Buttigieg says US 'green corridors' initiative is key to cutting shipping industry emissions

Buttigieg says US 'green corridors' initiative is key to cutting shipping industry emissions© Provided by The Canadian Press

YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) — An American push to establish “green shipping corridors” is key to reducing carbon emissions from the shipping industry, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Monday while touring the port of Yokohama near Tokyo.

Buttigieg was in Japan to attend a meeting over the weekend of transport ministers of the Group of Seven advanced economies, who reaffirmed a commitment to reducing emissions from the transport industry and to keeping navigation free and open in the Asia-Pacific region.

The U.S. is seeking to develop and strengthen partnerships with “like-minded countries” to improve maritime security and keep shipping and aviation corridors open, he told The Associated Press in an interview.

Emissions from maritime transport account for about 3% of total global emissions from human activities. Some 40% of Yokohama's emissions come from its port.

About 90% of all traded goods are moved by sea, and maritime trade volumes are expected to triple by 2050, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Studies predict the industry’s share of greenhouse gas emissions could reach 15%. That has added urgency to efforts to cut such pollution.

The International Maritime Organization, which regulates commercial shipping, wants to halve its greenhouse gas releases by midcentury and may seek deeper cuts this year.

The Port of Los Angeles signed an agreement in March with port authorities of Yokohama and Tokyo to establish the so-called green shipping corridors, aiming to promote emissions reductions through use of net-zero emissions vessels and other efforts to reduce the flow of greenhouse gases from ports and shipping.

It also has formed similar partnerships with Singapore and Shanghai and the U.S. has begun discussing setting up such corridors in Southeast Asia. The initiative is also under discussion by the Quad, which includes Japan, the U.S., India and Australia.

Yokohama is the closest major port to North America across the Pacific and is a major regional hub.

Japan is working to reduce fossil fuel use and promote hydrogen and ammonia as alternative fuels. Yokohama plans to build a terminal for ships to import hydrogen, officials said. Other facilities in Yokohama allow a ship that is idling at the port to be powered electronically instead of burning heavily polluting marine fuel oil.

Similar initiatives are being promoted in U.S. ports, Buttigieg said, adding that Japanese leadership in developing hydrogen as fuel is going to be “a big part of the future.”

The Biden administration is pushing to speed up the transition to renewable and less polluting energy sources. While attending G7 meetings in April in Sapporo, northern Japan, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm toured the world’s first and only liquefied hydrogen carrier, a ship that showcases Japanese efforts to transform heavily polluting coal into emissions-free hydrogen power.

Japan aims to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050, with a goal of becoming a “hydrogen society.” But its hydrogen industry is still in its initial stages, and still mostly reliant on hydrogen produced using fossil fuels.

“We know it will take more time for these to be deployed on a widespread basis, but you have to begin somewhere,” he said.

In a joint statement, Buttigieg and other G7 ministers reiterated their countries' determination to support free and open navigation and expressed strong opposition to any attempts to change the “peacefully established status of territories by force” — a reference to concerns over China's growing military presence and its longstanding claim to the separately governed island of Taiwan.

Disruptions to China-based manufacturing and trade during the pandemic, as well as the risk of conflict have prompted moves to diversify supply chains and reduce reliance on Chinese production of strategically important goods and commodities.

“We recognize that there will be a lot of geopolitical challenges affecting both trade and security in this region. This is party of why we have such an emphasis on de-risking and diversifying the economic relationships with regard to China,” Buttigieg said.

Yokohama is in the midst of a “blue carbon infrastructure” project that features promoting coastal structures like sea walls that can serve as habitat for marine life while absorbing planet-warming gasses emitted by the port.

While touring the port, Buttigieg was briefed about efforts to increase efficiency by accelerating use of remote-controlled cranes and autonomous-driven trailers, which can reduce waiting times for truck drivers and reduce emissions.

Mari Yamaguchi, The Associated Press

AMERIKA

Eviction filings are 50% higher than they were pre-pandemic in some cities as rents rise




ATLANTA (AP) — Entering court using a walker, a doctor's note clutched in his hand, 70-year-old Dana Williams, who suffers serious heart problems, hypertension and asthma, pleaded to delay eviction from his two-bedroom apartment in Atlanta.

Although sympathetic, the judge said state law required him to evict Williams and his 25-year-old daughter De’mai Williams in April because they owed $8,348 in unpaid rent and fees on their $940-a-month apartment.

They have been living in limbo ever since.

They moved into a dilapidated Atlanta hotel room with water dripping through the bathroom ceiling, broken furniture and no refrigerator or microwave. But at $275-a-week, it was all they could afford on Williams' $900 monthly social security check and the $800 his daughter gets biweekly from a state agency as her father’s caretaker.

