8th-Century Anglo-Saxon trading hub discovered in England

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF - 

An 8th-century monastery on the banks of Berkshire, England was unearthed in an excavation led by the University of Reading this month, Reading University announced Friday.


A strip of gold bearing a Biblical inscription is seen amongst a hoard of Anglo-Saxon treasure named© (photo credit: REUTERS/ Eddie Keogh)

The discovery marks one of the most extensively preserved early medieval monastic sites ever found in Britain. The monastery includes well-preserved infrastructure like a waterside loading area, workshops for industrial activities like metalworking, and bread ovens – indicating that the site worked as a trade center.

“This is a once-in-a-generation archaeological discovery. We have not just rediscovered the location of this monastery but shown that it’s in a remarkable state of preservation.”Dr. Gabor Thomas

“This is a once-in-a-generation archaeological discovery. We have not just rediscovered the location of this monastery but shown that it’s in a remarkable state of preservation,” Dr. Gabor Thomas, lead archaeologist at the University of Reading excavation, said.


This is the university's main Whiteknights campus. The principal building to be seen is the HumSS building, with a sliver of University admin building visible to the right. (credit: ANDREW SMITH via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

What made the monastery an economic hub?

Dr. Thomas explained that the monastery was complete with streets, loading areas, and other infrastructure that was uncommon at the time in England.

“The discoveries at Cookham will enable us to build a detailed picture of daily life within a monastery of this period, including Cookham’s role as an economic hub for the Middle Thames region,” added Thomas.

Reading University said the area "could have enjoyed similarly important status as a trade and production center to larger towns like London and Southampton."

The monastery is believed to have thrived in the 8th and early 9th centuries, reaching its peak under the control of powerful Anglo-Saxon queen Cynethryth – the only Anglo-Saxon queen known to have been depicted on a coin.

Opinion: Why the federal oil and gas emissions cap is a win for Albertans

Jan Gorski - 

Tradition tells us that when our oil and gas industry is experiencing a boom, we feel the benefits right through our economy.


A heavy hauler truck drives through an oilsands mine near Fort McMurray, Alta.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal

In this sense, it is in every Albertan’s interest that our oil and gas sector remains competitive. Which is why you might have been alarmed to hear some political and industry figures claim in recent weeks that forthcoming federal regulations aimed at capping and cutting sector emissions will be tantamount to a forced production cut that would hurt the industry, and Alberta’s economic outlook.

But look more deeply at the policy and the context, and you’ll find the opposite is true. We are actually talking about preparing our oil and gas sector for the future.

The outlook for fossil fuel production everywhere is changing, as governments are taking their climate commitments seriously. Multiple credible agencies now forecast that the current pace of technology improvement and international climate action will result in demand for oil plateauing and declining by 2030. One example is the rapid decline in the cost of electric vehicles resulting in a swift uplift in people making the switch. According to the International Energy Agency, EVs represented just over two per cent of vehicle sales globally in 2019; by the end of 2021, market share had risen to nine per cent — with early figures for 2022 indicating the trend is set to continue.

As international climate policy action continues to ramp up, global competition amongst oil and gas producers will intensify. In 2030, 2050 and beyond, producers with the best climate credentials are going to be best-placed to compete internationally for the reduced demand. And despite some improvements in emissions per barrel of production in the last decade, Canadian oil production from well to vehicle tank has an emissions intensity of 147 per cent of the global average (second only to Venezuela) .

Efforts by the federal government to cap and cut absolute emissions can therefore be seen as a recognition that in the medium long term, to keep up with the ESG demands of investors — and in a context of reduced oil demand overall — producers must decarbonize their operations to stay competitive. In doing so, the industry can not only do its fair share in combating climate change, but also make sure looming financial liabilities of cleaning up disused wells and oilsands tailings ponds do not end up being piled on to Albertans, when producers themselves can no longer meet those costs due to being outcompeted. This is a problem made worse by the provincial government recently taking steps to strip away all requirements for companies to put aside money to clean up tailings ponds.

An irrefutable sign the industry itself recognizes falling oil demand outlooks, is that this is the first major oil price boom that isn’t being accompanied by investment in new production facilities. Despite record revenues the past few years, companies have been focused on paying down debt, buying back shares, and paying dividends to investors. According to the Bank of Canada , capital expenditure as a percentage of cashflow in the oil and gas industry is now at a record low.

