first, i ask for your support. i believe in my heart that we can turn theis country around. what we did once we will do again. but we had -- what we had not long ago we will have once more but even better. secondly, i ask you to remember who we are and remember what we've done. you know, a careful study of american history shows that every time the american people have been called upon to do hard things, the american people have always risen to the challenge. we crossed the delaware river, we've weathered the terrible winter at valley forge, we faced redoubts at yorktown, made an empire wave a white flag. we wrote a constitution to change the course of history.

we held the hills of gettysburg. we fought through the wilderness and threw open the doors of richmond's slave jails. all to save the constitution and renew its promise of equality and freedom. we stormed the sands and scaled the cliffs of normandy. we drove tanks through the gates of dachau. we planted the stars and stripes on mt. sarabachi on iwo jima and saved civilization. we marched on washington and won the right of suffrage for america's women. we marched over the edmund pettus bridge and ended segregation. we built rockets and flew them to the moon, leaving the russians in our exhaust, and we built the largest economy, the greatest military in history. and we buried the soviet union beneath it. the american people are always

there for one another. when neighbors are hurting, strangers load up their minivans and head that way. whether it was when the towers fell and people rushed across the country to search through the rubble, or whether it was when the winds blew here in iowa and the floodwaters rose. so i ask you to remember who we are if you're tempted to despair. we're americans, and there's nothing we can't accomplish together. welcom [ cheers and applause ] one of those americans left us 30 years ago in our family. my father was a combat veteran who came home from the korean

war with a medal on his chest. a bronze star for valor that went in the drawer never to be spoken of again. when dad's platoon came under heavy fire, i his citation read that he led his men to safety. until the day he died he seldom spoke of those days in korea. battles of pork chop hill. he didn't need to. he was called to fight for his country, and he did his duty. and he never considered himself a hero. our dad used to say the heroes were the guys that didn't get to come home. but that kid from the south side of chicago was called to defend america oceans away, to stand against a superior force under whitherring fire, and he answered like generation that's have gone before. but this is not my father's

story. this is america's story. we've all of us always risen to the challenge. you know, as i said, my father kept that bronze star in the dresser drawer, but throughout my public career, my family's let me keep it close. it traveled with me to the congress, to the governor's office, and to the white house. for me it was always a reminder that our challenges don't demand acts of valor quite like he summoned. and americans are displayed throughout our history. but a reminder that fulfilling our role and our part to keep the flame of liberty alive and vibrant for the next generation requires each of us to summon our best, find the grace to see the best in one another, and face the future with courage.

and never forget where we've been and what we've done. above all else, who we are. the american people are the most freedom-loving, faith-filled, idealistic generous people the world has ever known. the american people have always been great. we just need government as good as our people. and we'll have it, and we'll have it soon. and when we do, the time we're passing through today will only be a footnote in history. finally and lastly, i ask for your prayers. for me, for my family, and for all of the american people. you know, we don't know what the few holds, but we know who holds the future. the bible says we're the spirit

-- where the spirit of the lord is there's liberty, and i believe with all my heart that god is not done with america yet. and if we turn our hearts back to the author and finisher of our faith and freedom, freedom's story, the american story has only just begun. and the best days of the greatest nation on earth are yet to come. so let's get to work. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you, and god bless you, and god bless america. ♪ >> all right. that was former vice president mike pence officially kicking off his presidential campaign there in iowa. i want to bring in cnn senior political analyst gloria borger and chief national affairs correspondent jeff zeleny with us, as well. he said a lot, and he said a lot

of very memorial rabb things. it -- memorable things. it was also back to the future right from his ad that he put out announcing in a way -- previewing his announcement about the shining city on the hill. he talked about compassionate reforms here, sort of evoking george w. bush, as he's trying to cast an optimistic note about the future. what did you think? >> he also talked about civility. so i think he sounded like a traditional conservative republican who, by the way, and i think for the first time really took the gloves off. >> sure did. >> against his former boss, donald trump, by name which we really haven't heard before. and there were a lot of moments particularly when he was talking about the constitution when he said, you know, effectively i'm for it, and he tried to get me to break the constitution. i think -- do we have that clip? i hope so. >> yes, let's play this because this may be one of the pivotal moments of this speech.

