SURPRISE, SURPRISE; FOX LIES 

A  Fox News anchor admitted on air on Monday that his show was inaccurate when it claimed on Friday that President Joe Biden is trying to require Americans to sharply reduce their consumption of red meat

.

John Roberts, co-host of the afternoon show "America Reports," made the Monday concession after CNN and other media outlets published fact check articles explaining that Biden does not have any plan to restrict red meat consumption.

Roberts acknowledged Monday that "a graphic and the script" from his Friday show "incorrectly implied" that a 2020 academic study about meat-eating and greenhouse gas emissions is "part of Biden's plan for dealing with climate change."

"That is not the case," Roberts said.

Roberts had falsely claimed on Friday that the study -- which is not connected in any way to Biden's actual policies -- found that people need to "say goodbye to your burgers if you want to sign up to the Biden climate agenda." As Roberts spoke on Friday, Fox aired a graphic that claimed "Biden's climate requirements" are to "cut 90% of red meat from diet, max 4 lbs per year, one burger per month."

The graphic went viral online; it was amplified on Twitter by Donald Trump Jr., the Republican governors of Texas and Idaho and others. But it was entirely wrong.

Biden has not put forward any proposal to force Americans to change their diets. And the study Roberts cited -- which was published before Biden had even won the Democratic presidential nomination -- was not about Biden at all.

The study from scholars at the University of Michigan and Tulane University looked at what would happen to greenhouse gas emissions if Americans hypothetically decided to reduce their meat consumption to four pounds per year. It said nothing about a government-mandated reduction to four pounds per year -- and did not even mention Biden's name.

The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, baselessly linked the study to Biden in a Thursday article. A series of Fox personalities then did the same thing on Friday and Saturday.

Fox News hosts Jesse Watters and Ainsley Earhardt also pushed false claims about Biden and red meat. So did Fox Business host Larry Kudlow, the former Trump administration economic official.

Carly Shanahan of Fox's media relations department declined to comment on Monday when asked whether these hosts would also acknowledge they were inaccurate.

ROARING TWENTIES REDUX

A second cryptocurrency exchange has collapsed in Turkey, adding to the country's crypto woes.

© Ozan Kose/Getty Images Turkey's government is planning to crack down on cryptocurrencies.

Analysts said the abrupt closure of the exchanges highlighted the risks of cryptocurrencies.

Many have turned to bitcoin and other assets to try to hedge against the country's high inflationn rate.

The cryptocurrency market has been dealt a major blow in Turkey after a second exchange went down on Friday. The closures have left hundreds of thousands of people without access to bitcoin and other assets, which many had bought as a hedge against rampant inflation.

Analysts said the events were a reminder to cryptocurrency investors everywhere to be sure to do business with reputable companies.

Vebitcoin, a Turkish crypto exchange which had around $60 million in daily trading volumes, announced it had stopped all of its activities on Friday. It put a message up on its website blaming financial strains.

The Turkish financial crimes watchdog then blocked all the exchange's bank accounts in the country later that day, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.

Vebitcoin's announcement came days after rival Turkish crypto exchange Thodex stopped operations and its founder fled the country. The exchange had around 390,000 active users, according to reports.

The abrupt closure of the exchange was one catalyst for bitcoin's dramatic fall below $50,000 from recent highs close to $65,000, analysts said.

"The collapse of two exchanges in Turkey sent a warning to many cryptocurrency traders who have gotten into crypto with unreputable companies," Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda, said.

Turkey's cryptocurrency woes have been tied up with government efforts to crack down on the market.

Last week the country's central bank backed a ban on crypto payments. It said using cryptocurrencies for payments could cause "non-recoverable losses" for the parties involved.

But many Turks have turned to cryptocurrencies as a hedge against inflation, which stood at 16.2% in March.

"People like the idea of cryptocurrencies because they're unconstrained by the government," Marshall Gittler, head of investment research at BDSwiss, said. "But that freedom comes with costs - it also means there's no insurance and limited regulation."

Philip Gradwell, chief economist at Chainalysis, said: "The troubles at Turkish exchanges illustrate the importance of clear and stable regulation for cryptocurrency."

He added: "Investors in the USA and Europe are fortunate to have reputable cryptocurrency exchanges that operate within a strong regulatory framework, so the events in Turkey should not reduce their confidence."

cbc.ca

Relief efforts underway after La Soufrière volcanic eruptions
Duration: 00:36 

While no deaths have been reported following a series of volcanic eruptions over the past two weeks, large swaths of the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are left covered in ash and dust. Local agriculture has been devastated and infrastructure compromised, hindering search and rescue efforts.

