Mexican election candidate launches campaign from coffin
AFP 2021-04-07

A Mexican congressional candidate launched his election campaign in a coffin Tuesday to highlight the country's many thousands of deaths from the coronavirus pandemic and cartel-related violence.

© HERIKA MARTINEZ Mexican congressional candidate Carlos Mayorga launches his campaign from inside a coffin to send a message to politicians that people are dying 'because of their indifference'

Carlos Mayorga, a lower house candidate for the Encuentro Solidario party in the northern state of Chihuahua, said he was sending a message to politicians that people were dying "because of their indifference."

© HERIKA MARTINEZ Mexican congressional candidate Carlos Mayorga arrived in a casket for a campaign rally on a bridge between the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas

Mayorga arrived inside a gold-colored casket at a campaign rally on a bridge between the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas.

He was accompanied by aides dressed in personal protective equipment and carrying bouquets of flowers to draw attention to Mexico's Covid-19 death toll of more than 200,000 -- one of the world's highest.

Politicians "have remained silent about the high levels of organized crime. They have remained silent about the chaotic Covid situation," Mayorga said.

More than 300,000 people have been murdered in Mexico since the government deployed the military in the war on drugs in 2006, according to official figures.

The campaign for June midterm elections has brought a wave of political violence which has seen 16 candidates murdered.

str/yug/dr/bfm

NRA exec sheltered on borrowed yacht after mass shootings

After school shootings that left dozens dead in recent years, National Rifle Association leader Wayne LaPierre said the resulting outrage put him in such danger that he sought shelter aboard a borrowed 108-foot (32.92-meter) yacht.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

During a deposition, the head of the powerful gun-rights group’s acknowledged sailing in The Bahamas with his family as a “security retreat” in the summers following a 2012 school shootings in Connecticut and a 2018 massacre in Florida.

“I was basically under presidential threat without presidential security in terms of the number of threats I was getting,” LaPierre said, according to a transcript of the deposition filed in court over the weekend. “And this was the one place that I hope could feel safe, where I remember getting there going, ‘Thank God I’m safe, nobody can get me here.’”

The testimony emerged in a federal bankruptcy trail over whether the NRA should be allowed to incorporate in Texas instead of New York, where a state lawsuit is trying to put it out of business. LaPierre is scheduled to take the witness stand in the case, which is being conducted virtually before a court in Dallas, this week.

The NRA declared bankruptcy in January, months after New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, sued seeking the group’s dissolution over claims that top executives illegally diverted tens of millions of dollars for lavish personal trips, no-show contracts for associates and other questionable expenditures.

The allegations include that LaPierre repeatedly sailed in The Bahamas on the yacht of Hollywood producer Stanton McKenzie, whose company has done business with the NRA, but did not mention the trips on financial disclosures. McKenzie is not named in the suit but both it and LaPierre's deposition include the name of his yacht: Illusions.

In the deposition, LaPierre said he did not pay to use McKenzie's yacht, which came with a cook, a motor boat and a pair of Sea-Doo personal watercraft. He said he did not think using the vessel violated the NRA's conflict-of-interest policy because the summer sailing trips were for security. Nonetheless, LaPierre said he stopped using it in 2019 as part of the NRA's “self-correction.”

The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut left 20 first graders and six educators dead in December 2012. The February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida killed 17 people.

The NRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on LaPierre’s testimony.

McKenzie did not immediately respond to voicemail and email messages to his company seeking comment. He told The Wall Street Journal, which first reported LaPierre 's use of his yacht last year, that he hadn’t read New York's lawsuit and couldn’t discuss any litigation.

Shannon Watts, the founder of the gun control group Moms Demand Action, highlighted LaPierre’s testimony on Twitter Monday, mocking his argument that it takes “a good guy with a gun” to stop a mass shooting. “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good friend with a yacht?“ she wrote.

The group's bankruptcy trial began Monday with a lawyer for New York arguing that LaPierre put the NRA into Chapter 11 bankruptcy despite its financial strength to escape accountability for his own spending abuses. He made the move largely by himself and kept the plan secret from the group’s board, its general counsel and treasurer at the time, New York Assistant Attorney General Monica Connell told Judge Harlin Hale.

Though headquartered in Virginia, the NRA was chartered as a non-profit in New York in 1871 and is incorporated in the state. Its bankruptcy filing listed between $100 million and $500 million in assets and placed its liabilities in the same range.