here it is. >> i believe that anyone who puts themselves over the constitution should never be president of the united states. and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the constitution should never be president of the united states again. >> so that was -- that was very tough. we know who he's referring to, and he's took on donald trump on putin. he said that, you know, trump once described putin as a genius, and then he said i know the difference between a genius and a war criminal. and he was talking about his support for ukraine, of course. >> he also walked the audience through what the constitution says about the certification of the vote process to say, hey, i did what the constitution said. it's all right there, let me read it to you. >> i'm not sure i've ever heard a presidential announcement speech including those exact words from the constitution. but look, he did take us through all of it.

he took us through his conservative fphilosophy that started out as a congressman from indiana, as governor. he was vice president along the way. and then talked about the leadership going forward. i think an extraordinarily well-written speech. one thing i've noticed in his presidential campaign, a lot of candidates aren't giving these historic speeches that elevate why you want to be president. you cannot walk away from this not knowing why he wants to be president. you can quibble with should he be or, you know, if you're trying someone else, but you know why he's running. i was struck by -- we've heard some themes throughout. he's been talking sometimes off camera, sometimes to smaller groups. he put it all together and talked about donald trump repeatedly, i lost track of how many times, and clearly a day after a chris christie jumped when he gave a full-throated attack on him. mike pence was more reasoned, more midwestern, more like we need to move on. he said different times call for different leaders. that's the essential question -- is he a different leader?

would he be going forward? that's his burden, i think, to show that he is the future, not just the past. but it's clear by running for president he seems to be trying to wash some of that trump off him and remind people that he was, in fact, a true fiscal conservative, a social conservative on abortion, too, he also went after donald trump on that saying he has sort of retreated from the pro-life movement. so a lot to chew on in here. >> did you think that he was trying to wash some off and not wash some off? i mean, he said -- >> for sure -- >> what president trump and others are forgetting is that we succeeded or failed based on, he said how we acted on conservative principles, or whether they failed to act on them. he said he talked about resisting the politics of personality, the siren song of populism, and politics based on grudges and grievances. he sort of seemed to say, hey, i want to take what i like from that, and i'm going to leave the rest. >> right. and obviously -- and then he really emphasized that you

cannot have a public official whose policies are based on grievance, who is uncivil. he kept talking about civility. and so while at one time he called himself a reagan conservative effectively, and emphasized his conservative and emphasized the administration's conservative, by the way he kept calling donald trump his former running mate which i thought was interesting. but he -- you know, he did separate himself and then tried, as jeff was saying, to remind the public why he separated himself. january 6th was one step too far. because we're so used to having mike pence say to us we all stand on the broad shoulders of donald trump. well, he's not standing there anymore. it's very different this time. >> it's -- i think the question is going to be is this a call to action, or is this going to be in a way, yes, a beautifully written speech, but a eulogy to a party that was replaced by a

movement that actually spawned violence, that targeted this very person who declared their candidacy for the president today, and we will have to see over the course of his -- over this process which direction it goes. jeff and gloria, so great to have you both on this big day. thank you. be sure to watch tonight as dana bash is going to moderate a cnn republican presidential town hall with former vice president mike pence. that is going to begin tonight live at 9:00 p.m. eastern only on cnn. jim? breaking news now. it is unhealthy today to go outdoors for more than 55 million americans. look at this scene in new york. something like the surface of mars. downwind from the relentless wildfires burning in parts of canada. these, we should note, are live pictures of the haze now across parts of the mideast, the mid-atlantic. today new yorkers can barely make out the skyline of the

