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Several leading medical groups filed suit against US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday, accusing him of endangering public health with new Covid-19 vaccine recommendations.At the end of May, Kennedy announced via social media that federal authorities would no longer recommend Covid-19 vaccines for children and pregnant women, resulting in blowback from health experts.In the lawsuit, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American College of Physicians (ACP) and other leading medical groups are calling on the court to stop Kennedy’s “unilateral, unscientific” directive and restore the Covid-19 vaccine to immunization schedules.”It is really unconscionable to take away a parent’s ability and choice to protect their children through vaccination,” said Tina Tan, a pediatrician and president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, one of the plaintiffs. Since taking office, Kennedy — who spent decades spreading vaccine misinformation before becoming President Donald Trump’s top health official — has worked to overhaul American vaccination policies.In June, he fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and appointed his own panelists, under the banner of “Make America Healthy Again.”Monday’s complaint also highlighted the controversial new appointees to ACIP.”We are on a dangerous path,” warned Susan Kressly of the AAP, denouncing what she described as misinformation spread by Kennedy while citing the concerns of her peers and parents of patients. “Pediatricians cannot stay silent as the system we rely on to support life-saving vaccines is chiseled away piece by piece, with Secretary Kennedy leading efforts to sow doubt and distrust in the American success story of vaccines,” Kressly said.The problem isn’t limited to parents and children, as misinformation about vaccines undermines a long-standing trust between doctor and patient.Increasingly, medical professionals are finding that adult patients are “hesitant to get their vaccines. They are not trusting the system anymore,” said Jason Goldman, president of the ACP.The issue of vaccines extends beyond Covid-19 in the US. Johns Hopkins University released a count Monday finding the US has recorded its worst measles epidemic in more than 30 years, with 1,277 cases confirmed since the beginning of 2025, and illness recorded in 40 of 50 states.The total US figure is the highest since 1992.The joint complaint was filed in Massachusetts, a northeastern US state.Federal health officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will make his first trip to Asia since taking up his post, traveling this week to Malaysia for meetings with ASEAN allies, his office said Monday.The trip, starting Tuesday, will see Rubio, who is also President Donald Trump’s national security advisor, focus on US policy in Asia after months of Washington concentrating on the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.”In his first trip to Asia as Secretary of State, Secretary Rubio is focused on reaffirming the United States’ commitment to advancing a free, open, and secure Indo-Pacific region,” spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement, using Washington’s traditional wording aimed at curbing China’s growing influence in the Asia-Pacific region.Prioritizing and reaffirming Washington’s commitment to East Asia and Southeast Asia “is in America’s interest,” a senior State Department official told reporters on condition of anonymity. “It promotes American prosperity and promotes American security,” the official added.As with any trip to Asia by a US official, China will be the elephant in the room amid concerns over its expansionary behavior in the South China Sea, which the United States deems to be provocative.The visit also comes as many countries around the world are waiting for the next step in Trump’s tariff wars. Sweeping levies announced in April were mostly suspended, as Washington engages in negotiations with friends and foes alike.  On Monday, Trump said he would impose 25 percent tariffs on key US allies Japan and South Korea and a handful of others, including Southeast Asian nations Malaysia (25 percent) and Laos (40 percent), as of August 1. Export-dependent Vietnam, which like Malaysia and Laos is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), is one of the few countries to already reach a tentative agreement with Washington that spares it the high level of levies that Trump had threatened.At a summit in late May, Southeast Asian leaders expressed their deep concern at Trump’s protectionist offensive.The senior US official said the issue was expected to be raised, and that Rubio would likely tell ASEAN that the United States wants to “rebalance” its trade relationships.A deadline on the tariffs is due to expire on Wednesday, with Trump suggesting elevated levies would snap back into place on August 1 for any trading partners who do not make a deal.Rubio’s visit to Kuala Lumpur Thursday and Friday coincides with that of his Russian and Chinese counterparts, Sergei Lavrov and Wang Yi.While there, Rubio is scheduled to attend a meeting with his counterparts from ASEAN and with a gathering of both ASEAN and East Asian foreign ministers.   Last week, Rubio welcomed foreign ministers from Australia, India and Japan to Washington, where they pledged to work together to ensure a stable supply of critical minerals.China’s domination of such resources — essential to new technologies — is causing increasing concern in western Europe and the United States.

