2 . Schools across the US East Coast canceled outdoor activities, commercial airline traffic was slowed and millions of Americans were urged to stay indoors on Wednesday as smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted south, blanketing cities in thick and yellow smoke.

“It’s critical that Americans experiencing dangerous air pollution, especially those with health conditions, listen to local authorities to protect themselves and their families,” US President Joe Biden said.

New York’s world-famous skyline, usually visible for miles, disappeared because of the smoke, which some residents said made them feel unwell.

“It makes breathing difficult,” Mohammed Abass said as he walked down Broadway in Manhattan. “I’ve been scheduled for a road test for driving, for my driving license today, and it was canceled.”

“It looks like Mars out there,” said Fox Forecast Center meteorologist Brian Mastro just before 2 p.m.

New York Goveror Kathy Hochul called the situation an “emergency crisis,” noting that the air pollution index for parts of her state were eight times above normal.

In Bethesda, Maryland, a high school moved its graduation ceremony indoors, while a Brooklyn, New York, elementary school deferred its “Spring Fling” dance party. A school in Montelair, New Jersey, called off a fifth-grade trip to an amusement park.

The smoke was wafting (飘荡) over the US northern border from Canada, where hundreds of forest fires have burnt 9. 4 million acres and forced 120,000 people from their homes in an unusually early and intense start to Canada’s wildfire season.

Tyrone Sylvester, 66, playing chess outside in Manhattan’s Union Square us he has on most days for 30 years, but wearing a mask, said he had never seen the city’s air quality so bad. “When the sun looks like that,” he said, pointing at the smoky sky, “we know something’s wrong. This is what global warming looks like.”

Poor air quality is likely to continue into the weekend, with a developing storm system expected to shift the smoke westward across the Great Lakes and deeper south through the Ohio Valley and into the mid-Atlantic region, AccuWeather said.

3 . Joey, who was six at the time, had the day off from school. His father, Joe Welch, a 50-year-old photographer, planned to spend the day boating in the huge river. Joe had never before been into the muddy waters, which were famous for crocodiles (鳄鱼). He had researched what to do if they encountered one-just in case.

Joe turned to scan the boat, less than 20 feet from the water’s edge and then he was busy making some sandwiches at a wildlife refuge. Seconds later, he heard a splash and a scream. Joey had slipped at the edge of the water. When Joe rushed there, he saw his son’s right arm in the jaws of a crocodile which was at least eight feet long and close to 200 pounds. Time seemed to stop as Joe ran toward his son. The river was almost three feet deep. As Joey struggled and screamed, Joe began pulling him back toward the bank. A young man ran over, screaming at Joe to pull his son out of the water. But Joe feared what would happen to Joey’s arm if he pulled too hard. While Joe knocked on the beast’s head, the young man kicked its stomach. After the stranger’s three or four kicks, the crocodile released Joey and escaped back into the water. Joe picked up his son and found that he’d suffered only a few cuts and scrapes. Joe thanked the stranger and sped home. A nearby hospital determined that Joey was OK.

Joe has tried to find out who helped save his son, but he has learned only that the man was a boxer from Spain. He had been in the country visiting his family. “ He’ s like an angel,” Joe says.

4 . Rivera, 27, was jogging on a path next to Claiborne Parkway in Ashburn near the Dulles Greenway about 6 p.m. A 71-year-old woman from South Riding Was driving a Toyota SUV on the road. And a deer came from somewhere.

The SUV struck the deer, which sent the animal flying into Rivera, who remembers running one minute and then coming into an ambulance as a doctor told her she needed to cut away one of her favorite running shirts “because it had deer blood all over.” “That’s when I knew a deer was part of this,” Rivera said Saturday.

The deer died on the spot. The driver was treated at Inova Loudoun Hospital and recovered. Rivera, who was taken to the same hospital and recovered on Thursday evening.

Barely 5 feet tall, Rivera already had been jokingly nicknamed “The Hulk” by her friends, which means a giant person. “So, I guess now they can really call me that,” she said.

She had finished five miles Thursday in her orange running shoes and was on the final stretch toward her home in Ashburn when she was hit by the deer.

“I’d thought that the run would make me feel better after work,” said Rivera, an administrative analyst. She has been a runner for about five years and started taking part in marathons last year. She also leads runs for a Loudoun fitness club.

A female passer-by called 911 and used Rivera’s phone to dial numbers that reached Rivera’s boyfriend and her family. “I want to really thank her, whoever she was. And I am glad the driver is all right.”

Rivera said she runs on the path often and wilt again. So how will she retell this tale? It’s hard to know where to start. Maybe I was out for a run one day. No, actually I probably have to start with, this really strange thing happened to me once.”

5 . I was hiking with Sam and Kyle to show them a cliff where they could feel the sea spray on their faces. I knew the area could be dangerous, but I was not worried for I had hiked there many times.

We sat in the sun and watched the waves throw themselves against the rock. Then I crept (爬) up to the edge, Kyle right behind me. I found a seat-shaped place and sat down with much contentment. When Kyle came near, I gave him my place. He settled in and I moved a few feet over where the smooth rock had no holds.

Suddenly, a monstrous wave came. I felt myself starting to slide. The water washed me off the cliff and forced me under. I screamed for help. I swam hard for the shore. I was not a strong swimmer but I tried rimming for shore anyway, battling the warm water the best I could. Soon, I realized the sea had swept me farther out.

