Trudeau tells health ministers money is there, but he wants to see results


VANCOUVER — The federal government will invest more in health care, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it also needs to ensure that Canadians see the results of an improved system.



Trudeau made his comments in Montreal today ahead of two days of meetings in Vancouver by Canada's federal, territorial and provincial health ministers.

The prime minister says the government has committed to investing "significantly more" in health care, while pointing to a recent statement from the head of the Canadian Medical Association that there's no point in putting more money into a broken system.

He says the government wants to ensure people have access to a family doctor and to mental health services, and that they know emergency rooms are open when their children need them.

The meetings in Vancouver are the first time all of Canada's health ministers have gathered in person since 2018.

Related video: Provincial, territorial, federal health ministers to discuss health-care crisis
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The premiers met in July, when they asked the federal government to increase health transfers to 35 per cent, up from what they said was 22 per cent funding.

Trudeau says delivery of health care needs to be improved for Canadians.

"So yes, we will be there with more money, but we need to make sure that more investments in health care end up supporting the folks on the front lines, the nurses and doctors delivering that health care to Canadians, and ensure that Canadians feel the results in our health-care system."

B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix has said the extra cash is needed as the province tackles nursing and doctor shortages, works to improve access to digital health care, and boosts mental health and substance-use services related to the toxic drug crisis.

The Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Nurses Association and HealthCareCAN, which represents various organizations and hospitals, also teamed up ahead of this week's meetings to push the health ministers to work on urgent solutions to staffing shortages, burnout and other ills plaguing the system.

The groups are jointly calling for measures including incentives to retain workers, such as increased mental health supports, as well as a Canada-wide strategy to gather data on the workforce to allow doctors to be licensed more easily wherever they're most needed. They have also called for improved access to primary care and virtual visits.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2022.

The Canadian Press

Feds hold groundbreaking ceremony for Moderna's mRNA vaccine factory in Montreal area

MONTREAL — The new mRNA vaccine factory being built near Montreal by Moderna will help ensure Canada's health security in the face of more pandemics that are expected in the coming decades, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday.


Feds hold groundbreaking ceremony for Moderna's mRNA vaccine factory in Montreal area© Provided by The Canadian Press

Trudeau took part in a groundbreaking ceremony in Laval, Que., for the new facility by the Massachusetts-based biotechnology company. He donned a helmet and reflective vest as he toured the grounds, where preparation and foundation work is underway.

The factory is expected to be completed in 2024 at the earliest and produce 100 million doses of mRNA vaccines per year. It will manufacture vaccines against COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

The prime minister told reporters the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred conversations about "how to make sure Canada is once again able to respond not just to its own needs, but to help lead the world at a time of uncertainty and a time of potentially more pandemics in the coming decades."

He was accompanied by several provincial and federal politicians, including federal Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Laval Mayor Stéphane Boyer. Trudeau told reporters that Moderna's new factory represents an investment in the health-care security of Canadians and also in a research ecosystem that will deliver good jobs for years to come.

Stephen Hoge, the president of Moderna, said Quebec was chosen for the facility in part because of its "strong regulatory environment" and its skilled workforce.

Moderna, Hoge added, has dozens of medications under study, including those to tackle cancer and rare metabolic diseases. "There's incredible potential in our technology in cancer," he said, adding that the company is awaiting results from early-stage clinical trials.

Champagne said Canada has committed to purchase a certain number of vaccines from the factory as part of a seven-year agreement, but he didn't provide a precise number. He said the federal government did not invest in the facility itself.

The factory, Champagne added, would employ hundreds of people during its construction and "more than 200 people" once it opens.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2022.

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press

Lab-grown blood used on people in world-first clinical trial

Lynn Chaya - .National Post

Blood grown in a laboratory has been transfused into humans in a world-first clinical trial that researchers say could revolutionize treatments for people with rare blood types.


The lab-grown blood is tagged with a radioactive substance, typically used in medical procedures, to monitor its longevity in the body

So far, two U.K. patients have received small amounts — equivalent to a couple of spoonfuls — of the lab-grown blood to examine how it performs in the body.

The trial aims to compare the lifespan of lab-grown cells to infusions of standard red blood cells from the same donor.

“We hope our lab grown red blood cells will last longer than those that come from blood donors,” said Professor Cedric Ghevaert, chief investigator at the University of Cambridge. “If our trial, the first such in the world, is successful, it will mean that patients who currently require regular long-term blood transfusions will need fewer transfusions in future, helping transform their care.”

The trial, with research teams in Bristol, Cambridge, London and at NHS Blood and Transplant, focuses on the red blood cells that carry oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.