Those windfall profits could be wisely invested in decarbonization measures, that would both future-proof the sector for the low-carbon competition of the near future, and satisfy the federal government’s climate wishes. The Pathways Alliance, which represents over 95 per cent of Canada’s oilsands industry, has made big promises on decarbonization, showing they see why it’s important to their industry’s future.

The Pathways plan — which between now and 2030 hinges substantially on its pledge to build carbon-capture facilities in Alberta — received a big boost from Ottawa this year, in a 50-per-cent investment tax credit. This is an important signal from the federal government that, far from unfairly targeting the industry for punishment, it is willing to work with the sector to achieve decarbonization in a way producers themselves have identified as workable and non-damaging to their operations.

The cap is also a reflection of the government’s seriousness when it comes to Canada’s climate promises, in which every industry will need to do its part. Oil and gas production remains our biggest source of emissions, but is only being asked to do its fair share in contributing to the same economy-wide emissions cuts as everyone else.

Our research shows not only that the emissions reductions are achievable, but that that the sector has all the technology and funds it needs to get started right away; all that is missing was increased certainty in the investment environment. The emissions cap should solve that last problem.

Jan Gorski is director of the Pembina Institute’s oil and gas program.

Flooding has devastated Pakistan – and Britain’s imperial legacy has made it worse


Colonialism and its aftereffects have left regions such as south Punjab resource-starved, poverty-stricken and deeply vulnerable to floodwaters

‘Many farmers and agricultural labourers in Rajanpur, now a centre of the flooding, have lost their homes.’ Photograph: Asim Tanveer/AP

Shozab Raza
Wed 31 Aug 2022

Devastating flooding in Pakistan has killed more than 1,100 people this summer, injuring and displacing thousands more. Among Pakistan’s political elite, some have claimed that the floods are simply a natural disaster, while others blame climate breakdown. But both groups have failed to address another crucial factor: empire.

Pakistan gained its independence from the British empire in 1947, yet the reverberations of imperialism have endured. As a consequence, peripheral regions such as south Punjab, Balochistan and rural Sindh are resource-starved, exploited and poverty-stricken – factors that have grossly exacerbated the flood’s disastrous effects.

Take the story of Bashir Dasti, a tenant farmer I met a few years ago while doing fieldwork in south Punjab. Two weeks ago, his mud house was destroyed by flooding, as was the land he rented, the cotton he cultivated and the cattle he had spent years rearing. Many other farmers and agricultural labourers I got to know in Rajanpur, now a centre of the flooding, have also lost their homes and livelihoods. The Pakistan government has tasked local officials – patwaris – with adminstering relief for flood victims, yet when Bashir approached one, they tried to extort him: he was told that he would only be added to the list if he paid 10,000 Pakistani rupees (roughly £40). Bashir earns a meagre income from farming and pays exorbitant rent to his landlord, an aristocrat from a Baloch tribe called Leghari. He couldn’t pay that kind of money.


Pakistan floods: before-and-after images show extent of devastation

Back in the 19th century, the British Raj built alliances with local elites in order to secure its rule. In Rajanpur, Bashir’s district, this was particularly important – many tribal chiefs, including the Legharis, were armed and hostile. So in exchange for their loyalty, the Raj turned representative chiefs into unrepresentative aristocrats, granting them magisterial powers, a paramilitary apparatus and immense landed estates (jagirs) on newly irrigated land. The relationship set off a mutually beneficial pillaging of the region, whereby the British Raj and the now-landed aristocrats siphoned off rents, land revenues, and export cash cops like indigo, opium and cotton, all at the expense of previously pastoral tribesmen now forced to settle and toil as local farmers. Combined with expanding canal irrigation, tribesmen’s coerced settlement and exploitation – the British viewed seasonally migrating tribes as a security threat – left them further exposed to floods.

Because of this imperial patronage, as well as rising rents due to growing competition for tenancies with the decline of pastoral livelihoods, inequalities between landlords and peasants rose dramatically over the 19th and 20th centuries. While peasants lived in mud houses vulnerable to flooding – archives report several “great floods” affecting the south Punjab region – their chief landlords built lavish, well-fortified housing compounds on immense estates. By the 1920s, the highest-ranking Leghari aristocrat owned about 114,000 acres of land.

