Global warming not responsible for Madagascar famine: study

Paris, France | December 2, 2021, Thursday|  By: AFP 

(AFP) - Global warming played only a minimal role in the famine that has hit Madagascar, according to a new study published Thursday which contradicts a UN description of the crisis as a "climate change famine".

The southern Indian Ocean island off Africa has been hit by its worst drought in four decades.

The UN's World Food Programme said last month that more than 1.3 million people there were considered to be in a food security crisis or emergency as a result.

In June the WFP said Madagascar is the "first country in the world that is experiencing famine-like conditions as a result of the climate crisis".

Last month Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina said: "My countrymen are paying the price for a climate crisis that they did not create."

But the findings of the new study, published on Thursday by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) network of scientists, do not back up the theory that Madagascar's famine was induced by climate change.

According to the study by the WWA, which has pioneered ways to speedily link extreme weather events to climate change, the rainy seasons of both 2019/20 and 2020/21 saw just 60 percent of normal rainfall across southern Madagascar.

"This lack of rain over the 24 months from July 2019 to June 2021 was estimated as a 1-in-135 year dry event, an event only surpassed in severity by the devastating drought of 1990-92," the study said.

"Based on observations and climate modelling, the occurrence of poor rains as observed from July 2019 to June 2021 in Southern Madagascar has not significantly increased due to human-caused climate change."

- 'Not surprising' -

Those findings correspond with the results of a report released in August by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which indicated that global warming is not expected to affect levels of drought in Madagascar until it reaches two degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial era. At present the increase is around 1.1 C.

"Our results are not surprising, they are very much in line with previous studies," Friederike Otto of Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute told AFP.

"I was more surprised by the UN branding this as clearly as climate change induced," she added, saying "extreme events are always a combination of things".

"It's really important not to automatically assume that every bad thing that is happening is because of climate change, it's not true."

Climatologist Robert Vautard, head of France's Pierre-Simon Laplace Institute and another of the study's authors, agrees.

In the Madagascar case "if there is any influence by climate change it is minimal," even too small to be detectable, he told AFP.

According to the WWA report, "poverty, poor infrastructure and dependence on rain-fed agriculture, combined with natural climate variability, are the main factors behind the Madagascar food crisis, with climate change playing no more than a small part."

However no one is questioning the seriousness of the situation.

"They have been hit by a major drought two years in a row, with people forced to leave their land. It's a dramatic situation," said Vautard.

"And since we are relatively confident that droughts will increase in Madagascar at least from +2C onwards, we must still be concerned and try to limit climate change," he continued.

Maarten van Aalst, director of the International Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, said that the events in Madagascar show that "in many cases we are not even prepared for today's climate".

"Addressing the vulnerability in the region and improving the living conditions of the population remains critical."

© Agence France-Presse

MLB owners lock out players, 1st work stoppage since 1995
By RONALD BLUM and STEPHEN HAWKINS

1 of 4

FILE - Then-Chicago Cubs' Javier Baez sports an MLB logo tattoo and logos on his hat and jersey as he waits to take batting practice before Game 2 of baseball's National League Division Series against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017, in Washington. The clock ticked down toward the expiration of Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement at 11:59 p.m. EST Wednesday night, Dec. 1, 2021, and what was likely to be a management lockout ending the sport’s labor peace at over 26 1/2 years. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)


IRVING, Texas (AP) — Major League Baseball plunged into its first work stoppage in a quarter-century when the sport’s collective bargaining agreement expired Wednesday night and owners immediately locked out players in a move that threatens spring training and opening day.

The strategy, management’s equivalent of a strike under federal labor law, ended the sport’s labor peace after 9,740 days over 26 1/2 years.

Teams decided to force the long-anticipated confrontation during an offseason rather than risk players walking out during the summer, as they did in 1994. Players and owners had successfully reached four consecutive agreements without a work stoppage, but they have been accelerating toward a clash for more than two years.

“We believe that an offseason lockout is the best mechanism to protect the 2022 season,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred wrote in a letter to fans. “We hope that the lockout will jumpstart the negotiations and get us to an agreement that will allow the season to start on time. This defensive lockout was necessary because the players’ association’s vision for Major League Baseball would threaten the ability of most teams to be competitive.”

Talks that started last spring ended Wednesday after a brief session of mere minutes with the sides far apart on the dozens of key economic issues. Management’s negotiators left the union’s hotel about nine hours before the deal lapsed at 11:59 p.m. EST.

MLB’s 30 controlling owners held a brief digital meeting to reaffirm their lockout decision, and MLB delivered the announcement of its fourth-ever lockout — to go along with five strikes — in an emailed letter to the Major League Baseball Players Association.

“This drastic and unnecessary measure will not affect the players’ resolve to reach a fair contract,” union head Tony Clark said in a statement. “We remain committed to negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement that enhances competition, improves the product for our fans, and advances the rights and benefits of our membership.”

This stoppage began 30 days after Atlanta’s World Series win capped a complete season following a pandemic-shortened 2020 played in empty ballparks.

The lockout’s immediate impacts were a memo from MLB to clubs freezing signings, the cancellation of next week’s annual winter meetings in Orlando, Florida, and banishing players from team workout facilities and weight rooms while perhaps chilling ticket sales for 2022.

The union demanded change following anger over a declining average salary, middle-class players forced out by teams concentrating payroll on the wealthy and veterans jettisoned in favor of lower-paid youth, especially among clubs tearing down their rosters to rebuild.


“As players we see major problems with it,” New York Mets pitcher Max Scherzer said of the 2016 agreement. “First and foremost, we see a competition problem and how teams are behaving because of certain rules that are within that, and adjustments have to be made because of that in order to bring out the competition.”

