MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M
Alcoa makes $2.2 bln offer for Australian aluminum peer Alumina

Story by Investing.com • 

Alcoa makes $2.2 bln offer for Australian aluminum peer Alumina© Reuters

Investing.com-- Alcoa Corp (NYSE:AA) said on late-Sunday it made a $2.2 billion, all stock offer to take over Australian aluminum producer Alumina Ltd (ASX:AWC) and potentially create one of the world’s largest bauxite and alumina producers.

Pittsburgh-based Alcoa said Alumina shareholders will receive 0.02854 Alco shares for each Alumina share, representing a per-share value of about $.076 based on Alcoa’s last close.

The figure values Alumina at about $2.2 billion, and represents a nearly 13% premium to the firm’s close on Friday. Shares of Alumina rose 4.4% to $1.065 in Australian trade on Monday.

Alumina’s board said that it, along with the top leadership, intend to recommend the takeover offer to shareholders, and that the firm had entered a 20-day exclusivity period with Alcoa for the deal.

The two firms are already part of the the Alcoa World Alumina and Chemical (AWAC) joint venture, which accounts for about a quarter of the world’s alumina supply. Alcoa is the main operator of the venture and holds a 60% stake in the venture.

“Alcoa has been a proven operator of AWAC, and we recognize the value creation opportunities possible under a simplified ownership structure,” Alcoa President and CEO William F. Oplinger said in a press release.

Under the proposed deal, Alcoa will take up a secondary listing on the Australian Securities Exchange. The firm has also entered an agreement with Allan Gray Australia, Alumina’s biggest shareholders, to buy an up to 19.9% stake in Alumina.

Thousands protest against the far right in Germany

Story by DPA International • 

People hold flags during a large demonstration for democracy and against right-wing extremism at Neumarkt. Sebastian Kahnert/dpa© DPA International

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Hamburg on Sunday ahead of a march through the inner city to demonstrate opposition to right-wing extremism in Germany.

The organizers said that more than 50,000 people to marched under the slogan "We are the firewall – together against right-wing extremism." Police said they would issue its estimate of the crowd's size after the rally ends.

The demonstration was the third of its kind in Hamburg since the start of the year, and cities across Germany have seen regular marches since it emerged that members of the far right had met to discuss mass deportations of millions of people living in Germany.

The Hamburg hip-hop electronic band Deichkind played at the protest and chanted "We don't want any Nazis and no AfD" in their final song.

The Hamburg demonstrations on Sunday were just one of at least 12 protest events planned in as many German cities all over the country, including in the capital Berlin and in south-eastern city of Dresden, where several thousand people gathered for a large rally against the right.

A spokeswoman for the organizers said around 20,000 people attended. The police initially did not name the number of participants.

Speakers included prominent German climate activist Luisa Neubauer from the Fridays for Future movement. "You don’t have democracy. You live democracy," Neubauer said, calling for people to stand up against indifference.

People also took to the streets in other East German cities near Dresden on Sunday - for example in Zwickau, Bautzen, Görlitz and Meissen.

Protests erupted across Germany after investigative journalists reported on a meeting by extremists in Potsdam, near Berlin, in November.

At the meeting, members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the ultra-conservative Values Union (WerteUnion) discussed plans to deport millions of people who had migrated to Germany.

The wave of protests come ahead of elections in eastern states this year in which the AfD is predicted to do well.


People take part in a large against right-wing extremism stand in front of the Frauenkirche on Neumarkt square in Dresden. Sebastian Kahnert/dpa© DPA International


The band© DPA International

Maja Goepel, transformation researcher and political economist, stands on the stage next to a sign reading© DPA International


The band© DPA International

Thousands gather in Hamburg for protest against German far right

Story by DPA International • 

Participants walk behind a banner reading© DPA International

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Hamburg on Sunday ahead of a march through the inner city to demonstrate opposition to right-wing extremism in Germany.