“I really don’t want to be here by the time his birthday comes" in August, De'mai Williams said. "For his health, it’s just not right.”

The Williams family is among millions of tenants from New York state to Las Vegas who have been evicted or face imminent eviction.

After a lull during the pandemic, eviction filings by landlords have come roaring back, driven by rising rents and a long-running shortage of affordable housing. Most low-income tenants can no longer count on pandemic resources that had kept them housed, and many are finding it hard to recover because they haven't found steady work or their wages haven't kept pace with the rising cost of rent, food and other necessities.

Homelessness, as a result, is rising.

“Protections have ended, the federal moratorium is obviously over, and emergency rental assistance money has dried up in most places,” said Daniel Grubbs-Donovan, a research specialist at Princeton University's Eviction Lab.

“Across the country, low-income renters are in an even worse situation than before the pandemic due to things like massive increases in rent during the pandemic, inflation and other pandemic-era related financial difficulties.”

Eviction filings are more than 50% higher than the pre-pandemic average in some cities, according to the Eviction Lab, which tracks filings in nearly three dozen cities and 10 states. Landlords file around 3.6 million eviction cases every year.

Among the hardest-hit are Houston, where rates were 56% higher in April and 50% higher in May. In Minneapolis/St. Paul, rates rose 106% in March, 55% in April and 63% in May. Nashville was 35% higher and Phoenix 33% higher in May; Rhode Island was up 32% in May.

The latest data mirrors trends that started last year, with the Eviction Lab finding nearly 970,000 evictions filed in locations it tracks — a 78.6% increase compared to 2021, when much of the country was following an eviction moratorium. By December, eviction filings were nearly back to pre-pandemic levels.

At the same time, rent prices nationwide are up about 5% from a year ago and 30.5% above 2019, according to the real estate company Zillow. There are few places for displaced tenants to go, with the National Low Income Housing Coalition estimating a 7.3 million shortfall of affordable units nationwide.

Many vulnerable tenants would have been evicted long ago if not for a safety net created during the pandemic.

The federal government, as well as many states and localities, issued moratoriums during the pandemic that put evictions on hold; most have now ended. There was also $46.5 billion in federal Emergency Rental Assistance that helped tenants pay rent and funded other tenant protections. Much of that has been spent or allocated, and calls for additional resources have failed to gain traction in Congress.

“The disturbing rise of evictions to pre-pandemic levels is an alarming reminder of the need for us to act — at every level of government — to keep folks safely housed," said Democratic U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, urging Congress to pass a bill cracking down on illegal evictions, fund legal help for tenants and keep evictions off credit reports.

Housing courts are again filling up and ensnaring the likes of 79-year-old Maria Jackson.

Jackson worked for nearly two decades building a loyal clientele as a massage therapist in Las Vegas, which has seen one of the country's biggest jumps in eviction filings. That evaporated during the pandemic-triggered shutdown in March 2020. Her business fell apart; she sold her car and applied for food stamps.

She got behind on the $1,083 monthly rent on her one-bedroom apartment, and owing $12,489 in back rent was evicted in March. She moved in with a former client about an hour northeast of Las Vegas.

“Who could imagine this happening to someone who has worked all their life?” Jackson asked.

Last month she found a room in Las Vegas for $400 a month, paid for with her $1,241 monthly social security check. It's not home, but “I'm one of the lucky ones,” she said.

“I could be in a tent or at a shelter right now."

In upstate New York, evictions are rising after a moratorium lifted last year. Forty of the state's 62 counties had higher eviction filings in 2022 than before the pandemic, including two where eviction filings more than doubled compared to 2019.

“How do we care for the folks who are evicted ... when the capacity is not in place and ready to roll out in places that haven’t experienced a lot of eviction recently?” said Russell Weaver, whose Cornell University lab tracks evictions statewide.

Housing advocates had hoped the Democrat-controlled state Legislature would pass a bill requiring landlords to provide justification for evicting tenants and limit rent increases to 3% or 1.5 times inflation. But it was excluded from the state budget and lawmakers failed to pass it before the legislative session ended this month.

“Our state Legislature should have fought harder,” said Oscar Brewer, a tenant organizer facing eviction from the apartment he shares with his 6-year-old daughter in Rochester.

In Texas, evictions were kept down during the pandemic by federal assistance and the moratoriums. But as protections went away, housing prices skyrocketed in Austin, Dallas and elsewhere, leading to a record 270,000 eviction filings statewide in 2022.

Advocates were hoping the state Legislature might provide relief, directing some of the $32 billion budget surplus into rental assistance. But that hasn't happened.

