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Healthwatch

Wildfires: How To Cope When Smoke Affects Air Quality And Health
~3.5 mins read
Smoke from regional wildfires endangers health even for those not directly in the path of fire.
Create an evacuation plan for your family before a wildfire occurs.
Make sure that you have several days on hand of medications, water, and food that doesn’t need to be cooked. This will help if you need to leave suddenly due to a wildfire or another natural disaster.
Regularly check this fire and smoke map, which shows current wildfire conditions and has links to state advisories.
Follow alerts from local officials if you are in the region of an active fire.
Stay aware of air quality.AirNow.gov shares real-time air quality risk category for your area accompanied by activity guidance. When recommended, stay indoors, close doors, windows, and any outdoor air intake vents.
Consider buying an air purifier. This is also important even when there are no regional wildfires if you live in a building that is in poor condition. The EPA recommends avoiding air cleaners that generate ozone, which is also a pollutant.
Understand your HVAC system if you have one. The quality and cleanliness of your filters counts, so choose high-efficiency filters if possible, and replace these as needed. It’s also important to know if your system has outdoor air intake vents.
Avoid creating indoor pollution. That means no smoking, no vacuuming, and no burning of products like candles or incense. Avoid frying foods or using gas stoves, especially if your stove is not well ventilated.
Make a “clean room.” Choose a room with fewer doors and windows. Run an air purifier that is the appropriate size for this room, especially if you are not using central AC to keep cool.
Minimize outdoor time and wear a mask outside. Again, ensuring that you have several days of medications and food that doesn’t need to be cooked will help. If you must go outdoors, minimize time and level of activity. A well-fitted N95 or KN95 mask or P100 respirator can help keep you from breathing in small particles floating in smoky air.

As wildfires become more frequent due to climate change and drier conditions, more of us and more of our communities are at risk for harm. Here is information to help you prepare and protect yourself and your family.
How does wildfire smoke affect air quality?
Wildfire smoke contributes greatly to poor air quality. Just like pollution from burning coal, oil, and gas, wildfires create hazardous gases and tiny particles of varying sizes that are harmful to breathe. Wildfire smoke also contains other toxins that come from burning buildings and chemical storage.
Smoke carried by weather patterns and jet streams can cross state and national boundaries, traveling to distant regions.
How does wildfire smoke affect our health?
The small particles in wildfire smoke –– known as particulate matter, or PM10, PM2.5, PM0.1 –– are the most worrisome to our health. When we breathe them in, these particles can travel deep into the lungs and sometimes into the bloodstream.
The health effects of wildfire smoke include eye and skin irritation, coughing, wheezing, and difficulty breathing. Other possible serious health effects include heart failure, heart attacks, and strokes.
Who needs to be especially careful?
Those most at risk from wildfire smoke include children, older adults, outdoor workers, and anyone who is pregnant or who has heart or lung conditions.
If you have a chronic health condition, talk to your doctor about how the smoke might affect you. Find out what symptoms should prompt medical attention or adjustment of your medications. This is especially important if you have lung problems or heart problems.
What can you do to prepare for wildfire emergencies?
If you live in an area threatened by wildfires, or where heat and dry conditions make them more likely to occur:
What steps can you take to lower health risks during poor air quality days?
These six tips can help you stay healthy during wildfire smoke advisories and at other times when air quality is poor:
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News_Naija

Enugu Air Begins Operations Monday
~1.1 mins read
Enugu State-owned commercial airline, Enugu Air, is set to officially launch its operations on Monday, July 7, 2025. The launch ceremony will take place at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, with the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, expected to attend alongside other dignitaries, according to a statement from the airline. The Commissioner for Transportation, Enugu State, Dr Obi Ozor, said Enugu Air is a key component of Governor Peter Mbah’s vision for a modern, integrated transportation system, aimed at positioning Enugu as a major aviation hub in Nigeria. The airline will begin operations with a fleet of three Embraer jets, from the E170 and E190 series, chosen for their performance, passenger comfort, and suitability for regional routes. The airline’s inaugural routes will form a strategic triangular operation connecting Enugu, Abuja, and Lagos, with plans to expand services to Port Harcourt, Owerri, Benin, Kano, and other key cities across Nigeria and beyond. Ozor said, “With a strong foundation built on innovation and sustainability, Enugu Air is poised to transform regional air travel, boost state pride, and raise Enugu’s profile nationally and globally.” The launch of Enugu Air is expected to have a significant impact on the aviation industry in Nigeria, providing more options for air travel and promoting economic development in the region. With its modern fleet and strategic routes, Enugu Air is set to revolutionize air travel in Nigeria and establish Enugu as a major player in the country’s aviation sector.
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Worldnews