The organizers are expecting some 30,000 to march under the slogan "We are the firewall – together against right-wing extremism." Police had not yet put a figure on the number attending shortly after midday.

The demonstration was the third of its kind in Hamburg since the start of the year, and cities across Germany have seen regular marches since it emerged that members of the far right had met to discuss mass deportations of millions of people living in Germany.

A local Hamburg band played as the demonstrators assembled at Dammtor to the north of the centre before marching along the Inner Alster Lake. The Hamburg hip-hop electronic band Deichkind is set to play at the protest.

The Hamburg demonstrations on Sunday are just one of at least 12 protest events planned in as many German cities all over the country, including in the capital Berlin and in south-eastern city of Dresden.

Countrywide protests erupted after information about a meeting by extremists in Potsdam near Berlin in November at which members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the ultra-conservative Values Union (WerteUnion) discussed plans to deport immigrants.

The protests come ahead of elections in eastern states this year in which the AfD is predicted to do well.


People take part in a demonstration against right-wing extremism in Hamburg. Axel Heimken/dpa© DPA International


The band© DPA International

NBC editor slams CPAC after group denies Nazis attended: 'The Nazis introduced themselves'

Story by David McAfee • 

Donald Trump, Matt Schlapp© provided by RawStory

Donald Trump headlined at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) where there were several Nazis reportedly in attendance, but the group has emphatically denied it. Still, an editor at NBC is ready to debunk the group's false claims using photos.

The news outlet reported the Nazi allegation on Saturday, saying that they "mingled openly at CPAC" while they spread "antisemitic conspiracy theories" and find allies.

"The presence of these extremists has been a persistent issue at CPAC, and in previous years conference organizers have ejected well-known Nazis and white supremacists such as Nick Fuentes," according to NBC's report.

CPAC's Matt Schlapp hit back on Sunday, saying "NBC’s claim that there was a Nazi presence at CPAC 2024 is false, misleading, and grossly manipulative—especially coming from a writer who has carried the water for Hamas in much of his reporting on the Israel-Gaza war.”

“CPAC has made it absolutely clear that we stand with Israel and the Jewish people…and against the hatred of Jews," he wrote. "Our board and international partners unanimously passed a resolution this week reiterating that strong, clear, and unequivocal position. We hosted a special event at CPAC in celebration of and solidarity with Israel, and we are leading an ongoing initiative as an organization supporting Israel.”

He concluded:

“When we come across someone at CPAC peddling any kind of anti-semitism, we deal with them immediately. Knowing this, NBC weaved together lies and fabrications to create a false perception, and we won’t stand by idly while NBC engages in willful misinformation.”

Enter Ben Goggin, deputy tech editor at NBC.

"The Nazis introduced themselves to me at a mixer and said they were national socialists, started talking about skull measurements and pushing the conspiracy theory that all races were being controlled Jewish people," he said. "They were posting about their presence at CPAC online."

Goggin also included "a post from one mentioned in my piece wearing a cpac badge."

"In the next video, he’s giving a Nazi salute in the lobby of the conference hotel. There was a notable presence at the conference whether CPAC was aware of it or not," he added Sunday. "Either CPAC is lying about having no idea about this, or they simply don’t have a grasp on who they approved to come to their conference."

UBI
Oregon is giving homeless young people $1,000 a month to get back on their feet. Here's how it's going.

Story by kniemeyer@insider.com (Kenneth Niemeyer) • 1d • 


An outreach supervisor speaks to a person in a tent in Portland, Oregon. Getty Images© Getty Images
Oregon is giving some of its homeless youth $1,000 a month.
The state's DHS says recipients report spending money on housing and food.
The program is among dozens nationwide trying to alleviate poverty with a guaranteed basic income.

Oregon has a severe homelessness problem.

It's home to the third-worst homeless rate in the country, according to a federal count published in December. And it has the highest rate anywhere of unaccompanied homeless youth.

As state leaders scramble to address the problem, one solution is showing some promise: Give those young people $1,000 cash every month, no strings attached.