“It’s a huge mistake to miss our shot here,” said Ben Martin, a research director at nonprofit Texas Housers. “If we don’t address it, now, the crisis is going to get worse.”

Still, some pandemic protections are being made permanent, and having an impact on eviction rates. Nationwide, 200 measures have passed since January 2021, including legal representation for tenants, sealing eviction records and mediation to resolve cases before they reach court, said the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

These measures are credited with keeping eviction filings down in several cities, including New York City and Philadelphia — 41% below pre-pandemic levels in May for the former and 33% for the latter.

A right-to-counsel program and the fact that housing courts aren't prosecuting cases involving rent arears are among the factors keeping New York City filings down.

In Philadelphia, 70% of the more than 5,000 tenants and landlords who took part in the eviction diversion program resolved their cases. The city also set aside $30 million in assistance for those with less than $3,000 in arears, and started a right-to-counsel program, doubling representation rates for tenants.

The future is not so bright for Williams and his daughter, who remain stuck in their dimly-lit hotel room. Without even a microwave or nearby grocery stores, they rely on pizza deliveries and snacks from the hotel vending machine.

Williams used to love having his six grandchildren over for dinner at his old apartment, but those days are over for now.

“I just want to be able to host my grandchildren,” he said, pausing to cough heavily. “I just want to live somewhere where they can come and sit down and hang out with me.”

___

Casey reported from Boston. AP writer Rio Yamat in Las Vegas contributed.

Michael Casey And R.j. Rico, The Associated Press

Canada’s inaugural National Day Against Gun Violence promotes prevention and healing

Story by Jack L. Rozdilsky, Associate Professor of Disaster and Emergency Management, York University, Canada • Yesterday 

This month, the Canadian federal government publicly announced the first National Day Against Gun Violence, to be held annually on the first Friday of June. Simultaneously, Ontario was also the first province to take action moving towards recognition of a gun violence awareness day. These declarations represent a significant step to mitigate the growing risk of gun violence.

While gun violence problems in Canada are not as acute as those in the United States, Canada ranks as third among high-income countries for rates of firearm homicides. To reduce gun violence risks, the inaugural National Day Against Gun Violence promotes prevention, intervention and healing.

Writing as a mass shooting survivor from a 2022 incident in Vaughan, Ont., I have experienced situations where communities are unequipped to provide for the necessary trauma support. The impacts of gun violence are not only in the immediate aftermath of the incident, but remain long after.

Read more: I research mass shootings, but I never believed one would happen in my own condo in Vaughan, Ont.

Gun violence survivors learn to accommodate memories of the violence in their lives. But that comes at the cost of the survivor’s psycho-social, medical and mental health.

Chicago origins

The origins of the first Friday in June as U.S. Gun Violence Awareness Day are related to a specific shooting in Chicago. Fifteen-year-old Hadiya Pendleton was shot and killed at Harsh Park in the city’s South Side, on Jan. 29, 2013. She was one of at least 412 gun violence deaths in Chicago that year.

Pendleton’s death gained symbolic national attention, as she had recently performed as a majorette in Barack Obama’s second inauguration celebration in Washington, D.C.

Given that this shooting occurred less than one mile from Obama’s Chicago home, the presidential family took a special interest in this tragedy.

That attention from the highest levels of government, along with grassroots anti-gun actions in Chicago neighbourhoods, resulted in a social movement to recognize the toll of gun violence.


Protesters hold up copied photos of Hadiya Pendleton at the scene where she was killed during an anti-gun violence march and rally Friday, Feb. 1, 2013, in Chicago.© (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Canadian impact

The National Day Against Gun Violence in Canada did not derive from a particular shooting incident. Rather, it grew out of the recognition that too many Canadians are being impacted by gun violence, and is related to a combination of factors.

Long-standing concerns of community-based organizations and citizens catalyzed action. Organizations ranging from the Danforth Families for Safe Communities to the Zero Gun Violence Movement support this nascent social movement.

Another contributing factor was the support from the Toronto Raptors. Professional sports franchises have often acted as community leaders to support communities in crisis. As a part of their community engagement portfolio, the Raptors’ organization has been working towards having a nonpolitical day of awareness for gun violence since 2022.

Media coverage of the inaugural day reflected the reality that any discussion regarding the role of guns in Canadian society is a political lightning rod. Reports on the first National Day Against Gun Violence also mentioned the unconnected issue of Conservative Party opposition to recent gun legislation promoted by the Liberal Party.

Formal recognition

On June 1, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited the Raptors’ practice facility to announce Canada’s first National Day Against Gun Violence. His announcement was backstopped by a formal Federal Government Proclamation.

