SCAPEGOAT 

Braid: Kenney kicks out MLA while sending a wider message to his careless caucus
Don Braid, Calgary Herald 

An MLA named Pat Rehn is now ejected from the UCP fold, a deserving sacrifice to Premier Jason Kenney’s new clampdown on caucus discipline.  

© Provided by Calgary Herald Pat Rehn was one of several government MLAs caught travelling abroad over the Christmas holidays. Rehn had posted a photo on Facebook on Christmas Eve that appeared to show he was in Mexico.

Kenney was surely looking for somebody to symbolically sack following the travel scandal that showed, as Kenney himself admits, a very lax caucus attitude toward the government’s reputation.

Pat Rehn walked into this chin first. It’s quite a story that goes well beyond his holiday trip to Mexico.

Rehn is a guy with “charisma,” according to Slave Lake Mayor Tyler Warman. He’s said to be a friendly fellow with allies in the government caucus.

Kenney was certainly high on him as the election loomed in 2019. A YouTube video of Kenney talking to Rehn shows no detectable charisma, but Rehn talked a good game with his enthusiastic party leader.

After the election, the Slave Lake town council came to believe Rehn put more effort into the campaign than the job of being an MLA.

On Jan. 5, after the travel scandal broke, the entire council put out a statement saying that Rehn just wasn’t doing the work .

He was absent from key meetings, they said. He failed to press local issues with the government. Council was even unsure about where he actually lives.

Local councils sometimes complain about absentee MLAs, but rarely in public and hardly ever with such force.

Rehn responded on Facebook and Twitter, saying he did a fine job although he made “some poor choices around travel, for which I take full responsibility.

“It’s disappointing to see some municipal officials seizing on this to sow political division at this difficult time.”

Warman says politics has nothing to do with it. The council is strongly UCP, he told me. A couple of councillors are on the local riding association.

© Facebook The photo posted by UCP MLA Pat Rehn on Facebook Dec. 24.

On Jan. 4, Kenney stripped Rehn of his committee memberships. He was one of six travellers who were similarly punished with internal demotion.

There were many demands to kick the travelling miscreants out of caucus as well. But Kenney didn’t do that to any of them — until he ejected Rehn on Thursday.

Why wait so long after the Slave Lake council had given him a second reason?

The trigger may have been a Twitter post Wednesday by @Tony__Clark of the Alberta Federation of Labour.

Clark put up Rehn’s publicly disclosed expense claims, which show that from April to July 2020 he booked meals in Edmonton nearly every day — a total of $4,713.45.

Besides showing a very healthy appetite, this suggests the MLA wasn’t spending much time in his riding — exactly as the town council claims.

Suddenly, the irritants escalated beyond Mexico and the town’s disapproval.



In a statement, the premier said: “He (Rehn) has made no meaningful effort to work in his constituency, or properly to represent his hard-working constituents.

“I have repeatedly asked Mr. Rehn to be more present in his constituency. He has ignored calls from me, UCP caucus leadership and his constituents to do so.”

The much larger issue is the cluelessness of many MLAs, including a minister, who infuriated Albertans with their travels while most people were staying home.

On Jan. 7, Kenney said it points to “a breakdown of discipline in this caucus that has to change and that will change.

“I’m ultimately responsible for creating a culture in our caucus that has not been one of sufficient oversight on what people are doing. That simply has to change.”

Pat Rehn got the memo Thursday. Any UCP member who didn’t pay attention during the travel uproar certainly will now.

It remains true, of course, that even though Rehn is fired from Kenney’s caucus he is still an Independent MLA with full $120,000 salary. There is a political afterlife.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

dbraid@postmedia.com

Twitter: @DonBraid

Facebook: Don Braid Politics

Premier Jason Kenney removes Lesser Slave Lake MLA from UCP caucus

Premier Jason Kenney has removed embattled MLA Pat Rehn from the UCP caucus saying he has failed to represent his constituents.

The Lesser Slave Lake MLA has faced allegations of absenteeism and a lack of preparedness from multiple municipal councils within his riding. The mayor and council of Slave Lake issued an open letter Jan. 5 calling on him to resign.

The letter said Rehn — who will now sit as an independent MLA and not be permitted to run for future UCP nominations — has hardly been in the area since he was elected in 2019, has missed meetings and isn’t prepared for the meetings he does attend.

On Thursday, the premier issued a statement on Twitter saying Rehn has ignored calls from the UCP caucus, his constituents and from Kenney himself to be more present in his riding.

“The most important job of an MLA is to represent his or her constituents,” wrote Kenney. “It has become clear that Lesser Slave Lake MLA Pat Rehn has failed to do so. He has made no meaningful effort to work in his constituency, or properly to represent his hard-working constituents.”

‘He’s lost the support of the people’

Slave Lake Mayor Tyler Warman said Rehn being removed from caucus is good news for the residents but Warman still believes Rehn should resign as MLA all together.

“That’s something that because of the way the democratic process currently exists, he has to decide on his own. But at this point, he’s lost the support of the people of this region that he represents and now he’s lost the support of the party in the government that he works with,” he said.

