Global News
Veteran intelligence officer fought for mandatory masking months before COVID-19 outbreaks at CSIS
Duration: 02:09

A veteran staffer at Canada’s security intelligence service, CSIS, is slamming his employer for its initial refusal to have a mandatory masking policy amid the COVID-19 pandemic. CSIS only recently made this an office-wide rule after its building had already been hit with coronavirus outbreaks this year.

CANADA
Opinion: There's no replacement for paid sick days

Judy Henley is president of CUPE Saskatchewan.

Saskatchewan is struggling with an intense third wave of COVID-19, fueled by more infectious and deadlier variants of concern. This third wave continues to push our health-care system to the brink. Admissions to intensive care units have never been higher. Increasingly, those hospitalized are younger and previously healthy. Our rate of active cases and hospitalizations remain among the highest in the country. Too many Saskatchewan residents are losing their lives during this pandemic.

© Provided by Leader Post Paid vaccination leave is one step, but full employer-paid sick days are needed, writes CUPE Sask. president Judy Henley.

Many COVID-19 outbreaks are occurring in workplaces.

Health officials have repeatedly urged workers to stay home if they are feeling unwell, develop COVID-19 symptoms or have been exposed to the virus.

This is all good advice, but not a viable option for most workers.

According to the latest data, 58 per cent of Canadian workers reported having no access to employer-paid sick leave. Among those earning less than $25,000 per year, 74 per cent said they had no paid sick leave. Those without paid sick leave are more likely to be in low-wage, precarious jobs and are disproportionately women, Indigenous and racialized workers.

Too many workers cannot afford to lose even one day of pay. The choice comes down to staying home or going to work sick so they can pay rent or put food on the table. Tragically, those infected at work will often infect family members, despite best efforts to isolate. No one should be put in this situation.

Video: Manitoba announces 5-day paid sick leave program (Global News)

For some time, the labour movement has called for paid sick leave to be made available to all workers, whether unionized or non-unionized. As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, a growing chorus of doctors and public health experts have added their voices to these calls.

In early April, nearly 300 Saskatchewan doctors signed an open letter calling on the provincial government to, among other things, provide paid sick time for essential workers . The Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table also recently called on the Ford government to enact paid sick leave to essential workers to limit the spread of the virus.

After much pressure, the Ontario government finally announced that it will temporarily require employers to provide three days of paid sick leave, which can then be reimbursed by the province. This is clearly inadequate, but sadly better than what most provincial governments provide. The federal labour code and Prince Edward Island mandate three employer-paid sick days a year, while Quebec offers one annual paid sick day. The remaining provinces don’t mandate any paid sick leave.

The Saskatchewan Party government has resisted calls to enact paid sick leave. They point to the paid vaccination leave passed earlier this year and job protection leave enacted last year to provide expanded unpaid leave without the requirement of sick notes. While these are welcome initiatives, they do not go far enough and most certainly do not replace the need for paid sick days.

Our provincial government, like others, also passes the buck by pointing to the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit. This program excludes many workers, is cumbersome, does not guarantee full replacement of income and is not immediate. Workers who wake up sick in the morning need to know immediately that they will not be financially penalized if they stay home sick.

Our provincial government needs to get serious about protecting front-line workers from COVID-19 and promoting public health. The government needs to immediately legislate a minimum of 10 employer-paid sick days for all workers in Saskatchewan. The province could set up a fund to reimburse small businesses to ensure they are not unduly impacted while struggling through the pandemic. Paid sick days need to be permanent, available during COVID-19 and beyond, and not conditional upon receipt of a sick note.

Public health experts and doctors all agree: Paid sick leave should play a key role in getting us out of this pandemic. Our provincial government must act now.

Economy lost 207,000 jobs in April, unemployment rate rises, Statistics Canada says

OTTAWA — Canada's labour market lost 207,000 jobs last month as a spike in COVID-19 variant cases led to renewed public health restrictions and raised concerns about longer-term economic consequences from the pandemic

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

The unemployment rate rose to 8.1 per cent from 7.5 per cent in March, Statistics Canada reported. It would have been 10.5 per cent had it included in calculations Canadians who wanted to work but didn’t search for a job.

