At least 24 dead, over 20 children missing from summer camp in 'catastrophic' Texas flood
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Saturday, July 5th, 2025. This is USA TODAY's The Excerpt. Today, the latest after severe rains killed dozens in Texas while others remain missing. Plus, let's talk about black holes, and I check in with our books reporter on some of the best comfort reads.
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Officials have recovered at least 24 bodies after devastating rains overwhelmed the Guadalupe River in Texas yesterday, causing it to rise as much as 26 feet in less than two hours in the dark predawn morning.
As of this morning, frantic parents were desperate for news about a group of some two dozen campers who remain missing from Camp Mystic, aa Christian Girls Camp at the River's Edge, the state's governor Greg Abbott said water search and rescue efforts are underway. By yesterday evening, the Texas National Guard had rescued hundreds of people, many of whom by helicopter. You can stay with usatoday.com for more on this developing story.
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President Donald Trump said Ukraine would need Patriot missiles for its defenses after speaking with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday, Trump had sounded off on frustrations over Russian President Vladimir Putin's failure to end the fighting, comments that came after he spoke with Putin.
President Donald Trump:
And I'm very disappointed. Well, I'm just saying I don't think he's looking to stop.
Taylor Wilson:
Hours after Trump's call with Putin, Russia slammed Ukraine's capitol with the largest drone attack of war. As for Ukraine, the country has been asking the US to sell it more patriot missiles and systems that it sees as key to defending its cities from intensifying Russian airstrikes. A previous decision by Washington to stop some shipments of weapons to Ukraine prompted warnings by Kyiv that the move would weaken its ability to defend against Russia's advances.
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What's at the center of a black hole I spoke with USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise for a closer look at how scientists are approaching that question and what's next for research? Hey again, Beth.
Elizabeth Weise:
Hey, how's it going?
Taylor Wilson:
Good, thanks for hopping on. So I just want to start here. I mean, can we establish a definition at the top for what a black hole is?
Elizabeth Weise:
When we were all growing up, we were taught that a black hole was when a big sun, a lot bigger than ours, at the end of its lifespan went supernova, expanded and then collapsed back down into itself into this really tiny space, which could be just a few miles across for a whole sun. And it was so dense that it created gravity that nothing could get out of. And so things that fell into it disappeared. Even light got sucked into it and disappeared. Now because we've got some new amazing telescopes out there, we are learning things about black holes in the universe that we never knew before.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, yeah, as you mentioned, our understanding of the universe has really been transformed in recent years by these new telescopes and sensors. Can you talk through that?
Elizabeth Weise:
So we've got, especially the James Webb Telescope, kind of NASA's fantastic telescope that is letting us see further away. When astronomers start looking, they're seeing all sorts of interesting things. They've found that there are these things called super massive black holes that are millions of times bigger than the black holes that we've known and that they think all galaxies have one of those at their center. And then the question was, well, how did that happen and how could that be? Because one of the astronomers I spoke to who's at Yale said, "How we think of black holes forming, that all takes time." And the idea was that maybe they would grow larger over time, but she says, "Then you get into a time crunch because the super massive black holes we're seeing are really old, which means how did they have time to get that big?"
And so then they had to come up with some different theories about, well, maybe these formed in a different way. And what they found out is they actually formed by totally skipping over the whole star portion of this scenario. So instead of waiting [inaudible 00:04:07] and have cosmic gases to accrete into a star and then have the star have time to go through its whole lifespan and explode and fall back in on itself, they think these super massive black holes were just the essential stuff of the universe, this stellar matter accreting all in its own without the gas and then creating these huge black holes. That was something that had been posited in 2017. And then in 2022 and 2023, the James Webb Telescope actually saw that in action.
Taylor Wilson:
Think it's really captured folks' imagination, this idea of what would happen if a human being, I don't know, hopped inside a black hole, made it there inside a spaceship. I don't know how we'd get there to begin with, but what would happen if a human somehow found themselves inside a black hole though?