Beginning with a donation of a pint of blood from an adult, m agnetic beads are used to extract flexible stem cells that are capable of becoming a red blood cell. These stem cells are placed in a nutrient solution for approximately 18-21 days, stimulating the cells to multiply and develop into more mature cells, and are then guided to become red blood cells.

One pool of around 500,000 stem cells results in 50 billion red blood cells. After filtering those 50 billion red blood cells, the pool is reduced to 15 billion cells and are at the right stage of development to transplant.

The lab-grown blood is tagged with a radioactive substance, typically used in medical procedures, to monitor its longevity in the body.

“We want to make as much blood as possible in the future, so the vision in my head is a room full of machines producing it continually from a normal blood donation,” University of Bristol Professor Ashley Toye told the BBC.

While the trial is still in its initial phases, the bulk of blood transfusions will remain reliant on donations.

“The need for normal blood donations to provide the vast majority of blood will remain. But the potential for this work to benefit hard to transfuse patients is very significant,” said Dr. Farrukh Shah, medical director of Transfusion for NHS Blood and Transplant, and a collaborators on the project.

The manufacturing of lab-grown blood cells will be most beneficial for patients suffering from blood conditions like sickle cell anemia. Typically, the body rejects any treatment if the blood is not a precise match, which can be difficult for those with a rare blood type. This level of tissue-matching goes beyond the well-known A, B, AB and O blood groups, the BBC reports.

Professor Toye said some groups were “really, really rare” and there “might only be 10 people in the country” able to donate.

“This world-leading research lays the groundwork for the manufacture of red blood cells that can safely be used to transfuse people with disorders like sickle cell,” said Dr. Shah. “The potential for this work to benefit hard-to-transfuse patients is very significant.”

For more health news and content around diseases, conditions, wellness, healthy living, drugs, treatments and more, head to Healthing.ca – a member of the Postmedia Network.

Minister links chronic pain with toxic drug overdoses, commits $5M to pain network

VANCOUVER — The federal government is putting $5 million toward chronic pain resources in what Carolyn Bennett, minister of mental health and addictions, says is part of an effort to help stop people with untreated pain from seeking relief through toxic street drugs.

Minister links chronic pain with toxic drug overdoses, commits $5M to pain network© Provided by The Canadian Press

She says up to $4.5 million over five years will go toward expanding the Pain Canada Network, enhancing national collaboration, scaling up best practices and expanding resources for those living with chronic pain.

Another $520,000 will support a project to improve access to services for LGBTQ residents in B.C., as well as those in Chinese, Punjabi and Arabic-speaking communities living with chronic pain.

Bennett says the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated challenges for those living with pain, including access to adequate health services and support.

Her announcement came as the BC Coroners Service said 171 people died in September from the toxic drug crisis, putting the province on track to surpass 2,000 overdose deaths for another year.

Bennett says that data shows many of those who have died in B.C. sought treatment for their pain in the previous year.

"We have all heard about people being cut off their meds and then going to the street for their drugs. We don't think people should live in pain," Bennett says.

"This will help increase pain management options and awareness about best practices from coast to coast to coast."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2022.

Outcry as Republican Nikki Haley says Raphael Warnock should be ‘deported’

“Were it not for a HBCU [historically Black college and university] giving her father his first job in the US, Haley wouldn’t be in a position to insult Georgia’s first Black senator.”

Martin Pengelly- THE GUARDIAN 

The former US ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley told Republicans at a rally for Herschel Walker the Democrat in the Georgia US Senate race, the Rev Raphael Warnock, should be “deported”.


Photograph: Dustin Chambers/Reuters© Provided by The Guardian

“I am the daughter of Indian immigrants,” Haley said in Hiram, Georgia, on Sunday. “They came here legally, they put in the time, they put in the price, they are offended by what’s happening on [the southern US] border.

Related: Midterms live: Biden and Trump hit campaign trail as 41 million US voters cast early ballots in crucial elections

“Legal immigrants are more patriotic than the leftists these days. They knew they worked to come into America, and they love America. They want the laws followed in America, so the only person we need to make sure we deport is Warnock.”

Haley is widely seen as a potential candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, a seemingly imminent declaration from Donald Trump notwithstanding. Her comment drew widespread criticism.

Related video: Nikki Haley Says Raphael Warnock Should Be Deported

Cornell William Brooks, a Harvard professor and pastor, wrote: “Were it not for civil rights laws Black folks died for, Nikki Haley’s family might not be in America.