Empire-led extraction and exploitation continued throughout the 20th century, albeit in different forms and despite efforts to overturn it. From the 1950s, local political elites, in collaboration with western consultancy firms, started expanding the region’s irrigation and hydropower infrastructure, especially in constructing the Taunsa Barrage, which displaced thousands (and whose faulty World Bank-led repair in the early 2000s contributed to the 2010 floods). Dispossession and exploitation also escalated further as a consequence of insurrection.

In the 1970s, south Punjab was the site of major communist-led tenant movements that aimed to redistribute land, reduce inequalities and eradicate imperialist-landlord alliances; but the aristocracy crushed these movements, mobilising allies in the Pakistan People’s Party-led government as well as the paramilitary apparatus originally handed to their ancestors by the British. Chiefs also expelled rebelling tenants and set up more mechanised, capitalist farms, continuing the trend of seeking imperialist support by turning to lavishly paid American advisers and even the US state department. In doing so, chiefs and empire continued their collective pilfering of south Punjab, displacing and impoverishing its people in ways that left them more vulnerable to flood damage.

The Guardian view on climate chaos in Pakistan: adapt to survive

This empire-led extractivist relation endures today. At a national level, we see this in the form, not just of IMF loan conditionalities – which demand that Pakistan gut social spending and privatise industries in exchange for loans that ultimately profit western lenders – but also with new imperialistic actors like China and its resource-extractive, people-displacing China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). While CPEC is making inroads in places like south Punjab, the plunder also continues as, in a pattern seen elsewhere in the global south, earlier capitalist farming is being replaced by contract farming, by which landlords collect fixed cash rents. Explaining the reason for this, Mohsin Leghari, a major landed aristocrat from the Leghari tribe and Punjab’s finance minister, once told me: “When we lease our lands out on contract, we don’t lose anything when these floods come.”

Unlike contract farmers, the aristocracy have invested nothing in the land, and thus have nothing to lose. They can continue to collect rents, reinvesting them not in south Punjab to protect farmers from the consequences of flooding, but, as many did, in speculative real estate in global cities such as Lahore, Dubai and Vancouver.

While landlords can escape to their properties in these cities, as several told me they did during the 2010 floods, peasants like Bashir have nowhere else to go, experiencing what one scholar describes as an “emplaced displacement”. Their tragic predicament is ultimately a consequence of empire and an accomplice elite which, together, have viewed Pakistan’s peripheral regions as sites for plunder and profit.

Calls for climate reparations for Pakistan therefore make sense, but not just because of its recent experience with a global north-induced climate crisis. They are also necessary because of this much longer history. Beyond climate reparations, what Pakistan really needs are colonial reparations.

Shozab Raza is a postdoctoral associate at Yale University and an editor at Jamhoor magazine

Pakistan emits less than 1% of the world's planet-warming gases. It's now drowning

Rachel Ramirez - Today


Pakistan was already struggling when the devastating monsoon rains hit.

This year, economic and political crises have converged in the South Asian nation of more than 230 million, as food and fuel prices soared and former leader Imran Khan was forced from office.

Now its reeling with the worst floods in living memory.

Swaths of Pakistan are now underwater after experiencing the heaviest rains on record with little reprieve since mid-June. Some areas have seen five times their normal levels of monsoonal rain.

More than 1,100 people have died and 33 million people are impacted – that’s more than the population of Texas.

Torrents of water have smashed through entire villages and farmland, razing buildings and wiping out crops. Satellite images from Maxar Technologies shared with CNN show how communities have been wiped out, leaving behind little more than bare Earth and dust.

Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of the world’s planet-warming gases, European Union data shows, yet it is the eighth most vulnerable nation to the climate crisis, according to the Global Climate Risk Index. It’s paying a hefty price, not only with lives but destroyed schools, homes and bridges.

Officials estimate the total bill will be $10 billion. The recovery could take years, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Pakistan has said. And chances are any recovery will be interrupted by yet another disaster.

“We consistently see climate devastation in the forms of floods, monsoons, extensive droughts, extreme heat waves,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said in an interview with CNN’s Eleni Giokos on Tuesday.

“And frankly, the people of Pakistan, the citizens of Pakistan, are paying the price in their lives, their livelihoods for the industrialization of rich countries that has resulted in this climate change.”

The stark inequity of the climate crisis, which is bearing down hardest on nations that have historically had the least to do with causing it, is raising questions over who should pay for it, particularly for the damage that countries like Pakistan are coming to terms with.

The United Nations issued an appeal for $160 million in emergency funds on Tuesday, barely enough to scratch the surface of the $10 billion needed. Countries from the United States to Turkey are pitching in with aid, rescue helicopters, food and medical supplies. Yet the need is greater than what the world is giving.