Eleven weeks remain until pitchers and catchers are to report for spring training on Feb. 16, leaving about 70 days to reach a deal allowing for an on-time start. Opening day is set for March 31, and a minimum of three weeks of organized workouts have been required in the past.

Management, intent on preserving salary restraints gained in recent decades, rejected the union’s requests for what teams regarded as significant alterations to the sport’s economic structure, including lowering service time needed for free agency and salary arbitration.

“We offered to establish a minimum payroll for all clubs to meet for the first time in baseball history; to allow the majority of players to reach free agency earlier through an age-based system that would eliminate any claims of service time manipulation; and to increase compensation for all young players,” Manfred wrote. “When negotiations lacked momentum, we tried to create some by offering to accept the universal designated hitter, to create a new draft system using a lottery similar to other leagues.”

Many clubs scrambled to add players ahead of the lockout, committing to more than $1.9 billion in new contracts — including a one-day record of more than $1.4 billion Wednesday.

Two of the eight members of the union’s executive subcommittee signed big deals: Texas infielder Marcus Semien ($175 million) and Scherzer ($130 million).

“This is actually kind of fun,” Scherzer said. “I’m a fan of the game, and to watch everybody sign right now, to actually see teams competing in this kind of timely fashion, it’s been refreshing because we’ve seen freezes for the past several offseasons.”

No player remains active from the 232-day strike that cut short the 1994 season, led to the first cancellation of the World Series in 90 years and caused the following season to start late.

The average salary dropped from $1.17 million before the strike to $1.11 million but then resumed its seemingly inexorable rise. It peaked at just under $4.1 million in 2017, the first season of the latest CBA, but likely will fall to about $3.7 million when this year’s final figures are calculated.

That money is concentrated heavily at the top of the salary structure. Among approximately 1,955 players who signed major league contracts at any point going into the regular season’s final month, 112 had earned $10 million or more this year as of Aug. 31, of which 40 made at least $20 million, including prorated shares of signing bonuses.

There were 1,397 earning under $1 million, of which 1,271 were at $600,000 or less and 332 under $100,000, a group of younger players who shuttle back and forth to the minors.

A union statement claimed the lockout “was specifically calculated to pressure players into relinquishing rights and benefits, and abandoning good-faith bargaining proposals that will benefit not just players, but the game and industry as a whole. ... We have been here before, and players have risen to the occassion time and again — guided by a solidarity that has been forged over generations.”

The union has withheld licensing money, as it usually does going into bargaining; cash, U.S. Treasury securities and investments totaled $178.5 million last Dec. 31, according to a financial disclosure form filed with the U.S. Department of Labor.

Some player agents have speculated that management’s credit lines already may be pressured following income deprivation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, but the clubs’ finances are more opaque publicly than that of the union, making it difficult to ascertain comparative financial strength to withstand a lengthy work stoppage.

Manfred succeeded Bud Selig as commissioner in 2015 following a quarter-century as an MLB labor negotiator. He was unusually critical publicly of the union’s stance.

“They never wavered from collectively the most extreme set of proposals in their history,” he said, “including significant cuts to the revenue-sharing system, a weakening of the competitive balance tax, and shortening the period of time that players play for their teams. All of these changes would make our game less competitive.”

MLB locks out players, officially initiates baseball's first work stoppage since 1994-95 strike

Hannah Keyser,Zach Crizer 

MLB locked out its players just after midnight ET Thursday, triggering the league’s first work stoppage since the 1994 strike that canceled the World Series. It is a long expected, but still significant, escalation of the tense negotiations to craft a new collective bargaining agreement and shape the future of the sport.

The existing CBA, an expansive document that governs everything from payroll rules to travel accommodations, expired Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. ET. Minutes later, the league moved to lock out its players — a move that commissioner Rob Manfred strongly hinted at last month, reflecting the league’s preference to control the timing of a work stoppage and avoid missing games. Team owners across American sports have come to favor the approach of initiating a lockout in the offseason rather than allowing players the opportunity to gain leverage and wreak havoc on the season by going on strike when games are on the schedule.

After committing more than $1.4 billion to free agents this week in a feeding frenzy headlined by Max Scherzer’s record-setting deal with the New York Mets, the team owners chose to freeze transactions and all other major-league business. They could have continued CBA negotiations while allowing the offseason to continue under the old rules.

Manfred released a letter to fans offering an explanation for the lockout via the league's official site — which was simultaneously scrubbed of references to current players. It read, in part:

Simply put, we believe that an offseason lockout is the best mechanism to protect the 2022 season. We hope that the lockout will jumpstart the negotiations and get us to an agreement that will allow the season to start on time. This defensive lockout was necessary because the Players Association’s vision for Major League Baseball would threaten the ability of most teams to be competitive. It’s simply not a viable option. From the beginning, the MLBPA has been unwilling to move from their starting position, compromise, or collaborate on solutions.

The union also released a statement, pointing out that the lockout was not required, and calling it a "drastic measure, regardless of timing."

What does a work stoppage mean for MLB?

This is the fourth MLB lockout since Marvin Miller and the MLBPA brought collective bargaining to professional sports in 1968. Because they are timed in the offseason, none of the previous lockouts — in 1973, 1976 and 1990 — resulted in any missed games.

MLB has also experienced five strikes, the player-initiated equivalent of a lockout. Three of those — 1972, 1981 and 1994 — resulted in missing games, with the most severe being the 1994-95 strike that wiped out the World Series and cut into the following season.

In the 1994 negotiations that led to the strike, the league played on despite an expired CBA. The union went on strike in August as the league sought a salary cap to mirror other American sports. In December, MLB unilaterally implemented the cap and set off a legal challenge. Ultimately, federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor (now a Supreme Court justice) ruled that MLB had negotiated in bad faith and issued an injunction that quickly ended the strike in April 1995 by restoring the terms of the previous CBA as negotiations continued.