Ontario led the way on losses regionally with a drop of 153,000, and British Columbia witnessed its first decrease in employment since a historic one-month plunge in the labour market in April 2020.

Nationally, losses were heavier in full-time than part-time work, with retail and young workers hit hardest as a resurgence of the virus and its variants forced a new round of restrictions and lockdowns.

With lockdowns continuing into May, CIBC senior economist Royce Mendes said more losses this month are possible.

Leah Nord, senior director of workforce strategies with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said the latest setback in the labour market will carry a long-term impact on the workers and businesses affected, particularly in high-touch sectors that are falling further behind.

"It's not a K-shaped recovery," she said, "it's a K-shaped crisis where the up is going up and the down is going down and that's where the scarring is going."

Scarring, or longer-term economic setbacks for the country, could be seen in ranks of the long-term unemployed, which climbed to 486,000 as about 21,000 more workers crossed the threshold of being without a job for six months or more.

Among them are 312,000 workers who have been unemployed for at least one year, up from the 99,000 recorded pre-pandemic, meaning almost one in every five unemployed workers have been searching for a job for a year or more, noted Behnoush Amery, senior economist at the Lamour Market Information Council.

The concern is that as time goes on, it will become harder for those workers to find new jobs, or they may drop out of the workforce altogether and set back any recovery.

"The good news is that these individuals are still looking for work and have not left the labour market entirely," Amery said.

"The bad news is that there is a risk that they leave the labour market entirely. If that happens, encouraging them to come back ... is challenging and expensive."

With April's losses, the country was short about 503,100 jobs, or 2.6 per cent below levels in February 2020 prior to the pandemic, but Statistics Canada suggested the actual gap may be larger.

Although population growth over the last year has slowed with fewer immigrants arriving in the country, the overall workforce is still about 302,000 higher than it was in February 2020.

The gap would be closer then to 686,000 jobs to bring the employment rate even with where it was pre-pandemic.

"Getting back to pre-pandemic levels is just a milestone, but it's not victory," said Jimmy Jean, chief economist at Desjardins. "It means that there's more to be created if you want to recover."

The federal government will be keeping a close eye on the workforce numbers nearing the summer and fall to see what, if any, changes might be needed to the package of pandemic aid.

Last month's federal budget proposed extending aid through the summer to hard-hit workers, and keep easier access to employment insurance in place for another year.

"We're hoping with the economy being where we expect it to be because of where we expect vaccination levels to be that we're going to see this reopening and recovery," Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough said in a recent interview.

"If we had a fourth wave, if that isn't the case, we are absolutely able and focused on course-correcting, as we've always done, as early as possible going into the end of September when these current measures expire"

On Friday, Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole blamed the federal government's vaccination efforts for April's jobs losses when asked what level of responsibility provinces needed to take for the workforce setback.

"The provinces have done their best with limited vaccines, limited rapid tests and limited information from the federal government." O'Toole said.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called for sector-specific support to the tourism, service and live entertainment industries, as well as more relief benefits, particularly to help women who have given up work to take care of children and loved ones.

"A lot of women are choosing — not choosing; they don’t have a choice, they can’t go back to work," he said.

— With files from Christopher Reynolds and Stephanie Taylor

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 7, 2021.

Jordan Press, The Canadian Press

Two lions test positive for Covid-19 in Indian state Uttar Pradesh

By Meenketan Jha, Manveena Swati and Eoin McSweeney, CNN 

Two lions at the Etawah Safari Park in the northern Indian state Uttar Pradesh have tested positive for Covid-19, according to officials at the park.

© pankaj.singh/Shutterstock A statue greeting visitors at Etawah Wildlife Safari park in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Two lions at the park tested positive for Covid-19, but their condition is stable.

The samples were sent for testing after both the lions were found to have high temperatures.

Authorities added that the pair were in stable condition. They have been kept in self-isolation with their health being monitored regularly.

This comes after eight lions had tested positive for the same at the Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad earlier this week.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had previously stated that based on experience with other zoo animals who had also tested positive for Covid-19 across the globe, there is "no factual evidence that animals can transmit the disease to humans any further.