Elizabeth Weise:
Yeah, it'd be pretty hard to get there. And I love this because this is actually a term that astronomers use, you'd be spaghettified, which I just love. So first off, yeah, I don't even know how you would possibly get that close to a black hole, but if you did, the thing about the gravity of a black hole is it is so intense. Right now, if I'm standing on the earth, my feet and my head feel the same amount of gravity. There's not a big differential there. I mean, if I go five miles up above the earth, I could be floating because there's less gravity there. But a black hole, the gravity is so intense that the difference between the gravity, say if you went in head first, the difference between the gravity at your head and the gravity of your feet that were kind of sticking out will be so intense that you would be stretched out. You would be, as the astronomers term it, spaghettified. You'd be stretched out into this long string of spaghetti. So yeah, the best thing really here is to avoid falling into a black hole.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, you talk about these long timelines. What's next for researchers? What are they really focused on kind of in the years to come?
Elizabeth Weise:
There's a lot that is still unanswered. One of the most interesting things that they still just recently found and they're still kind of trying to work out is what they call little red dots. And when the James Webb Telescope started looking around, it saw these small red objects all over the place and they kind of perplexed astronomers. They think what they are is small black holes from the very early portion of the universe that are pulling in small amounts of gas, and so they're lighting up, but they're not exactly sure. We have some amazing telescopes on the earth. Some of this stuff you can only see from space. Scientists are in the process of building an array that they will send up into space so they can look even further. Unfortunately, the United States and NASA were supposed to be a big part of that array, but the Trump administration has cut the funding. The Europeans are working on figuring out how that funding will be made up.
Taylor Wilson:
Right. Black holes really are fascinating. Elizabeth Weise is a national correspondent with USA TODAY. Thanks, Beth.
Elizabeth Weise:
Happy to be here as always.
♦
Taylor Wilson:
One half of the FIFA Club World Cup semi-finals is set. English side Chelsea took down Brazilian Club Palmeiras last night in Philadelphia to reach the semis where they'll meet another Brazilian team, Fluminense. The other semi will be decided after games this afternoon in Atlanta and New Jersey respectively. You can follow along with the tournament over at USA TODAY Sports.
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Need a book that feels like a hug this summer? Our own books reporter Claire Molleroy recently compiled a list of comfort reads. I rang her up to discuss. Always a treat having you hop on. Claire, how are you today?
Clare Mulroy:
I'm good. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to talk about this.
Taylor Wilson:
Always a pleasure. So I just want to start here before we get to some of these books, interesting idea for a story and a list. For you, what is a comfort book? How do you define that?
Clare Mulroy:
I think to everyone, it means something a little bit different. For seasoned horror readers, it could be something that scares the living daylights out of any other reader, but might bring them the most comfort because it's a genre that they love the most. For me, I feel like it's a lot of nostalgia reads or comfort authors that I have. I grew up reading a lot of Jody Pico. I've read a lot of Taylor Jenkins Reid in the past couple of years. Kristin Hannah is an author I love, and for me, when I'm craving a comfort read, I'll often go to a book by those authors, even if I've never read that book before, but they just feel comforting for me to read.
Taylor Wilson:
Let's get to this list then, Claire. Let's start with Anxious People by Fredrik Bachmann. For folks who don't know, who is this author? You write that you'd nominate any Bachmann book to this list. Why is that and why this one?
Clare Mulroy:
Oh, I seriously would. I mean, there's just something about him. He's a Swedish author and I think a lot of people might know him from A Man Called Ove, which was adapted into a movie with Tom Hanks, A Man Called Otto. He's written a bunch of books. He has a new one, My Friends, that came out this May, and it's just something about his work that leaves you feeling so much better about humanity and your place in the world. It feels like a big hug to read his books. And even though he often writes about really hard parts of life, like mental health, anxiety, depression, suicide, you kind of come away from it just feeling hopeful at the end of the book. So I think Anxious People is a great one to start with, but I would recommend any of his books, especially My Friends, the new one that just came out in May.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, Claire, you notably have multiple books about animals on here. This stood out to me and not surprising when we're talking about comfort. What were the creature-centered books you wanted to amplify here?