“At this point, you have to ask yourself, what are you holding on to? He said repeatedly that he wants to work hard for this region, and do what’s best for this region, and represent this region. If he really, truly cares, he’ll let somebody that the people have the confidence in take that position and make sure that we get the representation that we need.”

© Ian Kucerak Slave Lake Mayor Tyler Warman gives an update on the wildfires raging near the town outside the Slave Lake fire hall on June 1, 2019.

Warman said removing Rehn from caucus shows that the government recognizes Slave Lake has poor representation.

“This isn’t just about some media stuff. This is about the fact that our residents deserve to be looked after and we deserve to have an MLA that does their job and it’s not just us saying that anymore,” he said.

The council for High Prairie sent Rehn a letter the day before Kenney removed him from caucus. Similar to Slave Lake, the letter raised concerns about Rehn’s absence from the riding and lack of preparedness at meetings, said Mayor Brian Panasiuk Thursday. It stopped short of asking for his resignation.

Panasiuk said Rehn has been putting in more effort in the last week since news of community concerns was made public.

“If he’s willing to keep following through like he has been we’re fine with working with him,” Panasiuk said,

Publicly available financial records suggest Rehn spent the majority of his time in Edmonton. Records show he expensed three meals a day in Edmonton almost every day in April, May , June and July 2020.



The NDP Opposition has also called for Rehn to resign and a byelection be held for his seat.

“(Rehn) clearly doesn’t want the job. He no longer has the support of the Albertans who elected him, and there is simply no way that we can expect he will do better as a representative when he’s sitting by himself,” NDP Leader Rachel Notley said Thursday.

Multiple attempts to reach Rehn Thursday, through his constituency office and social media, were unsuccessful.
Holiday travel

Rehn was among six UCP MLAs involved in scandal over the holidays after he was found to have travelled to Mexico , despite there being a provincial guideline to avoid all non-essential travel. Kenney eventually stripped him of his committee roles.

The open letter from Slave Lake asking Rehn to resign was published shortly after.

Rehn issued a statement at the time saying he has worked hard on a number of policy items presented by the UCP including the scrapping of the provincial carbon tax and cutting red tape.

Kenney said government ministers will be meeting with Lesser Slave Lake constituents in the weeks to come to ensure they have direct access to the government.

Warman said he has already heard from “senior members of the provincial government” though he wouldn’t specify who.

Becoming an independent MLA means that Rehn will be moved out of the UCP caucus office space to elsewhere in the Federal Building. His salary is unchanged.

Related

Slave Lake working around its MLA to get things done: mayor

Allard resigns as Alberta municipal affairs minister, Kenney's chief of staff steps down amid controversy over international travel

Why The Capitol Hill Rampage Felt Like Déjà Vu

Sadiya Ansari  CHATELAINE

The streets started to empty out as sunset descended on Washington after a raucous day of protests. As I descended the stairs of a subway station, a sea of red MAGA hats came into view. Panic roiled inside me. I told myself I was overreacting, and fought the impulse to climb back up the stairs. I wondered if I should talk to some of the people standing near me about what their day was like, why they’d shown up at the centre of American power and what they’d hoped to see. As a reporter, my impulse is often to have as many conversations as possible, but I was truly uncomfortable—and deep down, worried about my safety. An eerie feeling coated me as I witnessed the result of U.S. President Donald Trump whipping up his fans, promising “from this day forward, it’s going to be only America first.” On the subway, I watched as a woman a few seats ahead of me on the train leafed through print-outs of Trump photos.

 

This felt more like a cult than a presidency.

That scene isn’t the aftermath of last week’s “Save America March,” in which thousands arrived in Washington to attend a rally where Trump encouraged them to“fight like hell” against the “stolen” election, prompting a march to the Capitol. It’s from four years ago on Trump’s inauguration day, when I’d travelled to Washington, D.C. as a reporter for Chatelaine to cover the mood on that day, and the Women’s March that followed. For days after I returned from that reporting trip, I’d recount that feeling of unease to colleagues and friends; sometimes, some people gave me strained polite looks in response, as if that feeling were an overreaction. It was part of a wider insistence at the time by some that Trump’s call to “make American great again” was just a slogan, not a ceremonial uncaging of white nationalism.

Last week, while watching a roaring crowd run through the Capitol—ransacking offices, brandishing guns, carrying a Confederate flag, smearing feces on the walls—I realized it was likely those who held that strained expressions when I described my fears four years ago who were absolutely gobsmacked at what happened on January 6. That it was the same people shocked that Trump would go so far to undermine an election that he incited a raging mob resulting in five deaths. This denial of how extreme Trumpism has become goes all the way up the chain. In an attempt to calm the nation, President-Elect Joe Biden emphasized in a public address that “the scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect a true America.” He characterized those involved as “a small number of extremists dedicated to lawlessness.”

Let’s be clear: there’s a direct line between those who celebrated Trump’s win four years ago and those who crusaded to the Capitol to keep him in power last week. His disdain for democracy and proclivities for fascism were either celebrated by his supporters or—just as damningly—readily ignored because his version of America suited them.

