NEW YORK – Millions of people in the Great Lakes, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states muddled through another day of unhealthy air from uncontrolled wildfires on Friday.

The thick smoke enveloped the nation’s capital in a gloomy, eerie haze and prompted Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians to postpone their game against Pittsburgh Pirates in Ohio.

Warnings of dangerous conditions were expected to remain in effect through Saturday across a wide swath of the U.S., though there’s potential for temporary improvement with storms forecast in some affected areas during the weekend.

D.C. resident Stewart Verdery awoke Friday to take in his usual sunrise view of the city’s famous landmarks from a rooftop, only to be greeted by a darkened horizon and no monuments in sight.

“It’s pretty crazy to wake up at sunrise and not see the sun when it’s not even raining,” he said by phone after posting a video of the surreal scene on X. “And it smells like somebody’s having the world’s largest cookout.”

No end in sight for smoky conditions

There may be pockets of relief at times, such as this weekend, but the smoky conditions won’t be gone anytime soon as the fires continue to burn largely unchecked, cautioned Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster at the National Weather Service based in Maryland.

Wildfires are burning in the Ontario area of Canada as well as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, which U.S. officials have closed as they fight to put out the blazes.

“The source of the smoke is going to continue on for certainly a week, probably,” Oravec said. “It’s just going to depend upon which way the wind’s blowing as to where the smoke is going to affect the most.”

On Friday, communities in Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan, including Detroit, again registered some of the worst air quality in the world, according to IQAir, an air quality monitoring website.

Not far behind Detroit was Washington, D.C., where the smoke created eerie scenes. The Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and other national landmarks were enveloped in an orange-hued haze throughout much of the day.

People, particularly those with heart or lung disease, older adults and children, were urged to limit or avoid going outside until air quality improved.

Long-term exposure to smoky conditions can complicate existing health problems and lead to chronic and deadly issues, including respiratory illness, cardiovascular and neurological diseases and premature death, officials warned.

For Maria Travela, Friday was her first day outside since after smoke from the wildfires blanketed the Chicago area early Thursday.

“Now it’s better. This morning, it was bad,” said Travela, who has asthma and wore a mask as she crossed a bridge over the Chicago River downtown. “They were saying that, for people like me, with asthma, any kind of issues like that, it would be bad for your lungs.”

Trump criticizes Canada

Hundreds of wildfires are burning in Canada, including about 190 in northern Ontario, Premier Doug Ford said at a news conference. Flames destroyed the Namaygoosisagagun First Nation community, and 10 northern Ontario communities have been evacuated or were being evacuated, with more possible.

The increase of fire in vast Canadian forests has largely been blamed on climate change.

In response to the smoke, U.S. President Donald Trump made a social media post Friday that blamed Canada for its forest management and threatened additional tariffs on Canada.

The Canadian government didn’t initially respond to questions about Trump’s comments.

Asked about a Michigan lawmaker’s criticism about the smoke, Ford noted Canada has helped the U.S. fight fires in the past.

“If there’s some politicians out there chirping away, maybe what you should do rather than complain is send support, send help, because we have done the exact same thing for our American friends and that’s what you’re supposed to do,” Ford said.

Conditions should improve for Sunday’s World Cup final

In the New York City area, there was also concern about how the smoky air might impact Sunday’s World Cup final between soccer powerhouses Spain and Argentina at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

Oravec said winds will continue pushing the wildfire smoke east in the U.S., though conditions should be better on game day than on Saturday.

On Thursday, a thick haze tinged with orange and yellow darkened skies across several states and partly obscured Manhattan’s skyline.

Officials from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other Northeast states distributed free K95 face masks, canceled outdoor programming and opened libraries and other public buildings as cooling centers where people could get a respite from the sooty air.

As Friday progressed, air quality measures improved from “unhealthy” to “moderate” in some places in and around New York City. A strong sun broke through a thin veil of smoke, and clear blue sky was visible across much of the region by Friday afternoon.