Clare Mulroy:
Healing fiction is a big subgenre that's popping up right now. In a lot of healing fiction, which is these cozy, comforting reads that are often translated from Korean or Japanese, We'll Prescribe You a Cat is one that I have on this list, the majority of these covers actually feature a cat on them. And we've done stories on cozy mysteries and cozy fantasies, those type of genres that feature these little furry sidekick characters and they're just total hallmarks of that category of reading. And I think Remarkably Bright Creatures is another one. It's an octopus, so not necessarily a fuzzy creature, but a lovable one nonetheless. There's a dog that's central to My Grandmother Asked me to Tell You She's Sorry by Frederick Bachmann. Animals are what we turn to in tumultuous times, and I think the same goes for any kind of comfort read.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, how about Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting? What can you tell listeners on this one?
Clare Mulroy:
Oh yeah. My book club read this last year and we really loved it. I mean, I'm such a sucker for a found family trope and this book sees an unlikely community formed on a commuter rail. I live in New York City, so I'm well-versed in the kind of unspoken rule of not talking to strangers on the train, but I think that there's just something so powerful and hopeful about a book of unlikely friendships built out of mundane daily activities, and it really made me feel a little bit better about the world and a little bit more hopeful about the communities that I found along my way and in those kind of mundane moments of life.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, I got really excited when I saw this next one as a big fan of Miyazaki movies, Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynn-Jones. And this is the source material for that famous Miyazaki movie, correct?
Clare Mulroy:
It's loosely based on the 1986 novel. I think Miyazaki movies are just the ultimate comfort movies, so I figured what better opportunity to put one on this list and kind of remind folks, put it on their radar that it is a book too, so you could get it in book form. In general though, I think anyone who loves Studio Ghibli movies should check out the cozy fantasy genre. We have a story up on our site with the best books to start out with if you're new to the genre, and I think it's just the perfect comfort read.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Any other honorable mentions? Anything else either from this list or anything that didn't make the list that you want to get in here?
Clare Mulroy:
Oh, I had so many good ones I had to leave on the cutting room floor. I mentioned cozy fantasy, but I do also really love a cozy mystery. I'd recommend Thursday Murder Club to anyone, anything with senior citizens solving murders is a comfort read to me. I'm also going to plug one of my favorite comfort reads, which is a non-fiction title. It's Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton, and I think especially for any listeners or readers that are in their 20s or kind of finding themselves and figuring out their relationship with early adulthood, with friendships, with their career, it's a book that makes you feel really held as a young person and kind of guides you into adulthood and tells you that it's all going to be okay. That's one I go back to often.
Taylor Wilson:
Folks can find this full list with a link in today's show notes. Clare Mulroy covers books for USA TODAY. Thank you, Claire.
Clare Mulroy:
Thanks for having me.
♦
Taylor Wilson:
And coming up tomorrow, computer implants in the brain are no longer the stuff of science fiction. It's nascent technology that's having life-changing impacts on patients right now.
Dr. Iahn Cajigas:
We're learning with these tools today about how the brain represents information related to movement to either help patients restore their ability to speak or move their hands to give them some independence, autonomy, or communication.
Taylor Wilson:
That was Dr. Iahn Cajigas, a neurosurgeon with the University of Pennsylvania, who is part of a team of researchers currently studying how the technology can be most effectively deployed to help patients live better lives. Dr. Cajigas sat down with my colleague Dana Taylor to share his optimism for the evolving technology. You can hear that conversation right here tomorrow beginning at 5 AM Eastern Time.
♦
And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and as always, you can email us at podcasts@usatoday.com. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back Monday with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.
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