First Thing: officials warn historic heatwave in North American west is just the beginning

Good morning.

As a historic heatwave, extreme drought and wildfires engulf much of the North American west, experts and officials have warned this is just the beginning of a lasting crisis caused by climate breakdown.

“This is the beginning of a permanent emergency,” Washington’s governor, Jay Inslee, told MSNBC. “We have to tackle the source of this problem, which is climate change.”

It comes as temperatures hit 118F (47.9C) on Monday in British Columbia, shattering existing records for the region. Seattle hit 108F and Portland 115F – both breaking Sunday’s new records.

• What’s going on? The heatwave is caused by a dome of high pressure that spans from California to Canada’s Arctic territories and worsened by the human-caused climate crisis, writes Gabrielle Canon.

• The Pacific north-west has warmed by about 3F in the past half century, says Zeke Hausfather, a scientist at the climate data non-profit Berkeley Earth. “This is worse than the same event would have been 50 years ago.”

• Dozens have died in the Vancouver area during a heatwave in western Canada. Police said they responded to 25 sudden-death calls in 24 hours.

• How did a small town in Canada become one of the hottest places on Earth? The meterologist Eric Holthaus warns it could become the new normal if action isn’t taken now.

Search for survivors of Miami condominium collapse continues as death toll rises to 12

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Search and rescue teams look for survivors in the remains of Champlain Towers South on Tuesday. Photograph: Al Diaz/AP

The search for survivors of the Florida condominium collapse went into a sixth day yesterday with 149 people still unaccounted for.

Family and friends continued to wait for news as search and rescue crews examined the rubble of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Miami. Another victim was found on Tuesday, bringing the death toll to 12, but officials and rescuers urged people to remain hopeful.

• “We have them coping with the news that they might not have their loved ones come out alive and still hope against hope that they will,” said the Miami-Dade mayor, Daniella Levine Cava.

• Officials said on Tuesday several investigations would be conducted into the collapse of the oceanfront tower and that they would convene a grand jury to look carefully “at every possible angle”.

Several US cities have bann ed Fourth of July fireworks owing to wildfire fears

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Fireworks on sale in Stevensville, Maryland, before the Fourth of July holiday. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Several US cities have banned Fourth of July fireworks owing to fears they could cause “devastating” wildfires during the record-breaking heatwave.

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Portland, Bend and Tualatin in Oregon have reportedly prohibited fireworks, as have several areas in south-west Washington state. “If we don’t take this proactive step now, I fear the consequences could be devastating,” said the Portland fire chief, Sara Boone.

• Meanwhile, there are calls to cancel this year’s Canada Day on 1 July after nearly 1,000 unmarked graves, most of which belonged to Indigenous children, were found on the grounds of former residential schools. Leyland Cecco reports from Toronto.

In other news …

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Joshua Tree national park, California, during last month’s super flower blood moon. Photograph: Allen J Schaben/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

• A California couple has been fined $18,000 after uprooting 36 Joshua trees to make room for their home and then burying them. Authorities hope the penalty will deter others from removing the under-threat plants, which are being considered for protection.

• The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has sparked fears of a Covid outbreak after warning of a “huge crisis” in “anti-epidemic work” in the country. He has sacked several senior party officials over the incident, which he said threatened public safety.

• Homicides rose across the US in 2020 but other crimes fell. Lois Beckett and Abené Clayton factcheck the “crime wave” narrative being pushed by police.

• Dr Jill Biden appears on the cover of the August issue of Vogue in which she says her husband is proving “a calmer president” than Donald Trump. It comes after Melania Trump was snubbed by the magazine.

Stat of the day: at least 22 US states have introduced legislation seeking to limit the teaching of critical race theory (CRT) this year

So far, legislation has been enacted in six states: Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. Meanwhile, Florida, Georgia and Utah have passed state-wide resolutions against it. Combining grassroots anger, institutional backing and rightwing propaganda, the movement against the teaching of CRT has “gained tremendous ground at great speed”, writes Julia Carrie Wong.

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Don’t miss this: the reckoning facing big oil and gas

Climate Crimes, a new Guardian series, examines attempts to hold the fossil-fuel industry accountable for the damage it has created. On the first day, Chris McGreal reports on the reckoning faced by the US’s petroleum companies via an unprecedented wave of lawsuits, visualised with Alvin Chang here. And Mark Hertsgaard explains why the climate crisis is a crime that should be prosecuted.

… or this: meet the man who made a $1bn business out of celebrity shout-outs

With more than 40,000 celebrities enlisted, about 1.3m messages sent in the past year and a $1bn valuation, the celebrity shoutout service Cameo is booming. Coco Khan speaks to Steven Galanis, the founder of the Chicago-based company, about modern fandom and how he came up with his billion-dollar idea at his grandmother’s funeral.

Last Thing: flying cars to soar above global cities by 2030?

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An artist’s impression of the Hyundai urban air mobility test flights. Photograph: Hyundai/PA

With electric cars only just starting to gain momentum, the idea that flying vehicles are just around the corner may feel slightly far-fetched. But according to Michael Cole, the chief executive of the European operations of Hyundai, flying cars will be a reality in cities around the world by the end of this decade. He said the car firm had made “very significant investments” in urban air mobility that would be in use in a few years. He said the innovations would decongest cities and cut emissions, but, he conceded, it would be “some time before we can really get this off the ground”.

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