Millions of Americans face air quality alerts from Minnesota to New York as authorities urge people to stay indoors

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Smoke from wildfires burning in south-central Canada and parts of Minnesota is spreading across the US, prompting air quality alerts in more than 20 states with millions of Americans expected to face unhealthy air conditions this week.

The smoke from the more than 180 active wildfires in northern Ontario briefly made Toronto’s air quality among the worst in the world on Wednesday. By Wednesday night, the smoke had spread across several US states, from Minnesota, where multiple wildfires are also burning, to New York, blanketing the skies in haze and worsening air quality.

Republican Trump ally has spent years promoting discredited claims about 2020 election

Donald Trump has endorsed Mike Lindell’s bid for Minnesota governor, calling the MyPillow founder “one of America’s greatest and most hard working Patriots” in a Truth Social post on Wednesday.

Trump described Lindell as someone who had “sacrificed” more than almost anyone else “in fighting for our country, especially when it comes to Election Integrity”, invoking Lindell’s years spent promoting discredited claims about the 2020 election. Trump said Lindell “will MAKE MINNESOTA GREAT AGAIN” and gave him full-throated support ahead of the state’s 11 August Republican primary, where early voting is already under way.

Good, an unarmed US citizen and mother, was killed by immigration officer and Pretti was shot by CBP officials

Previously withheld evidence regarding the fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti is now in the hands of Minnesota prosecutors, helping the state gain clarity on the deaths that occurred earlier this year during protests against a federal immigration crackdown.

“Through the cooperation of our federal partners, we have obtained hard drives of previously withheld evidence in the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, and the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis,” the Hennepin county attorney, Mary Moriarty, said in a video statement posted on social media.

State had pardoned immigrant Tou Lue Vang in June over 2006 conviction but federal government expels him to Laos

A Laotian man pardoned by state officialsin Minnesota last month has been deported from the country, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has announced.

Tou Lue Vang, an immigrant from Laos, faced deportation for a 2006 conviction of first-degree criminal sexual conduct after raping a young girl between 2002 and 2004. Because Laos initially refused to accept deportees, Vang spent nearly two decades living in Minnesota.

‘Minnesota 15’ indicted after opposing ICE crackdown – just the latest attempt by Trump DoJ to criminalize resistance

Days after pleading not guilty to conspiracy charges, Emmett Doyle took the stage at a dive bar in Minneapolis, and performed an Irish protest ballad. “And you dare to call me a terrorist, while you look down your gun,” he sang during his set.

The tune has particular resonance now that Doyle, a musician and carpenter who the US government claims is an “antifa” domestic terrorist, awaits trial for protesting. “That song has been a source of inspiration for me, in finding courage to face this ordeal,” he said.