It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, November 25, 2022
Christian Trump event left evangelical pastor 'absolutely terrified and horrified'
Opinion by Brad Reed • RAW STORY
An evangelical pastor has made it his new mission to lead his fellow Christians away from what he believes is a self-destructive worship of former President Donald Trump.
In an interview with the Toronto Globe and Mail, Pastor Caleb Campbell revealed that he decided to make wooing Christians away from the MAGA movement his personal cause after he attended a Christian event hosted by Turning Point USA, the right-wing activist group founded by Charlie Kirk.
During the event he attended, says Campbell, Kirk misappropriated quotes from the Bible in order to make it sound like God wanted Christians to be armed to the teeth with firearms.
"I was absolutely terrified and horrified," Campbell tells the Globe and Mail.
He then elaborated to describe how disturbed he was by Kirk taking people's deeply held religious faith and welding it directly to a hardcore right-wing political agenda.
“What was shocking to me was the people in the room raising their hands and saying, ‘Amen. Hallelujah,'" he said. "They were having a religious experience."
Although American Christians advocating for conservative policies is nothing new, Campbell believes that this new Trump-led evangelism is more dangerous in that it evokes the spirit of white nationalism.
"This is a mean-spirited, vulgar grab for power with violent rhetoric," he said. "I’m familiar with what it means to be enculturated toward violent behavior."
UN experts equate discrimination against women in Afghanistan to crimes against humanity
A group of United Nations rapporteurs has denounced that abuses committed by the Taliban against women and girls in Afghanistan may amount to crimes against humanity and called on the international community to continue to press for the respect of freedoms and rights.
Amnesty recalls that women in Afghanistan suffer "unlimited oppression" by the Taliban
The experts warned that human rights violations "have increased dramatically" in a country that already had some of the "most serious and unacceptable" abuses in the world.
In this sense, they have condemned the veto to women in secondary education or in parks and gyms and, in general terms, that leisure is reduced to a minimum. "Confining women to their homes is tantamount to imprisoning them and will likely lead to higher levels of domestic violence and mental health problems," they said in a statement.
The Taliban also extend their control efforts to men deemed 'responsible' for women who break the regime's strict doctrines, which experts say means encouraging male citizens to "control" the behavior of others themselves, to avoid suffering punishment themselves.
The rapporteurs have urged the Taliban to respect international law and to release all those arbitrarily detained for their persecution of women. They also want women to be able to carry out their activist work "without intimidation and attacks".
They have asked the rest of the world to make respect for women's rights "central" to any discussion with the Afghan regime, while hoping that other countries can investigate and even prosecute those who carry out "gender persecution" in Afghanistan.
Federal government posts $1.7 billion surplus for April to September period
OTTAWA — The federal government posted a surplus of $1.7 billion during the first six months of the 2022-23 fiscal year.
In its monthly fiscal monitor, the finance department says the surplus between April and September compares to a deficit of $68.6 billion reported for the same period last year.
Compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year, government revenues were up $32.8 billion, or 18.6 per cent, as revenue streams continue to improve.
Program expenses were also down $40.3 billion, or 17.9 per cent, largely due to the expiration of COVID-19 measures.
Higher interest rates and inflation have driven up the cost of public debt charges by $5.6 billion, or 47.8 per cent, compared to the same period last year.
Net actuarial losses were down $2.8 billion, or 36.1 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 25, 2022.
The Canadian Press
Long-term rate hikes effects will be 'more powerful' than people think: Poloz
OTTAWA — The full effects of interest rate hikes have yet to be felt — and will be "even more powerful" than many anticipate, said former Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz Thursday in a speech about ways Canada can chart a path toward economic growth during uncertain times.
Speaking at a conference hosted by Western University's Ivey Business School in Ottawa on Thursday, the former governor warned today’s economy is more sensitive to interest rates than it was 10 years ago.
"Does anybody here think the sensitivity of the economy to interest rate movements is less today than it was five or 10 years ago?" Poloz asked. "I think it's more sensitive today than it was before."
Poloz estimates annual inflation will fall to about four per cent on its own as external factors, such as higher commodity prices, ease. Statistics Canada's most recent annual inflation rate sat at 6.9 per cent in October.
He said policy action will need to do the rest of the work to get inflation back down to the central bank's two per cent target.