city. the faa has just issued a ground stop for flights bound for laguardia airport. the picture you're seeing now is the haze over detroit. i flew into d.c. this morning. want to show a picture i took out of the window of my airplane as we approached the nation's capital, as well. we'll put that up in a moment. here the pilots referred to it as we flew into the city and said reduced visibility as a result of that smoke coming from canada. cnn meteorologist jennifer gray joins me now. we'll get you that picture momentarily when we have it. first question is, how extensive in this -- is this smoke, and when you describe that, i want to get a sense of how long it's going to be here. let's start with the scope first. >> yeah. this is huge, jim. we've seen these fires burning out of control for the last several weeks or more across canada. this is something that's going to settle in for quite some time. we could see this off and on throughout the entire summer. i want to shed light on the color, though.

you show those pictures, and it's the orange color. why does the smoke not look gray? it has everything to do with the sun. the sun contains all the colors of the rainbow, and those contain short wavelengths and some other colors contain long wavelengths. the smoke blocks the shorter wavelengths, the blues and greens, only allowing those red and orange colors to pass through. so that's why when you see the smoke it does have that red and orange hue. of course it is a lot more dramatic once we get into the evening hours and then the early morning hours when that sun angle is lower. i want to show you this is what we're dealing with when you have that smoke. as jim was talking about, you can barely make out the skyline here. visibility less than a mile, less than a mile new york right now. we've had ground stops at various airports because of the thick smoke. and so it's basically just blanketing all of the northeast and portions of new england, and it's going to continue. we have very unhealthy air quality. you can see across the i-95 corridor, and then even gets worse once we get into upstate new york.

so people that are sensitive or have respiratory problems need to stay indoors. new york city and toronto topping the top three worst air quality cities in the world. and so just shows you how significant this is. what's to blame here is basically the stag mont weather pattern -- stagnant weather pattern. we have high pressure locked in to the north and west. it's funneling winds from the north, basically into the northeast, into the ohio valley. and because this weather pattern hasn't changed, it's pushing all the smoke from canada down into the eastern part of the u.s. and unfortunately until we get a huge shift in a weather pattern, we're really not going to see much relief. of course the winds are going to shift a little bit back and forth over the next couple of days and weeks, but when it's not bad for new york city and d.c., it's going to be bad for cities across the ohio valley. so that's just the nature of what we're dealing with. you can see the short-term forecast will get the worst of it across new york city, portions of eastern pennsylvania, upstate new york.

get a little break from new york city, it pushes down into d.c. you can see it does improve slightly by the time we get into friday. but the smoke has now pushed a little bit farther to the west. so we're dealing with portions of the mid-atlantic, the ohio valley. so jim, when it's not bad for somebody else, it's going to be bad for someone. this is going to be a big story. unfortunately not just for this week. i think this is going to continue for quite some time. we're still very early in the fire season in canada, and so we have a long way to go. >> it shows just how far and wide those effects can spread. when you look at those comparisons to other cities in the world, delhi at the top of the list, normally u.s. cities far behind that kind of air quality level -- i lived in beijing for a number of years which has often been top of the list. we took precautions there as a result of that. we wore more n95 masks. you think about them for the pandemic. we wore them for the dirty air there. are there any suggestions people can take to protect themselves,

right, because there's a reason why cities are recommending against outdoor activities right now. >> exactly. yeah. it is a big deal. when you see us topping the top three cities in the world, that's significant. so they are urging people to wear the n95 masks when they go outdoors. some people might think it's overkill. it's really not. it's very important, especially people that have respiratory problems, especially children that may suffer from asthma. don't go outside for long periods of time. if you have to, wear a mask, wear something to protect yourself because it can be very, very unhealthy. and especially if this is going to stick around not just for a couple of days. those long-term effects day after day, we're going to have to take this seriously and take serious precautions. >> folks can start looking at air fepurifiers, as well. i know we'll talk to you watching weather patterns see if and when they offer relief. we have more now. i was flying in today, and i saw out the window, it looked bad.

