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NEW YORK (AP) — Heavy, pungent smoke from Canadian wildfires darkened skies in the U.S. on Thursday from the Great Lakes to parts of the East Coast, reducing visibility and prompting warnings that breathing the air outside could be dangerous.

Officials in many cities urged residents to stay inside or wear masks outside as air quality reached unhealthy to hazardous levels, meaning it’s unhealthy for anyone, regardless of health conditions.

“It’s scary,” Omar Mitchell, 50, said as he looked he looked to the sky. He wore a mask while walking to his restaurant in Detroit. “You don’t know necessarily what the side effects may be. That’s days or months later.”

Microscopic particles can lodge deep in the lungs and enter the bloodstream, leading to heart and lung problems and contributing to other long-term health issues.

Detroit’s air quality was among the worst in the world for major cities, as a lingering high pressure system trapped smoke from dozens of fires in Canada and northern Minnesota, said Steven Freitag, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Pontiac, Michigan.

“Sure enough, it arrived in force here and it’s really pretty extreme levels,” said Freitag, who noted that visibility in some areas was reduced to a half mile.

The air stinks and glows yellow in some places

All of Michigan and much of Minnesota were under a hazardous air quality alert. In the Chicago area, air quality ranged from very unhealthy to hazardous.

National Weather Service meteorologist Jake Petr said even if winds from the northwest clear skies as expected later this week, the smoky air could keep returning until the fires are out. That could take weeks or longer.

“Anytime we have something that could bring air from that region until the fires are over, it could conceivably dip back into the area,” Petr said.

Bill Ostrowski, 76, wore a mask as he walked through downtown Chicago, where wildfire smoke shrouded skyscrapers. “It stinks. It’s not a good sign when you wake up in the morning and you can smell the air,” said Ostrowski.

In St. Paul, Minnesota, the air was “glowing yellow,” said Brent Williams, head of the soil, water and climate department at the University of Minnesota. The area “could be looking at weeks to months of continued smoke and flare-ups off and on as the winds blow in different directions,” he said.

A study published this year found that long-term exposure to tiny particles from wildfire smoke contributed to an average of 24,100 deaths a year in the lower 48 states. Long-term exposure can make existing health problems worse and lead to a range of chronic and deadly issues, including respiratory illness, cardiovascular and neurological diseases, and premature death.

New York City cancels activities and hands out masks

In the New York City area, a thick haze tinged the morning sky in orange-and-yellow and partly obscured Manhattan’s prominent skyline.

City officials opened cooling centers as health officials urged New Yorkers to limit strenuous and prolonged outdoor activities and to stick to air-conditioned spaces as much as possible. State officials distributed tens of thousands of face masks at transit hubs and other major locations.

Gwen Moseley, 65, was among the first patrons at Rosedale Library in Queens to take advantage of the free masks, saying she’s on the road much of the day working as a therapist for children with autism.

“I’m trying to stay as much in the house as I can,” Moseley said as she waited to meet a young client at the library. “Who wants to be breathing this? It’s not healthy. When I’m out walking, I can feel the scratchiness in my throat.”

The city’s schools, parks and other agencies moved activities indoors, rescheduled events and adjusted operations.

Smoke eased a bit but was expected to thicken again by late afternoon or evening, possibly lasting overnight, weather service meteorologist Maureen Hastings said. She said it might move south for a while on Friday, but return at night.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation warned that there was a potential for temporary spikes of “very unhealthy” air quality from Buffalo in the state’s western corner to Rochester by Lake Ontario, Syracuse in the central region, down to the greater New York City area.

Philadelphia officials urged people to avoid strenuous activity and stay inside or wear N95 or KN95 masks outside.

“Today is not the day to start your marathon training plan,” said Dr. Palak Raval-Nelson, the city’s public health commissioner.

Minnesota fires are spreading

Meanwhile, forest rangers on Thursday combed the a remote wilderness area in Minnesota for anyone who might still be there days after wildfires led to its closure.

Officials closed the Boundary Waters along the U.S.-Candian border on Tuesday. At the time, 6,000 to 10,000 people were inside, but Superior National Forest staff estimated Wednesday that they’d reached 90% of them, said Karen Harrison, a spokesperson for state and federal emergency management agencies.

