Dangerous

April 22 (UPI) — More than 152 million people in the United States – about 44%– live in areas that have unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution, the American Lung Association said in the 2026 State of the Air report released Wednesday.

The report also noted that 44.6% of U.S. children live in counties that have failing grades for at least one measure of air pollution,while 10% of children live in counties with failing grades in all three measures. These measures include ground-level ozone (smog) and both short-term and year-round particle pollution (soot).

“Infants, children and teens are especially vulnerable to the health harms of breathing pollution,” the report said. “Their lungs are still developing, they breathe more air for their body size than adults and they frequently spend more time outdoors.”

The report showed that trends from last year’s edition continued and often grew worse, including extreme heat in many places that affected ozone levels and wildfires in Canada that affected ozone and particle pollution.

“Clean air is not something we can take for granted,” American Lung Association President Harold Wimmer said in announcing the report, the Washington Post reported. “For decades, people in the U.S. have breathed cleaner air thanks to the Clean Air Act. Unfortunately, that process is now at risk due to extreme heat and wildfires, fueled by climate change, and policy changes that are making the problem worse.”

The Clean Air Act became effective in 1963. This is the 27th edition of the State of the Air report, which was first released in 2000. The report has reflected the act’s successes over the years, but over the past decade, also the challenges of the changing climate, the American Lung Association said.

“Increases in high ozone days and spikes in particle pollution related to extreme heat, drought and wildfires are putting millions of people at risk and adding challenges to the work that states and cities are doing across the nation to clean up air pollution,” the report said.

The authors of the State of the Air report noted that levels of unhealthy air vary widely across the country and that people of color disproportionately live in areas with poor scores. A person of color is 2.42 times as likely as a white person to live in an area with poor scores for all three air pollution measures.

For the seventh year in a row, Bakersfield, Calif., was the metropolitan area with the worst level of year-round particle pollution. Fairbanks, Ala., moved to the worst spot for short-term particle pollution. Los Angeles remained the metropolitan area with the worst ozone pollution. It’s held that spot for 26 years of the report’s 27-year history.

Only one city – Bangor, Maine – had good marks in all three measures.

In county rankings, San Bernardino in California had the highest level of ozone pollution; the five worst counties in the country in this measure were all in California. In short-term particle pollution, Fairbanks North Star Borough in Alaska was ranked as the worst. In long-term particle pollution, Kern County in California held that spot.

Twenty counties throughout the United States had failing grades for all three measures of air pollution: Maricopa in Arizona; Fresno, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Bernardino, Stanislaus and Tulare in California; Lake and Marion in Indiana; Wayne County in Michigan; Butler and Cuyahoga in Ohio; Allegheny, Dauphin and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania; and Bexar County in Texas.

Caracas has two avenues known as “Cotas”: Cota Mil, also known as Boyacá Avenue, which borders the Waraira Repano national park from East to West on the North edge of the capital. And Cota 905, or Guzmán Blanco Avenue, which heads south. In both cases, the name refers to their altitude above sea level.

Cota 905 was inaugurated by Marcos Pérez Jiménez in 1953. Years later, Venezuelan families began building informal settlements around it. By the late 1970s, it had become a complex area, with difficult access that to some extent isolated it from the rest of the city. 

Between 2014 and 2021, armed gangs took control of the area, turning it into the city’s most dangerous barrio, terrorizing 300,000 residents and ensuring that not even the garbage collection service dared to enter. Every day we heard news of clashes with police forces or even of the “occupied territory” expanding into nearby areas.

Over these years, the government alternated between attempts to negotiate with the gangs –in an effort to turn the neighborhood into a “peace zone” –and a “heavy-handed” crackdown on crime. There were police operations as part of the so-called “Operation Liberation of the People” (OLP), followed by raids by the elite FAES unit. Finally, the massive “Operation Gran Cacique Indio Guaicaipuro” was launched in 2021, with the establishment of 34 checkpoints in what appeared to be an invasion of enemy territory by security forces.

