Mountain of construction debris at Laval recycling plant has been on fire since Saturday

Laval firefighters are still fighting a blaze on Sunday afternoon at a recycling plant in Vimont, after a mountain of construction debris caught fire Saturday morning.

© Laval Firefighters Association / Twitter Debris at a Laval recycling plant catches fire on Saturday Dec. 26, 2020.

At Multi-Recyclage, an outdoor dumping ground for material waste, fire started after wood meant to be composted overheated, according to the Laval fire department.

Smoke from the centre, located on Saulnier Street, could be seen from highways 440, 19 and 335.

The debris that caught fire contains dry materials such as wood. Firefighters managed to contain the blaze from spreading to other parts of the dump where plastics are stored.

According to the fire department, it'll be several days before the blaze will be fully extinguished.

Read more: 6 families displaced after 4-alarm fire in Laval

"In 10 days everything will be done. The fire will be extinguished in about five days (about)," said Laval Fire Department Division Chief Daniel Beaupré. "Five to 10 days."

The time estimate includes the time needed to remove the burnt material. Beaupré said the fire doesn't pose any danger to the public.

According to the Laval Firefighters Association, the fire gained intensity overnight on Saturday.

Firefighters spent the night from Saturday to Sunday trying to extinguish the fire from the mountain of debris and continued all day Sunday.

— With files from Global's Phil Carpenter

Howling into the void? 

US wolf recovery endangered by Trump

Issued on: 28/12/2020 - 

A wolf howls at a Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, New York 

Kena Betancur AFP


South Salem (United States) (AFP)

They thrive at teamwork, fight for their homes, and cherish their families above all else.

It is sometimes said there is no animal on Earth more like humans in their social behavior than wolves.

But the iconic species -- long a symbol of the free spirit of the American wilderness -- could soon be imperiled because of a decision by President Donald Trump's government to end protections that brought them back from the brink of extinction.

"Wolves right now have only recovered in about 10 percent of their historic range," Maggie Howell, executive director of the Wolf Conservation Center in upstate New York told AFP.

Historically, when states have fought to loosen safeguards, hunting and trapping has quickly followed, she says.

Now conservationists fear for the roughly 6,000 gray wolves in the lower-48 states when the new rule takes effect in January.

A quarter of a million wolves once roamed from coast to coast before European settlers embarked on campaigns of eradication that endured into the 20th Century.

Howell cups her hands around her mouth and lets out an "Ahwooo!"

Three adult wolves -- Alawa, Zephyr and Nikai -- answer in unison, their spine-tingling howls seeming to multiply in the air, creating the impression of a much larger pack.

The trio are the center's "ambassadors," vital to educating visitors.

Brown and gray Alawa, meaning "sweetpea" in the native Algonquin language, has a temperament that matches her name and seeks out human attention like a family dog.

Their goings-on can be followed 24/7 on webcams and on social media, where they have hundreds of thousands of fans.

The 32-acre (13-hectare) center also houses around 40 of their critically endangered cousin species: the Mexican gray wolf, which numbers just shy of 200 in the wild, and the smaller red wolf, of which only eight tagged animals remain outside captivity.

- Elimination campaigns -

In October, the US removed gray wolves from the Endangered Species Act, where they were first listed in the 1970s when their numbers fell to around 1,000.

Normally, a delisting decision is a welcome sign of a robust recovery.

But in this case, government commissioned independent experts questioned the scientific rationale and conservationists slammed the move as a devastating giveaway to hunters and ranchers.

Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin could all quickly resume hunting, which they were blocked from doing by a 2014 court order -- and wildlife groups estimate hundreds of wolves could be killed a year.

Rick McIntyre, a veteran national park ranger and author of "The Rise of Wolf 8," told AFP that vilification of the apex predator started with the arrival of Europeans in the 1600s.

By contrast, Native Americans lived alongside wolves in harmony for thousands of years, revering them in their mythology.

They also recognized their wider ecological importance, as shown in the Keewatin proverb: "The caribou feeds the wolf, but it is the wolf who keeps the caribou strong."

Research has confirmed the wolf's importance in thinning over-browsing herds of elk, which in turn prevents destruction of habitat.

