By NADIA LATHAN, Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A review by Texas lawmakers into the catastrophic July 4 floods has no intention of second-guessing decisions by local officials or assigning blame over the tragedy that killed at least 136 people, a top Republican leading the effort said Wednesday.

“Our select committee will not armchair quarterback,” Republican Sen. Charles Perry said, and would instead seek to draw lessons on flood prevention and preparedness.

FILE – Members of a search and rescue team embrace as they visit a memorial wall for flood victims, Sunday, July 13, 2025, in Kerrville, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Local officials have faced scrutiny over why more warnings weren’t sent to residents in harm’s way along the Guadalupe River. State and county emergency response officials are scheduled to testify, but no officials from Kerr County, the area most hard-hit by the floods. Perry, the committee chair, said this would avoid pulling them away from their work.

In addition to those deadly floods in the Texas Hill Country, the other major issue on the agenda for this summer’s 30-day special session is a partisan redrawing of U.S. House maps, which aims to give Republicans more winnable seats in the 2026 elections.

The session is already off to a combative start. Democrats want to address flood relief and new flood warning systems before taking votes on new congressional maps sought by President Donald Trump. They have not ruled out a walkout in a bid to derail the redistricting, which they have slammed as a partisan power grab.

FILE – State troopers keep watch over the Rotunda at the Texas Capitol, July 21, 2025, in Austin. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, file)

The head of Texas emergency management department, Nim Kidd, confirmed Wednesday that the number of deaths was 136, up from 135, after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said a missing woman’s body had been found.

Two people remain missing, a man and a girl from Camp Mystic, according to Abbott. At one point, county officials said more than 170 people were unaccounted for, but ultimately found that most were safe.

Twenty-seven campers and counselors, most of them children, were killed at the all-girls Christian summer camp in Kerr County, which does not have a warning system along the river after several missed opportunities by state and local agencies to finance one.

Lawmakers have filed bills to improve early warning systems and emergency communications and to provide relief funding. Legislators are scheduled to visit Kerrville on July 31 to hear from residents.

Related Articles

Officials search for a bear that attacked a hiker on a popular trail in Anchorage, Alaska

Harvard under investigation over participation in visa program for foreign students and researchers

What to know about soda sweeteners as sugar returns to American Coke

8 children taken to hospitals after seizure-like symptoms at Harvard Square church concert

Venezuela’s returning migrants allege abuses in El Salvador’s ‘hell’ prison where US sent them

Democrats have left open the possibility of filibusters or walking out in the coming weeks to block the proposed congressional map redraw. On Monday, most of the party’s members in the House signed a letter to the speaker stating that they would not engage in any work before addressing flood relief.

But Democrats have few paths to resistance as the minority party in both chambers. Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton has threatened to arrest those who attempt to walk out, on top of the $500 daily fines lawmakers face for breaking a quorum.

Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

By KELVIN CHAN

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s antitrust watchdog has proposed labeling Google’s and Apple’s mobile ecosystems with “strategic market status,” which would mandate changes at the Big Tech companies to improve competition.

Related Articles

Americans are paying for Trump’s tariffs, not foreign companies

Splurge now, save later? 4 things to buy before prices rise

US home sales fade in June as prices soar to record levels

US stocks tick toward another record following a US-Japan trade deal

From tech podcasts to policy: Trump’s new AI plan leans heavily on Silicon Valley industry ideas

The Competition and Markets Authority’s announcement Wednesday follows separate investigations it opened at the start of the year into Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS, using newly acquired digital market regulations designed to protect consumers and businesses from unfair practices by Big Tech companies.

The watchdog said Apple and Google hold an “effective duopoly,” with 90-100% of mobile devices in Britain running on either mobile platform. Its investigation found a range of concerns affecting businesses and consumers such as unpredictable app reviews, inconsistent app store search rankings and commissions on in-app purchases of as much as 30%.

The CMA also unveiled separate “roadmaps” for each company outlining possible measures to improve competition, including “fair and transparent” app reviews and app store rankings to give British app developers “certainty.”

The watchdog also recommends letting app developers “steer” users to channels outside of app stores where users can make purchases, mirroring similar efforts by the European Union.

Google called the watchdog’s decision “disappointing and unwarranted,” and said Android has saved app developers money because they didn’t have to adapt to different operating models for each smartphone.

It’s “crucial that any new regulation is evidence-based, proportionate and does not become a roadblock to growth in the U.K.,” the company’s senior director of competition, Oliver Bethell, said.

Apple said it was worried the CMA’s moves could pose increase risks for users and jeopardize the U.K.’s “developer economy.”

