MON SIX

Rounds of storms and heavy rainthat killed a person in heavy Texas flooding earlier this week are shifting their focus to states in the Mid-Atlantic and South on May 30. The person who died was swept away in floodwaters on May 28 after a "brief but very powerful storm" that caused downed trees, damage from hail and winds, power outages and flash flooding, Austin City Manager TC Broadnax said at a news conference the next day. The storm dumped 2-3 inches of rain within half an hour, officials said. Forecasters said states including Georgia, the Carolinas and parts of the Mid-Atlantic were in the path of "a rather strong system for late May" that will reach New England by the weekend. The storm will bring heavy rain across the Ohio Valley during the day and the northern Mid-Atlantic by night on May 30. The thunderstorms and rain are increasing chances of dangerous flash flooding in the region, according to the National Weather Service. Impacts from the storms could include wind damage, large hail and a few tornadoes, the Storm Prediction Center said. More than 21 million people were under flood watches in the region the morning of May 30, in states including Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. The storms that hit in central Texas on May 28 rolled through Austin quickly. Between 6 and 7 p.m., the storm peaked and winds reached up to 77 mph, officials said. During that time, calls for help to 911 also surged. "This was a fast-moving, destructive storm with whole trees ripped down, extensive damage to homes, property and electrical equipment," Austin Energy Interim General Manager Stuart Riley said. Austin's emergency responders responded to nine water rescue calls, said Austin-Travis County EMS Chief Robert Luckritz. One of the calls was for an adult patient who had reportedly been submerged in floodwaters for over 20 minutes and was pronounced dead on the scene, Luckritz said. The storm caused a river gauge to raise from 3 to 13 feet in 30 minutes,AccuWeatherreported. It also blew out windows at the state Capitol building, the outlet reported. "Within about 20 minutes, some areas of Austin saw a blanket of hail carpet the ground, flood waters quickly pour into low water crossings, whole trees ripped from the ground and expansive damage to homes, property and electric equipment," Austin Energy said in a post to social media. Within about 20 minutes, some areas of Austin saw a blanket of hail carpet the ground, flood waters quickly pour into low water crossings, whole trees ripped from the ground and expansive damage to homes, property and electric equipment.pic.twitter.com/D50BQQMGa3 — Austin Energy (@austinenergy)May 29, 2025 This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Deadly storms that flooded Texas shift focus to South, Mid-Atlantic

LONDON (AP) — Former Sinn Fein leaderGerry Adamswon his libel suit against the BBC on Friday over a claim that he authorized the killing of an informant inside the Irish republican movement. A jury at the High Court in Dublin ruled in Adams' favor and awarded him 100,000 euros ($113,000) in damages. Jurors deliberated for just under seven hours after the monthlong trial before reaching a verdict, rejecting the BBC's argument that it had acted in good faith and in a "fair and reasonable" way. Adams sued Britain's public broadcaster over a claim in a decade-old documentary and online article that he sanctioned the killing of Denis Donaldson, a long-serving Sinn Fein official who acknowledged in 2005 that he had worked for British intelligence. He was shot dead at his cottage in rural Ireland four months later. In the BBC program broadcast in September 2016, an anonymous source claimed the shooting was sanctioned by the political and military leadership of the IRA and that Adams gave "the final say." Adams denies involvement and called the allegation a "grievous smear." Adams, 76, is one of the most influential figures of Northern Ireland's decades of conflict, and its peace process. He led Sinn Fein, the party linked to the Irish Republican Army, between 1983 and 2018. He has always denied being an IRA member, though former colleagues have said he was one of its leaders. Around 3,600 people were killed in"the Troubles,"Northern Ireland's three decades of violence involving Irish republican and British loyalist militants and U.K. soldiers. The IRA stopped fighting and disarmed after the 1998Good Friday peace accordlargely ended the violence, though small splinter groups opposed to the peace process continued to mount occasional attacks. A splinter group known as the Real IRA claimed responsibility in 2009 for killing Donaldson. An Irish police investigation remains ongoing. Adams' lawyer, Paul Tweed, said outside court that his client was "relieved and satisfied" that jurors had reached "the unequivocal conclusion that the subject allegation was highly defamatory." Lawyers for the BBC argued that the documentary didn't claim that Adams had sanctioned murder, merely putting that forward as an allegation alongside Adams' denial. They also argued the program didn't harm Adams' reputation, because he was widely considered to have been an IRA commander and so had little reputation to lose. Speaking after the ruling, Adams said "I've always been satisfied with my reputation. "Obviously, like yourself, we all have flaws in our character, but the jury made the decision and let's accept the outcome, and I think let's accept what the jury said," he said.

