AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

More than 160 people are still missing after deadly Texas floods, governor says

HUNT, Texas (AP) — More than 160 people are still believed to be missing in Texas days after flash floods killed over 100 people during the July Fourth weekend, the state’s governor said Tuesday.

The huge jump in the number unaccounted for — roughly three times higher than previously said — came after authorities set up a hotline for families to call.

Those reported missing are in Kerr County, where most of the victims have been recovered so far, Gov. Greg Abbott said. Many were likely visiting or staying in the state’s Hill Country during the holiday but did not register at a camp or hotel, he said during a news conference.

The county’s lowlands along the Guadalupe River are filled with youth camps and campgrounds, including Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp where at least 27 campers and counselors died. Officials said Tuesday that five campers and one counselor have still not been found.

Search-and-rescue teams are using heavy equipment to untangle and peel away layers of trees, unearth large rocks in riverbanks and move massive piles of debris that stretch for miles in the search for the missing people. Crews in airboats, helicopters and on horseback along with hundreds of volunteers are part of one of the largest search operations in Texas history.

___

Texas inspectors approved Camp Mystic’s disaster plan 2 days before deadly flood, records show

HUNT, Texas (AP) — Texas inspectors signed off on Camp Mystic’s emergency planning just two days before catastrophic flooding killed more than two dozen people at the all-girls Christian summer camp, most of them children.

The Department of State Health Services released records Tuesday showing the camp complied with a host of state regulations regarding “procedures to be implemented in case of a disaster.” Among them: instructing campers what to do if they need to evacuate and assigning specific duties to each staff member and counselor.

Five years of inspection reports released to The Associated Press do not offer any details of those plans at Mystic, raising new questions about the camp’s preparedness ahead of the torrential July 4 rainfall in flood-prone Texas Hill Country.

The National Weather Service had issued a flood watch for the area July 3 at 1:18 p.m. That danger prompted at least one of the roughly 18 camps along the Guadalupe River to move dozens of campers to higher ground.

The uncertainty about what happened at Mystic comes as local officials have repeatedly dodged questions about who was monitoring the weather and what measures were taken ahead of the flooding.

___

Trump’s previous tariff push terrified the world economy. He’s betting this time is different

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Donald Trump last rolled out tariffs this high, financial markets quaked, consumer confidence crashed and his popularity plunged.

Only three months later, he’s betting this time is different.

In his new round of tariffs being announced this week, Trump is essentially tethering the entire world economy to his instinctual belief that import taxes will deliver factory jobs and stronger growth in the U.S., rather than the inflation and slowdown predicted by many economists.

On Tuesday, he told his Cabinet that past presidents who hadn’t aggressively deployed tariffs were “stupid.” Ever the salesman, Trump added that it was “too time-consuming” to try to negotiate trade deals with the rest of the world, so it was just easier to send them letters, as he’s doing this week, that list the tariff rates on their goods.

The letters marked a change from his self-proclaimed April 2 “Liberation Day” event at the White House, where he had posterboards with the rates displayed, a choice that led to a brief market meltdown and the 90-day negotiating period with baseline 10% tariffs that will end Wednesday. Trump, instead, chose to send form letters with random capitalizations and punctuation and other formatting issues.

___

Trump caught off guard by Pentagon’s abrupt move to pause Ukraine weapons deliveries, AP sources say

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s decision to send more defensive weapons to Ukraine came after he privately expressed frustration with Pentagon officials for announcing a pause in some deliveries last week — a move that he felt wasn’t properly coordinated with the White House, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The Pentagon, which announced last week that it would hold back some air defense missiles, precision-guided artillery and other weapons pledged to Ukraine because of what U.S. officials said were concerns that American stockpiles were in short supply. Trump said Monday that the U.S. will have to send more weapons to Ukraine, effectively reversing the move.

Two of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the sensitive internal discussions, said there was some internal opposition among Pentagon brass to the pause — coordinated by Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby — before it was announced.

One of the people described Trump as being caught “flat footed” by the announcement. The White House did not respond to queries about whether Trump was surprised by the Pentagon pause.

Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson denied that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had acted without consulting the president.

___

Militants kill 5 Israeli soldiers in Gaza and Israeli strikes kill 51 Palestinians

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Five Israeli soldiers were killed in an attack in the northern Gaza Strip, Israel’s military said Tuesday, while health officials in the Palestinian territory said that 51 people were killed in Israeli strikes.

The bloodshed came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was visiting the White House for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump about a ceasefire plan to pause the Gaza fighting. While there was no announcement of a breakthrough, there were signs of progress toward a deal.

The soldiers’ deaths could add to pressure on Netanyahu to strike a deal, as polls in Israel have shown widespread support for ending the 21-month war.

A senior Israeli official said that 80-90% of the details had been ironed out and a final agreement could be days away. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to discuss the sensitive negotiations with the media.

