Overview

• The confirmed death toll from the July 4 flash floods in Texas has reached 51 and may rise as search and rescue teams continue operations.
• State investigators have launched a probe into National Weather Service warning failures in Kerr County, which officials link to reduced staffing and budget cuts.
• President Trump’s administration dispatched DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to assist with relief efforts and offered prayers for families affected by the disaster.
• Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok publicly attributed the severity of the floods to human-driven climate change and criticized Trump-era funding cuts under the DOGE initiative for delaying alerts.
• Musk has rebuked Grok for being “too woke” and announced plans to release an updated Grok 4, intensifying debates over AI’s role in evaluating policy and climate risks.