Air quality continued to be poor in the Northeast on Friday, but conditions improved across much of the Midwest as rain and winds from the west and south began to disperse smoke from wildfires from Canada that swept across much of the country this week had hung.

Rain and southerly winds are expected to continue through most of the eastern United States at least through July 4, clearing the way for fireworks, barbecues and other outdoor activities over the holiday weekend, said David Roth, forecaster at the Federal Weather Prediction Center.

An exception to the general clearing trend could be Minnesota, where the lack of rainfall means “the smoke will be more persistent there,” Mr. Roth said.

According to AirNow.gov, an air quality data source operated by the Environmental Protection Agency, air quality in Chicago, Pittsburgh and Columbus, Ohio, was rated as “very unhealthy” or “hazardous” at various times this week. According to AirNow, skies in all three cities began to clear on Friday afternoon and air pollution was only moderate.

Conditions are expected to continue to improve across much of the Midwest Friday night through Saturday as storms gather, Mr Roth said.

“This rain will wash everything out of the air,” he said.

Unhealthy levels of ozone and particulate matter in the air were reported Friday in the northeast from Wilmington, Delaware to Albany, NY, AirNow said. The air is likely to clear as the southerly wind drives the remaining wildfire smoke back toward Canada, Mr Roth said.

The resulting weather pattern is likely to keep skies clear of smoke over most of the northeast through early Wednesday, he added. However, he warned that the location and size of new wildfires could not be accurately predicted, meaning smoke forecasts were good for 24 hours at most.

The gradually improving conditions came after a week in which millions of people in the Great Lakes region, parts of the Midwest, Northeast and mid-Atlantic struggled with smoke obscuring the skyline and making it difficult for some to breathe.

Lino Alayo, 42, a landscaper on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, began Friday morning checking the air quality on his phone, followed by three pumps of his asthma inhaler. Aware of the potential health risks, he said he forces himself to work slower these days. “I just have to learn to adapt if this is to be the new normal,” Mr Alayo said. “It raises a lot of fears.”

John Valentin, 53, a construction manager who lives and works on the Upper West Side, said he gargled with Listerine to relieve irritation in his throat. He said he spent Friday removing a thin layer of soot from his building’s window sills and locking stairwell windows after elderly tenants complained about air quality.

Other New Yorkers were less concerned about the conditions. Consuela Agudelo, 77, was waiting for a bus in Queens on Friday morning and like most people on the street was not wearing a mask, although she had some in her purse.

“I don’t apply it because I can’t feel anything,” said Ms. Agudelo. “Plus it’s so hot with a mask on. As I left my house, I could smell the smoke.

“But it’s not as bad as it was the first time,” she added, referring to the days earlier this month when smoke from wildfires turned the air in New York orange.

In Michigan, the State Department of the Environment expanded a nationwide air quality warning for Saturday. In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the statewide warning would end Friday, but regional warnings would remain in place Saturday for the Adirondacks, the Hudson Valley, New York City and Long Island, and air quality remained dangerous enough to vulnerable areas affecting groups. In Minnesota, Maryland And Washington, D.CHealth and environmental authorities warned people with health conditions to continue to take precautions even as air conditions slowly improved.

On Friday morning, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in an interview with radio station 1010 WINS that officials have not yet decided whether the July 4th fireworks display will go ahead as planned. As conditions improved throughout the day, so did the fireworks forecasts. In the late afternoon, Kayla Mamelak, a spokeswoman for Mr Adams, said: “I am not aware of any conversation that could be cancelled.”

In East Baltimore, Maryland, Carey Lawston carried two plastic bags full of groceries up a hill on Friday afternoon. He needed a breather with a quarter of a mile to go home, so he sat down on a bench at a bus stop.

As he paused, Mr. Lawston, 38, looked out at the rushing traffic and smoke partially obscuring the Baltimore skyline to the west. The smoke didn’t make his trip difficult, he said, but it was a constant visual reminder of the poor air quality.

“It seemed like it was getting lighter,” Mr Lawston said. “Yesterday was difficult. When I went outside, I reconsidered.”

He added that he fears the lingering haze could ruin his run to the store, thwarting his plans for a relaxing weekend outside and enjoying the smell of smoke from his BBQ.

Hundreds of miles to the west, a cloud of polluted air hung over the northwest portion of North Dakota on Friday. Ryan Mills, who leads the air monitoring program for the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality, said a low-pressure weather system pulled the wildfire smoke from Canada almost directly south, where it hovered low above the ground in high-elevation areas.

On Friday morning, Mr. Mills was at his office in Bismarck, the state capital, when he received a call from his in-laws in Garrison, 75 miles northwest. They had a pressing question: would the skies ever clear up?

“It’s getting better and better as we talk,” he told them.

According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center, more than 500 wildfires were burning across Canada as of Friday afternoon, nearly half of which were spiraling out of control. Canada’s wildfire season started several weeks earlier this year, meaning the fires could impact air quality across North America for weeks.

Sarah Maslin Nir, Adam Bednar and Jon Hurdle contributed coverage.

“Miracle Babies” may not be that many. One in five women experience spontaneous pregnancy after receiving medical help to conceive.

Géraldine Zamansky, journalist of the Magazine de la Santé on France 5, tells us this amazing piece of information: children born thanks to often difficult treatments could have little brothers and sisters much more easily.

franceinfo: New research points to these spontaneous pregnancies in women who have received medical assistance to give birth to their first child?