“Were it not for a HBCU [historically Black college and university] giving her father his first job in the US, Haley wouldn’t be in a position to insult Georgia’s first Black senator. Warnock’s history makes her story possible.”

Heath Mayo, an anti-Trump conservative, said: “Nikki Haley calling to deport Raphael Warnock perfectly captures how those that should’ve been serious and talented leaders were really just weak toadies ready to say anything for applause. This entire generation of GOP ‘leaders’ failed their test and let the country down.”

Walker and Warnock are locked in a tight race that could decide control of the Senate, currently split 50-50 and controlled by the vote of the vice-president, Kamala Harris. On Monday, the polling website FiveThirtyEight.com put Warnock one point ahead.

Haley also said Walker was “a good person who has been put through the ringer and has had everything but the kitchen sink thrown at him”.

Walker, a former college and NFL football star, has been shown to have made numerous false claims about his business career and personal life. Two women have said he pressured them to have abortions, allegations he denies while campaigning on a stringently anti-abortion platform.

Warnock, a pastor at a church once home to the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, won his Senate seat in January 2021, defeating the Republican Kelly Loeffler in a run-off. That victory and Jon Ossoff’s win over David Perdue for the other Georgia seat gave Democrats their precarious control of the chamber.

Could Elon Musk’s Twitter layoffs violate Canadian law? Experts weigh in

Aya Al-Hakim - TODAY

As Twitter begins its global layoffs, Canadian law experts say the moves would violate Canadian and Ontario laws depending on the wording of employee contracts and whether Canadian employees are given sufficient notice or severance pay.


A Twitter headquarters sign is shown in San Francisco, Friday, Nov. 4, 2022.© (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Twitter temporarily closed its offices and cut workers' access to internal systems on Friday after telling employees they would be informed by email later in the day about whether they were being laid off.

Twitter temporarily closes offices as Elon Musk begins layoffs, including Canadian staff

Musk is looking to cut around 3,700 Twitter staff, or about half the workforce, as he seeks to slash costs and impose a demanding new work ethic, according to internal plans reviewed by Reuters this week.

The Canadian Press also reported that Paul Burns, managing director of the company’s Canadian operations, and Michele Austin, Twitter’s director of public policy for the U.S. and Canada, announced their departures from the San Francisco-based tech giant on social media on Friday.

Amid the cuts, Twitter is facing questions over whether the layoffs could fall afoul of labour laws.

While an employer always has the right to terminate an employee if proper notice or severance is given. Notice and severance will vary depending on the employee’s role and experience. A mass layoff of a workforce is different. In general, layoffs are governed by the employment contract and layoff clauses will appear in contracts where layoffs are more likely, for example, the auto industry. Otherwise, says Muneeza Sheikh, a lawyer and senior partner at Levitt Sheikh, an employment and labour law firm in Toronto, "the right to layoff is not automatic."

READ MORE: Musk’s Twitter takeover: Some Canadian professionals thinking of quitting platform. Why?

"What a lot of employers don't know, and I'm hoping Twitter knows, is that ultimately, in order to render a lawful layoff, you have to have an employment contract or agreement that gives you as an employer the right to layoff," said Sheikh.

The founder of Toronto-based Smith Employment Law, Waheeda Ekhlas Smith, says she doesn't know if Twitter has given notice that they were about to do these mass layoffs "because of the fact that it seems like it came out of the blue." But the Canada Labour Code does have termination rules in place that employers of companies like Twitter need to be aware of.

"If these rules aren't followed...then that's running afoul of the Canadian law," said Smith.

Video: Elon Musk proposes monthly Twitter verified fee despite initial user backlash and promises massive layoffs coming imminently

"If it's a straight termination, then the only determination for the Canadian employees would be to quibble over is if (the severance pay) is enough or not?" said Sheikh.

READ MORE: Paid verification? Elon Musk floats idea in 1st week as Twitter owner

Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, a law firm, explains on its website that "in Ontario, severance pay is a minimum of one week’s pay after three months of employment, up to a maximum of 24 months’ pay for a full severance package. This amount is arrived at through Ontario’s Employment Standards Act (ESA) and our common law court system."

Smith says that "depending on how long these employees have been there, they could be entitled to more than the minimum standards, (possibly) several several months."

Twitter is already facing a proposed class action lawsuit claiming the layoffs are imminent and will violate U.S. and California laws if employees are not given advance notice or severance pay.

However, there has been no reports of a similar lawsuit from Canadian employees — yet.

There are legal options available though, according to Smith, and it all depends on how the layoffs are done.