the pilot said, hey, you know, we've got low visibility, but we're still able to land. the flight operations at dca. i know at some airports there have been ground stops for a period of time. explain to folks how much this affects operations. >> doesn't stop them entirely, but we're going to see the ripple effect here not just in the areas where the smoke is, but this is actually having a nationwide impact on flights. the ground stop at laguardia just ended. it switched to a ground delay -- >> how long was the ground stop? >> the ground stop was in place until about 2:00 p.m. >> how many hours -- >> top of the hour. lasted about an hour. the ground stop is for a while. i'm looking at the numbers from the faa, average delay 119 minutes, gjust shy of two hours. that's flights bound to laguardia. departing laguardia delay good 30 minutes according to the faa. >> is the goal to put more space? >> the issue is the visibility.

so if planes are flying on instruments only, they have to maintain a further distance from one another. they can't keep visual separation airplane to airplane. therefore, the faa puts in place these restrictions to try and essentially -- and elongate the conga line, to make sure the airplanes aren't too bunched up to one another, making an unsafe condition. this is really to try and keep things safe. the faa doesn't necessarily cancel or delay flights. that's really up to the airlines, although the new york area has some of the worst visibility according to the aviation weather reports now. at newark, the visibility's only about a half mile. that really does sort of pile on and make arrivals into airports more and more complicated. and it's not just the new york area. we're seeing this at national airport, the d.c. area, dulles, bwi. they could also see impacts from this smoke haze, as well. totally unprecedented, as well. we're seeing it in philadelphia, boston, jfk also having issues. so we'll see as this goes on,

and we will see -- we know that it's a domino effect. so when airlines start to get hit, especially in big hubs like new york, the deck of cards comes tumbling down. delays nationwide. >> you see the differences, jennifer gray had the map up. half mile, three quarters of a mile in new york, maybe three miles in d.c. but she was making the point that could flip over the next days as the wind patterns change. i was sitting there in my passenger seat today, instruments can see through this. >> yes. >> so the visibility is an added safety measure. it doesn't mean that the pilots are blind. >> no. and kmcommercial flying is almo always on instruments. that's a routine thing that commercial pilots do day in and day out. there is safe -- this is safe it doesn't make things unnecessarily unsafe but it adds a layer of risk. the faa pads that out with measures being put into place. we'll see as time goes on here how much of an impact there will be not just in areas where the smoke is but further out. and the latest update from

flight aware, 96 cancelations in the u.s., 1,628 delays. and that keeps going up and up as the day goes on. >> understood. 98 nationally is not exactly catastrophic. of course we'll follow those patterns going forward. >> that's right. >> good to have you on. not the last time we'll be talking about this. >> it is gnarly out there. ahead, new details on the shocking announcement of a partnership between the pga tour and liv golf. we'll speak to the executive producer of the netflix series "full swing" who says their cameras were rolling as this news broke in front of major players. and in ukraine, residents are fleeing their homes after the devastating dam collapse that left many without drinking water. we'll be back in a few minutes. the same as yours. almost... just another word for not as good as mine. the queen slsleep number c2 smart bed is now only $899 save $200. plus, 48-month financing on all bededs. shop now only at sleep number. moving forward with node- positive breast cancer

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it's got everything i need to help my finances. got my fico® score, raised it instantly, i even found new ways to save. all right here. free. and fast. see all you can do with the free experian app. download it now. let's get back now to our breaking news. more than 55 million people are under air quality alerts right now. smoke from the ongoing canadian wildfires blanketing major u.s. cities. have a look at new york there. the skyline behind an orange, almost mars-like haze. cnn meteorologist jennifer gray joins me now.

