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Heavy downpours like the one that sent floodwaters into Texas Hill Country summer camps are expected to grow more common.

On Friday morning, some areas near the Guadalupe River received several months of rainfall in just a few hours. Six to 10 inches of rainfall fell in about three hours, according to radar analysis by Alan Gerard, a meteorologist who wrote about the recent flood event. The region usually gets about 2.1 inches of rain, on average, in July and nearly 31 inches for a year, according to NOAA data.

The effects of such extreme rainfall were exacerbated by the Hill Country’s topography. Some call the area “Flash Flood Alley,” because rainfall flows quickly down its steep limestone hills and into suddenly overflowing rivers.

Scientists expect more intense rainfall events in the future as human fossil fuel use warms the atmosphere.

A warmer atmosphere can absorb — and deliver — more water, which means the likelihood of extreme precipitation is rising. For every degree of warming in Fahrenheit, the atmosphere can hold about 3%-4% more moisture. Global temperatures in 2023 were about 2.32 degrees degrees higher than the 20th-century average, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data.

Intense rainfall events more likely as world warms, continued

In Texas, higher temperatures have already translated into more intense rainfall. In a 2024 report, Texas state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon wrote that on average, “extreme one day precipitation has increased by 5% to 15% since the latter part of the 20th century” in the region. By 2036, Nielsen-Gammon wrote, he expected an additional increase of about 10% in rainfall intensity.

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, said on the social media platform X that this was “precisely” the kind of rainfall event scientists expect to become more common in a warming climate.

“It’s not a question of whether climate change played a role — it’s only a question of how much,” Swain said.

A hugely popular right-wing Croatian singer and hundreds of thousands of his fans performed a pro-Nazi World War II salute at a massive concert in Zagreb, drawing criticism.

One of Marko Perkovic’s most popular songs, played in the late Saturday concert, starts with the dreaded “For the homeland — Ready!” salute, used by Croatia’s Nazi-era puppet Ustasha regime that ran concentration camps at the time.

Perkovic, whose stage name is Thompson after a U.S.-made machine gun, had previously said both the song and the salute focus on the 1991-95 ethnic war in Croatia, in which he fought using the American firearm, after the country declared independence from the former Yugoslavia. He says his controversial song is “a witness of an era.”

The 1990s conflict erupted when rebel minority Serbs, backed by neighboring Serbia, took up guns, intending to split from Croatia and unite with Serbia.

Perkovic’s immense popularity in Croatia reflects prevailing nationalist sentiments in the country 30 years after the war ended.

The WWII Ustasha troops in Croatia brutally killed tens of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Roma and antifascist Croats in a string of concentration camps in the country. Despite documented atrocities, some nationalists still view the Ustasha regime leaders as founders of the independent Croatian state.

Organizers said that half a million people attended Perkovic’s concert in the Croatian capital. Video footage aired by Croatian media showed many fans displaying pro-Nazi salutes earlier in the day.

The salute is punishable by law in Croatia, but courts have ruled Perkovic can use it as part of his song, the Croatian state television HRT said.

Perkovic has been banned from performing in some European cities over frequent pro-Nazi references and displays at his gigs.

Croatia’s Vecernji List daily wrote that the concert’s “supreme organization” has been overshadowed by the use of the salute of a regime that signed off on “mass executions of people.”

Regional N1 television noted that whatever the modern interpretations of the salute may be its roots are “undoubtedly” in the Ustasha regime era.

N1 said that while “Germans have made a clear cut” from anything Nazi-related “to prevent crooked interpretations and the return to a dark past … Croatia is nowhere near that in 2025.”

In neighboring Serbia, populist President Aleksandar Vucic criticized Perkovic’s concerts as a display “of support for pro-Nazi values.” Former Serbian liberal leader Boris Tadic said it was a “great shame for Croatia” and “the European Union” because the concert “glorifies the killing of members of one nation, in this case Serbian.”

Croatia joined the EU in 2013.