"I think that the actions that are being taken to get us there will turn out to be even more powerful than a lot of people think," Poloz said, citing higher debt loads in the Canadian economy as a vulnerability.
The former governor is the chair of the Lawrence National Centre for Policy and Management, an independent think tank hosted at Ivey.
Poloz began his remarks by sharing his thoughts on the drivers of high inflation and where prices are headed. His speech also offered a set of recommendations on how Canada can improve long-term economic growth during volatile times.
He said the think tank will offer a summary of the recommendations to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland next week.
Poloz finished his seven-year term as Bank of Canada governor a few months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the central bank has dramatically shifted gears from the extraordinary stimulus measures of 2020 to rapid monetary policy tightening.
The Bank of Canada began raising interest rates in March to clamp down on rising inflation. Since then, the central bank raised its key interest rate six consecutive times, embarking on one of the fastest monetary policy tightening cycles in its history.
Its key rate currently stands at 3.75 per cent and is expected to rise again next month.
The aggressive rate hikes are expected to slow the Canadian economy significantly. And though many economists are cautiously optimistic that the slowdown won't be severe or long-lasting, labour groups in particular have been concerned about the consequences of a potential recession.
Is the Bank of Canada overshooting with its rate hikes? "It's impossible to say," Poloz said in an interview.
Economists estimate interest rate hikes take one to two years to take full effect in the economy. That lag makes it difficult to judge whether rate hikes are too much or too little, the former governor said.
Poloz said trying to slow inflation with interest rate hikes is like trying to stop a car with bad brakes.
"It takes a long time to actually slow down and so you stand on the brake really hard. Well, then you're going to cause an accident too," he said.
Though high inflation has persisted longer than the Bank of Canada's initial projections, Poloz defended the use of the word "transitory" to describe inflation pressures, noting in his speech that international contributors to inflation such as supply chain delays are already dissipating.
"In other words, the part of inflation that is externally driven, really is transitory. It's OK to use the word transitory," he said.
However, the former central bank governor says it takes time for that development to be reflected in the annual inflation rate.
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem notably called inflation "transitory" — meaning temporary — when it first started rising.
Since then, he's backed away from that characterization and has emphasized that the domestic economy is overheated and inflation won't return to target without action from the central bank.
While high inflation has come to the forefront of economic policy discussions, many economists are concerned about what Canada is — or isn't — doing to promote long-term growth.
During his speech, Poloz made the case for government policies that promote stability and clarity for businesses. The less uncertainty there is about trade policy and projects, for example, the more businesses will invest in their operations and improve their productivity, he said.
"Clarity is the obvious antidote to uncertainty."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 24, 2022.
Nojoud Al Mallees, The Canadian Press
Roger Penrose: Communicating with future universes
Story by David Stock • NEW SCIENTIST
During his long career, Roger Penrose has collaborated with Stephen Hawking to uncover the secrets of the big bang, developed a quantum theory of consciousness with anaesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff and won the Nobel prize in physics for his prediction of regions where the gravitational field would be so intense that space-time itself would break down, the so-called singularity at the heart of a black hole.
The daughter of Angola’s former president José Eduardo dos Santos considers running for president
Isabel Dos Santos, daughter in exile of the recently deceased former president of Angola, José Eduardo dos Santos, has announced that she does not rule out the possibility of running for the country's presidency.
Archive - Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Santos, daughter of former Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos, is the daughter of Angola's President José Eduardo dos Santos. -
In an interview granted to the German channel Deutsche Welle, Dos Santos emphasized that she wants to "serve" her country and that if she ever had "the possibility" to put Angola "in a better place" and give it "the focus it needs", she would be willing to take that step.
"If someday I have the opportunity to return to my country, a better country, and help my country to have the vision it needs, to build, yes, I will take that step and I believe that many people will be with me because we are another Angola, we have other ambitions and we need another political future," Dos Santos said.
Dos Santos has become one of the main targets of the judicial authorities of the country her father once presided over. However, she considers that it is nothing more than a "commission" from the State for "political reasons".
"I am not the target of several judicial processes in several countries as it is being said. That statement is not correct", said Dos Santos, who accused the government of Joao Lourenco of "manipulating" and "placing in the hands" of the press "information that was not true". Dos Santos referred to the investigation known as 'Luanda Leaks' as a "gross manipulation" of the State against her. According to this information, the daughter of the former Angolan president, as head of the state-owned Sonagol, obtained lucrative contracts from the oil, diamond and telecommunications industries during the presidency of her father Dos Santos.
