Dinosaur-killing asteroid did not trigger a long 'nuclear winter' after all

The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs did not trigger a long-lasting impact winter, scientists have found — a discovery that raises new questions about what happened on Earth just after it hit.

 Mark Garlick via Getty Images

Story by Joanna Thompson • LIVE SCIENCE - Yesterday 

One spring day 66 million years ago, a 6-mile-wide (10 kilometers) asteroid smashed into the Yucatán Peninsula and upended life on Earth. This event, called the Chicxulub impact, triggered a mass extinction that wiped out 75% of species, including all non-avian dinosaurs.

But how exactly it killed the dinosaurs is a bit of a mystery — after all, they weren't congregated beneath the asteroid, waiting to be squashed. For decades, scientists speculated that the impact tossed so much dust and dirt into the atmosphere that it triggered an "impact winter" (similar to a nuclear winter) — a period of prolonged cooling during which global temperatures plummeted.

However, a study published March 22 in the journal Geology tells a different story.

Related: Largest asteroid ever to hit Earth was twice as big as the rock that killed off the dinosaurs

"We found that there was no evidence for the 'nuclear winter,'" Lauren O'Connor, a geoscientist at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and first author of the study, told Live Science in an email. "At least, not in the resolution of our study," which would have detected temperature declines spanning 1,000 years or more.

O'Connor and her team analyzed bacteria fossilized in coal samples from before, during, and after the Chicxulub impact. In response to temperature changes, these bacteria thicken or thin their cell walls "like putting a blanket on or taking one off," she said.

The researchers found that in the millennia after the impact, the bacteria didn't seem to be bulking up for winter. Instead, they found a roughly 5,000 year warming trend that stabilized relatively quickly. These hot years may have been the result of super volcanoes belching CO2 into the atmosphere in the millennia leading up to the Cretaceous period's abrupt end.

This doesn't mean that an impact winter is off the table altogether, Sean Gulick, a geophysicist at the University of Texas at Austin who was not involved in the study, told Live Science. The blanket of dust kicked up by the asteroid may have only lingered in the atmosphere for a decade or less — not noticeably changing global temperatures, but plunging Earth into darkness. "It doesn't even need to be that long," said Gulick. "If you just had months without the sun, it would be enough to kill most of the plants in the world."

With so many plants gone, herbivores would have struggled to find enough food to eat. As these species died, it would have sent shockwaves up the food chain, killing off large carnivores and other species that depended on them. This event, while devastating, would have been a blip in the fossil record. "It's really, really fast geologically," Gulick said.

O'Connor's team agreed that there likely was a short period of cold and darkness at the start of the end-Cretaceous extinction. But it doesn't seem to have set off a long-term cooling trend.

Their findings indicate that Earth may be capable of rebounding from a climate-changing event faster than previously thought — but not without triggering a mass extinction, O'Connor said.

The researchers now plan to investigate coal from more sites in the U.S. in order to piece together a record of temperature changes in the millennia leading up to the asteroid impact. They hope these data will help them disentangle the effects of volcanism from the Chicxulub impact, and that the parallels to volcanic warming give us a clearer idea of what to expect in our current climate crisis.

An end to the reading wars? More US schools embrace phonics

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

Move over “Dick and Jane.” A different approach to teaching kids how to read is on the rise.



For decades, two schools of thought have clashed on how to best teach children to read, with passionate backers on each side of the so-called reading wars. The battle has reached into homes via commercials for Hooked on Phonics materials and through shoebox dioramas assigned by teachers seeking to instill a love of literature.

But momentum has shifted lately in favor of the “science of reading.” The term refers to decades of research in fields including brain science that point to effective strategies for teaching kids to read.

The science of reading is especially crucial for struggling readers, but school curricula and programs that train teachers have been slow to embrace it. The approach began to catch on before schools went online in spring 2020. But a push to teach all students this way has intensified as schools look for ways to regain ground lost during the pandemic — and as parents of kids who can't read demand swift change.


OK, CLASS. TIME FOR A HISTORY LESSON.

One historical approach to teaching reading was known as “whole language.” (Close cousins of this approach are “whole word” and “look-say.”) It focused on learning entire words, placing the emphasis on meaning. A famous example is the “Dick and Jane” series, which, like many modern-day books for early readers, repeated words frequently so students could memorize them.

The other approach involved phonics, with supporters arguing students need detailed instruction on the building blocks of reading. That meant lots of time on letter sounds and how to combine them into words.

In 2000, a government-formed National Reading Panel released the findings of its exhaustive examination of the research. It declared phonics instruction was crucial to teaching young readers, along with several related concepts.