Croatian police said Perkovic’s concert was the biggest ever in the country and an unseen security challenge, deploying thousands of officers.

No major incidents were reported.

Indeed, Tourism Economics found travel spending by U.S. residents abroad rose 8.6% in the first four months of the year from the same period a year earlier. “This indicates continued U.S. outbound demand,” the firm said.

While the economy and household finances always influence travel demand, “today those factors are looking to have more of a negative impact than positive one,” said Nicki Zink, deputy head of industry analysis at the market research firm Morning Consult.

In the group’s recent survey, 31% of consumers said both the state of the U.S. economy and personal financial pressures are reducing their interest in leisure travel in the next three months, “higher than any other factor we survey about,” said Zink.

For its own part, the tourism market research firm Future Partners found 47% of American travelers are likely to venture abroad in the next 12 months, but 35% said uncertainty around U.S. policy changes had already caused them to reconsider or delay those plans. And in a NerdWallet survey last month, 11% of consumers said they’d scrapped international travel plans this year over global relations or economic uncertainty.

Plenty of Americans are still packing their passports, though. Millennials, for example, “are increasingly considering international destinations, despite the higher cost compared with domestic trips,” said Zink, adding that interest in destinations across South and Central America, the Caribbean and northern Europe have risen this year.

Wealthy travelers are also still traveling with gusto, extending a trend that has intensified since the recovery from the pandemic.

“Our affluent clients are still going after those bucket-list adventures and once-in-a-lifetime experiences,” said Mandee Migliaccio, CEO of the New Jersey-based agency Stepping Out Travel Services. “While they’re definitely keeping an eye on the headlines, they typically won’t change plans unless a destination really becomes unstable.”

Migliaccio acknowledged she has seen some subtle shifts lately, with some clients asking to trim flight costs or deciding to skip a stop to keep things more efficient.

“It’s not so much ‘I can’t go’ as it is, ‘How can I make this work for me?’” she said. “People are being strategic, spending where it matters most, and opting for curated experiences over excess.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday made his first public appearance since the 12-day war between Israel and Iran began, attending a mourning ceremony on the eve of Ashoura.

Khamenei’s absence during the war suggested the Iranian leader, who has final say on all state matters, had been in seclusion in a bunker — something not acknowledged by state media. State TV in Iran showed him waving and nodding to the chanting crowd, which rose to its feet as he entered and sat at a mosque next to his office and residence in the capital, Tehran.

There was no immediate report on any public statement made. Iranian officials such as the parliament speaker were present. Such events are always held under heavy security.

After the U.S. inserted itself into the war by bombing three key nuclear sites in Iran, U.S. President Donald Trump sent warnings via social media to the 86-year-old Khamenei that the U.S. knew where he was but had no plans to kill him, “at least for now.”

On June 26, shortly after a ceasefire began, Khamenei made his first public statement in days, saying in a prerecorded statement that Tehran had delivered a “slap to America’s face” by striking a U.S. air base in Qatar, and warning against further attacks by the U.S. or Israel on Iran.

Trump replied, in remarks to reporters and on social media: “Look, you’re a man of great faith. A man who’s highly respected in his country. You have to tell the truth. You got beat to hell.”

Iran has acknowledged the deaths of more than 900 people in the war, as well as thousands of injured. It also has confirmed serious damage to its nuclear facilities, and has denied access to them for inspectors with the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Iran’s president on Wednesday ordered the country to suspend its cooperation with the watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, further limiting inspectors’ ability to track a program that had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels. Israel launched the war fearing that Iran was trying to develop atomic weapons.

It remains unclear just how badly damaged the nuclear facilities are, whether any enriched uranium or centrifuges had been moved before the attacks, and whether Tehran still would be willing to continue negotiations with the United States over its nuclear program.

Israel also targeted defense systems, high-ranking military officials and atomic scientists. In retaliation, Iran fired more than 550 ballistic missiles at Israel, most of them intercepted, killing 28 people and causing damage in many areas.