The Prosecutor's Office accuses Dos Santos, who became the richest woman in Africa according to 'Forbes', of causing losses to the State amounting to more than 5 billion dollars during the 38 years of her father's government. As a consequence of these investigations, her assets in Angola and Portugal have been frozen.
Dos Santos' statements come a few days after Interpol allegedly issued an arrest warrant for her, according to the Portuguese news agency Lusa, for crimes of embezzlement of public funds, although sources close to the businesswoman denied that they were aware of this warrant.
NIMBY Boyle Street Community Services relocation plan halted by development appeal board
Story by CBC/Radio-Canada •
A plan by Boyle Street Community Services to move to a new facility two blocks north of its current home in the city's core has been halted by Edmonton's subdivision and development appeal board.
In a decision issued Friday, the board revoked the development permit for the facility, citing zoning issues.
"The board is of the opinion that the proposed development does not conform with the use prescribed for the site," the decision says.
Boyle Street wants to move from its current location in a former banana-ripening warehouse to a vacant building at 10010 107A Ave.
Once renovated, the $28.5-million facility would serve as a new headquarters for the social agency, which serves homeless Edmontonians and other vulnerable populations in the city.
In a statement, Boyle Street staff said Friday's decision was deeply disappointing.
Arguments made by the appellants to the development board intentionally "mischaracterized the services provided by Boyle Street and vilified those they serve," the statement said. 'Desperately needed'
Boyle Street said that in the the last year, it has provided mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health services to more than 7,000 people, the majority of whom are experiencing homelessness.
"This decision will result in a delay in the construction of okimaw peyesew kamik — King Thunderbird Centre and will mean that lifesaving services desperately needed in the core of Edmonton will be impeded," the social services agency said in the statement.
The proposal to move the facility has faced vocal opposition from some residents, business owners and community groups who say the McCauley neighbourhood is already at a tipping point due to a high concentration of social services in the area.
Proposed use doesn't conform with zoning, board says
In its decision, the development appeal board said the proposed facility, which would include a day shelter and cultural services, does not conform with the prescribed land uses for the property.
The facility would have a much broader service model than what is allowed under the current zoning for the property, the board said.
"The proper characterization of the activities that will occur on the site include recreational, social, arts, and other multi-purpose cultural activities intended for local community purposes," the decision says.
"This is not to say that these activities are not essential to the well being and health of the public. On the contrary, these are instrumental activities to every person's well-being.
"However, these activities do not fit the definition of health services in the bylaw and that use definition should not be expanded so liberally to encompass these activities. To do so would render entire other classes of uses within the bylaw irrelevant."
The proposed use is more appropriate for land zoned for community centres, the board said.
The city approved the development permit in September. However, 15 appellants challenged the city's decision. The appeal was heard Nov. 10. Opponents of the project include the Chinatown and Area Business Association, the Chinese Benevolent Association and parents of children who attend the Victoria School of the Arts, located nearby.
Agency vows to explore 'all avenues'
Boyle Street said it plans to proceed with construction of the new facility and will be "exploring all avenues" to ensure renovations proceed.
Decisions issued by the development board can be contested at the Alberta Court of Appeal.
"Over the 50-year history of our organization, we have experienced numerous challenges. This decision represents another challenge which we will undoubtedly overcome," executive director Jordan Reiniger said in a statement.
"We owe it to those we serve, our countless supporters, and our city to make sure this delay does not prevent us from moving forward in creating a purpose-built facility for those we serve who are put at the most risk in our society."
Boyle Street's current facility functions as a community centre where people can access housing specialists, counsellors, family services and medical care. The centre also provides street outreach services, mobile addictions treatment and mental-health outreach workers.
The agency has been searching for a new home for about seven years and the new site was prompted as a much-needed upgrade to the current site.
It recently held a news conference to announce that it has raised more than 75 per cent of its $28.5-million fundraising goal for the new space.
The new 2.5-acre property, purchased in a deal with the Edmonton Oilers, has a main building with 75,000 square feet of space and an existing 38-unit apartment building where suites rent at below-market rates.