"People affected should get some legal advice (first)," she said. "The kind of advice they might be getting often starts with a demand letter from an employment lawyer to Twitter Canada.

A demand letter can be sent to the employer requesting proper severance is provided based on the employee’s lawyer’s review of the facts.

If an acceptable response is not received from the employer, Smith says people have the option to file a statement of claim for a wrongful dismissal lawsuit.

Video: Business News: Tumultuous first week for Elon Musk at Twitter

— With files from Reuters and The Canadian Press

CUPE to end Ontario education worker protests after Ford promises legislation repeal

"(Workers) took on the Ford government and the government blinked" 

TORONTO — More than 50,000 Ontario education workers will be back at work Tuesday after a walkout that closed hundreds of schools, their union said, after Premier Doug Ford promised to repeal a controversial law that imposed contracts on them.


CUPE to end Ontario education worker protests after Ford promises legislation repeal© Provided by The Canadian Press

Canadian Union of Public Employees leaders claimed victory Monday in their fight against the law, which includes a pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding clause, and which they called an attack on the rights of all Canadians.

"(Workers) took on the Ford government and the government blinked," said CUPE national president Mark Hancock.

Hancock made the announcement on a stage filled with more than a dozen leaders of other public- and private-sector unions, including the four major teachers' unions, steel workers, postal workers, Unifor, and the Ontario Public Service Employees' Union.

Opposition to the law had been gathering steam over the past several days and the unions used the press conference to give Ford a glimpse of what he faced had he not promised Monday morning to repeal the law.

"When you come for one of us, you come for all of us," said JP Hornick, president of OPSEU. "The workers, united, will shut this province down whenever we need to."

Ford said Monday morning that he would repeal the law, but only if CUPE employees stopped their walkout, describing his offer as "a massive olive branch."

"As a gesture of good faith, our government is willing to rescind the legislation, willing to rescind (the notwithstanding clause), but only if CUPE agrees to show a similar gesture of good faith by stopping their strike," he said at a news conference at the legislature, as a large crowd of protesters chanted outside.

Related video: Ontario education workers launch strike in defiance of province's ban

Duration 2:56

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"I desperately hope that CUPE shows the same willingness to compromise as we are today. I hope they hear my plea to keep students in class, but that’s not something I can guarantee you."

Hundreds of thousands of students were out of the classroom for a second day Monday, as many schools were closed to in-person learning as a result of the walkout by workers that included education assistants, librarians and custodians.

Many school boards, including the Toronto District School Board, said they would reopen Tuesday for in-person learning in light of the latest developments.

Ford said after CUPE's press conference that he was glad kids could return to class.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the education-worker bill would be revoked "at the earliest opportunity." The legislature is on a previously scheduled break this week and a spokeswoman for Ford said legislation to repeal the bill would be introduced on Nov. 14.

The government had originally offered raises of two per cent a year for workers making less than $40,000 and 1.25 per cent for all others, but the four-year deal imposed by the law gave 2.5 per cent annual raises to workers making less than $43,000 and 1.5 per cent raises for all others.

CUPE said that framing was not accurate because the raises actually depend on hourly wages and pay scales, so the majority of workers who earn less than $43,000 in a year wouldn't get 2.5 per cent.

CUPE had originally been seeking annual salary increases of 11.7 per cent as well as overtime at two times the regular pay rate, 30 minutes of paid prep time per day for educational assistants and ECEs, an increase in benefits and professional development for all workers.

Laura Walton, president of CUPE's Ontario School Board Council of Unions, said a union counter offer tabled last week cut its wage proposal in half and made "substantial" moves in other areas.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2022.

Allison Jones, The Canadian Press

Egypt accused of 'greenwashing' rights record as it hosts U.N. climate conference

Hyder Abbasi - 

When world leaders, diplomats, campaigners and scientists from nearly 200 countries arrive for the United Nations climate change conference in Egypt Monday, their focus will be on curbing global warming.

But away from the five-star hotels and soft, sandy beaches in the Red Sea resort town where the huge conference is being held, rights groups and activists have accused Egypt of “greenwashing” — the act of claiming to be environmentally-friendly to enhance its reputation.

They have called for the world leaders attending the event, known as COP27, to confront the Egyptian government over its alleged human-rights abuses, particularly its treatment of political prisoners.
Hunger and water strike

Among the most prominent of those prisoners is Alaa Abdel-Fattah, a popular blogger, software developer and pro-democracy activist who rose to prominence during the popular uprising that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

In 2019, he was jailed for “joining a terrorist group” and “spreading false news” to undermine national security.

