Hamas agrees to release 10 hostages as part of Gaza ceasefire talks, says negotiations are tough
The Palestinian group said the ongoing ceasefire talks have several sticking points, including the flow of aid, withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, and "genuine guarantees' for a permanent ceasefire." — Reuters

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GMA Network
5 hours ago
- GMA Network
Trump visits Texas flood zone, defends government's disaster response
US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump speak with first responders as they visit a scene of devastation along the banks of the Guadalupe River after catastrophic floods in Kerr County, Texas, US, July 11, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque KERRVILLE, Texas - President Donald Trump defended the state and federal response to deadly flash flooding in Texas on Friday as he visited the stricken Hill Country region, where at least 120 people, including dozens of children, perished a week ago. During a roundtable discussion after touring Kerr County, the epicenter of the disaster, Trump praised both Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for their response, saying they both did an "incredible job." The Trump administration, as well as local and state officials, has faced mounting questions over whether more could have been done to protect and warn residents ahead of the flooding, which struck with astonishing speed in the pre-dawn hours on July 4, the US Independence Day holiday. Trump reacted with anger when a reporter said some families affected by the floods had expressed frustration that warnings did not go out sooner. "I think everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances," he said. "I don't know who you are, but only a very evil person would ask a question like that." Some critics have questioned whether the administration's spending cuts at the National Weather Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which coordinates the US government's disaster response efforts, might have exacerbated the calamity. Trump officials have said that cuts had no impact on the NWS's ability to forecast the storms, despite some vacancies in local offices. But the president has largely sidestepped questions about his plans to shrink or abolish FEMA and reassign many of its key functions to state and local governments. "I'll tell you some other time," Trump said on Tuesday, when asked by a reporter about FEMA. Before the most recent flooding, Kerr County declined to install an early-warning system after failing to secure state money to cover the cost. Lawrence Walker, 67, and a nearly three-decade veteran resident of Kerrville, said the county and state had not spent enough on disaster prevention, including an early-warning system. Asked about the quality of the government response, he said, "It's been fine since the water was at 8 feet." The Texas state legislature will convene in a special session later this month to investigate the flooding and provide disaster relief funding. Abbott has dismissed questions about whether anyone was to blame, calling that the "word choice of losers." Dozens still unaccounted for Search teams on Friday were still combing through muddy debris littering parts of the Hill Country in central Texas, looking for the dozens still listed as missing, but no survivors have been found since the day of the floods. Heavy rains sent a wall of water raging down the Guadalupe River early on July 4, causing the deadliest disaster of the Republican president's nearly six-month term in office. As sun poked through dark clouds on Friday morning, search crews in hard hats painstakingly walked inch-by-inch along the ruined banks of the river, marking damage and looking through wreckage. After the president arrived in Kerr County in the early afternoon, Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and Texas Governor Greg Abbott drove to an area near the river, where Trump received a briefing from first responders amid debris left in the wake of the flood. The county is located in what is known as "flash flood alley," a region that has seen some of the country's deadliest floods. More than a foot of rain fell in less than an hour on July 4. Flood gauges showed the river's height rose from about a foot to 34 feet (10.4 meters) in a matter of hours, cascading over its banks and sweeping away trees and structures in its path. Kerr County officials say more than 160 people remain unaccounted for, although experts say that the number of people reported missing in the wake of disasters is often inflated. The dead in the county include 67 adults and at least 36 children, many of whom were campers at the nearly century-old Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer retreat on the banks of the river. Jon Moreno, 71, a longtime Kerrville resident whose property on high ground was spared, praised the government response – local and federal. He has heard the debate about what more could have been done – including sirens – but said he did not think it would have made much difference, given people's desire to build along the flood-prone riverbanks. "It's unavoidable," he said. "All those people along the river – I wouldn't want to live there ... It's too dangerous." At Stripes, a gas station in Kerrville, the building was tagged in large white letters, accusing "Trump's Big Beautiful Bill" of cutting "our emergency funding." The president's massive legislative package, which cut taxes and spending, won approval from the Republican-controlled Congress last week and was signed into law by Trump on the same day that the flooding hit Texas. —Reuters