Ceremony commemorates a death that caused rift in Islam

The ceremony that Khamenei hosted Saturday was a remembrance of the 7th century martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein.

Shiites represent over 10% of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims, and they view Hussein as the rightful successor to the Prophet Muhammad. Hussein’s death in battle at the hands of Sunnis at Karbala, south of Baghdad, created a rift in Islam and continues to play a key role in shaping Shiite identity.

In predominantly Shiite Iran, red flags represented Hussein’s blood and black funeral tents and clothes represented mourning. Processions of chest-beating and self-flagellating men demonstrated fervor. Some sprayed water over the mourners in the intense heat.

Reports of problems accessing the internet

NetBlocks, a global internet monitor, reported late Saturday on X that there was a “major disruption to internet connectivity” in Iran. It said the disruption corroborated widespread user reports of problems accessing the internet. The development comes just weeks after authorities shut down telecoms during the war. NetBlocks later said internet access had been restored after some two hours.

Tropical Storm Chantal has made landfall in South Carolina early Sunday morning as officials warn of flash flooding and “life threatening” surf and rip currents as the storm system moves inland.

Tropical storm warnings are in effect for portions of the Carolinas, from South Santee River, South Carolina, to Surf City, North Carolina, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

It said storm conditions are expected through Sunday morning, and that heavy rainfall across portions of northeastern South Carolina and north Carolina could caused flash flooding.

“Chantal is expected to bring life threatening surf and rip currents along the coast from northeastern Florida to the Mid-Atlantic states during the next day or so,” it said.

Footage captured on North Myrtle Beach showed heavy winds pounding the coast and rough surf in the distance. In another video, sand was blowing along the beach with gusts of around 25-30 miles per hour shaking palm trees as lightning flashed behind.

Chantal had maximum sustained winds of around 50 mph at landfall, which occurred at Litchfield beach, South Carolina.

Tropical Storm Chantal formed off the southeast U.S. coast and was forecast to bring heavy rains to parts of the Carolinas on Saturday.

Heavy rain was forecast for the coastal plain of the Carolinas through Monday, with total rainfall of 2 to 4 inches and local amounts up to 6 inches

The spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, the Dalai Lama, turned 90 on Sunday after a week of celebrations by followers during which he riled China again and spoke about his hope to live beyond 130 and reincarnate after dying.

The Nobel laureate is regarded as one of the world’s most influential religious leaders, with a following that extends well beyond Buddhism, but not by Beijing, which calls him a separatist and has sought to bring the faith under its control.

Fleeing his native Tibet in 1959 in the wake of a failed uprising against Chinese rule, the 14th Dalai Lama, along with hundreds of thousands of Tibetans, took shelter in India and has since advocated for a peaceful “Middle Way” to seek autonomy and religious freedom for the Tibetan people.

Dressed in his traditional yellow and burgundy robe, the Dalai Lama arrived at a temple to smiles and claps from thousands of monks and followers who had gathered on a rainy morning in the small Indian hill town of Dharamshala, where he lives. He waved and greeted them as he walked slowly to the stage with support from monks.

“As far as I am concerned, I have a human life and as humans it is quite natural for us to love and help one another,” the Dalai Lama said, speaking after a Tibetan cultural performance that included songs for his long life.

“I live my life in the service of other sentient beings,” he said, flanked on the stage with long-time supporters including western diplomats, Indian federal ministers, Hollywood star Richard Gere and a monk who is expected to lead the search for his successor.

In a sign of solidarity, Taiwan’s president Lai Ching-te, leaders of Indian states bordering Tibet, and three former U.S. presidents sent greetings to the Dalai Lama, including Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, whose video messages were played during the event.

In the preceding week of celebrations, the Dalai Lama had said he would reincarnate as the leader of the faith upon his death and that his non-profit institution, the Gaden Phodrang Trust, had the sole authority to recognize his successor.