Nearly 63 million Americans voted for Trump in 2016. He had zero record of serving in public office at the time, but we knew enough about him then to know he was unfit for it. He was accused of sexual assault by multiple women. He said Muslims should be put on a registry. He cast undocumented people as “illegals” and murderers; Mexican immigrants as rapists. He pledged to build a wall between Mexico and the U.S. and have Mexico pay for it. The tough-on-immigration speech he gave in September 2016 in Phoenix earned praise from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

Many people—especially racialized and/or LGBTQ+ activists, writers and thinkers—rang the alarm. My concern then was not only the damage Trump would do, but that there were millions who voted for him knowing what he stood for, millions who either loved his vision for the country, or didn’t care enough about the people that vision cast aside.

Video: Denial, defiance, disruption: U.S. Capitol riot is legacy of Trump’s presidency 

(Global News)

Political observers here in Canada weren’t immune to this line of thinking, or this kind of willful ignorance about what such hateful rhetoric can do. Just eight days after Trump’s inauguration, Alexendre Bissonette, a 28-year-old university student and former RCA cadet, walked up to a Quebec City mosque and shot at the 53 people gathered inside, killing six and injuring 19 more. He was motivated by the same ideology partly buoying Trump’s popularity, and obsessively checked Trump’s Twitter feed in the month leading up to the attack. The connection between ideology and action wasn’t acknowledged in the case of Bissonnette—he was cast as lone wolf rather than a disciple of the type of white nationalism Trump peddles. My fears were clearly not abstract, and yet, I felt I had to keep writing the same column explaining them, over and over again.

So what did we see over those four years? An aggressive agenda aimed to “take America back.” Rolling back LGBTQ+ rights, including in schools and in the military. An immediate “Muslim ban,” deportation raids targeting Latine communities, the separation of at least 2,500 children from their families at the southern border, a disgusting show of force against peaceful Black Lives Matter protests against police violence, stacking the Supreme Court with another conservative judge a week before the election. And let’s not forget the revolving door of terrifying people ranging from unapologetic racists to straight-up white supremacists that helped enact these policies: Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon, and Stephen Miller, to name a few.

In 2016, sympathetic explanations for Trump supporters flooded in: vague statements about “middle America,” the unemployed and those who felt left behind. And yet, over 74 million voted for him again in 2020 knowing exactly the damage he did. He kept serving up a toxic cocktail of nationalism to his supporters and solidifying support while softening the edges of his pathological lies, attempts to undermine nearly every democratic institution in the country, shady business dealings, and his staggeringly inept response to a pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 373,000 Americans.

Biden’s narrow win came as a relief for many—a feeling America can get back to “normal.” It reminded me of how I felt four years ago at the Women’s March, the day after attending Trump’s inauguration. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with women (and men!) packed so tightly for the first few hours we could barely move was a sign that Trump didn’t represent the entire country; that people cared enough to fly, drive, bus in from every corner of the country to make that clear. The gathering was a salve for liberals left raw after Trump’s inauguration.

What the Women’s March represented to American liberals is exactly what the Save America March is for Trump supporters—a show of strength. And while many will characterize those who rioted a small minority, these were just the people with the means and motivation (during a pandemic, no less) to board buses and arrive in Washington in response to Trump’s call to “stop the steal.”

Trump isn’t solely responsible for this. Many Republicans shamefully supported this increasingly fascist behaviour because Trump’s march towards consolidating power stood to benefit them. It wasn’t until his supporters came for their house—the physical halls of power they felt so safely ensconced in—that some of these Republicans came to understand the consequences of aiding and abetting the derailing of democracy .

Two weeks before a wannabe dictator will be ousted from power is four years too late to find your principles. In the meanwhile, Trump’s base of support has fortified. His supporters will pose ongoing danger. Seventy-four million are not a misguided minority—they’re a movement.

Attorney on ‘Bones’ and ‘Walking Dead’ Profits Cases Sues Her Former Law Firm

By Gene Maddaus

Courtesy of Fox

An attorney who worked on two high-profile profit participation lawsuits has filed a suit against her former law firm, alleging she was never paid her fair share of the legal fees from those cases.

Mansi Shah worked on the “Bones” lawsuit for Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP. The case resulted in a $179 million arbitration judgment against Fox, though the award was later slashed to $50 million by an L.A. Superior Court judge, and ultimately settled out of court. She also worked on the “Walking Dead” profits case, representing AMC Networks in its long-running fight with show creator Frank Darabont.

Shah co-founded the law firm’s entertainment practice group in 2013 with John Berlinski, after both left NBCUniversal. According to the suit, they built up a lucrative practice representing profit participants against studios.

Shah says she was the only non-white partner in the firm’s Los Angeles office, and one of only a few nationwide. She alleges that she soon found herself cut off from the opportunities afforded to white partners. She resigned from the firm in May 2016 and now works for Warner Bros.

Shah alleges that Kasowitz Benson is now employing Hollywood studio tactics to deny her share of the fees from her work.

