Canadian wildfire smoke is back.

Ukraine is making some gains and a window into how the US has avoided a recession.

I'm Jeff Pierre and this is the seven from the Washington Post. It's Tuesday

July 18th. Let's get you caught up with today's seven stories. First up smoke from Canada's wildfires is set to blanket much of the East Coast.

Another massive plume has drifted into the U.S. since the weekend.

Parts of 23 states are forecasts that suffer poor air quality through today.

The smoke could reach as far south as Central Florida. But some of the smoke will be

will be suspended at higher altitudes rather than near the ground.

That should help reduce its effect on air quality.

This is all happening as a southern U.S. is in its third week of an extreme

and stubborn heat wave. Record-breaking temperatures are hitting southern Europe too. The heat in Italy,

Greece, and Spain is expected to peak today and tomorrow.

Number 2.

Donald Trump's attempt to block an election investigation in Georgia was rejected.

Trump had asked the state's top court to stop a criminal investigation that's looking into his alleged

2020 election interference.

Yesterday that petition was dismissed.

It means that investigators can keep probing

whether Trump and his allies broke the law when they tried to overturn Trump's election

loss in the state.

Today is also the first pretrial hearing in a separate Trump case.

This one is over the former president's alleged mishandling of classified documents.

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