The Oregon Department of Human Services launched its Direct Cash Transfer Plus Pilot in February 2022. The program targets homeless people between 18 to 24 who have an "intention to become housed," the DHS wrote last year in a report on youth homelessness in the state.

So far 120 young people across the state are receiving the direct cash payments, the report says. About 75 of the recipients are in Multnomah County, home to Portland. Initial payments for participants in the program started in February 2023 and are scheduled to run until January 2025.

Participants receive payments of $ 1,000 a month. They can also receive a one-time $3,000 "enrichment fund" payment. The program started implementing the larger payment after conversations with participants who said they still had "significant financial obstacles" after receiving initial payments from the program, the document says.

The only qualification for the program is to be a young person who is unhoused, though there are other factors — like being a member of the LGBTQ+ community — that can give applicants priority. There are no limits on how participants spend the money.

Recipients said they spent the funds mostly on housing, repairing vehicles, furniture, and moving costs, the DHS says.

While more than 65% of the participants said they were unhoused when the payments began, after six months about 63% of them said they had found housing, the report says. About 85% of recipients reported still needing "at least occasional assistance" with getting access to food.

Point Source Youth, a national nonprofit focused on addressing the problem of youth homelessness, partnered with the state to help design, plan, and structure the program. The nonprofit has helped with similar programs in other cities and states nationwide.

Anjala Huff, a senior director at the organization, told Business Insider that enrollees have been able to obtain housing, enroll in school, and purchase cars since receiving payments.

The program's team has helped about two-thirds of the participants find housing. The goal is for the program to act as a sort of "housing intervention" that can be funded with public money in the future, Huff said.

"It's not just about obtaining housing. We are helping to navigate creative housing conversations on how to maintain housing beyond enrollment in the program," Huff told Business Insider. "After receiving the cash for one year, we are seeing youth who are interested in furthering their education to jump-start their careers."

The program also helps the young participants with other strategies to ensure long-term housing, like reducing debt, sharing housing, finding higher paying jobs, and accessing community resources, Huff said.

Oregon lawmakers, meanwhile, are considering a bill that would provide 12 monthly payments of $1,000 to people who are experiencing homelessness, at risk of homelessness, severely rent-burdened, or earn at or below 60% percent of median area income.

Several other states and cities nationwide are experimenting with guaranteed basic income plans, which are different than universal basic income plans because they target specific groups of people, but are similar in that they are direct cash transfers with no limits on how recipients can spend it.

The Baltimore Young Families Success Fund, for example, gives young parents in the city $1,000 a month. Tonaeya Moore, director of policy of the CASH Campaign of Maryland, previously told BI that surveys suggest participants mostly spent their money on the same general necessities, such as housing and food.

In Denver, the city recently extended a basic income program offering some residents up to $1,000 a month after participants reported increased housing security. And researchers in Austin found that most participants in a similar program there spent most of their funds on food and housing.

Despite the apparent success of these small regional experiments, not everyone is on board. Lawmakers in Iowa, South Dakota, Arizona, and elsewhere have proposed bills that would prevent such programs from taking place.

In January, Texas state Sen. Paul Bettencourt sent a letter to the state's attorney general asking him to declare unconstitutional a program in Harris County, which includes Houston, to give low-income residents $500 a month.

UK

MPs poised to decriminalise abortion in historic vote which will stop women who end pregnancies outside permitted circumstances being jailed

Story by Claire Ellicot Whitehall Editor • 

Move would bring England and Wales into line with Northern Ireland

Abortion is poised to be decriminalised in an historic vote next month.

At present, women who end a pregnancy after the 24-week legal time limit and outside other permitted circumstances can be jailed.

But after a surge in police investigations polling suggests a majority of MPs think women should no longer be prosecuted for having an abortion after this point.

They will have the opportunity to vote according to their conscience on the matter next month, making it likely the law will be changed.

The move would bring England and Wales into line with Northern Ireland where abortion was decriminalised in 2019.

