health. She says there are many reasons people choose to drink and drive, poor decision-making, substance abuse disorder, and a lack of education around alcohol's impact on motor skills. People often believe, well, I can have two drinks in the hour and still get behind the wheel. And

maybe for someone, maybe that's true, but not for most people. There are lots of different people who will engage in this type of behavior. And certainly there are a good subset who are high in risk-taking or thrill-seeking behavior. And sometimes those individuals will also have a sense of invulnerability. Wicken says it's not only young people who make the decision to drive while drunk. Impaired driving can happen in all age groups, all sexes and genders. You know it's committed by all income groups, all ethnicities. Toronto Police statistics show impaired driving numbers have stayed steady over the years

despite several education campaigns aimed at curbing the act. Just last year more than 2,600 people were charged with impaired driving in Toronto. Acting Superintendent Matt Moyer with Toronto Police Traffic Services says what needs to change is the messaging. Somebody told me one time who got charged with impaired driving and he said, had I known after spending $4,000 on a lawyer, getting arrested, going to court, losing my job, I could have made it all go away for a $55 cab ride.

And that was quite impactful. As for Wells, she's been sober for 33 years and is an advocate for treatment, even raising money for dedicated research into addiction and mental health at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. But she says she often thinks about what could have happened. There's a lot of shame around what I did. I believe that I have some angel was watching over me, that my brother's number was up and mine wasn't because of all the drinking and driving I did. I consider myself so fortunate that it's

miraculous that I didn't hurt myself. I didn't hurt anyone else. Kirsten Asasi there on CBC News, Toronto. In Portugal, mourners follow behind the coffin of soccer player Diogo Jota and his brother at their funeral. The service was held in their hometown of Gondomar. The two men died Thursday in a car crash in Spain. Giotta played for the Liverpool team in the English Premier League. The club's captain and many teammates arrived to attend the funeral alongside Giotta's

wife and three children. It's believed his car crashed and burned after a tire burst while overtaking another vehicle. There's renewed hope this weekend that a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas could be inching closer. Despite expressing some skepticism, Israel is sending a delegation to Qatar for indirect talks with Hamas. This follows Friday's positive response by Hamas to some of the latest ceasefire proposals. But as Philip Leishanuk reports, so far there's no pause to the violence. Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza Gaza killing at least a dozen people.

Even more were killed at a Gaza humanitarian foundation aid distribution point. Ravina Shandasani is with the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. She says people walk all day to get food, only to be shot at. It is clear that the Israeli military has shelled and shot at Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points. She says more than 600 Palestinians have been killed in the last month in Gaza while trying to access aid and she called for an international investigation. Two American aid workers were also injured in a grenade attack on a GHF aid distribution point in Hanunis. Even the trickle of aid that is entering is barely reaching its destination.

Badour Hassan is with Amnesty International. She says GHF uses private U.S. military contractors who scatter the aid and let people fend for themselves. Aid should be distributed by humanitarian organizations, not by security contractors who are paid for, not by mercenaries. There has been more violence in Gaza as progress appears to be made towards a ceasefire. Hamas says it's ready to start talks immediately on a framework for a 60-day ceasefire. And while Israel says some changes to the deal proposed by Hamas are unacceptable, it is still committed to sending a delegation to Qatar. U.S. President Donald Trump says there's reason to be hopeful.

I'm very optimistic, but, you know, look at changes from day to day. People, action! Let's go! Protesters in Tel Aviv called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to get a deal done with Hamas for the release of hostages held in Gaza. Ifrat Machaqawi says this conflict cannot continue. The people of Israel want this war to end. We want peace in the Middle East.

But Talan Pinkus, former Israeli foreign policy advisor, says not to let hopes for peace get ahead of events. This is not a done deal. This is only a partial agreement. It's only part of the hostages. It's only a 60-day ceasefire rather than a permanent ceasefire. Israel is not withdrawing from Gaza, so a lot of things can still go wrong.

And he says Trump and Netanyahu have different agendas. Trump expects to talk about Gaza, but Netanyahu really wants to talk about Iran because as far as Netanyahu is concerned the Iranian war is not over. Still he thinks after nearly 21 months of war in Gaza both sides have a vested interest in announcing a positive development at their White House meeting on Monday.

Philippe Chanok, CBC News, Toronto. Dharavi in the heart of Mumbai is often called the world's largest slum. And if you find yourself in the middle of those cramped, narrow streets, you might hear a beat and a rhythm rising up from the hustle and bustle. As Ayushi Shah reports, a school is providing hope for young people through dance. In Dharavi, one of the world's largest slums, life is crowded, chaotic. Over a million people live shoulder to shoulder.

