An air quality health advisory has been issued for New York City and its surrounding areas because of smoke from wildfires in Canada.

In a post on X, New York state’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Department of Health (DOH) issued the advisory for Long Island, New York City Metro, Lower Hudson Valley, Upper Hudson Valley, and the Adirondacks on Saturday.

Authorities are warning air quality in those regions is “unhealthy for sensitive groups”.

Wildfires in Canada have forced tens of thousands of people to leave their homes, and the smoke drifting over the border has sparked air quality concerns across the northern United States.

The air quality index (AQI) is predicted to be above 100 in much of New York state on Saturday, and could reach 135. Alerts are also in place for parts of New England.

The AQI measures the severity of pollution in the air and categorises health risks. The higher the number, the more unsafe the air is to breathe.

This is not the first time US authorities have issued air quality alerts because of smoke from the Canadian wildfires.

In mid-July, a similar alert was issued for Chicago, with additional precautions advised for babies and the elderly.

The political implications of the wildfire smoke have also reached Washington.

Earlier in July, six members of Congress wrote to the Canadian ambassador complaining that smoke from wildfires was making it difficult for Americans to enjoy their summer.

There are currently more than 550 active fires in Canada, with the most concentrated in the province of Manitoba, according to authorities. 6.1 million hectares (15 million acres) of land has been burnt across the country in the past year.

May and June were particularly destructive months in western Canada, with roughly 30,000 people forced to evacuate in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where local administrations declared a state of emergency.

Scientists have consistently linked the intensifying wildfire seasons to climate change.

Canada is believed to be warming at twice the global average rate, and its Arctic regions are heating up at nearly three times the global rate, scientists have warned.

Areas affected include popular tourist destinations, such as Fairy Meadows, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Pakistan has issued a warning about glacial flooding in the northwest with more rain forecast in the coming week, as the country experiences above-average rainfall this monsoon season and continues to struggle to recover from devastating floods in 2022.

Downpours are heavier in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province than the same period last year, prompting weather advisories and alerts for flooding from glacial lake outbursts, said Anwar Shahzad, a spokesperson for the local disaster management authority, on Saturday.

The weather advisory alert comes after the authority sent out a letter earlier this month saying “persistent high temperatures may accelerate snow and glacier melt and subsequent weather events” in vulnerable parts of the region, underscoring the ongoing heavy impact of climate change on the country.

Spokesperson Faizullah Firaq said on Saturday there was “severe destruction” in some areas and damage to houses, infrastructure, crops, and businesses.

Search operations were under way to find missing people on the Babusar Highway, where flooding struck nine villages. Helicopters rescued tourists stuck in the popular spot, Fairy Meadows, he added.

Abdul Samad, from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Tourism Department, said rescue teams evacuated more than 500 holidaymakers from Naran after a cloudburst overnight Friday caused a road closure. Authorities deployed heavy machinery to remove debris and restore access.

In the neighbouring Gilgit-Baltistan region, the government said it had distributed hundreds of tents, thousands of food packets, and medicine to flood-affected communities. Three people died there on Tuesday when a cloudburst caused floods and landslides, stranding more than 200 tourists who were later rescued.

Zakir Hussein, director general of Gilgit-Baltistan’s Disaster Management Authority, said on Tuesday that while warnings help reduce the presence of tourists in these vulnerable areas, they are not always enough.

“Generally, tourists pay attention to our warning notices. Those who still choose to come are either those who did not see the warning or those who have some urgency to visit,” Hussein told Al Jazeera. “At the end of the day, it is weather prediction, but considering the severity of the consequences, people should take it seriously.”

The rains are a routine part of South Asia’s climate and are essential for crop irrigation and replenishing water supplies.

However, their adverse effect has worsened in recent years due to rapid urban expansion, poor drainage systems, and more frequent extreme weather events linked to climate change.

Pakistan’s above-average rainfall this monsoon season has raised concerns of a repeat of the devastating 2022 floods that submerged a third of the country, killed 1,737 people and displaced more than 30 million. Some 260 have died across Pakistan so far this season, which runs through to mid-September.

Pakistan, which has a population of about 250 million, is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change, but one of the lowest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. It is also home to more than 7,000 glaciers – the largest outside the Earth’s polar regions.

A dating safety app that allows women to do background checks on men and anonymously share “red flag” behaviour has been hacked, exposing thousands of members’ images, posts and comments.

Tea Dating Advice, a US-based women-only app with 1.6 million users, said there had been “unauthorised access” to 72,000 images submitted by women.

Some included images of women holding photo identification for verification purposes, which Tea’s own privacy policy promises are “deleted immediately” after authentication.