US President Donald Trump’s decision to hit “anti-American” BRICS nations — including China and India — with an extra 10 percent trade tariff roiled the final day of the bloc’s summit in Rio de Janeiro Monday.Trump threatened the 11-nation grouping — which includes some of the world’s fastest-emerging economies — late on Sunday, after they warned against his “indiscriminate,” damaging and illegal tariff hikes. “Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff,” Trump wrote on social media.BRICS members account for about half the world’s population and 40 percent of global economic output.Members China, Russia and South Africa responded coolly to Trump’s latest verbal barrage, insisting the bloc was not seeking confrontation with Washington.But host Brazil’s leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was less diplomatic.”We are sovereign nations,” Lula said. “We don’t want an emperor.”Conceived two decades ago as a forum for fast-growing economies, BRICS has come to be seen as a Chinese-driven effort to curb US global influence. But it is a quickly expanding and often divergent grouping — bringing together arch US foes like Iran and Russia, with some of Washington’s closest allies in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Some US allies inside the bloc had tried to blunt criticism of Trump by not mentioning him or the United States by name in the summit statement.  Saudi Arabia — one of the biggest purchasers of US high-tech weapons — even kept its foreign minister away from Sunday’s talks and a BRICS group photo, seemingly to avoid Washington’s ire.But such diplomatic gestures were lost on the US president who said “there will be no exceptions to this policy.” – No shows -In April, Trump threatened a slew of punitive duties on dozens of economies, before backing off in the face of a fierce market sell-off.Now he is threatening to impose unilateral levies on trading partners unless they reach “deals” by August 1, with BRICS nations seemingly faced with higher tariffs than planned. It cannot have helped that BRICS leaders also condemned the recent US and Israeli bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities — a show of solidarity with fellow member Iran. Beijing on Monday insisted BRICS was not seeking confrontation with the United States. “China has repeatedly stated its position that trade and tariff wars have no winners and protectionism offers no way forward,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.Beijing also defended the bloc as “an important platform for cooperation between emerging markets and developing countries.” “It advocates openness, inclusivity, and win-win cooperation,” Mao said. “It does not engage in camp confrontation and is not targeted at any country,” she added. The Kremlin echoed that message with spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling Russian media that BRICS cooperation “has never been and will never be directed against third countries.”The political punch of this year’s summit has been depleted by the absence of China’s Xi Jinping, who skipped the meeting for the first time in his 12 years as president.The Chinese leader is not the only notable absentee. Russian President Vladimir Putin, charged with war crimes in Ukraine, also opted to stay away, participating via video link.He told counterparts that BRICS had become a key player in global governance.

President Donald Trump announced tariffs of 25 percent on Japan and South Korea on Monday, stepping up pressure on the two key US allies and a dozen other economies to reach trade deals with Washington.Trump issued similar letters to South Africa, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos and Kazakhstan, saying he would slap duties on their products ranging from 25 percent to 40 percent.The president had said at the weekend that, starting from Monday, he would send a first batch of letters to countries informing them that he would reimpose harsh levies earlier postponed in April.In near-identically worded letters to Japanese and South Korean leaders, Trump said the tariff hikes came as their trading relationships with Washington were “unfortunately, far from Reciprocal.”The tariffs set out in Trump’s latest letters are due to take effect August 1. He warned of further escalation if the countries involved retaliated against the duties.Currently, the affected countries have been hit with a 10 percent levy Trump imposed on almost all trading partners.But Trump said he was ready to lower the new levels if countries changed their trade policies: “We will, perhaps, consider an adjustment to this letter.”Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Sunday that he “won’t easily compromise” in trade talks with Washington.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday that Trump would sign an order later in the day to delay his original July 9 deadline for steeper tariffs to take effect — postponing their imposition to August 1.She added that besides Japan and South Korea, there would be approximately 12 other partners receiving letters from Trump soon.With the deadline extension, Leavitt noted that Trump would set out the “reciprocal tariff rate” for partners in the coming month as negotiations continue.Trump originally announced sweeping tariffs on world economies on what he called “Liberation Day” on April 2, claiming the United States was being “ripped off.”Amid market turmoil, he then suspended the initial tariffs for 90 days, a deadline that would have expired Wednesday without the latest extension.While the Trump administration had signaled hopes of striking dozens of deals by July — at one point boasting of “90 deals in 90 days” — there have been limited results so far.Washington has unveiled pacts with only Britain and Vietnam, while the United States and China agreed to temporarily lower tariff levels on each other’s products that earlier reached three-digits.