Whole language had lost.

What emerged, though, was an informal truce that came to be known as “balanced literacy” and borrowed from both approaches. The goal: Get kids into books they found enjoyable as quickly as possible.

But in practice, phonics elements often got short shrift, said Michael Kamil, professor emeritus of education at Stanford University.

“It wasn’t a true compromise,” said Kamil, who had sat on the national reading panel. The approach often led to students learning how to guess words, instead of how to sound them out.

Now, as schools look to address low reading scores, phonics and other elements of the science of reading are getting fresh attention, fueled in part by a series of stories and podcasts by APM Reports. Textbook makers are adding more phonics, and schools have dumped some popular programs that lacked that approach.

WHAT IS THE SCIENCE OF READING?

While the phrase doesn’t have a universal definition, it refers broadly to research in a variety of fields that relates to how a child's brain learns to read. Neuroscientists, for instance, have used MRIs to study the brains of struggling readers.

In practice, this science calls for schools to focus on the building blocks of words. Kindergartners might play rhyming games and clap out the individual syllables in a word to learn to manipulate sounds. Experts call this phonemic awareness.

Students later will learn explicitly how to make letter sounds and blend letters. To make sure students aren’t just guessing at words, teachers might ask them to sound out so-called nonsense words, like “nant” or “zim.”

Gone is rote memorization of word spellings. Instead, students learn the elements that make up a word. In a lesson using the word “unhappy,” students would learn how the prefix “un-” changed the meaning of the base word.

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

For some kids, reading happens almost magically. Bedtime stories and perhaps a little “Sesame Street” are enough.

But 30% to 40% of kids will need the more explicit instruction that is part of the science of reading, said Timothy Shanahan, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Other kids fall somewhere in between. “They’re going to learn to read,” said Shanahan, also one of the members of the 2000 panel and the former director of reading for Chicago Public Schools. “They’re just not going to read as well as they could be or should be.”

Complicating the situation, colleges of education often have stuck with balanced literacy despite concerns about its effectiveness. That means teachers graduate with little background on research-backed instructional methods.

The upshot: Parents often pick up the slack, paying for tutors or workbooks when their children struggle, Shanahan said. Extra help can be costly, contributing to racial and income-based disparities.

As a result, a growing number of NAACP chapters are pushing for wider adoption of the science of reading, describing literacy as a civil rights issue.

WHAT IS DYSLEXIA'S ROLE IN THE READING DEBATE?

Parents of children with dyslexia have led the push to use the science of reading. For them, the issue has special urgency. Kids with dyslexia can learn to read, but they need systematic instruction. When the wrong approach is used, they often flounder.

“I can’t even tell you how many screaming fits we had,” recalled Sheila Salmond, whose youngest child has dyslexia. “My daughter would come home and say, ‘Mom, I’m not learning.’ And then it became, ‘Mom, I’m stupid.’”

Salmond found herself testifying before Missouri lawmakers, taking a graduate class so she could tutor her daughter and eventually moving her from a suburban Kansas City district to a parochial school. She now is making progress.

WHAT IS CHANGING?

Just a decade ago, it was rare for a state to have laws that mentioned dyslexia or the science of reading.

Now every state has passed some form of legislation. The laws variously define what dyslexia is, require that students are screened for reading problems and mandate that teachers are trained in the most effective strategies, said Mary Wennersten, of the International Dyslexia Association.

States often look to duplicate what has happened in Mississippi, which has credited reading gains to a curriculum revamp that started a decade ago. The multi-million dollar effort includes training teachers on the science of reading.

The changes have put some curriculum programs in the crosshairs.

Some Colorado districts, for instance, have ditched instructional materials that didn’t pass muster under a state law that requires schools to use scientifically based reading programs. New York City, whose mayor often talks about his personal struggle with dyslexia, is making changes in its schools as well.

WHAT DOES THE SCIENCE OF READING MEAN FOR PARENTS?

Should they be researching the tenets of the science of reading? Do they need to help their children form letters out of Play-Doh? What about drilling their kids on nonsense words? Flashcards?

Only if they want to, said Amelia Malone, director of research and innovation at the National Center for Learning Disabilities.

What parents must do, she said, is read to their kids. Otherwise, she recommends helping teachers when they ask for it and pushing for evidence-based practices in their children’s schools.

“Parents can be part of the solution," she said, "if we educate them on why this is kind of the movement we need.”

___

The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Heather Hollingsworth, The Associated Press

Resurgence of matriarchy pushes issue of violence against Indigenous women onto the UN stage

The Canadian Press 

There is a resurgence of matriarchy in First Nations communities, said Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald, and that is why the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is being voiced on a world stage.