“Ironically, now that Ms. Shah is no longer at the Firm, it has chosen to engage in the same delay and denial tactics it routinely accuses Hollywood studios of employing, in an attempt to avoid its clear contractual and fiduciary obligation to pay Ms. Shah her agreed upon share of the significant revenues generated by the matters she originated with Mr. Berlinski,” the suit alleges.

Under her contract, Shah was entitled to 6.25% of all fees above $1 million generated by her work with Berlinski, up to $500,000 per year. She alleges that she is owed the full $500,000 for each of her two years there, including fees from the “Bones” and “Walking Dead” cases. She also represented Genting Malaysia Berhad, which later sued Fox over a theme park near Kuala Lumpur.

The suit states that the firm initially refused to pay Shah any of her cut of the fees, saying she had given up those rights by resigning. The firm later relented and paid her small amounts, eventually totaling $282,020. The firm has offered to pay her another $324,739, but has not done so, according to the claim.

Shah claims that Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP still owes her more than $717,980, plus interest.

McDonald's slammed with 3 new sexual-harassment lawsuits as workers say the fast-food giant failed to protect them on the job

ktaylor@businessinsider.com (Kate Taylor) 

© Provided by Business Insider McDonald's is facing new sexual-harassment lawsuits. Andrew Kelly/Reuters

McDonald's workers have filed three new sexual-harassment lawsuits in recent weeks.

The most recent was filed by Delisha Rivers, alleging McDonald's failed to offer support when her manager attempted to pressure her into sexual acts in exchange for cash and a raise.

"Our values drive our policies, including comprehensive safe and respectful workplace trainings that make clear our expectations for every person who works under the Arches," McDonald's said in a statement.

McDonald's is facing three new sexual-harassment lawsuits as the fast-food giant makes a major push on corporate values.

Workers at franchised McDonald's locations in St. Louis, Los Angeles, and Kansas City, Missouri, have filed lawsuits against the company in recent weeks alleging sexual assault and harassment. The most recent case was filed Thursday morning by a woman named Delisha Rivers.

Rivers alleges that a manager attempted to pressure her into sexual acts in exchange for cash and a raise when she was a shift leader at a McDonald's in early 2019. The complaint says she began facing retaliation at work after rejecting his advances.

The single mother of five said she struggled to find a way to contact McDonald's to report harassment. According to Rivers, she called multiple numbers - first connected to corporate, then to different field districts - attempting to report what she saw as targeted retaliation. None were able to offer her assistance.

Read more: Former Hamburger University worker sues McDonald's, alleging a coworker sexually assaulted and harassed her for years

"They were definitely impossible to reach," Rivers told Insider in a recent interview. "I still couldn't tell you how to reach them."

In February 2019, Rivers quit her job at McDonald's after facing what she calls unjustified criticism for things such as not speaking loudly enough, wearing the wrong color of shirt, and insubordination. It was a difficult process. With five children ages 2 to 9, Rivers said, she was forced to change her childcare routine, with her kids sitting in the lobby as she worked the night shift at her new job.

Rivers said she didn't feel as if McDonald's cared, because if it did, she said, "I'm pretty sure these franchise owners would be more aware and more careful about what goes on in their stores."

Read more: Del Taco will pay more than $1 million to settle a sexual-harassment lawsuit. It's just the tip of the iceberg for a growing problem plaguing restaurant workers

McDonald's introduced a new hotline in 2019 that allows workers to anonymously express concerns and report harassment. The company said in a statement that it did not tolerate sexual harassment and that the company or franchisees reviewed the facts when concerns were raised in restaurants.

"Our values drive our policies, including comprehensive safe and respectful workplace trainings that make clear our expectations for every person who works under the Arches," McDonald's said in a statement. "McDonald's franchisees share our commitment to being responsible partners to our communities, and we make versions of these trainings available as a resource to them."

Accusations of failing to support workers

The two other sexual-harassment lawsuits filed in recent weeks similarly allege workers were not offered sufficient training or support in situations in which they described facing sexual harassment.

Barbara Johnson said she faced sexual harassment while working at a McDonald's in St. Louis as a homeless teenager in 2018. Johnson said a manager and another coworker verbally harassed her on the job, with the manager grabbing her breasts on what ended up being her last shift.

"Barbara felt sick to her stomach. She clocked out and went home before her shift ended," said the complaint, filed in December. "Barbara felt she had no choice but to quit."

"She could not go back to the store," the complaint continued, after the manager assaulted her.

Elsy Rodriguez said in a complaint filed in November that she faced physical and verbal harassment while working at a Los Angeles McDonald's, starting in 2015. She accused a maintenance worker at the McDonald's location of verbally harassing her, refusing to leave the bathroom while she was using it, and spanking her multiple times.

The complaint said she reported the abuse to her kitchen manager and to two shift managers.

"None of these managers did anything to help Ms. Rodriguez, and the harassment continued," the complaint said.

Rivers told Insider that the company's failure to take action when she attempted to report harassment was part of a wider pattern of McDonald's failing workers.

"They really don't care," Rivers said. "I've missed funerals working at McDonald's. I've missed a lot of stuff. I went in sick. They don't care as long as you're there."

