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Some of the worst air quality levels on record on the East Coast are impacting consumer shopping patterns and driving air purifier stocks higher. Smoke from Canadian wildfires is creating hazardous air quality.

Quebec, whose wildfires have darkened the New York skyline and spread an orange haze from Massachusetts to South

The White House has postponed a Pride event set to take place on the South Lawn because of the smoke from the wildfires in Canada enveloping the nation’s capital. The event that was scheduled for Thursday is now planned for Saturday. It’s set to be the largest Pride Month celebration in White House history as the Biden administration attempts to push back against the Republican Party’s measures to restrict the rights of the LGBT+ community on the state level. If the hope that the air quality in Washington, DC improves, the event will see thousands of attendees for a celebration of LGBT+ families featuring singer Betty Who and DJ Queen HD from Baltimore, according to Reuters. “Today’s Pride event on the White House South Lawn will be postponed until Saturday based on the projected air quality in the region,” the White House said. Ahead of the planned event on Thursday, the administration announced new measures to protect LGBT+ communities. “Over a dozen states have enacted anti-LGBTQI+ laws that violate our most basic values and freedoms as Americans, and are cruel and callous to our kids, our neighbors, and those in our community,” the White House said. The measures include the launch of an “LGBTQI+ Community Safety Partnership,” including that the Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division will be the liaison to the community. The administration is also working to strengthen “mental health resources for LGBTQI+ youth, launching a new federal initiative to address LGBTQI+ youth homelessness, releasing federal funding to support programs that help parents affirm their LGBTQI+ kids, and advancing new regulations to protect LGBTQI+ youth in foster care”. “The Department of Education will appoint a new coordinator to address the growing threat that book bans pose for the civil rights of students,” the administration said. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments tweeted on Thursday that “current air quality in the DC region is Code Purple, very unhealthy for all due to ongoing smoke from fires in Canada”. The council added that the region “has not previously recorded a Code Purple day for fine particle pollution, the type of air pollution we are currently experiencing,” and urged residents to reschedule outdoor activities or move them indoors. The smoke settled over the US capital after moving down from the more than 100 wildfires in eastern Canada, with a low-pressure area off the east coast moving the winds in the direction of DC, according to WUSA9. The Capital Weather Gang tweeted: “How long will the wildfire smoke last? Unfortunately, may hang around into this evening and be bad again on Friday morning in the DC area.” The office of DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said that the issue “is likely to continue or worsen through Friday”. The city’s Major League Baseball team, the Washington Nationals, cancelled their game on Thursday and the National Zoo closed its doors for the day. Some residents wore masks for their outdoor errands and families who may walk to school organized carpools to limit their time outside. At the Walmart on Georgia Avenue in DC, the shelves for air purifiers were almost empty on Wednesday evening, according to The Washington Post. Read More ‘It’s like being on Mars’: The smoke in the air in New York is so thick you can feel it in your lungs Air quality – live: New York pollution to remain hazardous as no end in sight for Canada wildfire smoke Biden invites thousands of LGBTQ+ individuals, singer Betty Who, to Pride Month celebration Brawl breaks out at LA school discussing Pride month celebrations David Furnish slams Ron DeSantis for ‘diabolical’ ant-LGBTQ+ policies The Independent Pride List: These are the top 50 LGBT+ change-makers of 2023

NEW YORK Donald Trump on Thursday asked for a new trial in the civil case brought by E.