Although no one questioned the need for the government to regain control of Cota 905, Operation Cacique Guaicaipuro sparked strong criticism of police actions, including the arrest of dozens of young people who were later proven to have no connection to criminal gangs. The barrio’s kingpin, Carlos Luis Revete, alias “El Koki,” escaped the operation but was killed months later in a shootout near Caracas. 

Since then, residents of the area have noted a decline in crime and drug trafficking. However, they complain that the government should follow up its intervention by addressing other basic needs: street cleaning, improving services, replacing damaged roofs, creating decent spaces for education, culture, sports, and recreation, generating local employment. Above all, there was also the issue of lifting the stigma after all those years. Making people understand that Cota 905 produces more than just criminals.

Still, in Venezuela, whenever the state takes a step back, organized communities step forward. One initiative I had the chance to get to know was “The Cota 905 Tour: A Thousand Stories, Over a Hundred Murals, One Route,” a community-led cultural tour that transforms the neighborhood into an open-air art gallery.

This project was conceived by Jefferson Cárdenas, a young man known as “Gorra,” who spent a couple of years in prison for theft and weapons possession until another group came to his rescue: Free Convict, a Venezuelan hip-hop group made up of former inmates and prisoners who use music as a tool for social reintegration and personal transformation. In fact, many of these rappers have joined him in this new social initiative. 

Jefferson recruited a couple of neighbors and began taking out trash, clearing brush, sweeping, and installing light bulbs. Little by little, other neighbors started donating small amounts of cement or paint they had stored at home. Some neighbors –who are currently out of the country –also did their part. So did some small business owners in the neighborhood: from the owner of a 30-year-old bodega that is a neighborhood institution, to newer ventures like a pizzeria (which I highly recommend!) and a bakery. Meanwhile, graffiti artists and muralists also decided to contribute their art for free.

To begin the tour, it takes some effort to go up an endless amount of painted staircases that are a testament to urban creativity. Then, amid its labyrinthine streets, we witness murals on walls and house façades. Over a dozen artists and collectives contributed more than 100 artworks.

The key word if self-management. The initiative has relied on grassroots organizations in the barrio and also helped them reactivate.

But the tour isn’t just about taking in the views. Visitors are joined by local historians, and there are impromptu concerts, theater plays designed to raise awareness, traditional games, local cuisine, and even souvenirs for sale featuring positive messages about Cota 905. Given its success, the organizers are considering new possibilities, such as tours at sunrise or sunset.

The Venezuelan government, which in recent years has launched various initiatives in Cota 905 but without much consistency, has acknowledged the tour success. The Ministry of Tourism has officially recognized it, and even groups of foreign tourists have come to experience it.

Jefferson’s team has helped redefine the Cota 905 territory. Artists and musicians now come here to shoot music videos, taking advantage of the incredible views. The most breathtaking photos are taken from the so-called “Eye of God,” a spot that lives up to its name, reaching a height of 1,200 meters. Once used by criminals to maintain control over the city, it is now a local attraction.

To those who might be reluctant to visit Cota 905, Jefferson responds clearly: “I didn’t agree with the police operations –there were too many clashes between law enforcement and gangs. It was a war, but ultimately the state had to do something. This neighborhood was a problem for all of Venezuela, but today we want to be part of the solution. We need these initiatives to work because there are still many kids waiting for opportunities: before, they were given radios, drugs, and weapons; today we want to give them paint, balls, and microphones, so they’re seen in the media as an example and not as a tragedy.” 

The group, which tries to stay away from strong political or religious stances, wants to grow food, introduce horseback rides, and more. “This mountain was hurt,” Jefferson continues. “My brother was killed but my son was born here. We have plenty of reasons to commit to this barrio. Hopefully authorities could give us a helicopter ride so we could point out from above everything that needs fixing. But until then, we’ll continue with our work.”

The story of Cota 905 is not unique, nor is it a novelty. The barrios in the major Venezuelan cities, Caracas above all, have always had to overcome marginalization. When Chávez came to power, many of them remained as “green spaces” in local maps, even though they were home to hundreds of thousands of families in piled-up hillside houses. And if they were classified as green areas, it meant they had no public services nor were they part of public policies. But that never stopped the people from organizing to defend their rights, resist against state violence, and build a future together.Venezuelan barrios can be precarious, hostile, violent. But if we are willing to walk and listen to them, we realize that they are also spaces of profound beauty and solidarity. The struggle continues.