NRA lawyer Greg Garman said during opening statements that LaPierre did nothing wrong and made the decision to put the group into bankruptcy to avoid New York authorities having it placed in a receivership. The NRA has cast a court appointing a receiver to oversee the organization as a potential death blow and argued that it's looking for a more politically favourable environment in gun-friendly Texas.

“I think it will help us flourish to get out of that environment and get into a state that really wants us here,” NRA First Vice-President Charles Cotton testified Tuesday.

Jake Bleiberg, The Associated Press 2021-04-07

Egypt's First Woman Ship Captain Marwa Elselehdar Blamed For Suez Canal Blockage Despite Not Being On Boat

Elizabeth Blackstock
4/04/21 

The saga of the Ever Given was a beautiful one while it lasted—is there anything funnier than a large boat getting stuck in the narrow Suez Canal?—but it’s had lasting supply chain effects that are pretty miserable. And that’s not even as bad as the flack that one woman—Marwa Elselehdar—is getting for a role she didn’t even play in the event.

Elselehdar, 29, is Egypt’s first-ever female ship captain, and when the Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal, she realized that people were placing her at the center of the fiasco. People were using social media to share a doctored screenshot of an Arab Times headline that claimed she was at the helm of the ship at the time it was stuck. It appeared that the headline had been altered from a March 22 profile of Elselehdar praising her successes. You can see the doctored headline here.

The news came as a shock to Elselehdar, who was working as a first mate on the Aida IV vessel near Alexandria, which is hundreds of miles away.

And that wasn’t all. People began making Twitter accounts with her name claiming responsibility and furthers spreading the false rumors.

READ MORE
'Ever Given' Suez Canal Blunder Is Causing A Garden Gnome Shortage

'Ever Given' Excavator Operator Worked 21-Hour Days And Has Not Been Paid His Overtime

Egypt To 'Ever Given' Owners: Pay Us $1 Billion Or You Aren't Getting Your Big Boat Back (UPDATE)

“I felt that I might be targeted maybe because I’m a successful female in this field or because I’m Egyptian, but I’m not sure,” she told the BBC this weekend.

As you can imagine, piloting a ship isn’t exactly a realm rife with equality. The International Maritime Organization notes that only two percent of the world’s seafarers are women—and 94 percent of those women work in the cruise industry.

So, it makes sense, unfortunately, that Elselehdar has received backlash for her very presence. She was the first woman to enroll in Egypt’s naval academy and captained the Aida IV when it was the very first vessel to traverse the newly-expanded Suez Canal in 2015.

She told the BBC the following:

Onboard, they were all older men with different mentalities, so it was difficult not to be able to find like-minded people to communicate with. It was challenging to go through this alone and be able to overcome it without affecting my mental health.

“People in our society still don’t accept the idea of girls working in the sea away from their families for a long time. But when you do what you love, it is not necessary for you to seek the approval of everyone.

And in a video she shared on social media, Elselehdar had many other strong words:

Frankly, when I read the news, I was upset, because I worked really hard to reach the position I have reached, and anyone who works in this field knows how much effort a person has made over the years to reach this rank.

One has to spend many years at sea, studying and taking exams before reaching this level.

I graduated in 2013 and got an MBA, then I was promoted from second officer to first officer, and now I am a captain.

So, it is difficult to see that someone is trying to cancel all this effort and credit it to himself, or accuse me of being a failure or that I neglect my work.

Believe me that I am not trying to promote myself, but it is not nice for someone to speak in your name in a way that has nothing to do with your personality, your upbringing, your career or anything else.

It’s my reputation, and I definitely don’t want it damaged like this.

So, for the record, Elselehdar was not behind the wheel of the Ever Given when it blocked the Suez Canal.

Elizabeth Blackstock
Weekends at Jalopnik. Managing editor at A Girl's Guide to Cars. Lead IndyCar writer and assistant editor at Frontstretch. Novelist. Motorsport fanatic.

Meeting held for potential investors in Redvers wheat straw plant

A public investor meeting was held in Redvers last week for the Re-Gain Corporation, a corporation under Parko Ventures Corp. The Re-Gain Corporation is hoping to establish a wheat-straw pulp mill in the Redvers area.

During the presentations that spanned over two days, Re-Gain extended the opportunity for local investors to invest in the project before making plans to open investment opportunities in other avenues, saying they would prefer to keep investments local.

Local investors will receive special incentives to invest in the project including reimbursement of the money invested after a set number of years and $1.00 shares.