Wolves even manage wetland creation by keeping beavers in check, a study showed last month.

McIntyre has spent decades documenting wolf behavior, particularly at the Yellowstone National Park, where they were eliminated in the 1920s before being reintroduced in 1995.

He found that wolf packs begin when a male disperses from his birth-family to strike out on his own.

Litters are typically four or five pups, and when these grow to be "yearlings," they begin an apprenticeship, honing their hunting skills by watching their elders while learning how to take care of the pups -- much like human teenagers babysitting.

Wolves start their days with warm displays of affection with their pack members, bond through extended bouts of play, and have highly-individualized personality types.

Some are merciful towards rival packs while others are ruthless; some have wandering spirits while others are homebodies; some are serious and others never lose the goofiness of their puphood.

Cooperation is key to survival as their prey, from pronghorns to bison, are often many times larger than wolves, who typically weigh around 80-90 pounds in adulthood.

During their studies at Yellowstone, McIntyre and colleagues found that, contrary to previous beliefs about male leadership, it's the alpha female who decides where the pack dens, where it travels and what it hunts.

"I jokingly sometimes say that's a pretty good indication of their intelligence," he said.

- Breeding programs -

While the gray wolves have regained some ground, the Mexican grays and reds, which both went extinct outside captivity before being reintroduced, are in a far more tenuous position.

The Wolf Conservation Center participates in a federal program which aims to recover lost genetic diversity through managed breeding, and eventually allow some to resume their rightful place in the wild.

The staff have ways to feed these wolves their roadkill diet without allowing them to know humans were involved -- because habituating to people could prove deadly in the real world.

"It's always sad for us to say goodbye to them," she said.

"But knowing that they're going to breed, that's got to be exciting for them. Growing up, leaving mom and dad, they can be the boss. So we wish them well."

© 2020 AFP

Poles losing faith in once mighty Catholic Church

Some Poles are even beginning to question the legacy of the late Polish pope John Paul II JANEK SKARZYNSKI AFP/File


Warsaw (AFP)

Once all powerful in Poland, the Catholic Church has been under severe pressure this year -- from a series of abuse scandals and a perceived association with the country's right-wing government.

Negative media reports and documentaries have hurt its image, as has criticism from the Vatican itself.

Some Poles are even beginning to question the legacy of the late Polish pope John Paul II.

A poll published earlier this month found that only 41 percent of Poles have a positive view of the Church, a decline of 16 percentage points since March.

The opinion poll found that nearly half of Poles (47 percent) have a negative view of the Church.

The change "is considerable in such a short space of time," Katarzyna Zalewska, a sociologist at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, told AFP.

The trend of growing secularisation seen in Poland in recent years "has visibly accelerated", she said.

- Losing faith -

A Constitutional Court ruling in October aimed at imposing a near-total ban on abortions was particularly damaging for the Church, prompting a public outcry and unprecedented demonstrations across the country.

Some of the criticism was aimed at the religious hierarchy and the reaction has been so strong that the government has held off on enacting the ruling.

Official figures show Poles are also taking their children out of religion classes in schools in ever greater numbers, and some are even formally renouncing their Catholic faith -- a process known as apostasy.

Two out of three Poles now want religious education to be the responsibility of parishes, not schools, according to an opinion poll published last week.

A website for people applying to give up their faith -- licznikapostazji.pl -- tallied up more than 1,000 application in the space of just two weeks.

Another site, apostazja.eu, said more than 30,000 people had filled out apostasy forms online -- ready to be printed and submitted to their parishes.

"It has pretty much exploded" since the abortion court ruling, said the site's creator, Krzysztof Gwizdala.

While the numbers are small in what is still a predominantly Catholic country of 38 million, there are signs the Church is beginning to take notice.

After a 10-year break, the Church's statistics office has decided to once again keep track of the number of apostasy declarations it receives.

In 2010, there were just 459 cases.

- 'Operating in a different system' -

Marcin Kaczmarek, a sociologist at the University of Poznan, said the decline in influence of the Church in Poland was not so much the result of sexual abuse scandals, but "above all its reaction to them".

"It seems torn between its corporate interest... and respect of its own teachings," he said.