CBA negotiations in 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016 were completed without work stoppages, but tension over the economic ground players have lost in the past decade have come to a head this time around.

What are MLB, players at odds over?

The labor reckoning that has now arrived has been growing on the horizon for several years, bursting into clear view over the past two seasons. The MLB Players Association has added negotiating heft in recent years, and showed increased player engagement and unity during 2020 skirmishes over the pandemic-shortened season.

Average and median salaries for major leaguers have declined since the outgoing CBA took effect in 2016, and players have grown increasingly frustrated at what they perceive as teams’ non-competitive management tactics.

The union is seeking significant changes to recalibrate the economic balance of the game, which has swung decidedly toward the team owners and calculating front offices in recent seasons. Among the players’ priorities:

Ensuring young players — who account for a mounting share of production — have a chance to earn salaries commensurate with their performance earlier in their careers.

Disincentivizing the practice of tanking, which many teams use as reason to sit out free agency for years at a time, and implementing policies that push more teams to spend competitively. That could mean reshaping the draft, revenue sharing and the competitive balance tax that teams treat like a soft salary cap.

The league has floated several proposals that address these topics, but the sides remain far apart on those core economic issues.

How did they leave the negotiations?

A vast oversimplification of the bargaining timeline thus far this year goes as follows: The union made a proposal in May, the league countered in August. The union rejected that proposal and the league made another series of proposals last week before Thanksgiving. This week, the two sides met outside Dallas, where the union was holding its annual executive board meeting. The union made its most recent economic proposal on Tuesday.

Wednesday morning, the league told the union that it would only counter if the union agreed to drop some of its key demands. In exchange for taking proposed changes to the players’ pensions off the table, the league wanted the union to take revenue sharing and reserve system changes off the table. The players rejected that request, no counter was made, and ultimately the talks were over more than nine hours before the expiration of the existing CBA.

The sides will have to continue to negotiate at some point, but as we head into a lockout, here’s where they stand on some of the key issues:

Path to free agency

Currently, players are eligible for free agency after six years of major league service. The union is concerned that this often means players are artificially underpaid during their most productive years and also that teams will manipulate a top prospect’s service clock by keeping them in the minors just long enough to get a seventh year of discounted services.

MLB: The league has proposed replacing service time with an age-based system that would grant all players free agency at the end of the season in which they surpass the age of 29 1/2. Alternatively, it’s happy with the status quo, and would point to the unprecedented $1.4-plus billion dollars handed out in free agency in deals that were finalized on Wednesday alone as a sign that the current system is working.

Union: In its latest proposal, the union laid out a system by which a player can reach free agency either by accruing six years of service time or by accruing five years of service and reaching a certain age. In the first year of the new CBA, the system would remain the same as now — six years for free agency. In the next two years, players could reach free agency by crossing six years of service time or accruing five years and being at least 30 1/2 years old. In the final two years of the CBA, it would be six years or five years of service and at least 29 1/2 years old.

The union also made a proposal designed at combating service time manipulation wherein rookies who were held down at the start of the season could still accrue a full year of service if they achieve certain performance metrics — such as a WAR threshold or winning certain awards.

Competitive balance

The current competitive balance tax threshold is $210 million, with escalating penalties for teams that run payrolls surpassing that figure in multiple consecutive seasons.

MLB: Earlier in the negotiations, the league proposed a lowered $180-million threshold with higher penalties for exceeding it. The idea was to pair that change with a payroll minimum of $100 million per club. More recently, it proposed raising the existing CBT to $214 million in 2022, getting up to $220 million by the final season of the next CBA.

The league proposed eliminating the draft penalties for teams that sign free agents who rejected qualifying offers. Previously, free agents who had been extended the qualifying offer and rejected it would cost the teams that signed them a draft pick.

Union: The union has proposed raising the threshold to $245 million in the first year of the next CBA, reaching $273 million by the final season.

The union proposed changes to the revenue-sharing system that are ostensibly designed to encourage teams to use the money received to generate further revenue and field a competitive team. The league has rejected all changes to the revenue sharing system, concerned that it would further stratify the big- and small-market teams.
Salary arbitration

Currently players reach arbitration, where they’re eligible for the first significant raises, after three years of major-league service (plus the top 22% of players with at least two years but not three full years of service).

MLB: The league likes the status quo, which is a central tenet in getting valuable production at a below market-value price. It has also proposed replacing the entire arbitration system with a WAR-based algorithm to determine salaries for players under team control. As a concession, players who are currently eligible for arbitration under the outgoing CBA would be grandfathered in and have the choice of taking the algorithm’s raises or going to arbitration.

Union: The union proposed starting arbitration eligibility after two years of major-league service. It also proposed a pool of money pulled from central revenues to reward top performers amongst players who don’t qualify for arbitration.

The league countered with a smaller pool, funded, at least partially, from revenues currently earmarked for other union benefits.

Draft

Both sides seem to agree — or at least be amenable to addressing the ways that — the current draft system incentivizes tanking by rewarding the worst teams with the top picks.

MLB: The league proposed an NBA-style lottery for the top three picks. It had previously proposed a system wherein teams couldn’t receive a top-five pick three consecutive seasons (to prevent recidivism tanking) and that proposal is still technically on the table as well as an alternative.

The league also proposed an international draft to replace the current system of international amateur free agency.

Union: The MLBPA proposed a draft order that relies on a lottery for more than just the top three picks, and also includes incentives for small-market teams that do well and penalties for teams that repeatedly finish at the bottom of the pack.
Postseason

The current playoff field is 10 teams: Three division winners per league plus two wild cards with the best records among non-division winners per league.

MLB: The league proposed a 14-team postseason structure: three division winners and four wild cards per league. The division winners with the best record would receive a bye for the three-game wild-card round. The other two division winners would get to select their opponents from the bottom-three wild-card teams, with the second-best division winner going first. The best wild-card team would face whichever of the other three wild cards was left after those selections.

