Midday Roundup: Deadliest weather event in Utah history kills 16

Deadly rains. Flash flooding that claimed the lives of 12 people in a rural Utah community swept through Zion National Park later in the day, killing four visitors. Another three hikers remain missing. The group of four men and three women were going through Keyhole Canyon when heavy rain started falling. Persistent flooding risk in the canyon is hampering search teams trying to locate the missing hikers. Officials say yesterday’s torrential storm was Utah’s deadliest weather event. Search teams in Hildale, Utah, best known as the home base for a reclusive polygamous sect, are still looking for one person missing after a wall of water and debris swept two cars filled with three women and 13 children off a gravel road. Three children were later rescued.

Misunderstanding? School officials in Irving, Texas, suspended a 14-year-old freshman after he brought a homemade clock to school in hopes of impressing his engineering teacher. But another teacher who saw the device thought it looked like a bomb and reported Ahmed Mohamed to administrators. Five police officers interrogated the student before taking him off campus in handcuffs. A photo of him being led away, wearing a NASA T-shirt, quickly went viral. His family blames the incident on Islamophobia. The Council on American-Islamic Relations is involved and plans to meet with school and police officials today. A police spokesman said Mohamed was much less forthcoming about the device when he was initially questioned. Many of the details only came out after his arrest, police say.

Blame the West. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad took to Russian state television yesterday to blame the West for the refugee crisis gripping Europe. Assad said if Western nations hadn’t supported the groups trying to topple his regime, Syria would not be so fractured by fighting. “Can you feel sad for a child’s death in the sea and not for thousands of children who have been killed by the terrorists in Syria?” he said, referring to photos of a Syrian boy who drowned as his family tried to get to Greece from Turkey. “And also for men, women, and the elderly? These European double standards are no longer acceptable.” While Assad is battling opposition groups, Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists are waging a separate battle to take over the country. Western nations have launched air strikes against ISIS but have not coordinated attacks with Assad’s troops. He accused the U.S.-led coalition of “willful blindness” to the Syrian Army’s efforts against the terror group.

Russia weighs in. Meanwhile, the Obama administration is reacting to Russia’s military buildup in Syria. On Tuesday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the move will further destabilize the region. “The president’s made quite clear that the decision of the Russians to double down on the leadership of Bashar al-Assad is a losing bet.” But Russian President Vladimir Putin seems more than willing to take that bet. Putin strongly defended the military aid he’s sending to prop up the embattled Assad regime, saying ISIS terrorists cannot be defeated without the government’s involvement. Russia is massing troops and tanks at an airport near Syria’s coast on the Mediterranean Sea. Analysts speculate the airport will become a staging area for Russian air strikes—not against ISIS but against Syrian rebels trying to topple the Assad regime.

Better service. A new report shows ride-booking service Uber serves low-income, minority neighborhoods three times more than traditional taxis. Critics say Uber hurts taxi unions, but data show the service provides a benefit to poor people. The Manhattan Institute compared New York City yellow cab pickups to Uber. Only 6 percent of taxi pickups occurred in low-income neighborhoods, while Uber’s pickup rate in those areas was 22 percent. The report also showed that in one year Uber increased service by 60 percent in poorer neighborhoods.

WORLD Radio’s Mary Reichard contributed to this report.