(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump's administration is investigating the Green Bay Area Public School District over a complaint of racial discrimination against a dyslexic student. The investigation will also look into whether or not the school district delayed the student's special education evaluation. The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights on behalf of the complainant Colbey Decker, a mom from Green Bay whose dyslexic son was denied reading resources because he is white, according to OCR'snoticeof investigation. "It is heartbreaking to think that, in America, a school would consider whether to provide services to a disabled student based not on that student's needs, but on the color of his skin," WILL education counsel Cory Brewer said in a statement. "This is not only unlawful, it is an affront to the character of the American people. We appreciate the Department of Education taking this important step today." The statement by WILL said the school district admitted practices of racial preferences through its "School Success Plan" in a message conveyed directly to Decker by a school principal during an in-person meeting. King Elementary'sSchool Success Plan, which has been since removed from the school's website, shows policies prioritizing access to support and resources to certain groups, including First Nations, Black and Hispanic students. According to WILL, Decker's son was diagnosed with dyslexia in 2022 and she has been seeking support from the school since he enrolled in January 2024. Throughout 2024, Decker "repeatedly" provided documentation and made formal requests for one-on-one reading interventions. Even in April 2024 when he was placed on a waitlist for reading intervention in a less intensive program, his needs required more support. After WILL sent a Dec. 9 letter to district Superintendent Vicki Bayer, the school requested a meeting with Decker and WILL attorneys. According to WILL's statement, in the meeting a school official asked her to identify specific students who were treated more favorably than her son based on race. WILL argues the questioning was unfair because she only had access to documentation for her son and information about his experience, but not district data. "This isn't the first time in our nation where we have seen liberal ideology prevent students from receiving the services they need," Rep. Joy Goeben, R-Hobart, the vice-chair of the Assembly Committee on Education, told The Center Square. "I am grateful for organizations such as WILL who stand up for students and their families in the face of injustice." Goeben stated she will continue to monitor the investigation as it moves through the judicial process.