Labour MP Dame Diana Johnson (pictured) will bring an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill to exempt women from prosecution if they have an abortion outside the limits© Provided by Daily Mail


A Department for Health source said Health Secretary Victoria Atkins (pictured) had made it clear abortion was a matter of conscience for MPs and she would respect the rights of individuals to make up their own minds© Provided by Daily Mail

The current law comes from the Offences Against the Person Act which was passed in 1861.

Labour MP Dame Diana Johnson will bring an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill to exempt women from prosecution if they have an abortion outside the limits.


READ MORE: 

Female students at the University of Manchester say a 'deeply troubling' pro-life society founded by a male president who 'opposes abortion' makes them 'fear for their safety'

It would not change the 24-week rule, and women seeking to terminate a pregnancy would still need to meet the conditions of the 1967 Abortion Act, which also requires the authorisation of two doctors.

Medical professionals who assist could still be prosecuted if the abortion does not meet the Act's rules.

However, women who end pregnancies outside these limits would no longer face criminal prosecution under the 1861 law.

The amendment has cross-party support, with polling suggesting less than one in four MPs back legal action.

It showed 55 per cent of MPs did not think women should be prosecuted for having abortions outside the time limit.

Only 23 per cent supported prosecutions, with the rest answering 'don't know', according to the YouGov polling for abortion provider British Pregnancy Advisory Service and shared with The Times.

Some 81 per cent of Labour MPs were in favour of decriminalisation, compared with 37 per cent of Conservatives.

There has been a rise in the number of women facing police investigation, with around 100 cases since 2019.

That surge has been partly attributed to the abortion 'pills by post' scheme, which was introduced during Covid for unwanted pregnancies up to ten weeks and involved just a telephone call with a medical professional to be prescribed.

Dame Diana told the Mail her amendment had support from six parties, including the Conservatives.

'Vulnerable women are being threatened with jail using a law from the Victorian era, which was passed before women even had the right to vote or sit as MPs,' she said.




The rise in the number of women facing police investigation has been partly attributed to the abortion 'pills by post' scheme, which was introduced during Covid for unwanted pregnancies up to ten weeks (stock image)© Provided by Daily Mail

'Parliament has moved on and society has moved on.'

Rachael Clarke, of BPAS, which is campaigning to change the law, told the Times there was 'support for change from both sides of the house'.

A Department for Health source said Health Secretary Victoria Atkins had made it clear abortion was a matter of conscience for MPs and she would respect the rights of individuals to make up their own minds.

Mother got pills in the post – and a jail term

Mother-of-three Carla Foster was given a 28-month jail sentence for illegally taking abortion pills to end her pregnancy during lockdown.

The 45-year-old from Staffordshire admitted to carrying out the abortion when she was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant.

She was told she would serve half her sentence but the Court of Appeal reduced the term to 14 months suspended.

Judges called it a 'very sad case', which Dame Victoria Sharp said called for 'compassion, not punishment'.

Ms Foster was sentenced at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court in 2020.

She got the pills by post after telling British Pregnancy Advisory Service staff she was seven weeks pregnant.

After she took them, emergency services received a call to say she had gone into labour.

The baby was born not breathing during the call and was pronounced dead about 45 minutes later.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Former Vitol oil trader convicted of Ecuador, Mexico corruption charges

A sign is pictured in front of the Vitol Group trading commodities building in Geneva 

Denis Balibouse/File Photo© Thomson Reuters

By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A former oil trader at Vitol, one of the world's largest energy trading companies, was convicted on Friday of corruption charges stemming from more than $1 million in bribes he paid to officials in Ecuador and Mexico to win business.

A federal jury in Brooklyn found Javier Aguilar guilty of three counts of foreign bribery, foreign bribery conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said Aguilar sent bribe money from his Geneva-based employer to the officials through a series of middlemen and shell companies in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), a U.S. law that prohibits paying bribes to foreign officials.