In addition, Ontario was the first province to take concurrent action with a formal Day Against Gun Violence. The day before, MPP Chris Glover made a public announcement on the steps of the Ontario legislature, accompanied by a coalition of community members concerned with and impacted by gun violence.

Similarly, the symbolic announcement was backstopped by Ontario Bill 119, a private members bill in its first reading.


Toronto community members who were impacted by gun violence introduce the first Provincial Day Against Gun Violence in Ontario at Queen’s Park on June 2, 2023.© (J. Rozdilsky)

Disaster mitigation

Living with persistent gun violence results in community-level stress and trauma. The increasing number of Canadians who are being directly and indirectly impacted by gun violence is a disaster unfolding in slow motion.

The inaugural National Day Against Gun Violence in Canada can be considered as a form of disaster mitigation. In general, disaster mitigation includes a wide variety of measures taken before a disastrous event occurs. In this case, mitigation will not eliminate gun violence, but it can act to reduce it, prevent it from occurring, or help in better preparing for its aftermath.

In the coming years, Canada’s National Day Against Gun Violence will evolve and take on its own meanings. It has the potential to reduce risks associated with gun violence.

It remains as an open question as to how Canadians will treat this new day of awareness. Will it become a day of remembrance for gun violence victims? Or will it be a day where the growing contingent of gun violence survivors makes a call to action for safer communities?

Or will it just be another opportunity for political posturing by those who are either for or against Canada’s gun legislation?

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:
To resolve youth violence, Canada must move beyond policing and prison

How can we slow down youth gun violence? — Podcast

Sport-Judge who sentenced Nassar calls for national inquiry into Canadian sport

Story by Reuters • Yesterday 

Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina addresses Larry Nassar, a former team USA Gymnastics doctor, who pleaded guilty in November 2017 to sexual assault charges, during his sentencing hearing in Lansing© Thomson Reuters

(Reuters) - Rosemarie Aquilina, the American judge who sentenced disgraced USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, has called for an independent inquiry into sports across Canada amid widespread allegations of harassment, abuse and bullying.

Aquilina, who testified on Monday at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, said all athletes deserved immediate and meaningful action and accountability and that could happen only with an independent judicial investigation.

"When will Canada hear its children and take this meaningful action to protect them from the pain, suffering and trauma they suffer in sport?" said Aquilina. "Canada should be celebrating and honoring the excellence of Canadian athletes and their well-being, not profiting from their abuse.

"Athletes have the absolute right to expect safe, positive, healthy training without physical and emotional abuse and the current culture allows aggressive coaches who overstep, blur lines and abuse children."

Canada has been rocked by scandals across many sports as several athletes have testified at parliamentary committees over the past year, sharing stories about the physical and mental abuse they endured at the hands of coaches and other officials.

Sport Minister Pascale St-Onge announced a series of reforms in May aimed at holding Canada's national sport organizations accountable, but the many who have been calling for a national inquiry for months said the measures did not go far enough.

Aquilina also said that if Canada wanted to protect the integrity of sport it needed to protect both the sport and the players.

"Remember, all athletes begin as children and what's happening now in sport is that they are suffering a lifetime of abuse that has become normalised in sports," said Aquilina.

"And allowing abuse in sports is allowing and condoning child abuse. It is the murdering of the soul of the athlete who pays the price for the rest of their lives while everyone else profits."

In January 2018, Aquilina famously sent Nassar to jail for up to 175 years for sexually abusing young female gymnasts who were entrusted to his care.

Nassar was sentenced followed an extraordinary week-long hearing in which 160 of his victims, most of whom were minors at the time they were abused, unflinchingly told their stories.

The outspoken Aquilina gained national attention for her handling of Nassar's sentencing hearing and has since used her platform to help to give survivors a voice and restore their personal power.

(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; editing by Clare Fallon)

YouTube removes RFK Jr. video for vaccine misinformation

Story by Julia Mueller • Yesterday

YouTube removes RFK Jr. video for vaccine misinformation© Provided by The Hill

YouTube has removed an interview between commentator Jordan Peterson and 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for violating its guidelines against vaccine misinformation, the video-sharing platform said Monday.

“We removed a video from the Jordan Peterson channel for violating YouTube’s general vaccine misinformation policy, which prohibits content that alleges that vaccines cause chronic side effects, outside of rare side effects that are recognized by health authorities,” a YouTube spokesperson told The Hill in a statement.

The anti-vaccine activist kicked off a Democratic presidential bid in April and is vying for the White House in a challenge to President Biden, who is running for reelection. Kennedy is the nephew of former President Kennedy and the son of former Attorney General Robert Kennedy.