Currently there is no set number for how much investment Re-Gain is looking for, but during last week’s presentations it was said that Re-Gain is looking for as much investment as possible.

Redvers was selected because of its location and concentration of grain farms in the area. Redvers resident and local farmer Martin Hjertaas helped bring attention to Redvers after expressing interest in Re-Gain, noting its ideal location.

Because of the surrounding farmland, there is no short supply of wheat-straw that is used in production for the mill.

The wheat mill, which is estimated to cost around $23.7 million, would process wheat straw into pulp that could be used for bio-degradable dinnerware and single-use cutlery.

Wheat straw would be bought by Re-Gain at market value from local producers and turned into a pulp which is used to produce the biodegradable products. Producers would then be able to collect the waste that is produced by the process and use it to return nutrients to the soil.

Founder of Re-Gain, Nitin Chirdeep, says their goal for the meeting was to answer the questions and concerns of local investors and producers.

“We just wanted to give a brief overview of our company, what we stand for, and basically what are willing to do to set up a factory in Redvers. This is a completely clean tech biotech agri-waste product manufacturing company with biodegradable products,” said Chirdeep.

“We were looking to raise support from all the ag producers as well as looking for any potential investors who support us in our vision.”

Chirdeep says that they had a good turnout for their meeting.

“We ran six sessions in total, lasting two days. With COVID restrictions being monitored, we had a great turnout and we saw a lot of support from the people attending as well.”

Chirdeep explained that the pulp mill will also be able to produce biodegradable products, noting that they could supply a green alternative to single-use plastics.

During a meeting on Monday, Chirdeep explained that they would ideally be able to supply surrounding communities with single-use products which could be used as take-out boxes or single-use dishes and cutlery for events.

“Our first goal is to make the wheat-straw pulp mill. We have a niche technology that is being researched and developed by our company to produce wheat-straw pulp in an efficient and green way. Our first source of product is the pulp, subsequent processing will be done for tableware and cutlery which would enable us to lower the use of single-use plastics.”

Chirdeep notes the products made through the pulp mill would be made available for purchase in Redvers and surrounding communities.

Chirdeep says that the companies are on track to begin construction this year, however, Re-Gain is still looking for investors to contribute to the project. Operating through funding with Parko Ventures, Chirdeep says they will be able to begin construction, but will require investment as they progress.

“We are pretty much in line, we have made all the necessary connections, we’re been in touch with RM of Antler and we have found the area that we would be constructing it on. Also, we’ve been receiving a great amount of support from the Redvers Town Council and we hope to kickstart our work by the middle of this year.

“We are expecting a turnaround time of 12 and 15 months from the end of construction to the start of production. We are anticipating to complete construction by July 2022 and we hope to open our doors between 12 and 15 months after,” said Chirdeep.

He says that the plant will operate with 20 employees per shift for three shifts with a total of 60 employees being hired for the processing plant.

Chirdeep says that ideally, Re-Gain will hire as many as they can from Redvers and the surrounding area.

“With the number of jobs we will be putting on the table, we would be employing most of our workforce out of Redvers locally and training them. Apart from that, we would also be working with all the ag producers and farmers in developing and bringing in the latest trends and technologies available through our other entities of Parko Ventures and making it available.”

Chirdeep notes that if the first mill is successful, Re-Gain intends to construct a total of 8 wheat-straw pulp mills across the prairie provinces all under the Re-Gain Corporation, starting with Redvers, then Morden before constructing one in Alberta as well.

Spencer Kemp, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The World-Spectator

2021-04-06

Welcome To Redvers! - Redvers, Saskatchewan

https://redvers.ca

Redvers is located in southeast Saskatchewan at highway junctions 8 and 13 and has a vibrant population of 1042. The Moose Mountain Provincial Park is 60 km northwest with the Manitoba border being 19 km east and the USA border is 50 km south.

Residents of Montreal apartment building fight ‘renoviction,’ take protest to their balconies
Dan Spector

GLOBAL NEWS

 2021-04-06



There are more and more stories of Montrealers being forced out of their homes so landlords can renovate and charge new tenants more.

© Dan Spector / Global News Residents of an apartment building in the Plateau are in a fight with ownership. April 6, 2021.

Many renters accept their fate and plunge into the volatile Montreal rental market. People living in one 90-unit building in the Plateau, however, are not backing down. The building's balconies are decorated with large blue signs denouncing ownership and a "renoviction."

