Pakistan, July 5 -- A powerful heat wave has claimed at least 25 lives across the eastern United States as extreme temperatures and severe storms disrupted Independence Day celebrations during one of the country's busiest holiday weekends. Officials said nearly 156 million people remained under heat alerts as temperatures exceeded 38 degrees Celsius in several major cities, prompting widespread emergency responses and public safety warnings.

According to the National Weather Service, dangerous heat continued affecting large parts of the eastern two-thirds of the country, with Washington, DC, Norfolk, and Raleigh among the hardest-hit locations. Emergency officials warned that high humidity and unusually warm overnight temperatures increa...