- ‘Change their tune’ -Asked why Trump opted to start with South Korea, Leavitt said: “It’s the President’s prerogative, and those are the countries he chose.””This announcement will send a chilling message to others,” said Asia Society Policy Institute Vice President Wendy Cutler, referring to Trump’s initial announcements on Tokyo and Seoul.”Both have been close partners on economic security matters,” she said, adding that companies from Japan and South Korea have made “significant manufacturing investments in the US in recent years.”US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that there would be a number of deals coming up: “We are going to have several announcements in the next 48 hours.””We’ve had a lot of people change their tune in terms of negotiations. So my mailbox was full last night with a lot of new offers, a lot of new proposals,” Bessent told CNBC.He added that he would meet with his Chinese counterpart in the coming weeks.The two sides have so far held high-level talks in Geneva and London. But Washington and Beijing’s pause on tit-for-tat tariffs is due to expire in mid-August.On whether he was disappointed in the number of trade deals achieved so far, Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro maintained that he is “happy with the progress we’ve had.”Trump has also threatened another 10 percent tariff on countries aligning themselves with the emerging BRICS nations, accusing them of “Anti-American policies” after they slammed his duties at a summit.For now, partners are still rushing to avert Trump’s tariffs altogether.The European Commission said that EU chief Ursula von der Leyen had a “good exchange” with Trump on trade when the pair spoke Sunday.

Rescuers in Texas searched Monday for bodies swept away by flash floods that killed more than 90 people, including 27 girls and counselors at a summer camp destroyed by torrents of water.The United States was shocked at the disaster over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, and forecasters warned of more flooding as rain falls on saturated ground.”Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy,” Camp Mystic said in a statement confirming the 27 deaths at the all-girls camp, located next to a river.The White House on Monday put the overall number of dead from the flooding at 91, while Texas Senator Ted Cruz told reporters that the toll was continuing to rise.”Texas is grieving right now — the pain, the shock of what has transpired these last few days has broken the heart of our state,” Cruz told reporters.”The children, little girls, who were lost at Camp Mystic, that’s every parent’s nightmare.”Camps are a beloved tradition in the long US summer holidays, with children often staying in woods, parks and other rural areas.Cruz described them as a chance to make “lifetime friends — and then suddenly it turns to tragedy.”- Grim search -President Donald Trump is planning to visit Texas on Friday, the White House said, as it slammed critics claiming his cuts to weather agencies had weakened warning systems.”Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie, and it serves no purpose during this time of national mourning,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday.She said the National Weather Service, which the New York Times reported had several key roles in Texas unfilled before the floods, issued “timely and precise forecasts and warnings.”Trump has described the floods in the early hours of Friday as a “100-year catastrophe” that “nobody expected.”The president, who previously said disaster relief should be handled at the state level, has signed a major disaster declaration, activating fresh federal funds and freeing up resources.- ‘Flash Flood Alley’ -Helicopters and boats were taking part in the grim search across an area popular with tourists as well as summer camps.Camp Mystic was a Christian camp where about 750 people had been staying when the floodwaters struck.In a terrifying display of nature’s power, the rain-swollen waters of the Guadalupe River reached treetops and the roofs of cabins as girls at the camp slept.Blankets, teddy bears and other belongings were caked in mud. Windows in the cabins were shattered, apparently by the force of the water.Months’ worth of rain fell in a matter of hours on Thursday night into Friday, and rain has continued in bouts since then.The Guadalupe surged around 26 feet (eight meters) — more than a two-story building — in just 45 minutes.Flash floods, which occur when the ground is unable to absorb torrential rainfall, are not unusual in this region of south and central Texas, known colloquially as “Flash Flood Alley.”Human-driven climate change has made extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and heat waves more frequent and more intense in recent years.

