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Rescuers in Texas raced against time Sunday to find dozens of missing people, including children, swept away by flash floods that killed at least 78 people, with forecasters warning of new deluges.US President Donald Trump said he would “probably” visit the southern state on Friday.The president brushed off concerns his administration’s wide-ranging cuts to weather forecasting and related federal agencies had left local warning systems worse-off.Instead, Trump described the flash floods 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, while at least ten more people were killed by flooding in nearby areas.”You will see the death toll rise today,” warned Texas public safety chief Freeman Martin at a press conference.”Across the state, in all the areas affected by flooding, there are 41 known missing,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott said.As questions grew about why warnings did not come sooner or people were not evacuated earlier in the area popular with campers, Trump said the situation was a “Biden setup.” “That was not our setup,” Trump told reporters on Sunday, adding that he would “not” hire back meteorologists when probed about staff and budget cuts at the National Weather Service (NWS).Asked about whether he would change his plans to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, he responded: “FEMA is something we can talk about later.”Trump, who previously said disaster relief should be handled at the state-level, also signed a major disaster declaration that freed up resources for Texas.- Missing girls -In central Texas, some 17 helicopters joined the search for missing people, including ten girls and a counselor from a riverside Christian summer camp where about 750 people had been staying when disaster struck.In a terrifying display of nature’s power, the rain-swollen waters of the Guadalupe River reached treetops and the roofs of cabins in Camp Mystic as girls slept overnight Friday, washing away some of them and leaving a scene of devastation.Blankets, teddy bears and other belongings at the camp were caked in mud. Windows in the cabins were shattered, apparently by the force of the water.The National Weather Service (NWS) warned Sunday that slow-moving thunderstorms threatened more flash floods over the saturated ground of central Texas.Governor Abbott warned that heavy rainfall could “lead to potential flash flooding” in Kerrville and surrounding areas, as officials warned people against going near the swollen river and its creeks.The flooding began at the start of the Fourth of July holiday weekend as months’ worth of rain fell in a matter of hours, much of it coming overnight as people slept.The Guadalupe surged around 26 feet (eight meters) — more than a two-story building — in just 45 minutes.- ‘Washed away’ -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.”Scientists say that in recent years human-driven climate change has made extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and heat waves more frequent and more intense.Officials said while rescue operations were ongoing, they were also starting the process of debris removal.”There’s debris all over the place that makes roads impassable, that makes reconstruction projects unachievable,” Abbott said.People from elsewhere in Texas converged on Kerr County to help look for the missing. Texans also started flying personal drones to help look but local officials urged them to stop, citing a danger for rescue aircraft.One of the searches focused on four young women who were staying in a house that was washed away by the river. Adam Durda and his wife Amber, both 45, drove three hours to help.”There was a group of 20-year-olds that were in a house that had gotten washed away,” Durda told AFP. “That’s who the family requested help for, but of course, we’re looking for anybody.”Justin Morales, 36, was part of a search team that found three bodies, including that of a Camp Mystic girl caught up in a tree.”We’re happy to give a family closure and hopefully we can keep looking and find some of the… you know, whoever,” he told AFP.”Help give some of those families closure. That’s why we’re out here.”

President Donald Trump on Sunday slammed former ally Elon Musk’s launching of a new political party as “ridiculous,” after the tech billionaire who once backed the Republican said he wanted to challenge the United States’ “one-party system.””I think it’s ridiculous to start a third party,” Trump told reporters before he boarded Air Force One on his way back to Washington. “It’s always been a two-party system, and I think starting a third party just adds to confusion.” “Third parties have never worked. So he can have fun with it, but I think it’s ridiculous,” he said.The world’s richest person — and Trump’s biggest political donor in the 2024 election — had a bitter falling out with the president after leading the Republican’s effort to slash spending and cut federal jobs as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has clashed with Trump over the president’s massive domestic spending plan, saying it would explode the US debt, and vowed to do everything in his power to defeat lawmakers who voted for it. On Saturday, he created the so-called “America Party,” through which the Tesla, SpaceX and X owner will attempt to do that.In a later post on Truth Social, Trump said Musk had gone “off the rails” and had become “a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks.”He said the creation of a third party would create “Complete and Total DISRUPTION & CHAOS.”Trump repeated his earlier assertion that Musk, who owns electric vehicle company Tesla, had turned on him due to his spending bill cutting electric vehicle subsidies.Musk has argued his opposition is primarily due to the bill increasing the US fiscal deficit and sovereign debt.Earlier on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also threw shade at Musk’s attempts to enter the political fray, telling him to stick to running his companies.When asked by CNN if Musk’s plan bothered the Trump administration, Bessent offered thinly veiled criticism.”I believe that the boards of directors at his various companies wanted him to come back and run those companies, which he is better at than anyone,” Bessent said.”So I imagine that those board of directors did not like this announcement yesterday and will be encouraging him to focus on his business activities, not his political activities.”Musk left DOGE in May to focus full-time on his corporate responsibilities, with Tesla’s sales and image especially suffering from his brief venture into Trump’s inner circle.

