New York smoke: Jodie Comer halts Broadway show due to breathing difficulties
Jodie Comer was forced to halt a matinee performance during a Broadway show after experiencing breathing difficulties due to polluted air caused by wildfires in Canada.
The one-woman play Prima Facie was halted approximately 10 minutes in, after the 30-year-old actor from Liverpool began coughing and telling a stage manager she could not breathe.
It came as thick smoke poured into the US East Coast and Midwest from Canada, causing hazardous levels of pollution.
The Environment Protection Agency said on Wednesday that the air quality in the state was “unhealthy”, and citizens were warned to limit outdoor activity.
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US skies darkened by Canada wildfires
A spokesperson for the show said: “Today’s matinee of Prima Facie was halted approximately 10 minutes into the performance after Jodie Comer had difficulty breathing due to the poor air quality in New York City because of smoke from the Canadian wildfires.
“The performance was set to start again from the top with understudy Dani Arlington going on for Ms Comer in the role of Tessa.”
Comer, also known for her role in thriller series Killing Eve, stars as British defence lawyer Tessa, and was recently nominated for a Tony Award for what is her debut role on Broadway.
Pic: AP
The play has secured four Tony Award nominations at the 2023 ceremony after receiving critical acclaim on London’s West End, including Comer scooping the best actress award at the 2023 Olivier Awards.
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Canadian officials were left asking other countries for help to tackle more than 400 wildfires nationwide, in what it called the nation’s worst wildfire season ever.
Many Canadian citizens have been evacuated, including 7,500 in Chibougamau, the largest town in northern Quebec and roughly 4,000 residents of the Cree town, Mistissini.
Smoke travelling into the US had recently intensified, with around 100 fires in Quebec considered out of control.
The Statue of Liberty is shrouded in smoke
Unhealthy air extended as far as North Carolina and Indiana, affecting millions of people, many of who began wearing pandemic-era face masks.
Zach Taylor, a US National Weather Service meteorologist, said the weather pattern was essentially funnelling smoke into the US.
He said that rain should help clear the air in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic this weekend and into early next week, though more thorough relief will come from containing or extinguishing the fires.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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