Amnesty International called the charges “bogus” and said Fattah’s trial was “inherently unfair,” in an open letter to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi last November. It said that Fattah, 40, a British national, was being prosecuted because of his activism and social media posts highlighting human rights violations allegedly committed by the Egyptian government.

Fattah has been on a hunger strike for more than 200 days and escalated his protest on Sunday to stop drinking water, his family said.

“He is very frail. Just skin and bones,” his sister, Mona Seif, told NBC News Thursday.

Seif, 36, who with her sister, Sanaa, 28, began a sit-in outside Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in central London to highlight his case, said that her brother’s health was deteriorating rapidly, and the family was worried he could die in the coming weeks.

Amnesty’s head, Agnes Callamard, warned Sunday that Egypt had no more than 72 hours to save the jailed dissident's life.

“If they do not want to end up with a death they should have and could have prevented, they must act now,” Callamard said at a news briefing in the capital, Cairo.


Authors Join Sit-In For Jailed British-Egyptian Activist

 (Hollie Adams / Getty Images)© Hollie Adams

Several high-profile figures, including the actor Emma Thompson and Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro, have supported the family's campaign, along with the Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who joined their protest in London last month.

Thunberg said Sunday that she was boycotting the COP27 summit because of Egypt’s human rights record.

After speaking with the sisters on the phone, James Cleverly, Britain’s foreign minister, tweeted that the U.K. would “continue to work tirelessly for his release.”

But Seif said the U.K. government “didn’t seem to have an action plan,” and she was hoping COP27 — where Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived early Monday — would be used to highlight the plight of political prisoners in Egypt.

Related video: COP27 begins in Egypt, UN climate chief urges nations to shift focus towards 'implementation' of goals

Duration 2:23

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“Regardless of how it ends, Alaa has already won this battle,” Seif said.

NBC News has emailed the Egyptian Ministry of Justice about the allegations made about the treatment of Alaa Abdel Fattah.

'Greenwashing' a government crackdown

Public protests have been effectively banned in Egypt, following a brutal clampdown on political dissent that began with the overthrow of Muslim Brotherhood leader and former president Mohammed Morsi in 2013, by el-Sisi, who was army chief at the time.

After he was elected president the following year, Sisi said these security measures were needed to stabilize his country, and a subsequent crackdown swept up liberal activists as well as Islamists.

Since then, little has changed, human rights groups say.

Environmental activists are among the tens of thousands of people, including political protesters and journalists, who have been languishing in Egyptian prisons for years, many without trial, according to Human Rights Watch, an international nongovernmental research and advocacy organization.

Basing his opinion on recent interviews conducted with people inside Egypt and other data, Richard Pearhouse, Human Rights Watch’s environment director, said by telephone Friday that the violent repression of civil society includes the “jailing and harassment of environmental activists and restrictions on groups researching the impact of climate change in the country."

“The Egyptian government has imposed arbitrary funding, research and registration obstacles that have debilitated local environmental groups, forcing some activists into exile and others to steer clear of important work,” he said.



COP27 (Peter Dejong / AP)© Peter Dejong

Ahead of COP27, Ahmad Abdullah, the co-founder of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, a Cairo-based nongovernmental organization, said research conducted by his organization’s data team showed at least 174 Egyptians had been arbitrarily arrested.

NBC News could not independently verify this number.

Abdullah added that Egyptian police had increased random stop and searches and had been inspecting the phones and social media activity of people on the streets of major cities.

That has led to the "greenwashing" accusations.

“They have two main objectives,” said Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa researcher Hussein Baoumi.

“The first is pushing their climate agenda, which I would say includes environmental damage and reparations. But on the other hand, they want to greenwash their image and show to the world that they’re not responsible for human rights abuses,” he added.

NBC News emailed the Egyptian Ministry of Environment for comment.

The accusations are echoed by Hossam Bahgat, the executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a Cairo-based human rights organization.

"My organization has been working in the field of environmental justice for 10 years now," Bahgat said Saturday.

"And like most other environmental groups, we have had to stop working with communities, to stop doing any organizing on the ground. Not just because it became too dangerous for our staff and members, but [because it became] even more dangerous for the members of the communities themselves," he said.

Bahgat said that on account of his activism, the Egyptian government has had him under a travel ban for the past seven years and frozen his bank account and assets since 2016.

NBC News has emailed the Egyptian Ministry of Environment for comment.

Linking climate protests to human rights, Abdullah, of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, said, “Without freedom of assembly and association, you cannot achieve climate justice. So human rights should be at the center of climate justice, especially in a country like Egypt.