Archibald was joined by two other women leaders on a five-member First Nations panel from Canada that spoke to media during the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York April 19.

Addressing violence against Indigenous women and girls, said Archibald, was one of the priorities that “has driven us from our home fires all the way here to New York City to this global forum…There are families that are affected directly and those families need a space internationally.”

“Now we see traditional women in leadership coming to the forefront… and that’s why, I think, we’re talking more about our missing and murdered Indigenous sisters and two-spirited relatives,” said Vice Chief Aly Bear of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations.

However, she added, having three women representing First Nations from Canada appears to be a “contradiction” between women leadership and the violence Indigenous women and girls and two-spirited people still face.

Bear spoke about the death of Linda Mary Beardy, a 33-year-old woman originally from Lake St. Martin First Nation, whose body was found in a Winnipeg landfill site. Winnipeg police ruled the death not suspicious in nature.

“We are not trash. We are not garbage. We deserve to be valued,” said an impassioned Bear, a mother of two girls. “Traditionally our women held high respect in our communities and it’s that colonial violence that came here, that colonial mindset that came here and put us to the lowest of the hierarchy.”

Former Neskonlith First Nation chief and panelist Judy Wilson agreed.

“Indigenous women in communities in Canada are facing a crisis,” said Wilson. “With the disruption of the colonial cloak … and the Indian Act, it displaced that role (of Indigenous women), and the Indian residential schools that removed our children broke down the families.”

As the first woman to hold the position of national chief, Archibald said “these spaces are particularly difficult for women, especially at this juncture, and being the first is always a really difficult place to be.”

With women making up half of the Indigenous population, only about 25 per cent of the chiefs are women, said Archibald. So while there is a resurgence there is still not parity.

However, low numbers haven’t discouraged women leaders from speaking out.

“We are bringing forward those issues that have not been discussed in the past. This is the second United Nations forum where I have spoken about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls,” said Archibald.

Also part of the panel were Chief Joe Alphonse of Tl'etinqox First Nation and Grand Council Chief Reg Niganobe of Anishinabek Nation.

Windspeaker.com

By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

B.C. First Nation sues port firm, others for disrupting ancestral remains

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

VANCOUVER — A First Nation is suing the British Columbia and federal governments and the company behind a railway terminal port in the province's Interior, claiming it wasn't property consulted about the project it says has "desecrated" its ancestral territory.



Bonaparte First Nation Chief Frank Antoine said inland port development by Ashcroft Terminal Ltd. over the First Nations' ancestral remains continues unabated with the support of the federal and provincial government.

The nation filed a lawsuit Wednesday, saying it has been wrongfully misled and shut out of the development process.

In June 2021, Antoine said members of the Bonaparte staged a sit-in protest on the site of Ashcroft Terminal's inland port, where expansion activities unearthed ancestral remains and other culturally significant artifacts.

"They just put it in a box, put it in a trailer and left it there until our membership decided to say enough is enough," Antoine said. "From that day forward, since June, we've been trying to sit down and have these open discussions and honest discussions with them and it just seems that they don't want to sit down with us. They just keep moving forward."

The Bonaparte First Nation lawsuit names Ashcroft Terminal Ltd. and several others, claiming railway infrastructure development for the inland port has destroyed and disturbed ancestral burial grounds.

In a notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court, the First Nation alleges Ashcroft Terminal misled the band about the scope of construction activities for the 300-acre railway terminal port.

The lawsuit alleges the terminal is on the site of Bonaparte's historical village, which it says carries deep spiritual and cultural significance to the band and its members.

The First Nation claims the site contains "numerous" burial grounds and carbon dating places the Bonaparte on the territory dating back nearly 8,000 years.

The lawsuit says Ashcroft Terminal's construction and excavation activities have disturbed the remains and other archeologically significant artifacts on the site.

The allegations in the lawsuit have not been tested or proven in court and the defendants have yet to file responses to the claim. Ashcroft Terminal Ltd. and the federal government did not immediately provide comment on the lawsuit.

B.C.'s Ministry of Transportation said it could not comment on a matter before the courts.

Antoine said the companies involved in the expansion are "bypassing" what they want them to stop doing and will "keep pushing forward until this terminal is completely built."

Months after Bonaparte members protested at the site, Ashcroft Terminal signed an investment deal with Canadian Tire Corp., giving the company — which is not a party to the lawsuit — a 25 per cent stake in the project.

Antoine said things "went quiet" afterwards, leaving the First Nation, again, shut out of discussions about development activity on their unceded traditional territory.