she's been following the spread of this smoke from canada. i have to tell you, when i look at that map there, the scope of this is just remarkable. how wide, and how long is it going to sit here? >> yeah. it's incredible. and this could be -- could stick around for a while. you have to think that we're still early in the fire season for canada. and we have seen fires burn out of control over the last couple of weeks and even longer. so it all depends on the wind direction. it's all based on the weather pattern. we're in this stagnant pattern that's driving that smoke into portions of the northeast, the mid-atlantic. so from this map, this is the near surface smoke. the reds, the thicker smoke, and then the blues and greens will be the lighter smoke. so you can see across new york city, even down into d.c., this was thursday morning, 10:30. that's where it's going to be really bad. of course across upstate new york, as well. really bad up in places like toronto, canada, the closer to the fires. so as we go into, say, thursday

evening, friday morning, it is going to improve for the new york city area and much of new england. of course it gets worse, though, for portions of the ohio valley and even pushing into the mid-atlantic. so it's really going to be this back and forth, the wind is driving where the smoke is going, so when it's really bad for someone, it's not going to be quite as bad for others. this could be a long-term problem, jim. that's what people need to realize is that as long as fires are burning in canada, as long as those winds are pulling from the south we're going to see poor air quality all up and down the east. so this is a picture from space. you can see the smoke just pouring in and though winds driving it down to the south. it's really something. >> you say long-term problem. i wonder if you could put up on the map again the one that shows the jet stream there as it kind of dips down. i just wonder is that something that's likely to change? i mean -- or not likely to change? you say that pattern that's bringing the smoke down to that

part of the u.s. is going to stick there for weeks, months possibly? >> it's hard to say really. i mean, you know, our forecasts are good only from about now to the next seven to ten days. for the foreseeable future, we don't see this weather pattern changing much at all. of course, things will change over the summer, the weather patterns will definitely change. it just takes some time. right now we are really in this pattern where we've got this high pressure just locked across the northern portion of the country. and it's driving winds around that. the winds flow clockwise around this high, we've got this low sitting to our east. basically the winds are channeling right in between. so the winds are pushing the smoke down into this portion of the country. what we really need are winds to start shifting out of the south and then the smoke will be pushing north of the fires, and it's not going to be pulling down into the u.s. at all. but for now, with the northerly direction, here we are with smoke across the eastern u.s. >> you made the point earlier,

at that point it becomes someone else's problem. the smoke's not disappearing, it's pushed in a different direction. this low-pressure zone, i have some experience because lived in beijing that had major pollution problems. they described it there, as well, almost like a top on top of a cooking pot. the way the pressure was, it kept that dirty air stuck as it were. can you explain that to people, how that works? >> yeah. a lot of times especially when you have high pressure that's locked in place, you'll create -- a lot of times in the summer we call this heat dome, where basically the heat, everything within the atmosphere is just locked into that bubble. and so we're going to see the smoke and everything within that portion of the atmosphere just sort of locked into place until something can drive it out. and so we get into the stagnant patterns, especially when we get into late spring, early summer, where things don't really change much. what can really change it, of course, is if we see a tropical system come. you're going to have major

shifts in wind direction. of course it's still going to be several months before we start to see that really kick into high gear. but things will change eventually, but we're going to be stuck into this stagnant pattern at least for the time being. >> well, listen, it's a reminder that there are no borders when it comes to fires like this, climate problems, et cetera. >> right. >> they know no borders. thank you so much, as always, for walking us through it. we're going to keep talking about it because this doesn't apyroto be going any-- appear to be going anywhere. i want to go to meg terrell, new york, toronto, are at the worst. up there with cities such as new delhi in india because of pollution, some of the same effects as forest fires. if i'm living in new york and got kids there, what precautions should i be taking right now? >> you know, doctors are telling us that kids are among most

vulnerable groups to these effects from the wildfire smoke. so kids, the elderly, pregnant people, and people with lung or heart disease are the ones who are particularly vulnerable to the health effects that we could see here. although they note that really anybody depending on the dose and the individual really could be at risk of getting some health impacts from this. both in the near term and potentially, you know even in the long term. things like developing asthma, copd, things like that. we heard from the american lung association a tip, and it almost sounds ridiculous when you look at what it looks like in new york now. they note, quote, if you can see or smell smoke, know that you're being exposed. that's a tip-off. try to stay inside as much as possible. if you have to be outside, experts say that the high-quality masks that we learned about during covid like the n95s, kn95s, those can really help protect you. of course, they are not recommended for kids. so that is something that's a problem. keeping kids inside is what doctors are telling me is quite important. also within the home, experts