Kennedy and Peterson both criticized YouTube for the removal of the video, which was posted earlier this month and is still up on Twitter.

“What do you think … Should social media platforms censor presidential candidates? My conversation with @JordanBPeterson was deleted by @YouTube,” Kennedy wrote on Twitter, adding a thanks to Elon Musk, who owns the platform. In subsequent posts, Kennedy used the hashtag “#letRFKspeak.”

Peterson shared Kennedy’s post, accusing YouTube of having “taken upon itself to actively interfere with a presidential election campaign.”

YouTube’s vaccine misinformation policy disallows content “that poses a serious risk of egregious harm by spreading medical misinformation about currently administered vaccines that are approved and confirmed to be safe and effective by local health authorities and by the World Health Organization (WHO).”

The video-sharing platform stresses that its guidelines apply to all content and creators on the platform, regardless of politics.

It’s not the first time Kennedy has come under fire for his claims about the negative side effects of vaccinations. Kennedy’s Instagram was reinstated earlier this month after being suspended for posting “debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines.”

Diversity in Alberta NDP caucus represents changing province, Notley says

Story by Michelle Bellefontaine • Yesterday 

Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley says the strength of the new 38-member caucus, the largest opposition in Alberta history, lies in its diversity.

"Our caucus represents a changing Alberta — more progressive, more forward-looking, and more focused on creating a better future for all," Notley said after all but two NDP MLAs took their oaths of office in a ceremony at the Alberta legislature Monday.

Fourteen newcomers — including Indigenous MLAs Jodi Calahoo-Stonehouse (Edmonton-Rutherford) and Brooks Arcand-Paul (Edmonton-West Henday) — joined re-elected veterans Joe Ceci, Sarah Hoffman and others as family and friends looked on.

The crowd cheered each time an MLA was sworn in. One of the loudest was for Rhiannon Hoyle, the MLA for Edmonton-South, who is the first Black woman ever elected to the Alberta legislature.

Notley said more than a third of the new caucus is racialized, and more than half are women. Notley said the caucus also has a record number of LGBTQ MLAs.

Diana Batten in Calgary-Acadia and Nagwan al-Guneid in Calgary-Glenmore were not included in Monday's ceremony. They can't be sworn in until their wins are confirmed in judicial recounts requested by their UCP opponents.

Both Arcand-Paul and Calahoo-Stonehouse said their oaths in Cree and English, while holding a sacred pipe.

"We got to speak our language, hold our pipes, and really honour our ancestors, our heritage, our family, our kinship, and it was really powerful and wonderful," Calahoo-Stonehouse said afterwards.

Nathan Ip, the new MLA for Edmonton-South West, said the significance of the moment made him emotional.

"I got a little bit teary-eyed," he said. "I could truly feel the gravitas and really the weight of this position … I take it very seriously."

Independent takes oath

Jennifer Johnson, the MLA for Lacombe-Ponoka, was sworn in in a separate ceremony on Monday.

Johnson was the UCP candidate for the central Alberta riding until mid-May when a leaked recording surfaced where she was heard comparing transgender students to feces in food.


Jennifer Johnson was sworn-in as the MLA for Lacombe-Ponoka in a separate ceremony. 

(Legislative Assembly of Alberta )© Provided by cbc.ca

Johnson apologized for the remarks but Premier Danielle Smith said she would not join the UCP caucus if elected.

Johnson won 67.6 per cent of the votes cast in Lacombe-Ponoka and will sit as an Independent.

She declined to speak to the media after Monday's ceremony.

The 48 members of the United Conservative caucus will be sworn in Tuesday morning. MLAs will then choose a new Speaker and deputy Speaker in the afternoon.

Current speaker Nathan Cooper, the MLA-elect for Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, intends to run again.

Almost a year post-Roe, Canada must do more on ‘backsliding’ risk: report

Story by Sean Previl • Yesterday 

FILE-medical equipment in doctor’s examination room© Getty Images

Almost one year after the fall of Roe v. Wade, the risk of more "backsliding" of sexual and reproductive rights around the world is real -- and Canada needs to do more to "scale up" its support, a parliamentary committee is urging in a new report.

The House of Commons foreign affairs committee heard from more than 20 witnesses and pored over briefs from nine individuals and organizations before issuing its report.

Its findings focused on how Canada should approach support for sexual and reproductive health and rights on a global scale, amid what some witnesses who testified as part of the probe described as an "organized movement" against women's rights.

At the same time, the report noted some countries have seen progress including Benin, Argentina, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mexico where abortion has become more available.