"We have a list of stuff that we want to work with them on, and if this is what they call UNDRIP or Truth and Reconciliation, they're definitely doing it on the wrong side of the tracks," Antoine said, referring to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. "They're not working with us; they'd rather work away from us."

The lawsuit alleges the provincial and federal governments failed to adequately consult the band about the project, which has received millions in subsidies since development plans were unveiled back in 2006.

The Bonaparte First Nation claims in court that they were misled about the size of the inland port development plans, alleging Ashcroft deceptively presented the 300-acre terminal as "small-scale, piecemeal, bite-sized mini projects and proposals."

"Each of which posed a small fractional threat to (Bonaparte First Nation's) interests compared with the true scope of (Ashcroft Terminal Ltd.'s) development," the lawsuit states.

Antoine said the Bonaparte's attempts to have a dialogue with governments and Ashcroft Terminal have been unsuccessful, leaving him and the First Nation's approximately 1,000 members with little other choice than to take the matter to court.

"They need to understand that they can't just bypass us anymore. We're not a group of Indigenous people that doesn't understand the government, how government works," he said. "We are part of government now and we want to be self-sufficient, we want to be independent and we want to be partners and build a relationship. They just don't seem to want to build that relationship."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2023.

Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press

Canadians aren’t confident the government is doing enough for affordable telecom services: poll

Story by MobileSyrup • Apr 13

A new poll shows the majority of Canadians are concerned about monopolies and the way they impact prices.

AND THEN THERE WERE THREE



The data from Mainstreet Research shows 92 percent of those surveyed blame market concentration for higher prices across grocery and telecom sectors. A further 69 percent said current competition regulations are benefiting large companies at the expense of consumers.

Results are based on automated telephone interviews conducted between March 29th and 30th. The sample consists of 1267 adults residing in Canada and represents the country’s voting population.

According to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s 2019 monitoring report, the big three (Bell, Rogers, and Telus) controlled 91 percent of the mobile and internet services market, and Canadians believe this is a problem.


Polling results show 72 percent of Canadians aren’t confident the government is doing enough for affordable and competitive telecom services in Canada; the results label 44 percent as “strongly not confident.”

 A majority of respondents who felt this way reside in Alberta and Ontario.

“Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne just permitted the Shaw buyout, crowning Rogers the single largest company in our telecom sector in one of the biggest buyouts the country’s ever seen,” OpenMedia Campaigns Director, Matt Hatfield, said.

“These clear poll results should be setting off alarm bells in government offices across the country: band-aid solutions aren’t enough.”

The Minister’s approval was the final step Rogers needed to complete its $26-billion takeover of Shaw. Vidéotron was also approved to take over Freedom Mobile from Shaw in an effort to create a fourth leading wireless provider. Despite the approval, critics have voiced their concerns about the merger, arguing the approval will come at a cost to Canadians.

The poll further shows 83 percent of Canadians believe the current costs of internet and mobile services are impacting their budget, with 44 percent labeling the action as significant.

Source: OpenMedia

Indigenous youth groups are ‘lifelines’ in their communities and Ottawa is failing to support them

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

Indigenous youth organizations doing vital work in their communities deserve sustainable funding and a means to hold Ottawa accountable for upholding financial support, a new report says.

The report, titled A Labour of Love: The Unpaid and Exploited Labour of Grassroots and Community-Based Indigenous Youth Groups, calls out Ottawa for what it deems a failure to value the work of young Indigenous organizers who support youth in their communities.

The report was published on April 17 alongside a panel hosted in New York City for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the UN’s central body on global Indigenous concerns and rights.

Gabrielle Fayant, one of the report’s co-authors, told Canada’s National Observer that Indigenous youth organizers are in New York City to give voice to groups that are overworked, overwhelmed and underpaid.

“I hope that we can put pressure on the federal government to at least meet with us and see the amazing work that we're doing,” said Fayant, who is also an organizer for the Ottawa-based Assembly of Seven Generations, an urban Indigenous youth organization that delivers cultural support and empowerment programs.

The report centres around the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 66, which urges the federal government to provide multi-year funding for community-based youth organizations to deliver programs to other youth.

Between June and October 2022, a team of eight facilitators and writers heard from 10 diverse youth groups and collectives, visiting each group in their territory and community. The report found the current funding system, propped up by short-term project grants, is failing Indigenous youth groups and leading to exploited labour, stretched budgets and funds not reaching the youth themselves.

Much of the work done by Indigenous youth groups identified in the report happens on a volunteer basis or through month-to-month contracts. Many organizations cannot employ full-time staff members, it found. Part of the demand from the report’s authors is ensuring that Indigenous youth groups have full-time employment, community space and, most importantly, land for programming.