"The people of Ecuador and Mexico deserved better and companies that play by the rules should know that the process is not rigged," U.S. Attorney Breon Peace in Brooklyn said in a statement.

Aguilar had pleaded not guilty. He faces up to 30 years in prison, but would likely get a lesser punishment.

"We disagree with the jury’s verdict and intend to appeal," Daniel Koffmann, a lawyer for Aguilar, said in an email.

The defense had argued that Aguilar hired consultants he thought were legitimate to help Vitol win a 30-month, $300 million contract to ship crude produced by Ecuador's state oil company Petroecuador in 2016.

It also said the consultants paid bribes without Aguilar's knowledge, and that the payment structure was created by a top Vitol executive.

Aguilar was the first person to stand trial in the U.S. as part of a sprawling Justice Department probe into commodity trading firms paying bribes to win business from state-run companies across Latin America, a scandal that has roiled energy markets from Mexico to Brazil.

Vitol in December 2020 admitted to bribing officials in Brazil, Mexico and Ecuador and agreed to pay $164 million to resolve U.S. and Brazilian probes.

Rival trader Gunvor is bracing for a fine of up to $650 million to resolve U.S. probes into its business dealings in Ecuador.

Aguilar's eight-week trial featured testimony from several intermediaries and bribe recipients, who pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

That included two former employees of a Houston-based subsidiary of Mexico's state-owned oil company Pemex, who testified that Aguilar paid them around $600,000 in bribes to steer a $200 million contract for the supply of ethane gas toward Vitol.


Aguilar's lawyers argued that the Pemex employees were not foreign officials, meaning the payments were not bribes under U.S. law.

Aguilar faces additional charges in federal court in Houston over the alleged Pemex scheme. He has pleaded not guilty.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Marguerita Choy and Daniel Wallis)

 Vice to kill website, lay off hundreds while going all in on ‘social channels’

 Provided by MobileSyru

Vice Media Group is killing off its namesake website.

In a leaked internal memo to Vice employees following a day of rumours surrounding the publication’s future, CEO Bruce Dixon confirmed that the company is undergoing widespread restructuring and will no longer publish content on its website. It’s currently unclear how long Vice’s website will remain online.

In the memo, Dixon says Vice Media Group will place “more emphasis on our social channels as we accelerate our discussions with partners to take our content to where it will be viewed most broadly.” What does this mean when translated from C-suite executive speak? Who knows, but it appears whatever is left of the Vice brand is adopting the classic “let’s go all in on socials” media strategy.

If you’re interested in a deep dive into Vice’s executive-led demise, check out Defector‘s excellent reporting on its slow but steady fall.

“We create and produce outstanding original content true to the Vice brand. However, it is no longer cost-effective for us to distribute our digital content the way we have done previously. Moving forward, we will look to partner with established media companies to distribute our digital content, including news, on their global platforms, as we fully transition to a studio model,” Dixon continued.

In the memo, the CEO also says Vice Media Group is in the process of selling Refinery29, a woman-focused publication the company purchased back in 2019 for roughly $400 million USD (about $539 million CAD).

At one point, Vice Media Group was valued at $5.7 billion USD (roughly 7.6 billion CAD) before filing for bankruptcy protection last year and selling for $350 million USD (about $472 million) to a group of its former lenders, including Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital.

While it feels like a distant memory at this point, way back in 2014, Canadian telecom giant Rogers announced a $100 million three-year content and distribution partnership with Vice that most notably resulted in the creation of the Viceland TV channel. That deal ended in 2018.

Think what you want about Vice‘s edgelord tendencies, its notoriously low salaries, the accompanying lavish lifestyle its executives led, and its sometimes morally questionable reporting tactics, because amid all the turmoil, many of the publication’s reporters produced the most important journalism of the past decade, particularly in the context of Canada.

It’s disheartening to see genuinely impactful media publications that produced real, important work shutter their doors due to obvious executive-level mismanagement as the X blue checkmarks of the world rejoice at the death of “mainstream media.” I hope they enjoy getting obviously very reliable news from TikTokers with names like “42069zynman” that have dedicated their lives to wild QAnon conspiracies because, at this rate, that’s all that will be left in a few years.