Union: The union proposed a 12-team postseason structure based on divisional realignment — each league would be split into two divisions of seven and eight teams.

Among other miscellaneous proposals, the league would package a universal designated hitter with its version of the expanded postseason, and the union pitched allowing the league to put advertisement patches on uniforms to generate further revenue.

Australian Research Finds Climate Change Behind Bushfire Surge

November 29, 2021 
Phil Mercer

FILE - A bushfire burns in Bodalla, New South Wales, Australia, Jan. 25, 2020.

New research by Australia’s national science agency shows that climate change has driven a significant increase in bushfires over the last three decades.

Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, or CSIRO, has found an 800% rise in the average annual area burned by bushfires in Australia since the 1990s. Parts of the Australian continent are some of the world’s most fire-prone areas.

The study said the “overwhelming factor” causing the spike has been climate change. There have been more extreme heatwaves and a corresponding decrease in rainfall in parts of the country. Since 1910, the research stated that Australia’s mean temperature had increased by 1.4 degrees Celsius.

The study also detailed how the annual fire season has extended before and after summer into autumn and winter, while fire activity has increased in cooler and warmer regions including alpine forests in Tasmania and tropical rainforests in Queensland.

Pep Canadell, the CSIRO’s chief climate scientist, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp., that the world’s fire-prone regions must be better prepared for the wildfire threat.

“There is a lot of things we can do, and we are working on a lot of new warning systems, increase the prediction capabilities, so we can be better prepared before the fire comes,” Canadell said. “That is probably the single-most important thing we can do.”

Australian scientists analyzed 32 years of satellite data and 90 years of ground-based research. They’ve warned that mega-fires that burn more than 1 million hectares are likely to become more frequent.

The Australian bushfire season from July 2019 to March 2020, commonly known as the Black Summer blazes, scorched 24 million hectares of land. It was Australia’s most intense bushfire season on record.

An official inquiry into the disaster said that “compounding disasters” would become more common in Australia. It warned that hazards such as fires, floods and storms could happen at the same time, or one after another.

Authorities in eastern Australia warned in October that grass and crop fires were their greatest concern ahead of the warmer summer months.

17M under threat of wildfire in Southern California as ferocious Santa Ana winds blow
Doyle Rice
USA TODAY

One location in Los Angeles County had an 89 mph gust on Thursday.
At least 17 million people live where red flag warnings remained in effect Friday.
Better weather was predicted for the weekend.

A fierce Santa Ana wind event in Southern California has led to wildfire warnings for over 17 million people and tens of thousands of power outages across the region, as officials pre-emptively shut off electricity to guard against the threat of wildfires.

The seasonal dry winds produced intense gusts on Thanksgiving Day, toppling trees and causing other damage while “public safety power shutoffs” in high-risk areas interrupted dinner plans.

One location in Los Angeles County had an 89-mph gust early Thursday. No major wildfires were reported, however.

The winds had died down somewhat Friday morning, but the threat will remain high through the day Friday, meteorologists said. "Widespread wind gusts of 35 to 60 mph are expected with damaging gusts up to 75 mph possible in the mountains and foothills," the National Weather Service said.  

   

Dry conditions and gusty winds prompted the weather service to issue a red flag warning for several Southern California counties through 6 p.m. local time Friday. Red flags signal dangerous weather conditions where wildfires can spark and spread unpredictably. Fire departments bring on additional staff while the warnings are in play.

At least 17 million people live where red flag warnings remained in effect Friday, the Weather Service said.

More than 75,000 Edison customers in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties had power turned off under the power shutoff program as of late Thursday. As of Friday morning, nearly 60,000 were still powerless, according to poweroutage.us, a utility tracking website.

"These are very strong winds," said Gabriela Ornelas, a spokesperson for Southern California Edison.

Such winds can blow debris into power lines and spark fires, which is why the public safety power shutoffs were implemented.

"I'd rather have excess wind and less power than (getting) burned out of my house," Carl Pride, a Fontana resident, told CNN affiliate KABC while trying to grab his hat as the strong wind blew it away. "A minor inconvenience is nothing compared to losing my house."

Better weather was predicted for the weekend.

“There will be a few puffs of wind each morning Saturday and Sunday but nothing near advisory levels,” the weather service said.

Doctor bashes Dr. Oz as a ‘disgrace’ -- and likens electing him to catching dysentery

Sarah K. Burris
November 30, 2021


Celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz officially announced he would run for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania Tuesday.

Writing in the Daily Beast, a fellow physician said that he has the same amount of enthusiasm for Oz's candidacy as he would with a case of dysentery, the intestinal infection that causes bloody diarrhea.

Dr. Daniel Summers, MD, begged Pennsylvania not to do "this," meaning elect Oz.

"It’s been obvious for years that Oz is more than happy to leverage his reputation as a cardiothoracic surgeon and medical scientist in service to his own celebrity and advancement, and isn’t one to let quaint little things like facts stand in his way," he wrote. "Stroll down a checkout aisle in your local grocery store, and chances are strong you’ll see his smiling face on the cover of a magazine touting some wildly unhealthy weight-loss claim. He’s been promoting pseudoscience on his show for years, from obesity 'remedies' like green coffee and garcinia cambogia to hawking 'homeopathy starter kits,' so this is nothing new."

In fact, Oz faced criticism for hosting a show in which he debated the utility of "reparative therapy" and "forms of therapy that are designed to turn a gay person straight," even though they've been banned by many states at the urging of the American Psychological Association.

In April 2020, Oz also spurred controversy because he said that children should be sent back into schools despite the fact that the novel coronavirus pandemic had only just begun and there were no vaccines or therapeutics yet available.


