“We don’t have to choose between reliability and affordability on one side, and public health protections on the other. Offshore wind delivers all three, and the time to act is now.”

A model wind turbine during a 2022 press conference at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, where officials announced plans to transform the site “into one of the largest offshore wind port facilities in the nation.” (Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

As extreme weather grips the nation in early summer, New York has seen heatwaves breaking a 137-year-old record and record rain.

This is just a preview of what’s expected to be one of the hottest seasons on record, leaving many New Yorkers sweltering, short of breath, and struggling to stay safe. Our bodies, especially our lungs, are being pushed to the limit as climate-driven heat and pollution continue to rise.

In the face of soaring temperatures, many people crank up their air conditioning to stay cool and protect their health. Ironically, this short-term, necessary solution is making the problem worse. 

In most homes and workplaces, those AC units rely heavily on fossil fuels, the same fuels responsible for overheating our planet in the first place. The result? A vicious cycle where more heat means more energy use, more air pollution, and even hotter conditions, particularly in low-income neighborhoods already burdened by environmental and health inequities. 

Even before this latest heatwave, our communities have been facing a crisis. For decades, air pollution from the fossil fuels to power our homes has contributed to rates of asthma and lung disease all across the city. Now, with the Trump administration actively working to roll back environmental protections, the urgency is even greater. New York must step up, not just with words, but with concrete solutions we can build and scale right here at home.

This March, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would rollback several air quality regulations around power plants, such as the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards and the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. This also includes clean cars and truck rules that limit tailpipe emissions.

These rollbacks mean increased toxins such as mercury, which can cause neurological damage, particularly in children, and pollution linked to asthma, lung cancer, and heart conditions, released into our air by fossil fuel power plants and heavy-duty vehicles.

Burning fossil fuels to produce energy has created a public health crisis in New York, across the nation, and around the world. Here at home, the pollutants released into our air have contributed to asthma attacks and lung disease, putting lives at risk and increasing healthcare costs for everyday New Yorkers.

This year, the American Lung Association gave over 11 New York counties a grade of C or below for air quality in its annual “State of the Air Report.” As of 2021, over 315,000 children and 1.3 million adults in the state were living with asthma, which is directly impacted by environmental conditions like air pollution. These health emergencies are preventable and the costs are hitting families where it hurts most: their health and their wallets. 

It doesn’t have to be this way. We have solutions, right now, that can break the cycle, clean up our air, and deliver reliable, affordable energy. One of the most powerful is offshore wind. And the best part is that we’re building it just off New York’s coast, creating a clean energy supply while supporting a smooth transition to green jobs and strengthening our state’s economy.

Right now, South Fork Wind Farm, 35 miles east of Montauk Point, is powering 70,000 homes with clean, pollution-free energy at the same rate as fossil fuels. Because offshore wind uses free fuel, it offers long-term price stability, even during extreme weather. Once the upfront cost of building turbines is covered, this renewable energy source becomes affordable, stable, and resilient.

More offshore wind projects are actively under construction, and once completed, they’ll provide over a million homes with clean, affordable, reliable energy throughout New York. If the state meets its goal of producing 9 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2035, that would bring $34 billion in capital investment, create thousands of jobs up and down state, and provide enough pollution-free energy to power 5 million homes.

Without this transition, New Yorkers will continue to pay the price both in rising electric bills and worsening public health. It’s time for our state government to clean up our act, and our air. 

We don’t have to choose between reliability and affordability on one side, and public health protections on the other. Offshore wind delivers all three, and the time to act is now. 

Max Micallef is the New York State advocacy manager of clean air initiatives at the at the American Lung Association.

The post Opinion: NY’s Solution to Heat Waves & Polluted Air? Offshore Wind appeared first on City Limits.

OCHOPEE, Fla. (AP) — Deportation flights from the remote Everglades immigration lockup known as ” Alligator Alcatraz ″ began in the past few days, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday.