SINGAPORE (AP) —French President Emmanuel Macronand U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are among the world leaders, diplomats and top defense officials in Singapore this weekend for a security forum that will focus on China's growing assertiveness, the global impact ofRussia's war on Ukraineand the flare-up of conflicts in Asia. Macron opens the conference with a keynote address Friday night that is expected to touch on all of those issues, as well as the pressure thehefty tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump's administrationis putting on Asian allies. It's Hegseth's first time to the Shangri-La Dialogue, hosted by the International Institute for Security Studies, which is taking place against the backdrop of heightened rhetoric between Beijing and Washington. The Trump administration has threatened China with triple-digittariffs, and there's some uncertainty in the region over how committed the U.S. is to the defense of Taiwan, which also faces possible32% American tariffs. China claims the self-governing democracy as its own, and Chinese President Xi Jinping has not ruled out taking it by force. China sends military aircraft, ships and spy balloons near Taiwan as part of a campaign of daily harassment, and currently has an aircraft carrier in the waters southeast of the island. Hegseth told reporters before he boarded his plane for Singapore that Washington's policies were meant to deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. "We seek no conflict with anybody, including the Communist Chinese," he said. "We will stay strong for our interests. And that's a big part of what this trip is all about." China, which usually sends its defense minister to the Shangri-La forum, sent a much lower level delegation instead, represented by Maj. Gen. Hu Gangfeng, the vice president of the People's Liberation Army National Defense University. The delegation was expected to speak Saturday on a panel on "cooperative maritime security" alongside representatives from Japan, Vietnam, Chile and the U.K. — notable in that China's aggressive global fisheries tactics have been a regular topic of concern not only in the Indo-Pacific but as far away as Latin America and the Arctic. Defense officials traveling with Hegseth, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, called the absence of a higher-level Chinese delegation an opportunity for the U.S. to make inroads. "We can't account for whether China engages or not. All we know is that we're here. And we will be here," Hegseth said as he met with Philippine Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro. Allies are worried about US commitment to their defense Hegseth's trip to Singapore is his second to the region since becoming defense secretary, following aMarch visit to the Philippines, which has seen escalating confrontations with China over competing territorial claims in the South China Sea. That trip, which also included a stop in Japan, brought a degree of relief over growing concerns from the Philippines and others in the region about U.S. support from a president who has taken more of a transactional approach to diplomacy and seems wary of foreign engagements. The U.S. has been pursuing a "free and open Indo-Pacific" policy, which includes regularly sailing warships through the Taiwan Strait and in the South China Sea, which isclaimed almost in its entirety by China. The European Union has adopted a more economics-driven approach, but several European nations have also regularly taken part in the freedom of navigation exercises, including France, which sent a carrier strike group on a five-month mission through the Indo-Pacific that concluded in April. France steps up its presence in Indo-Pacific In its publishedIndo-Pacific strategy, France has underscored the need to "preserve a rules-based international order" in the face of "China's increasing power and territorial claims" and its global competition with the United States. France's own ties to the Indo-Pacific are strong, with more than 1.6 million of its citizens living in the region in French overseas territories. Following a meeting Friday with Singapore's Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, Macron told reporters there was room in the region for more than just the two superpowers. "We are neither China nor the U.S., we don't want to depend on any of them," he said. "We want to cooperate with both as far as we can, and we can cooperate for growth and prosperity and stability for our people and the world order, and I think this is exactly the same view of a lot of countries and a lot of people of this region." Wong underscored Macron's point, saying that Singapore and the greater region were not looking for exclusive arrangements with any single power. "We want to embrace comprehensive engagement with all parties and embrace win-win arrangements rather than zero-sum competition," he said. In his speech later, Macron is expected also to stress that the war in Ukraine is having a worldwide impact and that Russia seeks to destabilize Asia, the French president's office said. While democracies from the region, including Australia, South Korea and Japan, have been aiding Ukraine, China has been growingly supportive of Russia and North Korea has sent troops to fight for Moscow. The conference comes ascivil war continues to ragein Myanmar, creating a massive humanitarian crisis that has only been compounded by the effects of adevastating earthquakethat hit in March. It also follows the outbreak of violence this week on the Thai-Cambodian border, in which a Cambodian soldier was killed in a brief exchange of fire between the two sides. Thailand and Cambodia have a long history of land disputes, though Thailand said after the short skirmish that the situation had been resolved. Of greater concern, nuclear-armed neighborsIndia and Pakistan came to the brink of warearlier this month in their most serious military confrontation in decades. The two armies exchanged gunfire, artillery strikes, missiles and drones that killed dozens of people, andPakistan shot down several Indian planesbefore a truce was declared. _____ Associated Press writer Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

NEW DELHI (AP) — New Zealand's deputy prime minister said on Friday that talks over afree trade agreementbetween his country and India were ongoing, but he didn't provide a timeline for when the two nations could eventually sign a deal. Winston Peters, who is on a two-day visit to India, said that the negotiations were "going with real meaning now," calling them "a breakthrough in our economic relationship." India and New Zealand began negotiations in March for a trade pact, and had aimed to sign a deal in 60 days. The deal will significantly bolster economic ties between the two countries, but it has faced delays because of differences over tariffs on dairy products. Bilateral trade between India and New Zealand stood at $1.7 billion in the 2023-24 financial year. Talks between India and New Zealand were taking place amid global trade tensions, after U.S.President Donald Trump's decision to impose now-paused reciprocal tariffs on imported goods from several countries, including India. Earlier this month, India and the United Kingdomclinched a trade deal. India is also engaged in trade talks with Washington. Peters, who met with India's Group of 20 emissary, Amitabh Kant, in New Delhi, said that India was New Zealand's 12th-largest partner in trade and "we are determined that we're going to work to change that." "Our strengths, from food and beverage products to agriculture, forestry, horticulture, education and tourism are world class. And our innovation in areas like outer space and renewable energy will find a welcoming partner in India," he said. Peters said that the relationship between the two countries extended to defense and security, calling it a "priority for New Zealand in the Indo-Pacific." "During a time of great uncertainty, instability and disorder, we have taken steps to work more closely on matters of defense and security with India," he said.