The Etawah Safari park has been closed to visitors due to the rise in Covid-19 cases across the state of Uttar Pradesh, home to 200 million people according to India's 2011 census. The country's most populous state recorded a seven day rolling average of 28,765 cases Friday, according to data from John Hopkins University.

In a strong criticism of the Uttar Pradesh government's handling of the crisis, the state's top court said Tuesday that deaths of Covid-19 patients due to lack of oxygen is a "criminal act and not less than a genocide," according to a judgement posted on the court's website.

India's second wave has hit its major cities and populous states hard. Cases in the capital, New Delhi, began climbing in late March, accelerating rapidly in April -- and as the virus spread from state to state, other parts of the country began to see their own surge in cases, sometimes weeks after the central hotspots.

The world's second most populous country reported its highest number of coronavirus deaths Saturday with 4,187 recorded over a 24-hour period, according to figures released by the country's health ministry. This is the first time the daily number of deaths has exceeded 4,000, bringing the total figure to 238,270.

India also added 401,078 new Covid-19 cases, the third day in a row that over 400,000 cases have been recorded. The total number of cases stands at 21,892,676.

Over 167 million vaccine doses have been administered in India, according to a press release issued by the health ministry on Friday evening. With over 34 million having received their second dose, 2.6% of India's 1.3 billion-strong population is fully vaccinat

Las Vegas couple finds a horse skeleton from the Ice Age during backyard pool excavation

A Las Vegas couple’s backyard turned into the site of an archeological dig when construction workers found the skeleton of a horse thought to be from the most recent Ice Age

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© Provided by National Post Pool builders found the bones about five feet deep during construction

Matthew Perkins’ plans to build a pool were put on hold last week after the workers found bones buried about five feet deep and alerted police. Perkins and his husband found out about the discovery only after the police arrived, he told CNN , but their investigation took only minutes.

“They came in, dug up the bone, saw that it was fairly large and at that point told us, ‘Too big to be human. Not our concern anymore,'” he said. Curious to learn more, Perkins decided he’d get answers from the experts.

After a few unreturned calls, Perkins was able to get ahold of palaeontologist Joshua Bonde, research director of Nevada Science Center. Bonde told CNN he gets these kinds of calls often and they usually amount to far less interesting finds. What the Perkins had stumbled into were in fact the skeletal remains of “a prehistoric horse.”

So far, the right front leg and shoulder blade, some hair, vertebrae and jaw have been unearthed, roughly four to five feet underground, per New York Times .

The remains are preserved in a way that indicates they were quickly buried, before they could be dispersed by the flow of water or hungry scavengers, according to media reports. Native horses in North America are thought to have become extinct during the Ice Age, which lasted from 2.6 million years ago until about 11,700 years ago.

Bonde estimates the bones are dated between 6,000 and 14,000 years ago. Since Las Vegas was a wetland during the Ice Age, fossils are a common find there, he told New York Times .

Researchers with the US Geological Survey are set to test the fossil to pin down a more exact date.

Perkins said kids often dream of finding a fossil and that he “didn’t really grow out of it.” He plans to pause the build while scientists can study the remains, then loan the fossil to the Nevada Science Center to display.

Newly Identified Species of Saber-Toothed Cat Was So Big It Hunted Rhinos in America

David Nield 


Using detailed fossil comparison techniques, scientists have been able to identify a giant new saber-toothed cat species, Machairodus lahayishupup, which would have prowled around the open spaces of North America between 5 and 9 million years ago.

© pixeldigits/iStock/Getty Images Plus 

The new species is related to this saber-toothed skull.

One of the biggest cats ever discovered, M. lahayishupup is estimated in this new study to have a body mass of some 274 kilograms (604 pounds) or so, and possibly even bigger. It's an ancient relative of the well-known Smilodon, the so-called saber-toothed tiger.

A total of seven M. lahayishupup fossil specimens, including upper arms and teeth, were analyzed and compared with other species to identify the new felid, with the fossils collected from museum collections in Oregon, Idaho, Texas, and California.


1920 mochairodusorcutt

Artist's impression of the new saber-toothed cat. (Roger Witter)

"One of the big stories of all of this is that we ended up uncovering specimen after specimen of this giant cat in museums in western North America," says paleobiologist John Orcutt from Gonzaga University. "They were clearly big cats."