Work progresses on a new migrant detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility in the Florida Everglades, Friday, July 4, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

The flights operated by the Department of Homeland Security have transferred about 100 detainees from the immigration detention center to other countries, said DeSantis, who expects that number to increase soon.

“I think you’re going to see the numbers go up dramatically,” DeSantis said during a news conference near the South Florida detention center.

Officials said that two or three flights have departed from the site so far, but they didn’t say where those flights headed.

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Critics have condemned the facility as cruel and inhumane. DeSantis and other Republican officials have defended it as part of the state’s aggressive push to support President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

Building the facility in the Everglades and naming it after a notorious federal prison were meant as deterrents, DeSantis and other officials have said.

The White House has delighted in the area’s remoteness — about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Miami — and the fact that it is teeming with pythons and alligators. It hopes to convey a message to detainees and the rest of the world that repercussions will be severe if the immigration laws of the United States are not followed.

The center was built in eight days over 10 square miles (26 square kilometers) of the Everglades. It features more than 200 security cameras, more than 5 miles (8 kilometers) of barbed wire and 400 security personnel.

It currently holds about 2,000 people, with the potential to double the capacity, Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said Friday.

By STAN CHOE, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are hanging around their records on Friday and coasting toward the close of another winning week.

The S&P 500 was edging up by 0.1% in early trading, coming off its latest all-time high, and is on track to finish its fourth winning week in the last five. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 71 points, or 0.2%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was drifting around its record set the day before.

Deckers, the company behind Ugg boots and Hoka shoes, jumped 16.6% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the spring than analysts expected. Its growth was particularly strong outside the United States, where revenue soared nearly 50%.

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Edwards Lifesciences rose 8% after likewise topping Wall Street’s expectations for profit in the latest quarter. It said it saw strength across all its product groups, and it expects profit for the full year to come in at the high end of the forecasted range it had given earlier.

They helped offset drop of 8.8% for Intel, which fell after reporting a loss for the latest quarter, when analysts were looking for a profit. The struggling chipmaker also said it would cut thousands of jobs and eliminate other expenses as it tries to turn around its fortunes. Intel, which helped launch Silicon Valley as the U.S. technology hub, has fallen behind rivals like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices while demand for artificial intelligence chips soars.

The pressure is on companies to deliver solid growth in profits after their stock prices rallied to record after record in recent weeks. Wall Street has zoomed higher on hopes that President Donald Trump will reach trade deals with other countries that will lower his stiff proposed tariffs, along with the risk that they could cause a recession and drive up inflation. Trump has recently announced deals with Japan and the Philippines, and the next big deadline is looming on Friday, Aug. 1.

Besides potential trade talks, next week will also feature a meeting by the Federal Reserve on interest rates. Trump again on Thursday lobbied the Fed to cut rates, which he has implied could save the U.S. government money on its debt repayments.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell, though, has continued to insist he wants to wait for more data about how Trump’s tariffs will affect the economy and inflation before the Fed makes its next move. Lower interest rates can help goose the economy, but they can also give inflation more fuel.

Lower rates also may not lower the U.S. government’s costs to borrow money, if the bond market feels they could send inflation higher in the future. In that case, lower short-term rates brought by the Fed could actually have the opposite effect and raise the interest rates that Washington must pay to borrow money over the long term.

The widespread expectation on Wall Street is that the Fed will wait until September to resume cutting interest rates.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady following Trump’s latest attempt to push Powell to cut interest rates. Trump also seemed to back off on threats to fire the Fed’s chair.

“To do that is a big move, and I don’t think that’s necessary,” Trump said. “I just want to see one thing happen, very simple: Interest rates come down.”

If Trump fired Powell, he’d risk freaking out financial markets by raising the possibility of a less independent Fed, one unable to make the unpopular choices that are necessary to keep the economy healthy.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.42% from 4.43% late Thursday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for what the Fed will do, held steady at 3.91%.

