Hurricane Barrel made landfall in Texas.

That's where we're starting the Seven from the Washington Post. I'm Hannah Jewel.

It's Monday, July 8th. Let's get you caught up with today's 7 stories.

Barrel strengthened from a tropical storm to a category 1 hurricane as it approached Texas this morning.

The storm has already wrecked havoc along its more than 3,000 mile journey across the Caribbean.

Once a category 5 storm, it destroyed houses, downed power lines, and killed at least 11 people.

And now it's made landfall near Matagorda, Texas.

Officials urged thousands of residents to evacuate the Gulf Coast yesterday.

Texas declared a state of emergency in 121 counties and warned that travel would be difficult today.

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick warned yesterday about the risk to tourists in the region.

On the coast we have thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people who are spending

their summer vacation there, a holiday weekend on top of that.

And there is a concern that because they're not in their daily routine of watching the news

or checking their internet or checking their emails that they may not be aware of this storm.

You can follow live updates and track the storm's path on our home page.

Number two, France's far right party suffered an unexpected election defeat.

Last week, the National Rally took the lead in the first round of voting in France's legislative elections.

That's the far-right party led for years by Maureen Le Penh.

She's worked to draw the party from the fringes of French politics into the mainstream.

And it seemed like she had finally succeeded. The national rally was expected to win a big

majority in the second round of voting yesterday.

But that's not what happened.

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