“We’re concerned the rules the U.K. is now considering would undermine the privacy and security protections that our users have come to expect, hamper our ability to innovate, and force us to give away our technology for free to foreign competitors,” Apple said in a statement. “We will continue to engage with the regulator to make sure they fully understand these risks.”

The regulator is seeking feedback on its proposal and has until Oct. 22 to make a final decision.

By DEE-ANN DURBIN and JONEL ALECCIA

President Donald Trump teased the announcement last week, but the Coca-Cola Co. confirmed it Tuesday: a cane sugar-sweetened version of the beverage maker’s trademark soda will be released in the U.S. this fall.

Related Articles

8 children taken to hospitals after seizure-like symptoms at Harvard Square church concert

Venezuela’s returning migrants allege abuses in El Salvador’s ‘hell’ prison where US sent them

US home sales fade in June as prices soar to record levels

US stocks tick toward another record following a US-Japan trade deal

Bryan Kohberger and his victim’s families have a chance to speak at his sentencing

For decades, Coke and the makers of other soft drinks have generally used high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners in their products manufactured in the U.S. But American consumers are increasingly looking for food and drinks with fewer and more natural ingredients, and beverage companies are responding.

PepsiCo and Dr Pepper have sold versions of their flagship sodas sweetened with cane sugar since 2009. Coca-Cola has sold Mexican Coke — which uses cane sugar — in the U.S. since 2005, but it’s positioned a trendy alternative and sold in glass bottles. Coke with cane sugar will likely be more widely available.

Here are some frequently asked questions about the sweeteners in U.S. sodas:

What’s the difference between cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup?

Many consumers know that consuming too many sweets can negatively affect their health, but soda drinkers sometimes debate if either cane sugar or high fructose corn syrup is better (or worse) than the other.

The short answer is that it doesn’t make a difference, said Marion Nestle, one of the nation’s top nutrition experts and professor emeritus at New York University.

High fructose corn syrup is made of the simple sugars glucose and fructose in liquid form. Cane sugar, also known as sucrose, is made of glucose and fructose bonded, but quickly split, Nestle explained.

Both are still sugars, with about the same amount of calories.

Coca-Cola cans are displayed at a grocery store in Mount Prospect, Ill., Thursday, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Whether a can of Coca-Cola contains one or the other, it will still be a sugary drink with about the same amount of calories and the same potential to increase well-documented health problems from obesity and diabetes to tooth decay.

Why did soda companies switch from using sugar to high fructose corn syrup?

High fructose corn syrup costs less. According to price data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the wholesale price of HFCS-55, the type of corn syrup most commonly used in beverages, averaged 49.4 cents per pound last year. The average wholesale price of refined cane sugar was 60.1 cents per pound, while the average wholesale price of refined beet sugar was 51.7 cents per pound.

But high fructose corn syrup has advantages beyond price. According to a 2008 paper in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, high fructose corn syrup is more stable than sugar when added to acidic beverages, and it can be pumped directly from delivery trucks into storage and mixing tanks.

Why is high fructose corn syrup less expensive that sugar?

Tariffs are one reason. The U.S. has had barriers on sugar imports almost back to its founding; the first went into place in 1789, according to the Cato Institute, a think tank that advocates free markets.

Bottles of Coca-Cola are displayed at a grocery store in Mount Prospect, Ill., Thursday, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Since the passage of the Farm Bill in 1981, the U.S. has had a system in place that raises duties on sugar once a certain amount has been imported. The U.S. also has domestic production controls that limit supplies, keeping prices higher.

But high fructose corn syrup is also cheaper because of the federal government’s billions of dollars in subsidies for corn farmers. Loans, direct payments, insurance premium subsidies and surplus crop purchases all lower farmers’ costs – and the price of the corn they grow.

Are sugar replacements used in diet sodas safe?

While cutting back on added sugars has documented benefits, replacing them with artificial sweeteners is complicated, too.

Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, introduced in 2017, uses the artificial sweetener aspartame and the natural sweetener stevia in its recipe.

But research suggests that aspartame may be linked to cancer. In 2023, a committee for the World Health Organization determined that aspartame should be categorized “as possibly carcinogenic to humans.”

While that doesn’t mean that diet soda causes cancer, the scientific committee concluded that there may be a possible link between aspartame and liver cancer, and that the issue should be studied further.

The U.S. Food and Drug administration disagreed with the WHO panel, citing “significant shortcomings” in the research that backed the conclusion.

FDA officials noted that aspartame is one of the most studied food additives and said “FDA scientists do not have safety concerns” when it is used under approved conditions.

Stevia, a plant-based sweetener, appears to be “a safe choice,” according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group.

Durbin reported from Detroit. Aleccia reported from Los Angeles.