KATY Perry has hit back at ‘reckless’ claims she sexually assaulted Ruby Rose nearly two decades ago.

Ruby, 40, took to Threads on Sunday to accuse Katy, 41, of assaulting her at a nightclub in a flurry of posts.

In one shocking post, she accused Perry of rubbing her genitals on her face.

The Batman star spoke out in response to an article Complex Magazine had written about Katy going to Coachella.

Writing to her her 19.7 million followers, she said: “Katy Perry sexually assaulted me at Spice Market Nightclub in Melbourne.

“Who gives a s**t what she thinks.”

As fans reacted to Ruby’s shocking claims in the comments, the actress shared more about the alleged incident.

“She saw me ‘resting’ on my best friend’s lap to avoid her and bent down, pulled her underwear to the side and rubbed her disgusting vagina on my face until my eyes snapped open and I projectile vomited on her,” Ruby added.

The Fireworks singer branded the allegations “reckless lies.”

In a statement, her representative said: “The allegations being circulated on social media by Ruby Rose about Katy Perry are not only categorically false, they are dangerous reckless lies.

“Ms. Rose has a well-documented history of making serious public allegations on social media against various individuals, claims that have repeatedly been denied by those named.”

The Orange is the New Black star said that she initially made a joke about the ordeal before deciding to tell the truth.

“After it, I threw up on her. I told the story publicly but changed it to be a ‘funny drunk story’ because I didn’t know how else to handle it.

“Later she agreed to help me get my US visa. So I kept it a secret. But I did tell ya’ll she wasn’t a good persona. Instead I got attacked by everyone.

“The psychological manipulation was strong with that one,” Ruby admitted.

In another post, Ruby wrote, “I was in my early 20s, I’m now 40.

“It has taken me almost two decades to say this publicly.

“Though I am so grateful to have made it long enough to find my voice, it just shows how much of an impact trauma and sexual assault takes. Thank you for seeing me.”

Katy attended the first weekend of Coachella with her boyfriend, former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, 54.

The ex-American Idol judge shared photos and videos from the festival on Instagram, showing the couple holding hands and dancing to Justin Bieber’s set.

According to sources, Katy and Ruby have never seen eye to eye and have had a “complicated” history.

“Ruby and Katy have a complicated backstory – they’ve never really been friends,” an insider told The U.S. Sun.

“This allegation has come as a massive shock to everyone, though.

“Screenshots of Ruby’s messages are being shared around the music industry now, and people don’t know what to think,” they added.

Voter fraud conspiracies are like methamphetamine running through MAGA veins, stirring up equal parts passion and paranoia.

President Trump, of course, is the king pusher of this particular addiction, pathologically certain he won the 2020 presidential election (he did not). In his second term, and in advance of the November election, Trump has supercharged voter fraud lies; installed election deniers in key positions; and is attempting through the so-called SAVE America Act to disenfranchise poor and female voters.

Here in California, the seductive power of Trump’s crusade can be seen in Riverside County, where gubernatorial candidate and Sheriff Chad Bianco is definitely not pursuing a vote fraud investigation for political reasons.

“From the very, very beginning, Chad Bianco didn’t say this was political,” Bianco told me, referring to himself in the third person. “Chad Bianco said we have an allegation of fraud with numbers that don’t add up, and no one has an exact reason why. So we have to find out the exact reason why. It’s plain and simple. Plain and simple.”

If you’re clueless as to what Bianco is talking about, let me give you the short version. A citizens group of election “auditors” claimed that in the last election over Proposition 50 in November, there were about 45,800 more ballots counted than cast.

The Riverside County Registrar of Voters, Art Tinoco, a highly respected election official, gave a long presentation explaining why that number was not accurate. He said that the actual difference in ballots cast and counted is only 103, within the acceptable margin of error for the 1.4 million voters in his area.