At least we’ll always have this Vice classic.

Vice was originally founded in 1994 in Montreal as a youth-focused magazine.

Image credit: Vice

AHS defends hiring practices, claims no hiring freeze in effect for frontline staff despite union objections

Story by Matthew Black • 2d • 

An Alberta Health Services building.© Provided by Edmonton Journal

Alberta Health Services (AHS) says changes to its hiring policy that require senior approval to take on new staff do not constitute a hiring freeze, an assertion challenged by the union that represents thousands of health-care workers.

In a policy change contained in a Feb. 20 memo to the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA), AHS indicated that any hiring of new management or non-clinical staff will have to first receive approval from its CEO, while hiring of frontline workers would require sign-off from a senior operating officer (SOO)

AHS president and CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos told reporters Thursday that the moves were necessary to keep costs in line as AHS faces an operating deficit in the current fiscal year due to “additional clinical staffing costs.”

She claimed there will be no impact on frontline clinical health-care workers as a result of the changes.

“I cannot stress enough that we are still actively recruiting and hiring frontline health-care positions,” she said.

Despite multiple questions from reporters, she declined to provide an estimate on the size of the operating deficit at AHS.

“Right now, it’s a forecast, so I won’t have an answer to that until the fiscal year is complete.”

Mentzelopoulos disputed equating the changes to a hiring freeze, describing doing so as “inaccurate” and “mischaracterized,” and claimed to have approved 255 hires since the email was sent to HSAA.

Health Minister Adriana LaGrange echoed that messaging in a social media post , citing a need to “clarify a recent decision by AHS regarding hiring procedures.”

The HSAA said that doesn’t align with what it heard from some of its nearly 30,000 members, with union vice-president Leanne Alfaro saying she’s heard of recruiting for frontline positions being cancelled as far along as the interview stage.

“It is very confusing to learn there is a need for restrictions on hiring to manage a budget deficit, hear that hiring is being cancelled, and then be told from the CEO that they are still actively hiring,” she stated in an email Friday to Postmedia.

“It does not make any sense to say you need to find cost savings on hiring and you are creating a process to increase the ability to deny recruitment but are also not limiting hiring. If they were not looking to limit the hiring of frontline workers, we would not have received this memo.”

Opposition health critic Luanne Metz described the health-care system as being in a state of chaos due to understaffing.

“I am very worried about the safety of patients who are already in hospital. What are hospitals going to do when they don’t have enough staff to take care of patients on already crowded wards?”

Mentzelopoulos was named president and CEO of AHS on Dec. 7 of last year, a month after Premier Danielle Smith announced her government’s intention to overhaul the health-care system, including downsizing the role of AHS.

Related
Alberta breaking up AHS, creating new agencies in health care overhaul

Dismantling AHS: A summary of the Alberta UCP government plan

 Country star Corb Lund criticizes Alberta minister over coal application support

© Provided by The Canadian Press

TABER, Alta. — An Alberta country music star is criticizing the province's energy minister for advising its energy regulator to accept initial applications for a coal mine project in the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in southern Alberta.

Corb Lund says that after meeting with Energy Minister Brian Jean, he doesn't believe the minister knows enough about the issue. 

"I met with Brian Jean to discuss the coal issue a couple of months ago. And I was alarmed by how little he knew," Lund said in an email to The Canadian Press. 

"I knew more about the coal issue than he did, and I'm just a guitar player, not the minister of energy. It's chilling to me that ill-informed politicians are making decisions about our water."

On Thursday, the Alberta Energy Regulator said the Grassy Mountain steelmaking coal proposal near Crowsnest Pass should be considered an advanced project and be exempt from a ministerial order banning coal development in the mountains.

The regulator reached the decision after receiving a letter from Jean in support of considering the applications. 

