Smoke-Covered Cities, Outbreak Source IDed & 'Ghetto Kids' Perform - Friday, July 17, 2026

**Erica Mandy** (0:00)
Today is Friday, July 17th. We're talking about dangerous smoke that's pushing air quality to extremely unhealthy levels in multiple states. And the food that's now officially been linked to a parasitic outbreak. Also the US now targeting Iranian infrastructure, and President Trump's warning about foreign interference in American elections. Plus, why Wall Street has been seeing some wild swings, how the Pentagon is responding to fear over low flying fighter jets, and what to expect at the final World Cup match in a star-studded spectacle surrounding it. Those stories and more news coming up.
Welcome to The News Worthy. All the day's news in less than 15 minutes. I'm Erica Mandy. Thanks so much for being here. Let's do this.
Dangerous wildfire smoke is filling the skies from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic. Today, forecasts show more than 115 million people will be exposed to unhealthy air across at least 18 states. It's a worst-case combination of factors happening in the atmosphere. Winds are funneling smoke south from out-of-control fires in Canada and Minnesota and a heat dome is trapping that smoke near the ground. Already yesterday, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, and New York had some of the worst air quality in the world. In Detroit, the air quality index reached a value of 728 Anything higher than 300 could potentially cause health emergencies and impact everyone, not just people who are sensitive to it. So people are being told to stay inside as much as possible, use a C or an air purifier, and wear high quality N95 mask if they have to go outside. Winds and rain could usher the dense smoke out by Saturday.
Meanwhile, millions of Texans are in the grips of catastrophic flash flooding. About a year's worth of rain has already fallen in parts of Texas. And this morning, the hardest hit areas are expecting even more downpours. Some rivers are expected to reach historic levels. Hundreds of people have had to be rescued from high water so far. And at least two people have died in the Texas Hill Country. And that's the same area where more than 100 people died from devastating floods last year. The extreme weather pattern that's behind these storms is finally expected to weaken this afternoon.
The US once again stepped up the war in Iran. Early this morning, the US hit more bridges and highways and collapsed a tower at a key Iranian port. It's all part of President Trump's plan to start striking infrastructure as a way to pressure Iran to loosen its grip on the Strait of Hormuz. But Iran has been striking back by targeting American interests. As ABC News reports, bases that house US assets in Jordan, Bahrain and Qatar have been damaged from Iranian missile and drone strikes. A former United Nations base camp and an industrial area in Kuwait have also been struck. And both the US and Iran are now threatening to escalate further. But the White House says behind the scenes, Iran is still desperate to make a deal with the US. And that the Trump administration is open to negotiations.
President Trump gave a primetime address to the nation to raise doubts about past election results. And he accused American intelligence agencies of a cover-up. Specifically, he said America's election system is vulnerable to hacking, exploitation and foreign interference in a way that's, quote, worse than any third world country. He claimed there was a fraud scheme about voter registration in Michigan, which the FBI is now investigating. He also claimed his administration uncovered hundreds of thousands of non-citizens in state voter rolls. Part of his speech focused on China, saying it carried out what he called the largest compromise of election data in history in part by acquiring 220 million American voter files, and that bureaucrats buried the intelligence. China has already denied those claims. While Trump was speaking, the White House released previously classified documents related to the 2018 and 2020 elections.
They showed Chinese hackers and intelligence operatives collected large amounts of information on Americans and discussed possible influence operations. But they do not appear to offer any direct evidence that China altered votes or changed the outcome of the 2020 election. Already during both Trump's first term and former President Biden's term, intelligence officials publicly warned about Chinese cyber operations, but they concluded there was no effort to actually sway the outcome of any election. They also reported about Russia, saying the country launched wide-ranging influence campaigns aimed at helping Trump in 2016 and 2020 President Trump did not mention Russia in his speech, though, and denied those conclusions at the time. It's also worth noting that this term, the Trump administration, has actually dramatically cut the federal election security infrastructure, cutting employees and specifically ordering the end of election security programs. But now, Trump says election vulnerabilities could be solved if Congress were to pass his strict voter ID and proof of citizenship bill.