FASCIST HEGEMONY
Orban seen entrenching right-wing dominance through Hungarian university reform

By Marton Dunai and Anita Komuves 

4/26/2021

© Reuters/BERNADETT SZABO FILE PHOTO: Students in front of the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary is set to pass legislation on Tuesday setting up foundations to take over the running of universities and cultural institutions in a move critics say extends the ideological imprint of the ruling right-wing government.

Currently, most Hungarian universities are owned by the state but have a large amount of academic autonomy.

The bill, drafted by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's deputy, says they need to be privatised because modern conditions require a "re-thinking of the role of the state" and the foundations will manage institutions more efficiently.

© Reuters/BERNADETT SZABO FILE PHOTO: Hungary's PM Orban in Budapest

Orban's government will appoint boards of trustees to run the foundations, which will control substantial real estate assets and benefit from billions of euros worth of EU funds, while also having considerable influence over universities' everyday life.

The government will endow several of the foundations using its stakes in blue chip companies MOL and drug maker Richter. It will also allocate over 1 trillion forints ($3.3 billion) worth of EU recovery funds for the revamp of universities.

Orban, who came to power in 2010, has tightened his control over much of Hungarian public life, such as the media, education and scientific research, as he seeks to reshape national culture. Orban set out the changes in a speech in 2018 when he envisioned embedding his political system in a new "cultural era".

© Reuters/BERNADETT SZABO FILE PHOTO: Supporters gather in front of the University of Theatre and Film Arts, in Budapest

His government, promoting what it calls Christian, conservative values, has strongly opposed immigration and limited gay adoption and legal recognition of transgender people.

Critics say the new legislation was the next move in extending its ideological influence and power grab.

"This is part of the ideological war that Orban declared two years ago," said Attila Chikan, a professor at the Corvinus economics university in Budapest and a former minister in Orban's first government in 1998.

"They make it no secret: they want to assume intellectual power after political and economic power."

He noted the move came after the government boosted controls over academic research and forced a top liberal school, Central European University, to move to Vienna in 2019.

The bill, to be voted on in parliament on Tuesday, says "the fundamental expectation is that the foundations actively defend the survival and well-being of the nation and the interests of enriching its intellectual treasures."

The foundations running some of the cultural institutions would have patriotic tasks such as "strengthening national identity."

The opposition said with supporters of Orban's ruling Fidesz party, and even government ministers, sitting on the boards, Orban could retain a degree of control over universities beyond the 2022 election and could undermine their autonomy.

Gergely Arato, an MP from opposition party Democratic Coalition said the bill would take away "the property, traditions, community, knowledge" of Hungarian people and give them to government allies controlling the universities.

The government says universities would benefit from the new model. Istvan Stumpf, government commissioner in charge of the changes, declined an interview with Reuters.

In October, students at Hungary's University of Theatre and Film Arts blockaded their school in a row over the imposition of a government-appointed board that protesters said undermined the school's autonomy.

($1 = 300.8700 forints)

(Reporting by Marton Dunai and Anita Komuves; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Opponents force referendum on Swiss same-sex marriage

ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss voters will get final say on whether same-sex couples can marry after opponents gathered enough signatures to force a binding referendum on a 2020 law allowing them to wed

.

© Reuters/Denis Balibouse FILE PHOTO: A rainbow flag is pictured on a balcony ahead of a referendum on anti-homophobia law in Neuchatel

That legislation also allowed transgender people to change their legal gender with a declaration, in a major change for a country that has lagged other parts of western Europe in gay rights.


The Swiss government certified that opponents had gathered enough support to call a referendum under the nation's system of direct democracy. It will in May set a date for the vote, which could come in September at the earliest, a spokesman said.

Opponents had decried "fake marriages" and said only a man and a woman could wed.

A survey commissioned by a gay advocacy group Pink Cross in 2020 showed more than 80% of Swiss support same-sex marriage, suggesting the law would take effect even if subjected to a referendum.

France legalised same-sex marriages in 2013, Germany followed in 2017 and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 ruled that the Constitution provides same-sex couples the right to marry.

(Reporting by Michael Shields and John Miller; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

THE SURGE IN MIGRATION EL NORTE

More than 27,000 displaced in Colombia violence in 2021

AFP  4.27.2021

More than 27,000 people were displaced during the first quarter of 2021 due to a surge of violence in lawless areas of Colombia, the human rights ombudsman said on Monday.

© Luis ROBAYO Despite a 2016 peace accord, Colombia has seen a surge of violence in lawless areas due to a multi-faceted conflict

People have either fled or been chased from their land by threats, murders, forced recruitment by armed gangs, clashes between such gangs, and others pitting them against the armed forces.

