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Communities face major destruction after large tornadoes tear through the South and Midwest, leaving at least 27 dead | CNN

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Communities face major destruction after large tornadoes tear through the South and Midwest, leaving at least 27 dead | CNN



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Devastated communities throughout the American South and Midwest are digging by way of particles Sunday after ferocious storms and tornadoes this weekend left a minimum of 27 folks useless and leveled neighborhoods, as elements of the Southern Plains brace for the potential for their very own spherical of extreme climate later within the afternoon.

The outbreak that walloped the nation Friday spawned greater than 50 twister experiences in a minimum of seven states, the place tornadoes crushed houses and companies, ripped roofs off buildings, splintered bushes and despatched autos flying.

Deaths have been confirmed throughout a large swath of states, with a number of victims reported in Arkansas, Indiana and Tennessee, the place the statewide dying toll rose to 10 Sunday after officers confirmed three extra deaths in Memphis: Two youngsters and one grownup had been discovered useless after police responded to calls about bushes that had fallen on houses, in accordance with a information launch from the Memphis Police Division.

Seven others died in McNairy County, Tennessee, the place the storm “crossed our county utterly from one aspect to the opposite,” Sheriff Man Buck instructed CNN Saturday night as authorities continued to go looking collapsed buildings. A minimum of 4 individuals are useless in Wynne, Arkansas – a group about 50 miles west of the state’s border with Tennessee – the place the storm peeled the turf off a highschool’s soccer area.

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There have been a minimum of 5 deaths in Indiana: Three folks had been reported useless close to Sullivan, in accordance with state police, whereas the Division of Pure Sources confirmed two useless at a campground in McCormick’s Creek State Park in Owen County.

Among the many different deaths had been 4 folks killed in Illinois, together with one one that died after the roof of the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere collapsed Friday whereas greater than 200 folks had been inside, injuring greater than two dozen others, in accordance with town’s hearth chief. Three extra folks had been reported useless in Crawford County, Illinois, within the collapse of a residential construction, in accordance with the Illinois Emergency Administration Company.

State and native officers additionally reported one particular person useless in every of the next locations: North Little Rock, Arkansas; Madison County, Alabama; and Pontotoc County, Mississippi. Lastly, the storm system left one other particular person useless in Delaware’s Sussex County after a construction collapsed, in accordance with the county’s emergency operations middle.

The newest spate of damaging climate throughout the South and Midwest comes only a week after a extreme tornado-spawning storm walloped the Southeast, killing a minimum of one other 26 folks and destroying a lot of Rolling Fork, Mississippi.

On Sunday, the menace will shift to the Southern Plains, the place practically 13 million folks in north Texas, together with the Dallas-Fort Price space, face an enhanced – or degree 3 of 5 – threat for extreme climate within the later afternoon or early night hours, in accordance with the Storm Prediction Middle.

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“A number of tornadoes are doable, a few which can be sturdy,” the middle stated in an replace Sunday, including there was a ten % or higher likelihood of tornadoes between EF-2 and EF-5 energy inside 25 miles across the Dallas-Fort Price metropolitan space.

Scattered extreme thunderstorms are anticipated throughout central to northeast Texas between 2 p.m. and 11 p.m. CT, the Storm Prediction Middle stated. Hail the scale of golf balls or bigger may additionally pose a menace.

The governors of Indiana, Iowa, Illinois and Arkansas all introduced emergency or catastrophe declarations of their states to assist unlock rapid help for impacted counties, and on Sunday, President Joe Biden issued a serious catastrophe declaration for Arkansas.

The federal declaration frees up federal sources, per the White Home, to help these impacted in Cross County, Lonoke County and Pulaski County, which encompasses town of Little Rock, the place heavy injury however no fatalities had been reported as of Saturday afternoon.

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The National Weather Service reported that an EF-3 twister had roared by way of Pulaski and Lonoke counties in Arkansas with estimated peak winds of 165 mph.

Efforts are actually targeted on restoration and rebuilding, Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. stated. Almost 2,600 constructions in Little Rock had been impacted and round 50 folks had been despatched to hospitals, in accordance with the mayor.

“It’s unbelievable anytime that you just see, actually, autos flying throughout the air, constructions being flattened,” the mayor stated. “Many individuals weren’t at their houses. In the event that they had been, it might have been a bloodbath,” Scott Jr. instructed CNN.

An aerial view of destroyed homes in the aftermath of a tornado in Little Rock, Arkansas, Saturday.

Along with leaving trails of destruction, storms have additionally knocked out energy to battered communities. Greater than 30,000 clients in Arkansas remained impacted by outages as of Sunday morning, in accordance with PowerOutage.US, with lots of of hundreds extra with out energy throughout the South and Northeast, together with 120,000 in Pennsylvania and 73,000 in Ohio.

The extreme climate left Wynne, Arkansas, “principally reduce in half by injury from east to west,” stated Mayor Jennifer Hobbs, who watched the tornado because it approached from a distance.