But unhappy with that answer, the group apparently took their concerns to Bianco, who decided to use his powers of criminal investigation to circumvent the many established avenues for vote audits through his own county and the California secretary of state (though he hasn’t revealed publicly exactly what led to the investigation).

Using a secret, sealed warrant — so none of us actually know what he’s alleging — he seized more than half a million ballots. The court has apparently appointed a special master to count those ballots, though Bianco at first said his deputies would do their own counting. But we don’t know who that special master is, or even if he or she has yet been appointed.

Here’s what we do know, and why it counts as a danger not just to Riverside, but also to American democracy writ large, when a politically ambitious lawman decides to run elections himself.

The fraud fiasco

So where did the citizen-auditors get their 45,800 number? Like many California counties, Riverside tallies ballots as they come in. So for the 11 days voting was happening (and for the mail-in ballots that came later) someone was making a handwritten note for every ballot that the county received.

Yes, I said handwritten, for more than 600,000 ballots going through 2,500 workers and volunteers. It’s often inaccurate and not every ballot is going to end up being a good one — some lack signatures, for example.

Tinoco, the registrar, called these handwritten logs “raw data” that also are missing ballots from other sources that increases the final tally, such as people who register on the day they vote. So no one who understands elections expects this number to be accurate or final.

Once all these ballots are checked to make sure they should be counted, they are sent to an entirely separate system, which reads them electronically and provides the election results.

When the number of vetted ballots is compared with the number of ballots that are counted by the second system, the difference is 103, Tinoco said.

So no fraud, only human frailty with the difficult business of counting by hand.

Matt Barreto, a UCLA political science professor and director of its Voting Rights Project, said Bianco’s actions were similar to what happened in Fulton County, Ga., where the FBI seized ballots after Trump’s debunked claims of fraud — despite plain and simple explanations from election officials.

“In both cases, Georgia and Riverside, independent elections offices had already verified the accuracy of the ballot count, and in both cases the results had been certified by the Secretary of State,” Barreto said. “It is worrisome that a very partisan law enforcement officer is questioning the integrity of an election, perhaps because he did not support the results.”

The investigation

Bianco has been investigating the 45,000 claim for months, but it came to a head in recent weeks, in no small part thanks to a news conference he held. Bianco’s office, as first reported by the Riverside Record, served a warrant on the election office one day before Tinoco made his presentation to the Board of Supervisors in early February.

Since then, the California secretary of state, which handles elections, and the state Department of Justice have both tried to intervene to stop Bianco from taking ballots or doing his own recount, Pillow Guy-style. But they’ve had little luck.

Secretary of State Shirley Weber called the allegations “unsubstantiated” and questioned the legality — and common sense — of having deputies hand count ballots. Now, her office is trying to make sure folks trained in elections are involved in whatever happens next.

“The sheriff’s assertion that his deputies know how to count is admirable,” Weber said. “The fact remains that he and his deputies are not elections officials.”

Separately, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta has gone to the courts to try to keep Bianco from spiriting away the ballots. Bonta’s office went straight to the California Court of Appeals to ask it to force the sheriff to comply with their requests to take no further action and supply the Justice Department with the probable cause evidence used to obtain the search warrant — basically tell them exactly what proof he’s using to claim a crime might have been committed.

The appeals court declined to intervene until Bonta went to the lower Riverside County Superior Court. But in the meantime, Bianco went back to his judge and asked for another secret, sealed warrant — which he got.

The bigger problem

And that brings us to why we should all be concerned about Riverside County.

First, why all the secrecy? Shouldn’t elections and everything about them be transparent, so we all can feel confident any investigation is on the up and up?

I asked Bianco why the warrants are sealed, and he told me I didn’t understand investigations.

“In an ongoing investigation, we never unseal the warrants,” Bianco said. “No, I can’t say never. I can’t say never. Why are you coming at me like I’m the bad person here, instead of like a rational person?”

When I asked him why a sheriff needed to be involved, rather than allowing the state officials who handle elections to investigate, he told me this was a crime investigation just like any other — domestic abuse or murder, for example.

“It’s called fraud,” he said. “Let me ask you this: Do we just let, do we let doctors investigate themselves for medical malpractice?”

The implication there is that election officials are in a conspiracy to commit an actual crime — fraud — and can’t be trusted. That jumps the shark from maybe election staff counting sloppy in their handwritten tallies of ballots received, to a — yes, folks, here it is — a conspiracy of Democrats, from those volunteers up to the highest state officials.

That is a political vendetta, straight from Trump, and has little to do with tracking down crime — which, by the way, Bianco’s office is not great at. It has some of the lowest clearance rates in the state.

“Oh, please,” Bianco said regarding my questions on whether this was, in fact, political. “I’m the sheriff of Riverside County, and my investigators are responsible for crime. I have nothing to do with this investigation.”

His news conference would beg to differ.

And now we have a precedent for a politics-driven sheriff seizing ballots, maybe to make headlines, maybe to please Trump, maybe both. What happens if other Republican sheriffs across the country decide to do some ballot seizing of their own in swing states or contested races come November?

Is it all fair game now for whoever can physically take the ballots to be the arbitrator of results?

“The political corruption in California just gets bigger and bigger,” Bianco said on social media recently.

On that, we can agree.

What else you should be reading

The must-read: Landmark L.A. jury verdict finds Instagram, YouTube were designed to addict kids
The deep dive: ‘He’s an election skeptic. And he’s in charge of elections in Shasta County
The L.A. Times Special: Court denies AG’s petition to block Republican sheriff’s investigation of 650,000 ballots

Stay Golden,
Anita Chabria

P.S. Here’s Bianco on social media not long ago, once again definitely not espousing partisan voter conspiracies.

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Some airports can be very challenging to land at

Jetting off on holiday should be an exciting occasion, however some European holiday hotspots require landing at challenging airports. Four popular European destinations have been ranked among the most dangerous airports in the world.

While many planes take off and land safely at the airports every day, pilots need to be aware of the dangers. It could be tricky runways, weather changes or challenging terrain.

As a result, the pilots undergo specialist training to safely land at these airports. This can be done through ground training, a simulator and in the air.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) ensures safety across the entire continent, with high standards at airports. The majority of airports in Europe are category A, which requires standard training.

Category B airports have “slightly out of the ordinary” features, while category C requires specialist training. Here are some of Europe’s most challenging destinations.

Innsbruck Airport, Austria

Many people head to Innsbruck to take in the stunning Austrian Alps, yet the mountains pose a challenge for pilots. It has been reported that only captains are permitted to land planes at Innsbruck Airport, which is deep in a valley.

The challenging manoeuvre to land in the valley is often made harder by low-level wind. Depending on the weather conditions, the pilot may need to make a tight turn during the approach. There’s also a limited possibility for a missed approach due to the mountains surrounding the airport.

Gibraltar International Airport, Gibraltar

Gibraltar has a rather unusual airport setup as a main road crosses the airport. Traffic is stopped around 15 times a day to let planes land and take off.

For pilots, the challenges come due to abnormal wind effects, turbulence and wind due to the famous Rock of Gibraltar. Diversions and go-arounds are common, with some flights even abandoning attempting to land.

Cristiano Ronaldo Airport, Madeira

Madeira’s runway may look rather precarious due to it being a bridge right by the water. However, it has actually helped to improve safety at the airport.

To land at the island, pilots need special training in order to be granted permission. Experienced pilots have to cross mountains and exposed coastlines before lining up perfectly with the narrow runway while often facing high winds.

Sadly, a fatal accident occurred in 1977 when 131 of the 164 people on a plane died when it fell off at the end of the runway. The accident led to the construction of the runway extension bridge.

Courchevel Airport, France

The airport in the French Alps is often ranked as one of the most dangerous in the world. It has the world’s shortest runway and is the highest tarmacked runway in Europe.

Courchevel Airport is 6,588ft (2,008m) above sea level and its runway is just 1,762 ft (537m) long. Only small aircrafts and helicopters are allowed to land there.

To add to the difficulty, the runway doesn’t have lighting systems, and the area is often battered by extreme weather conditions in the autumn and winter.