US President Donald Trump said Monday he was slapping 25 percent tariffs on Japan and South Korea, in his first letters to trading partners ahead of a deadline to reach a deal with Washington.Trump had said at the weekend that starting from Monday he would send a first batch of up to 15 letters to countries informing them that he would reimpose harsh levies that he had postponed in April.In near-identically worded letters to the Japanese and South Korean leaders, Trump said the tariffs would apply from August 1 because their trading relationships with Washington were “unfortunately, far from Reciprocal.”Trump warned the countries, both key US allies in East Asia, of an escalation if they responded to the new US tariffs. But he also said he was ready to modify levies “downwards” if Japan and South Korea changed their trade policies.Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Sunday that he “won’t easily compromise” in trade talks with Washington.Trump originally announced sweeping tariffs on world economies on what he called “Liberation Day” on April 2, claiming the United States was being “ripped off.”Amid market turmoil, Trump then suspended the initial tariffs for 90 days, a deadline that expires on Wednesday.  But the Trump administration has said that the duties will not “boomerang” back until August 1, apparently extending the deadline despite denials from officials.While the Trump administration has signaled hopes of striking dozens of deals by early July — at one point boasting of “90 deals in 90 days” — there have been limited results so far.Washington has unveiled pacts with only Britain and Vietnam, while the United States and China agreed to temporarily lower tariff levels on each other’s products that earlier reached three-digits.- ‘Change their tune’ -Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said there would be a number of deals coming up.”We are going to have several announcements in the next 48 hours,” Bessent told CNBC in an interview Monday.”We’ve had a lot of people change their tune in terms of negotiations. So my mailbox was full last night with a lot of new offers, a lot of new proposals,” Bessent said.There was no immediate response from the White House on whether Trump would formally extend the Wednesday deadline for the tariffs to snap back.Asked about Trump’s letters, Bessent said these would inform partners of the tariff rate their products face when trading with the United States, unless they want to “come back and try to negotiate.”Bessent told CNBC Monday that he would “be meeting with my Chinese counterpart sometime in the next couple of weeks.”The two sides have so far held high-level talks in Geneva and London.But Washington and Beijing’s pause on tit-for-tat tariffs is due to expire in mid-August.On whether he was disappointed in the number of trade deals achieved so far, Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro maintained that he is “happy with the progress we’ve had.””Every country that we run a major deficit with is fully engaged,” he told CNBC on Monday.Trump has also threatened another 10 percent tariff on countries aligning themselves with the emerging BRICS nations, accusing them of “Anti-American policies” after they slammed his duties at a summit.For now, partners are still rushing to avert Trump’s tariffs altogether.The European Commission said that EU chief Ursula von der Leyen had a “good exchange” with Trump on trade when the pair spoke Sunday.

Rescuers in Texas searched Monday for bodies swept away by flash floods that killed almost 90 people, including 27 girls and counselors at a summer camp that was destroyed by torrents of water.The United States was shocked at the disaster over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, and forecasters warned of more flooding as rain falls on saturated ground.”Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy,” Camp Mystic said in a statement confirming the 27 deaths at the all-girls camp that was located next to a river.State officials on Monday put the overall number of dead from the flooding at 88, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz told reporters that the toll was continuing to rise.”Texas is grieving right now — the pain, the shock of what has transpired these last few days has broken the heart of our state,” Cruz told reporters.”The children, little girls, who were lost at Camp Mystic, that’s every parent’s nightmare.”Camps are a beloved tradition in the long US summer holidays, with children often staying in woods, parks and other rural areas.Cruz described them as a chance to make “lifetime friends — and then suddenly it turns to tragedy.”President Donald Trump has said he may visit Texas later this week, but brushed off concerns his cuts to weather forecasting and related federal agencies had weakened warning systems.Instead, he described the floods in the early hours of Friday as a “100-year catastrophe” that “nobody expected.”- Grim search -Trump, who previously said disaster relief should be handled at the state level, signed a major disaster declaration, activating fresh federal funds and freeing up resources.Helicopters and boats were taking part in the search across an area popular with tourists as well as summer camps.Camp Mystic was an all-girl Christian camp where about 750 people had been staying when the floodwaters struck.In a terrifying display of nature’s power, the rain-swollen waters of the Guadalupe River reached treetops and the roofs of cabins as girls at the camp slept.Blankets, teddy bears and other belongings were caked in mud. Windows in the cabins were shattered, apparently by the force of the water.”We’ve recovered 75 deceased bodies here in Kerr County, including 48 adults and 27 children,” County Sheriff Larry Leitha told reporters Monday. At least 13 other deaths were confirmed in the state.Texas Governor Greg Abbott warned that more heavy rainfall could bring further flooding, as officials cautioned people to avoid still-raging rivers.- ‘Flash Flood Alley’ -Months’ worth of rain fell in a matter of hours on Thursday night into Friday, and rain has continued in bouts since then.The Guadalupe surged around 26 feet (eight meters) — more than a two-story building — in just 45 minutes.Flash floods, which occur when the ground is unable to absorb torrential rainfall, are not unusual in this region of south and central Texas, known colloquially as “Flash Flood Alley.”Human-driven climate change has made extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and heat waves more frequent and more intense in recent years.”There’s debris all over the place that makes roads impassable, that makes reconstruction projects unachievable,” Abbott said.People from elsewhere in the state converged on Kerr County to help look for the missing.Some residents also flew personal drones to help look, but officials urged them to stop, citing a danger to rescue aircraft.