These devastating scenes and eye-watering recovery costs are what the climate crisis looks like at 1.2 degrees Celsius of global warming since industrialization.

But the world is on track for warming of more than 2 degrees Celsius, analyses show, and scientists warn every fraction of a degree of warming will worsen the impacts of the crisis.

Fahad Saeed, a climate scientist with the group Climate Analytics, who is based in Islamabad, told CNN that Pakistan was in a Catch-22 situation. The country needs money to adapt to the crisis, yet because it has to pay for the damage that extreme weather is already causing it will struggle to find the funds it needs to adjust.

“What is happening right now at 1.2 degrees centigrade of warming is not because of the poor people in Pakistan,” he said. “They are not responsible for it, and this brings out the issue of climate justice in a very clear form.”

He added that Pakistan, like so many developing nations, needed to bring more people out of poverty, a difficult thing to do in the midst of back-to-back extreme weather events with such little financial support from abroad.

Saeed said Pakistan was in “a position to present a strong case” at the COP27 international climate talks in Egypt this November that other nations should help it pay to pick up the pieces. Developed and developing nations have remained generally divided over the issue for years.

The developed world agreed more than a decade ago to transfer at least $100 billion a year by 2020 to developing nations to help their transitions away from fossil fuels, but also to help them adapt to climate change. That amount has never been delivered in full.

More controversial is the issue of who should pay for the destruction. At the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, the US was one of several advanced nations that showed opposition to obligatory payments for “loss and damages” – essentially climate compensation – particularly for schemes based on historic responsibility.

Historically, the US accounts for the most greenhouse gas emissions in the world.

Satellite images reveal the scale of catastrophic flooding in Pakistan amid surging death toll

Laura HamiltonWednesday 31 Aug 2022

In new satellite images, the scale of the destruction caused by devastating flooding in Pakistan has been laid bare as the death toll hits 1,000. 380 children have died in what the United Nations has called an ‘unprecedented climate catastrophe’. Almost double the average rainfall has fallen during this summer’s monsoon season, a staggering 40cm in August alone – with some areas seeing more than double that again. Flash floods have swept away homes and swollen rivers have swallowed communities whole (Picture: AFP) Watch the video here

Over 15% of the total population – more than 33 million people – are impacted directly by the flooding. To add to this, the entire country now faces surging food prices because of the effect on crops. One minister claimed this week that as much as one third of the country is completely submerged, an area of more than 160,000 km sq (Credit: Maxar Technology)

The army is working to rescue people from remote areas, and helicopters drafted in to lift people from rooftops and patches of dry land. Areas along the Indus river are continuing to face rising waters as water pours into the vast river which flows down the middle of the country. The United Nations is attempting to coordinate an international relief effort and has warned almost $163 million is needed urgently (Picture: Anadolu)

Pakistan experiences monsoons every year but this season’s rainfall has broken records. As smaller routes around the countryside are inundated, help is yet to reach many villagers, while main roads raised above the fields have become refuges. Families, sometimes with their livestock, have fled the flooded fields and are living in makeshift camps on the elevated sites. Early estimates made by Pakistan’s government put the eventual recovery price at more than $10 billion. Fears are growing about the spread of waterborne diseases in stagnant floodwater, some of which has been sitting since mid-June. Doctors working on the ground report seeing rising cases of diarrhoea, skin infections and other illnesses. (Picture: Anadolu)

Tens of millions of people have been impacted by the flooding, with entire towns under water. Kamran Bangash, a government spokesperson in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said relief efforts were pivoting to the provision of food and clean drinking water. He said hundreds have already fallen ill in the aftermath, adding: ‘We fear the outbreak of the waterborne disease in flood-hit areas. In recent weeks, floodwater badly affected hundreds of thousands of people. We don’t want them to again suffer, this time due to non-availability of clean water and it can be avoided’ (Picture: AFP)

Town centres across the country have been deluged by rainwater in recent weeks. The scale of the crisis may even necessitate a temporary thaw in trade relations with India, the neighbour which it has fought three wars with since 1947. Pakistan’s foreign minister said the largely sealed and heavily fortified border could be opened in places to allow food and aid supplies to get through (Picture: EPA)

