Canadian wildfire smoke shrouds US Midwest and Northeast, over 100 million under air quality alerts

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Publication Date: 2026-07-22 12:09:15

Wildfire Smoke Chokes America

Canada and the U.S. do too little.

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Good morning,

Today, we’re looking at wildfire prevention efforts, a recent firebombing in New York City, and socialists’ desire to shut down prisons.

Write to us at editors@city-journal.org with questions or comments.

Now, on to the news…

Why America Keeps Choking on Wildfire Smoke

Photo credit: Scott Olson / Staff / Getty Images News via Getty Images

Last week, Canadian wildfires shrouded the Midwest and Northeast in smoke, putting more than 100 million Americans under air-quality alerts. By Friday, about 900 wildfires were burning, with over 100 in northwestern Ontario alone.

Many have blamed climate change, which has certainly lengthened the fire season. But fires’ severity ultimately depends on how landscapes are managed.

“Targeted fuels treatment—including forest thinning, brush clearance, and prescribed burning—removes the dense vegetation that causes wildfires to spread and intensify,” Shawn Regan and Sean Speer explain. “These treatments don’t necessarily keep fires from starting, but they reduce their intensity, restore more natural forest conditions, and give firefighters a better chance to contain blazes once they break out.”

In 2023, Canada’s prescribed burns treated only about 7,000 hectares—an area about the size of Manhattan. The U.S., meantime, treats millions of acres every year. Both countries need to expand their efforts.

Read more about the problem.

Expect More Terroristic Actions Against ICE

Earlier this week, a man used what appeared to be a device made of gasoline and fireworks to firebomb 26 Federal Plaza in New York City. On his wagon was a sign that read, “ICE off our streets!” He was armed with other weapons including knives, airsoft rifles, and a machete.

It’s no coincidence that attacks like these are on the rise, especially in New York, where public officials have increasingly spoken out against immigration enforcement. Mayor Zohran Mamdani is perhaps the best example.

He has often described ICE “in a manner best reserved for genuinely oppressive government operations whose historical analogs might be found in West Germany, Mao’s China, or Stalin’s Russia,” Rafael A. Mangual writes. “He referred to immigration arrests as ‘kidnappings’ reflective of a boundless ‘cruelty.’”

Read more.

Why Socialists Want to Shut Down Prisons

After George Floyd’s death in 2020, Black Lives Matter promoted ideas like defunding the police and shutting down American prisons. Now, with several DSA-affiliated candidates scoring a number of recent electoral victories, those proposals have resurfaced.

But why would anyone support such extreme ideas?

“The assumption is that prisons filled with the poor function as weapons of class suppression, maintained by the entire criminal-justice apparatus, including courts and police,” Barry Latzer writes.

It’s true that most prisoners are poor, and most of them are minorities. But what about their victims? In 2023, blacks made up a massive 56 percent of homicide victims—four times their share of the U.S. population.

“Socialist claims would gain more cogency if they offered an alternative to prison,” Latzer observes, “but the principal left-wing proposal—restorative justice—is totally inadequate.”

Read why.

In the News

• A Step-by-Step Guide to AI in Schools — How Much to Use and When – Manhattan Institute Fellow Jennifer Weber in The 74
• National parks are deteriorating. There’s a fix Congress isn’t making. – Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Shawn Regan in the Washington Post
• Expect More Data Center Moratoriums — and Slower Growth – Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Allison Schrager in Bloomberg

Editors’ Picks

• Zero Sympathy for the Democrats’ Political Death March – Scott McKay in The American Spectator
• Why Democrats Can’t Do Better Than Kamala Harris in 2028 – Daniel McCarthy in RealClearPolitics
• Christopher Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’: Epic for Our Times or Epic Failure? – Liel Leibovitz in Tablet
• A Family’s Daring Escape From North Korea ‘to Live and Stand Tall’ – Choe Sang-Hun in the New York Times
• Saving Citizenship in Ohio from Leftist Indoctrination – Stanley Kurtz in National Review

Reader Spotlight

“There has never been a more absurd contention than that a man can become a woman simply by saying it is so. Transgender does not exist beyond being mental illness.”

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— Tom W, commenting on gender-affirming care data