Space is tight, money is tighter. But down one of the narrow lanes is the Dharavi Dream Project, the world's first free school of hip-hop. In classrooms no bigger than a few parking spots, kids flip, rap, beatbox, DJ. We are poor, so we have to find ways to make money. Only 14, Sadaf Shaikh lives in a cramped room above a public toilet. Very often he's downstairs helping his grandfather run it. But through it all, Sadaf holds on to a dream, becoming B-Boy Sadaf.

When I dance, all the pressure, school, family, everything disappears. Only breakdancing with my dream is to become the best B-Boy, to never give up, give my family a good life. Addiction and poverty hang heavy here. Sadaf tells me about family members, both young and old, struggling with alcohol and drug addiction. It's easy to fall through the cracks here. But hip-hop, says mentor Chetan Vishwakarma, offers a way out. We think of the Bronx as the mecca of hip-hop.

And when I come to Dharavi I feel that same energy. There's struggle, rough neighbourhoods, until a kid believes they can dream, nothing changes. Before they trembled at the mic, now they run to it. When the music starts in class, I just feel alive. I dance like crazy. There are no B- in Dharavi. But 14 year old Nikita Hazare would like to be a B girl. At home she lives with a family

of six. Her single mother is the only breadwinner and Nikita has been helping her family cook and clean since she was 10. My mom gets pressured by relatives, tells me to stop, help my grandmother with chores, but I still come. I used to be scared, but now I'm confident. Even if she says no, I say I'll fight, but I'll go. One day I'll buy a house through b-boying. Dancing makes me feel happy.

At peace. Sadaf and Nikita recently performed in India's first hip hop musical. Their names rolled down the credits. Be boy Sadaf, be girl Nikita. They're still beginners, but the Dharavi Dream Project believes that in the world of hip hop, belief counts as much as skill, and claiming the title is a part of becoming it. Sadaf says that it was overwhelming to be on stage at first. When the crowd cheered, I just kept flipping.

I was flying, gave it everything I had. In this crowded neighborhood, often reduced to headlines about poverty or crime, Tharavi's kids are fighting back and carving room for their dreams. Ayushi Shah, CBC News, Mumbai. You've probably heard no two snowflakes are alike, and that every set of fingerprints

is unique. Well, the same is true about a whale's tail, also known as its fluke. A new AI tool is helping to identify humpback whales off the coast of Newfoundland and tell their unique stories. Malone Mullen has the details. A massive humpback leaps into the air, giving a boatload of whale watchers a one-of-a-kind show. It's moments like this one that keep Alex Sui coming back for more. He's a wildlife photographer and whales are in his wheelhouse.

For 20 years he's captured countless whales breaching off the Newfoundland coast. But this summer, he's got a new reason to chase the pods. I took a lot of whale tail pictures, but I didn't know you could find out the story. And what shocked me was, now you know that there's a name to the whale, which is surprising. Sui is referring to a new website

that lets him find out exactly who he's just taken a picture of. Newfoundland and Labrador's tourism department is now touting a first of its kind way to keep tabs on the whales that visit these waters every year. It's a new artificial intelligence model that uses photos uploaded from tourists and wildlife lovers to track individual whales. For four weeks we've had 150,000 visitors, we've had about 70,000 store reviews. Tourism Minister Fred Hutton says after only a month,

the website called Hello Humpback is already making waves. It will identify the whale and it will be Martha, for example, and it will give you the full history of where Martha has been sighted over the many years and you can update that as well. And we've actually had three new whales identified. The program works only because the underside of a whale's tail, called its fluke, contains unique markings, almost like a fingerprint. No two flukes are the same, and that allows AI to match the photos to a wider global database called Happy Whale. Much to Sui's delight, it tells him

where these creatures have been, how long they've been around, and then compiles that data into a story. The AI even gives each whale a name. It's called Jeff, so that whale was found in Cape Spear last year. The province's half a million yearly tourists all now have a chance to help scientists track these animals. That's welcome news for whale tour guide Claire Gatherall. She says now, more than ever, the world needs to pay attention to how a turbulent climate affects sea life.

With the ocean temperature seems to be getting warmer a little sooner, which changes the baitfish patterns. So the capelin that they feed on is really temperature dependent for their spawning. So with that happening a little bit sooner, the migratory routes for humpbacks change a little bit over time. Sui has spent two decades getting to know these animals intimately, but he's never been sure if he's met the same whale twice. Now he says that's within reach. It's just like fingerprints face recognition, it just recognized the whales easier. Malone Welland, CBC News, Baybills, Newfoundland.

From the coast of Portugal to Turkey's rolling hills, much of Europe is experiencing above seasonal temperatures. The heat wave started last week and has cooled in some regions, but the UN's global chief heat officer, Aleni Miravili, says extreme heat is risky for Europeans in particular. In general, in Europe we don't have so much air conditioning as, for example, they have in the United States. And that's why heat waves are often extremely dangerous.