Zalewska said the Church appears to "not hear the signals" and is acting "as if it was operating in a different system" in which it feels it does not have to react and is convinced of its unshakeable position.

Zalewska said the abuse scandals could accelerate secularisation -- as happened in Ireland in the 1990s.

But she said it was also possible that the difficult times brought on by the coronavirus pandemic could help restore Poles' faith in the Catholic Church.

© 2020 AFP

China jails journalist over Wuhan COVID outbreak reporting

Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan has received a prison sentence for her reporting from Wuhan during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, according to her lawyer.


Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan began a hunger strike in June

China sentenced citizen journalist Zhang Zhan to four years in prison after a brief hearing in Shanghai on Monday, her lawyer told reporters. Zhang, 37, covered the coronavirus outbreak from its initial epicenter in Wuhan in February.

Her widely shared video livestreams and essays detailed overcrowded crematoriums and hospitals as Chinese authorities struggled to contain the virus.

Zhang, a former lawyer based in Shanghai, was convicted of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," a common charge used against government critics in China.

"Zhang Zhan looked devastated when the sentence was announced," her lawyer Ren Quanniu told reporters outside the Shanghai Pudong New District People's Court.
Reframing the pandemic

Zhang is the first journalist put on trial for her coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. However, three other citizen journalists who reported from Wuhan — Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li Zehua — have all been missing since February. Eight whistleblowers have already been punished for criticizing the government's response to the pandemic.

Zhang was critical of the Chinese government's initial handling of the outbreak in Wuhan, writing that authorities "didn't give people enough information, then simply locked down the city."


WUHAN: A YEAR AFTER THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK
Shoulder to shoulder in crowded markets
Wuhan was locked down for about 11 weeks after becoming the first global coronavirus hot spot. Until mid-May, 50,000 of the 80,000 official cases in China were in Wuhan. But now life is almost back to normal on the city's crowded street markets.
PHOTOS 1234567

China has come under fire for its secretive approach to combating the COVID-19. Beijing has of late sought to present its handling of the pandemic as an "extraordinary" success. After the virus first emerged in Wuhan late last year, and the city of 11 million went into lockdown in February, China's society and economy are rebounding while much of the rest of the world struggles through painful winter surges in infections.

Zhang's trial comes weeks before a team of experts from the World Health Organization is due to arrive in Wuhan to investigate the origins of the coronavirus outbreak.
Worries over Zhang's health

Concerns have been growing over Zhang's health after she began a hunger strike in June.

"She said when I visited her [last week]: 'If they give me a heavy sentence then I will refuse food until the very end.' ... She thinks she will die in prison," Ren said before the trial. "It's an extreme method of protesting against this society and this environment."

Another lawyer, Zhang Keke, who visited her on Christmas Day, wrote in a note circulated on social media that she was "restrained 24 hours a day" and her health was in decline: "She feels psychologically tormented, like every day is a torment."

dr/rt (AFP, dpa)

PAKISTAN
Benazir Bhutto: Supporters remember 1st Muslim woman PM
Thousands gather in her home town Larkana on 13th death anniversary

News Service09:14 December 28, 2020

13th death anniversary of the Benazir Bhutto
Photograph: Muhammad Reza

Thousands gathered in southern Pakistan on Sunday to remember Benazir Bhutto, the first woman prime minister of the Muslim world, on her 13th death anniversary.

She was killed in a gun-and-bomb attack in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Dec. 27, 2007, weeks after she arrived from years-long self-exile in Dubai and London.

Ignoring a government ban on public gatherings due to the coronavirus, supporters of the center-left Pakistan People's Party (PPP) gathered in Larkana, home town of the Bhutto political dynasty.

Carrying tri-color party flags, and portraits of their slain leader, who served as premier from 1988-1990, and from 1993-1996, charged PPP supporters were also joined by other opposition leaders.

The key figure among those was Maryam Nawaz, the daughter and political heir of the three-time premier Nawaz Sharif, once the main political rival to Benazir.

An 11-party opposition alliance, the Pakistan Democratic Movement, of which the PPP is a part, used the gathering to accelerate its ongoing campaign to oust the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan. They accuse him of coming into power through a rigged election two years ago.