“I tell you, schools are a very appetizing opportunity,” he said, claiming that resuming classes “may only cost us 2 to 3 percent in terms of total mortality," according to his "reading" of medical journals.

The mistake was so substantial that Oz later provided a kind of half-apology, saying that he "misspoke."

But what Dr. Summers finds worse is that Oz eagerly pushed treatments like hydroxychloroquine for COVID patients. He even went so far as to push the drug on Fox & Friends. It prompted Dr. Anthony Fauci, a virologist, to explain that the data simply wasn't clear at the time.

“Although there is some suggestion [of effectiveness] with the study that was just mentioned by Dr. Oz . . . I think we’ve got to be careful that we don’t make that majestic leap to assume that this is a knockout drug,” Fauci said at the time. “We still need to do the kinds of studies that definitively prove whether any intervention, not just this one . . . is truly safe and effective.”

The NIH ultimately did study the use of the drug on those suffering from COVID and found that after 14 days of taking the hydroxychloroquine vs. a placebo, there was no difference in the patients.

"Medical misinformation is literally killing people, and it is unconscionable that anyone who should know better would contribute to it. And Oz most certainly should and does know better," said Dr. Summers. "It is telling that Oz would see a space for himself in the Republican primary field. The GOP is riddled with prominent figures who undermine the seriousness of the pandemic, refute the importance of getting vaccinated, and denigrate the public health officials tasked with keeping the American people as safe and healthy as possible. Voters for those people are the ones Oz sees himself capable of wooing. That is the base he will need to capture to make his candidacy a success."

See the full piece at the Daily Beast.

Psaki tears into Trump for not disclosing his COVID diagnosis and says it shouldn't be a 'surprise' his supporters are advocating letting the unvaccinated 'infect their co-workers, our children and fill hospitals'

• Jen Psaki on Wednesday tore into former President Donald Trump for not disclosing he had reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 
• Former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows revealed in a forthcoming book that Trump tested positive for COVID three days before debating now President Joe Biden 
• Trump took two COVID tests on September 26 with the first saying he was positive and the second saying he was negative - and chose to believe the latter
• Pointing to the news, Psaki extended the criticism to Trump's allies in Congress, with conservatives threatening a shutdown over vaccine mandate funding 
• Psaki said those Republicans wanted the unvaccinated to be free to 'infect their co-workers, our children, filling hospitals'  

Psaki tears into Trump for not disclosing his COVID diagnosis | Daily Mail Online

Joe Biden just made the shadiest comment about Donald Trump

Joe Biden channeled his inner Mariah Carey.

By Alex Bollinger Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Joe BidenPhoto: Adam Schultz / Biden for President

President Joe Biden had a very shady reply when asked about how Donald Trump may have put him at risk of catching COVID-19 last year.

Trump allegedly tested positive for COVID-19 just days before the first presidential debate on September 29, 2020, according to a new book from former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Instead of telling Biden’s campaign about it and postponing the debate, Meadows said Trump kept quiet and participated in the debate anyway because he had another test result that was negative.

Related: Joe Biden owned a rightwing journalist with a QAnon clapback & then he just walked away

“Mark Meadows has written a book revealing that former President Trump tested positive for COVID three days before your first debate,” a journalist asked Biden today. “Do you think the former president put you at risk?”

“I don’t think about the former president,” Biden replied before turning around and walking away.



Trump announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19 on Twitter on October 2, three days after the debate. The media speculated about whether Biden, who was 77 at the time, was put at risk because Trump may have had the virus for a few days before his announcement.

Trump hosted a “super-spreader” event at the White House for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on September 26 where at least 11 attendees were diagnosed with coronavirus shortly after, leading to speculation that Trump caught the virus that day as well.

Meadows said in his new memoir, The Chief’s Chief, that each candidate had to provide a negative coronavirus test 72 hours before the September 29 debate. He said that Trump tested positive on September 26 after the Barrett event and found out when he was en route to a rally in Pennsylvania.

Trump suspected he had a “slight cold” as he boarded Marine One. Meadows said that as the plane was taking off, he got a call from the White House doctor.

“Stop the president from leaving,” Meadows recounted the doctor saying. “He just tested positive for COVID.”

He said he immediately told Trump, who Meadows wrote replied with something that “rhyme[d] with ‘Oh spit, you’ve gotta be trucking lidding me.'” Meadows refused to write curse words in his book because he’s Christian.

He wrote that Trump took another COVID test and got a negative result that same day and decided “to press on as if nothing had happened.” Meadows said that he instructed staff members interacting with the president “to treat him as positive” throughout the trip because of the conflicting test results.

Trump called Meadows’s claim “Fake News” in a statement. “A test revealed that I did not have COVID prior to the debate,” Trump wrote.

SCHADENFREUDE

Marcus Lamb, a Christian TV network founder and preacher who discouraged vaccinations, dies after being hospitalized for Covid-19

Prominent Christian televangelist and anti-vaccine advocate Marcus Lamb died after being hospitalized with Covid-19, his family announced Tuesday.

By Carma Hassan, Michelle Watson, CNN Business 

Lamb founded Christian television network Daystar Television Network in 1997.

His wife Joni Lamb, announced the televangelist's death on Daystar's program streamed to Facebook Tuesday. She said her husband had diabetes but was healthy and was hospitalized after being diagnosed with Covid-19.

"He never talked about that, but he had diabetes, but he kept it in check. He was very healthy, he ate healthy, he kept his weight down, and always kept his sugar at a good level. But with trying to treat Covid and the pneumonia, the different protocols that are used, including many of the protocols we talked about here on Daystar, and we used those, and I used them and breezed through Covid.

It caused his blood sugar to spike and just a decrease in his oxygen and that's why he went to the hospital, so he could have oxygen," Joni Lamb said. "He 100% believed in everything that we've talked about here on Daystar and helping so many people around the world with early protocol treatments for Covid. We still stand by that, obviously."