In stock markets abroad, indexes slipped across much of Europe and Asia.

Stocks fell 1.1% in Hong Kong and 0.3% in Shanghai. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said he will meet with Chinese officials in Sweden next week to work toward a trade deal with Beijing ahead of an Aug. 12 deadline. Trump has said a China trip “is not too distant” as trade tensions ease.

AP Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.

By SAMY MAGDY and WAFAA SHURAFA, Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday his government was considering “alternative options” to ceasefire talks with Hamas after Israel and the U.S. recalled their negotiating teams, throwing the future of the negotiations into further uncertainty.

Netanyahu’s statement came as a Hamas official said negotiations were expected to resume next week and portrayed the recall of the Israeli and American delegations as a pressure tactic.

The teams left Qatar on Thursday as President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said Hamas’ latest response to proposals for a deal showed a “lack of desire” to reach a truce. Witkoff said the U.S. will look at “alternative options,” without elaborating.

White House special envoy Steve Witkoff waits for the arrival of President Donald Trump at Teterboro Airport in Teterboro, N.J., en route to attend the Club World Cup final soccer match, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

In a statement released by his office, Netanyahu echoed Witkoff, saying, “Hamas is the obstacle to a hostage release deal.”

“Together with our U.S. allies, we are now considering alternative options to bring our hostages home, end Hamas’s terror rule, and secure lasting peace for Israel and our region,” he said. He did not elaborate. Israel’s government didn’t immediately respond to whether negotiations would resume next week.

A breakthrough on a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas has eluded the Trump administration as humanitarian conditions worsen in Gaza. Israel has come under mounting pressure as hunger among Gaza’s more than 2 million people has worsened and deaths related to malnutrition have accelerated.

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

In recent days more then two dozen Western-aligned countries and more than 100 charity and human rights groups have called for an end to the war, harshly criticizing Israel’s blockade and a new aid delivery model it has rolled out. The charities and rights groups said even their own staff were struggling to get enough food.

On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would recognize Palestine as a state, saying, “The urgent thing today is that the war in Gaza stops and the civilian population is saved.″

Hamas official Bassem Naim said Friday that he was told the Israeli delegation returned home for consultations and would return early next week to resume ceasefire negotiations.

Hamas said that Witkoff’s remarks were meant to pressure the group for Netanyahu’s benefit during the next round of talks and that in recent days negotiations had made progress. Naim said several gaps had been nearly solved, such as the agenda of the ceasefire, guarantees to continue negotiating to reach a permanent agreement and how humanitarian aid would be delivered.

The sides have held weeks of talks in Qatar, reporting small signs of progress but no major breakthroughs. Officials have said a main sticking point is the redeployment of Israeli troops after any ceasefire takes place.

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The deal under discussion is expected to include an initial 60-day ceasefire in which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and the remains of 18 others in phases in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Aid supplies would be ramped up, and the two sides would hold negotiations on a lasting ceasefire.

The talks have been bogged down over competing demands for ending the war. Hamas says it will only release all hostages in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal and end to the war. Israel says it will not agree to end the conflict until Hamas gives up power and disarms. The group says it is prepared to leave power but not surrender its weapons.

Hamas is believed to be holding the hostages in different locations, including tunnels, and says it has ordered its guards to kill them if Israeli forces approach.

Some 50 hostages remain in Gaza but fewer than half are believed to be alive. Their families say the start-stop talks are excruciating.

“I thought that maybe something will come from the time that the negotiation, Israeli team were in Doha,” said Yehuda Cohen, whose son Nimrod is being held hostage. “And when I heard that they’re coming back, I ask myself: When will this nightmare end?”

Meanwhile Israeli strikes continued across Gaza.

At least 22 people were killed since Thursday night, according to hospital records at Nasser Hospital where the bodies arrived. Some were killed in strikes, others and others were killed while seeking aid, said the hospital.

Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip.