Climate

Newsweek -  Three U.S. cities rose to the top of a global ranking for worst air quality on Friday amid widespread smoke from Canadian wildfires across the Midwest and Northeast.

Detroit recorded a "very unhealthy" (201-300) U.S. Air Quality Index reading of 240 between 1 and 2 p.m. ET, placing it first (worst) among the major cities tracked by Swiss air-quality company IQAir. Chicago followed with an “unhealthy” (151-200) reading of 199, followed by Washington, D.C., at 172. New York City placed eighth at 131.

The three worst cities outside the U.S. were Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at 186, Delhi, India (the world's most polluted city in 2025), at 163, and Jakarta, Indonesia, at 144, which is considered "unhealthy for sensitive groups" (101-150).