“So, whether you’re an environmental group or a human rights group, you are not allowed to speak up freely for the issues you’re campaigning for,” he said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

Jailed Egypt dissident's death in 'no one's interest', sister says

AFP - TODAY


The possible death of jailed British-Egyptian dissident Alaa Abdel Fattah in prison is "in no one's interest", his sister Sanaa Seif said, nearly two days after he started refusing water.


Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi delivers a speech at the leaders summit of the COP27 climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh© Hamad AL-KAABI

Following a seven-month hunger strike during which he only had 100 calories per day, Abdel Fattah stopped drinking water on Sunday to coincide with the opening of the United Nations COP27 climate summit in Egypt.


Protesters gathered near the British embassy in the Lebanese capital Beirut to demand Abdel Fattah's release© ANWAR AMRO

Widely considered Egypt's best-known dissident, he has been sentenced to five years in prison for "spreading false news", having already spent the better part of the past decade behind bars.

"We are talking about an innocent man who has unjustly spent nine years in prison," Seif said from the climate summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where she travelled to appeal to world leaders to press for his release.



Sanaa Seif, sister of imprisoned British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, travelled to the COP27 climate conference in Egypt's Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh to campaign for his release© JOSEPH EID

Seif, her sister Mona, her mother Laila Soueif and her aunt, celebrated novelist Adhaf Soueif, have campaigned worldwide for the release of the activist, who gained British citizenship through his UK-born mother in April.

"We need sensible people to intervene," Seif said in an interview with AFP. "I put my hopes in the British delegation because as his sister, I can't give up or tell myself that my brother will die."

She acknowledged the risk of travelling to Sharm el-Sheikh, with its heavy security restrictions, saying: "I admit, I was afraid to come."

"But it's our last resort," she said.

"I came so that Alaa wouldn't be forgotten. I want to remind both Egyptian and British officials that my presence means that someone is dying and that it's possible to save him."

Related video: Sister on Alaa Abd El-Fattah's hunger strike

Duration 1:20

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British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak raised Abdel Fattah's case in a meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Monday, "stressing the UK Government's deep concern on this issue", a Downing Street spokesperson said.


Abdel Fattah -- a major figure in the 2011 revolt that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak -- is currently serving a five-year sentence for 'broadcasting false news' after having already spent much of the past decade behind bars© Khaled DESOUKI

Sunak said he "hoped to see this resolved as soon as possible and would continue to press for progress", the spokesperson said.

- 'Continue the fight' -

Amnesty International chief Agnes Callamard on Sunday warned that "there is not a lot of time -- 72 hours at best," referring to Abdel Fattah's possible remaining lifespan.

But Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry assured that the dissident "benefits from all necessary care in prison", in an interview with CNBC Monday.

Seif nonetheless warned that "the way his case is handled only accelerates the destabilisation of the regime".

She accused Egypt of using the COP27 summit to "erase its bad reputation in terms of human rights".

But despite clampdowns, Abdel Fattah's cause has been championed by activists, artists, rights defenders and politicians -- including the French president -- during the summit.

France's Emmanuel Macron on Monday said he received an assurance from Sisi that the Egyptian president was "committed to ensuring that (the) health of Alaa Abdel Fattah is preserved".

It came as concern continued to grow over his condition.

On Monday morning, "my mother went to wait outside the prison to check on him after 24 hours without water," Seif said.

By evening, she still had not received word from her son, nor had she been able to deliver the clothes and books she drops off to him every week.

"The ball is in the politicians' court, it is up to them to do their job," Seif continued.

"We continue the fight and we must not lose hope."

bur/jsa/pjm

Yeah, no, Reconstruction laws were actually race-conscious | Opinion

Opinion by AlterNet - Yesterday 
By Mia Brett

Image via Shutterstock.© provided by AlterNet

Conservatives are so obsessed with the concept of originalism they continue to twist history in order to pretend their nonsense legal agendas are in line with what the “founders” of the country or the Fourteenth Amendment actually wanted. The latest historical victim of ahistorical legal ramblings is the entirety of Reconstruction legislation in order to claim affirmative action is unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the latest attack on affirmative action in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard during which attorney Cameron Norris, for Students for Fair Admissions, the group challenging Harvard’s policy, argued that the legislation passed following the Civil War to address the harms of slavery was not about race and that none of the legislation passed was race-conscious (as opposed to race-neutral). Buckle in for an angry history lesson to understand just how bizarre that claim truly is.

The Civil War was explicitly about slavery and the US had worked very hard to ensure slavery and Blackness had a strong correlation.