“That's why we need that volunteer funding. We need to be able to plan the year ahead,” Fayant said.

Indigenous Services Canada told Canada’s National Observer the federal government provides multi-year funding through a pilot project with the Canadian Roots Exchange, a national Indigenous youth organization that provides programs, grants and funding.

Canadian Roots Exchange CREation is currently running a pilot program that provides short-term grants of up to $5,000, medium-term grants worth $30,000 and multi-year funding at $150,000 over two years.

But Fayant and her co-author Brittany Matthews told Canada’s National Observer the funding won’t cover the needs of Indigenous youth groups, particularly land-based programming and office space.

The $150,000 grant over two years may only cover the costs of one or two full-time staff per year and low salaries, never mind benefits for staff or programming funds.

Fayant and Matthews also said the youth groups would need an outside trustee, such as a designated board member, to be eligible for funding, creating a further barrier. Many youth groups aren’t eligible today for this reason.

“The report is clear — funding must be multi-year and based on the best interests and needs of Indigenous young people,” Fayant and Matthews said.

“We have heard this rhetoric from Canada for years with little changing.”

Much of the work Indigenous youth organizations do involves at-risk youth, Fayant said. Many of those young people are descendants of residential school survivors and struggle with the impacts of intergenerational trauma.

“It's a lot of crisis mode,” she added.

Fayant described Indigenous youth groups as “lifelines,” noting the burden of their communities’ challenges falls on their shoulders.

“It's almost like we don't have a choice to do this work, even though it's so draining, and it just feels so, so hard,” Fayant said.

At the panel in New York City, which was live-streamed on YouTube, Fayant described youth organizers as facing “ongoing poverty,” forced to patch a living together through a trickle-in of short-term grants.

Indigenous youth groups don’t have the same privileges or outcomes as other non-profits because of unreliable and inadequate grants, the report found. The result is inconsistent and underpaid employment among Indigenous youth organizers, with compounding effects such as low credit and inability to secure a mortgage, it added.

Fayant said the progress on the TRC call to action is “in limbo” while she and other youth organizers struggle to make ends meet, working precariously or on a volunteer basis. Fayant can’t imagine what a permanent Indigenous youth panel would look like, noting that Indigenous youth haven’t been given the platform to create it.

Fayant notes the irony: the work of Indigenous youth will always be put on panels and lauded, but those same grassroots youth are stonewalled when they ask for stable funding.

“We’re not even at the table yet; we’ve just been completely ignored,” she said.

Matteo Cimellaro, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

Canada has a dental assistant shortage. Experts worry it’ll only get worse

WOMEN WORKERS SHORTCHANGED

Story by Katie Dangerfield • Tuesday

A dental assistant works on teeth cleaning for a young Syrian girl who has never been to a dentist before.© Sarah Kraus / Global News

A shortage of dental assistants across Canada may cause a backlog in oral health care and could impact dentists' capacity to take on new patients, experts warn.

The dental assistant shortage has been happening for years now, according to Lynn Tomkins, president of the Canadian Dental Association (CDA), and with the federal government's new dental care plan for Canadians, she worries that without proper staffing, many dentists may not be able to meet the patient demand.

"The shortage of dental assisting is the number one issue for dentists across the country," she said. "So dentists have had to alter their hours, in some cases reduce their hours because they don't have the support staff, just like operating rooms and hospitals. They don't have the nurses, you can't do the treatment."

Even before COVID-19 hit the health-care system, there was a shortage of dental assistants in Canada, she said.

The CDA states that in 2019, up to a third of Canadian dental offices were looking to add a dental assistant to their staff.

"COVID-19 exacerbated this problem," Tomkins said, noting that the pandemic pushed the Canadian health-care system to the brink, causing front-line staff workers, including dental assistants, to leave the profession.

"People have perhaps gone into other areas to work remotely and dentistry cannot be done remotely," she said.

Tomkins estimates that there is a current "shortage of almost 5,000 dental assistants" in Canada.

Video: Calgary dentists raise concerns about new federal dental benefit

A 2022 survey conducted by the Canadian Dental Assistants Association (CDAA) and shared with Global News highlighted this problem amid the pandemic.

The survey found that during the height of the pandemic, around 57 per cent of dental assistants said their work environment became increasingly stressful and difficult and around 21 per cent felt the expectations of their employer became unreasonable.

The survey also showed that during the height of the pandemic, around 42 per cent of the respondents said they felt unfairly compensated given the higher level of risk they experienced at work.