Joni Lamb said her husband's "heart just gave out."

Marcus Lamb often spoke out against the Covid-19 vaccines on his show. In an episode earlier this year featuring anti-vaccine activists Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Del Bigtree, Lamb said the Covid-19 vaccine was "not really a vaccine," but an "an experimental shot" that was "dangerous. Marcus Lamb alleged that people were dying or having neurological disorders from the vaccine.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say Covid-19 vaccines "are safe and effective" and that any adverse events after vaccination "are rare but may occur." People who are not vaccinated against Covid-19 were 11 times more likely to die of the disease and 10 times more likely to be hospitalized with the disease, according to a study published by the CDC.

Marcus Lamb's son, Jonathan Lamb, described his father's Covid-19 diagnosis as a "spiritual attack from the enemy" as he hosted the show on November 23. "There's no doubt in my mind that this is a spiritual attack from the enemy. As much as my parents have gone on here to kind of inform everyone about everything going on in the pandemic and some of the ways to treat Covid, there's no doubt that the enemy is not happy about that, and he's doing everything he can to take down my dad," Jonathan Lamb said.


Joni Lamb described the illness as "riding a roller coaster" on that same episode. She asked people in November to "pray specifically for [Lamb's] lungs to clear, the Covid pneumonia, and pray for his oxygen levels to continue to be strong and to go up and so that we can wean him off of oxygen and then bring him home."

A statement from Daystar Television Network said in part, "The family asks at this time that their privacy be respected as they grieve this difficult loss, and they wish to express their deep love and gratitude for all those who prayed during Marcus's health battle. Continue to lift them up in prayer in the days ahead."

Co-founder of Christian TV network that railed against vaccines dies of Covid-19

Marcus Lamb, 64, whose Daystar network reaches an estimated 2 billion viewers worldwide, had pushed alternative therapies

A Covid-19 memorial made of white flags representing lives lost to coronavirus is seen in Los Angeles. Photograph: Ringo Chiu/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

Oliver Milman

THE GUARDIAN
Wed 1 Dec 2021


Rightwing radio host and anti-vaxxer dies of Covid

Marcus Lamb, the co-founder of the leading Christian TV network Daystar who railed against Covid-19 vaccines, has died of Covid-19. He was 64 years old.

Lamb, who was the chief executive of the conservative network that reaches an estimated 2 billion viewers worldwide, died on Tuesday, weeks after contracting the coronavirus.

“It’s with a heavy heart we announce that Marcus Lamb, president and founder of Daystar Television Network, went home to be with the Lord this morning,” the network announced in a tweet on Tuesday. “The family asks that their privacy be respected as they grieve this difficult loss. Please continue to lift them up in prayer.”

Under his leadership, Daystar aired repeated baseless anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and claims that vaccines were being used to take freedoms away from Christians. In July 2020, the network spent an hour of air time complaining about “censorship” around the pandemic and also gave an hour’s slot to Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has spread misinformation about the Covid vaccine.

Covid vaccines have been repeatedly found to be safe and effective at preventing severe illness from the virus. Evangelical Christians have been getting the vaccines at lower rates than the general US population, however, and several prominent Christian broadcasters have died of the virus in recent months.

Last month Lamb’s son Jonathan said that his father’s illness was due to sinister outside forces.


Tennessee radio host who criticised vaccine efforts dies of Covid-19

“There’s no doubt in my mind that this is a spiritual attack from the enemy,” he said, adding that Lamb has pushed alternative therapies and that “there’s no doubt that the enemy is not happy about that. And he’s doing everything he can to take down my Dad.”

Daystar was founded in 1998 and has more than 100 TV stations around the world. Lamb’s wife Joni, appearing on the daily Ministry Show on Tuesday, said that he had “got the Covid pneumonia”.

“He 100% believed in everything we talk about here on Daystar, things that help so many people around the world with early protocol treatments for Covid,” she said. “We still stand by those obviously.”

Immigrants needed to ease Saskatchewan’s labour pains

Located approximately 140 kilometres east of Saskatoon, the BHP Jansen Project in Saskatchewan is taking shape to be the largest potash-producing mine in the world.

The project is expected to create around 3,500 jobs annually during construction plus more than 600 jobs at the mine site and corporate office in Saskatoon.

In Yorkton, one of the fastest-growing cities in Saskatchewan, dozens of local businesses have “We are hiring” signs posted on their windows and parking lots.

“In early November, Canadian Tire, Starbucks, SaskTel, The Brick, Walmart, Mary Browns, Omega Auto Parts, Parkland College and many others had similar signs on their buildings or in their parking lots, telling locals about available jobs,” reported Sasktoday.ca

Across the prairie province known as the ‘Bread Basket of Canada’, the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council predicts that by 2029, Saskatchewan will have 12,300 more jobs than the domestic labour force can fill.

“Saskatchewan’s agriculture sector has limited access to foreign workers and the lowest reliance on this labour source: only 1.6% of the province’s agricultural workforce is foreign workers, compared to 17% across the entire Canadian agricultural sector workforce,” the council said in its forecast 2029 report.

Jim Bence, president and CEO of Hospitality Saskatchewan said that his industry has thousands of vacancies including almost 600 for cooks and kitchen staff.

Saying it’s a crisis or an acute problem, will be an understatement, Bence told NCM.

To address the critical shortage of workers in Saskatchewan, the provincial government last week announced a new pilot under the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) to address hard-to-fill positions in the province.

The ‘Hard-To-Fill Skills Pilot’ will enable Saskatchewan employers to recruit workers through overseas missions, or other international recruitment activities, into select jobs that have significant recruitment challenges, the government said.