Even for young people, people in good health, to stay under heat or to work under heat in such temperatures. Now, one way to beat the heat is take a dip in your local watering hole. For Parisians that's been difficult. For over a century swimming in the iconic River Seine has been banned because of high levels of human waste in the water. But not anymore. The city opened up three designated swimming spots in the Seine on Saturday. Freelance reporter Kyle Brown went down to the

riverbank to check it out and he told me what he experienced. So Kyle you went down to the banks of the Seine today tell us what did you see were there many swimmers? There were I would say a few hundred swimmers at least by mid-afternoon there are three sites along the Seine as you mentioned one near the Eiffel Tower another in the center near Isle Saint-Louis which is just across the river from Notre Dame, and the third near Bercy in the east of Paris. That's where I went and that's where I jumped in. Great mood, lovely ambiance. People were, it was just a festive atmosphere really. And I think there was also a sense of incredulity because, you know, this is a river which has always been off limits it's never even occurred to us

to even go near the pool the the the basin the the swimming hole as you put it uh much less um you know organize a whole day trip and and that's precisely what happened today so there was a real sense of joy as i think you'll hear from the people i spoke to today. It was wonderful, the swim is good, really, really clean. I tested it, it's good. We were here with a school group with students, I've just come out from swimming, it was very nice, it was warm, it appeared to be tolerably clean. So I must say that there are quite a few people who are obviously skeptical however, including people I know couldn't believe either that they're actually Parisians who are willing to jump in a river that's been off-limits for so long and so I think you can hear some of the skepticism in some of the other people

that I spoke to today. I thought of going there but well I then left my swimming clothes at the hotel So wait there are three of you here who forgot your swimsuits Is there some kind of unconscious or conscious reason for that? Well after the Olympic Games there were some swimmers They fell ill. I'm waiting to see what is going to happen with these people swimming right now If I survive, maybe I will try so you can't blame people for being skeptical as you heard There were reports last year that several athletes fell ill at the Olympic Games.

It should be noted, however, that there's a reason why it all went awry back then. There had been a rainfall just before the Games, which meant that the tanks that capturing contained used and polluted water, as well as rainwater, overflowed and went back into the river. And that remains a risk. But the authorities assure people that they do daily checks and whenever the water tanks are full or that pollution levels are beyond a certain threshold, they simply close off access to the sun. I guess one of the other reasons people may be a bit skeptical is they've been hearing about this for decades. Back in 1988, then Paris mayor Jacques Chirac promised to bathe in the river before the end of his term, but

that never happened. So how did we get to this point? Well, indeed, Chirac wasn't stupid. He soon learned that the river was in no condition for human use. And of course, he perhaps got overexcited in the fact that in 1988, he was on the campaign trail to become president. Now of course as you say he never did end up swimming in the in the Seine and nor had anyone until Anne Hidalgo the current mayor did so last year and so this some of the skepticism might remain but the fact is that they have done so much work they've invested more than one and a half billion euros to accelerate this cleanup process so that they could get this done in time for the Olympic

Games first and now this year for everyone else. Okay, you managed to survive swimming in the Seine. How was the experience? I have to admit, I went in with some trepidation, but I do have to say, once I did so, it was fantastic. There were no strange odours, the temperature was perfect. It was just a sublime experience. Well, Kyle, thanks so much for jumping into this story for us. My pleasure. Freelance reporter Kyle Brown in Paris. And finally, crystal clear water surrounds Bell Island,

Newfoundland, but it doesn't always come out of the tap. For more than a quarter century, part of the community hasn't been able to drink the water. Not that you'd want to when you see it. It flows out the color of cola, but a lot less appetizing. That makes getting water you can actually drink a challenge for seniors like Linda Taylor. It was difficult, because I'm elderly,

and my husband passed away. And it was difficult to get water. Sometimes I used to boil it, and just let it settle, and then drink it. Other times, people would drop off jugs of fresh water. But all that changed this week for her and 250 of her neighbours. At the community's volunteer appreciation dinner, the Mayor Philip Tobin had a surprise. The boil water order was lifted. It was overwhelming. The applause, the ovation, the people that stood up and clapped for this.

Oh my, the room went up. People just couldn't believe it. I mean, it means a lot. It hasn't just taken time. The town needed millions of dollars to put in new water infrastructure to remove arsenic, manganese and iron. Most of that money came from the federal and provincial government

to help the small community where more than half the residents are over the age of 50. Being able to drink the water out of the tap has taken some getting used to for Taylor. The first thing she did was a taste test. Put two glasses on the counter there, and I poured one from the sink and one from the bottle.

And I tried them. No difference. It was wonderful. I said, my goodness. Actually, it was better from the tap because it was cold. She won't be going back to Bottled. And the work continues. The town plans to put in more equipment

to make sure clean, clear water doesn't just surround Belle Island. It flows out of the tap for everyone who lives there. Thanks for being with us. This has been Your World Tonight for Saturday, July 5. I'm Peter Cowan in St. John's. Good night. MUSIC