Deadly US southwest heatwave will expand to cover much of America as warnings issued
A deadly heatwave simmering in the US southwest since spring is expected to spread to several other states, with multiple heat warnings being issued.
The heatwave, which has led to extreme temperatures such as 45.5C (114F) which was recorded in Arizona’s capital Phoenix on Sunday, is forecast to expand into central and eastern parts of the country for the last week of July.
The US National Weather Service issued excessive heat warnings and advisories across 13 states including parts of California, Texas, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, as well as the southern tip of Florida.
Currently, temperatures are fluctuating between the high 30s and early 40s in the country’s southwestern regions.
At least four tourists in the southwest are believed to have died due to heat since the beginning of June, the National Park Service reported.
Some cities have braced themselves for the sweltering conditions including Phoenix where people from the city’s heat response programme prepared heat relief kits, manned hydration stations and distributed water bottles to the homeless.
A Salvation Army volunteer gives water to a man in Phoenix. Pic: AP
A woman sells water in Las Vegas during an excessive heat warning
In Arizona’s Maricopa County, there have been at least 12 heat-related deaths since the warm months began in April. Further deaths were under investigation to establish whether they were heat-related, according to a county report.
In California’s Death Valley, which is no stranger to very high temperatures, a 71-year-old man collapsed and died last Tuesday in 49.4C (121F) heat.
The tourist hotspot which marks the lowest point in the US, holds the record for the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth, at 56.7C (131.1F).
On Sunday, Salt Lake City in Utah recorded a temperature of 40C (104F), federal forecasters said.
Death Valley. Pic: AP
A concentrated sphere of heat, known as a “heat dome,” has powered the excessively high temperatures.
El Nino is another factor. This weather cycle brings warm water from the Pacific Ocean to the US western coast, and it could contribute to other extreme events like droughts and cyclones across the world.
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US hit by scorching temperatures
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The heat expansion is set to occur as the world recorded its hottest ever June since records began.
For the first time ever, Earth’s average air temperature was more than 1.5C hotter than before industrial times, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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