recommend using hepa air cleaners, so those portable air purifiers with the hepa filter can be helpful for keeping your home safe. as well as keeping windows closed, running the air conditioning. >> and particularly a place i remember where you sleep, right, you're in one place for a long period of time. to have a hepa filter there if this persists could be helpful. explain to us why n95 masks even in these circumstances, not recommended for kids? >> well, n95 masks typically they're not designed for children. so they won't give you that fit -- >> the size -- >> that kids -- yeah. we went through this with covid. they don't have the n95 masks made for children. that is still a problem. >> so as parents, should they consider other masks, cloth masks, or even surgical masks for children at least as a second-best measure? >> yeah, i was talking with lindsay marr, an expert on this issue at virginia tech. she was saying really any of those masks will help.

it is the respirators, kn95s that will help more. the higher the quality the better protection you'll get. she said surgical or classic masks will provide some protection here. >> we're showing some live pictures there, meg, as you were speaking of new york's times square. and you can see even with all the lights, just how much smoke there is, just how much smoke there is. thank you so much for staying with us. we're going to continue to follow this story as the smoke from canada drifts down making american cities, goodness, look almost like the surface of mars. we'll have much more on this story next including a live report from times square. this is "cnn news central." a powerhouse lotion that moisturizes, heals, and smooths dry skskin. with 7 moisturizers and 3 vitamins, you can pay more but you cacan't get more. gold bond. champion your skin. i'm christine mahon. i'm retired from public health nursing and from the army reserve. my retirement funds allow me to

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we want to get back to our breaking news. more than 55 million people are under air quality alerts right now. smoke from ongoing canadian wildfires in nova scotia is drifting into the united states and blanketing major u.s. cities. if you look at the skyline in new york, looks like mars, an orange haze blanketing new york city. cnn's miguel marquez is live for us in times square. just looking behind you, you can see the smoke in the air. it's got to be tough to breathe out there. >> reporter: it's not terrible to breathe out here. i've been in many cities around the world that were hit by wildfires like this. to see it in new york is different. we're at times square where many of those 55 million people seem to be right now. i want to show you that's the world-famous ball that drops on new year's eve. that's sort of the sense that you get in new york city.

you can't see more than maybe, i don't know, 10, 15 blocks down the city. let me show you sort of what it looks -- we're at 46th street, and if you look down the east side, you can see how dark it is heading out toward brooklyn and that area. you can see this gentleman here getting into a cab. there's a lot more people wearing masks out here. lots of people taking pictures. not of the buildings and all of the billboards in times square, but of the sky itself and how it's just utterly bizarre. it does seem to be lightening up a little bit. there was a period where it was just that really dark orange, and it's a cool day, well. a little windy, so it feels to be quite honest, it feels like the beginning of an apocalypse. but at times square, a happy apocalypse because everybody is enjoying the day and getting on with it. lots of people just sort of concerned about their own ability -- their own health, their kids' health, elderly

people. airports here also, laguardia and newark at least report something of their flights may be affected. you might want to check that if you are headed to the airport today. but just a really bizarre day to see this in new york city. also bizarre to realize that we are hundreds of miles away from these fires. if you're in los angeles or san francisco, usually you're 20, 30 miles from the fires, then it hits the city and makes sense. we're hundreds of miles away from these fires, and this is the effect in a place like new york city and even farther south. back to you. >> yeah. the smoke is being felt in a widespread area including here in d.c. i looked outside of my apartment this morning, and you could see a similar haze that you're seeing in new york. you described it as a happy accomplice. i'm wondering if you've heard from folks in times square how they're coping with it. >> reporter: well, i can show you that some of the people, there's a lot of tourists here. some of the folks have masks. thankfully many people have their masks left overfrom covid. so there's a lot of -- leftover