READ MORE: The GOP's 'Commitment to America' contains Confederate solutions to made-up problems

Legally, one could not be enslaved in the US if one was not of African descent. Indigenous people initially could be enslaved, but by the early 1800s, Native Americans were deemed legally free.

Even free Black people were often presumed to be enslaved if they could not prove they were free. Enslavement was not race-neutral. Legislation to address slavery was very much not race-neutral.

After the Civil War, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments were passed not only to ensure the end of slavery but to move toward a racially integrated society with at least nominal guarantees of racial equality.

We have decades of jurisprudence showing the intent of the Fourteenth Amendment was specifically to address the racist harm of slavery, which I’ll get to in a minute.

READ MORE: Democracy without personal sovereignty is impossible

But the plain text of the Fifteenth Amendment addresses race explicitly by ensuring that no one’s vote shall be denied or abridged on “account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

While the language in the Fourteenth Amendment doesn’t mention race specifically, the earlier Civil Rights Act of 1866 does.

It states that all citizens should have the same rights as “enjoyed by white citizens.” Not only does such a statement clearly mention race, but it also acknowledges that race has been a determining factor in a hierarchy of access to citizenship rights until 1866.

The act excludes “Indians” from birthright citizenship, supposedly because they don’t pay taxes, but again, it includes racial distinctions.

Finally, the act specifies that everyone, “of every race and color,” born in the US, except “Indians,” has birthright citizenship.

The language seems pretty race-conscious to me.

Even Andrew Johnson said that he vetoed the act (Congress overrode his veto) because the protections in it supposedly “establish for the security of the colored race safeguards which go infinitely beyond any that the General Government has ever provided for the white race. In fact, the distinction of race and color is by the bill made to operate in favor of the colored and against the white race.” (emphasis mine)

I think his claims that the act pits races against each other or provides special protection to Black people is nonsense. Point is, at the time no one thought this legislation was race-neutral.

In 1872, the purview and intent of the Fourteenth Amendment was tested in the Slaughterhouse Cases. In the Slaughterhouse Cases, butchers of New Orleans were mad at laws passed that created a monopoly on slaughterhouses in order to protect the water supply from contamination. Butchers of the city sued under the Fourteenth Amendment claiming that their civil rights were violated. The Supreme Court rejected this claim and in the majority opinion Justice Miller wrote that the Reconstruction Amendments were meant to protect the “the freedom of the slave race … and the protection of the newly made freeman and citizen from the oppressions of those who had formerly exercised unlimited dominion over him.”

During oral arguments Cameron Norris, for Students for Fair Admissions, the group challenging Harvard’s policy, made the argument that Reconstruction legislation was meant to address harm based on status of former slaves – not based on race.

Not only is this argument historically incoherent as race and the status of slavery were deeply intertwined, but it ignores that Reconstruction legislation also addressed previous discrimination against free Black people.

Before the Civil War, plenty of free states had racially discriminatory laws that barred free Black people from voting, testifying in court against a white person or even having the freedom to exist without needing to constantly prove they were free.

Such discrimination was explicitly based on race, not slave status.

Norris also claimed the Fourteenth Amendment was originally intended as a ban on all racial classifications, somehow ignoring the legality of segregation and anti-miscegenation laws.

He does describe Plessy v. Ferguson as the Supreme Court “going off the rails,” but it’s not clear what he means by that.

He asserts that another case, Strauder v. West Virginia, banned all racial classification concerning jury selection, but he completely misstates the opinion. Strauder ruled that one could not be denied jury service based on race, but it argued that doing so would violate the rights of a possible Black defendant by denying him a jury of his peers – explicitly acknowledging the relevance of race.

Additionally, the court said that the purpose of the Equal Protection Clause was "to assure to the colored race the enjoyment of all the civil rights that under the law are enjoyed by white persons.”

Originalist arguments will always be silly to me, but if you’re going to apply them at least get the history right. Reconstruction legislation and subsequent case law are all race-conscious. They validate the acknowledgment of race when seeking remedy to racial harm.

READ MORE: Fox News hosts blubber over 'diabolical' Monticello exhibit about how Thomas Jefferson enslaved people

Why are Republicans telling voters they want to cut Social Security by a third?
Alicia H. Munnell - 


Why in the world would Republicans put out a plan to dramatically cut Social Security?

Related video: Here’s How Much Social Security’s Buying Power Has Plunged
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Even Donald Trump said he wouldn’t mess with the program’s benefits. Yet, the Republican Study Committee’s Blueprint to Save America, released in June, has a full section devoted to Social Security. I had never heard of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), but apparently the organization has served as the conservative caucus of House Republicans since its founding in 1973, and it currently consists of 158 of the 212 Republican House members.

