Across a wide swath of Texas, the inundated rivers that ravaged communities also tore through farms and ranches.

In the town of Bend, about two hours north of Austin, Boyd Clark waded into rising waters to help one of his stranded ostrich hens. Matthew Ketterman spent several agonizing hours trapped on top of his truck amid coursing rapids after driving out to check the fences on his exotic game ranch outside Burnet, about an hour south of Bend. And the overflowing San Gabriel River knocked Christmas trees sideways and staff had to get petting zoo animals into a temporary pen at Sweet Eats Adventure Farm in Georgetown, about 65 miles east of Ketterman's ranch.

Fighters with a Kurdish separatist militant group that has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey began laying down their weapons in a symbolic ceremony Friday in northern Iraq, the first concrete step toward a promised disarmament as part of a peace process.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, announced in May it would disband and renounce armed conflict, ending four decades of hostilities. The move came after PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress and formally disband and disarm.

Lionel Messi became the first player in Major League Soccer history with four consecutive multi-goal games, scoring twice to lead Inter Miami past the New England Revolution 2-1 on Wednesday night.

Miami (10-3-5) has won four straight and is unbeaten in its last five.

Each year from June to September, a series of heavy rains known as monsoons sweep through the Indian subcontinent, providing relief from heat, irrigating the country's farms and replenishing its rivers.

However, as global heat increases, the rain is becoming more erratic and intense, creating the conditions for deadly floods. Nearly 1,300 people died in India throughout 2024 due to heavy rain and floods. Hundreds of rain-related deaths have already occurred this year in the South Asian region, which includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Maldives and Nepal.

Dozens of rescuers searched the banks of a mountain river Wednesday looking for people missing after monsoon floods swept away Nepal's main bridge connecting to the country to China and caused at least nine deaths.

Police said dozens of rescuers were already at the area and more are expected to join the rescue efforts. Nine dead bodies have been recovered from the river. Security forces have rescued 55 people, including four Indians and a Chinese person so far, according to the Rasuwa District Administration Office.

The mountain village of Ruidoso returned to the grim rituals of rebuilding after deadly flash flooding, just one year after other natural disasters — a wildfire and intense flooding — reshaped the popular vacation getaway.

Broken tree limbs, twisted metal, crumpled cars and muddy debris remained as crews worked to clear roads and culverts in the wake of Tuesday's flash flood that killed three people — including two children — and significantly damaged as many as 50 homes, with one home carried away entirely.

An unusual pest is ravaging crops and irking farmers in northeastern Italy: the flamingo.

Flocks of these relatively recent immigrants have set their hungry sights on the flooded fields that produce rice for risotto in Ferrara province, between Venice and Ravenna. The long-legged birds aren't interested in the seedlings; rather, flamingos use their webbed feet to stir up the soil and snatch mollusks, algae or insects from the shallow water.

Israeli strikes pounded the Gaza Strip overnight, killing at least 34 Palestinians, including 10 people waiting for care outside a medical clinic, local hospitals and aid workers said Thursday. The Israeli military said one soldier was killed in Gaza.

The fighting in Gaza has shown no sign of slowing as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President Donald Trump in Washington this week to work on a U.S.-led ceasefire plan. Hopes for an agreement in the near term appeared to be fading as Netanyahu prepared to return to Israel.

The Trump administration has announced it's issuing sanctions against an independent investigator tasked with probing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, the latest effort by the United States to punish critics of Israel's 21-month war in Gaza.

The State Department's decision to impose sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, follows an unsuccessful U.S. pressure campaign to force the international body to remove her from her post. It also comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting Washington this week to meet with President Donald Trump and other officials about the war in Gaza and more.

Stocks are off to a sluggish start on Wall Street, while Delta Air Lines led a rally in airline stocks after releasing a solid outlook for the rest of 2025. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% in the first few minutes of trading Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 28 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.1%. The Nasdaq, which is heavily weighted with big technology companies, set an all-time high the day before. Cereal maker WK Kellogg soared after agreeing to be acquired by Nutella maker Ferrero Group. Copper prices rose.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below.