One of the main drivers behind the shortage of Canada's dental assistants is a lack of proper compensation and benefits, said Kelly Mansfield, a board member of the CDAA.

Mansfield, who worked as a certified dental assistant for more than 30 years, said the shortage isn't because dental assistants are not graduating, it's that many are choosing to leave the profession.

"It's very hard to raise a family on a dental assistant salary. I was a certified Level 2 assistant for over 10 years and worked in private practice and I left because I just couldn't live on the salary of a dental assistant," she said.

"So I did take my oral health education and I went into a different profession."

There are other professions a dental assistant can go into, rather than working at a dentist's office, she said, such as working in dental insurance, sales or public health.

"There are many jobs that you can use the dental assisting profession, that will offer you better benefits and better compensation," Mansfield said.

Whether it's patient care, assisting with a dental procedure, sterilizing equipment or taking X-rays, Tompkins said the role of a dental assistant is crucial.

"We do rely on them a great deal," she said. "In many cases, they're like a surgical scrub nurse, working right beside the dentist, mixing materials, handing instruments, keeping the material dry. So it is actually quite a challenging job."

Without proper staffing, Mansfield and Tomkins believe dental offices may not be able to run at full capacity.

The risk is that many Canadians won't be able to receive oral health care, as "dentists cannot work without dental assistants," Mansfield warned.

"Although the biggest risk would be that dentists are hiring untrained individuals that are being hired to fill the role. This is a significant concern to dental assistants and a significant concern to the general public," she said.

And now that the federal government plans to roll out its Canadian Dental Care Plan, Tomkins said there is even more of a need for dental assistants.

In its March budget, the federal Liberals announced plans to expand its dental plan to provide coverage for an estimated nine million uninsured Canadians with an annual family income of less than $90,000, with no co-pays for those with family incomes under $70,000, by the end of 2023.

With an expected increase in demand for dental appointments because of federally funded dental coverage, Tomkins said the CDA wants to ensure the staffing capacity is there.

Earlier this year, the CDA published a policy paper asking the government to develop an oral health staffing strategy in preparation for the increased dental service for nine million more Canadians.

"There will be a gradual rollout of this national dental care program. And it will give us some opportunity to increase our capacity. But we do need to recruit more dental assistants. We need to find ways to make them stay in the field," Tomkins said.

She said other ways to recruit and keep dental assistants in the office are to provide more mental health support services and give the option of distance learning in order to reach people in remote communities.

"We also need to make dental assisting aware to new Canadians, because it's a relatively short educational path, six months to nine months to a very good job that's very much in demand."

UK
London Marathon could face potential disruption from environmental groups

Story by Ben Church • Yesterday 

The London Marathon could become the latest sporting event to face protests and potential disruption from environmental campaign group Just Stop Oil which says it will “continue to disrupt sports and cultural events.”

Thousands of runners are set to raise millions for charitable causes on Sunday in a race watched by hundreds of thousands of people on the streets of London and millions more on television.

But the much-loved annual event, which winds its way across the British capital’s most famous streets and concludes on the Mall, faces the real threat of disruption from UK protest group Just Stop Oil, which is campaigning for governments to end the use of fossil fuels.

“We will continue to disrupt sports and cultural events until the institutions join us in civil resistance against new oil and gas,” Just Stop Oil said in a statement, when CNN Sport asked whether it would look to interrupt the London Marathon.

“We don’t answer questions about our plans. That’s irrelevant when we face crop failure, drought and starvation within a few short decades. To allow new oil and gas is the greatest criminal act in human history. It’s genocidal.”

Just Stop Oil have glued themselves to roads, ziplocked their necks to goal posts, blockaded oil facilities and targeted iconic artwork. In October, in one of their most high-profile protests, they flung tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh’s famous “Sunflowers” at a London gallery.

More recently, two Just Stop Oil activists caused delays at the World Snooker Championship after storming the tables and throwing orange powder paint on one of the playing surfaces.

“It’s time for everyone to join us in civil resistance or face the loss of everything we know and love. Which side are you on?” the group asked in their statement.

Just Stop Oil’s protests have succeeded in gaining attention, but they have also attracted waves of criticism for disrupting daily life, delaying emergency services and damaging cultural heritage.

Climate group Extinction Rebellion (XR) has also organized a wide scale protest this weekend which hopes to see tens of thousands of activists descend on central London, mainly around Parliament, which is close to the marathon’s finish line.

The four-day protest – dubbed ‘The Big One’ – will see multiple campaign groups come together to demand the UK government stop its search for new fossil fuels immediately.

According to XR’s website, nearly 30,000 people have already said they’ll join the four-day protest.

