In the Nahua myth of the Fifth Sun, pre-Hispanic god Nanahuatzin threw himself into a fire, reemerged as the sun and commanded fellow gods to replicate his sacrifice to bring movement to the world. All complied but Xólotl, a deity associated with the evening star, who fled.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service said Saturday it has deployed an air tanker to Alberta, and the U.S. is sending 150 firefighters and equipment like sprinkler kits, pumps and hoses to Canada.“We are here to help our neighbors during their time of need, and our Forest Service Wildland Firefighters are the best in the business. I am thankful for the men and women who are bravely stepping up to serve, “ U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins said in a statement.
In northern Manitoba, fire knocked out power to the community of Cranberry Portage, forcing a mandatory evacuation order Saturday for about 600 residents. People living in smaller nearby communities were told to prepare to evacuate after a fire jumped a highway.“Please start getting ready and making plans to stay with family and friends as accommodations are extremely limited,” Lori Forbes, the emergency coordinator for the Rural Municipality of Kelsey, posted on social media.Evacuation centers have opened across the province for those fleeing the fires, including one as far south as Winkler, Manitoba, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the U.S. border.
Evacuations that started earlier in the week for Pimicikamak Cree Nation ramped up Saturday, when five flights were expected to take residents to Winnipeg. “The wildfire has crossed the main road, and the area remains filled with smoke and ash,” Chief David Monias wrote on social media.Winnipeg has opened up public buildings for evacuees as it deals with hotels already crammed with other fire refugees, vacationers, business people and convention-goers.
Manitoba’s Indigenous leaders, including Monias, told a news conference on Saturday that hotel rooms in the cities where evacuees are arriving are full, and they called on the government to direct hotel owners to give evacuees priority.
Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Kyra Wilson said it was one of the largest evacuations in the province since the 1990s.In Shelby County, Tennessee, home to Memphis, the Latino HIV diagnosis rate rose 86% from 2012 to 2022. The health department said it got $2 million in initiative funding in 2023 and while the
acknowledges that Latinos are a target group, department director Dr. Michelle Taylor said: “There are no specific campaigns just among Latino people.”Up to now, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, didn’t include specific targets to address HIV in the Latino population — where rates of new diagnoses more than doubled in a decade but fell slightly among other racial and ethnic groups. The health department has used funding for bilingual marketing campaigns and awareness about PrEP.
When it was time to pack up and move to Hermida’s third city in two years, his fiancé, who is taking PrEP, suggested seeking care in Orlando, Florida.The couple, who were friends in high school in Venezuela, had some family and friends in Florida, and they had heard about Pineapple Healthcare, a nonprofit primary care clinic dedicated to supporting Latinos living with HIV.