In a separate development, Israel said that it targeted a senior Hamas militant with a rare airstrike in northern Lebanon that killed three people and wounded 13 others, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

___

Residents still shaken a day after federal authorities march through Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hector Velasquez was playing cards with friends at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles early Monday when a young man with a megaphone walked through announcing federal agents were on their way. Another man drove past in a car, shouting out the window, “Immigration is coming!”

The people in Velasquez’s group who did not have legal status scattered. Others with U.S. citizenship — like Velasquez — lingered to see what would happen.

Two hours later, federal authorities and National Guard troops arrived, with guns and horses. By then, the park that is normally bustling with vendors was mostly empty. Activists had also spread word about the raid on social media.

After sweeping through the park, the convoy that included armored vehicles left as suddenly as it had arrived, Velasquez said.

He described the scene Tuesday as he once again sat in the park playing cards — this time only with those who were citizens.

___

Impostor uses AI to impersonate Rubio and contact foreign and US officials

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department is warning U.S. diplomats of attempts to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio and possibly other officials using technology driven by artificial intelligence, according to two senior officials and a cable sent last week to all embassies and consulates.

The warning came after the department discovered that an impostor posing as Rubio had attempted to reach out to at least three foreign ministers, a U.S. senator and a governor, according to the July 3 cable, which was first reported by The Washington Post.

The recipients of the scam messages, which were sent by text, Signal and voice mail, were not identified in the cable, a copy of which was shared with The Associated Press.

“The State Department is aware of this incident and is currently monitoring and addressing the matter,” department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters. “The department takes seriously its responsibility to safeguard its information and continuously take steps to improve the department’s cybersecurity posture to prevent future incidents.”

She declined to comment further due to “security reasons” and the ongoing investigation.

___

Travelers no longer have to remove their shoes during security screenings at US airports

Travelers racing to catch a flight at U.S. airports no longer are required to remove their shoes during security screenings, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday.

Noem said the end of the ritual put in place almost 20 years ago was immediately effective nationwide. She said a pilot program showed the Transportation Security Administration had the equipment needed to keep airports and aircraft safe while allowing people to keep their shoes on.

“I think most Americans will be very excited to see they will be able to keep their shoes on, and it will be a much more streamlined process,” Noem said.

While shoe removal no longer is standard procedure at airport security checkpoints, some travelers still may be asked to take off their footwear “if we think additional layers of screening are necessary,” she added.

The travel newsletter Gate Access first reported that the TSA planned to make the security screening change soon.

___

Sabalenka gets past Siegemund and faces Anisimova in the Wimbledon semifinals. Fritz vs. Alcaraz

LONDON (AP) — Aryna Sabalenka was having a hard time dealing with her Wimbledon quarterfinal opponent’s unusual game style. The mistakes were mounting Tuesday. The stress was rising. The deficit was troubling.

As things went awry, Sabalenka would look at her box with a quizzical expression and raise her hands. After missing one forehand off a short ball, she knelt on the grass near the net, the very picture of exasperation. A month after her loss to Coco Gauff in the French Open final, Sabalenka knew she needed to keep her emotions in check and straighten out her strokes.

Did just that, right on time. Sabalenka trailed by a set, then twice was down a break in the third, before grabbing the last three games to return to the semifinals at the All England Club by overcoming 104th-ranked Laura Siegemund 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 at Centre Court.

“She pushed me so much,” said Sabalenka, No. 1 since last October. “After the first set, I was just looking at my box, thinking, ‘Guys, I mean, book the tickets. I think we’re about to leave this beautiful city, country, place.’”

Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam tournament where Sabalenka never has been to a title match. She can change that this week if she beats No. 13 Amanda Anisimova of the United States on Thursday. Anisimova reached her first major semifinal since the 2019 French Open, when she was just 17, by getting past Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 7-6 (9).

___

Movie Review: A weird ‘Superman’ is better than a boring one

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a … a purple and orange shape-shifting chemical compound?

Writer-director James Gunn’s “Superman” was always going to be a strange chemistry of filmmaker and material. Gunn, the mind behind “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “The Suicide Squad,” has reliably drifted toward a B-movie superhero realm populated (usually over-populated) with the lesser-known freaks, oddities and grotesquerie of back-issue comics.

But you don’t get more mainstream than Superman. And let’s face it, unless Christopher Reeve is in the suit, the rock-jawed Man of Steel can be a bit of a bore. Much of the fun and frustration of Gunn’s movie is seeing how he stretches and strains to make Superman, you know, interesting.

In the latest revamp for the archetypal superhero, Gunn does a lot to give Superman (played with an easy charm by David Corenswet ) a lift. He scraps the origin story. He gives Superman a dog. And he ropes in not just expected regulars like Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) and Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) but some less conventional choices — none more so than that colorful jumble of elements, Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan).

Metamorpho, a melancholy, mutilated man whose powers were born out of tragedy, is just one of many side shows in “Superman.” But he’s the most representative of what Gunn is going for. Gunn might favor a traditional-looking hero at the center, like Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord in “Guardians of the Galaxy.” And Corenswet, complete with hair curl, looks the part, too. But Gunn’s heart is with the weirdos who soldier on.