Over two years, Rebecca Atkins filed more than 250 job applications, and felt like every one was going into a gaping chasm — one opened by the highest unemployment rate for recent college graduates in the United States in more than a decade.”It was extremely dispiriting,” said the 25-year-old, who graduated in 2022 with a degree in law and justice from a university in the US capital Washington. “I was convinced that I was a terrible person, and terrible at working.”At 5.8 percent, unemployment for young, recent graduates from US universities is higher than it has been since November 2013, excluding 15 months in the Covid pandemic, according to official data. Moreover, it has also remained stubbornly higher than overall unemployment — an extremely unusual situation, analysts say. And while overall US unemployment has stabilized between around 3.5 and 4 percent post-pandemic, unemployment for recent college graduates is only trending higher.The labor market for new grads has weakened consistently since 2022, with new hiring down 16 percent in 2025, year-over-year, according to payroll firm Gusto. Analysts say the trend is likely a result of cyclical post-pandemic hiring slowdowns — particularly in new-grad-heavy sectors like technology, finance, and business information — and overall economic uncertainty in the tumultuous early days of the Trump administration. That is scant consolation to the droves of young people — often saddled with huge amounts of student debt — on the hunt for their first full-time job.”All of the jobs that I wanted, I didn’t have the requirements for — often entry-level jobs would require you to have four or five years of experience,” said Atkins, who bounced between part-time roles and working in restaurants for years.- ‘Extremely high uncertainty’ -“It is definitely an outlier,” said Matthew Martin, senior US economist at Oxford Economics. “You’d expect that the white collar positions would not be as exposed to cyclical downturns (as other jobs).”Job openings for professional and business services have declined by more than 40 percent since 2021, according to research authored by Martin, with tech sector jobs disproportionately impacted.”Part of that is a slower pace of hiring as they right-size after they hired at very high rates in 2022, but at the same time the sheer volume of decline also points to the impact of AI,” he told AFP, signaling the potential of artificial intelligence technology to eliminate some entry-level roles.Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon, said slowing tech sector hiring as companies focus on holding on to their talent “disproportionately” affects recent graduates.The hiring slowdown is also a result of US President Donald Trump’s far-reaching policy swings since taking office in January, said Daco.”The experience of extremely high uncertainty when it comes to the administration’s trade, tax or other policies has caused many firms to potentially slow down or freeze their hiring.”He cautioned, however, against jumping to the conclusion that AI had already begun to eliminate entry-level roles, pointing to a so-far limited uptake of the technology by most sectors.”The reality is that a lot of firms are still in the early stages of adoption of these new technologies, and I think it would be a bit premature to assume that we’ve reached a level of use… that would have a visible macro impact.”- ‘Constantly working’ -The United States is perhaps the most expensive country in the world for a university education, with an average cost of $27,673 per year for an undergraduate degree, according to official data.In 2020, 36.3 percent of US undergraduates took on federal student loans to help meet those spiraling costs, the data shows, with the Education Data Initiative putting average student loan debt for graduating students at $29,550.Even without student loan debt, however, the weakening job market can leave some recent graduates feeling like they are stretched thin.Katie Bremer, 25, graduated from American University with a dual-degree in Environmental Science and Public Health in 2021. It took her more than a year to find a full-time job — one not in her field — and even then, she had to supplement her income by babysitting.”I felt like I was constantly working,” she told AFP.”It seems overwhelming, looking at the costs, to try and make your salary stretch all the way to cover all the milestones you’re supposed to reach in young adulthood.”There is little hope on the immediate horizon, with analysts warning that it will likely take some time for the labor market to resolve itself, with part of that adjustment likely seeing students picking different majors.”It’s likely to get worse before it gets better,” said Martin. Looking at her peers, many of whom are saddled with huge debt and struggled to find work, Bremer says she worries for their collective long-term future.”There have been times where I’ve thought ‘how is my generation going to make this work?'”

