When deadly floods swept through Texas, the National Weather Service issued a series of warnings that should have automatically triggered alerts to be sent to cellphones as the Guadalupe River began to rise. Judson Jones, a meteorologist and reporter for The New York Times, explains how catastrophe ensued despite those warnings.

Just before the Dalai Lama turned 90, he announced that his successor would be selected through the traditional process of reincarnation. Mujib Mashal, The New York Times’s South Asia bureau chief, explains why this process could increase tensions with China.