"Every woman in Canada or around the world has the freedom and the right to make decisions over their own bodies and over their own sexual and reproductive health, that includes a right to access safe and legal abortions," Liberal MP Rachel Bendayan said during a press conference about the report on Monday. Bendayan is a member of the committee.

Video: International Women’s Day 2023: Protests for equal rights around the world

Witnesses told the committee that Canada's approach and commitment have been "historic" and "unique." But they added that investment in a "comprehensive package of sexual and reproductive health services" can not only save lives but "lessen the burden" on the health system.

NDP MP Heather MacPherson said while the overturning of Roe was the "impetus" for the study, "attacks on women's rights are happening around the world right now."

"We've also heard of legislation being brought forward in other countries, Poland comes to mind; many countries where access to sexual health is not available, access to abortion is not available."

Following the weeks of testimony, the committee provided 14 recommendations.

Among them are calls for the government to meet its commitment to spend at least $700 million on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women globally by the end of the 2023-24 fiscal year and increase the proportion of international assistance delivered to and through women's rights organizations.

Video: ‘Wow’: Trudeau challenges young PPC supporter after anti-abortion statements

The report also called on the government to use its partnerships to advocate for further global investment, with the committee citing testimony that Canada has a "huge platform to stand on" and can use its leadership role in the world to prioritize these rights globally.

Adolescents should also be included in funding and programming supporting sexual and reproductive rights globally, the committee recommended.

With conflict raging in many parts of the world, the government should also push to collect more data about access to sexual health and reproductive rights in conflict zones, its report noted. One recommendation also urged opposing "coercive population control targeting Uyghur women" in reference to China's treatment of its ethnic Uyghur population.

Members of Parliament on the committee also urged the government to release what some witnesses called its "long-promised" feminist foreign policy, saying such a document while practical would also "set a marker" for other countries.

Video: ‘We will always stand up for a woman’s right to choose’: Trudeau

One witness testified that the lack of such a document results in diplomats and aid workers being unaware of their responsibilities on international development, trade, immigration and diplomacy.

Bloc Quebecois MP Adreanne Larouche said such a document was important because "it seems that the government doesn't really put into place what its international feminist policy says." Larouche is vice-chair of the committee on the status of women and was invited to share her thoughts at the press conference by Bloc MP and committee member Stephané Bergeron.

Conservative MPs on the committee included an addendum to the report saying the discussion of women's health and rights must be broader in scope and should recognize the context in which women "exercise their autonomy."

The party also advised that empowering women should be done by giving them the ability to "speak about their priorities and concerns, rather than seeking to elevate the voices of some while repressing the voices of others."

The Conservative MPs did not attend the press conference on Monday, being the only party from the committee who were absent.

Ancient Roman temple complex, with ruins of building where Caesar was stabbed, opens to tourists



ROME (AP) — Four temples from ancient Rome, dating back as far as the 3rd century B.C. stand smack in the middle of one of the modern city's busiest crossroads.

But until Monday, practically the only ones getting a close-up view of the temples were the cats that prowl the so-called “Sacred Area,” on the edge of the site where Julius Caesar was assassinated.

With the help of funding from Bulgari, the luxury jeweler, the grouping of temples can now be visited by the public.

For decades, the curious had to gaze down from the bustling sidewalks rimming Largo Argentina (Argentina Square) to admire the temples below. That's because, over the centuries, the city had been built up, layer by layer, to levels several meters above the area where Caesar masterminded his political strategies and was later fatally stabbed in 44 B.C.

Behind two of the temples is a foundation and part of a wall that archaeologists believe were part of Pompey's Curia, a large rectangular-shaped hall that temporarily hosted the Roman Senate when Caesar was murdered.

What leads archaeologists to pinpoint the ruins as Pompey's Curia? “We know it with certainty because latrines were found on the sides" of Pompey's Curia, and ancient texts mentioned the latrines, said Claudio Parisi Presicce, an archaeologist and Rome's top official for cultural heritage.

The temples emerged during the demolition of medieval-era buildings in the late 1920s, part of dictator Benito Mussolini’s campaign to remake the urban landscape. A tower at one edge of Largo Argentina once topped a medieval palace.

The temples are designated A, B, C and D, and are believed to have been dedicated to female deities. One of the temples, reached by an imposing staircase and featuring a circular form and with six surviving columns, is believed to have been erected in honor of Fortuna, a goddess of chance associated with fertility.

Taken together, the temples make for "one of the best-preserved remains of the Roman Republic,'' Parisi Presicce said after the Mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri cut a ceremonial ribbon Monday afternoon. On display in a corridor near the temples is a black-and-white photograph showing Mussolini cutting the ribbon in 1929 after the excavated ruins were shown off.