VIDEO
Tenants of Montreal highrise fighting forced move

"The first night I didn't sleep at all, but after that, I said to myself: 'I'm going to fight,"' 68-year-old Renee Thifault told Global News of finding out her landlord was asking to leave her Plateau apartment after 14 years.

Thifault very much enjoys living at Manoir Lafontaine, a high-rise apartment building on Papineau Avenue right across from Lafontaine Park.

She pays less than $700 per month for her two-and-a-half apartment, a price that's nearly impossible to find in the Plateau these days. The owner of the building now wants her and everyone else living there to leave.

Tenants were all given a notice on March 31, saying major renovations are needed in the building, constructed in the 1960s. All 90 units must be vacated for at least seven months by June 30.

"It was kind of the worst moment for us to receive this notice, due to the obvious conditions of the market and the pandemic," said Michel Trujillo, who lives in an apartment with his partner Daily Hernandez and their two children.

The building is owned by Hillpark Capital. Founding partner Brandon Shiller told Global News that when his company acquired the buildings two years ago, it was in an advanced state of disrepair.

"We are now obligated to temporarily relocate our tenants to ensure their safety and well-being during this necessary intensive construction period," he said.

Residents aren't buying it.

"It's not true that it's for our protection," said Thifault.

"Their main goal has always been to empty the building," said Hernandez.

Residents wonder who would come back after having been forced to leave for seven months or more.

To compensate each resident for costs they'll incur for moving and renting another home in the meantime, Hillpark is offering to pay each resident $1,959.

"It's not even going to cover two months of rent," said Hernandez.

Tenants believe they're being "renovicted." They think the owners will renovate the building and put the units back on the market for a much higher price. They've decided not to back down.

"We're fighting this together," said Joe Wasserman.

Read more: Tenant advocacy group calls on Hamilton council to implement bylaw to stop ‘renovictions’

The residents all met Monday evening and are refusing the owner's demand. They've mobilized on a Facebook group and are courting politicians for support. They say they'll bring Hillpark Capital to the Quebec Housing Tribunal if necessary.

"Is it necessary to evacuate everyone from the building for the entire seven months?" wonders housing rights advocate Cloé Fortin of the Comité Logement du Plateau Mont-Royal.

She said before the tribunal, the owners would have to present a valid reason that nobody could be there during the renovations. Residents say they have no problem staying while necessary repairs are done.

Fortin said Hillpark has "renovicted" other buildings in the area and that they would also need to compensate people adequately for their time outside their homes.

Dupuis said standing up to the building's owners will discourage others from doing the same thing.

The notice residents received at Manoir Lafontaine also refers to asbestos, but residents don't buy that either.

"On the asbestos, what I would like is for the City of Montreal to come here and to check each apartment to make sure it's actually present," said Wasserman.

Laurence Houde-Roy, a spokesperson for the Plante administration, told Global News will be sending an inspector this week to evaluate the state of the building.

Another prominent Google scientist is leaving the company amid fallout from fired AI researcher

Jennifer Elias

CNBC 2021-04-06


One of the managers of Google Brain, Samy Bengio, announced Tuesday he's leaving the company.
It's the highest-ranking team member to leave the company amid the fallout of well-known artificial intelligence researcher's departure from Google.

Google Brain is an AI research team at Google.

© Provided by CNBC The Google logo outside if its New York City offices, which were closed on May 19, 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Samy Bengio, a well-known researcher at Google's research group Brain, announced on Tuesday he's resigning from Google.

Bengio is the highest-ranked official to depart amid the fallout from Google's handling of ethics researcher Timnit Gebru, a well-known artificial intelligence researcher at Google who said the company abruptly fired her last fall after she requested clarity about a retracted paper.

"This is one of the most difficult emails I can think of sending to all of you: I have decided to leave Google in order to pursue other exciting opportunities," Bengio wrote in an email to his Google research team obtained by CNBC. "There's no doubt that leaving this wonderful team is really difficult." His last day is April 28.

Bengio oversaw Gebru's team and said in December that he wasn't notified the company had fired Gebru. He started at Google in 2007, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Bloomberg first reported Bengio's resignation.

"I stand by you, Timnit," he wrote in a Facebook post in December. "I also stand by the rest of my team who, like me, was stunned and is trying to make sense of all this. In particular the Ethical AI team, but also the broader Brain Research team."