"What we didn't have then, that we have now, is the test of whether the size and anatomy of those bones tells us anything – and it turns out that yes, they do."

The age and size of the fossils gave the researchers a good starting point. Then they used digital images and specialized software to find similarities between the relics – and differences from other cat species, which was just as important.

Points of reference on the specimens showed that they were from the same giant cat and that this cat was a species that hadn't been identified before. Additional evidence came from the teeth, although the researchers admit that the details of how early saber-toothed cats were related to each other is a little "fuzzy".

Upper arms are crucial in these cats for killing prey, and the largest upper arm or humerus fossil discovered in the study was about 1.4 times the size of the same bone in a modern-day lion. That gives you an idea of just how hefty and powerful M. lahayishupup would have been.

"We believe these were animals that were routinely taking down bison-sized animals," says paleontologist Jonathan Calede from Ohio State University. "This was by far the largest cat alive at that time."

Rhinoceroses would have been abundant at the same and may have been animals that M. lahayishupup preyed on, alongside camels and sloths significantly bigger than the ones we're used to today.

While the discoveries made of this new species so far don't include the iconic saber teeth themselves, it's significant that M. lahayishupup has been identified mostly from humerus bones, showing what's possible with the latest analysis software added to many hours of careful study.

Peering back so many millions of years into the past isn't easy, and the researchers say that a more detailed saber-tooth cat family tree is going to be needed to work out exactly where this species fits in. The findings also open up some interesting evolutionary questions about these giant cats.

"It's been known that there were giant cats in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and now we have our own giant saber-toothed cat in North America during this period as well," says Calede.

"There's a very interesting pattern of either repeated independent evolution on every continent of this giant body size in what remains a pretty hyper-specialized way of hunting, or we have this ancestral giant saber-toothed cat that dispersed to all of those continents. It's an interesting paleontological question."

The research has been published in the Journal of Mammalian Evolution.

After a six year legal battle, Aussie surfer granted the tooth of the shark that took his leg

An Australian man got the whole tooth after a six-year legal battle to retrieve a souvenir from the 18-foot Great white shark that almost killed him.

© Provided by National Post Bowles' costly tooth.

At Fishery Bay in the state of South Australia in 2015, surfer Chris Blowes lost his left leg in a shark attack that left him in a coma for 10 days.

The shark’s tooth became lodged in his surfboard but, under state law, possession of animal parts of protected species was illegal and punishable by two years’ jail time and thousands in fines.

Blowes has been granted the first legal exemption to the protected species rule after a drawn-out ordeal he described to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as “ridiculous.”

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“It seems stupid that I wasn’t able to have it in the first place, but that’s what the law says.”

Blowes was out surfing when the great white came up behind him and attacked, BBC reported .

“It shook me about and played with me for a bit — and it ended up pulling my leg off,” he told the outlet.

Blowes was pulled ashore by two friends and treated by paramedics, then hurried to hospital.

“My heart had completely stopped and they had to administer CPR until I showed any signs of life,” he says. Police took his surfboard — and the tooth embedded in it.

He asked state officials for the tooth several times to no avail. Under the Fisheries Management Act in South Australia, possession, sale and purchase of White Sharks can result in a $100,000 fine or two years imprisonment

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Chris Blowes/ Facebook Chris Blowes, 32, back to surfing after

 he lost his leg to a Great white in 2015.

“I would never kill a shark for its tooth but it took my leg [so] I can’t see any reason why I can’t have that,” he said.

“The shark isn’t getting its tooth back [and] I’m not getting my leg back.”

Finally with the help of a local politician, the Department of Primary Industries and Regions granted Blowes the morbid memento, but it came at a huge cost, Blowes told ABC.

“It’s not a fair trade, a leg for a tooth.”

Blowes, who has also written a book about the incident, said he plans to hold on to the tooth as a story for his grandkids and carry it along for motivational speeches.

EL CONDOR PASA REDUX
Group of endangered condors take up residence outside of a California woman's home

By Lauren M. Johnson, CNN

There are only about 200 California condors in the wild in California, but for some reason, 15 to 20 of the massive birds decided to congregate in one location — on a woman's deck.