Rainstorms could bring reprieve in some places

Saturday brings a high chance of thunderstorms across much of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, which will help dampen the bad air.

Organizers of the All-American Soap Box Derby in Ohio hope air quality improves enough to allow for Saturday’s championship races. The major annual competition in Akron scrubbed Friday’s events over air quality concerns.

“I think they made the right choice,” said Dayna Lincoln, a pediatric nurse practitioner from Hodgdon, Maine, whose family drove 15 hours for their 9-year-old daughter’s race on Saturday.

“I’m glad they’re not forcing the kids out into it,” she said. “There are kids with asthma and adults with respiratory conditions who could really suffer.”

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Associated Press reporters Jim Morris in Vancouver, British Columbia, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Cybele Mayes-Osterman in Chicago contributed to this story.

The NTT IndyCar Series is gearing up to hit the streets of Washington, D.C., for the first time Aug. 23, and now we know when the green flag will wave.

There is no question about it: The Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C., is going to be a full-on spectacle as cars race past some of the most iconic monuments our nation has to offer.

It’s getting the level of coverage it deserves.

TRUMP TOUTS INDYCAR DRIVERS’ ‘SPECIAL’ ABILITY AT FREEDOM 250 GRAND PRIX SHOWCASE, SEEMINGLY ENDING HOT DEBATE

Practice sessions 1 and 2 will air Saturday, Aug. 22, on FS1 and FS2, respectively. Qualifying will take place that evening from 5-6:30 p.m. ET on FS2.

Then, Sunday morning, the IndyCar broadcast booth regulars — lap-by-lap commentator Will Buxton and former drivers-turned-broadcasters Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe — will call the warmup from 9-10 a.m. ET on FS1.

After that, expanded pre-race coverage will get underway on FOX at 11:30 a.m. ET, with the race getting started shortly after 1 p.m. ET.

SCOTT DIXON LEAVING CHIP GANASSI RACING THROWS A HUGE WRENCH INTO INDYCAR’S SILLY SEASON

On top of the IndyCar action, the International Race of Champions, or IROC, will make its return as a support series for the weekend. 

That race is scheduled for Saturday with IndyCar greats Helio Castroneves, Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan taking part alongside NASCAR legends Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Bobby Labonte, Rusty Wallace and Bill Elliott using the same Pontiac Firebirds the original IROC series used from 1996 to 2006.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

There’s a lot of excitement around this one-of-a-kind addition to the 2026 IndyCar calendar, and, this week, reigning series champ Alex Palou, Indy 500 champ Felix Rosenqvist and Team Penske’s David Malukas were all at the White House to meet with President Donald Trump and to knock out some pit stop practice.

IndyCar has another big weekend ahead. The series heads to Nashville Superspeedway for the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix on Sunday, which will air on FOX immediately after the 2026 FIFA World Cup Final.

A growing chorus of local and national organizations is calling on Gov. Josh Green to recall Hawaii National Guardsmen dispatched to Washington, D.C.

Twenty-seven members of the Hawaii Army National Guards 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team arrived in D.C. on July 6. In a statement, Hawaii National Guard commander Maj. Gen.
Stephen Logan said that
“Hawai‘i National Guard
personnel are specifically assigned under a battalion-­sized task force dedicated to security and support to America/Freedom 250 events and venues.”

Since returning to the White House this year, President Donald Trump has been requesting governors across the country to send members of their National Guards to support his sweeping immigration crackdown, border security duty and operations in
D.C. that he says are
aimed at cracking down
on crime.

In a joint letter to Green, which was shared with media on Friday, the ACLU of Hawai‘i, Indivisible Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i Coalition for Immigrant Rights, Our Hawai’i and other organizations asked Green to recall them back to the islands.

“Governors have the legal option to decline these requests, and many have,” they wrote. “Nearly 5,000 National Guard members from states aligned with the president’s agenda have been sent to patrol neighborhoods throughout Washington, D.C., under the guise of controlling street crime, despite going against the will of the district’s residents and local government.”