“Sam!” I yelled. “Kyle, help me and send a helicopter!” After about thirty minutes, I saw a helicopter. I could see Sam and Kyle looking anxiously from it. My eyes lit up and my heart missed a beat. The helicopter buzzed overhead, and then kept on going. I floated on my back to make myself more visible, my body pale in contrast to the darker ocean. When the helicopter came by again, I moved my arms and legs desperately to attract their attention. Again, the helicopter disappeared. Helpless, I stared in disbelief as they missed seeing me twice in a row. Deciding that I needed to save my energy, I continued floating on my back and closed my eyes.

Gradually, a noise grew louder. I soon realized a helicopter was overhead. The crew had seen me, but it might be too late. Waves of exhaustion overwhelmed me. My leg muscles tightened uncontrollably. “This is it,” I thought, as I gave up to the weight that was pulling me down.

Then, I felt a strong arm wrap across my chest and turned to see a rescue diver. He asked me if I was alright. The next thing I knew was that I was in the air. The waves that had just been big enough to kill me suddenly seemed small.

7 . On June 23,2018,twelve young Thai boys and their assistant football coach wandered into a karst cave in northern Thailand, near the border with Myanmar. What happened next would grab the world’s attention and lead to a complex and daring international rescue operation. The 10.3-kilometer-long Tham Luang cave flooded, trapping the boys in total blackness nearly 2.5 kilometers from the cave entrance.

Thousands of people from around the globe participated in the rescue effort, including military personnel, medical experts and the rock stars of the operation — cave divers. The divers, who safely removed all of the Thai children and their coach after 18 days underground, dealt with tight spaces and low visibility in muddy water- conditions that would prove deadly: Saman Gunan, a former Thai Navy Seal, died while transporting air tanks into the cave.

While the sport of cave diving had received attention in the pop culture area prior to the rescue mission in North Thailand, there is little doubt that the brave divers at Tham Luang cave helped push the activity and its varieties of risks into global society’s minds.

The sport-often referred to as among the world’s most dangerous recreational activities-has its roots in pre-WWII England. Since then, the recreational practice of cave diving, described by Australian cave explorer Richard Harris (a participant in the Tham Luang cave rescue) as an “unusual hobby” for “the ordinary,” has spread around the world-China included.

Over 1,000 kilometers northeast of Tham Luang cave, in South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, lies karst-peak-covered Du’an county-China’s little-known cave diving Mecca.

Home to thousands of kilometers of underground rivers, Du’an county offers divers spellbinding geological formations, perhaps the world’s largest collection of blind fish species and a rare variety of freshwater jellyfish.

8 . National Drowning Prevention Week

National Drowning Prevention Week is July 17-23, 2022, which promotes the awareness of the drowning prevention problem in Canada and the need for individuals, communities, organizations, and government to take action in an effort to save lives. Drowning is preventable!

Measures to Promote

Members of the public, community groups, and government are encouraged to promote the following measures that have been taken from the World Health Organization’s publication Preventing Drowning.

★Teach basic swimming and water safety skills to school-age children aged 6 years and older. Activity Suggestions:

• Offer Swim To Survive sessions to your community during National Drowning Prevention Week

• Promote people to learn to swim by registering in Swim For Life lessons

• Work with local schools to book swimming lessons in the upcoming year

★Provide community-based childcare for preschool children to reduce the drowning risk.

•Work with local officials to create childcare options that are less than 20 minutes away for all communities

★Train bystanders in safe rescue and CPR (心肺复苏). Activity Suggestions:

•Offer free CPR training opportunities to the public during National Drowning Prevention Week

•Promote learning to rescue others by registering in Bronze Medallion

National Drowning Prevention Week Announcements

Since the United Nations (UN) passed a resolution declaring July 25 of each year as World Drowning Prevention Day last year, we have stopped our request for community announcements for National Drowning Prevention Week. This does not lessen the importance of raising awareness during National Drowning Prevention Week, but allows us to focus more on the other important matters.

9 . In 1840, Chicago was a small town of forty-five hundred souls. It ranked 92nd in population in the United States. Yet, only three decades later, by 1870 — just a year before the great fire — Chicago was closing in on a population of 300,000, making it the fifth-biggest city in America and the fastest-growing city in the world.

What led to all this rapid growth? In three words: location, location, location.

“Chicago was near the center of the country, and near where the waterways and railways met,” city historian Tim Samuelson notes. “It was a perfect place for anything and anyone to get anywhere...”

Timing had a lot to do with it, too. America was moving from a rural to an industrial power. Chicago was right in the middle of the action. Ironically, its rapid growth was almost its undoing. “Chicago had to build, and build quickly, and so they built it out of wood,” explained Sarah Marcus of the Chicago History Museum. “It was quick, it was easy, and it was cheap.”

And, as it turned out, very “easy” to catch fire.

By most accounts, the fire started on the city’s West Side, near the De Koven Street barn of Patrick and Catherine O’Leary. No one is sure of the cause, but it could have been anything, from vandals (故意) to a drunken neighbor to that clumsy cow of urban legend.

Within minutes, the fire got out of control, tearing through Chicago’s business district. The fire was so hot, it created its own tornado of flame. By 3:30 a.m., all hope of saving large parts of the city was gone. Nearly 30 hours later, the fire finally died. The reason? There was nothing left to burn.

The losses were shocking: The fire took away nearly 300 lives, destroyed over 17,000 buildings covering almost 3.5 square miles, and caused damage of over $200 million—about 3.8 billion today. Roughly a third of the city lay in ruins, and one out every three people living in Chicago — nearly 100,000 residents — became homeless overnight.