🌏 Canadian Wildfires Smoke Has Reached Europe, The Netherlands Passes "Only Yes Means Yes" Law And More

Hello and welcome to the Almost newsletter, a weekly email to help you stay updated and make sense of important stories happening around the world including:

• 🌏 This Week’s Top Stories
• 👩 Women To Know
• 🙌 Good News For Your Week

Canada is officially facing its worst wildfire season in modern history, as more than 483 active wildfires, including 250 deemed out of control, rage across the country.

Smoke from the wildfires, which have been burning since March, has billowed as far as New York and now even reached Europe.

The unusually hot and dry weather caused a string of blazes to spread to almost all Canadian provinces, with some of the worst cases caused by lightning.

The fires have burned nearly 20 millions of acres of land as of June 28, and at least 120,000 residents have been forced to evacuate across the country.

A jet stream – strong winds in the atmosphere – has now spread the smoke across the Atlantic Ocean towards Europe.

Satellite images from June 26 showed the smoke from the wildfires in northern Portugal and Spain.

It has since spread as far as the UK and northern Europe.

Earlier in the month, the fires triggered health alerts as the smoke caused poor air quality throughout Canada and drifted south to as far as New York in the US.

On June 6, New York recorded the worst air quality and pollution in the world, surpassing cities like Delhi in India, Baghdad in Iraq and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, according to IQAir, a Swiss technology company that monitors air quality

Officials said that higher-than-normal fire activity is likely to continue throughout the summer.

Also Happening Around The World

🇮🇹 The UK tourist who vandalized the Colosseum has apologized, saying he “didn’t know” it was ancient.

A year after women in the Netherlands started its first #MeToo movement, the country has passed a “only yes means yes” bill that clearly defines rape as sex without consent.

Previously, the law required proof that there was violence, threats or coercion in order for it to count as rape.

But the new law expands the definition of rape to sex without consent.

This comes after lower House of Representatives voted to amend the country’s law on Tuesday July 4.

The bill is expected to be voted into law by the upper house of the Senate within the next nine months.

This would make the Netherlands the 17th country in Europe to adopt a law that recognizes non-consensual sex as rape.

More Women You Should Know About

🇭🇰 Hong Kong-American singer Coco Lee, who voiced the Taiwanese version of Mulan, has died at 48.

Nepal became the world’s first least developed country to achieve marriage equality.

This comes after the country’s Supreme Court issued a temporary order to allow same-sex marriages on Wednesday June 28.

The temporary order was issued by a single judge as the court rules on a case brought forward by LGBTQ activists.

Now, same-sex couples and people who identify as third gender can register their marriage and enjoy the same rights as heterosexual married couples.

Nepal has made significant progress in LGBTQ rights since a Supreme Court ruling in 2007.

The ruling ended a ban on gay sex, introduced an official third gender and made LGBTQ discrimination illegal.

In 2021, a third gender was included in its census for the first time.

Now it has become the second country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage after Taiwan.

The court still has to issue a final decision, but temporary orders generally have a significant impact on the outcome of a case.

More Good News For Your Week

🇨🇴 More than 100,000 people in Colombia held its biggest ever pride parade to celebrate LGBTQ rights.

🌏 From the streets of London and Kathmandu to Seoul and Bogotá, thousands of people around the world took part in marches, parades and protests to mark LGBTQ Pride Month in June. Take a look back at some of the best moments.

Thanks so much for opening this email. If you think a friend would like this, you can forward it to them! You can also follow Almost on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube. We also have a Chinese version.

Let us know your thoughts about this week’s news in the comments or by replying directly to this email ✨