Rescuers in Texas raced against time Sunday to find dozens of missing people, including children, swept away by flash floods that killed at least 68, with forecasters warning of new deluges.Local Texans joined forces with disaster officials on the ground and in helicopters to search for the missing, including 11 girls and a counselor from a riverside Christian summer camp where about 750 people had been staying when disaster struck.In a terrifying display of nature’s power, the rain-swollen waters of the Guadalupe River reached treetops and the roofs of cabins in Camp Mystic as girls slept overnight Friday, washing away some of them and leaving a scene of devastation.Blankets, teddy bears and other belongings at the camp were caked in mud. Windows in the cabins were shattered, apparently by the force of the water.Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said heavy rain likely to cause more flooding was falling Sunday, as the death toll at the camp and elsewhere in Kerr County rose to at least 59. “We expect that to go higher, sadly,” Patrick told the Fox & Friends Weekend television program.He told stories of heroics, such as a camp counselor smashing a window so girls in their pajamas could swim out and walk through neck-high water.”These little girls, they swam for about 10 or 15 minutes. Can you imagine, in the darkness and the rushing waters and trees coming by you and rocks come on you? And then they get to a spot on the land,” Patrick said.Officials and US media say nine people died in other Texas counties, for a total of 68.Officials had earlier said 27 girls were missing from the camp. Kerrville city manager Dalton Rice told a news conference Sunday morning that the figure was now 11. He did not explain the sharp drop in the number.The National Weather Service (NWS) warned Sunday that slow-moving thunderstorms threatened more flash floods over the saturated ground of central Texas.The flooding began at the start of the Fourth of July holiday weekend as months’ worth of rain fell in a matter of hours, much of it coming overnight as people slept.The Guadalupe surged around 26 feet (eight meters) — more than a two-story building — in just 45 minutes.- ‘Washed away’ -President Donald Trump, at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, signed a major disaster declaration that freed up resources for the state.Flash floods, which occur when the ground is unable to absorb torrential rainfall, are not unusual. The region of south and central Texas where the weekend’s deluge occurred is known colloquially as “Flash Flood Alley.”Scientists say that in recent years human-driven climate change has made extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and heat waves more frequent and more intense.People from elsewhere in Texas converged on Kerr County to help look for the missing. Texans also started flying personal drones to help look but Rice urged them to stop, saying it was a danger for rescue aircraft.One of the searches focused on four young women who were staying in a house that was washed away by the river. Adam Durda and his wife Amber, both 45, drove three hours to chip in.”There was a group of 20-year-olds that were in a house that had gotten washed away,” Durda told AFP. “That’s who the family requested help for, but of course, we’re looking for anybody.”Justin Morales, 36, was part of a search team that found three bodies, including that of a Camp Mystic girl caught up in a tree.”We’re happy to give a family closure and hopefully we can keep looking and find some of the… you know, whoever,” he told AFP.”Help give some of those families closure. That’s why we’re out here.”