from covid. so there's a lot of masks. not as many as you might think, but there are people wearing masks. most people are coping just fine. it's just another thing, another thing to experience in new york city. i think new yorkers, if they are elderly, if they have underlying health conditions, if they have lung issues, those are the sort of people that really are going to have to stay indoors, keep the window closed, and try to keep as much of the smoke out of their lungs as possible. >> miguel, please stand by because we want to pivot now to cnn's maria santana in west new york, new jersey. maria, what are you seeing where you are? it actually looks much worse than miguel's shot of times square behind you. there's an orange haze. >> reporter: well, yeah, this is right across the river from midtown manhattan. normally on a beautiful day you can see the manhattan skyline, the iconic skyscrapers. but today we can't see anything. there's a thick plume of smoke right here. and in the laust few minutes,

it's actually gotten better. just before this was this thick density of smoke that was spreading throughout all these neighborhoods. there was an orange haze. it got very dark, then the winds picked up, and it seemed it moved smoke out of this area. it's getting a little better. this actually does look like the apocalypse on this side of the river because this area is very popular, very populated. a lot of people on a nice day come out here to take photos, to take photos in front of the new york city skyline. there is almost no one here right now. everyone that we have seen at this point has been wearing a mask. there were some construction workers doing some work right here by this area. they left as soon as that big plume of smoke came by in the area, got very dark and very eerie. it was almost like being in a movie. the scenes that we are seeing. i have lived in this area, new york, new jersey area, practically all may life, and i have never, ever experienced

anything like this. i have a mask on. very hard to breathe. you can smell that burnt wood, that burnt wood smell that gets deep in the lungs. so the recommendation from the authorities is stay inside, especially if you have some health conditions, lung issues, asthma, heart problems. and also limit activities outdoors. a lot of schools here in new jersey just as in new york city, they have canceled all outdoor activities for today. >> yeah. maria, it does look cinematic behind you. and you can make out the shapes of buildings in the skyline even though you can't totally see them. i want to give our viewers a perspective of some of the cities that are impacted most by the air quality here as we look at times square. i believe we have a graphic showing some of the cities around the world that have some of the worst air quality you see. delhi, india, and new york city right now is the second worst city in the world with bad air

quality and pollution. and obviously toronto, canada, also in the northeast, downwind from where these fires are. maria santana, thank you so much for that report. please stand by. we're going to keep tracking this story. stay with "cnn news central." major breaking news as smoke plumes cover the northeastern united states. ahhh! icy hot pro starts working instantly. with two max-strength pain relievers, so you can rise from pn like a pro. icy hot pro. ♪ ♪ ♪

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extra prayers coming in today for pope francis. the leader of more than a billion catholics worldwide just underwent abdominal surgery in a rome hospital to repair a hernia. the health problem adding to the list of ailments that the 86-year-old pontiff has suffered from his stomach to his lungs to

his eyes. jim bittermann is in rome with the story. how long was the pope in seriously, and do we know how -- surgery, and do we know how the procedure went? >> reporter: well, it sounds like it went pretty well. he was under the surgeon's knife for about three hours, and afterwards the surgeon, dr. sergio alfiar i, briefed the press about it. here's what he said. >> the surgery operation and the general anesthesia were well tolerated by the pope. now he's awake. he's fine. and he's already at work. >> reporter: already at work. well, maybe a little suspect, but in any case he did come through it okay. what happens next, however, is going to be the most critical thing for the pope because he basically has to have a long, drawn-out recovery period. he won't be able to eat any solid foods for a while until the surgery heals.