It amounts to a 177 percent increase in displacements on the same period in 2020, the ombudsman said.

Colombia thought it had seen the back of more than a half century of armed conflict when in 2016 the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) signed a peace deal with the government to disband and form a political party.

But violence has continued pitting dissident FARC members, other leftist guerrillas from the National Liberation Army (ELN), drug-traffickers, right-wing paramilitaries and the armed forces in a multi-faceted conflict.

Between January 1 and March 31, there were 65 "massive displacement events" compared with just 35 in the same period the previous year, said the ombudsman.

In a statement, the United Nations deplored "the violence carried out against communities, people defending human rights, social and community leaders, as well as ex-combatants of the former FARC, a situation that has worsened in recent weeks."

The UN said seven ex-guerrillas were murdered in an eight-day period recently.

The leftist Comunes party, which was formed after the peace deal, claims that 271 former fighters that signed the accord have been killed.

lv/jss/gma/bc/st

U.S. announces $310 million in humanitarian, food aid to Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, in a virtual meeting with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on Monday, announced an additional $310 million in U.S. government support for humanitarian relief and to address food insecurity in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, the White House said.

© Reuters/EVELYN HOCKSTEIN U.S. Vice President Harris holds videoconference with Guatemala's President Giammattei at the White House in Washington

The two leaders also "agreed to open Migrant Resource Centers in Guatemala to provide services for people seeking lawful pathways of migration as well as those in need of protection, asylum referrals, and refugee resettlement," the White House said.

Gallery: Migrants deported from U.S. find shelter in Mexico (Reuters)















4/25 SLIDES © Reuters

An asylum-seeking migrant child from Central America, who was airlifted from Brownsville to El Paso, Texas, and deported from the U.S. with his mother, is seen inside the El Buen Samaritano shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico April 1, 2021. Young families who crossed the U.S. border seeking a better life find themselves forced to head back south into Mexico. They had hoped President Joe Biden would allow them and their young children to stay in the U.S. until their immigration cases could be heard. Instead, many were promptly deported. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

(Reporting by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Kim Coghill)

#UCPKILLS

Boyle Street supervised drug-use site to stay closed, George Spady site to keep expanded hours

Dustin Cook , Alanna Smith 
4/26/2021

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Erica Schoen is the director of the supervised drug consumption site at Boyle Street Community Services on August 8, 2018.

A supervised consumption site in Edmonton’s downtown will discontinue operations at month’s end, leaving harm reduction advocates worried for the well-being of former clients.

Boyle Street Community Services spokesman Elliott Tanti said the supervised drug-use site has been closed since the fall when the service was redirected to the Tipinawâw shelter at the downtown Edmonton Convention Centre.

But when the shelter closes April 30, the consumption site won’t return to Boyle Street.

Instead, operations at the George Spady Centre across the street have been extended to 24-7 since the fall. The Spady used to run 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. when the Boyle Street site was in operation.

The two sites opened in March 2018 to jointly provide 24-7 access.

A third site at the Boyle McCauley Health Centre opened in November 2018.

Justin Marshall, press secretary to Alberta’s associate minister of mental health and addictions, said there is no reduction in funding for supervised consumption services in the Edmonton Zone despite the changes.

“The previous government decided to place three consumption sites in Chinatown, within very close proximity to other sites,” said Marshall in a statement. “The government is engaged with the Boyle Street society about potentially operating overdose prevention services in an under-serviced area of Edmonton.”
72 Edmonton opioid deaths in two months

But Angela Welz, the Alberta regional director for Moms Stop The Harm, said this could negatively impact former clients of the Boyle Street site.

“It’s disappointing because you are taking away something clients are comfortable with and asking them to go elsewhere,” said Welz. “Change for many of these marginalized people is very difficult, so it’s worrisome.”

She called the change in direction “sheer cruelty” as it could lead to additional overdose deaths, as numbers are already hitting record-high levels in the city.

In the first two months of 2021, 72 people died in Edmonton from opioid overdoses — representing a 157 per cent increase from January and February in 2020. The current rate of drug poisoning deaths in Edmonton sits at 41.1 per 100,000 people in 2021, exceeding the provincial rate of 30.3.

“I don’t know what else we can say as advocates and families who have lost a loved one to overdose and to the drug toxicity issues,” said Welz. “This is just another stab in the heart.”

Welz said the UCP isn’t listening to pleas from families who have lost loved ones to overdoses and calls from frontline workers when it comes to tackling the overdose crisis.

She said government should be bolstering harm reduction services and exploring safe supply programs.