“The pilot gives employers the ability to recruit in these occupations to fill critical vacancies that can’t be filled by domestic labour or other Federal immigration programs and enables the workers to become permanent residents faster,” said Robin Speer, a spokesperson for the Government of Saskatchewan.

“The majority of the occupations under the pilot were not eligible under the SINP or any immigration program before. Five of the eligible occupations previously required the worker to work in Saskatchewan for at least six months before they could apply to the SINP and start the permanent immigration process,” he said in a written response to questions from NCM.

Speer said the Hard-To-Fill Skills (HFS) Pilot includes 23 occupations in the following sectors: Health, Hospitality, Agriculture Value Added, Primary Agriculture, Forestry, Sales and Service, Logistics and Transportation, Residential and Commercial Construction and Metal and Agriculture Machinery Manufacturing.

“In second quarter of 2021, there were 685 job vacancies for construction trades helpers and labourers, up 149% from the same quarter in 2019 (pre-pandemic base), Other occupations with a high number of vacancies that have increased over the same period are heavy equipment operators (except crane), transport truck drivers, food and beverage servers, material handlers, janitors, caretakers and building superintendents, and home support workers and housekeepers,” said Speer.
THESE JOBS ARE THE ONES THAT GET FILLED THE MOST

“We anticipate demand will increase for many of these occupations as major economic projects continue to come on stream in the forestry, mining, manufacturing, and agri-value sectors…Completion of phase one of the BHP Jansen mine alone will alone create 3,500 construction jobs.”

Bence from Hospitality Saskatchewan described the pilot program as “a much needed timely solution.”

“It’s a great move to attract immigrant talent and provides a quicker pathway to residency,” he said.

“While we always work hard to exhaust every opportunity to hire locally, we have to be creative to ensure we have the right labour supply to help our business and communities grow and thrive in Saskatchewan, something this very unique program will be especially helpful with post-COVID.”

“This new Hard-To-Fill Skills Pilot – developed in Saskatchewan for Saskatchewan – is progress on our autonomy discussions with the federal government and is going to help provide employers with greater access to international options to recruit workers,” said the province’s Immigration and Career Training Minister Jeremy Harrison, in a statement.

The pilot is scheduled to launch this month.

To be eligible, applicants to the Hard-To-Fill Skills Pilot must:

The employers in the pilot program must demonstrate they have made extensive efforts to hire domestically prior to utilizing the pilot for recruitment, demonstrate the need and benefit for their business, and fulfill requirements related to providing settlement support for the workers.

For more information on the initiative and eligibility criteria, contact 1-833-613-0485 or immigration@gov.sk.ca.

Fabian Dawson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, New Canadian Media

ABOUT TIME

Alberta rolls out new rules forcing industry to pay for abandoned well cleanup


CALGARY — Alberta's oil and gas regulator has rolled out new rules aimed at addressing the growing problem of inactive and abandoned wells in the province, but critics say the industry should be forced to do even more to clean up after itself.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Alberta Energy Regulator says the new regulations, which come into effect immediately and mark the first significant overhaul of Alberta's oil and gas well liability framework in more than a decade, represent a "major milestone."

“With these new requirements, we’re pushing industry to clean up their sites sooner and ensuring the cost and responsibility of the cleanup rests on the shoulders of industry – where it should be," said AER president and chief executive Laurie Pushor, in a news release.

Alberta's UCP government first announced the changes last year, in response to growing concern from landowners, taxpayers and environmentalists about the more than 95,000 inactive wells in the province.

According to the AER, there are also more than 73,500 wells in Alberta that have been sealed and taken out of service but not yet fully remediated.

Under the new framework, the energy industry will be required to spend $422 million next year on cleanup and remediation of old wells. That amount increases to $443 million in 2023 and by similar amounts in each of the next three years — although targets beyond 2024 are forecasts only.

Those amounts are based on the industry's past spending and are in addition to the $1 billion the federal government has made available to industry contractors working on well cleanup.

Oil and gas producers seeking licences for new wells will also be assessed to make sure they are financially healthy enough to meet cleanup and closure responsibilities. And applications to transfer well licences between companies will trigger an assessment of both companies by the regulator to ensure the receiving company can safely operate the infrastructure and reclaim it when it is no longer in use.

"These policies ... will significantly enhance the rate of closure of inactive oil and natural gas sites," said Jay Averill, spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, in an email. " We continue to work with the Alberta government to advance policies and regulations which ensure substantial progress in the timely closure of inactive sites."

Critics say the new regulations don't go far enough, especially now that oil prices are higher than they've been in years.

Sara Hastings-Simon of the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy said the spending targets mandated by the new regulations will address the industry's current overall oil and gas well liability at about the rate of four to five per cent a year. That means, she said, it will take 25 to 30 years to address the extent of the problem, assuming no additional abandoned wells are created in that time.

The industry should be forced to pay more now, Hastings-Simon added, given that companies are generating significant excess cash flow due to this year's commodity price boom.

"You're talking about companies that have very strong profits on the back of the recent surge in energy prices. They're paying out significant dividends to shareholders," she said. "And I think that's a real concern around equity and fairness, with investors around the world getting these dividend payouts while the public in Canada is left holding that liability risk.'

The energy regulator pegs the province's current oil and gas well liability at about $30 billion. But the Alberta Liabilities Disclosure Project — a coalition of landowners, scientists, environmentalists and others — estimates the total cost of what it would take to clean up all inactive and abandoned wells is much higher.

Regan Boychuk, spokesman for the ALDP, said the cleanup spending targets established by the new rules amount to no more than industry "coddling."

"This is all about buying time. It’s just kicking it down the road,” Boychuk said. “Making sure the polluter pays should be the most important issue imaginable for the energy regulator. And it’s not anywhere reflected or enforced in this new regulatory program.”