China has said that the succession will have to be approved by its leaders, and the United States has called on Beijing to cease what it describes as interference in the succession of the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan Buddhist Lamas.

After about two hours, the Dalai Lama left the venue abruptly after eating a piece of his birthday cake. A source earlier said he had not been feeling too well.

Guests gathered at the ceremony took turns to speak, including Indian Parliamentary and Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, a practicing Buddhist, who had earlier made a rare statement contradicting China by backing the Dalai Lama’s position on his successor.

He later clarified that the statement was made in his personal capacity as China warned New Delhi against interfering in its domestic affairs at the expense of bilateral relations.

On Sunday, Rijiju said the Dalai Lama was India’s “most honored guest … We feel blessed for his presence here in our country.”

He said he has always held the view that there was a need to contribute significantly towards the cause of the Tibetan people, and added that, as a devotee, “We will follow the directions and the guidelines to be issued from the institution of the Dalai Lama.”

Cultural performances were held throughout the morning, including from Bollywood playback singers, while messages from global leaders were read out.

“I join 1.4 billion Indians in extending our warmest wishes to His Holiness the Dalai Lama on his 90th birthday. He has been an enduring symbol of love, compassion, patience and moral discipline,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also sent a message that said the Dalai Lama continued to inspire people by embodying a message of “unity, peace, and compassion.”

“The United States remains firmly committed to promoting respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Tibetans. We support efforts to preserve Tibetans’ distinct linguistic, cultural, and religious heritage, including their ability to freely choose and venerate religious leaders without interference,” he said, according to a State Department readout.

Maria Montalvo speaks with emotion, her eyes shining as she recounts her reading experiences. She says she especially enjoys books by Isabel Allende, Octavia Butler, Toni Morrison, Erika L. Sánchez and John Grisham because, in her words, “reading makes you wiser and you learn how people live in other countries. It takes your mind to other places you can’t travel to.”

Montalvo isn’t an ordinary reader. During her incarceration at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility, a prison in New Jersey, she has participated in the activities of Freedom Reads, a nonprofit organization that has been promoting reading in U.S. prisons since 2020.

“Freedom Reads has brought books on different topics, and it’s very important to read because it makes you wiser,” Montalvo, 60, said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo. “Books change the prison climate; they change the way people think about themselves. This opens your mind and makes you want to change.”

Montalvo proudly recalled the arrival of the books at her prison in May.

“They brought two bookcases that are very symbolic and very important, because they relate to literature, justice and writers like Martin Luther King,” she said.

The origin of Freedom Reads is closely linked to the life of Reginald Dwayne Betts, who pleaded guilty to car theft at age 16 and was sentenced to nine years in the Virginia prison system.

“In prison, I discovered books. I became a poet and also a very good communicator. I was able to make friendships and connections that have lasted decades. Books gave me an understanding of the world,” Betts said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo.

Years later, Betts earned his law degree from Yale University, began publishing books of poetry and won prestigious Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowships, and in 2020, he was one of the founders of Freedom Reads, where he has worked to increase access to books for the U.S. prison population.

Finding reading material in prisons is difficult, Betts said. Most facilities have only one library, which is open a few hours a day and requires a permit to access it.

“I asked myself, ‘What would a library be?’ And I decided it would be a collection of 500 books, and I called it the Library of Freedom, because I believe in the idea that freedom begins with a book.”

Betts worked with architects at Mass Design, a nonprofit firm focused on architecture’s role in supporting communities and fostering societal healing, and they decided the bookcases’ structure should be curved. Many of them are built by former inmates, he said.

The libraries themselves are objects of design, each consisting of two to six freestanding bookshelves, handcrafted from maple, walnut or cherry wood. Betts has fitted the libraries into empty cells for easy access and designed each shelf to be 44 inches tall so as not to obstruct guards’ vision. The curves of each reading structure contrast with the harsh, angular architecture of the prison system.