There is pressure on the international community to provide relief for families left with nothing. Finance minister Miftah Ismail said: ‘More than one international agency has approached the government to allow them to bring food items from India through the land border. The government will take the decision to allow imports or not based on supply shortage position, after consulting its coalition partners and key stakeholders’ (Picture: AP)

Scientists Just Found Living Organisms From Over 800 Million Years Ago

Doug Norrie - Yesterday - Giant Freakin Robot

It would be easy to think that we've found, uncovered, or unearthed nearly everything there is to know about our Earth. Heck, we've been here a long time now, and our scientific prowess is only improving. But that wouldn't be the case. Far from it. In fact, scientists are still discovering organisms in the most unexpected places and it can tell us quite a bit about our history on this blue orb. Now it looks like they've dug up actual living microorganisms from more than 800 million years old. Sound like the beginning of a scary, end-of-the-world science fiction/ horror story? Sure does. But this is what we are dealing with these days and scientists may have discovered one of the more interesting findings yet.


Scientists Just Found Living Organisms From Over 800 Million Years Ago

© Provided by Giant Freakin Robot

The discovery was made by a team from West Virginia University led by geologist Sara Schreder-Gomes. This group was studying crystals found in the Browne Formation which is located in central Australia. These crystals are made of halite and date back to around 830 million years ago. These particular crystals have proven advantageous for scientists studying ancient life and microorganisms for a number of different reasons.

That's because this halite can tell scientists quite a bit about the saltwater environments in which they formed millions of years ago and offer a chance to study the algal life that can be trapped inside at the time of the forming. The rock salt crystals hold up incredibly well (understatement) over time and using non-invasive methods scientists can study the water samples which were trapped inside the crystal at the time of its forming. Inside these halite crystals, scientists found prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. The assumption is that they could even still be alive within the crystal now after all these years. These could be microhabitats that have survived on their own, unchanged, after all this time. It's a fascinating discovery

Finding a possible living organism from more than 800 million years ago is exciting on its own. This particular finding can help scientists know quite a bit about the water conditions from the time and can offer insight into the Earth's makeup in that region as well as the formation of life at the time. But it also has implications for the exploration of other planets as well as our ability to study microorganisms there. It means that using these same, non-invasive procedures, scientists could study planets where water once existed (Mars maybe) and look at whether organisms have survived millions of years in a similar fashion.


This new version of discovery, that doesn't alter the original formations could be critical in finding out about life on other planets as well as our own. It means not having to compromise the original sample in an effort to make key discoveries about the microorganisms possibly still living inside.

Finding ancient living things, like these microorganisms is key in how we understand our planet and other planets. And hopefully, this isn't the start of some campy sci-fi movie where the ancient organisms are released and find their way to taking down the entire planet.

1,400-year-old folding chair found in Bavaria

Deutsche Welle - Yesterday 

The archaeological find is a rarity: An early medieval folding chair has been unearthed in a woman's grave in the Bavarian region of Middle Franconia.Anyone who thinks folding chairs are an invention of the modern age is far wrong. In the Bavarian region of Middle Franconia, an excavation team has discovered a folding chair that is believed to date from around 600 AD, in other words, from the early Middle Ages. This was announced by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Protection in Munich on Monday.


The 1,400-year-old folding chair discovered in Germany© BLfD/dpa/picture alliance

It is the second find of this kind on German soil. On a European scale, 29 sites of discovery of early medieval graves that include folding chairs have been revealed.

The grave included a chair, measuring about 70 by 45 centimeters (28 by 18 inches) in its folded state, that had been placed at the feet of a dead person. "This find, which at first glance seems so modern, is an absolute rarity and of the highest cultural-historical interest, because it provides insight into the grave furnishings of elevated classes of the population and into the early use of furniture," said State Office director Mathias Pfeil.

Other artifacts discovered, like beads and a belt

According to experts, people have made iron and bronze folding chairs since ancient times.

They were an important badge of office in society, symbolizing power, authority and dignity. According to the state office, as grave goods, they appear predominantly in women's graves.

In addition to the skeleton of a woman who, according to an initial estimate, was about 40 to 50 years old, the excavation team discovered in the grave a necklace made of colored glass beads and a belt with a pendant made of brooches and a large pearl, among other things.

In addition, the experts uncovered a man's grave. It included a belt with a bronze buckle and a complete set of weapons.