Also visible are the travertine paving stones that Emperor Domitian had laid down after a fire in 80 A.D. ravaged a large swath of Rome, including the Sacred Area.

On display are some of the artifacts found during last century's excavation. Among them is a colossal stone head of one of the deities honored in the temples, chinless and without its lower lip. Another is a stone fragment of a winged angel of victory.

Over the last decades, a cat colony flourished among the ruins. Felines lounged undisturbed, and cat lovers were allowed to feed them. On Monday, one black-and-white cat sprawled lazily on its back atop the stone stump of what was once a glorious column.

Bulgari helped pay for the construction of the walkways and nighttime illumination. A relief to tourists who step gingerly over the uneven ancient paving stones of the Roman Forum. The Sacred Area's wooden walkways are wheelchair- and baby-stroller-friendly. For those who can't handle the stairs down from the sidewalk, an elevator platform is available.

The attraction is open every day except for Mondays and some major holidays, with general admission tickets priced at 5 euros ($5.50).

Curiously, the square owes its name not to the South American country but to the Latin name of Strasbourg, France, which was the home seat of a 15th-century German cardinal who lived nearby and who served as master of ceremonies for pontiffs, including Alexander VI, the Borgia pope.

Frances D'emilio, The Associated Press

New gene variant ‘uncovers root cause’ of lung disease in Inuit

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 


Inuit children would come to clinics presenting all the classic symptoms of primary ciliary dyskinesia – a genetic disorder known as PCD that results in chronic cough, congestion, ear infections and pneumonia – but tests would come back negative.

While PCD is relatively rare, its diagnosis is important to understand the best course of treatment and care for patients. PCD causes issues with cilia, which line our airways and help create a natural flow of mucus. It's also linked to several other health conditions – up to 50 percent of people with PCD have situs inversus, which means their organs are on the opposite side of the body compared to the average person.

The issue was that until recently, none of the children presenting these symptoms were being diagnosed. Now, scientists say they know what was happening.

The previous route to diagnosis involved taking a sample from inside the nose and studying the cells under a microscope.

But a new study from the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre says this method doesn't work for Inuit.

"The belief was Inuit do not get PCD, period," said one of the study's senior authors, Tom Kovesi.

Kovesi, a pediatric respirologist at CHEO, was treating an Inuk child from Nunavut whose symptoms felt like a classic case of the disease, despite normal-looking results from a microscope test.

On a hunch, he tried genetic testing and stumbled across a never-before-discovered gene variant that causes PCD.

Thus began a flurry of emails with colleagues treating northern patients.

"Pediatric respirology is a very small field in Canada," said Kovesi. "You could fit us all together in one room. So we all know each other pretty well."

Adam Shapiro – the study's other senior author – found the same gene in several other Inuit patients he was treating in in Nunavik. That made them think about the genetic pattern behind the disease.

As a number of Nunavut patients come to CHEO in Ottawa for healthcare, the study's first author and hospital resident physician Julia Hunter-Schouela was able to access charts and clinical data to support their thesis after receiving permission from the families, the hospital, and Nunavut ethics boards.

"In small communities, it's common to find things like the gene that causes cystic fibrosis localized in one area as local people marry each other," said Kovesi. "But to find the same gene, thousands of kilometres away?"

They began to wonder if the gene had been present in Inuit for a very long time, potentially unravelling an old mystery.

"When I first arrived in Canada, 11 years ago, I was shocked by the amount of lung disease and severity of lung disease in Inuit children and Indigenous children in general," said Shapiro, who also noted that Indigenous people in Australia and New Zealand seem to be particularly affected by recurrent lung infections.

"After 10 years of watching this, I just said: we've got to understand this."

Shapiro, who serves as an associate professor of pediatrics and internal medicine at McGill University, said marginalized populations with genetic disorders are often under-diagnosed. He said colonialism in medicine has formed doctors that lack curiosity about what they assume to be lifestyle-related medical issues when they treat Indigenous patients.

"Frankly, we should have been doing genetic studies on patients with severe lung diseases like this a long time ago," Shapiro said.

"There's a lot of excuses for it, such as poor housing, early-life infections and cigarette smoke exposure, but I call those excuses because they may be additive, but they are not the standalone cause of all the lung disease we see in Inuit.

"Now that we're looking at genetics, we're finally uncovering the root cause of this. It's easy to blame someone for their illness but in reality, if you look, this is genetic, and none of us choose our genetics."

The researchers are now working on a partnership with the Silent Genomes Project, a BC-based research coalition working to address the lack of genetic variation data for Indigenous populations. Their collaboration will focus on determining how many people are affected by the gene.

