Wildfiresravaging the western U.S. are so big and widespread that their smoke is now clouding skies on the other side of the country.
The hazy overcast is drifting eastward, settling in from Chicago to New York and up to Boston with little in the forecast to suggest it is going anywhere anytime soon. The hallmarks of high-altitude smoke -- gray-white skies and striking orange sunsets -- will continue.
Historic droughts and searing heat exacerbated by climate change have touched off a cascading series of wildfires throughout the U.S. West, playing havoc with electric grids and creating water shortages for farmers and local residents.
Drought now covers almost 95% of 11 western states, including all of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Oregon and Idaho and temperatures are setting more records from coast to coast, with the contiguous U.S. having its warmest June in the 127-year record.
The hot temperatures, made possible in large part by drought exacerbated by climate change, are responsible for extracting humidity from the ground and drying it out even more.
“Dry thunderstorms,” or thunderstorms that produce little to no rainfall, are expected as far north as Montana with concerns their lightning strikes could continue sparking fires.
And relief is at least months away: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts above-normal temperatures across the U.S. and a dearth of rainfall from August through at least October.
The global picture is just as alarming: Around 100,000 people have been evacuated from the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, as record rainfall caused widespread flooding and economic disruptions to Henan province, home to the world’s biggest production base for iPhones and a hub for food production and heavy industry.
The deluge follows unprecedented heatwaves in the U.S. and Canada and major floods in Europe and India, while wildfires have spread across Siberia and drought has gripped parts of Africa and Brazil.
The Statue of Liberty, and the rest of New York Harbor, is barely visible from a Lower Manhattan park as smoke from wildfires in the American wests engulfs New York City. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Cases are rising in New York City: The seven-day average of daily new cases was 576 on July 18, more than double the average on July 6.
More concerning: As cases rise, the wildly varying vaccination rates across the city's neighborhoods show glaring gaps that will allow for the virus to continue to spread.
In Manhattan and Queens, certain neighborhoods like Chelsea, Tribeca, Hell's Kitchen and Flushing have nearly 100% of adults with at least one dose of a vaccine and nearly 100% fully vaccinated.
In neighborhoods like Far Rockaway, Queens; Hunts Point, The Bronx; Crown Heights and Coney Island, Brooklyn, barely 50% of adults have had one dose and the percentage fully vaccinated is lower. These low vaccination rates resemble those in Arkansas, Mississippi and Missouri which are hotspots driving the spread in the U.S.
As Mike Allen of Axios wrote: Washington got vivid evidence Tuesday of something we'd all heard, but maybe didn't believe: You can be fully vaxxed and test positive for COVID.
The positive tests of a fully vaccinated White House staffer and an aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came to light Tuesday, after they attended the same reception last week with runaway Democratic Texas lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol. Six of them have tested positive.
"We know that there will be breakthrough cases, but as this instance shows, cases in vaccinated individuals are typically mild. The White House is prepared for breakthrough cases with regular testing. This is another reminder of the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines against severe illness or hospitalizations. And of course, we wish our colleague a speedy recovery," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday.
Most experts believe India’s official toll of more than 414,000 dead is a vast undercount, and a report released Tuesday estimates excess deaths to be 3 million to 4.7 million between January 2020 and June 2021.
Covid smashed the fast-forward button on transformations already under way in the nature of white-collar work. The “Future of Work” is already here. But it’s a deeply confused picture.
As many big employers target the end of summer as the time to figure out exactly how they will structure work in the post-Covid era, there is little consensus.
“We want to get back to normal,” a JPMorgan executive said. “But we know it will never be the same.”
Some of the calculus at JPMorgan is around worker productivity, the JPMorgan executive said, but some of it is also about employee mental health. No matter how much discomfort employers may have with workers doing their jobs out of sight, the bank will not return to pre-Covid limitations on remote work, the executive told Politico.
“What we found is, the question is kind of ‘Are you working from home or are you living at work?’” the executive said. “People can get really depressed and isolated working from home. And from a mentorship and diversity perspective, it’s much harder to train and connect with a new or younger person if you’ve never actually seen them in person.”
If more guns made us safer, the United States would be the safest country. The United States has one of the highest rates of both gun ownership and gun violence. Years of research show guns make neither individuals nor society safer. In fact, access to a gun doubles your risk of homicide, triples your risk of suicide and makes it five times more likely domestic violence will be fatal, writes Nick Suplina, managing director of law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety.