BRICS leaders descended on sunny Rio de Janeiro Sunday, but issued a dark warning that US President Donald Trump’s “indiscriminate” import tariffs risk hurting the global economy.The 11 emerging nations — including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — represent about half the world’s population and 40 percent of global economic output.The bloc is divided about much, but found common cause when it comes to the mercurial US leader and his stop-start tariff wars.The BRICS leaders voiced “serious concerns about the rise of unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures,” warning they are illegal and arbitrary, according to a final summit statement.In April, Trump threatened allies and rivals alike with a slew of punitive duties, but abruptly offered a reprieve in the face of a fierce market sell-off.Trump has warned they will again impose unilateral levies on partners unless they reach “deals” by August 1.The BRICS said such moves break world trade rules, threaten to further reduce global trade and were “affecting prospects for global economic development.”The summit declaration did not mention the United States or its president by name, but it is a clear political volley directed at the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.The Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington think tank, estimates Trump’s tariffs could trim about two points off US GDP and hit economies from Mexico to the oil-rich Arabian Gulf. – No show -Conceived two decades ago as a forum for fast-growing economies, the BRICS have come to be seen as a Chinese-driven counterbalance to Western power. But as the group has expanded to include Iran, Indonesia and others, it has struggled to reach meaningful consensus on issues ranging from the Gaza war to reforming international institutions.  The political punch of this year’s summit has been depleted by the absence of China’s Xi Jinping, who is skipping the meeting for the first time in his 12 years as president.The Chinese leader is not be the only notable absentee. Russian President Vladimir Putin, charged with war crimes in Ukraine, is also opting to stay away, but participated via video link.He told counterparts that the influence of BRICS “continues to grow” and said the bloc had become a key player in global governance.Still, Xi’s no-show is a blow to BRICS and to host President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who wants Brazil to play a bigger role on the world stage.- War and peace -On Sunday he welcomed leaders to Rio’s stunning Guanabara Bay, telling them that multilateralism was under attack, while hitting out at NATO and Israel, among others.He accused the trans-Atlantic defense organization of fueling an international arms race through a pledge by members to spend five percent of GDP on defense.”It is always easier to invest in war than in peace,” he said, while accusing Israel of carrying out “genocide” in Gaza.Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, whose nation is still reeling from a 12-day conflict with Israel, is also skipping the meeting, but he was represented by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.Still, Iran won the diplomatic backing of its allies over Israel and the United States’ recent bombing of Iranian military, nuclear and other sites.Tehran’s allies condemned the strikes, and voiced “serious concern over deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure and peaceful nuclear facilities.”The United States, Israel and European nations accuse Iran of using a civilian nuclear program as cover to create a nuclear bomb. The BRICS bloc did not explicitly mention Israel or the United States in the condemnation of the recent attacks, in a concession to members such as hosts Brazil who also enjoy close ties with Western nations.The 2026 BRICS summit is set to be hosted by India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the gathering.

“Jurassic World: Rebirth” — the latest installment in the blockbuster dinosaur saga — stomped the July 4th weekend competition at the North American box office, raking in a whopping $91.5 million in its debut, industry estimates showed Sunday.The Universal film, starring Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali, takes viewers to an abandoned island research facility for the original Jurassic Park theme park, where secrets — and genetically mutated dinosaurs — are lurking. “This is an excellent opening for the 7th episode of an action-adventure monster series,” said analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. “The series has been especially good overseas and so far foreign business is outstanding. Dinosaur action is understood in all languages and across all cultures.””F1: The Movie,” the Apple and Warner Bros. flick starring Brad Pitt as a washed-up Formula One driver who gets one last shot at redemption, slipped to second place at $26.1 million, Exhibitor Relations said.”How to Train Your Dragon,” Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s live-action reboot of the popular 2010 film, held in third place at $11 million.The family-friendly film tells the story of a Viking named Hiccup (Mason Thames) who strikes up a friendship with Toothless the dragon.In fourth place was Disney/Pixar Animation’s latest original film “Elio,” at $5.7 million in the United States and Canada.”Elio” tells the story of a young boy who is mistaken by aliens as an intergalactic ambassador for Earth. The voice cast includes Oscar winner Zoe Saldana.In fifth place was Columbia Pictures’ zombie sequel “28 Years Later,” which took in $4.6 million. The Danny Boyle-directed threequel picks up — as the title suggests — more than a generation after the initial outbreak of the Rage Virus.Rounding out the top 10 were:”M3GAN 2.0″ ($3.8 million)”Lilo & Stitch” ($3.8 million)”Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” ($2.7 million)”Materialists” ($1.3 million)”Ballerina” ($725,000)

