50 people lost their lives in the Texas flood while 30 people remain missing
Updated 06 July 2025
AFP
VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo on Sunday sent condolences to the families of devastating floods in Texas which have left at least 50 people dead and nearly 30 more missing, many of them children.
“I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in a summer camp in the disaster caused by flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas. We pray for them,” said the US-born pontiff following Angelus prayers.
Rescuers searched through the night to try to locate 27 girls and teenagers missing from a riverside summer camp after flash floods caused by torrential rains on Friday, when the Guadalupe River rose eight meters (26 feet) in just 45 minutes.
Nearly 300 millimeters of rain per hour suddenly fell, a third of the average annual rainfall.
Mali, Burkina say restricting entry for US nationals in reciprocal move
Updated 2 sec ago
ABIDJAN: Mali and Burkina Faso have announced travel restrictions on American nationals in a tit-for-tat move after the US included both African countries on a no-entry list. In statements issued separately by both countries’ foreign ministries and seen Wednesday by AFP, they said they were imposing “equivalent measures” on US citizens, after President Donald Trump expanded a travel ban to nearly 40 countries this month, based solely on nationality. That list included Syrian citizens, as well as Palestinian Authority passport holders, and nationals of some of Africa’s poorest countries including also Niger, Sierra Leone and South Sudan. The White House said it was banning foreigners who “intend to threaten” Americans. Burkina Faso’s foreign ministry said in the statement that it was applying “equivalent visa measures” on Americans, while Mali said it was, “with immediate effect,” applying “the same conditions and requirements on American nationals that the American authorities have imposed on Malian citizens entering the United States.” It voiced its “regret” that the United States had made “such an important decision without the slightest prior consultation.” The two sub-Saharan countries, both run by military juntas, are members of a confederation that also includes Niger. Niger has not officially announced any counter-measures to the US travel ban, but the country’s news agency, citing a diplomatic source, said last week that such measures had been decided. In his December 17 announcement, Trump also imposed partial travel restrictions on citizens of other African countries including the most populous, Nigeria, as well as Ivory Coast and Senegal, which qualified for the football World Cup to be played next year in the United States as well as Canada and Mexico.