© Courtesy Cinda Mickols Condors are an endangered species and one of the largest flying birds in the world.

Cinda Mickols, who lives about two hours outside Los Angeles in Tehachapi, California, told CNN that she was coming back into town Monday when her neighbor sent her the first picture of her temporary visitors.

Mickols, 68, had seen condors on her property before, but she was not prepared for what she found.

"When I walked up to my (side) deck where they were sitting on my spa ... I waved my cane and said, "OK, guys, party's over!" and some of them started to fly away," said Mickols, who is 5-foot, 3-inches tall. "But when I went in my house and went out my back deck ... they flew away ... especially when I got the hose out."

Condors are an endangered species and one of the largest flying birds in the world. Their wingspan can spread almost 9 feet and they can weigh more than 20 pounds. In the 1970s, only a few dozen were left in the wild, according to the California Department for Fish and Wildlife.

Because of their endangered status, solutions for removal cannot include anything that could hurt the animals, but residents are allowed to make loud noises and use water to get the birds off their property.

Mickols said she has been using the tactic with other condors who have decided to perch on her roof in the last five days, mostly because of the damage they caused. The birds knocked down planters, shredded her spa cover, and pooped all over her deck.

Her daughter, Seana Quintero of San Francisco, shared images of the mess that quickly went viral on Twitter. But Mickols said she's mostly happy that the species is rallying.

"This is a good news story," she said. "The condors are coming back from extinction. They are welcome to be around, but I want them off my house now."

There is no explanation as to why they chose her home, but Mickols liked how one of her daughter's Twitter followers put it — she must live in a "condor"-minium.

"Nature is amazing," she concluded.

© Courtesy Cinda Mickols The birds knocked over planters and shredded a spa cover on Cinda Mickols' deck.

© Courtesy Cinda Mickols Condors have a wing span of up to 9 feet and can weigh over 20 pounds.

KameraOne

Fishermen surrounded by hundreds of dolphins
Duration: 01:06 

Passengers onboard a fishing boat captured this stunning footage which shows a huge pod of dolphins and a whale tucking into some food together.

Liechtenstein prince accused of killing one of Europe's biggest bears

Romanians have been bombarding the website of the family's Riegersburg Castle with abuse. Travel review site TripAdvisor says it has temporarily suspended reviews of the castle.

By Jack Guy and Tim Lister, CNN

 

© Agent Green via AP Arthur, one of Europe's biggest brown bears, is seen in Romania in this 2019 handout photo provided by NGO Agent Green.

Romanian authorities are investigating after one of Europe's largest brown bears was allegedly shot and killed by a prince from Liechtenstein.

Prince Emanuel von und zu Liechtenstein -- the 32-year-old nephew of the tiny principality's reigning Prince Hans-Adam II -- is accused of shooting 17-year-old Arthur in March during a hunting expedition.

Prosecutors opened an investigation Thursday on two grounds: The bear's killing was not licensed and some of those involved may not have had weapons permits, according to CNN affiliate Antena 3.

Environmental organization Agent Green believes the prince was granted a four-day hunting permit from the Ministry of Environment to shoot a young female bear that had been attacking farms in Covasna county, Transylvania.

Instead it is alleged that the prince shot Arthur, who lives in a protected area.

Gabriel Paun, the president of Agent Green, said in a statement on the group's website that he didn't understand how the prince could confuse a young bear that had been stealing chickens from a village with the largest male bear that existed in the depths of the forest.  

© Schneider-Press/Frank Rol/SIPA/Shutterstock Prince Emanuel von und zu Liechtenstein is the nephew of Liechtenstein's reigning prince.

Romania has the biggest bear population in Europe outside Russia and is proud of its ursine heritage.

It outlawed trophy hunting in 2016. However, exceptions are made in extreme cases, such as when a bear has damaged property or threatened human life.

This story has received widespread media attention in the country.

Romanian Prime Minister Florin Citu said media reports were incorrect and Arthur may not be the biggest brown bear in Europe. His response has been widely criticized.

The prince has said "he doesn't want to be involved in this sensitive matter," Antena 3 reports.

Romanians have been bombarding the website of the family's Riegersburg Castle with abuse. Travel review site TripAdvisor says it has temporarily suspended reviews of the castle.