Did God Want Trump To Bomb Iran?
~4.4 mins read
Invoking God to bomb Iran, Trump is reviving a deadly tradition of religiously justified US violence. After ordering the United States military to bomb Iran last month, US President Donald Trump made a brief address at the White House to laud the “massive precision strike” that had allegedly put a “stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror”. The speech, which lasted less than four minutes, ended with the invocation of God’s name no fewer than five times in a span of seven seconds: “And I wanna just thank everybody and in particular, God. I wanna just say, ‘We love you God, and we love our great military – protect them.’ God bless the Middle East, God bless Israel, and God bless America.” Of course, the terminology deployed in the speech was problematic before we even got to the rapid-fire mention of the Almighty by a man who has never been particularly religious. For one thing, Iran simply lacks the credentials to qualify as the world’s “number one state sponsor of terror”; that position is already occupied by the US itself, which, unlike Iran, has spent the entirety of its contemporary history bombing and otherwise antagonising folks in every last corner of the Earth. The US has also continued to serve as the number one state sponsor of Israel, whose longstanding policy of terrorising Palestinians and other Arabs has now culminated in an all-out genocide in the Gaza Strip, as Israel seeks to annihilate the territory and its inhabitants along with it. But anyway, “God bless Israel.” This, to be sure, was not the first time that Trump relied on God to sign off on worldly events. Back in 2017, during the man’s first stint as president, the deity made various appearances in Trump’s official statement following a US military strike on Syria. God, it seems, just can’t get enough of war. God made a prominent return in January 2025, taking centre stage in Trump’s inauguration speech – yet another reminder that the separation of church and state remains one of the more transparently disingenuous pillars of American “democracy.” In his address, the president revealed the true reason he had survived the widely publicised assassination attempt in Pennsylvania in July 2024: “I was saved by God to make America great again.” Part of making America great again was supposed to be focusing on ourselves instead of, you know, getting wrapped up in other people’s wars abroad. But the beauty of having God on your side means you really don’t have to explain too much in the end; after all, it’s all divine will. Indeed, Trump’s increasing reliance on the Almighty can hardly be interpreted as a come-to-Jesus moment or a sudden embrace of the faith. Rather, God-talk comes in handy in the business of courting white evangelical Christians, many of whom already see Trump himself as a saviour in his own right based on his valiant worldwide war on abortion, among other campaigns to inflict earthly suffering on poor and vulnerable people. The evangelical obsession with Israel means Trump has earned big saviour points in that realm, as well. In 2019, for example, the president took to Twitter to thank Wayne Allyn Root – an American Jewish-turned-evangelical conservative radio host and established conspiracy theorist – for his “very nice words,” including that Trump was the “best President for Israel in the history of the world” and that Israeli Jews “love him like he’s the King of Israel”. And not only that: Israelis also “love him like he is the second coming of God”. Obviously, anyone with an ego as big as Trump’s has no problem playing God – especially when he already believes that his every proclamation should spontaneously be made reality, biblical creation story-style. Former Arkansas governor and zealous evangelical Mike Huckabee, who once declared that “there is no such thing as a Palestinian” and who is now serving as Trump’s ambassador to Israel, has done his own part to encourage the president’s messiah complex, writing in a text message to Trump that “I believe you hear from heaven … You did not seek this moment. This moment sought YOU!” So it was only fitting that Trump should thank and profess love for God after bombing Iran in accordance with Israel’s wishes – not that US and Israeli interests don’t align when it comes to sowing regional havoc and ensuring the flow of capital into arms industry coffers. And yet, Trump is not the only US head of state to have enjoyed wartime communications with God. Recall the time in 2003 that then-President and “war on terror” chief George W Bush informed Palestinian ministers of his “mission from God”. Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath would go on to quote snippets from Bush’s side of the conversation: “God would tell me, ‘George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.’ And I did, and then God would tell me, ‘George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq.’ And I did.” Now, Trump doesn’t like to take orders from anyone, even if they’re from on high. However, he’s made it clear that he’s not opposed to ingratiating himself with God in the interest of political expediency. Some evangelical adherents see the current upheaval in the Middle East as potentially expediting the so-called “end times” and the second coming of Jesus – which means the more war, the better. And the more that God can be portrayed as an ally in US and Israeli-inflicted devastation, the better for Trump’s delusions of deification. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. Follow Al Jazeera English:...
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Worldnews

