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Al Jazeera
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Trump threatens to revoke citizenship of US comedian Rosie O'Donnell
United States President Donald Trump has said he might revoke talk-show host Rosie O'Donnell's US citizenship after she criticised his administration's handling of weather forecasting agencies in the wake of the deadly Texas floods. Trump's threats are the latest salvo in a years-long feud the two have waged over social media. '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,' the US president wrote on his Truth Social platform. Trump has long called for the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, but in recent weeks, he has suggested that he would remove US citizens that he disagrees with from the country. 'She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!' Trump wrote. Under the law, a president cannot revoke the citizenship of an American born in the US. O'Donnell was born in New York state. Trump's latest jab at O'Donnell seemed to be in response to a TikTok video she posted this month, mourning the 119 deaths in the July 4 floods in Texas and blaming Trump's widespread cuts to environmental and science agencies involved in forecasting major natural disasters. 'What a horror story in Texas,' O'Donnell said in the video. 'And you know, when the president guts all the early warning systems and the weathering forecast abilities of the government, these are the results that we're gonna start to see on a daily basis.' The Trump administration, as well as local and state officials, have faced mounting questions about whether more could have been done to protect and warn residents in advance of the Texas flooding, which killed at least 120 people earlier this month. Trump, on Friday, visited Texas and defended the government's response to the disaster, saying his agencies 'did an incredible job under the circumstances.' O'Donnell responded to Trump's threat in two posts on her Instagram account, saying: 'the president of the usa has always hated the fact that i see him for who he is – a criminal con man sexual abusing liar out to harm our nation to serve himself.' She added that he opposes her because she 'stands in direct opposition with all he represents'. O'Donnell has been a longtime target of Trump's insults and jabs. In 2014, when she opened up about her weight loss journey, Trump said on X that 'she felt 'shame' at being fat-not politically correct! She killed Star Jones for weight loss surgery, just had it!' During Trump's first presidency, O'Donnell told W magazine that she feared whether she would be able to 'live through' his presidency. Following Trump's inauguration for his second presidential term in January this year, she moved to Ireland earlier this year with her 12-year-old son. In a March TikTok video, she said that she would return to the US 'when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America'. Earlier this month, Trump said he may look at options to deport his former aide-turned-critic, Elon Musk, a naturalised US citizen. And last month, the White House said allegations that Democratic nominee for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has supported 'terrorism' in the past 'should be investigated', with the intent of revoking his citizenship.
BBC News
07-07-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
Did US government cuts contribute to the Texas tragedy?
In the aftermath of the fatal Texas floods, some Democrats have warned about the "consequences" of the Trump administration's cuts to the federal government workforce, including meteorologists, with Senator Chris Murphy saying that: "Accurate weather forecasting helps avoid fatal disasters."The suggestion is that the cuts may have impeded the ability of the National Weather Service (NWS) - the government agency which provides weather forecasts in the US - to adequately predict the floods and raise the the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has said: "These offices [of the NWS] were well staffed… so any claims to the contrary are completely false."BBC Verify has examined the impact of cuts under Trump in this area and while there has been a reduction in the workforce at the NWS, experts who we spoke to said the staffing on hand for the Texas floods appears to have been adequate. What are the cuts? The Trump administration has proposed a 25% cut to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) current annual budget of $6.1bn (£4.4bn). NOAA is the agency which oversees the would take effect in the 2026 financial year which begins in October this year - so these particular cuts would not have contributed to the Texas the staffing levels of the NWS have already been separately reduced by the Trump administration's efficiency drive since Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), previously run by Elon Musk, offered voluntary redundancies, known as buyouts, as well as early retirements to federal government workers. It also ended the contracts of most of those who were on a result, about 200 people at the NWS took voluntary redundancy and 300 opted for early retirement, according to Tom Fahy, the director of the NWS union. A further 100 people were ultimately fired from the service, he total, the NWS lost 600 of its 4,200 staff, says Mr Fahy, causing several offices across the country to operate without the necessary April 2025, the Associated Press news agency said it had seen data compiled by NWS employees showing half of its offices had a vacancy rate of 20% - double the rate a decade this, climate experts told BBC Verify that the NWS forecasts and flood warnings last week in Texas were as adequate as could be expected."The forecasts and warnings