BRICS leaders descended on sunny Rio de Janeiro Sunday, ready to issue a dark warning that US President Donald Trump’s “indiscriminate” import tariffs risk hurting the global economy.The 11 emerging nations — including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — represent about half the world’s population and 40 percent of global economic output.The bloc is divided about much, but has found common cause when it comes to the mercurial US leader and his stop-start tariff wars.The BRICS are set to voice “serious concerns about the rise of unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures,” warning they are illegal and arbitrary, according to a draft summit statement obtained by AFP.In April, Trump threatened allies and rivals alike with a slew of punitive duties, but abruptly offered a reprieve in the face of a fierce market sell-off.Trump and his Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, have warned they will again impose unilateral levies on partners unless they reach “deals” by August 1.The BRICS will warn that such moves break world trade rules, “threaten to further reduce global trade” and are “affecting the prospects for global economic development.”The draft summit declaration does not mention the United States or its president by name, but it is a clear political volley directed at the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.The Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington think tank, estimates Trump’s tariffs could trim about two points off US GDP and hit economies from Mexico to the oil-rich Arabian Gulf. – No show -Conceived two decades ago as a forum for fast-growing economies, the BRICS have come to be seen as a Chinese-driven counterbalance to Western power. But as the group has expanded to include Iran, Indonesia and others, it has struggled to reach meaningful consensus on issues ranging from the Gaza war to reforming international institutions.  The political punch of this year’s summit has been depleted by the absence of China’s Xi Jinping, who is skipping the meeting for the first time in his 12 years as president.The Chinese leader will not be the only notable absentee. War crime-indicted Russian President Vladimir Putin is also opting to stay away, but participated via video link.He told counterparts that the influence of BRICS “continues to grow” and said the bloc had become a key player in global governance.Still, Xi’s no-show is a blow to BRICS and to host President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who wants Brazil to play a bigger role on the world stage.On Sunday he welcomed leaders to Rio’s stunning Guanabara Bay, telling them that multilateralism was under attack, while hitting out at NATO and Israel, among others.He accused the trans-Atlantic defense organization of fueling an international arms race through a pledge by members to spend five percent of GDP on defense.”It is always easier to invest in war than in peace,” he said, while accusing Israel of carrying out a “genocide” in Gaza.Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, whose nation is still reeling from a 12-day conflict with Israel, is also skipping the meeting, but he was represented by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.A source familiar with summit negotiations said Iran had sought a tougher condemnation of Israel and the United States over their recent bombing of Iranian military, nuclear and other sites. But one diplomatic source said the text would give the “same message” that BRICS delivered last month.Then Tehran’s allies expressed “grave concern” about strikes against Iran, but did not explicitly mention Israel or the United States. 

Rescuers searched through the night early Sunday for 27 girls missing from a riverside summer camp in Texas, after torrential rains caused devastating floods that killed at least 50 people in the US state.Multiple flash flood warnings remained in place across central Texas after water surged through communities, with the Guadalupe River rising by 26 feet (eight meters) in just 45 minutes.The Kerr County summer camp where hundreds were staying was left in disarray, with blankets, teddy bears and other belongings caked in mud.”We have recovered 43 deceased individuals in Kerr County. Among these who are deceased we have 28 adults and 15 children,” said Larry Leitha, the sheriff of the flood-ravaged region.Multiple victims were also found in other counties, bringing the death toll to 50 so far.There was better news for Congressman August Pfluger, who said Saturday his two young daughters were safely evacuated from Camp Mystic in flooded Kerr County, where the windows of cabins were shattered, apparently by the force of the water.”The last day has brought unimaginable grief to many families and we mourn with them as well as holding out hope for survivors,” the Texas Republican wrote on X. It was unclear if the two girls were among the 27 that authorities said were still missing as of Saturday.Department of Homeland Security head Kristi Noem said the US Coast Guard was “punching through