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“I don’t know easy methods to put it into phrases. It was devastating. It’s a lot totally different seeing it firsthand than it’s once you see it on TV hit different communities,” Hobbs stated.

Some homes in Wynne – residence to about 8,000 residents – had been utterly crushed into piles of wooden whereas others had their roofs ripped off, exposing the interiors of houses plagued by storm particles, drone footage offered to CNN exhibits.

“We’ve loads of households which are utterly devastated. Don’t have any residence in any respect, no belongings survived,” the mayor added.

Janice Pieterick and her husband, Donald Lepczyk, had been of their RV in Hohenwald, Tennessee, after they received the alert of an incoming twister and rushed to her daughter’s residence throughout the yard, CNN affiliate WTVF reported. The twister hit minutes later.

The household hurried into the lavatory the place they huddled collectively because the storm roared exterior.

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“We made her and the youngsters get into the bath as a result of that’s imagined to be the most secure place. And we simply all hunkered down as a result of all of the doorways blew out. Double doorways within the entrance, double doorways within the again, all of the glass within the home windows. All of it blew out directly,” Pieterick stated.

Pieterick stated the entire home shook. “You’ll be able to actually really feel it transferring. Lifting up. That’s after we thought we had been going, too,” she stated.

In close by McNairy County, Sheriff Buck stated the dying toll may have been a lot greater if residents had not heeded early warnings and sought out correct shelter.

“Had they not, wanting on the devastation that we had, our dying toll may have been within the lots of,” Buck stated. “The ability of mom nature is one thing to not be underestimated.”

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We're not built for this heat : Consider This from NPR

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We're not built for this heat : Consider This from NPR

New York City and other parts of the US are experiencing a punishing heat wave.

Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images


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Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images


New York City and other parts of the US are experiencing a punishing heat wave.

Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images

Tens of millions of people across the US are currently under a heat advisory. And the extreme heat isn’t just affecting people.

You may have seen videos online of the heat causing asphalt roads to buckle. It is impacting rail travel too. Amtrak has been running some trains more slowly, as have the public transit systems of Washington and Philadelphia.

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Mikhail Chester, an engineering professor at Arizona State University, talks through the intersection of extreme heat and transportation.

And NPR’s Julia Simon shares advice on how people can keep themselves cool.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

This episode was produced by Jeffrey Pierre, Mia Venkat, and Connor Donevan. It was edited by Tinbete Ermyas, Sadie Babits and Neela Banerjee. Additional reporting from Adam Bearne.

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Zohran Mamdani stuns Democratic establishment in New York mayor race

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Zohran Mamdani stuns Democratic establishment in New York mayor race

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Zohran Mamdani, the leftwing Democrat feared by Wall Street, is on course to win the party’s mayoral primary for New York City, sending shockwaves across US politics.

Mamdani, a democratic socialist who has called for higher taxes on the rich and assailed US support for Israel in Gaza, stunned Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York state, in the Democratic primary race on Tuesday.

His success will reverberate across Wall Street and among the billionaire donors, including hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who backed his rival. It will also intensify the debate among Democrats as they seek a convincing political strategy to take on Donald Trump.

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“Tonight, we made history,” Mamdani told hundreds of jubilant supporters in Queens on Tuesday night. “I will be your Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City.

“When we no longer believe in our democracy, it only becomes easier for people like Donald Trump to convince us of his worth, for billionaires to convince us that they must always lead,” he said.

New York leans towards Democrats, and Mamdani’s victory gives the 33-year-old a major advantage in the election later this year to replace Eric Adams as the city’s mayor — one of the most powerful positions in US domestic politics.

Cuomo conceded defeat late on Tuesday in a contest that is widely seen as a referendum on the future of the party.

“Tonight was not our night, tonight. It was Assemblyman Mamdani’s night,” Cuomo told supporters at a post-election party, adding that he had called Mamdani to congratulate him.

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Unofficial results on Tuesday night showed Mamdani with a seven-point lead over Cuomo, with more than 90 per cent of the vote counted.

The final result will depend on the tally in the city’s ranked-choice system, which allows people to pick up to five candidates in order of preference. The winner will be officially declared on July 1, at the earliest, after all other candidates’ votes have been reallocated.

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Following Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election, the Democrats have been riven between a progressive wing exemplified by New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and moderates such as Pennsylvania US Senator John Fetterman, who has praised Trump.

Mamdani ran his campaign on a pledge to make life more affordable for New Yorkers, whose cost of living has soared since the Covid-19 pandemic. If elected, he says he will raise taxes on the rich to fund free buses and childcare, as well as city-owned grocery stores.

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The progressive candidate tapped into a groundswell of support among younger voters — an electoral strategy that will be studied by Democrats nationally as they try to win back youthful voters who backed Trump in November.

“In the words of Nelson Mandela: it always seems impossible until it’s done,” Mamdani said on X following the result.