Leaders including Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the PPP chairman and the son of Benazir, and Maryam lambasted Khan's government and his policies, which they accuse have led to inflation and energy shortages in the country of 220 million people.

The joint platform has announced resignations en masse, and to hold a long march toward the capital Islamabad if the prime minister does not step down before Jan. 31, 2021. The next general elections, held once in five years, are scheduled for 2023

THIS IS NOT A POLITICAL  PARTY BUT A FEUDALISTIC FAMILY BUSINESS BASED ON THEIR LAND HOLDINGS AND THEIR IDEOLOGICAL HOLD OVER THE PEASANTS AND WORKERS WHOM THEY OWN

Class Consciousness by Georg Lukacs 1920

https://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/works/history/lukacs3.htm

Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat by ...

https://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/works/history/hcc05.htm

The divorce of the phenomena of reification from their economic bases and from the vantage point from which alone they can be understood, is facilitated by the fact that the [capitalist] process of transformation must embrace every manifestation of the life of society if the preconditions for the complete self-realisation of capitalist production are to be fulfilled

SEE 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Pakistan: Feudalism Not Democracy (plawiuk.blogspot.com)

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for Benazir Bhutto (plawiuk.blogspot.com)

'Extreme weather threatens displaced Iraqi children'

People in camps lack access to heating, says Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights member

News Service December 28, 2020

File photo
Photograph: Yunus Keleş


The Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) said on Sunday that extreme weather is threatening the lives of displaced children in camps.

"The lives of thousands of displaced people, especially women and children, are under threat," Fadel al-Gharrawi, a member of the IHCHR, said.

He added that most of the displaced Iraqis are living in camps with no access to heating, which is causing illnesses.

The Middle East country is experiencing below zero degree temapartures, mainly during the nights.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are unable to return to their homes, which were destroyed during the war against Daesh/ISIS that began in 2014.

The terror group captured large swathes of territories including Mosul, Salahuddin and Anbar provinces, and parts of Diyala and Kirkuk provinces. Government forces took back control of the areas in 2017

Was This Arctic Expedition the Last Great One of Its Kind?

The harrowing journey of Børge Ousland and Mike Horn

SCIENCE | DECEMBER 27, 2020 1:46 PM

The Arctic can be an imposing landscape.
Arctichistorian01/Creative Commons

BY TOBIAS CARROLL

When a pair of experienced explorers, both of whom have made previous treks through the Arctic, joined forces in 2019 on an ambitious voyage across the ice, it had the potential to be another thrilling expedition for both men. Instead, the journey that unfolded proved unpredictable due to the effects of climate change — and very nearly had a tragic ending.

A new article by Aaron Teasdale in National Geographic chronicles the voyage made by Børge Ousland and Mike Horn. As is the case with David Grann’s The White Darkness, this article gives a sense of the extraordinary physical toll crossing polar regions can have, and the omnipresent dangers — from hungry polar bears to ice that can give way without warning.

Further complicating matters? For as well as both Ousland and Horn prepared for their journey — again, both are experienced explorers who were familiar with the risk of the terrain — there were certain things they hadn’t planned for. For one thing, thinner ice than in years past, due to climate change. For another, a change in the ocean’s currents — also due to climate change — which impeded their forward motion at a crucial time.

The article is both a gripping adventure narrative in its own right and a testament to the changing environment at the top of the world. One of the running questions is whether or not such a journey will even be possible in the future, giving the shifts in the landscape.

It also offers a glimpse of how two incredibly resourceful people contend with life-threatening emergencies in a hostile environment. One tip? If you’re crossing the Arctic, you might want to bring a nail. (Yes, just one.) As it turns out, it might save your life.

MORE LIKE THIS

Arctic Explorers Battle Climate Change to Reach North Pole

The First Man to Solo-Trek Antarctica Is Building a Carbon Neutral Island

Welcome to the Era of the Luxury Polar Cruise

After Trump, U.S. Faces Risk Of Slipping Into "Hybrid" Regime

From Venezuela to Belarus, there are countries that have elements of democracy but fall well short of acceptable standards of freedom and transparency. Will the U.S. end up there too?