The proposed centre has an Indigenous-informed design, a ceremonial space and a private courtyard would allow clients to gather inside the facility, instead of on the street outside.
Renovations were expected to start next month. The new centre was expected to open in October 2023.
REACTIONARY PARLIAMENT VS CASTILLO Pedro Castillo swears in Betssy Chávez as Peru’s new prime minister
The President of Peru, Pedro Castillo, has sworn in Betssy Chávez as the country's new Prime Minister on Friday, replacing Aníbal Torres, who resigned from the post after the failure of a question of confidence in the Andean Parliament.
Chávez, until now Minister of Culture, will thus serve as the fifth Peruvian head of government under Castillo, who took the reins of the presidency just over 16 months ago, in July 2021.
Castillo will have to appoint in the next hours the rest of the ministerial Cabinet in what is already a new change of course of a particularly convulsed national politics, marked in the last months by the incessant motions of censure and voluntary departures of ministers.
Even the president himself has the Peruvian Justice and Public Prosecutor's Office behind him, the latter a body that accuses him of leading a criminal organization for alleged corruption.
The latest episode of Peruvian political instability occurred on Thursday night when Torres resigned after the Congress refused to modify the law limiting referendum calls in the country.
"After this express refusal of confidence, with the expression of 'full rejection', and having accepted the resignation of the 'premier', whom I thank for his concern and work for the country, I will renew the Cabinet," Castillo reiterated in a televised speech.
With just over nine months in office, Aníbal Torres has been the longest-serving prime minister of the Peruvian Executive since Pedro Castillo was sworn in as president. He was preceded by Guido Bellido, with a little more than two months at the head of the government; Mirtha Vásquez, prime minister for almost three months; and Héctor Valer, who was in office for barely a week.
Chile's Atacama Desert is a graveyard for the world's junk
Story by Stacy Liberatore For Dailymail.com •
Chile's Atacama Desert is a barren landscape that has become a graveyard for the world's garbage, and the mountains of clothes, cars and shoes could hinder scientific advances in space.
This is one of the Earth's driest regions, but scientists have found microorganisms adapting to the near waterless world that could provide clues on how to find life on similar planets, specifically Mars.
This research is endangered because Atacama is a hub for secondhand and unsold clothing from the United States, Europe and Asia - more than 46,000 tons of clothes were dumped in the desert last year.
Used cars also flood the country from the free trade zone only to be stacked in the desert, while piles of abandoned tires are scattered across the landscape.
'We are no longer just the local backyard, but rather the world's backyard, which is worse,' Patricio Ferreira, mayor of the desert town of Alto Hospicio, told AFP.
The Atacama Desert is nestled between the Andes and the Chilean Coast Range, which blocks moisture from traveling inland from the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
And although it is one of the driest places on Earth, one million people call the desolate landscape home.
But Chile's massive Atacama Desert is a unique and fragile ecosystem that experts say is being threatened by piles of trash dumped there from around the world.
The fast fashion industry is a primary culprit in the mountains of clothes sprawling over the once barren hills.
Full of chemicals and taking up to 200 years to biodegrade, activists say the clothing pollutes the soil, air and underground water.
'The material is highly flammable. The fires are toxic,' said lawyer and activist Paulin Silva, 34, who has filed a complaint at the country's environmental court over the damage caused by the mountains of trash and clothing.
'It seems to me we need to find those responsible,' she said, standing amid the discarded items which she said were 'dangerous, an environmental risk, a danger to people's health.'
Combined with the heaps of cars and tires, the environment is drowning in trash.
Ferreira lamented a 'lack of global awareness, ethical responsibility and environmental protection' from 'the unscrupulous of the world.'
'We feel abandoned. We feel that our land has been sacrificed,' she said.
The driest part is the Yungay district in the city of Antofagasta, and while plants and animals are scares, scientists have found microorganism thriving.
These tiny life forms have evolved to adapt to a lack of water, high levels of solar radiation and nearly no nutrients.
To the average person, their ability to survive may not be interesting, but to scientists, these life forms could harbor secrets to evolution and survival on Earth and other planets.
NASA considers the Yungay district Earth's most similar landscape to Mars and uses it to test its robotic vehicles.
In 2017, the American space agency tested an early model of its Perseverance rover, which is currently searching for ancient signs of life on the Red Planet.