storms” to evacuate stranded residents.”We will fly throughout the night and as long as possible,” she said in a post on X.Texas Department of Emergency Management chief Nim Kidd said air, ground and water-based crews were scouring the length of the Guadalupe River for survivors and the bodies of the dead.Texas Governor Greg Abbott said keeping the search going throughout the night was essential as “every hour counts”. The flooding began Friday — the start of the Fourth of July holiday weekend — as months’ worth of rain fell in a matter of hours.The National Weather Service (NWS) warned that more rain was forecast, and that “excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations.”In Kerrville on Saturday, the usually calm Guadalupe was flowing fast, its murky waters filled with debris. “The water reached the top of the trees. About 10 meters or so,” said resident Gerardo Martinez, 61. “Cars, whole houses were going down the river.”Flash floods, which occur when the ground is unable to absorb torrential rainfall, are not unusual.But scientists say that in recent years human-driven climate change has made extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and heatwaves more frequent and more intense.- Devastation at Camp Mystic -On Saturday, Sheriff Leitha said 27 children from Camp Mystic were still missing.Around 750 girls were attending Camp Mystic along the banks of the Guadalupe at the time of the flood.The owner and director of Camp Mystic was also dead, according to the Kerrville website, as was the manager of another nearby summer camp.Elsewhere in Texas, four people were confirmed dead in Travis County, northeast of Kerr, and 13 people were missing, public information office director Hector Nieto told AFP. A 62-year-old woman’s body was found in the city of San Angelo in Tom Green County, along the Concho River, police said. Two more people died in Burnet County, the area’s emergency management coordinator Derek Marchio told AFP, bringing the state-wide death toll to 50.- ‘Catastrophic’ -Noem earlier said Trump wanted to “upgrade the technologies” at the weather service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).”We need to renew this ancient system,” Noem told a press conference.Scientists and disaster management agencies have criticized Trump for cutting funding and staffing at the NOAA, in charge of weather forecasts and preparedness, and the NWS.When asked about claims that residents were given insufficient warning, Noem said she would “carry your concerns back to the federal government.”Officials and residents alike were shocked by the speed and intensity of the flooding.”We didn’t know this flood was coming,” Kerr County official Rob Kelly said Friday.The rain was “double of what was anticipated,” Kerrville city official Dalton Rice said.Soila Reyna, 55, a Kerrville resident who works at a church helping people who lost their belongings, witnessed the devastation unfold.”Nothing like as catastrophic as this, where it involved children, people and just the loss of people’s houses,” Reyna said. “It’s just crazy.”burs-aha/aks/rsc/abh/jfx

In 2019, American musician Jon Dee Graham suffered a heart attack that left him “dead” for several minutes — a scare that inspired his album, “Only Dead For a Little While.”Eighteen months later he had a stroke. And now, the 66-year-old is facing his biggest health challenge yet — and like most musicians, he’s underinsured.Graham suffered an infection following spinal surgery that’s developed into sepsis, and his son said he needs intravenous antibiotic treatments twice daily.But because his treatment is at home, William Harries-Graham said Medicare — the US federal health program that insures elder adults — won’t cover his father.Harries-Graham said the hospital demanded payment upfront in the “thousands of dollars.”The artist “fighting for his life” couldn’t afford it, and recently launched a campaign to sell his drawings, a hobby that has become a means of survival.Graham’s story is not uncommon: Many musicians confront the same health insurance nightmares all Americans do, navigating a labyrinthian system rife with out-of-pocket costs.But musicians are gig workers, which makes it even harder. Most working artists aren’t rich and have variable income, in a cutthroat industry where employer-subsidized insurance for musicians is rare.Pop phenom Chappell Roan underscored the issue on one of music’s biggest platforms earlier this year at the Grammys, calling out record labels for not insuring their artists in front of industry heavyweights as she accepted the prize for Best New Artist.Roan said she herself was dropped from her label and went uninsured for a time: “It was devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system and dehumanized,” she said onstage.”Record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection.”