She said Thursday that smoke is making it difficult for helicopters to fly, and fires in the wilderness are spreading despite firefighting efforts.

“There will be fire on the landscape until fall, and some fire will be burning until snow cover,” Harrison said.

The Royal Canadian Air Force successfully evacuated 11 Minnesota teenagers and four staff members Wednesday from wildfires in an Ontario provincial park about 175 miles (282 kilometers) north of the Minnesota border.

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Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan. Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit, Jacqueline GaNun in Lansing, Michigan, and Cybele Mayes-Osterman in Chicago contributed to this report.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Treasury last year swelled with revenue from President Donald Trump’s double-digit taxes on imports from almost every country on earth.

But the money dried up after the Supreme Court struck down the biggest and boldest of Trump’s tariffs in February.

The question now is: Can the president’s trade team make good on its promise to replace the lost revenue?

A deadline is approaching rapidly.

After the Supreme Court setback, the president turned first to Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 to impose 10% tariffs globally. But Section 122 only authorizes tariffs for 150 days. Trump’s expire on July 24. Congress would have to extend those tariffs — something lawmakers are unlikely to do as the Nov. 3 midterm elections approach amid voter discontent over the high cost of living.

But the administration has more durable options: Section 301 of the same 1974 trade law permits the president to impose tariffs and other sanctions against countries found to engage in “unjustifiable,” “unreasonable” or “discriminatory” trade practices. Trump used Section 301 to impose big tariffs on China in his first term and is rolling them out again — as recently as late Wednesday when he announced 25% tariffs on some Brazilian imports, charging the world’s 11th-biggest economy with a host of unfair trade practices.

Trade attorneys and analysts are confident the tariff-happy Trump administration will manage to beat the clock and swap out Section 122 tariffs with bigger Section 301 tariffs by the July 24 deadline. “They’re going to raise the tariff wall again,’’ said trade lawyer Ryan Majerus, a partner at King & Spalding and a trade official in Trump’s first administration and in President Joe Biden’s.

Trump last year tested – and exceeded – the limits of his authority to impose import taxes, a power the U.S. Constitution gives Congress. He invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to slap big tariffs on most of the world’s countries.

He justified the levies, which marked a stunning reversal of decades of U.S. policy in favor of lower tariffs and freer trade, by labeling America’s longstanding trade deficits a national emergency.

The Supreme Court didn’t buy it, ruling in February that the president couldn’t use the emergency powers law to impose tariffs at all. The legal defeat meant the administration had to send refunds to importers that had paid the levies.

As a result, tariffs have at least temporarily gone from a windfall to a drain on the Treasury.

Revenue from import taxes peaked at more than $31.4 billion last October. Then, after the Supreme Court ruling, it started dwindling – to $22 billion in both March and April. As refund checks went out faster than revenue from the Section 122 and other tariffs came in, the number turned negative: A small ($42 million) shortfall in May was followed by a whopping $25.6 billion loss in June.

Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have vowed to use other legal authorities to recoup the lost income.

Enter Section 301, which gives the president power to impose – and adjust – tariffs in response to other countries’ trade practices. But the administration must first check procedural boxes – collecting comments and holding hearings. There are no limits on Section 301 tariffs. They expire after four years but can be renewed.

So the president has flexibility in how he uses the Section 301 tariffs. Trump can still change them — after clearing procedural hurdles — but he can’t impose or move them up or down on a whim as he often did with the IEEPA tariffs. Uncertainty over Trump’s tariff policy has vexed businesses, leaving them hesitant to make investments and decisions because they don’t know what the trade rules are going to be.

A switch to rule-bound 301 tariffs would mean “there’s less uncertainty but not no uncertainty,’’ said Sarah Bianchi, a former U.S. trade official who is now chief strategist of international political affairs at the investment research firm Evercore ISI.

The Trump administration has turned to two big Section 301 investigations in its campaign to replace lost tariff revenue. One accuses 60 countries, accounting for 99% of U.S. imports, of failing to do enough to crack down on imports created by forced labor. The other is investigating whether 16 U.S. trading partners — including China, the European Union and Japan — are overproducing goods, driving down worldwide prices and putting American manufacturers at a disadvantage.