US President Donald Trump threatened China, India, and some of the world’s fastest-emerging economies with higher import tariffs, hitting back at BRICS criticism of his trade policies as the bloc meets Monday. The 11-nation grouping — which also includes US allies Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia — is concluding a two-day summit in Rio de Janeiro. On Sunday, BRICS leaders described Trump’s stop-start tariff wars as “indiscriminate,” damaging, and illegal, drawing a late-night rebuke from the pugilistic US president.”Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy,” Trump wrote on social media. BRICS members account for about half the world’s population and 40 percent of global economic output.Conceived two decades ago as a forum for fast-growing economies, BRICS has come to be seen as a Chinese-driven effort to curb US global influence. But it is a quickly expanding and often divergent grouping — bringing together arch US foes like Iran and Russia, with some of Washington’s closest allies in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Some US allies inside the bloc had tried to blunt criticism of Trump by not mentioning him or the United States by name in their summit statement.  Saudi Arabia — one of the world’s biggest purchasers of US high-tech weapons — even kept its foreign minister away from Sunday’s talks and a BRICS group photo of leaders, seemingly to avoid Washington’s ire.  But such diplomatic gestures were lost on the US president.  – No shows -In April, Trump threatened a slew of punitive duties, before backing off in the face of a fierce market sell-off.Now he is threatening to impose unilateral levies on trading partners unless they reach “deals” by August 1, with BRICS nations seemingly faced with higher tariffs than planned. It cannot have helped that BRICS leaders also condemned the recent US and Israeli bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities — a show of solidarity with fellow member Iran. Beijing on Monday insisted BRICS was not seeking confrontation with the United States.  “China has repeatedly stated its position that trade and tariff wars have no winners and protectionism offers no way forward,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.Beijing also defended the bloc as “an important platform for cooperation between emerging markets and developing countries.” “It advocates openness, inclusivity, and win-win cooperation,” Mao said. “It does not engage in camp confrontation and is not targeted at any country,” she said. The Kremlin echoed that message with spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling Russian media that BRICS cooperation: “has never been and will never be directed against third countries.”   The political punch of this year’s summit has been depleted by the absence of China’s Xi Jinping, who skipped the meeting for the first time in his 12 years as president.The Chinese leader is not the only notable absentee. Russian President Vladimir Putin, charged with war crimes in Ukraine, also opted to stay away, participating via video link.He told counterparts that BRICS had become a key player in global governance.

