Trump plans to tour Texas flood damage as the scope of the disaster tests his pledge to shutter FEMA

WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Donald Trump heads to Texas on Friday for a firsthand look at the devastation caused by catastrophic flooding, he has remained conspicuously quiet about his previous promises to do away with the federal agency in charge of disaster relief.

The Trump administration isn’t backing away from its pledges to shutter the Federal Emergency Management Agency and return disaster response to the states. But since the July 4 disaster, which has killed at least 120 people, the president and his top aides have focused on the once-in-a-lifetime nature of what occurred and the human tragedy involved rather than the government-slashing crusade that's been popular with Trump’s core supporters.

“Nobody ever saw a thing like this coming,” Trump told NBC News on Thursday, adding, ”This is a once-in-every-200-year deal.” He's also suggested he'd have been ready to visit Texas within hours but didn't want to burden authorities still searching for the more than 170 people who are still missing.

Trump's shift in focus underscores how tragedy can complicate political calculations, even though Trump has made slashing the federal workforce and charging ally-turned-antagonistElon Musk with dramatically shrinking the size of government centerpieces of his administration's opening months.

The president is expected to do an aerial tour of some of the hard-hit areas.

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A Texas family clung to life on their roof, capturing the terrifying flooding in photos and video

Jane Towler was up late in a small cabin along the Guadalupe River as thunder boomed through a thrashing rain. It was 4 a.m. and water was pooling on the floor. Suddenly, her phone rang. It was her friend from a nearby cabin.

“Jane, we’re f—ed!” Brian Keeper said frantically. “The water’s in my house! Get out!”

Towler's grandfather bought the property in Texas Hill Country in the 1930s, and she's lived through many floods in her 70 years, losing a canoe or chairs here and there. But last Friday was different.

The river would swell 26 feet (nearly 8 meters) in 45 minutes and lay waste to homes and buildings, sweep away cars and trucks, and claim the lives of more than 100 people, including many summer campers.

Towler didn't know how bad things would get, but the fear in Keeper's voice kicked her into flight mode.

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New Hampshire judge pauses Trump’s birthright citizenship order nationwide via class action lawsuit

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A federal judge in New Hampshire issued a ruling Thursday prohibiting President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship from taking effect anywhere in the U.S.

Judge Joseph LaPlante issued a preliminary injunction blocking Trump's order and certified a class action lawsuit including all children who will be affected. The order, which followed an hour-long hearing, included a seven-day stay to allow for appeal.

The judge’s decision puts the birthright citizenship issue on a fast track to return to the Supreme Court. The justices could be asked to rule whether the order complies with their decision last month that limited judges’ authority to issue nationwide injunctions. The Supreme Court said district judges generally can’t issue nationwide, or universal, injunctions. But it didn’t rule out whether judges could accomplish much the same thing by a different legal means, a class action.

The class approved in New Hampshire is slightly narrower than that sought by the plaintiffs, who wanted to include parents, but attorneys said that wouldn't make a material difference.

“This is going to protect every single child around the country from this lawless, unconstitutional and cruel executive order,” said Cody Wofsy, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

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What's next for President Donald Trump's birthright citizenship order in the courts

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The legal fight over President Donald Trump's order ending birthright citizenship is advancing on a path toward the U.S. Supreme Court.

A New Hampshire federal judge on Thursday issued a ruling prohibiting the president's January executive order ending birthright citizenship for children born to those without legal status from taking effect anywhere in the U.S.

The judge's preliminary injunction and certification of a class-action lawsuit blocks the order, though it included a seven-day stay to allow for appeal.

The district court judge's decision comes less than a month after the Supreme Court limited lower courts from issuing nationwide injunctions without settling the underlying question of the constitutionality of the president's order. The high court also left open the possibility that birthright citizenship challenges could remain blocked nationwide.

Here's what to know about birthright citizenship and what happens next.

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Brazil vows retaliatory tariffs against US if Trump follows through on 50% import taxes

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Thursday that he will impose retaliatory tariffs on the United States if President Donald Trump follows through on a pledge to boost import taxes by 50% over the South American country's criminal trial against his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.

Lula said he will trigger Brazil's reciprocity law approved by Congress earlier this year if negotiations with the U.S. fail.

“If there’s no negotiation, the reciprocity law will be put to work. If he charges 50 (% tariffs) from us, we will charge 50 from them,” Lula told TV Record in excerpts of an interview that will be fully aired later in the day. “Respect is good. I like to offer mine and I like to receive it.”

Lula's comments raise the risk of a tariffs war erupting between the two countries, similar to what has happened between the U.S. and China. Trump has vowed to respond forcefully if countries seek to punish the U.S. by adding tariffs of their own.

