{"id":546556,"date":"2026-07-17T19:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/546556\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T19:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:39:10","slug":"send-help-rather-than-complain-canadas-ford-tells-us-as-wildfire-smoke-blankets-parts-of-north-america-106","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/546556\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Send help rather than complain,’ Canada’s Ford tells US as wildfire smoke blankets parts of North America (106)"},"content":{"rendered":"

An unpleasant day in Washingtonpublished at 18:35 BST<\/p>\n

18:35 BST<\/p>\n

\"\"Bernd Debusmann Jr
White House reporter<\/p>\n

I’ve just come back inside after about 30 minutes filming outside – an experience I don’t hope to repeat anytime soon. <\/p>\n

By the standards of famously hot and humid Washington, it’s a relatively cool 32 Celsius. The air quality, however, is abysmal. <\/p>\n

Within seconds of stepping outside, I was assaulted by the clear scent of smoke in the air while my eyes began watering. On the street, several people were wearing masks. I saw several young women walk by smelling their hair, clearly upset at the prospect of having to carry the scent around for the rest of the day. <\/p>\n

Conditions are worse than expected. Earlier forecasts I saw predicted that the AQI would top out between 150 and 200 today. But my 0600 local, it already stood at 250. At the time I stepped out at around noon, it stood at 248. <\/p>\n

Local authorities have declared a rare “Code Purple”, which means that anyone – even those without any underlying health risks – should avoid going outside. <\/p>\n

Some have clearly avoided these concerns. As I walked back into my office, I caught a glimpse of a young, shirtless man jogging. He did not appear to be enjoying it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An unpleasant day in Washingtonpublished at 18:35 BST 18:35 BST Bernd Debusmann JrWhite House reporter I’ve just come…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-546556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}