- ‘Just a patch’ -About a month after Roan’s statement, glam punk pioneer David Johansen died at 75 years old. His death came just weeks after he had started a GoFundMe to support his cancer treatment.In 2024, Matthew Sweet, the 1990s-era alt rocker, suffered a stroke while on tour. He was uninsured, so his management created a similar online crowdsourcing fundraiser.It’s raised more than $640,000 to date to support his long-term recovery.But such crowdsourcing is a stop-gap, said Tatum Hauck-Allsep, founder and CEO of the Nashville-based Music Health Alliance that helps musicians negotiate medical bills. “In some cases, things like a GoFundMe is a great resource, but in other cases, it’s just a patch. We want to find a long-term solution,” Hauck-Allsep told AFP. She applauded Roan for highlighting the issue, but said insurance from record labels isn’t necessarily what artists want, because it could mean they need to become employees, rather than independent artists.Still, “there should be an easier pathway to health care access,” she said.Bruce Iglauer, head of the blues label Alligator Records, echoed Hauck-Allsep’s point, saying that artists are self-employed.”We guarantee recording budgets and royalty rates, but have no input into, or knowledge of, what other income the artists are making,” Iglauer said.”They are not getting weekly paychecks from us.” And smaller labels say increasingly thin margins would make providing insurance impossible: “The costs of manufacturing have gone up, physical sales have gone down. Streaming sales pay paltry sums,” said Kenn Goodman, founder and CEO of Chicago-based indie record label Pravda Records.”It’s just not financially feasible,” he added. “I wish it was.”- ‘Terrifying’ -Many US musicians get health care through the Barack Obama-era Affordable Care Act — but that coverage is under threat by the Donald Trump administration, which is vying to complicate health care access, and perhaps eventually scrap the system altogether. That would be a “disaster,” said Paul Scott, director of the Healthcare Alliance for Austin Musicians, a non-profit that helps about 3,200 musicians a year in Texas get signed up for coverage under the government health care plan. Many ACA plans still don’t come cheap, but it’s made a huge difference for access, he said. Jettisoning the ACA would likely mean increased prices that would prompt a lot of artists to “drop their health insurance,” Scott said. “And that will be a hit to our safety net hospitals and charity care.”As for Graham, selling his sketches has successfully funded his first few weeks of treatment.But his son doesn’t know if that will be enough.And Harries-Graham worries about those who can’t find fundraising support thanks to their fame.”I don’t know what someone else would have done,” he said. “They would have been yet another person who goes into severe medical debt.””That is terrifying.”

Oblivious to the punishing midday heat, a wheeled robot powered by the sun and infused with artificial intelligence carefully combs a cotton field in California, plucking out weeds.As farms across the United States face a shortage of laborers and weeds grow resistant to herbicides, startup Aigen says its robotic solution — named Element — can save farmers money, help the environment and keep harmful chemicals out of food.”I really believe this is the biggest thing we can do to improve human health,” co-founder and chief technology officer Richard Wurden told AFP, as robots made their way through crops at Bowles Farm in the town of Los Banos.”Everybody’s eating food sprayed with chemicals.”Wurden, a mechanical engineer who spent five years at Tesla, went to work on the robot after relatives who farm in Minnesota told him weeding was a costly bane.Weeds are becoming immune to herbicides, but a shortage of laborers often leaves chemicals as the only viable option, according to Wurden.”No farmer that we’ve ever talked to said ‘I’m in love with chemicals’,” added Aigen co-founder and chief executive Kenny Lee, whose background is in software.”They use it because it’s a tool — we’re trying to create an alternative.”Element the robot resembles a large table on wheels, solar panels on top. Metal arms equipped with small blades reach down to hoe between crop plants.”It actually mimics how humans work,” Lee said as the temperature hit 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) under a cloudless sky.”When the sun goes down, it just powers down and goes to sleep; then in the morning it comes back up and starts going again.”The robot’s AI system takes in data from on-board cameras, allowing it to follow crop rows and identify weeds.”If you think this is a job that we want humans doing, just spend two hours in the field weeding,” Wurden said.Aigen’s vision is for workers who once toiled in the heat to be “upskilled” to monitor and troubleshoot robots.Along with the on-board AI, robots communicate wirelessly with small control centers, notifying handlers of mishaps.- Future giant? -Aigen has robots running in tomato, cotton, and sugar beet fields, and touts the technology’s ability to weed without damaging the crops.Lee estimated that it takes about five robots to weed 160 acres (65 hectares) of farm.The robots made by the 25-person startup — based in the city of Redmond, outside Seattle — are priced at $50,000.The company is focused on winning over politically conservative farmers with a climate friendly option that relies on the sun instead of costly diesel fuel that powers heavy machinery.”Climate, the word, has become politicized but when you get really down to brass tacks farmers care about their land,” Lee said.The technology caught the attention of Amazon Web Services (AWS), the e-commerce giant’s cloud computing unit.Aigen was chosen for AWS’s “Compute for Climate” fellowship program that provides AI tools, data center power, and technical help for startups tackling environmental woes.”Aigen is going to be one of the industry giants in the future,” said AWS head of climate tech startups business development Lisbeth Kaufman.”I think about Ford and the Model T, or Edison and the light bulb — that’s Kenny and Rich and Aigen.”