Wildfire Smoke Blankets the East With Unhealthy Air

Millions of people in the U.S. and Canada awoke this morning in a world of haze. Smoke from an outbreak of intense wildfires in Canada has been billowing south, polluting the air from Minnesota to Massachusetts and causing dangerous breathing conditions, especially in and around New York State.

In New York City, where plumes of smoke cast an eerie orange blur over the streets, the air quality was the worst it had been in decades. Commuters donned Covid masks, schoolchildren were kept indoors at recess and doctors urged people to avoid going outside.

In Syracuse, the air quality index surpassed 400 (100 is considered unhealthy, and 300 is hazardous). In Binghamton, a city in central New York, a meteorologist said the city “looks like Mars” and “smells like cigars.”

In Canada, where hundreds of fires have been burning for weeks, air quality in the capital city of Ottawa reached the worst possible rating given by the government.

“I left a window open last night and the top of my laptop, the desk and the window sill all had ash on them” this morning, our colleague Ian Austen told us from Toronto. “I could’ve written my name in it.”

Forecasters expect the smoggy conditions to continue for the next few days. (These maps are tracking the smoke.)

Climate experts say that the fires are a reminder of how unprepared the world’s richest continent is for the hazards of the not-too-distant future. “The heating of the planet is turning landscapes into tinderboxes,” a recent U.N. report said.

Tips: Here’s what experts recommend to protect yourself, and your pets, from the smoke.

CNN’s chief executive is out

Chris Licht, the former television producer who oversaw a brief and chaotic run as the chairman of CNN, was fired.

Licht’s 13-month tenure at CNN was marked by one controversy after another: The new CNN+ streaming service was shuttered, resulting in scores of layoffs. Ratings plummeted and a series of programming miscues did little to shore up support among Licht’s employees. CNN’s financial performance also suffered during his tenure. His departure represents a dramatic fall after vowing to bring a middle-of-the-road balance to CNN’s journalism.

Rescue efforts continue in Ukraine after a dam disaster

Hundreds of exhausted people, some carrying only backpacks, escaped flooded villages as rescue efforts pressed on one day after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam. Floodwaters have inundated pipes that supply households, leaving hundreds without “normal access to drinking water,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said.

Environmentalists warned that the water is likely polluted with toxic chemicals, after 150 tons of machine oil from an engine room leaked when the dam was destroyed. There were still no confirmed reports of deaths, but the scale of the disaster, which drained a giant reservoir used for drinking water and irrigation, was only beginning to come into focus.

More top news

It’s never too late to travel with your best friend

When Eleanor Hamby, 81, and Dr. Sandra Hazelip, 82, met more than two decades ago, it was best friends at first sight. They never imagined that, one day, their friendship would be featured on “Saturday Night Live” and would stop people in their tracks in a Tokyo train station to exclaim, “Oh my God, you’re the TikTok traveling grannies!”

We spoke to them about their bond and their project, “Around the World in 80 Days: At 81 and Still on the Run,” named in homage to Jules Verne’s 19th-century adventure novel. Their travels have included the icy shores of Antarctica and the rocky majesty of the Grand Canyon, inspiring thousands on Instagram and TikTok along the way.

Can anybody stop Oklahoma?

This year’s University of Oklahoma softball team has proved to be one of the best squads in the history of the college sport. The Sooners, who won national titles in 2021 and 2022, had plenty to prove this year with a roster full of new players. But they outperformed even the highest expectations — winning a record 51 consecutive games.

Now just one team stands between them and a three-peat: Florida State, which will take on Oklahoma tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern in the first game of a best-of-three championship series.

Dinner table topics

The Don of Dough

Andrew Bellucci claimed his seat at the table of New York pizza royalty by making pies so fresh and crisp, yet still fluffy, that they drew fans from some of the city’s elite restaurateurs.

Bellucci — who lived a wild life, including serving a federal prison sentence for embezzling money — died last week at 59 while making his new signature dish: clam pizza. He was celebrated yesterday by his family members and pizza lovers at a wake in Queens. In one corner was a pair of pizza boxes featuring oversize pictures of Bellucci and a sign that read: “Rest in Pizza.”