High taxes and living costs along with underfunded borrowing once seemed to explain why New Jersey has been the worst performer in the $3.8 trillion market for state and local government debt during much of the last decade.
Then a new governor, Phil Murphy, actually raised taxes and imposed new costs on business — and turned the state’s debt into the nation’s most desired by investors since he took office in 2018.
Bloomberg was selected by WatersTechnology’s subscribers as the Best Sell Side Order Management System (OMS) Provider, Best Market Data Provider and Best Reference Data Provider at the Waters Rankings Awards 2021.
As the Tamp Bay Buccaneers visited the White House Tuesday to celebrate their Super Bowl win, quarterback Tom Brady got in a joke about the people who continue to incorrectly believe that Biden didn't win the November presidential election.
"Not a lot of people think that we could have won," Brady said. "In fact, I think about 40% of the people still don't think we won." "I understand that," Biden quickly replied. The quip from Brady is sure to displease Donald Trump, as Trump has long counted Brady as a friend.
A good night for Marc Lasry: The Milwaukee Bucks won their first NBA championship in 50 years, beating the Phoenix Suns, 105-98, in Game 6. It was the performance of a lifetime for Giannis Antetokounmpo who scored 50 points (16-25 FG, 17-19 FT), 14 rebounds, 5 blocks, 2 assists in 42 minutes. He had at least 40 points and 10 rebounds in three of the Finals' six games.
By 2025, travelers who use La Guardia Airport may no longer have to fight New York City's notorious traffic to get there. The elevated train link from Willets Point, Queens is billed as a 30 minute trip from Midtown Manhattan.
Blue Origin’s capsule touched down safely in West Texas at about 8:22AM CT Tuesday after a 10-minute flight in which it reached an altitude of more than 65 miles (105 kilometers) above ground.
Bezos emerged wearing a cowboy hat and accompanied by his fellow passengers: Mark Bezos, his brother; Wally Funk, 82, a former astronaut trainee; and Oliver Daemen, the 18-year-old son of a Dutch financier.
“I’ve been waiting a long time to finally get up there,” Funk told reporters after the mission. “I want to go again fast.”
Bloomberg TV's Emily Chang spoke with Jeff Bezos in his first television interview after the trip to space where Bezos said that his journey was more than he’d dreamed of, adding that micro gravity felt “normal.” Blue Origin’s long-term vision is for orbital flight, he told Chang.
After flying to the edge of space, Bezos announced that he planned to award $100 million each to CNN contributor Van Jones and chef José Andrés as part of a "surprise" philanthropic initiative he wanted to announce called the Courage and Civility Award.
Click hereto watch highlights of Tuesday's flight and here to watch the full launch.
Tokyo’s Olympic organizers have reported 71 total cases of Covid-19 linked to the event. Of the total, 31 were international visitors, among the tens of thousands expected to travel to Japan to compete or work at the Olympics.
While the total of infections is small compared with the number of athletes and staff involved, it adds to concern around the games, where public support has been low.
The extraordinary decision by the country’s top automaker underlines how polarizing the Games have become in Japan as COVID-19 infections rise ahead of Friday’s opening ceremony. Toyota decided not to air the campaign in Japan out of sensitivity to the COVID-19 situation in the country.
The company has no plans to adjust its Olympic marketing plans in the U.S.
Click herefor more on how to watch the opening ceremony, which will air live starting at 6:55AM ET Friday with U.S. primetime coverage of the re-air starting at 7:30PM ET.
Best of Late Night.
"A surge of Covid cases has led Los Angeles County to reinstate indoor mask requirements for everyone, regardless of vaccination status. Typical Los Angeles, even the virus is pitching a sequel."
-- Stephen Colbert
"Joe Biden and his administration are busy, they're reversing a Trump-era rule that made shower heads have more water flow. In response, Trump spent the day inciting a riot inside the plumbing section of a Home Depot."
-- Jimmy Fallon
"I saw that grocery stores are now selling frozen Chuck-E-Cheese pizzas. This is fun, the pizza is also being used to make the cardboard beds in the Olympic Village."
-- Jimmy Fallon
"This weekend President Biden went after big social media platforms, like Facebook, for not doing enough to stop the spread of Covid misinformation. Our country has gone from, 'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.' to 'Please don't take medical advice from a meme.'"
-- Jimmy Fallon
"Biden doesn't want Facebook to prevent young people from getting vaccinated. Everyone under 30 heard and was like, 'That's so cute but literally none of us use Facebook.'"
-- Jimmy Fallon
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