Lena Surzhko Harned and Luis Jimenez*

 THE CONVERSATION

2020-12-28

 Six weeks after the U.S. election, President Donald Trump had still not accepted defeat. This behavior is not typical in mature democracies. And it's reminiscent of countries with what political scientists call "hybrid regimes" – nations that have elements of democracy but in practice are not democracies.

For us – politics scholars studying Latin America and the former Soviet Union – Trump's resistance to election results underscores the fragility of democratic institutions when confronted with authoritarian practices. These include deligitimizing election results, interfering with judicial independence and attacking independent media and opposition.

Trump is part of a global trend in authoritarianism. The United States can learn a great deal from other countries where democracies fell victim to the authoritarian playbook.

Rigging elections

Trump and members of the Republican Party claimed fraud in the presidential elections. They attempted to overturn legally cast ballots in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin and Michigan. Trump, furthermore, has urged state leaders to ignore the will of voters and give their electoral votes to him.

Disregard for voters and electoral rules are tactics well documented in hybrid regimes. Although Trump has charged that the U.S. election was rigged, it was not.

Truly rigged elections involve practices like ballot box stuffing – adding false ballots to legitimate ones, or buying the electorate by offering citizens money or jobs in exchange for votes.

Barring opposition candidates from running for office, as Russia has done, is another tactic.

Other regimes, like Alexander Lukashenko's in Belarus, pressure electoral officials to falsify electoral results to ensure victories with wide margins. This triggered massive protests in August.

Crowds in Minsk call for the resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko, on Aug. 23, 2020. Ulf Mauder/picture alliance via Getty Images

In Venezuela, since roughly 2005, former President Hugo Chávez seized control of vote processing and counting through the National Electoral Council, a branch of government that oversees elections. This way, any election irregularities always hurt the opposition.

And Chávez encouraged the electorate to vote for him if they were state employees or received government benefits. At times, they received outright threats that they would lose their jobs if they did not vote for him.

Other forms of "encouragement" in Venezuela included "red tents" next to polling stations. These were government stations where people could sign up for government benefits and receive small gifts.

President Trump did something similar by putting his name on stimulus checks in April, which may have been illegal but was never adjudicated.

He also tried to rig the U.S. election by insisting that mail-in votes should not be counted after Election Day, and then attempted to overturn election results based on that claim.

"Enemies of the people"

Coined by the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, the phrase "enemies of the people" – used against all who disagreed with him – has entered Trump's vocabulary.

Earlier in his presidency, Trump called the press the "enemies of the people." More recently, Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's Republican secretary of state, earned this title from Trump after defending his state's election process.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been in power since 2000 and consolidated his autocratic rule by amending the Russian constitution, has a long list of opposition leaders, civil groups and journalists who have become "enemies of the people."

Pet judiciaries

Before the election, Trump insisted mail voting was riddled with fraud and tried to overturn Nevada's vote-by-mail law. He insisted that there would be election disputes and that filling the Supreme Court seat was crucial for that reason.

Yes, the high court has rejected Trump's efforts to overturn election results. But Trump's audacious attempt mirrors tactics used by authoritarian leaders.

Similar scenarios to the one Trump hoped for played out with Evo Morales in Bolivia and Juan Orlando Hernández in Honduras.

Morales and Hernández were able to install judges who ruled that clauses in the constitutions prohibiting reelection were unconstitutional. That, in turn, allowed both leaders to run successfully for reelection.

"Law and order"

Authoritarian leaders also favor "law and order" arguments to justify their legitimacy. They paint themselves as the ultimate arbiters of what presents a threat.

Russia's Putin has emphasized his commitment to stability and security, elevating the status of security forces loyal to him, known as siloviki. These security forces now hold high positions in Russian politics, business and society.

Trump has also cultivated the image of a strongman, calling for the mobilization of the National Guard to quell racial justice protests.

Similar to autocratic leaders in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Ukraine, Trump has refused to denounce far-right militias like the Proud Boys, telling them instead to "stand back and stand by," which was interpreted as a command.

And he suggested that people "liberate" Michigan from the state's social distancing measures amid the pandemic, a move critics denounced for inciting insurrection.

Maduro is seen during the United Socialist Party of Venezuela's annual congress on July 31, 2014. Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images

Trump has used ploys from the autocratic playbook throughout his presidency, and that will have lasting consequences.