The administration has already decided what it wants to do about the forced labor issue. Invoking Section 301 last month, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer proposed tariffs — 10% on 16 countries and 12.5% on 44 — that are the same or slightly higher than the 10% Section 122 levies they would replace. But Greer’s office is still receiving public comments on the proposed tariffs and has not imposed them yet.

Nathaniel Halvorson, a partner at the Baker McKenzie law firm and a former U.S. trade official, expects Greer’s office will manage to get the forced-labor levies in place in time so that there won’t be much, if any, “daylight’’ between them and the expiring Section 122 tariffs. “Really, they’re operating about as fast as legally possible,’’ he said.

The administration has not yet completed the other Section 301 investigation into alleged overproduction by 16 countries. Trade attorney Majerus expects the administration to propose more big tariffs in that case, likely in a month or two. He suspects they will be timed to take effect only after the midterm elections “for obvious reasons.’’

Trump, who has proudly called himself “Tariff Man,’’ has made it clear that he is seeking to bring back the big, worldwide import taxes he’d imposed in 2025. So the new 301 investigations look like a pretext to do that and might be vulnerable in court, Bianchi said.

“Section 301s have been pretty legally durable,” she said. “But no one has tried to use it to basically put in place universal tariffs. I think there will be legal challenges.’’

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil has described the latest U.S. tariffs on certain Brazilian imports as unjustifiable and politically motivated and threatened on Thursday to impose reciprocal tariffs against U.S. products. The country’s top diplomat criticized U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio for the move.

The U.S. said on Wednesday it would impose a new 25% tariff on certain imports from Brazil, citing unfair trade practices by the world’s 10th-biggest economy.

Brazil’s Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira accused Trump administration officials of pressuring the South American nation to give American companies exclusive access to some sectors of its economy. He said Brazil has never left the negotiating table.

The tariffs, first proposed last month, will take effect July 22. The order exempts some goods that are not produced in the U.S. or that officials worry would disrupt supply chains — including coffee, beef, oranges and orange juice and aircraft components.

Brazil’s government said the decision hits about 3,000 items, but is yet to decide whether and how it could retaliate with a law its Congress passed in 2025 in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

In a statement late Wednesday, the office of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva refuted the U.S. allegations of unfair trade practices. It said 76% of imports from the U.S. entered Brazil duty-free in 2025, and said the average tariff effectively applied to U.S. products was only 3.1%.

It said it has taken steps to impose reciprocal tariffs, along with other trade-related countermeasures, through its own law and through the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement mechanism.

Vieira said Rubio made statements that are “unacceptable, offensive to the Brazilian people and the Brazilian government” after the new tariffs were announced. Rubio said in a post on X that the tariffs were the result of Lula putting “his own ego ahead of making a deal” and not negotiating with the U.S. in good faith.

“Rubio launches a crude and arrogant attack on the Head of State of a friendly nation, who has personally sought to open channels for dialogue on several occasions,” Vieira told a press conference in the capital, Brasilia. “What Secretary Rubio dismisses as ‘ego’ is, in fact, President Lula’s steadfast resolve to defend Brazil’s sovereignty and the interests of our businesses and workers.”

US has a robust trade surplus with Brazil

The United States has for years run a massive trade deficit with the rest of the world, and Trump has cited the lopsided trade numbers to justify his aggressive use of tariffs.

But Brazilian imports make an unusual target: The U.S. has persistently piled up trade surpluses with Brazil. Last year, in fact, U.S. exports to Brazil exceeded imports by nearly $42 billion; only the United States’ trade surpluses with the Netherlands and the United Kingdom were higher.

The new tariff puts pressure on national exports and increases insecurity for companies in both countries, Brazil’s National Confederation of Industry said in a statement Thursday.

The Trump administration first imposed a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports last July. He cited what he called a “witch hunt” against former President Jair Bolsonaro. Trump’s ally was on trial at the time for attempting a coup despite his 2022 electoral defeat to Lula and was later convicted. Some of those tariffs were later rescinded.