“This is a very big blow to Edmonton,” said Welz. “It’s just very, very unfortunate because it is so important for that community hub in that neighbourhood. We need more supervised consumption sites, not less.”

Tanti said he isn’t certain there won’t be an impact with one less site but said “a lot has been done to mitigate the impact” as there is still 24-7 care.

He confirmed Boyle Street is working closely with the government to explore the potential for additional overdose prevention sites in parts of the city where they are needed.

Anti-lockdown protest aftermath: How do Peterborough residents feel?

Duration: 02:16 
4/27/2021

After the largest anti-lockdown protest yet on Saturday, Global News asked Peterborough residents what they think of the weekly demonstrations. Officials of the city's Downtown Business Improvement Area are concerned with the growing divide between those who support the protests and those who do not. Sam Houpt has the story...

WHO ELSE SHOWS UP BUT FOR SOME REASON GLOBAL FAILS TO MENTION HIM; MAXIME BERNIER LIBERTARIAN WHITE NATIONALIST
FORMER CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP CANDIDATE WHO FORMED HIS OWN TRUMP LIKE PEOPLES PARTY LAST ELECTION
AND OF COURSE HE IS NOT WEARING A MASK

UK
Shift workers treated in hospital three times more likely to have Covid – study

Shift workers treated in hospital are up to three times more likely to test positive for coronavirus than other hospitalised patients, a study has found.

Shift work was defined in the study as working outside the hours of 9am to 5pm, and it is estimated that around 25% of the UK’s workforce engages in some form of such work.

Using data from UK Biobank, the world’s largest biomedical database, researchers from the University of Manchester, Oxford, and the West Indies found that even after taking account of known coronavirus risk factors, such as age, ethnicity and deprivation, shift work increased the likelihood of testing positive for coronavirus in patients treated in hospital. The nature of the shift work or the occupation of those undertaking the shift work did not seem to affect the association.© Photograph: Anthony Harvey/Rex/Shutterstock Patients arrive at the emergency department at the Royal London hospital in Whitechapel.

Over half a million people were enrolled in the UK Biobank, and of these, 6,442 were tested for Covid-19 in hospital, resulting in 498 positive tests between March and August 2020. The shift workers were 2.5 to 3 times more likely to test positive with coronavirus than non-shift workers.

Dr John Blaikley, one of the lead researchers, said that although the study “shows quite a strong association between shift working and being hospitalised for Covid-19, even after controlling for existing Covid-19 risk factors”, further studies looking into the issue, especially in ethnic minority communities, were needed because the UK Biobank did not fully reflect the diversity of the UK.

He added that although it was difficult to explain the exact cause of this association, it could be speculated that possible causes might include reduced social distancing at work and how shift work may impact on the body clock of workers, with the body clock controlling immune response according to time of day.

Dr Hannah Durrington, the other lead researcher, said it was of “paramount importance” that the health and working conditions for shift workers were improved. “We do believe it should be possible to substantially mitigate these risks through good hand-washing, use of face protection, appropriate spacing and vaccination,” she added.

The study is further testament to the disparities that exist in relation to coronavirus and different kinds of work. Earlier this month, research from the Trades Union Congress found that workers on zero-hours contracts and other insecure jobs were twice as likely to have died of Covid-19 compared with those in other professions.

© Photograph: Paul Ellis/AP The GMB union said Boris Johnson’s reported comments that he would rather see ‘bodies piled high’ than approve a third lockdown ‘shows why a public inquiry is needed now’.The Trades Union Congress is calling for an immediate public inquiry into the handling of the Covid pandemic, insisting it should examine whether workers were kept safe enough after about 15,000 people of working age died from Covid in England and WalThe GMB union said the prime minister’s reported comments that he would rather see “bodies piled high” than approve a third lockdown “shows why a public inquiry is needed now”. It said its members “deserve to know why they were put in harm’s way unnecessarily and if the PM think it’s OK for them to die”.The unions want Downing Street to announce a start date and consult the public about its scope. Men working in processing plants, security, care and restaurant work were most at risk of dying from Covid, according to figures up to the end of last year, while for women it was machine operators and care workers.No 10 told bereaved families earlier this month the government did not have time for an inquiry and would not for months to come. It has said there will be “an independent inquiry at the appropriate time”.Calls for an immediate inquiry are gathering momentum. The TUC’s affiliated unions represent 5.5 million workers and its intervention follows similar demands for an inquiry from the archbishop of Canterbury, Labour, government scientific advisers and thousands of the bereaved, who have voiced outrage at Johnson’s alleged comments.They include Lobby Akinnola, whose father Olufemi, 60, was a care worker in Leamington Spa who died a year ago. He was visiting different clients’ homes improvising PPE from a winter scarf and gloves.“If we had locked down a week earlier, how many people could have been saved?” said Akinnola, adding that he was “disgusted” by reports the prime minister said “let the bodies pile high”.“My dad was on the threshold of life and death, but fell on the wrong side. Throughout this pandemic we have relied on frontline workers, but the government didn’t seem to support them.”The TUC has set five priorities for an inquiry: workplace infection control, including financial support to self-isolate; the impact of a decade of spending cuts on the capacity of public services; Covid’s unequal impact on workers, particularly ethnic minorities and people in insecure jobs; the impact of employment support packages such as furlough; and government procurement and its effect on supplies of PPE.