The regulator says it will hold public hearings on mine proponent Northback's request for exploration permits and a water licence.

In a statement on Saturday, Jean said there's a difference between applying for a drilling permit and a permit being approved, pointing out the application has not been approved.

The provincial energy regulator is independent, and its officials are "the correct people to make this technical decision," he added.

“I consult widely with lots of Albertans on lots of issues. I took the time to speak with Corb and I asked him many questions to get his perspective on this issue. It’s disappointing that he feels this way," Jean said.

Lund, a longtime vocal opponent of coal mining in the eastern slopes, says review panels and governments have already turned down the project and polling has shown the public doesn't support it.  

"How many times do Albertans have to say no to these foreign coal companies?" he wrote. 

"The joint review panel already firmly told them no, at both the provincial and federal levels — and their appeal was denied after that. Public polling has shown over and over that the vast majority of Albertans don't want these coal mines." 

He said southern Alberta can't support another significant water user. 

"We're dealing with crippling drought."

Jean countered that the proposal, if approved, would not use any water from any river or stream in the foothills, and would instead use water from the existing coal mine lake on the property.

"Alberta’s government is serious about protecting water. Rules on water use and water treatment will be a big part of the land-use planning which is being prepared for the foothills," he said.

While the community of Crowsnest Pass strongly supports the mine, environmental groups have said they're considering a court challenge of the decision to exempt the applications from a ministerial order banning coal development along the eastern slopes of the Rockies.

Lund lives in the southern Alberta community of Taber. 

He has released 11 albums and tours regularly in Canada, the United States and Australia. He has been nominated for five Juno Awards, winning once, and has received several nods for Group of the Year from the Canadian Country Music Association. 

Jean said advanced coal projects are allowed to make applications under the 2022 ministerial order. Four projects were told in 2022 that they qualified as advanced coal projects, he said.

— By Bob Weber in Edmonton

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 24, 2024.

The Canadian Press

Thousands of York University workers prepared to strike Monday

Story by Ainsley Smith • 

York University campus view© York University/Facebook

Thousands of staff at York University are prepared to go on strike Monday morning. Agreement between the university and the union that represents the school's academic workers has not been reached.

The union, which represents roughly 3,000 contract instructors, teaching assistants and graduate assistants at York University confirmed Friday it was preparing to walk out

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) previously said its members would set up picket lines on Monday morning if a deal wasn't reached with the university over the weekend. As of Sunday afternoon, an agreement still hadn't been made.

The union previously cited a 2018 strike, provincial wage restraint legislation and affordability as key issues behind the looming strike.

Erin McIntosh, a PhD student and CUPE 3903 spokesperson, told Global News reaching an agreement Sunday evening "seems highly unlikely."

"The employer did not table a single proposal or response for the entirety of the five hours of bargaining on Friday afternoon. After no movement from the employer on Friday, they have not signlled any interest in taking action to avoid the strike on Monday," said McIntosh.

She said the union's bargaining team remains open to meeting "at any moment" if the university comes prepared with proposals. However, she added that there's "no sign that that will happen before midnight tonight.

York’s deputy spokesperson said in a statement provided to Global News that the school hoped it could achieve a negotiated collective agreement with CUPE 3903 ahead of the planned strike date of 12:01 am on Monday, Feb. 26.

"With that goal in mind, we offered two consecutive proposals on Feb. 7 and 21, which addressed crucial items, including increase in rates of pay. Thus far, none of these proposals have been responded to at the bargaining table," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the university is ensuring that students learning needs "remain the top priority."

"Contingency plans for all other aspects of university operations are in place and will be activated as required and we will continue to work toward a swift, equitable and sustainable agreement with CUPE 3903," the spokesperson said.

According to McIntosh, if the strike moves forward, the first day will consist of a rally.

"Strikes are challenging for everyone involved, knowing this, we will be starting the strike in the spirit of community," McIntosh said.

The rally is set to take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. outside of the York University subway station.




-- With files from Global News' Isaac Callan