Trump at the time also accused Brazil of unfair trade practices and said he had directed U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to initiate an investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.

That led the office to charge Brazil with lax anti-corruption enforcement and unfair tariffs, among other things, in June. One of the targets of the investigation is Brazil’s popular PIX payment system, which is run by the country’s central bank and is overwhelmingly free of charge.

Scott Lincicome, a trade analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute, said the U.S. administration might have had a legitimate Section 301 case if it narrowly targeted Brazil’s restrictions on trade in digital services. Instead, it threw in a bunch of other allegations.

“It’s a pretty clear case of the administration simply finding an excuse and finding a law that allows them to impose the tariffs they want to impose,’’ Lincicome said.

Welber Barral, a trade lawyer and former Brazilian foreign trade secretary, said the move comes as his country’s exports to the U.S. are now less than 10% of its total for the first time in two centuries.

“Brazil is diversifying to other destinations,” Barral said. “Brazil is negotiating with Canada through the Mercosur. Other deals will also come out as the American market closes.”

Brazil elections may be impacted

Brazilian officials have blamed the Bolsonaro family — the main political opponents of Lula — for the latest round of tariffs. The move was announced shortly after Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, a presidential hopeful in October’s elections and son of the former president, visited Trump, Rubio and other U.S. officials in Washington in May.

Sen. Bolsonaro reposted Rubio’s statement, adding: “Lula is no longer fit to be the president of Brazil. We are on a plane without a pilot.” He also described Lula as “the Brazilian Biden” and said he “is grumpy, reckless, and has become a danger to our nation.”

Flávio Bolsonaro is expected to be confirmed as Lula’s main election rival on July 25 at his Liberal Party’s convention in Sao Paulo, though his bid has struggled to overcome the findings of a police investigation which showed he received millions of dollars from a disgraced banker to finance a movie about his father. He has denied any wrongdoing.

The two leading presidential candidates have previously traded barbs over their responses to the deeply unpopular U.S. tariffs, suggesting that they believe how they are perceived as handling them will be a key factor in the vote.

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Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.

Paul Wiseman contributed to this report from Washington D.C.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Catastrophic flash floods in Texas have killed two people and forced hundreds of rescues in areas still reeling from devastating floods a year ago, Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday.

Rescuers aboard boats and helicopters have saved more than 200 people, including stranded drivers and people trapped in homes, Abbott said.

The governor said the hardest-hit areas are expecting more rain into Friday and are not out of danger yet, with some rivers expected to reach historic levels.

After days of pounding rain, the National Weather Service said a large wave on Thursday barreled down the same river wrecked by flash floods last summer when two dozen children and counselors died at Camp Mystic.

Much like last year, the floods came in the middle of the night. But this time some residents in the Texas Hill Country said they received more warnings.

Forecasters urgently warned, “Move to higher ground now!” as rivers rose hour by hour. Some spots of the Guadalupe River rose by more than 30 feet (9 meters).

The governor said more than 2,000 first responders had been deployed and some evacuations began before the worst of the flooding.

“What happened last year was a warning to people on or near rivers,” Abbott said. “No one can be complacent.”

As much as 28 inches (74 centimeters) of rain fell over the past three days in Uvalde County, which was spared from the worst flooding a year ago, the weather service said Thursday. Other areas saw roughly a foot of rain.

Victims in Texas floods were swept away

The governor said one of the victims was driving on a flooded road and was swept away near Uvalde while the other died in Kerr County.

Jennie Steward said the body of her husband, 65-year-old John Mark Steward, of Kerrville, was found Thursday.

She was visiting her parents when a neighbor called overnight, saying her husband was missing after water had risen to the door of their mobile home, which stood off the ground.

The entire home was swept off the platform and floated down Goat Creek on the Guadalupe, she said.

“It’s really hard that I wasn’t there with him,” she said. The two last spoke by phone Wednesday to celebrate their third anniversary.

Hill Country residents say they were better prepared

The unfolding crisis brought back haunting memories of last summer’s unimaginable Hill Country floods that killed more than 100 people over the July Fourth holiday.

