Death toll from floods and mudslides in Sri Lanka rises to 132, with 176 people still missing

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The death toll from heavy floods and mudslides caused by Cyclone Ditwah in Sri Lanka rose to 132, with 176 people still missing, authorities said Saturday.

Nearly 78,000 people have been displaced and are in temporary shelters, the South Asian country's disaster management center said.

The death toll is expected to rise. Social media posts on Saturday showed several areas affected by overnight mudslides that authorities have yet to reach.

Sri Lanka has been battered by severe weather since last week. Conditions worsened Thursday, with heavy downpours that flooded homes, fields and roads and triggered landslides mainly in the tea-growing central hill country.

The government closed schools and offices and postponed examinations.

Most reservoirs and rivers have overflowed, blocking roads. Authorities stopped passenger trains and closed roads in many parts of the country after rocks, mud and trees fell on roads and railway tracks.

By Friday, water flowing downstream from severely affected areas began to inundate areas around the capital, Colombo, which experienced comparatively less rainfall.

Authorities say that Ditwah, which developed in the seas east of Sri Lanka, is likely to move toward India's southern coast by Sunday.

Neighboring India dispatched two search and rescue teams, comprising 80 rescuers, and sent aid to support ongoing operations, the country's embassy in Colombo said Saturday.

A volunteer searches for needy people in a flooded area in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Nov, 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

A man wades a flooded road in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Nov, 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

People stranded by floods wait in their submerged neighborhood in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Nov, 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

A man wades through a flooded road carrying a cat in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Nov, 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Volunteers help carry an old woman to a boat as they shift her to a safe place from a submerged neighborhood in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Nov, 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Flood victims wade through water in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Nov, 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

A man uses a makeshift raft to navigate a flooded street in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

A man uses a makeshift raft to navigate a flooded street in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

People use a crude raft to navigate a flooded street in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

People use a boat to navigate a flooded street in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is not immune from civil claims that he incited a mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol on Jan, 6, 2021, a federal judge has ruled in one of the last unresolved legal cases stemming from the riot.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled Tuesday that Trump's remarks at his “Stop the Steal” rally, held on the Ellipse near the White House shortly before the siege began, “plausibly” were inciting words that are not protected by the First Amendment right to free speech.

The Republican president is not shielded from liability for much of his Jan. 6 conduct, including that speech and many of his social media posts that day, according to the judge. But Mehta said Trump cannot be held liable for his official acts that day, including his Rose Garden remarks during the riot and his interactions with Justice Department officials.

“President Trump has not shown that the Speech reasonably can be understood as falling within the outer perimeter of his Presidential duties,” Mehta wrote. “The content of the Ellipse Speech confirms that it is not covered by official-acts immunity."

The decision is not the court's first ruling that Trump can be held liable for the violence at the Capitol and it is unlikely to be the last given the near-certainty of an appeal. But the 79-page ruling sets the stage for a possible civil trial in the same courthouse where Trump was charged with crimes for his Jan. 6 conduct, before his 2024 election ended the prosecution.

Mehta previously refused to dismiss the claims against Trump in a February 2022 ruling that Trump was not entitled to presidential immunity from the claims brought by Democratic members of Congress and law enforcement officers who guarded the Capitol on Jan. 6. In that decision, Mehta also concluded that Trump’s words during his rally speech plausibly amounted to incitement and were not protected by the First Amendment.

The case returned to Mehta after an appeals court ruling upheld his 2022 decision. He said Tuesday's ruling on immunity falls under a more "rigorous" legal standard at this later stage in the litigation.

Mehta, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, said his latest decision is not a “final pronouncement on immunity for any particular act.”

“President Trump remains free to reassert official-acts immunity as a defense at trial. But the burden will remain his and will be subject to a higher standard of proof,” the judge wrote.

Trump spoke to a crowd of his supporters at the rally before the mob’s attack disrupted the joint session of Congress for certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory over Trump. Trump closed out his speech by saying, “We fight. We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Trump’s lawyers argued that Trump's conduct on Jan. 6 meets the threshold for presidential immunity.

The plaintiffs contended that Trump cannot prove he was acting entirely in his official capacity rather than as an office-seeking private individual. They also said the Supreme Court has held that office-seeking conduct falls outside the scope of presidential immunity.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who at that time led the House Homeland Security Committee, sued Trump, Trump's personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani and members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers extremist groups over the Jan. 6 riot. Other Democratic members of Congress later joined the litigation, which was consolidated with the officers' claims.

The civil claims survived Trump’s sweeping act of clemency on the first day of his second term, when he pardoned, commuted prison sentences and ordered the dismissal of all 1,500-plus criminal cases stemming from the Capitol siege. More than 100 police officers were injured while defending the Capitol from rioters.

The plaintiffs' legal team includes attorneys from the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Damon Hewitt, the group's president and executive director, praised the ruling as a “monumental victory for the rule of law, affirming that no one, including the president of the United States, is above it.”

“The court rightly recognizes that President Trump’s actions leading to the January 6 insurrection fell outside the scope of presidential duties," Hewitt said in a statement. “This ruling is an important step toward accountability for the violent attack on the Capitol and our democracy.”

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One en route from West Palm Beach, Fla., to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, March 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)