“We want to show that it’s possible to be kind in places as violent and dangerous as some prisons, and we’re projecting our idea with libraries we make with our own hands,” he said.

Betts read several books in prison that changed his life. One was “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” by Gabriel García Márquez, which he said “taught [him] to understand Latin America and its people.”

According to figures from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, there are 46,334 Hispanic prisoners in the United States. Therefore, from the beginning of the project, bilingualism has been present, and Spanish-language titles are abundant.

“We have a list of more than 100 books in Spanish, and it continues to grow every year,” said David Pérez, Freedom Reads’ library coordinator.

According to the organization, Spanish-language books in the library’s permanent collection include “The House of Spirits,” by Isabel Allende; “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter,” by Sánchez; “In the Time of the Butterflies,” by Julia Álvarez; and “The Shadow of the Wind,” by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, in addition to classics such as the novels of García Márquez and English-language works by Ernest Gaines, William Faulkner and George Orwell.

“I’m so pleased that my novel has reached so many unexpected places. I’m proud that incarcerated people find some relief in Julia’s story,” Sánchez said in an email about her book. “She’s a complicated protagonist who wants to escape her circumstances, like many women around the world.”

‘A lot of work ahead of us’

Maria Montalvo was convicted in 1996 of the deaths of her two children in a car fire, which she claimed at the trial was an accident; she’s serving a life sentence. During her trial, prosecutors acknowledged that she was “emotionally disturbed” during the incident, which contributed to her not being sentenced to death.

Years later, Montalvo says she has dedicated her time in prison to studying the problems of mass incarceration, reading literary works and engaging with other inmates in reading circles that discuss books in Spanish and English.

“There are many books in Spanish and English. So you can sit with many of the women who don’t speak English and read a book, but at the same time, another group is reading the same book in English, and you can have a conversation afterward,” she said.

Noticias Telemundo asked the Federal Bureau of Prisons for figures on its prisons’ literacy and reading initiatives, but it didn’t receive a response about the data. However, spokesperson Scott Taylor said in an email that the bureau closely monitors reading promotion programs like Freedom Reads, which “includes regular coordination meetings, staff training on safety expectations, and ongoing oversight to address any concerns.”

In addition, Taylor said, the bureau’s education branch has implemented a strategy focused on literacy and improving language skills for inmates who don’t speak English. “Bilingual instructions and materials are provided in Spanish and English, supported by digital tools that offer accessible resources for those learning English,” he wrote.

In 2023, research published by the Mackinac Public Policy Center, a nonprofit organization espousing free-market principles, found that prison-based reading, job training and education programs reduce the likelihood of recidivism by 14.8%. It also found a 6.9% increase in the likelihood of employment.

“I love having conversations with people inside prisons,” Pérez said. “They read a lot, and it moves you when you see them crying because they’ve read a poem or a novel — it’s unique.”

‘Having a voice’

Freedom Reads has installed 498 libraries in 50 adult and youth prisons across the United States. It has placed an estimated 280,000 books in the hands of inmates.

“Despite that success, we’ve probably reached less than 1%, maybe 0.5%, of the prisons in this country,” Betts said. “We’re not in any federal prisons yet. We’re only in 13 states, and we’re missing more than 30. So we have a lot of work ahead of us.”

Betts’ aim is to have libraries in 20,000 prisons.

Since 2023, Freedom Reads has administered the Inside Literary Prize, a literary award judged by incarcerated people. The inaugural award went to Imani Perry’s book “South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation,” selected by more than 200 judges from 12 prisons across six states.

By 2025, the competition had expanded to include more than 300 judges from 13 prisons in five states, and this year’s edition also included Puerto Rico. Montalvo was part of this year’s jury, and its decision will be announced Thursday.

“It’s a feeling of inclusion. It makes you realize that what we think about books and what we read matters,” Montalvo said excitedly. “It’s having a voice.”

An earlier version of this story was first published in Noticias Telemundo.