While genetic testing continues to raise ethical questions – many scientists view race as a social construct rather than a true biological category – Shapiro said there are benefits to a better understanding of patients who self-identify as Indigenous.

"Genetics in the past has been used to suggest people are inferior, but what we want to use genetics for here is to show that people are blameless," Shapiro said, "that they have diseases we can diagnose, radically change our therapies based on those diagnoses, and improve their quality of life."

While the study was conducted in Nunavut and Nunavik, the researchers believe their findings will translate to all Inuit communities, from Alaska and Greenland to Denmark.

"It could have profound implications for the Northwest Territories," said Shapiro, who said feedback from patients has been overwhelmingly positive. "Parents want to know why their children are sick."

The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and the Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada declined to comment on the significance of the finding.

But a healthcare worker who frequently treats Inuit patients in the Northwest Territories said they study will have a direct impact their work and the work of their colleagues.

"Just knowing a that a population is more vulnerable, I think you come in with a different perspective," said the worker, who asked to remain anonymous due to the terms of their employment. "It's an eye-opener, and I would hope it will help with healthcare bias."

The healthcare worker shared that there is a tendency to see repeat lung infections as a failure to complete treatment or make lifestyle changes rather than an indication of a more serious medical issue.

"[Healthcare workers] sometimes have this reaction of, 'oh, you're sick again, you're always sick.' And you know, maybe they're always sick because there's something medical going on."

Kovesi said the revelation has been an eye-opener for quite a number of researchers and clinicians.

"The medical community is really fascinated by this," he said. "There's been a lot of interest. We've been working with a lot of other physicians in other northern communities."

While the researchers stress that their study doesn't provide a full explanation for the severity of lung disease in Inuit, they say this finding is "a piece of the puzzle."

"We believe this could be as common, or more common, as cystic fibrosis is in white people," said Kovesi. "As many as one in 20 Inuit could have this."

They believe newborn screening could help by giving parents and physicians the opportunity to take preventative health measures, such as installing a ventilation system in the home, chest physiotherapy and additional immunizations.

But even for adults, the earlier a patient receives their diagnosis, the earlier they can initiate therapies known to help.

“There are many treatment options for PCD," said Kovesi.

At the same time, those treatments are limited – there's currently no way to make the cilia in PCD patients function as they ought to. But Shapiro believes a better understanding of the genetic factors behind the disease could lead to more effective treatments.

"Maybe, in the next 10 years, we'll no longer be saying: 'Make sure you cough out the infected mucus because that'll make you feel better,'" he said.

"We will actually be giving medications that go in and actually fix the problem at its root. And genetics is the linchpin to understand how that might work."

Caitrin Pilkington, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Cabin Radio

EU split over subsidies for coal plants as Poland seeks extension

Story by Lisa O'Carroll in Brussels • The Guardian

Yesterday 

Photograph: Mateusz Słodkowski/AFP/Getty

A group of EU countries are fighting attempts by Poland to extend subsidies for coal plants, with Luxembourg’s energy minister describing the proposal as “astonishing”.

Luxembourg’s energy minister, Claude Turmes, said he could not believe the proposal, which was made on Friday, days before a planned summit of energy ministers from across the bloc, was even on the table given the EU’s commitment to combating the climate emergency.

“Friday, the Swedish presidency did something really astonishing which is weakening our climate policy by … reopening the possibility to subsidise coal power plants,” he told reporters before the summit in Luxembourg.

Some countries consider this a measure to help Poland, which uses coal to produce about 70% of its energy.

Poland is expected to soon surpass Germany as Europe’s top power polluter due to aggressive planned reductions in fossil fuel use across Germany, creating assumptions that Poland will have no choice but to remain Europe’s most coal-reliant nation for years to come.

So far this year, Poland has defied expectations by cutting coal use and pollution to the lowest level since at least 2014, and by raising clean power output to record highs just as Germany cut its clean generation by shutting nuclear reactors.

“We have a big bloc of countries that will reject the proposal of the Swedish presidency … so it’s a clear no,” Turmes said ahead of the summit on Monday.

Spain’s minister for ecological transition, Teresa Ribera, said some thought had to be given to Poland, which is heavily reliant on coal, while the French energy minister, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, said extending support to Poland was an “ambitious approach” – a hint Paris was more open towards the move than other member states like Germany.

“We need to take into account the reality of each country to ensure their capacity to provide energy to their people and to their industries,” she said.

Belgium sided with Luxembourg, describing such a move as “unacceptable”.

Tinne van der Straeten, the energy minister, said: “In Belgium we already have in our national legislation the obligation to become climate neutral and to have a steep decline in emission by 2030 and 2040. So [the proposal] is something that we cannot accept,” she told reporters.