Because the landscape is similar to Mars, the drilling capabilities of the rover were tested in the desert to ensure they would work on the Martian planet.
And the UV exposure in the Atacama is also closely matched to what the rover is enduring.
While the desert does not receive much rain, large banks of fog roll across the desert, allowing some plants -- and some of the world's hardiest lichens, fungi, and algae --to grow.
Scores of brightly colored wildflower species bloom when it gets above-average rain in a spectacular display that happens every five to seven years, most recently in 2021.
It is an ecosystem that is 'very fragile because any change or decrease in the pattern of precipitation and fog has immediate consequences for the species that live there,' said Pablo Guerrero, a researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity and expert in desert cactus.
'There are cactus species which are considered extinct' due to pollution, climate change, and human settlement.
Montreal hate-speech trial hears debate on whether Nazism directly caused Holocaust
Story by Erika Morris •
What started as a hate-speech trial of alleged Montreal neo-Nazi recruiter Gabriel Sohier-Chaput turned into a debate on whether knowledge of the Holocaust is beyond reasonable dispute Friday. Gabriel Sohier-Chaput walks the halls of the courthouse in Montreal on Monday, Feb.28, 2022
On July 8, defence lawyer Hélène Poussard argued people now throw around the word Nazi outside of its original meaning, and "genocide wasn't originally central to Nazism."
She doubled down on the argument today, saying the prosecution should have brought forward witnesses and experts to define Nazism.
While Sohier-Chaput, 36, scrolled on his phone in the prisoner's box, his lawyer argued the prosecution had put forward a dozen inflammatory headlines as proof, but not the articles themselves, making the proof incomplete.
Sohier-Chaput, who has admitted to writing between 800 to 1,000 articles for the far-right online publication the Daily Stormer under the pseudonym Zeiger, has pleaded not guilty to a single count of wilful promotion of hate propaganda against Jewish people.
If convicted, he could face up to two years in jail.
'Non-stop Nazism everywhere'
The case hinges on a single article entitled "Canada: Nazis Trigger Jews By Putting Up Posters On Ch--k Church," using a racial slur to refer to the Asian community.
Using antisemitic memes and editorial comments, the article celebrated neo-Nazi posters pasted on a bus stop in British Columbia and insulted a Holocaust survivor who had been interviewed about the incident.
"We need to make sure no SJW [social justice warrior] or Jew can remain safely untriggered," Sohier-Chaput wrote in the article.
"Non-stop Nazism, everywhere, until the very streets are flooded with the tears of our enemies."
Testifying in his own defence on March 1, Sohier-Chaput said he was using satire that young people familiar with online culture would understand. His goal, he said, was to use humour to end political correctness.
The Crown had argued the phrase "non-stop Nazism everywhere" was inciting violence against Jewish people since Nazism led to the Holocaust. It also argued the Daily Stormer was a neo-Nazi publication, pointing to images of Adolf Hitler and Swastikas pasted all over its homepage.
Poussard pointed to various dictionary definitions of Nazism, which she says aren't precise enough to support the argument that her client was inciting hatred. She said no clear evidence was brought forward to prove Nazis saw Jewish people as inferior.
"What we need to analyze is words and be careful of exact definitions," said Poussard. "To me saying Nazis exterminated six million Jews is not precise enough."
Quebec court Judge Manlio Del Negro responded by saying that if a reasonable and educated person knows these facts, which are easy to verify, a judge can take judicial notice — meaning no proof is needed to support it.
Poussard insisted she is not contesting that the Holocaust took place, but is opposed to the judge taking judicial notice of the facts rather than having them submitted as evidence in the context of the 2017 article.
Holocaust is a fact
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) says Poussard's arguments highlight the need for awareness of antisemitism and mandatory Holocaust education in Quebec.
"The Holocaust [has] been recognized by Canadian jurisprudence as a fact," said Emmanuelle Amar, CIJA's director of policy and research, who was at the hearing.
"The Holocaust is the most documented genocide in the world. It's been documented by its perpetrators, by their victims, by bystanders so it is a fact."
In a statement, CIJA called the discussion a "frivolous interlude."
"We really hope we can put this conversation to rest and that we can go back to the proceedings and have Sohier-Chaput be judged for the hate he was promoting online and the impact he has had on the Jewish community," said Amar.
The judgment will be rendered by Del Negro on Jan. 23, 2023.