Gebru was the technical co-lead of the Ethical AI Team at Google and worked on algorithmic bias and data mining. She's a well-known advocate for diversity in technology and is the co-founder of a community of black researchers called Black in AI.

CEO Sundar Pichai vowed to investigate after industry-wide outrage at Gebru's firing. In February, the company said it concluded the investigation and made tweaks to diversity and research policies. It declined to share investigation findings.

But that didn't stop the fallout. The company fired Margaret Mitchell, Gebru's co-lead, in February, alleging she transferred electronic files out of the company. Academics turned down funding from Google. At least a few employees have resigned, citing the company's handling of Gebru's research and departure.

Though Bengio didn't mention Gebru specifically in his departure email Tuesday, he gave kudos to his team for improving their "understanding of machine learning and its impact on the world."

"I've learned so much with all of you, in terms of machine learning research of course, but also on how difficult yet important it is to organize a large team of researchers as to promote long term ambitious research, exploration, rigor and diversity and inclusion."

Neither Google nor Samy Bengio immediately responded to requests for comment.

Climate change creates migrants. Biden considers protections


SAN DIEGO — Ioane Teitiota and his wife fought for years to stay in New Zealand as refugees, arguing that rising sea levels caused by climate change threaten the very existence of the tiny Pacific island nation they fled, one of the lowest-lying countries on Earth.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

While New Zealand's courts didn't dispute high tides pose a risk to Kiribati, about halfway between Hawaii and Australia, laws dealing with refugees didn't address the danger so the government deported them.

No nation offers asylum or other legal protections to people displaced specifically because of climate change. President Joe Biden’s administration is studying the idea, and climate migration is expected to be discussed at his first climate summit, held virtually Thursday and Friday.

The day the summit starts, Democratic Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts plans to reintroduce legislation to address the lack of protections for those who don’t fit the narrow definition of “refugees” under international law. It failed in 2019.

“We have a greater chance now than ever before to get this done,” Markey said in a statement to The Associated Press, citing Biden’s climate diplomacy and greater awareness of the problem.

The idea still faces monumental challenges, including how to define a climate refugee when natural disasters, drought and violence are often intertwined in regions people are fleeing, such as Central America.

If the U.S. defined a climate refugee, it could mark a major shift in global refugee policy.

Biden has ordered national security adviser Jake Sullivan to see how to identify and resettle people displaced directly or indirectly by climate change. A report is due in August.

It makes sense for the United States to lead the way, being a principal producer of greenhouse gases, advocates say.

“No nation in the world has taken the leadership to address this reality, which we face today,” said Krish Vignarajah, head of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. “It’s not an issue that we can punt to 20, 30 years from now. Our hope is the U.S. can take strong action that will produce a domino effect on other nations.”

The United Nations says there may be as many as 200 million climate-displaced people worldwide by 2050.

A World Meteorological Organization report released Monday showed it’s already happening, with an average of 23 million climate refugees a year since 2010 and nearly 10 million recorded in the first six months of last year, especially in Asia and East Africa. Most moved within their own country.

The 1951 Convention on Refugees defines “refugee” as a person who has crossed an international border “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.”

Some argue that's outdated, but few expect changes to the international accord to account for those fleeing rising sea levels, drought or other effects of climate change.

The U.S. may define the displaced as climate migrants instead of refugees and offer them humanitarian visas or other protections.

Biden ordered the idea to be studied after a landmark ruling last year from the U.N. Human Rights Committee on a complaint Teitiota filed against New Zealand.

Teitiota argued his 2015 deportation violated his right to life. He said saltwater from rising seas destroyed land and contaminated the water supply on the island of Tarawa in Kiribati. Scientists say the impoverished string of 33 atolls with about 103,000 people is among the nations most vulnerable to climate change.

The committee said Teitiota was not in imminent danger at the time of his asylum claim, rejecting his case. But it said it may be unlawful for governments to send people back to countries where the effects of climate change expose them to life-threatening risks — from hurricanes to land degradation.

“This ruling sets forth new standards that could facilitate the success of future climate change-related asylum claims,” committee expert Yuval Shany said.

Even so, identifying climate refugees is not easy, especially in regions rife with violence. In Central America, for example, thousands initially leave their villages because of crop failure from drought or flooding, often end up in cities where they become victims of gangs and ultimately flee their countries.