Notley calls for Alberta to offer 10 days of paid work leave to stop workplace spread of COVID-19

Lisa Johnson

EDMONTON JOURNAL

4/26/2021

© Provided by Edmonton Journal On Monday April 26, 2021 in Edmonton Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley, right, and NDP labour critic Christina Gray laid out a proposal for paid sick leave to slow the spread of the COVID pandemic, protect Alberta workers, and speed up Alberta's economic recovery.


The Opposition NDP is calling for the Alberta government to provide 10 days of paid leave for isolating workers to curb workplace spread of COVID-19.

Leader Rachel Notley said Monday the Alberta government should cover employers sending the wage support directly to workers as part of their paycheques, leaving the details of how the province might be reimbursed through the federal government’s recovery sickness benefit until later.

Notley said with variants of concern spreading faster in the workplace, the support would help get transmission rates down and bring the pandemic and public health restrictions to an end faster.

“What we need to do is bring (transmission) down and we can’t do that if people go to work with symptoms, or if they go to work while they’re waiting five days to get a test, or if they go to work because they can’t afford to stay home and not get paid while isolating,” said Notley.

“There’s a good reason to do it, and it’s long overdue,” said Notley, calling on the government to work again with the opposition as it did in passing legislation last week to guarantee three hours of paid sick leave to get workers vaccinated.

Notley also encouraged the government to consult with employers to reach a cost sharing agreement that recognizes that some large employers have increased their profits throughout the pandemic, while many small businesses struggle to survive.

Joseph Dow, press secretary to Labour Minister Jason Copping, said in a statement the Alberta government is concerned by the third-wave surge in cases across the province, but did not say whether Copping is considering any measure to fill in the gaps of the federal program.

Dow encouraged residents to take advantage of existing COVID-19 supports including those of the federal government, and the province’s isolation hotel program that offers up to $625 in financial support .

The NDP’s call comes as paid sick leave makes headlines across the country, especially in Ontario. Premier Doug Ford refused to implement paid sick leave until the public outcry prompted a pledge last week that a provincial program would fill in the gaps left by the federal sick pay program.

On Monday, Ford’s government shut down a bill proposed by a Liberal MPP that would guarantee 10 paid sick days.

As of Sunday , Alberta’s per capita rate of active COVID-19 cases, at 455 per 100,000, far exceeds Ontario’s, which is at 279 per 100,000 people. Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table has called for paid sick leave to curb workplace spread.

The federal program offers $450 after taxes per week for up to a maximum of four weeks if they tested positive or are self-isolating due to COVID-19.

Notley pointed out that is less than a full-time minimum wage paycheque in Alberta, and it can take weeks to get the cash to eligible workers.

“Many families simply cannot afford to wait weeks without an income while they try to navigate the federal government’s application process,” said Notley.

Notley said the wages would be far less than the cost of occupied ICU beds and continued damage to the economy.

“We must weigh the cost of this program against the cost of thousands more Albertans falling sick, hundreds more in the hospital and ICU and the broader economic damage that occurs as a result of a longer third wave,” said Notley.

Beginning March last year, all Albertan employees who are in quarantine due to COVID-19 are eligible for 14 days of unpaid, job-protected leave.

 cbc.ca

Mandating paid sick days is 'not the expectation, it's the ask," says federal labour minister

Duration: 01:52

Federal Minister of Labour Filomena Tassi tells Vassy Kapelos on Power & Politics that her government is only asking provinces to mandate paid sick days.

Paid sick days would be 'game changer': grocery store worker

Duration: 05:40

 

Toronto Grocery store worker Rechev Browne says many of his colleagues who have been working throughout the pandemic can't afford to stay home, even when they feel sick.

 Health minister announces details of COVID-19 vaccination rollouts at meat-packing facilities in Alberta

Duration: 01:17 

Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro offers details of the province's rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine to meat-packing plants.