all played out in a normal manner. The challenge with this event was that it is very difficult to forecast this type of extreme, localised rainfall," says Avantika Gori, an assistant professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Rice University in Andy Hazelton, a climate scientist who modelled hurricane paths for the NOAA until he was fired during the layoffs in February, says: "I don't think the staffing issues contributed directly to this event. They got the watches and the warnings out." What about the impact on offices in Texas? However, some experts have suggested that staffing cuts may have impeded the ability of local NWS offices in Texas to effectively co-ordinate with local emergency services."There is a real question as to whether the communication of weather information occurred in a way that was sub-optimal," says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at University of California Los Angeles."The impact might have been partially averted if some of the people at the weather service responsible for making those communications were still employed - which they were not in some of these local offices," he adds. The San Angelo and San Antonio offices, which cover the areas affected by the flooding, reportedly had some existing example, the San Antonio office's website lists several positions as being vacant, including two meteorologists. The NSW union director told BBC Verify that the San Angelo office was missing a senior hydrologist, a scientist who specialises in flooding San Antonio office also lacked a "warning coordinating meteorologist", who coordinates communications between local forecasting offices and emergency management services in communities, Mr Fahy he noted that both offices had temporarily upped their staffing in anticipation of a dangerous weather event, which is typical in these circumstances."The NWS weather forecast offices in Austin/San Antonio and San Angelo, Texas had additional forecasters on duty during the catastrophic flooding event," NWS spokeswoman Erica Grow Cei said in a statement to BBC Verify. "All forecasts and warnings were issued in a timely manner," she meteorologist Jason Runyen, who covers the San Antonio area, also said in a statement that where the office would typically have two forecasters on duty during clear weather, they had "up to five on staff".When asked on Sunday if government cuts had left key vacancies unfilled at the NWS, President Trump told reporters: "No, they didn't." What about weather balloons? In a video shared thousands of times on social media, US meteorologist John Morales said: "There has been a 20% reduction in weather balloon releases, launches... What we're starting to see is that the quality of the forecasts is becoming degraded."Some social media users have been pointing to Mr Morales' words as evidence that budget cuts have limited forecasters' ability to anticipate extreme weather events like the floods in Kerr County, balloons are an important tool used by meteorologists to collect weather data - from temperatures, to humidity, pressure, or wind speed - from the upper the US, NWS stations would typically launch them twice a a series of public statements released since February, the NWS confirmed that it either suspended or reduced weather balloon launches in at least 11 locations across the country, which it attributed to a lack of staffing at the local weather forecast there is no evidence to suggest that any of those changes directly affected weather balloon launches in the areas impacted by the floods in available data shows that, in the lead-up to the floods, weather balloon launches were carried out as planned at Del Rio, the launch station nearest to the flood epicentre, collecting data that informed weather forecasts which experts say were as adequate as they could be. What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
'Unusual' Pattern Noticed Ahead of Hurricane Season
A rare calm has settled over the Northern Hemisphere just weeks before the official start of hurricane season, and forecasters are watching closely. As of May 16, not a single tropical cyclone has formed anywhere north of the equator. Something that's only happened five other times since 1950. According to meteorologist Phil Klotzbach of Colorado State University, on average 3.5 storms would have already formed by this point in the year. The drought includes all tropical systems—hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones—in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. While the Atlantic and eastern Pacific are often quiet in early May, the lack of activity in the western Pacific is what makes this year stand out. That region typically kickstarts the tropical storm season, but unusual wind patterns near the Philippines have created anti-cyclonic flow, a condition that suppresses storm last time the season started this slowly was 2024. That year eventually produced 58 named storms, which is slightly below the long-term average of 62. Other years with this rare pattern (1973, 1983, 1984, and 1998) also ended with below-normal totals. So, is this a good sign? Not necessarily. In 1973, the first storm didn't form until June 2—still the record for the latest first storm in the Northern Hemisphere. And quiet beginnings don't always mean mild endings. 'It's too early to tell,' Klotzbach told USA Today. Meanwhile, the Southern Hemisphere has seen a busier-than-average season, with 31 named storms compared to the typical 25. That contrast underscores how variable global storm patterns can be. Forecasters say that while the Atlantic and Gulf regions remain quiet for now, the calm may not last. Some recent hurricane outlooks suggest the quiet won't last — and that conditions could turn dangerous soon.