“It’s a threat multiplier, and so creating a status or category would have to address this complexity rather than to ignore it or to seek ‘pure’ climate refugees," said Caroline Zickgraf, who studies how climate change affects migration at Belgium’s University of Liège. “Does someone have to prove they were displaced by climate change? That’s an extraordinary, if not impossible, thing to ask of someone."

Carlos Enrique Linga travelled to the U.S. border with his 5-year-old daughter after rains from back-to-back hurricanes caused landslides and flooding that destroyed more than 60,000 houses in Guatemala alone, including Linga's farm and home.

He said he took the dangerous trip north because he needed to feed and clothe his children, including 2-year-old twins who stayed behind with his wife.

“To come here, we had to sell whatever harvest we had” to pay a smuggler, said Linga, who stayed at a Texas shelter last month after U.S. immigration authorities released him and his daughter.

He hoped to find work in Tennessee, where a friend lives, and send money back to Guatemala.

Global warming is shifting the migrant population from men seeking economic opportunities to families uprooted by hunger, according to Duke University and University of Virginia researchers studying migration out of Central America.

Researchers reviewing data for about 320,000 Hondurans apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border from 2012 to 2019 found they were largely from violent, agricultural regions also experiencing their lowest rainfall in 20 years.

According to the study released in March, even when homicide rates in the regions dipped, if the drought worsened that year, apprehensions of families from there jumped at the U.S. border.

Climate change is a driving force, but there’s little political will to help climate migrants, said David Leblang, a professor of politics and policy at the University of Virginia who co-wrote the study.

“As a political scientist, I would say the chances of this happening right now are close to zero," he said.

Some fear political pressure may lead Biden to back off after the number of people stopped by the Border Patrol last month hit a 20-year high.

He faced similar criticism Friday for expanding refugee eligibility but not lifting his predecessor's record-low admissions cap of 15,000. Hours later, the White House said Biden would raise it by May 15, without saying how much.

Climate migrants should be treated separately from those resettled under the 41-year-old U.S. refugee program, experts say, to not take spots from traditional refugees.

In New Zealand, a new government in 2017 tried offering humanitarian visas to Pacific Islanders affected by climate change, aiming to let in about 100 people a year.

Six months later, the plan was quietly dropped.

New Zealand Climate Change Minister James Shaw said the government is focusing on reducing emissions so people are not displaced.

“Right now, Pacific nations want us to help safeguard their future by focusing on mitigating climate change and supporting them to adapt,” he said. “And so that’s what we’re doing.”

___

Associated Press writers Nick Perry in Wellington, New Zealand, and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.

Julie Watson, The Associated Press

APRIL 20, 2021

GREEN CAPITALI$M

Canada pension speeds up renewables push with new sustainable energy group

(Reuters) - Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) said on Tuesday it will create a new investment group that focuses on sustainable energy, in a bid to boost its portfolio of renewable energy investments.

Pension and infrastructure funds have been investing more in the renewable energy space, given the steady returns such assets generate, amid a push for tackle climate change.

The new group, Sustainable Energy Group (SEG), will combine Energy & Resources (E&R) and Power & Renewables (P&R) groups and have about $18 billion in assets.

Bruce Hogg, former head of Power & Renewables group, will lead SEG.

In November, Canada's eight biggest pension funds urged companies and their investment partners to report environmental, social and governance (ESG) data in a standardized way to improve corporate sustainability reporting.  https://reut.rs/3rSAy0j

(Reporting by Rithika Krishna in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli

VAMPIRE B.A.T. SUCKS IN POT PRODUCER

As a Big Tobacco Firm Strikes a Major Deal, Hold On to Your OrganiGram Stock

David Moadel 2021-04-06

I won’t pretend that it’s been an easy, smooth ride for investors in Canadian cannabis grower OrganiGram (NASDAQ:OGI) in 2021 so far. The wild swings in OGI stock should remind us all that pot stocks are quite prone to volatility.© Provided by InvestorPlace marijuana stocks Hand gently holding rich soil for his marijuana plants

If you’re going to invest in OrganiGram’s shares, I strongly advise only buying small positions in the name and being prepared for roller-coaster price action.

That being said, there’s reason to believe that OrganiGram’s business will thrive in 2021. OGI stock may even stabilize and trend upwards.

Indeed, with a major vote of confidence and a sizable capital injection from a tobacco-market giant, it appears that the OrganiGram bulls might soon have their day in the sun.

© Provided by InvestorPlace marijuana stocks Hand gently                                                           holding rich soil for his marijuana plants

A Closer Look at OGI Stock

In September 2020, OGI stock bulls were struggling to keep the share price above $1.