Read: Yes, some Republican senators really are talking openly about Social Security cuts

If the Republicans take over the House, Rep. Kevin McCarthy has not ruled out cutting Social Security. So, it’s worth taking a look at what a Republican plan might look like.

The proposal in the RSC document — Make Social Security Solvent Again — is based on a bill put forward in 2016 by Sam Johnson (R-Texas). That legislation would eliminate Social Security’s 75-year deficit solely by cutting benefits. According to scoring by the Social Security actuaries at the time, the Johnson plan would reduce Social Security costs at the end of the 75-year projection period by 31%.

This 31% cut is the result of three major changes:
Raising the Full Retirement Age—currently 67—to 69
Dramatically reducing benefits for above-average earners
Eliminating the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for individuals with income in excess of $85,000 ($170,000 for married couples) and using a chain-weighted inflation index for those below

Although the RSC takes a slightly different approach to raising the Full Retirement Age — linking it to increases in life expectancy — one would expect the overall impact on future workers to be roughly the same.

Read: Social Security COLA 2023 benefits are rising 8.7%—here’s what that means for recipients

The best way to gauge the impact of these three changes is to examine the ratio of proposed to current benefits at different points in the earnings scale. Because the impact of eliminating the COLA increases over the retirement span, it is helpful to look at individuals at age 85. As Figure 2 below indicates, low earners are basically held harmless, while medium-earner benefits are cut to 77% of those provided under current law, higher earners to 40%, and maximum earners to 34%.

At first glance, one might conclude that’s a fine outcome: cut the benefits of the well paid and preserve the benefits of the low paid. But look closely at the earnings associated with the categories of well paid. The medium worker, who sees benefits drop to 77% of current law, had career average earnings of $58,700 in 2021 and the “high” earner, who sees benefits drop to 40% of current law, earned $94,000.

These are not rich people.

Read: Social Security’s COLA is no bonus

Moreover, changes to Social Security need to be made in the context of the entire retirement income system. Many households are likely to retire with little other than Social Security benefits, since at any moment in time less than half the private sector workforce participates in an employer-sponsored retirement plan. And among those lucky enough to have a 401(k) plan, balances are modest. The 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances, the latest comprehensive data available, shows that median 401(k)/IRA holdings of working households with a 401(k) approaching retirement (ages 55-64) were $144,000.

Policy makers do need to address Social Security’s long-run deficit, but the fact that a majority of House Republicans may support a plan that cuts Social Security by a third should terrify voters. Why put out such a document?

LIAR
Rick Scott claims he doesn't 'know one Republican who wants to change' Social Security after Ron Johnson floated proposals to put the program's spending in flux


Katie Balevic
Sun, November 6, 2022 

NRSC chairman Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., introduces Senate candidate Herschel Walker at his campaign rally in Athens, Ga., on Saturday, November 5, 2022.Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Sen. Rick Scott said he doesn't know any Republicans who want to change Social Security or Medicare.

Some Republicans have suggested placing the two programs in the discretionary spending budget.

They have also suggested raising the age to collect Social Security and raising health insurance premiums for seniors.

Sen. Rick Scott said he doesn't "know one Republican who wants to change" Social Security and Medicare after his colleagues floated placing the two programs in the discretionary spending budget.

Democrats have honed in on the line about Social Security spending, using it to campaign against Republicans. On NBC News' "Meet the Press" on Sunday, host Chuck Todd asked Scott about his position on Social Security.

"Sunsetting the program every five years for renewal, why do that? Why put Social Security into the political arena every five years? Why put seniors through that?" Todd asked.

"I have no interest in changing the Medicare program. I want to make sure we preserve the benefits of Medicare and Social Security. I don't know one Republican who wants to change that," Scott, from Florida, replied, adding that both programs are "going bankrupt."


In August, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin suggested that Social Security and Medicare should be discretionary spending programs that are approved by Congress instead of federal entitlement programs (or mandatory spending), according to The Washington Post. A spokesperson from Johnson's office later told the Post that Johnson doesn't want to eliminate the programs but thinks they are "threatened" without the "fiscal discipline and oversight typically found with discretionary spending."

Top Republicans also suggested raising the age to collect Social Security from 67 to 70 years old and raising health insurance premiums for seniors, pitching the ideas as a way to combat high government spending, according to The New York Times.

Both President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama, among other top Democrats, have called out Republicans on the campaign trail for the suggested cuts and changes.