Chris Christie is punching back at Donald Trump after the former president responded to his campaign announcement with a juvenile video edit making fun of Mr Christie’s weight. The former New Jersey governor appeared on CNN on Wednesday after launching his campaign with a town hall event at St Anselm College a night earlier. During his interview, he was questioned by The Lead host Jake Tapper about a video Mr Trump posted on Truth Social of Mr Christie delivering remarks edited to appear as if the candidate is holding a plate of food while he talks. Mr Christie responded that the move reinforced, for him, the childishness of his opponent. “It just renewed in my own mind what a child he is. He’s a baby. Whenever you want to criticise him, in any way, that’s the way he responds,” Mr Christie said. Likening that behaviour to that of a toddler, he added that Mr Trump should be “sent to [his] room, not to the White House”. “It’s so juvenile. He is such a spoiled baby,” Mr Christie continued. He then noted that he had been struggling with his weight and health for many years, quipping derisively that Mr Trump was “breaking news” with his response. Separately, Mr Trump accused the former governor of having a fixation on the word “small” during his town hall event in another Truth Social statement. “How many times did Chris Christie use the word SMALL? Does he have a psychological problem with SIZE? Actually, his speech was SMALL, and not very good. It rambled all over the place, and nobody had a clue of what he was talking about. Hard to watch, boring, but that’s what you get from a failed Governor (New Jersey) who left office with a 7% approval rating and then got run out of New Hampshire,” barked the former president. “This time, it won’t be any different!” It was, generally, a sign of the aggressive tone that both Mr Christie and Mr Trump plan to adopt in the GOP primary, which has heated up this week with the addition of three separate candidates in the field. Comparatively, their fellow candidates in the Republican primary have shied away from directly attacking the former president or responding to his own jabs at them. Not so for the New Jerseyan two-time presidential candidate, who laid into his opponent during his appearance in New Hampshire this week and accused the entire Trump family of the same “grift” and corruption which they accuse the Biden family of undertaking. He also tore into the former president’s record, characterising Mr Trump as an inefficient president who failed to address a number of problems — but namely immigration reform — during his four years in the White House. Read More Mike Pence isn’t even a contender for 2024. Why are we pretending? Fox News host apologises for ‘milkshake’ Chris Christie comment Pence accuses Trump of treating abortion issue as an ‘inconvenience’ Trump ridicules Chris Christie’s weight in edited 2024 campaign launch video The Republican presidential field is largely set. Here are takeaways on where the contest stands. Doug Burgum, little-known governor of North Dakota, announces White House run

By Marco Aquino LIMA (Reuters) -Peruvian police handed over a convicted Dutch murderer to FBI agents on Thursday for transfer

The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered Alabama officials to redraw the state's congressional map to allow an additional Black majority district to account for the fact that the state is 27% Black.

The sight of one the most famous skylines in the world shrouded in an orange hue has made headlines around the globe.

By Lananh Nguyen NEW YORK Bank of America Corp promoted the head of its Latin America business, Alex

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON Space can be an unfriendly place for the human body, with microgravity conditions and