Ocasio-Cortez, who has tapped into a similar voter base, congratulated Mamdani on Tuesday night, saying in a social media post, “billionaires and lobbyists poured millions against you and our public finance system. And you won.”

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Cuomo, a fixture of New York state politics for more than four decades, was long seen as the frontrunner. But the centrist found himself fighting an increasingly serious challenge from the upstart Mamdani, who has a huge following on social media.

After resigning as governor four years ago amid accusations of sexual harassment, which he denies, Cuomo entered the mayoral race in March.

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Cuomo committed to restoring the Democratic party’s appeal among working class voters, promising to hire more police officers, improve safety on the subway and remove red tape to build more affordable housing.

His campaign was built on the thesis that the Democratic party had been “hijacked”, and that it “doesn’t fight for working people anymore”.

Cuomo’s campaign enjoyed a big fundraising advantage over rivals in the final weeks of the race, buoyed by large contributions, including from former mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Combined, outside fundraising groups spent more than $20mn. Mamdani’s campaign relied on small contributions, with more than 21,000 donors, roughly 75 per cent of whom gave less than $100.

Eric Adams, the incumbent mayor, will run in the November general election as an independent. His approval rating stands at just 20 per cent after he was indicted last year on charges of bribery and fraud in a case that was later dismissed.

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Early intel assessment says Iran's nuclear program was only set back 'a few months'

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Early intel assessment says Iran's nuclear program was only set back 'a few months'

A satellite image of Iran’s Fordo nuclear site shows clusters of new craters likely caused by U.S. bunker buster bombs dropped over the weekend following orders by President Trump.

Satellite image ©2025 Maxar Technologies


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A U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly has confirmed early intelligence assessments by the Defense Intelligence Agency saying that the massive U.S. air campaign against three Iran nuclear sites on Saturday night did not “obliterate” Iran’s nuclear enrichment program as President Trump claimed but instead set it back “a few months.”

CNN first published news of the DIA assessment.

The official told NPR that military officials provided an early assessment of the intel to select senators — including Virginia’s Mark Warner, the leading Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. 

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“I have a whole lot of questions for this administration,” Warner told All Things Considered. “What are the next steps? How do we make sure that there’s not Iran racing now to a dirty bomb? These are questions that we and frankly, the American people, deserve answers to.”

The full Senate was slated to get a classified briefing from the administration Tuesday afternoon, but it was cancelled and moved later in the week.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed the CNN report, saying on social media that it was “flat-out wrong,” and maintaining that a key nuclear facility had been destroyed. She said the leak was a “clear attempt to demean President Trump.”

The White House did not immediately respond to NPR’s request for further comment.

The assessment comes less than a day after a ceasefire declared by Trump between Israel and Iran went into effect, with both sides agreeing to end the fighting. Israel has said repeatedly that its goal in the war had been to stop Iran’s nuclear program, and prevent it from the ability to make a nuclear weapon — a goal long-shared by the U.S.

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Speaking on Air Force One earlier Tuesday, Trump maintained that goal had been met.

“They’re not going to have enrichment and they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon,” he said, speaking about Iran. “And I’ll tell you, the last thing on their minds is nuclear weapons. They don’t even want to think about nuclear.”

But officials within Iran directly contradicted that.

In a statement on X in Farsi, Iran’s Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that Iran would “completely disregard” Israel’s demands to stop enriching uranium, a key component to a nuclear weapon. He said Iran will continue to proceed in their own self interests.

The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency Hamad Eslami also seemed to confirm that, telling a semi-official Iranian news agency that they were still assessing the damage from Saturday night’s attacks, but had prepared in advance. “Our plan is to not allow any interruption in the production and service process,” he said.

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The U.S. used massive bunker-buster bombs on Saturday to target three of Iran’s key nuclear facilities, including one called Fordo, built deep inside a mountain.

Speaking at the White House after those strikes, Trump called the strikes a “spectacular military success.”

“Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated,” he said.

But the U.S. official NPR spoke to said that the intelligence assessment concluded there had been “limited” damage to the critical infrastructure at the Fordo facility in particular.

Independent experts NPR talked to in the day after the U.S. strikes came to similar conclusions, after analyzing commercial satellite imagery, saying that Iran’s nuclear enterprise is far from destroyed.

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“At the end of the day there are some really important things that haven’t been hit,” says Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, who tracks Iran’s nuclear facilities. “If this ends here, it’s a really incomplete strike.”

Experts have long warned that Iran’s nuclear ability doesn’t just lie in its facilities, but also in its deep knowledge – something much more difficult to attack.

“The simple fact is that Israel was never going to be able to eliminate Iran’s capacity to build nuclear weapons entirely if Iranians choose to do so,” says Kenneth Pollack, Vice President for policy at the Middle East Institute. “The knowledge is just too widespread within the Iranian system.”

NPR’s Tom Bowman contributed to this report from Washington, D.C. 

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