the vatican is saying that could be as much as 10 days or two weeks. they've basically canceled all the pope's activities up to the 18th of june. and we're wondering about what happens after that because the pope was scheduled to take some rigorous travel trips to places like portugal with the world youth days, which is a demanding schedule. later on to mongolia. we're not sure how that's going to play out. but the recovery period has begun now, and at least the operation was successful. >> and so he does have this travel scheduled. we'll see whether that goes forward as planned. you know, after that when it comes to his health, are there any more expectations that he may have to deal with some more things? >> reporter: well, not at the moment. but the fact is that he's 86 years old. he is in fragile condition. as you mentioned in the lead-in, the fact is that he has been

twice now operated for abdominal surgeries. and he's also been operated for cataracts, and he was in hospital just a few months ago for bronchitis. he only has part of -- like 1.5 lungs because part of one of the lung has been removed from his childhood. he had bronchitis, pneumonia back then, and they had to remove part of his lung. the pope is in -- not exactly great shape. he's 86 years old. it is a question about how much he can -- just going forward can maintain this kind of schedule. at the moment, they're saying he's fine. and we'll see what happens next. popes, you know, stay in office for a long time. and sometimes die in office. in fact, most times die in office. >> yeah. jim, thank you for the very latest. we do wish him well as he is recovering here. jim bittermann live for us in rome. jim? a former spokesman for

donald trump testified today in front of a federal grand jury in miami. a second grand jury meeting there in addition to the one here in washington, d.c., convened by the special counsel, jack smith. taylor budawich runs a super pac backing trump. he question clined to answer reporter questions as he arrived at the court earlier today. he testified for little less than an hour. cnn senior crime and justice reporter caitlyn polantz is outside of miami. the significance of his testimony and the significance of his testimony in front of another grand jury in addition to the one here, now one in miami. >> reporter: that's right. so taylor budawich is one of the people who was around donald trump at a moment in time where trump wanted to announce publicly that everything he had in his possession after he left the white house was being turned back over to the national archives. and that is not the statement that was ultimately put out by

donald trump in february of 2022. because people like taylor budacwich, a witness before the grand jury testifying in miami, people like taylor budawich had expressed to donald trump that perhaps he shouldn't make a statement by that, and perhaps he should be consulting with his attorneys. that was not the statement that went out at that time. it's very likely one of those episodes that prosecutors are interested in and receiving testimony on. we don't know the full extent of what that testimony entailed today in the secret proceeding here because the grand jury is confidential. we haven't gotten much indication from taylor himself. he did say publicly on social media that "i fulfilled a legal obligation to testify in front of a federal grand jury, and i answered every question honestly." but there are so many questions still about this investigation, including how close an indictment could be in this case

or a charging decision by the justice department and how many witnesses there still could be after taylor's appearance today. jim? >> someone made the comparison today that trying to judge where the investigation stands is like trying to judge an umpire's ball and strike calls from the cheap seats. there's a lot we just don't know. let me ask you this because there had been some reading that the grand jury here in d.c. was close to finishing its work as an indicator that the special counsel was close to a decision here. does the fact that there is another grand jury in miami hearing from new witnesses lessen that sense that we're close to a decision here? >> reporter: you know, it's really hard to predict, although at this point in time we do know that there were many, many pieces of movement that happened in the federal court in washington and at the justice department with donald trump's lawyers just meeting with top justice department career officials, as well as the

special counsel himself earlier in the week. then on top of that, you have a grand jury in washington, d.c., that made extraordinary progress getting answers to questions that they had including of people that normally would never become witnesses in an investigation like this, like donald trump's defense attorney, evan corcoran, who was being compelled to share information. others compelled to answer questions when they initially refused. so that grand jury made quite a bit of progress, was at work for quite a long time, a full year if even more than that potentially. and now we're seeing this pickup of activity in the southern district of florida, in miami. it's totally unclear exactly what this means for the case. but of course, mar-a-lago is located in this particular area that the federal court covers in palm beach. it's always plausible that there could be reasons that they are here that we just haven't exactly nailed down yet. jim? >> including the possibility of having charges there in addition

to here in d.c. thank you so much. boris? we are following breaking news this afternoon. these are live images from new york city. across the northeast millions are under air quality alerts. instead of a skyline full of buildings, it looks like something out of a science fiction movie. we have more on the breaking news when we come back. ♪ to help you see untapped possibilities and relentlessly worork with yu to make them real. ♪

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