The president of Brazil's Senate, Sen. Davi Alcolumbre, and Chamber of Deputies Speaker Hugo Motta, a pair of moderates who have recently been at odds with Lula, agreed that the recipricity law gives Brazil “the means ... to protect our sovereignty.”

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Kurdish separatist fighters in Iraq begin laying down weapons as part of peace process with Turkey

SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) — Fighters with a Kurdish separatist militant group that has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey began laying down their weapons in a symbolic ceremony Friday in northern Iraq, the first concrete step toward a promised disarmament as part of a peace process.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, announced in May it would disband and renounce armed conflict, ending four decades of hostilities. The move came after PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress and formally disband and disarm.

Öcalan renewed his call in a video message broadcast Wednesday, saying, “I believe in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons.”

In Turkey, Devlet Bahceli, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s nationalist ally who initiated the peace process, welcomed the development.

“Starting today, members of the separatist terrorist organization have begun surrendering their weapons in groups, marking historic developments that signal the end of a dark era,” Bahceli said in a written statement. “These are exceptionally important days for both Turkey and our region.”

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UN investigator and critic of Israel's actions in Gaza tells AP she was shocked by US sanctions

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — An independent U.N. investigator and outspoken critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza said Thursday that “it was shocking” to learn that the Trump administration had imposed sanctions on her but defiantly stood by her view on the war.

Francesca Albanese said in an interview with The Associated Press that the powerful were trying to silence her for defending those without any power of their own, “other than standing and hoping not to die, not to see their children slaughtered."

"This is not a sign of power, it’s a sign of guilt,” the Italian human rights lawyer said.

The State Department’s decision to impose sanctions on Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, followed an unsuccessful U.S. pressure campaign to force the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, the U.N.’s top human rights body, to remove her from her post.

She is tasked with probing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories and has been vocal about what she has described as the “genocide” by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza. Both Israel and the U.S. have strongly denied that accusation.

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Rubio meets China's foreign minister in Malaysia as US-Chinese tensions mount

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrapped up his second and final day at a Southeast Asian security conference in a high-stakes meeting with his Chinese counterpart as tensions grow between Washington and Beijing over issues from trade to security and China's support for Russia's war in Ukraine.

After discussions with regional countries at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations forum in Malaysia, Rubio on Friday ended his first official trip to Asia with his first face-to-face talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Neither man nor the delegations spoke to journalists as they posed for photos at the top of the meeting.

The meeting was held less than 24 hours after Rubio met in Kuala Lumpur with another rival, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, during which they discussed potential new avenues to jumpstart Ukraine peace talks.

The meetings come against a backdrop of global and regional unease over U.S. policies, notably on trade and large tariffs that U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose on friend and foe alike.

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Head Start will be cut off for immigrants without legal status, Trump administration says

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration will restrict immigrants in the country illegally from enrolling in Head Start, a federally funded preschool program, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday. The move is part of a broad effort to limit access to federal benefits for immigrants who lack legal status.

People in the country illegally are largely ineligible for federal public benefits such as food stamps, student loans and financial aid for higher education. But for decades they have been able to access some community-level programs such as Head Start and community health centers.

HHS said it will reclassify those programs as federal public benefits, excluding immigrants in the country illegally from accessing them. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the changes were part of a larger effort to protect American citizens' interests.

“For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans’ tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration,” Kennedy said in a statement. “Today’s action changes that — it restores integrity to federal social programs, enforces the rule of law, and protects vital resources for the American people.”

A spokesperson for the Administration for Children and Families, which administers Head Start, said that eligibility will be determined based on the child’s immigration status.

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Freed from ICE detention, Mahmoud Khalil files $20 million claim against Trump administration

NEW YORK (AP) — On a recent afternoon, Mahmoud Khalil sat in his Manhattan apartment, cradling his 10-week-old son as he thought back to the pre-dawn hours spent pacing a frigid immigration jail in Louisiana, awaiting news of the child’s birth in New York.

For a moment, the outspoken Palestinian activist found himself uncharacteristically speechless.

“I cannot describe the pain of that night,” Khalil said finally, gazing down as the baby, Deen, cooed in his arms. “This is something I will never forgive.”

Now, weeks after regaining his freedom, Khalil is seeking restitution. On Thursday, his lawyers filed a claim for $20 million in damages against the Trump administration, alleging Khalil was falsely imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted and smeared as an antisemite as the government sought to deport him over his prominent role in campus protests.

The filing — a precursor to a lawsuit under the Federal Tort Claims Act — names the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the State Department.