Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson, and this is 5 Things You Need to Know Thursday, 8th of June, 2023.

Today, we have the latest on Canada wildfires. Plus, how to stay safe with air pollution,

and Mike Pence enters the presidential field.

More than 400 wildfires continue to burn across Canada after displacing some 20,000 people north

of the border, and smoke from the fires continues to drift into the United States.

More than 100 million Americans have been affected by air quality alerts, according to the EPA.

And at times this week, New York City's air quality has been the worst among the world's major

cities. So why are there so many wildfires in Canada this summer? And is this the new norm?

I spoke with USA Today National Correspondent, Elizabeth Weiss, to find out more.

Hello, Beth.

Hey, how are you?

Good, thanks. Thanks for hopping back on the podcast. So Canada is burning. Can you just start by

giving us an update on the wildfires north of the border?

Well, I wish I could. I wish I could, but I have to tell you that the Canadian Interagency

Forest Fire Center website, which is the federal center of in Canada, the list them all,

has been so inundated by people trying to figure out how many fires of burning that it has been

crashed all day long. I got it up early this morning. We were at over 400 fires burning more

than half of those out of control, but I haven't been able to update that number in the last

couple of hours because their site is down because everybody in the world is looking.

At least everybody on these coasts, but it is a ton of fires.

Beth, why are there so many wildfires in Canada this summer?

So Canada has this huge forest, the Boreal Forest, 38% of Canada is forest, mostly

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