In any case, 20% of the women who took medication to become mothers for the first time were spontaneously pregnant. This is the conclusion of a British study published this week. However, the women involved feel they are witnessing an extraordinary story and welcoming a “miracle baby”.

Because her first path to becoming a mother was often very long and there were several failures with in vitro fertilization, for example with IVF. As a rule, these couples had not yet become parents after at least a year without contraception. This is the simplest definition of a fertility problem that leads to specialized services.

But fertility was altered by the treatments during the first pregnancy?

This is part of the hypotheses of Dr. Annette Thwaites, a doctor and researcher at University College London. It was she who determined this 20% rate from 11 studies conducted worldwide, following a total of more than 5,000 women. And she explains that certain reproductive aids actually sometimes have a lasting effect. Stimulating ovulation with hormonal treatments can cause a persistent “wake up.” The same applies to the “triplet”, a kind of “drilling” of the ovaries. The hormonal processes associated with pregnancy would also affect later fertility.

And it’s hard not to think of a “psychological” part?

Of course I quote Dr. Thwaites in his article: “The importance of psychological factors in fertility is well recognized and widely accepted.” However, caution should be exercised with this interpretation. Because before this research, she had conducted 22 personal interviews with the women concerned. And their psychological profiles were very different, except for one common point: the shock of having conceived without treatment. Sometimes too fast for her new family.

dr So Thwaites is glad to have found evidence to support her suspicion: 20% is not uncommon. For them it would be necessary to inform the couples who have “finally” become parents. So that if they wish, even if it seems crazy, they can choose their contraceptive method.

The study

A cowboys and be Horse They died, both hit by one lightning This hit her dead on while the man inspected the cattle on his ranch. L’Accident it took place in a rural area of ​​the Nebraska and the victim, a highly respected professional in his field, was only 27 years old.

Father and 6-year-old son are struck by lightning as they walk hand in hand: the man died instantly, the little one after a month of torment

Bad weather, 15-year-old struck by lightning while waiting for the bus: The young man suffers a cardiac arrest, rescued by rescuers

Struck by lightning, died with the horse

Terrel Vineyard, 27, was riding a horse when he was struck by lightning on June 21 at his ranch in north Oshkosh. When rescuers arrived, they could do nothing but determine his death, the cause of which was also confirmed by an autopsy. Vineyard is survived by three little girls and a wife he married earlier this year. With a post published on Facebook, the woman thanked those who had shown their closeness after the tragedy: “On June 27, 2023 we buried our husband, our son and our brother,” she wrote. “It was truly comforting to experience the love that was shown to Terrel and to all of us.”

who was

The young athlete grew up on ranches in Nebraska and learned to tie cattle at the age of 6. With the help of a rodeo scholarship, he attended Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, Wyoming. After school, he and then-Ross Shorty qualified three times for the World Series of Team Roping in Las Vegas. Dose, the horse he rode on June 21 and died with him, had been bought a few years earlier: “They set out together for greener pastures – Terrel with his rope in hand,” says it on the page for a family fundraiser he created on GoFundMe.

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Carlos RiveraDefenders of the relatives who left the protests against Dina Boluarte highlighted a journalistic note that referred to the head of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces, Manuel Gómez de la Torre, assuring that the President knew about the military actions at the protests knew.

Carlos RiveraLawyer for the victims who left the protests against Dina Boluarte’s government claimed that the head of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces, Manuel Gómez de la Torre, denied the President himself after assuring that the government was aware of the operations knew soldiers during the demonstrations.

The lawyer referred to an investigation by the weekly newspaper Hildebrandt en sus Trece, which had disclosed the military chief’s statements to the Attorney General’s Office and the State Ministry. In addition, he noted that Ms. Boluarte had stated that she was unaware of the actions of the armed forces.

“What is now being highlighted in the press is that the head of the joint command says he met with the president before and after December 15. He denied this (until Dina Boluarte) absolutely. It’s quite serious, but Gómez de la Torre’s statements are much more reasonable and real. In a crisis, a leader cannot say, “I’m not going into the military, I’m not going to take care of them.” “It’s not possible and doesn’t work that way,” he said.

Carlos Rivera stressed that the military chief’s statement will be one of the most important elements Prosecution if at some point they decide to formalize it before the judiciary.

“He will present a statement or circumstance that is disputed by one of the people being investigated, such as the President and Alberto Otárola himself, and which is supported by one of the witnesses who reports a rule of experience. I am the military chief.” “I must inform the person who gave me the order to intervene, namely the President of the Republic,” he said.

Carlos Rivera reiterated that this case is about finding out the authorities’ level of responsibility after the deaths of more than 50 people in December and January.

“The investigations will find out whether or not the military elements have complied with the protocols, but also with regard to the political authorities, if the first time they became aware of it, they activated some kind of precaution to prevent the subsequent deaths.” That’s very important,” he said. .

They demand information about the deployment plan in Ayacucho

The judiciary ordered the Peruvian army to hand over to the Ministry of Public Affairs the documents related to the plan of action to contain the social protests against the departing government of Dina Boluarte registered on December 15 and 16 at Ayacucho Airport and in various streets of this city 10 Deaths and numerous injuries from firearms.

Judge Margarita Salcedo granted Prosecutor Mirela Coronel Molero’s request for this information after the Wari Second Infantry Brigade, based in Ayacucho, denied the request on the grounds that it was “limited documentation”.