“It’s crazy happening two times in one year,” said Josiah Rodriguez, who awoke to the sound of heavy rain around 2 a.m. Thursday in Kerrville. He navigated flooded roads to help evacuate relatives.

“Last year there was no warning of it,” he said. “It just kind of happened overnight and it took everyone by surprise. This year, a lot more alerts have gone into place, a lot more safety measures.”

Residents said they were caught off guard a year ago and didn’t receive any warning when floods overtopped the Guadalupe. Some local leaders were criticized for not acting quickly.

The storms and flooding this time threatened multiple counties close to the Mexico border and in the Hill Country near San Antonio. Roughly 6 million residents across Texas were under a flood watch this week, and many were expected to remain in effect into Friday.

Several agencies sent rescue helicopters to the flood zone, including Travis County in the state capital of Austin.

Residents rush animals and campers to higher ground

At a wild animal rescue, Katie Buck evacuated several dozen animals to higher ground in the dark Thursday as the normally dry Lazy Creek overflowed. She got all of the animals to safety, but flooding destroyed several enclosures at the Buck Wild Animal Rescue and Wildlife Rehab near Ingram in Kerr County.

“We were just starting to get back on our feet again,” Buck said. “To have to go through this again is just devastating.”

Residents at an RV park in Comfort moved their trailers as sirens sounded, manager Duke Earwood said.

Water rose over the hoods of vehicles parked near the river at the Comfort RV Resort. Markers showed the flooding already matched last July’s big flood.

“Too familiar for sure, and too soon,” Earwood said.

Uvalde residents isolated by floodwaters

Floodwaters also overran the city of Uvalde overnight, cutting off most outside routes. The Leona River, normally dry most of the year, filled streets with water.

“People really can’t get anywhere,” said Carmen Rodriguez, who nervously watched water engulf her neighborhood as a helicopter roared overhead. “We have a place to go, but all the streets are closed.”

Rodriguez said authorities seemed to be prepared, ordering mandatory evacuations and notifying people directly.

After staying up most of the night, Casy Sanford and her husband felt like things were OK at their home in Uvalde as the downpour and heavy winds let up. Texas Game Wardens were outside their door just a few hours later, evacuating the couple, Sanford’s son and three daughters, her mother-in-law and two dogs by boat Thursday morning.

Sanford said she felt “mere shock” as they left most everything and closed the door behind them, water seeping into the ground floor of the only home her little girls have known.

“My little one was scared. She kept grabbing my hand real tight,” Sanford said of her 8-year-old. “I’m not sure what we’ll see when we get back.”

Sanford later said a neighbor had visited her family’s home and found water had climbed as high as their kitchen counters.

Texas Game Wardens rescued close to 150 people by the afternoon, according to a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department spokesperson. Video released by the agency showed crews hoisting children from a house surrounded with water into a helicopter.

Uvalde resident Jose Maldonado said water reached the first step to the entrance of his RV on Wednesday and rose above the door on Thursday. Floodwaters took down nearby walls, moved cars, flipped a trailer and left behind debris, he said.

He and his wife planned to stay with his parents until they could return to clean up.

Flooding hasn’t reached last year’s deadly high

So far, the Guadalupe has remained below the record levels reached in 2025. Close to Camp Mystic, which hasn’t reopened since last year’s tragedy, the Guadalupe near Hunt reached about 20.5 feet (6.3 meters), which is enough to cause flooding, according to U.S. Geological Survey and National Water Prediction Service data.

In Kerr County, where summer camps dot the river’s shores, the sheriff’s office said all campers were safe. Several camps said the children were staying inside, with one camp reporting normal flooding.

While the water didn’t rise as high as a year ago in Ingram, Mayor Claud Jordan believes this round of flooding was more widespread in his city.

“There are a bunch of businesses that haven’t reopened from last year,” Jordan said. “This doesn’t help.”

The Hill Country is especially prone to flash floods because the area’s signature limestone is covered by just a thin layer of soil. During heavy rains, water can quickly shoot downhill before filling the narrow river basins.

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Stengle reported from Dallas and Fingerhut reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press writers Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut; Michael Phillis in Washington; Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Anna Wilder in Austin, Texas; Laura Turbay in Little Rock, Arkansas; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.