In a statement to CNN, XR said it has no plans to disrupt the race and has been working alongside the Metropolitan Police to ensure both events can be staged together.

XR urged other groups to join the peaceful protest.

“Help us build this mass movement so we become impossible for the government to ignore!” said the group.


London Marathon could face potential disruption from environmental groups© Provided by CNNA Just Stop Oil protester recently disrupted the World Snooker Championship on Monday.

- Mike Egerton/PA Images/Getty Images

But the police say they are prepared for people who try to stop the race.

“People can expect a visible, engaging but firm policing presence to tackle any criminal or anti-social behavior and disorder,” the Metropolitan Police told CNN in a statement.

“Alongside a significant policing response, we will be using specialist officers to respond to any protesters who lock or glue themselves to street furniture or purpose-built structures.”

‘A little bit worrying’

David Row, a communications manager from London, is one of the thousands of runners putting together the final preparations for the race.

Amid the uncertainty and potential chaos of Sunday, he is just hoping all his hard work won’t be for nothing.

Like many, Row has put his “heart and soul” into training for the last few months, getting up at 6 a.m. local time to follow a training plan which has him ready for this one moment.

“You just want it to go perfectly, so to hear that there might be something going on with the campaign groups is a little bit worrying,” the 34-year-old told CNN Sport.

“If there was a delay, or worst-case scenario they called it off, I’d be devastated, but in the same sense, I know these groups are there for a serious reason.

“They’ve got an agenda that they don’t feel is being listened to, so they want to get that across.”

On Sunday, Row will run for Macmillan Cancer Support, in memory of his late mother.

He’s aware that many of his fellow participants will also be running for their own deeply personal causes and, while he sympathizes with the wider climate issues, he questions whether the London Marathon is the right event to protest at.

He says activists risk alienating people against the worthwhile cause by targeting events that bring so much “positivity” and “good energy” to society.

“You’ve probably got people running that for the same reasons that they’re disrupting the race,” he said.

“I get that they’ve got a bigger cause but […] disrupting someone who’s running in memory of someone important to them or running for a charity that’s doing good, it doesn’t really strike a balance for me.”

CNN reached out to the London Marathon for comment but did not get a response at the time of publication.

The London Marathon is set to begin with the wheelchair and elite events before the mass start follows at around 10 a.m. local time.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com

Children’s cat-killing contest axed following backlash in New Zealand

Story by Heather Chen • Yesterday 

A contest planned for children in New Zealand to hunt and kill feral cats as part of a drive to protect native species has been axed following backlash from the public and animal rights groups.

The event would have been part of a fundraiser organized by the North Canterbury Hunting Competition for the Rotherham School, located in the Canterbury region of South Island.

Organizers on Saturday had announced a new junior category for children under 14 in the annual competition – to hunt feral cats for a top prize of 250 New Zealand dollars ($150).

The announcement drew public anger leading organizers to withdraw the event on Monday.

In a statement issued Wednesday, organizers said “vile and inappropriate emails and messages had been sent to the school and others involved.”

“We are incredibly disappointed in this reaction and would like to clarify that this competition is an independent community run event,” the statement read.

While cats are a popular and beloved pet among many New Zealanders, feral cats have been a long-standing issue between animal lovers and authorities because of the impact they can have other wild animals.

In neighboring Australia, authorities say feral cats threaten the survival of more than 100 native species. Feral cats are blamed for killing millions of birds, reptiles, frogs and mammals, every day, prompting authorities to arrange regular culls.

Organizers of the contest in Canterbury maintained that the junior hunting tournament to kill feral cats, using a firearm or other means, was about “protecting native birds and other vulnerable species.”

“Our sponsors and school safety are our main priority, so the decision has been made to withdraw this category for this year to avoid further backlash at this time,” it said.

“To clarify, for all hunting categories, our hunters are required to abide by firearms act 1983 and future amendments as well as the animal welfare act 1999.”

Fears for pets

Addressing concerns from the public, organizers had earlier announced rules to discourage young participants from targeting pets.

Any child who brought in a microchipped cat would have been disqualified, organizers said.

The group also noted that scheduled hunts for other categories like local pigs and deer would still proceed.

The New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it was “both pleased and relieved” that the cat-killing contest for children had been removed. “Children, as well as adults, will not be able to tell the difference between a feral, stray or a frightened domesticated cat,” the SPCA said.

“There is a good chance someone’s pet may be killed during this event. In addition, children often use air rifles in these sorts of event which increase the likelihood of pain and distress and can cause a prolonged death,” it added.

