Historic wildfires in Canada have resulted in appalling air quality in many US states and cities, with experts warning the worst is still to come.
About 100 million people in at least 20 states are under air quality alerts, from north-eastern Vermont to Wisconsin in the Midwest and North Carolina in the south.
Residents of cities including Chicago, New York and Philadelphia have been warned to stay inside due to the smoky and dangerous air.
“Air quality is expected to improve in the short term as a combination of thunderstorm activity and dispersion of smoke will ultimately result in improving air quality conditions for much of the country heading into the weekend,” the National Weather Service said.
Earlier this week, Chicago recorded the worst air quality in the world, with an air quality index of 175. Detroit came second at 171. Usually, the cities’ indexes are 52 and 51, respectively.
Officials warned perhaps as many as a third of Americans will experience poor air quality as a result of the blazes north of the border.
New York Mayor Eric Adams told residents to take precautions.
“If you have health conditions, including respiratory conditions such as asthma, reduce your time outdoors,” he wrote on Twitter.
With more fires predicted, American and Canadian officials had to choose whether to proceed with celebrations for both Canada Day last Saturday and US Independence Day on July 4.
Fire season began early in Canada this year and has wrought historic destruction: over 8 million hectares have been destroyed by fire so far.
In Montreal, fireworks planned for Canada Day were cancelled after a warning from health officials.
“We're in new territory here in Montreal, and we're learning how to manage the situation,” David Kaiser, deputy medical director for Montreal Public Health, told a press conference.
“In Montreal, the fireworks shows are associated with a peak of particle concentrations.”
A map updated daily by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre shows red patches reaching across Canada from Yukon in the north-west, across the heartland provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba and continuing into the more populated areas of Quebec and Ontario.
On Friday morning, it noted 499 fires were blazing, of which 230 were “out of control”, 95 were “being held” and 174 were “under control”.
“We’re experiencing the biggest fire season on record since robust data begun being collected,” agency spokeswoman Jennifer Kamau told The National.
She said the country was at National Preparedness Level Five – its highest – which meant firefighters in every jurisdiction had been put to use. The country has also asked for international help.
Canada smoke engulfs Chicago – video
“There are currently, 1,550 firefighters from the US, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Portugal, Chile, Costa Rica and France deployed across Canada,” she added.
Reports said about 20 people have been killed by the wildfires this year.
Amnesty International said the right to health of millions of people being forced to breathe “foul air” were being undermined, and that typically, Canada's indigenous communities were among those who suffered the most in such crises.
While fires start burning at the end May and beginning of June, they traditionally reach their peak in July and August.
Officials say the earliest fires in western and central Canada were sparked by lightning and quickly took hold because of bone-dry conditions.
Experts say fires are not only happening earlier than usual, they are also larger in size and more destructive. Such a scenario has long been predicted by scientists warning of the dangers of climate change.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was among those who pointed to this as a major factor.
South African firefighters warm hearts in Canada – video
“We’re seeing more and more of these fires because of climate change. These fires are affecting everyday routines, lives and livelihoods, and our air quality,” he wrote on Twitter.
“We’ll keep working – here at home and with partners around the world – to tackle climate change and address its impacts.”
Carly Phillips, a research scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said she had never seen anything like what was happening in Canada.
Much of what was burning was so-called boreal forest, consisting mostly of pines, spruces and larches that usually burn one every 100 years.
“The fire season is typically most intense in July and August. So the fact we're seeing 20 million acres burnt already in June, is certainly not characteristic of what’s in line with historical patterns,” she said.
Dr Phillips said it was not possible to “prove” the current fires were made as intense as they are because of the climate crisis, but all evidence points to that.
She said that earlier this year, the UCS published a peer-reviewed paper showing about 8 million hectares of land burnt across the US West since 1986 could be attributed to heat-trapping emissions traced to the world’s 88 largest fossil fuel producers and cement manufacturers.
“It’s hard to talk about climate change without talking about fossil fuels,” she explained.
“It’s an important part of this conversation, not just because those emissions can be traced to those companies, but also because many of those companies engaged in deliberate disinformation campaigns.”
The situation in Canada is not been helped by a struggle to recruit sufficient firefighters. Reuters said a survey of Canada’s 13 provinces and territories showed it employed 5,500 so-called wildland firefighters – about 2,500 short of what is needed.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
HERO%20CUP%20TEAMS
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MATCH INFO
Final: England v South Africa, Saturday, 1pm
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
FROM%20THE%20ASHES
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The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
A%20MAN%20FROM%20MOTIHARI
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EAuthor%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAbdullah%20Khan%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPublisher%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EPenguin%20Random%20House%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPages%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E304%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EAvailable%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENow%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
PULITZER PRIZE 2020 WINNERS
JOURNALISM
Public Service
Anchorage Daily News in collaboration with ProPublica
Breaking News Reporting
Staff of The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
Investigative Reporting
Brian M. Rosenthal of The New York Times
Explanatory Reporting
Staff of The Washington Post
Local Reporting
Staff of The Baltimore Sun
National Reporting
T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi of ProPublica
and
Dominic Gates, Steve Miletich, Mike Baker and Lewis Kamb of The Seattle Times
International Reporting
Staff of The New York Times
Feature Writing
Ben Taub of The New Yorker
Commentary
Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times
Criticism
Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times
Editorial Writing
Jeffery Gerritt of the Palestine (Tx.) Herald-Press
Editorial Cartooning
Barry Blitt, contributor, The New Yorker
Breaking News Photography
Photography Staff of Reuters
Feature Photography
Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin of the Associated Press
Audio Reporting
Staff of This American Life with Molly O’Toole of the Los Angeles Times and Emily Green, freelancer, Vice News for “The Out Crowd”
LETTERS AND DRAMA
Fiction
"The Nickel Boys" by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
Drama
"A Strange Loop" by Michael R. Jackson
History
"Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America" by W. Caleb McDaniel (Oxford University Press)
Biography
"Sontag: Her Life and Work" by Benjamin Moser (Ecco/HarperCollins)
Poetry
"The Tradition" by Jericho Brown (Copper Canyon Press)
General Nonfiction
"The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care" by Anne Boyer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
and
"The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America" by Greg Grandin (Metropolitan Books)
Music
"The Central Park Five" by Anthony Davis, premiered by Long Beach Opera on June 15, 2019
Special Citation
Ida B. Wells
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
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Our legal consultant
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Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Match info
Australia 580
Pakistan 240 and 335
Result: Australia win by an innings and five runs
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Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
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Tax authority targets shisha levy evasion
The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.
Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".
The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.
He said the latest phase will see imported and locally produced shisha tobacco tracked by the final quarter of this year.
"The FTA also maintains ongoing communication with concerned companies, to help them adapt their systems to meet our requirements and coordinate between all parties involved," he said.
As with cigarettes, shisha was hit with a 100 per cent tax in October 2017, though manufacturers and cafes absorbed some of the costs to prevent prices doubling.
The biog
Most memorable achievement: Leading my first city-wide charity campaign in Toronto holds a special place in my heart. It was for Amnesty International’s Stop Violence Against Women program and showed me the power of how communities can come together in the smallest ways to have such wide impact.
Favourite film: Childhood favourite would be Disney’s Jungle Book and classic favourite Gone With The Wind.
Favourite book: To Kill A Mockingbird for a timeless story on justice and courage and Harry Potters for my love of all things magical.
Favourite quote: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” — Winston Churchill
Favourite food: Dim sum
Favourite place to travel to: Anywhere with natural beauty, wildlife and awe-inspiring sunsets.