McDonald's is attempting to double down on values

© AP Photo/Richard Drew McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski is doubling down on values. AP Photo/Richard Drew

Florida McDonald's workers filed a $500 million sexual-harassment lawsuit against the company in 2020. A year prior, Michigan McDonald's workers filed a complaint alleging fast-food giant failed to address a "systemic problem" of harassment. Over the past four years, McDonald's employees have filed more than 50 sexual-harassment complaints.

In addition to the hotline, McDonald's rolled out a new training program to address harassment, discrimination, and workplace violence in 2019.

McDonald's has publicly reemphasized corporate values under CEO Chris Kempczinski, who was promoted to chief executive in late 2019.

Read more: McDonald's HR looks into new training and hiring processes to emphasize corporate values, as the fast-food giant faces controversies

Kempczinski's predecessor, Steve Easterbrook, was terminated after an investigation into the CEO's relationship with a subordinate. In August, McDonald's sued Easterbrook, alleging that he covered up three additional sexual relationships with employees at the fast-food chain.

Read more: Insiders reveal how former McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook went from the chain's savior to its worst nightmare as sex-scandal accusations threaten to envelop the fast-food giant

A group of McDonald's investors, led by CtW Investment Group, have called for McDonald's to oust two senior members of its corporate board, saying that the directors mismanaged the response to Easterbrook's conduct.

"The board hasn't been able to take decisive action," CtW Investment Group's executive director, Dieter Waizenegger, told Insider in December. "Issues started to fester. They can erupt and create much larger crises further on."

Read more: McDonald's investor explains why he and others are calling for the resignation of the fast-food giant's chairman

McDonald's also conducted a "top-to-bottom" review of its HR department after Heidi Capozzi was hired as global chief people officer in April. Capozzi's predecessor, David Fairhurst, was fired the day after Easterbrook was terminated. His termination was tied to his behavior making women at the company uncomfortable, Capozzi said in an internal meeting in 2020.
Read the original article on Business Insider

Enormous pigeon-eating catfish wreaking havoc on Europe’s ecosystems

The first time Frédéric Santoul witnessed the voracious feeding habits of Europe’s largest freshwater fish, he was standing on a medieval bridge in Albi, a town in southern France

© Photograph by Stephane Granzotto / NPL / Minden Pictures

Wels catfish, which are native to Eastern Europe, can grow up to 10 feet long.

On a small island below, in the Tarn River, pigeons wandered about, oblivious to the group of wels catfish moving near the gravel bank. Suddenly a fish catapulted out of the water and onto land, snatching a pigeon in a flurry of feathers before heaving itself back into the river, bird in mouth.

© Photograph by Remi Masson / NPL / Minden Pictures
Wels catfish encircle a small island in the Tarn River, preparing to grab unsuspecting pigeons.

“I knew that killer whales can beach themselves [to catch seals], but I had never seen that kind of behavior with fish,” says Santoul, a fish ecologist at the University of Toulouse, who spent the rest of the summer documenting the phenomenon.

At the time, almost a decade ago, little was known about the wels (also known as European) catfish in Western Europe, where it was introduced by anglers in the 1970s. The species, which can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh up to 600 pounds, is native to Eastern Europe, but has since expanded into at least 10 countries throughout Western and Southern Europe



Watch Zeb Hogan catch a wels catfish


In its native habitat, where the animal is both fished and farmed for food, the wels catfish is not considered a problem species. There, populations appear to have remained relatively stable for decades, with little evidence of excessive predation on other native fish.

But in newly inhabited rivers, these aquatic invaders are targeting endangered and commercially important migratory fish, such as Allis shad and Atlantic salmon, whose European populations are already in serious decline, Santoul says.

He’s concerned the predator could wipe out many native Western European fish species, fundamentally altering river ecosystems that are already struggling from the impacts of dams, water pollution, and overfishing. (Read how European rivers are littered with human-made barricades.)

“The cumulative effects of these factors could lead to a collapse of fish populations in another 10 years,” warns Santoul.

The giants’ feast

In 1974, a German angler released several thousand wels fry into Spain’s Ebro River. Other anglers, hoping for the opportunity to catch such a huge fish, did the same in rivers in other countries, and the species proliferated.

Like many invasive species, wels catfish thrive in rivers that have been altered by humans, where high water temperatures and low oxygen levels may have pushed out native species. The catfish also grows quickly, has a long life span (possibly up to 80 years), and reproduces easily, with females producing hundreds of thousands of eggs at a time.

But their hunting skills may give them their most formidable edge. Like all catfishes, wels have highly developed senses, particularly in detecting prey vibrations. They also have “an amazing ability to adapt to novel food sources,” says Santoul, who has documented how the catfish prey on Asian clams, another invasive species.

The catfish heavily target migratory fish moving from the sea into rivers to spawn, such as Atlantic salmon, which historically has had few predators; sea lampreys, primitive, jawless fish that are endangered in Europe; and Allis shad, a commercially valuable seafood.

They’ve also adopted new hunting strategies not observed in their native range, such as snatching pigeons from land.