Animals rights group PETA also welcomed the decision to cancel the event.

In a statement, Jason Baker, the group’s Asia Vice President said, “Encouraging kids to hunt down and kill animals is a sure-fire way to raise adults who solve problems with violence … We need to foster empathy and compassion in kids, not lead them to believe animals are ‘less than’ humans while rewarding them for brutality.”

The event attracted significant overseas attention, including from British comedian Ricky Gervais, a known animal lover with more than 15 million followers on Twitter.

He slammed the proposed cat hunt in a sarcastic tweet, saying: “Right. We need some new PR ideas to make the world love New Zealand. Maybe something involving kids & kittens. Yes, Hargreaves?”

New Zealand is one of the world’s last remote island nations and has no native land mammals besides bats.

There have been official campaigns against cats in previous years – including one that encouraged cat lovers to avoid replacing their pets when they die.

“Cats are the only true sadists of the animal world, serial killers who torture without mercy,” said then-Prime Minister John Key, who himself had a cat named Moonbeam.

“Historically, we know that feral cats were responsible for the extinction of six bird species and are leading agents of decline in populations of birds, bats, frogs and lizards,” Helen Blackie, a biosecurity consultant at Boffa Miskell told CNN affiliate RNZ.

Blackie, who has studied feral cats for two decades, said numbers had exploded in the last decade, and in some areas where pests were tracked by camera, feral cats outnumbered other species like possums.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com

BRRR,COLD WAR 2.0
China ramps up construction on its new Antarctic station, report says

Story by Alexander Smith • Yesterday 

Thousands of miles from Washington, Beijing or Taiwan, the race between China and the West is heating up — in the coldest place on the planet.

China has restarted construction on its fifth base in Antarctica for the first time since 2018 and is making “significant progress,” according to new analysis. The U.S. has three year-round research stations in the Antarctic.

The new Chinese site could be used to strengthen its intelligence-gathering capabilities in the area, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank based in Washington, said in the report released Tuesday. And it comes as China is “undertaking the most significant expansion of its footprint there in a decade,” according to CSIS.

The report, “Frozen Frontiers,” also detailed China’s moves in the Arctic, where it is stepping up investments with Russia to exploit potential new shipping routes freed up by melting sea ice.

China has stressed that its ambitions in Antarctica and the Arctic region, which are both home to research stations from the U.S. and its allies, are purely scientific. But its accelerating developments are seen by some in the West as part of a wider effort to strengthen footholds for its military around the globe.


Temporary buildings on Inexpressible Island at China's fifth Antarctic research station in 2018. (Xinhua via Alamy file)© Xinhua via Alamy file

“If they see themselves as an incoming superpower with global ambitions, why would they not want to” expand their presence there?” said Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London. “Why should the Antarctic be any different?”

CSIS analyzed January satellite images from the Colorado-based Maxar Technologies showing construction work being carried out at the new base on Inexpressible Island, almost 2,000 miles south of New Zealand. It's also some 200 miles from the United States' own McMurdo Station, the largest base on the frozen continent.

After several years of inaction, the site now has a number of new support facilities, with groundwork already in place for a larger structure, the satellite images show. Once completed, the 5,000-square-meter site is expected to include a scientific research and observation area, an energy facility, a wharf for its two Xuelong, or “snow dragon” icebreakers, and other buildings, CSIS said.

Like the U.S. and other countries, China is treaty-bound to limit its Antarctic activity to “peaceful purposes,” although military personnel are allowed to carry out scientific research. However, CSIS said a satellite ground station at Beijing’s new base will “have inherent dual-use capabilities” — scientific and intelligence.

The ground station, it said, could be used to collect signals intelligence and telemetry data from rockets launched by U.S.-allies in Australia and New Zealand.

China has stressed its ambitions in the region are purely scientific.

“China has made remarkable progress in deep-sea and polar scientific research, and significantly enhanced its capability to understand, protect and utilize both deep-sea and polar regions,” Han Zheng, who was then vice premier and has now been appointed vice president, said in January.

But its own military-affiliated National Defense University said in a 2020 textbook that "mixing" civilian and military facilities was "the main way for great powers to achieve a polar military presence."

According to the Department of Defense report last year, China’s strategy for Antarctica is partly based on these “dual-use technologies” — facilities that are ostensibly scientific but improve the country’s military capabilities, too.

Since the 1950s, the American military has participated in Operation Deep Freeze providing logistical support to the U.S. Antarctic Program and the National Science Foundation.

But CSIS told Reuters that while the U.S. still maintains a larger research presence in Antarctica — including the biggest facility in its McMurdo station — China’s footprint is growing faster.