Russia said Monday it captured its first village in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region after grinding towards the border for months, dealing a psychological blow to Kyiv as its worries mount.Moscow launched a fresh large-scale drone and missile barrage before the announcement, including on Ukraine’s army recruitment centres, as part of an escalating series of attacks that come as ceasefire talks led by the United States stall.Kyiv also said it carried out a drone attack on a Russian ammunition factory in the Moscow region.Russia announced its forces captured the village of Dachne in the Dnipropetrovsk region, an important industrial mining territory that has also come under mounting Russian air attacks.Russian forces appear to have made crossing the border a key strategic objective over recent months, and deeper advances into the region could pose logistics and economic problems for Ukraine.Kyiv has so far denied any Russian foothold in Dnipropetrovsk.Moscow first said last month its forces had crossed the border, more than three years since launching its invasion and pushing through the neighbouring Donetsk region.Earlier Monday, Ukraine’s army said its forces “repelled” attacks in Dnipropetrovsk, including “in the vicinity” of Dachne.Dnipropetrovsk is not one of the five Ukrainian regions — Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea — that Moscow has publicly claimed as Russian territory.Russia used the region’s main city, Dnipro, as a testing ground for its “experimental” Oreshnik missile in late 2024, claiming to have struck an aeronautics production facility.- Sheltering in basements -Ukrainian military expert Oleksiy Kopytko told AFP the “situation is objectively difficult” for Ukraine’s forces in Dnipropetrovsk and that Russia hopes to create some kind of buffer zone in the region.But he said: “Our troops are holding their ground quite steadily.”An AFP reporter in the eastern city of Kharkiv saw civilians with their belongings being evacuated from a residential building damaged during Russia’s overnight attacks, and others sheltering with pets in a basement.At least four people were killed and dozens wounded across Ukraine in the latest violence, mostly in the Kharkiv region bordering Russia and in a late-morning attack on the industrial city of Zaporizhzhia.Ukraine’s police said a 34-year-old woman was killed in Kharkiv in attacks that wounded dozens in the northeastern city.In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said 20 people needed medical assistance after Russian attacks.”Air defence remains the top priority for protecting lives,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media after the attacks, as fears mount over whether US President Donald Trump’s government will continue supplying military aid to Ukraine.- ‘Counting on partners’ -Zelensky said Ukraine was “strongly counting on our partners to fully deliver on what we have agreed”.Ukraine’s air force said Moscow had launched 101 drones across the country and four missiles. Seventy-five of the drones were downed, it added.Attacks on Monday targeted two recruitment centres in separate cities, wounding four people, the Ukrainian army said, in what appears to be a new trend following similar strikes over the weekend and last week.”These strikes are part of a comprehensive enemy operation aimed at disrupting mobilisation in Ukraine,” Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communications, a government-funded body, wrote on social media.It added that Russia had attacked recruitment centres last week in the cities of Kremenchuk, Kryvyi Rig and Poltava.The Ukrainian army announced it hit the Krasnozavodsky Chemical Plant in the Moscow region with drones, saying the plant makes components for Russian drones used against Ukraine.In Russia, the defence ministry said it had shot down 91 Ukrainian drones overnight, including eight in the Moscow region, with the majority of the rest in regions bordering Ukraine.

Rescuers in the US state of Texas on Monday searched for bodies swept away by flash floods that killed more than 80 people, including 27 girls and counselors at a summer camp.The nation was shocked at the disaster over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, and forecasters warned that thunderstorms threatened more flooding over saturated ground.”Camp Mystic is grieving the loss of 27 campers and counselors following the catastrophic flooding,” the camp said in a statement.”Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy.”US President Donald Trump said he may visit Texas later this week, but brushed off concerns his cuts to weather forecasting and related federal agencies had weakened warning systems.Instead, he described the floods in the early hours of Friday as a “100-year catastrophe” that “nobody expected.”At least 40 adults and 28 children were killed in the worst-hit Kerr County in central Texas, Sheriff Larry Leitha said Sunday, while at least 13 more people were killed by flooding in nearby areas. The death toll is expected to rise.- Grim search -Trump, who previously said disaster relief should be handled at the state level, signed a major disaster declaration, activating fresh funds and freeing up resources.About 20 helicopters were taking part in the search for missing people in an area popular with campers that also hosted several summer camps for children.Camp Mystic, one of the worst-hit, was an all-girl Christian camp where about 750 people had been staying with the floodwaters struck.In a terrifying display of nature’s power, the rain-swollen waters of the Guadalupe River reached treetops and the roofs of cabins as girls at the camp slept.Blankets, teddy bears and other belongings were caked in mud. Windows in the cabins were shattered, apparently by the force of the water.Texas Governor Greg Abbott warned that more heavy rainfall could bring further flooding in Kerrville and surrounding areas, as officials cautioned people against going near still-raging rivers.Months’ worth of rain fell in a matter of hours on Thursday night into Friday, and rain has continued in bouts since then.The Guadalupe surged around 26 feet (eight meters) — more than a two-story building — in just 45 minutes.Flash floods, which occur when the ground is unable to absorb torrential rainfall, are not unusual in this region of south and central Texas, known colloquially as “Flash Flood Alley.”Human-driven climate change has made extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and heat waves more frequent and more intense in recent years.”There’s debris all over the place that makes roads impassable, that makes reconstruction projects unachievable,” Abbott said.People from elsewhere in the state converged on Kerr County to help look for the missing.Some residents also flew personal drones to help look, but officials urged them to stop, citing a danger to rescue aircraft.