In France’s Garonne River, the catfish will sometimes wait inside a fish tunnel to trap and kill salmon migrating through a hydropower plant.

In the same river, wels catfish have also learned to target spawning Allis shad at the river’s surface at nighttime, when the fish are preoccupied in their courtship displays, according to a study published in November 2020. An analysis of more than 250 catfish stomach contents revealed shad made up more than 80 percent of their diet—“the giants’ feast,” according to the study.

“All of these studies reach the same conclusion: That the European catfishes have become a serious threat to important migratory fish,” says Santoul.

But, he adds, there’s one species the catfish does not harm: Us. Despite a reputation as a gaping, broad-headed beast that attacks and even kills humans, “they’re harmless and curious with people, and you can swim right up to them in the river,” Santoul says.
A megafish exception

There are other examples of large, invasive fish disrupting freshwater ecosystems: the Nile perch, whose introduction as a game fish into Lake Victoria and other East African lakes in the 1960s resulted in the collapse of at least 200 native cichlid fish species by the 1980s.

More often than not, however, large freshwater fish are declining, threatened by invasive species, habitat loss, and overfishing. These species, often called megafishes, have declined globally by a staggering 94 percent since 1970, according to a 2019 study.

In its ability to adapt and spread, “the wels catfish really is an exception among the megafish,” says Zeb Hogan, a National Geographic Explorer and fish biologist at the University of Nevada, Reno, who founded the Megafishes Project and studies many of the most endangered large freshwater fish in Southeast Asia’s Mekong region. (See the stingray that may be the world’s biggest freshwater fish.)

Freshwater ecosystems as a whole are the most threatened in the world, with introductions of non-native species recognized as a leading cause, Hogan says.
Heading upstream

Ecological shifts driven by climate change, including warming temperatures and changes in precipitation patterns, could create even more favorable conditions for the wels catfish to spread, scientists say.

“Climate change affects species differently, with some alien species potentially having much larger distribution gains compared to natives,” says Rob Britton, a fish ecologist specializing in invasive species at Bournemouth University, in the U.K.

There is evidence that the wels catfish, which need water temperatures of at least 68 degrees Fahrenheit for their annual spawning, are colonizing previously uninhabited rivers in Belgium and the Netherlands as those water bodies warm, Santoul says.

There are also signs that catfish spawning now occurs several times a year in France, as rivers there stay warmer for longer periods of the year, he says.

On the Iberian Peninsula, home to more than 40 freshwater fishes found nowhere else, the aquatic invader has likely already extirpated one species, says Emili García-Berthou, an aquatic ecologist at the University of Girona in Spain.

“We forecast that the catfish, which is abundant in the main stem of the Ebro,” the river where they were first introduced, “will spread considerably upstream.”
Few solutions

And solutions remain scant, conservationists say. With a vibrant catch-and-release angling business built up around the wels catfish, primarily in Spain and Italy, there appears to be little appetite among governments and fisheries to remove the fish. Though they’re often eaten in Eastern Europe, they’ve never really caught on as a seafood in other parts of the continent.

Santoul stresses that European countries need to work more closely together to conserve freshwater ecosystems and address the threats facing migrating fish, such as dams. There are also no efforts underway to eradicate the catfish, Santoul says.

“My concern is for these migrating species that have already decreased before the catfish came here,” says Santoul. “If we at the European level we do not coordinate our conservation plans, it might be too late to save them.”

A frequent contributor to National Geographic, Stefan Lovgren often writes about freshwater conservation issues. He covers the Mekong River in Southeast Asia as part of a USAID project called “Wonders of the Mekong.” Follow the project on Instagram.

Syrian refugees celebrate fifth anniversary in Canada with virtual event

OTTAWA — Canadians' support for Syrian newcomers has been a beautiful example for the rest of the world, says the organizer of a virtual celebration to mark the fifth anniversary of Canada's welcoming Syrian refugees.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

In an interview with The Canadian Press, the executive director of the Syrian Canadian Foundation, Bayan Khatib, said thousands of Canadians have volunteered to help Syrian refugees in almost every city and town in Canada.

Khatib, who came as a Syrian refugee to Canada more than 30 years ago, said most of the Syrian refugees her organization has worked with have learned English and found jobs thanks to the support they received from their communities.

"This has been a really successful example of Syrian refugees coming to a country (and) integrating well," she said

"Many of them have burning desire to give back to their communities and they have, in very big and small ways."

The first plane bearing Syrian refugees landed in Toronto on Dec. 10, 2015, following a promise by the Liberals during the 2015 election campaign to make it much easier for them to reach Canada.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the Thursday event his government was elected by Canadians to bring in more Syrian refugees.

"This was something that Canadians asked for and Canadians did," Trudeau said.

"I'm extremely proud that my government was the vessel for that desire by Canadians"

He said welcoming Syrian refugees didn't just mean a better future for them but also a better future for all Canadians.

Nearly 73,000 Syrian refugees have been resettled in Canada since 2015.

Trudeau noted that newly appointed Transport Minister Omar Alghabra is the first Syrian Canadian minister in cabinet and suggested perhaps some young people participating in Thursday's event will find themselves in cabinet and leading the country one day.