Trump's rejection of election results damages the legitimacy of the democratic process.

In general, it encourages other autocrats and would-be autocrats to challenge the electoral process if they don't like the results. For the U.S., it promotes the belief that President-elect Joe Biden's presidency will be illegitimate.

A country's stability largely depends on people accepting the results if their side loses. If a significant portion of the public refuses to, history shows that violence will not be far behind.

For the United States, the lesson is stark. Surviving the recent electoral turmoil does not guarantee it will outlast a similar scenario the next time.

Republican leaders' failure to repudiate baseless allegations of electoral fraud – and some Republicans' willingness to pursue legal action based on these claims – further undermines the legitimacy of the democratic process.

Trump was defeated, but Trumpism will have a lasting effect.

---

*Lena Surzhko Harned, Assistant Teaching Professor of Political Science, Penn State and Luis Jimenez, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Boston

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

In Mar-a-Lago, some revel and some rebel amid Trump's last visit as president

MORE REVEL
Issued on: 28/12/2020 - 

Supporters of US President Donald Trump, shown here cheering at his motorcade in West Palm Beach, Florida, on December 27, 2020, say his presence at his Mar-a-Lago resort has boosted the region's profile SAUL LOEB AFP

West Palm Beach (United States) (AFP)

Donald Trump may soon be dislodged from Washington, but to core supporters in southern Florida he remains an unquestionable hero, their favorite occasional local, whose Mar-a-Lago presence draws global attention to Palm Beach.

The brash Republican is on his final holiday trip to his private club as president, inconveniencing some neighbors who find the area's roads blocked as he shuttles between the "Southern White House" and his Trump International Golf Club.

He airs his election grievances on Twitter and, according to his office, hosts "many calls and... meetings," seemingly ignoring the problems vexing Congress and alarming millions of Americans.

Soon he also may be forced to face a brewing dispute over his Mar-a-Lago resort, whose neighbors have filed a grievance claiming Trump has no legal right to live at the storied property.

But the concerns seemed a world away from the sidewalks of West Palm Beach, where diehard and mostly unmasked supporters welcomed Trump with open arms on Sunday as he returned from a golf outing.

"We love him. It makes all the locals proud to be Americans, seeing our president, the most powerful man in the world, driving by here," carpenter Greg Mooney told AFP outside Corner Store Berto's Bait and Tackle, where he and friends gather whenever Trump arrives for a stay.

They were among several hundred people who lined Southern Boulevard late Wednesday, cheering and waving US and Trump flags along the route to his resort across the Intracoastal Waterway in Palm Beach.

A huge "Trump 2020" banner covered the roof of a real estate office along the route, while American flags rose from pickup trucks bearing Trump paint jobs.

"Four more years!" and "Stop the steal!" supporters chanted, as Trump's motorcade slowed so he could wave at one of the larger crowds to gather here since his presidency began.

- 'Give him a hug' -

Trump's week-plus escape from Washington comes at a moment of deep national anxiety over his refusal to support the latest Covid relief package.

The $900 billion rescue, passed overwhelmingly by both houses of Congress but belatedly rejected by Trump, is seen as a lifeline for families struggling with financial woes or beset by Covid-19.

Mooney, 43, was less concerned with the rescue package than with Trump's presidency coming to an end.

But he was heartened that so many well-wishers stood "shoulder to shoulder and double-stacked" Wednesday in what may have been a record showing, and said they are likely to keep at it.

"We'll see him all the time," Mooney said, nodding towards Trump's resort.

That remains in doubt. Trump has officially changed his residence from New York to Florida, but Palm Beach neighbors are seeking to prevent him from living at Mar-a-Lago.

In a letter this month reported by the Washington Post, neighbors formally wrote the town of Palm Beach and the US Secret Service asserting that Trump signed away his legal right to live at Mar-a-Lago when he converted the property from his residence to a private club in the 1990s.

The dispute would put Trump in the highly awkward scenario of defending his choice of post-presidency residence.

Many nevertheless back Trump. They cite his 2017 Mar-a-Lago meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Japan's then-prime minister Shinzo Abe as raising Palm Beach's already elite profile.

"A lot of people would love to give him a hug and tell him, 'Hey, we support you, thank you for everything you've done, and we know the truth,'" Mooney said.