Green’s office referred all questions about the deployment to the Hawaii National Guard.

In recent years, the Hawaii National Guard has frequently been called up for disaster response duties in the islands, assisting with COVID-19 response, wildfires and storms.

“As we approach hurricane season, our National Guard members must remain here at home and be available for its core purposes: disaster relief and other local emergencies,” the local organizations said in their letter. “Our Guard members have been called on this past year to support storm recovery, fight wildfires, and remain ready to assist in other state emergencies. Committing our Guard to an open-ended mission thousands of miles away would greatly undermine that readiness.”

But Logan said “with only 27 Hawai‘i Guardsmen sent to DC, there is no impact on the Hawai‘i National Guard’s ability to respond to storms or fires and support any county in need.”

The Hawaii Guardsmen are currently assigned to Joint Task Force – District of Columbia, a task force the Trump administration
created in August 2025 to coordinate the use of National Guardsmen and federal agents from various law enforcement agencies to conduct operations across the U.S. capital.

When Guardsmen began deploying to D.C. in August, most were sent by Republican governors that are strongly aligned with Trump. Several blue states, including Hawaii, joined in litigation challenging the deployments.

But this summer several Democratic governors that previously condemned Trump’s use of guard forces accepted requests from the White House to send troops to D.C. as the nation celebrated its 250th birthday. They include Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein.

“We are asked to believe that our Guard members are only to provide support for Freedom 250 and associated summer events in coordination with civil authority partners, but this is not the reality we face,” the letter stated “Guard members deployed to these right-wing partisan ‘Freedom 250’ events go against the non-partisan nature of the National Guard and is adrift from its core duties and mission.”

Logan is currently in D.C. where he has met with the Hawaii guardsmen and other military officials. He said that “Hawai‘i National Guard personnel sent to D.C. are not a part of the Make D.C. Safe and Beautiful mission. Our troops are strictly supporting the America/Freedom 250 events. I have personally communicated with the commander of the DC Joint Task Force about this distinction.”

On Wednesday, Our Hawai’i joined 23 more organizations in sending Green another letter asking him to recall the Hawaii guardsmen. This time organizations included the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law, the American Federation of Teachers, Common Cause and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

They wrote that such deployments “should be a last resort in cases where emergencies have overwhelmed civilian authorities. That is clearly not the case in DC.”

“Previous presidents have requested assistance from out-of-state Guard forces during major events in DC, and such requests would normally give little cause for concern,” the second letter stated. “But there is nothing normal about the way President Trump has used National Guard forces in the nation’s capital or other cities across the country, and no reason to trust his administration to use your Guard forces appropriately or even lawfully.”

Elizabeth Goitein, the senior director for national security at the Brennan Center, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser “we were concerned specifically with deployments of National Guard forces by governors who had previously condemned deployment of out-of-state guard forces in D.C.”

She noted that Walz, Moore, Beshear, and Stein already have withdrawn their guardsmen from D.C. and that “in at least two cases, the deployments were ended early because the governors learned that their Guard forces were being folded into the JTF anti-­crime mission.”

“The exception was Gov. Whitmer in Michigan, and so the coalition sent a letter to Gov. Whitmer, and then after that letter was sent, Hawaii sent guard forces to DC after the July 4 weekend,” Goitein said. “That’s really hard to justify, because if the purpose is to support America 250 events, the major events were the ones that happened over the July 4th weekend. There’s really not much left in terms of America 250 events in Washington D.C.”

National Guard officials said that deployment is slated to end near the end of August, but that it could be extended for up to 90 days. However, Logan said that “if our Hawai‘i Guardsmen are expected to support missions other than America/Freedom 250, then the Governor and I can recall the troops. Right now, there is no plan to recall them.”

“There’s really only one (more America 250 event) that’s going to draw large numbers of people, sort of all in one place, and that’s the National Girl Scout Convention,” Goitein said. “That’s just for five days in July, so that can’t really justify sending the Hawaiian National Guard this last week and keeping them here up to 90 days.”