That’s a crucial level because the Nasdaq Exchange has been known to sometimes delist stocks that stay below $1 for an extended period of time.

However, any concerns about the possibility of the shares being delisted were quelled in February 2021. Amazingly, buyers bid the OrganiGram share price all the way up to a 52-week high of $6.45 on Feb. 10.

Perhaps the share-price rally was too sharp and too fast. As it turns out, OGI stock declined from its February peak, settling at $3.44 on April 1.

Stock-price pullbacks aren’t always a bad thing. Folks who’ve been waiting on the sidelines might decide to scoop up some OrganiGram shares at a pretty good price now.
Tobacco Meets Marijuana

I’ve heard commentators say that the tobacco industry isn’t doing too well and that it’s looking to invest in cannabis in order to shore up its outlook.

A recent and potentially game-changing deal provides evidence that this thesis might be true.

Reportedly, a unit of British American Tobacco (NYSE:BTI) is investing 221 million CAD in OrganiGram. At the time of the deal’s announcement, that equated to around $176.6 million

With a position of around 58.3 million OrganiGram shares, British American Tobacco will hold a whopping 19.9% stake in the cannabis cultivator.

And the partnership goes beyond British American Tobacco’s share ownership. Evidently, the two companies have also entered into a product development agreement.

Together, they’ll create a Center of Excellence to develop the next generation of cannabis products. The initial focus of these products will be cannabidiol (CBD).

“Both companies will contribute scientists, researchers, and product developers to the Center of Excellence which will be governed and supervised by a steering committee,” according to a joint statement from the two companies.
Proven Track Record

So what’s more important now: the infusion of capital or the vote of confidence in OrganiGram?

I would actually point to the vote of confidence as the headline story. Without a doubt, British American Tobacco conducted its due diligence and determined that OrganiGram is a strong cannabis-market contender.

“Organigram has a proven track record of consumer-led innovation and developing high quality adult-use recreational and medical cannabis products, which are legally available in Canada,” British American Tobacco explained.

As OrganiGram CEO Greg Engel asserts, the deal with British American Tobacco represents “a tremendous milestone in the evolution of Organigram.”

I tend to concur with Engel’s assessment. For one thing, the partnership should help strengthen OrganiGram’s ability to conduct research and development.

Furthermore, the deal could bolster OrganiGram’s ability to raise capital that it can use to invest in U.S. and international cannabis markets.

The Bottom Line

Don’t be too surprised if multiple marijuana stocks, not only OGI stock, benefits from this development.

What does all of this mean for the owners of OrganiGram stock? There could still be more volatility ahead in the name ; make no mistake about that.

But it’s hard to feel bearish on OGI stock when a tobacco giant is taking such a large position in OrganiGram.

On the date of publication, David Moadel did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.

NASA helicopter makes history with successful flight on Mars

Issued on: 19/04/2021 - 

Text by: NEWS WIRES

NASA’s miniature robot helicopter Ingenuity performed a successful takeoff and landing on Mars early on Monday, achieving the first powered, controlled flight by an aircraft over the surface of another planet, the U.S. space agency said.

The solar-powered whirligig’s debut on the Red Planet marked a 21st-century Wright Brothers moment for NASA, which said success could pave the way for new modes of exploration on Mars and other destinations in the solar system, such as Venus and Saturn’s moon Titan.

Mission managers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles burst into applause and cheers as engineering data beamed back from Mars confirmed that the 4-pound (1.8-kg) twin-rotor helicopter had performed its maiden 40-second flight as planned about three hours earlier.

The robot rotorcraft was programmed to ascend 10 feet (3 meters) straight up, then hover and rotate in place over the Martian surface for half a minute before settling back down on its four legs. JPL officials said data returned from Mars showed that this had in fact occurred.

During NASA’s own coverage of the event livestreamed from JPL headquarters, NASA also displayed the first images from the flight

A black-and-white photo taken by a downward-pointing onboard camera while the helicopter was aloft showed the distinct shadow cast by Ingenuity in the Martian sunlight onto the ground just below it.

A snippet of color video footage captured by a separate camera mounted on NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance, parked about 200 feet away, showed the helicopter in flight against the orange-colored landscape surrounding it.

“We can now say that human beings have flown an aircraft on another planet,” said MiMi Aung, Ingenuity project manager at JPL.

(REUTERS