Trump relentlessly peddles the baseless conspiracy theory that Democrats stole the November 3 election and handed the presidency to Joe Biden.

Several supporters in West Palm Beach, including Mooney, believe Trump's false narrative and said they still hold out hope that the president miraculously stays in office.

- 'Inconvenienced for years' -

Others, like Roger Everingham, can't wait to see Trump gone for good.

The 82-year-old Biden supporter, who lives directly across the water from Mar-a-Lago, said he has grown frustrated with the area's Trump frenzy.

"But it's a lot of laughs, particularly when I watch the circus as he drives by," Everingham, who ran Palm Beach's iconic Colony Hotel for 20 years, acknowledged as he walked with Louie, his Chihuahua.

That raucous collection of Trump supporters is anything but spontaneous and local, he insisted, noting that most of his neighbors are Democrats.

"They come from somewhere else. They're organized," Everingham said of the crowds. Someone is "absolutely" tipping them off about Trump's movements, he added.

One man who works on Southern Boulevard and supports Trump said he understands the frustration some have about the president's presence.

"A lot of people don't like him. They've been inconvenienced for years because he blocks the roads," said the man, who asked not to be identified.

A more permanent Trump presence could exacerbate problems that wealthy property owners have accessing Palm Beach Island.

One woman expressed her displeasure with Trump on Sunday by holding up a sign near his golf club that read: "Biden won, you lost, get over it!"

Mooney said he is already anticipating cheering Trump along the route in 2024.

"We'll be here four years from now, and do it again."

© 2020 AFP

Trump just cost jobless workers one week of federal unemployment assistance after he failed to sign the relief bill by midnight on Saturday

President Donald Trump did not sign the latest coronavirus relief legislation before midnight on Saturday, costing jobless workers one week of $300 federal unemployment benefits.

State agencies can only distribute benefits for weeks the bill is enacted, meaning the delay could cause the unemployment benefits to be distributed for 10 weeks instead of the intended 11.

About 14 million Americans have also lost unemployment benefits, as two federal programs expired on Saturday.

President Donald Trump did not sign the latest coronavirus relief legislation by midnight on Saturday, a move expected to cost jobless workers at least one week of $300 federal unemployment benefits.

Trump had suggested he might reject the $900 billion stimulus package, which passed in both chambers of Congress earlier this week, unless it includes $2,000 stimulus checks for Americans.

The bill currently includes $600 checks, along with the $300 weekly federal unemployment insurance.

"I simply want to get our great people $2,000, rather than the measly $600 that is now in the bill. Also, stop the billions of dollars in 'pork,'" Trump tweeted Saturday morning.

The president has not made clear whether he will sign the legislation, but the delay puts other federal assistance programs in danger and could prove costly for Americans whose unemployment benefits were supposed to restart December 26.

Video: Federal unemployment benefits expire without signature on COVID-19 relief (KARE-TV Minneapolis-St. Paul)

By not signing the bill before the end of day Saturday, Trump has effectively cut a week of $300 federal unemployment benefits for jobless people, according to Michele Evermore, a policy expert at the National Employment Law Project.

But she cautioned it's hard to project without federal guidance how the holdup would affect other unemployment programs.

"I'm not entirely sure how this will be interpreted - at the very least, we lose a week of the $300," Evermore told Insider. "No matter what, if he doesn't sign, next week it goes down to 10 weeks of an extra $300."

The $300 federal unemployment supplement included in the bill is scheduled to end on March 14, a date that will not change based on when the bill actually becomes law.

Depending on when the bill is signed, labor agencies could restart the payments during the first week of January. Because states cannot provide benefits for weeks that precede the approval of the bill, the $300 supplement may only be in place for 10 weeks, rather than the intended 11.

About 14 million people are at risk of losing unemployment benefits, as Saturday was the last day that two federal unemployment programs distribute their payments. They are the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance for gig workers and freelancers and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation for people who exhausted state benefits.

In tweets on Saturday, including one sent hours before midnight, Trump again called for the relief bill to include higher stimulus checks.

Trump could still sign the package in the following days, though he has not indicated whether he will do so.

Read the original article on Business Insider