According to the AER, in 2020, industry closed 6,503 wells and 625 facilities while 2,666 sites were reclamation certified.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 1, 2021.

Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press

Many Sask. grain farmers couldn't fulfil their contracts: APAS

THEY CHOSE THE MARKET OVER THE CWB

An overwhelming number of respondents to a survey of Saskatchewan farmers say they fell short of this year's grain contracts.

The survey by the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan found 75 per cent of roughly 200 respondents couldn't fulfil grain contracts after a dire drought baked their fields earlier this year.

"This issue is fairly widespread across the province, just like the drought was," APAS president Todd Lewis said.

"Producers and grain companies have had to struggle with this over the last number of months."

Respondents were also concerned about the lack of transparency around calculating buyout and administrative fees.

It was a common complaint during harvest, when rural groups and the province asked grain companies to be flexible with contracts that grain farmers had no hope of fulfilling.

Reported buyout provisions ranged from $20,000 to more than $300,000. Interest rates on unpaid amounts ran up to 19 per cent, according to the survey.

The severity of this year's drought created the largest payout for crop insurance in the province’s history, to the tune of $2.4 billion, Finance Minister Donna Harpauer reported on Monday.

Wade Sobkowich, executive director of the Western Grain Elevator Association, noted the survey may not be a representative sample, but that doesn't diminish the issue.

"There's a group out there that really got caught on the wrong side of their contracts," he said.

"That's not good for them; that's not good for us."

Sobkowich said grain companies have also been losing revenue without the tonnes they expected to export.

He expects them to emphasize proper communication with farmers so both parties are making informed decisions about the risk they're taking on, he said.

"You can't go through a unique and impactful situation like we did this year and not evaluate and try and learn from it."

Recent Statistics Canada numbers comparing January to September in 2020 and 2021 show total crop receipts were up by 9.6 per cent, with non-durum wheat up roughly 14 per cent and durum wheat up about 32 per cent.

Sobkowich said that shows some farmers may have reaped the rewards from fulfilling those contracts during the drought.

"What this demonstrates is that some producers may have gained significantly at the expense of others," he said.

Nick Pearce, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The StarPhoenix

1. 2020 hindsight: Ending the Canadian Wheat Board was …
   https://www.nfu.ca/2020-hindsight-ending-the-canadian-wheat-board-was...

   2020-07-30 · 2020 hindsight: Ending the Canadian Wheat Board was an economic tragedy. August 1st 2020 marks the 8th anniversary of one of the great economic tragedies in Canadian history. This was the day the wrecking ball swung by then Prime Minister Stephen Harper and former Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz finally destroyed one of the most important ...

   • Author: Terry Boehm

   • Estimated Reading Time: 

Canadian Wheat Board | The Canadian Encyclopedia

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadian-wheat-board

2006-02-06 · The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) was an agricultural marketing board headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Established in 1935, for much of its history it was the sole

HARPER SELLS WHEAT BOARD TO US CORPORATION & SAUDI INVESTMENT FUND

Brent Patterson

6 years ago

The Harper government has sold the Canadian Wheat Board.

Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow says, "Harper sells out Wheat Board to two foreign corporations. Biggest theft from farmers in Canada's history!!!"

The Globe and Mail reports, "Until Ottawa ended its monopoly in 2012, the Canadian Wheat Board was the prairie farmer’s link to food companies around the world. Now the former giant has been taken over by a U.S. agrifood company and an investment fund owned by Saudi Arabia. The $250-million deal announced on Wednesday marks the final stage in the transformation of the Canadian Wheat Board, which was formed by Parliament in 1935 to guarantee western farmers would get fair prices for their wheat and barley."

The article notes, "Global Grain Group (G3), a joint venture between food company Bunge Ltd. and a unit of Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Co. known as SALIC Canada Ltd., will pay $250-million for a 50.1-per-cent stake in the grain trader. The rest of the equity in CWB will be available to farmers who sell their grain to the company."

But the Financial Post clarifies that rather than "paying for" or "buying" the CWB, "Under the terms of the deal, G3 is committed to spending $250 million in the CWB." And Global News adds, "G3 Global Grain Group will get 50.1 per cent of the company in exchange for an investment of $250 million. The other 49.9 per cent will be kept in trust for farmers who deliver grain to the board. Any farmer who does deliver will get $5 per tonne in equity in the organization. In seven years, G3 Global Grain Group has the option to buy back the shares from farmers at market value."

National Farmers Union president Jan Slomp says, "With this, the Conservative government has accomplished the biggest transfer of wealth away from farmers in the history of Canada. The CWB’s physical assets, its commercial relationships, and its good name have all been given away. The 'buyers' of the CWB actually get to keep the $250 million pittance they are 'paying' for it."

And NDP MP Pat Martin comments, "This is a strategic industry for Canada. It might be different if they sold the wheat board for billions of dollars. But they didn’t. They’re handing it over free of charge. All the assets – we’re talking the thousands of rail cars, the port terminals, the ships on the Great Lakes. ...I think it’s a sad for the Canadian grain industry. There never was a business for abolishing the wheat board to begin with, but you really have to question what kind of a business model it is to hand it over to an American agrifood giant and a Saudi agrifood giant who until recently were your greatest competitors."

The Council of Canadians has long supported the Canadian Wheat Board.

In 2005, we said, "The Government of Canada should maintain the Canadian Wheat Board and supply-management mechanisms that support family farms, protecting them from the prejudiced impact of international trade agreements." And in 2011, we participated in a court challenge that argued Section 47 of the Canadian Wheat Board Act required a vote by grain producers to remove the single-desk marketing authority of the Canadian Wheat Board. At a rally that year in front of the Canadian Wheat Board office in Winnipeg, Barlow told the large crowd assembled there, "Stephen Harper doesn't like democracy, and you know what? I don't think he likes farmers very much either."