THE BIG STORY

Wildfire smoke is causing a new public health crisis on the West Coast

Health experts are warning that people exposed to high concentrations of smoke from the wildfires consuming the West Coast will be more likely to die of heart attacks or be hospitalized because of asthma and other respiratory problems.

The fires are likely already causing an upsurge in fatal heart attacks and hospitalizations for people with asthma — and it might also make people more vulnerable to COVID-19.

Scientists haven’t yet examined the effect of wildfire smoke on the transmission of the coronavirus, but studies have found that areas with high levels of air pollution tend to have higher rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths — even after accounting for factors like race and poverty.

The historic wildfires made Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver the most polluted major cities in the world as of Tuesday, according to an air quality monitoring website. Delhi, the notoriously polluted Indian capital, was pushed to fourth place.

Jogging while wearing a respirator in Portland. Robyn Beck / Getty Images

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

The city of Louisville will pay Breonna Taylor’s family $12 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit

Six months after Breonna Taylor was fatally shot by police in her home in Louisville, Kentucky, city officials said they have agreed to pay her family $12 million and enact several police reforms to settle a wrongful death lawsuit.

Taylor’s family’s attorney said, “Justice for Breonna is multilayered. What we were able to accomplish today through the civil settlement against the officers is tremendous, but it's only a portion of a single layer.”

As part of the settlement, the city will establish a housing credit program to incentivize officers to live in low-income census tracts, and encourage officers to use paid hours to volunteer in the community they serve.

Taylor's mother Tamika Palmer, her attorneys, and activists reiterated their call for Kentucky’s attorney general to immediately file charges against the officers involved in Taylor's death.

SNAPSHOTS

Trump said “herd mentality” will help COVID-19 “disappear.” The president was referring to herd immunity, where enough people get a disease and become immune to it that the spread is severely restricted. Some experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have said that for this to happen with COVID-19, many people would have to die.

A US diplomat is pleading with Belarus to release her spouse from jail. Heather Shkliarov, a US State Department employee, told us in a statement that she is growing concerned about the well-being of her husband Vitali Shkliarov, who was arrested by Belarusian security services in late July.

People are being arrested for arson, but no, they’re not Antifa. As authorities battle the West Coast’s ferocious wildfires, they're also having to contend with unfounded conspiracy theories tying the blazes not to climate change, but left-wing agitators.

Truly surreal photos that show how powerful the fires on the West Coast are. We put together a collection of found melted objects left behind. This one is going to haunt me:

Josh Edelson / Getty Images

PARENTING WEEK

Class of COVID-19: I sent my twins off to college in a global pandemic

This week is Parenting Week at BuzzFeed News, and we’re exploring what it’s like to navigate the waters of parenthood while the coronavirus changes everything we know about daily life.

John Paczkowski wrote a deeply moving piece about how the pandemic has changed an experience parents look forward to for a long time: sending your children off to college.

The moment of the send-off is heartbreaking — and so is the lead-up to it. Paczkowski writes of a string of lost experiences: “So many plans ruined in the run-up to this milestone. College drop-off was just one more. Graduation. Senior formal. The long farewell of senior spring. And now the first year of college. My kids graduated in a car. Performances we’d looked forward to, performances they’d prepared for all year, simply didn’t happen.”

AMERICA'S SASS

Chris Evans had an excellent response after he accidentally posted a very NSFW picture on his Instagram story

Over the weekend Chris Evans accidentally posted a picture to his Instagram story that, uh, probably wasn't meant for our eyes. Very quickly, the internet was, uh, enthusiastic about the post.

Evans’s Avengers co-star Mark Ruffalo enjoyed poking fun at Captain America, who remained silent on the matter for a few days. When he finally broke his silence, it was an absolute delight.

I hope you get to be your kindest self today,

Elamin