Tea said the breach affected members who signed up before February 2024. It added it had “acted fast” and was “working with some of the most trusted cyber security experts”.

The app has recently experienced a surge in popularity – as well as criticism from some who claim it is anti-men.

Tea lets women check whether potential partners are married or registered sex offenders as well as run reverse image searches to protect against “catfishing”, where people use fake online identities.

But one of the most controversial aspects of Tea is that it allows women to share information on men they have dated to “avoid red flags” but also highlight those with “green flag” qualities.

The company said the breached photos “can in no way be linked to posts within Tea”.

The firm blocks screenshots so that posts are not shared outside the app.

But on Friday it also admitted that an additional 59,000 images from the app showing posts, comments and direct messages from over two years ago were accessed.

Tea said: “We’re taking every step to protect this community – now and always.”

BBC News has contacted Tea for comment.

The company was set up in November 2022 by Sean Cook, a software engineer who said he was inspired to create Tea after witnessing his mother’s online dating experiences.

He told Medium in May: “I was shocked by how easy it was for catfish, scammers and criminals to take advantage of women on dating apps and how little traditional dating apps do to protect users.”

However, some men – and women – have challenged these types of groups claiming that they put men at risk of invasion of privacy and defamation.

Earlier this year, an individual named Nikko D’Ambrosio took legal action against Facebook’s owner Meta because of a number of statements made about him in a chat group called “Are We Dating the Same Guy”.

The lawsuit was thrown out by a federal judge in Illinois.

The trailblazing artist, son of legendary Fairuz and composer Assi Rahbani, was also a playwright, pianist and political provocateur.

Lebanese musician and composer Ziad Rahbani, son of the iconic singer Fairuz and a pioneer of fusion jazz, has died at the age of 69 of a heart attack.

“On Saturday at 9:00am, the heart of the great artist and creator Ziad Rahbani stopped beating,” said a statement from the hospital where he was being treated in the capital, Beirut, on Saturday.

Rahbani influenced generations of Lebanese people with his songs and especially his plays, whose lines are known by heart by both young and old.

He was the son of Fairuz, the last living legend of Arabic song – and one of the most famous Arab women worldwide – and composer Assi Rahbani, who, along with his brother Mansour, modernised Arabic song by blending classical Western, Russian, and Latin American pieces with Middle Eastern rhythms.

“I admire the music of composers like Charlie Parker, Stan Getz and Dizzy Gillespie,” Rahbani once said. “But my music is not Western, it’s Lebanese, with a different way of expression.”

Fairouz also became an icon for young people when Rahbani composed songs for her influenced by jazz rhythms – he called it “oriental jazz”.

Lebanon’s leaders paid a heartfelt tribute to the Lebanese composer, who was also a playwright, pianist and political provocateur.

President Joseph Aoun called Rahbani “a living conscience, a voice that rebelled against injustice, and a sincere mirror of the oppressed and marginalised”.

“Lebanon has lost an exceptional and creative artist, a free voice that remained faithful to the values of justice and dignity” and who said “what many did not dare to say”, said Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

Rahbani’s works reflected the hybrid heritage of Lebanon, which, until the civil war erupted in 1975, was a cultural melting pot. It also reflected the ensuing sectarian strife, which involved bloody street battles between rival militias and three years of violent Israeli occupation after the 1982 invasion.

While Fairuz transcended the powerful sectarian divides in the country, her son chose to be resolutely left-wing and secular, denouncing Lebanon’s longstanding divisions. His breakout play, Nazl el-Sourour (Happiness Hotel), premiered in 1974 when he was only 17, portrayed a society disfigured by class inequality and repression.

The play follows a group of workers who take over a restaurant to demand their rights, only to be dismissed by the political elite.

In another play, Bennesbeh Labokra Chou? (What About Tomorrow?), he plays a jaded bar pianist in post-civil war Beirut. The work features some of Rahbani’s most poignant music and biting commentary, including the famous line, “They say tomorrow will be better, but what about today?”

Rahbani was also a composer of staggering range. He infused traditional Arabic melodies with jazz, funk and classical influences, creating a hybrid sound that became instantly recognisable. His live performances were legendary, when he often played piano in smoky clubs in Hamra, one of Beirut’s major commercial districts.

In recent years, Rahbani appeared less in the public eye, but younger generations rediscovered his plays online and sampled his music in protest movements. He continued to compose and write, speaking often of his frustration with Lebanon’s political stagnation and decaying public life.

“I feel like everything is over, I feel like Lebanon has become empty,” wrote Lebanese actress Carmen Lebbos, his former partner, on X.

Rahbani is survived by his mother, now 90, his sister Reema and brother Hali.