Gazas Hunger Crisis Is Not A Tragedy Its A War Tactic
~3.3 mins read
The destruction of food systems is a deliberate tool of domination, not a by-product of war. The catastrophe unfolding in Gaza cannot be understood solely through the lens of humanitarian crisis. What we are witnessing is not just a tragic consequence of war, but the deliberate use of starvation as a tool of political and demographic control. This strategy, designed to dismantle Palestinian society, amounts to a form of structural genocide. The Israeli military and political leadership, in its pursuit of dominance and the erasure of Palestinian national aspirations, has moved beyond the tactics of bombardment and physical destruction. Today, its methods are more insidious: they target the core of Palestinian survival: food, water, and the means to endure. Breaking the will of a people by denying them the ability to feed themselves is not collateral damage. It is policy. According to reports from independent international bodies, more than 95 percent of Gaza’s farmland has been destroyed or rendered unusable. That figure is not just an economic loss; it is the intentional dismantling of food sovereignty, and with it, any hope of future independence. The destruction is systematic. Seed access has been blocked. Water infrastructure has been targeted. Fisherfolk and farmers – already operating under extreme siege conditions – have been repeatedly attacked. These are not random acts. They are part of a broader plan to re-engineer Gaza’s demographic and economic future in line with Israel’s long-term strategic goals: absolute control and political submission. What makes this all the more alarming is the complicity of the international community. Whether through silence or vague diplomatic statements that describe the situation as a “humanitarian crisis”, global actors have helped normalise the use of starvation as a weapon of war. The refusal to name these actions for what they are – war crimes committed as part of a genocide – has given Israel the cover to continue them with impunity. Even more disturbing is how food itself has become a bargaining chip. Access to essentials like flour, baby formula, and bottled water is now being tied to political and military negotiations. This reveals a grim logic of power. The goal is not stability or mutual security – it is to impose political conditions through the calculated manipulation of civilian suffering. By making Gaza entirely dependent on outside aid while systematically dismantling local means of survival, Israel has created a trap in which Palestinians are stripped of all political and economic agency. They are being reduced to a population that can be managed, controlled, and bartered. Every statistic coming out of Gaza must be read through this lens. That 100 percent of the population now suffers from food insecurity is not simply tragic; it is a marker of the strategy’s progress. This is not about feeding the hungry. It is about breaking the spirit of a people and forcing them to accept a new reality on the occupier’s terms. And yet, Gaza’s resilience persists. That defiance, under siege and starvation, has exposed the moral collapse of an international order that prefers managed crises to political accountability. This is not a famine born of drought. This is not the chaos of a failed state. This is a crime in progress – carried out with eyes wide open, under the protective cover of global indifference. Let me also add that international civil society organisations and global social movements – such as La Via Campesina – are not standing by in silence. In fact, this September, some of the world’s most prominent movements of farmers, fishers, and Indigenous Peoples – many of them from conflict-affected regions – will gather in Sri Lanka for the 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum. There, we aim to build a unified global response to the widespread indifference that turns a blind eye to the dispossession of entire communities. From the ground up, we are working to develop concrete proposals to ensure that food is never weaponised and that starvation is never used as a tactic of war. At the same time, countless acts of solidarity are unfolding across the globe, led by people of conscience who are demanding that their governments take action. History will remember what is happening in Gaza. It will also remember those who chose to remain silent. Justice may be delayed, but it will come, and it will ask who stood by as starvation was used to try to break a people. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. Follow Al Jazeera English:...
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