Alghabra, who immigrated to Canada from Syria more than 20 years ago, said refugees and immigrants often face challenges as they start their new lives in Canada and that he has faced some of those challenges himself.

"There are many moments of love and hope that help us overcome these challenges," Alghabra said in Arabic.

"I'm confident that you all will succeed and you will play a notable role in building Canada."

Several Syrian newcomers shared their stories as they continue rebuild their lives in their new country.

Khatib said she was initially sad the celebration couldn't happen in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But now she realizes it was a blessing, with almost 700 people from across the country registering to attend online.

Khatib's organization is based in Mississauga, Ont., and provides services for newcomers in several cities in Ontario.

She said the private sponsorship program that allows Canadians and permanent residents to sponsor refugees has helped many to pitch in and help.

"The government always does have an important role to play in supporting (those affected by) a humanitarian crisis, but private citizens ... and community groups can come together to support refugees directly as well and that's what happened in Canada," she said.

Trudeau said the the private sponsorship program proved to be successful after being in place for more than 40 years

"(The program) is a Canadian model now used all around the world," he said. "This program is the story of all Canadians from big cities to the smallest towns, whose generosity and kindness has changed hundreds of thousands of lives."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 14, 2020

———

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Maan Alhmidi, The Canadian Press

Natty Light Just Unveiled the 'Most Expensive Piece of Art in the World' — and You'll Never Guess What It's Made Of

© Provided by Travel + Leisure Natural Light

Natural Light Beer has long been the favored beverage on college campuses across the United States. Now, the beer company — lovingly referred to as Natty Light — is making a major effort to return all that love to college students everywhere.

On Wednesday, the company made history by unveiling the "most expensive" piece of art in the world in an effort to bring attention to the rising cost of college and the impact of college debt.

Entitled Da Vinci of Debt, the piece is made using 2,600 authentic diplomas provided by real college graduates across the nation.

"The art world is filled with absurd price tags that most people find impossible to justify," Daniel Blake, Vice President of Value Brands at Anheuser-Busch, shared in a statement about the piece, which now hangs in Vanderbilt Hall in New York City's Grand Central Terminal. "That's what made it the perfect medium for this campaign. It's a very fitting analogy for the outrageous cost of attending a typical four-year college and through Da Vinci of Debt, we hope to inspire action around the college debt crisis and drive more fans to enter for a chance to have the Natty College Debt Relief Program pay down their student loans."

According to Natural Light, Da Vinci of Debt's value is derived from the average total cost of a four-year college education. That means the 2,600 diplomas that make up the installation are valued at $470 million, "besting the most expensive piece of art ever sold at public auction — Salvator Mundi, a 600-year-old Da Vinci painting that sold for $450 million in 2017."

The installation sees the diplomas hang in mid-air in the hall "as if a gale of wind had just scattered all 2,600 of them throughout the cavernous, 6,000 square foot space at Grand Central Terminal's Vanderbilt Hall," the company explained. The design, it added, is meant to illustrate both the scale of crippling student loan debt and to allude to the "chaotic impact college debt creates for those who are burdened by it."

Beyond creating a buzzed-about piece of art, the beer company is also putting its money where its mouth is with the Natural Light College Debt Relief program, which originally launched in 2018.

According to the company, each year, the program "provides $1 million to help students and graduates who are weighed down by the burden of debt." It's now in the fourth year of its proposed 10-year, $10 million commitment. And, the company will even sell its new artwork to the highest bidder to raise even more funds to help more grads.

"If it means giving more people the opportunity to enjoy the college experience without the debt that follows, we're all ears," Blake added. "Natty is dedicated to doing everything we can to provide real solutions to college debt, and if there is a serious bidder, you know where to find us...@naturallightbeer."

Those in New York can see the installation for themselves from Jan. 14-16, 2021. Anyone interested in viewing from afar can also see it on its virtual site.

And, anyone interested in applying for college debt relief can do so by sharing with the beer company what inspired them to go to college. Natural Light will be accepting entries using #NattyStories and #Contest from Jan. 11 through March 31, 2021. For more on the contest, the art, and the beer, check out Natty Light's website now.

Stacey Leasca is a journalist, photographer, and media professor. She'll school you on the beer pong table with Natty Light any day of the week. Send tips and follow her on Instagram now.

Lawmaker removes mask to sneeze at impeachment hearing
Duration: 00:41 

David Cicilline,(D) a state representative from Rhode Island, was caught on camera removing his face mask to sneeze during the impeachment proceedings in the U.S. House on Wednesday.

HE ALSO FAILED TO SNEEZE INTO HIS ARM, NOT HIS HANDS

Holocaust denier in Alberta defends Florida principal who said, ‘Not everyone agrees in the Holocaust’

An Alberta Holocaust denier who was convicted for “incitement to hatred” in Germany has inserted herself into a Florida debate over the firing of a school principal who said, as school board employee, he wasn’t able to confirm the veracity of the Holocaust.