GMA Network
7 hours ago
- GMA Network
State Department starts firing more than 1,350 workers in Trump's shake-up of diplomatic corps
US State Department workers with a cart full of boxes react during a sendoff event in Washington, D.C., US, July 11, 2025. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon WASHINGTON - The State Department began firing more than 1,350 US-based employees on Friday as the administration of President Donald Trump presses ahead with an unprecedented overhaul of its diplomatic corps, a move critics say will undermine US ability to defend and promote US interests abroad. The layoffs, which affect 1,107 civil service and 246 foreign service officers based in the United States, come at a time when Washington is grappling with multiple crises on the world stage: Russia's war in Ukraine, the almost two-year-long Gaza conflict, and the Middle East on edge due to high tension between Israel and Iran. "The Department is streamlining domestic operations to focus on diplomatic priorities," an internal State Department notice that was sent to the workforce said. "Headcount reductions have been carefully tailored to affect non-core functions, duplicative or redundant offices, and offices where considerable efficiencies may be found," it added. The total reduction in the workforce will be nearly 3,000, including the voluntary departures, according to the notice and a senior State Department official, out of the 18,000 employees based in the United States. The move is the first step of a restructuring that Trump has sought to ensure US foreign policy is aligned with his "America First" agenda. Former diplomats and critics say the firing of foreign service officers risks America's ability to counter the growing assertiveness from adversaries such as China and Russia. "President Trump and Secretary of State Rubio are once again making America less safe and less secure," Democratic senator Tim Kaine from Virginia said in a statement. "This is one of the most ridiculous decisions that could possibly be made at a time when China is increasing its diplomatic footprint around the world and establishing an overseas network of military and transportation bases, Russia is continuing its years-long brutal assault of a sovereign country, and the Middle East is careening from crisis to crisis," Kaine said. Dozens of State Department employees crowded the lobby of the agency's headquarters in Washington holding an impromptu "clap-out" for their colleagues who have been fired. Dozens of people were crying, as they carried their belongings in boxes and hugged and bid farewell to friends and fellow workers. Outside, dozens of others were lined up continuing to clap and cheer for them with some holding banners that read, 'Thank you America's diplomats.' Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen attended the demonstration. Several offices were set up inside the building for employees who are being laid off to turn in their badges, laptops, telephones and other property owned by the agency. The offices were marked by posters that read "Transition Day Out Processing". One counter was labeled an "Outprocessing service center" with small bottles of water placed next to a box of tissue. Inside one office, cardboard boxes were visible. A five-page "separation checklist" that was sent to workers who are fired on Friday and seen by Reuters tells the employee that they will lose access to the building and their emails at 5 p.m. EDT on Friday. It asks the employees to fulfill a set of steps ahead of their termination. 'Wrong signal' Trump in February ordered Secretary of State Marco Rubio to revamp the foreign service to ensure that the Republican president's foreign policy is "faithfully" implemented. He has also repeatedly pledged to "clean out the deep state" by firing bureaucrats that he deems disloyal. The shake-up is part of an unprecedented push by Trump to shrink the federal bureaucracy and cut what he says is wasteful spending of taxpayer money. His administration dismantled the US Agency for International Aid, Washington's premier aid arm that distributed billions of dollars of assistance worldwide, and folded it under the State Department. Rubio announced the plans for the State Department shake-up in April, saying the Department in its current form was "bloated, bureaucratic" and was not able to perform its mission "in this new era of great power competition." He envisioned a structure that he said would give back the power to regional bureaus and embassies and get rid of programs and offices that do not align with America's core interests. That vision would see the elimination of the role of top official for civilian security, democracy, and human rights and the closure of some offices that monitored war crimes and conflicts around the world. "This decision sends the wrong signal to allies and adversaries alike: that the United States is pulling back from the world stage," the American Foreign Service Association, a professional group which represents State Department employees, said in a statement. "As allies look to the US for reassurance and rivals test for weakness, the administration has chosen to sideline the very professionals best equipped to navigate this moment. Meanwhile, countries like China continue expanding their diplomatic reach and influence," it added. The reorganization had been expected to be largely concluded by July 1 but did not proceed as planned amid ongoing litigation, as the State Department waited for the US Supreme Court to weigh in on the Trump administration's bid to halt a judicial order blocking mass job cuts. On Tuesday, the court cleared the way for the Trump administration to pursue the job cuts and the sweeping downsizing of numerous agencies. Since then, The White House Counsel's Office and the Office of Personnel Management have been coordinating with federal agencies to ensure their plans comply with the law. — Reuters

GMA Network
10 hours ago
- GMA Network
Philippines urges countries to help sustain Loss and Damage Fund
Rescuers assist residents on a boat along a flooded road following heavy rains brought by the Habagat enhanced by Super Typhoon Carina, in Marikina City on July 24, 2024. REUTERS/ Lisa Marie David The Philippines has asked countries to help sustain the fund aimed at providing assistance to nations that are most at risk from the effects of climate change, warning that the price of inaction is "far too high." At the sixth meeting of the Board of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu, on Wednesday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said through Environment Secretary Raphael Lotilla that the initial allocation of $250 million for 2025–2026 was a 'crucial step forward,' but the fund must also be 'fair, future-ready, and responsive to those who need help.' ''What's at stake here demands urgency and action. Let us not lose sight of what led us to fight for the establishment of the fund. When it comes to addressing loss and damage, business as usual is not an option. Every delay means more families without shelter, more livelihoods disrupted, and, worse, more lives lost. The cost of inaction is far too high,'' Marcos said. The President said the fund must be "swift, accessible, and human-centered, attuned to the needs of vulnerable countries and communities." ''We also call on the international community to stand with us, to help sustain this fund, and to fulfill its promises. The collective will of nations must rise higher than the seas, burn brighter than a warming world, and move faster than the storms that endanger us,'' he said. The Philippines hosts the board of the FRLD, which was operationalized at the COP 28 UN Climate Change Conference in December 2023. As of June 27, wealthy nations had forwarded $348 million out of the total pledges worth around $789 million, according to the World Bank, the fund's interim trustee. Australia, Canada, Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United States are among the nations that have contributed to the fund. For environmental group Greenpeace, the so-called "climate polluters" should bear the responsibility for loss and damage. In a statement, Greenpeace Philippines said Marcos should demand payment for climate loss and damage from fossil fuel companies and rich nations, call for an end to oil and gas expansion and for a fossil fuel phaseout, expedite the passage of the Climate Accountability Bill, and begin the process of litigating the world's biggest oil and gas companies for climate impact damages to the Filipino people. 'Those most responsible for the climate and environmental emergency must be held accountable by paying their fair share. And the Philippines can lead the way in making this happen,'' said Greenpeace Philippines campaigner Jefferson Chua. The Philippines is among the least emitters of greenhouse gases that cause global warming, yet it is directly hit by the effects of climate change, such as droughts and strong tropical cyclones. As part of efforts to curtail the effects of climate change, the Philippines joined nearly 200 countries in a landmark deal in Paris in December 2015 to cut greenhouse gas emissions to limit the rise in global temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius. ''Year after year we endure the harshest blows of the climate crisis, from typhoons that destroyed towns to rising seas that threatened our coastal communities,'' Marcos said. ''Other vulnerable nations share this struggle, this burden, and this collective call for climate justice. It is for them and with them that this fund was created.'' —GMA Integrated News