It’s been more than two decades since a state governor was elected to the White House, but you wouldn’t know it looking at the 2024 presidential race. Six current or former governors have entered the 2024 GOP primary so far. But no statehouse rivalry is more pronounced in US politics than the one between Florida governor and 2024 Republican candidate Ron DeSantis, and his Democratic counterpart from California, governor Gavin Newsom. The two, both seen as serious presidential prospects, if not now then someday, have been trading barbs for years, and things have only heated up as a presidential election season approaches. Most recently, Mr Newsom lashed out at Mr DeSantis this, calling him a “small, pathetic man,” after Florida officials facilitated a large group of South American migrants being dropped off without warning at a Sacramento church, a repeat of the Florida governor’s highly controversial move to do the same in Martha’s Vineyard last year. The California governor said Florida officials could face kidnapping charges. It’s far from the first time the two men – each the leader of a large, economically important state, whose policies typify each party – have locked horns. Their battles have much to say about where each party is going, and the political fate of these two men could suggest which vision of politics and leadership the American people want more. In March, during a visit to California to speak at the Reagan Presidential Library, the Florida Republican blasted Mr Newsom for following the advice of public health experts at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, accusing him of “subcontract[ing] ... leadership to health bureaucrats,” and claimed that Californians were flocking to Florida. “When the world went mad, when common sense suddenly became an uncommon virtue, Florida stood as a refuge of sanity, a citadel of freedom for people throughout the United States and indeed, throughout the world. We refused to let our state descend into some type of Faucian dystopia, where people’s rights were curtailed, and their livelihoods were destroyed. We made sure people had a right to work and we got people back to work and businesses back open,” he said. The Florida governor also said the Californian’s leadership showed how Democrats “coddle the criminals and put the rights of the criminals over the safety of the public and the rights of victims.” Mr Newsom, for his part, has made a point of showing how on issues like Covid and gun crime, California is empirically a safer place to be. "Just look at the data – California residents are safer, healthier and more prosperous than those unfortunate enough to have you as their Governor," Mr Newsom told CBS News during the Florida governor’s visit. "Oh by the way, you’re going to get smoked by Trump." Mr Newsom has made his own high-profile incursions into his rival’s state, including donating thousands to Mr DeSantis’s rivals. In April, the California Democrat met with students of Florida’s New College, a public liberal arts college that has recently become a target in Mr DeSantis’s wide-ranging campaign to bend Florida’s education system in a hyper-conservative direction by limiting access to materials concerning gender and sexuality, as well as the history of racism. “I can’t believe what you’re dealing with. It’s just an unbelievable assault,” Mr Newsom said at an appearance at a library near campus. “It’s common with everything he’s doing, bullying and intimidating vulnerable communities. Weakness, Ron DeSantis, weakness masquerading as strength across the board.” Last summer, Mr Newsom had an even bigger provocation for Mr DeSantis, using extra campaign cash to release a 30-second ad in Florida urging residents of the Sunshine State to move to California. "Freedom, it’s under attack in your state,” the spot claimed. “Republican leaders, they’re banning books, making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors," the governor said in a voiceover narration accompanying images of Mr DeSantis and former president Donald Trump. Indeed, the two states couldn’t be more different across a variety of areas, with Florida all but banning abortion, while California ceased doing business with Walgreens because the company wouldn’t sell abortion pills. In addition to a debate over their state’s respective policies, it seems a deep dislike of the other man has fueled the back-and-forth, with the Florida governor painting Mr Newsom as an out-of-touch hypocrite, while the California leader accuses the Republican of being a spiteful bigot and a “bully.” “As he was locking down his citizens, he would then go and have these extravagant dinners at the French Laundry to basically rub his citizens’ noses in the fact that he was treating them like peasants. You know in Florida we weren’t locking them down, we lifted our people up. We made sure to protect individuals’ freedoms,” Mr DeSantis said in July. That same summer, Mr Newsom flatly told an interviewer, “I don’t like DeSantis, the way he talked about Fauci,” after the Florida governor joked about throwing “that little elf” Dr Anthony Fauci into the Potomac River. “My entire life, I don’t like bullies…That’s being celebrated in American politics. DeSantis is the worst of it.” Things escalated further in September, with Mr Newsom challenging the Florida governor to a televised debate, further cementing an idea at the time that the men were running a kind of unofficial presidential campaign against each other, even though at that time Mr DeSantis hadn’t yet declared, and even though Mr Newsom would eventually endorse Joe Biden and formally swear off a primary challenge. The rivalry has extended outside of the presidential contest to the world of business. In May, the Walt Disney Company announced it was pulling out of a planned $1bn development in Florida, keeping thousands of jobs in California, as the Magic Kingdom feuded with Mr DeSantis over the state’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” law and its decision to dissolve Disney’s special municipal district privileges in the state. But a political face-off between the two doesn’t seem too far away, and any contest would likely be even more intense than the shadow campaign the men have been running against each other for the previous two years. Mr Newsom has admitted a kind of grudging respect for Republicans like Mr DeSantis, who he feels have successfully convinced the country to go along with their vision on culture war issues. The California governor has argued Democrats have a serious “messaging problem.” “We allow these culture wars to take shape, and we are constantly on the back end,” Mr Newsom said. Former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has called a presidential run from Newsom, whose term ends in 2027, a “no-brainer.” With Mr DeSantis badly trailing Donald Trump in the polls, it seems a Newsom-DeSantis election may not be happening just yet, but may not be too far away in the future. Read More DeSantis news – latest: Texas sheriff backs Newsom and also recommends criminal charges over migrant flights Gavin Newsom suggests kidnap charges over Ron DeSantis’s migrant flights Ron DeSantis called out for ‘ignoring’ Hollywood beach shooting: ‘He doesn’t care’

The Department of Justice is preparing to ask a Washington DC grand jury to indict Donald Trump for violating the Espionage Act and for obstruction of justice over the discovery of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, the latest setback to hit his 2024 presidential campaign. The Independent has learned that prosecutors are ready to ask grand jurors to approve an indictment as soon as Thursday accusing the former president of violating a portion of the US criminal code known as Section 793, which prohibits “gathering, transmitting or losing” any “information respecting the national defence”. Mr Trump reacted angrily to the news on Wednesday, insisting: “No one has told me I’m being indicted, and I shouldn’t be because I’ve done NOTHING wrong.” The dramatic development comes as Mark Meadows, Mr Trump’s former White House chief of staff, has reportedly agreed to plead guilty to several federal charges. Meanwhile, the Republican front-runner is facing further competition in his quest to return to the White House in 2024 as his estanged vice president Mike Pence and ex-New Jersey governor Chris Christie join an increasingly crowded field. Read More Prosecutors ready to ask for Trump indictment on obstruction and Espionage Act charges Trump reacts with fury at news of possible indictment in classified documents case: ‘I’ve done NOTHING wrong’ Trump has been indicted: Here are the other major lawsuits and investigations he is also facing Furious Trump rant about Mark Meadows is widely shared – but it’s a convincing fake