© Provided by National Post Former federal Green party candidate Monika Schaefer refers to the Holocaust as “the six-million lie” and claims 'these things did not happen'.

Monika Schaefer, from Jasper, Alta., was convicted in Germany in October 2018 and sentenced to 10 months in jail. She was released on time served, CBC reported.

Now, more than two years later, as president of the Truth and Justice for Germans Society, which claims to counter “the war propaganda regurgitated to this day,” Schaefer has written an open letter to the Palm Beach County School Board in Boca Raton, Fla., urging the reinstatement of the fired principal.

William Latson had been removed from Spanish River High School over an email from the year prior, when he wrote to a parent saying, “I can’t say the Holocaust is a factual, historical event because I am not in a position to do so as a school district employee.”

“Not everyone agrees in the Holocaust,” the email said, according to local media.

Schaefer — who ran as the Green Party candidate for the riding of Yellowhead in three federal elections — stepped into the fray with an open letter after Latson was fired for good last October after a court battle and backlash. 

Alex Rose: The complicated legacy of Holocaust education

Facebook updates policies, bans Holocaust denial or distortion content

Michal Schlesinger, with B’nai Brith Canada, said it’s “appalling but not surprising” to see Schaefer “spreading her tentacles of anti-Semitic hatred related to Holocaust across our southern border.”

She posted the open letter on the website of the “Truth and Justice for Germans Society.” The letter, dated Jan. 8, said the group is “appalled” that Latson was fired “because he could not confirm the holocaust story.”

According to local news reports, the letter was also sent to teachers and staff of the high school.

“What other event in history is so untouchable, that even a neutral stance on it will have a teacher dismissed for saying they cannot confirm that it happened?” the letter says.

The letter goes on to detail several conspiracy theories about the number of Jews who died in the Holocaust. Historians place the number of deaths around six million members of the European Jewry, with another five million people killed in Nazi death camps.

According to BocaNewsNow, under Florida law, email addresses for school staff are public, and staff and teachers reached out to the outlet last week after receiving the email from Schaefer.

CREEPY CRAWLERS

Mystery of massive, train-stopping millipede swarms solved
For over a century, thousands of poisonous millipedes have swarmed train tracks in the thick, forested mountains of Japan, forcing trains to grind to a halt. These "train millipedes," so-called for their famous obstructions, would appear every so often — and then disappear again for years at a time. Now, scientists have figured out why.  

© Provided by Live Science Swarms of millipedes travel to new feeding grounds, 

sometimes across train tracks.

It turns out that these millipedes (Parafontaria laminata armigera), endemic to Japan, have an unusually long, and synchronous, eight-year life cycle. Such long "periodical" life cycles — in which a population of animals moves through the phases of life at the same time — have only previously been confirmed in some species of cicadas with 13- and 17-year life cycles, as well as in bamboos and some other plants.


"This millipede is the first non-insect arthropod among all periodical organisms," said senior author Jin Yoshimura, a professor emeritus in the department of mathematics and systems engineering at Shizuoka University in Japan, who has conducted research on periodical cicadas for the last two decades.

Related: Gallery: Dazzling photos of dew-covered insects

Train operators in Japan first observed an outbreak of train millipedes in 1920; they had to briefly stop their train as they waited for the creepy crawlers to pass over the tracks. According to various accounts, the millipedes returned every eight years or so after that, each time forming a dense blanket that was impossible to pass through. In 1977, first author Keiko Niijima, a researcher at the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, first proposed that they might have an eight-year periodical cycle.

Now, Niijima, Momoka Nii, also a professor in the department of mathematical and systems engineering at Shizuoka University, and Yoshimura have confirmed the life cycle using reports of historical outbreaks and detailed surveys. Over many years, the authors collected millipedes from mountains in Honshu, Japan, and conducted research on the critters; they determined their life stages by counting the number of legs and body segments, as these are particular to the age of a millipede.

The researchers found that multiple broods of this population each have their own synchronization; in other words, one brood might be in the egg phase whereas another may be full-grown adults. Each population cycles through its entire life cycle in eight years.

The brood of millipedes that periodically appear on the train tracks doesn't have an affinity for train tracks or mean to be disruptive; rather, the insects are just trying to get to feeding grounds that are sometimes on the other side of the tracks. It just so happens that the railroad is an "obstacle" in their journey to new feeding grounds, Yoshimura told Live Science. To survive, these train millipedes munch on dead or decaying leaves sandwiched between the soil and the fresh leaves on the surface, Yoshimura said.

Because they live in such large numbers, the adults and seventh nymphs — the stage before becoming adults — quickly munch up all available food where they are born; and so they begin a trek to move to a new feeding site, he said. At that second site, they eat the decaying leaves, mate with each other, lay a batch of new eggs and later die.

The researchers hypothesize that their elongated life cycles could be synchronized with winter hibernation. Unlike periodical cicadas that emerge in mass numbers and thus make each individual less likely to succumb to predators, these train millipedes don’t need that added protection from predators. They already have a pretty good defense mechanism: when attacked, they release the poison cyanide, the researchers said.

The findings were published Jan. 13 in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

Originally published on Live Science.