This article was originally written in German.

vg/ka (with dpa)

Copyright 2022 DW.COM, Deutsche Welle. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

North Vancouver Island health care is in an ‘evolving state of crisis,’ new leaked document shows


Most of the North Island region — not only Port Hardy — is facing doctor and nursing shortages as well as significant gaps in medical imaging and lab services, a document leaked to Canada’s National Observer shows.

The region has been in an “evolving state of crisis” since the pandemic began, an Aug. 5 briefing note by the North Island chapter of the Rural and Remote Division of Family Practice states. This is the second document leaked to Canada’s National Observer on the issue.

The area is expected to continue bleeding doctors, according to the document detailing medical staff levels and expected vacancies for a meeting with Island Health.

Alert Bay, a ferry-dependent community of 1,200, is expected to have no doctors staffing its emergency department and medical clinic by early December, the document shows.

All three physician positions at the Cormorant Island Health Centre are predicted to be vacant by Dec. 2.

As of April, the vacancy rate for registered nurses (RNs) — responsible for baseline emergency care at the facility — is 67 per cent. And the vacancy rate for licensed practical nurses (LPNs), who typically provide routine care to patients and assist RNs and physicians, is 50 per cent.

Laboratory and X-ray services are only provided on variable days during the week and there is no after-hours medical imaging, the document added. Patient transport is also limited by BC Ferries sailing times and there is no dedicated water taxi for medical issues.

As previously reported by Canada’s National Observer, come September, Port Hardy, which should have the equivalent of seven full-time physicians, will only have three doctors serving the town’s hospital emergency room and medical clinic.

But the anticipated doctor shortage is compounded by high nursing vacancy rates at the Port Hardy Hospital, the leaked document shows.

There is an RN vacancy rate of 46 per cent as of April and an 80 per cent vacancy rate for LPNs at the hospital that serves approximately 4,000 residents in the region.

Lab and X-ray technician staffing is also at a critical level, with lab analysis and X-rays only provided on an on-call basis at night at both the Port Hardy and Port McNeill hospitals.

The nearest centre for advanced medical imaging, such as CT scans, is 240 kilometres away, or a 2.5-hour journey by road to Campbell River, which increases the existing strain on ambulance transport, the document said.

Related video: Family doctor shortage straining healthcare system
Duration 2:53 View on Watch

The ongoing recruitment of doctors and other care providers to the region remains a key priority, said a joint written statement to Canada’s National Observer from Island Health and the Rural and Remote Division of Family Practice (RRDFP).

Two new doctors are now working in Port McNeill at the just-opened medical clinic owned and operated by Island Health and a new doctor has committed to begin practice in Port Hardy in November, the statement said.

A new task force that includes Port Hardy doctors and representatives from Island Health, the RRDFP, and Doctors of BC aims to create strategies to help health-care providers deliver quality care to patients.

The group’s immediate focus is to ensure reliable and predictable emergency care services in the region, and support access to primary care services, the joint statement from Island Health said.

“There has also been substantial effort to maintain services and provide high-quality, culturally safe patient care during this difficult time,” the email added.

“But we know additional collaborative and innovative approaches that support the doctors and health-care providers who work in the region … are necessary.”

Port McNeill, which should have five doctors to serve approximately 3,000 residents and surrounding remote communities, now has one outstanding doctor vacancy, thresholds in the leaked document show.

Nursing vacancies appear less severe, with an RN vacancy rate at the hospital of 38 per cent as of April, according to the document.

But the combined doctor and nursing shortages are resulting in an increased number of temporary emergency room closures and ambulance diversions from one emergency room to another occurring on a daily basis, ultimately putting patient care at risk, the document added.

The health-care challenges in the region are not unique to North Island but are reflective of issues across the province and Canada, the Island Health joint statement said.

A collaborative effort, which will include the First Nations Health Authority, Indigenous communities, and municipal leaders, will follow to create a sustainable health-care system to meet both patient and medical staff needs, it said.

No representatives from Island Health nor the Rural and Remote Division of Family Practice were available for interviews despite requests from Canada’s National Observer.

Health Minister Adrian Dix's office also did not respond to CNO’s questions or requests for comment or interviews.


Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

NATURAL JUSTICE

Lion rips man apart after he tries to steal rare white cub at zoo: Police
Luke Gentile - Yesterday 

A man died Sunday when he was ripped apart after climbing inside a lion enclosure in a suspected attempt to steal a rare white cub, authorities said.



The incident occurred at Ghana’s Accra Zoo around noon, according to a report.

Guards at the zoo noticed that a man had climbed a 20-foot-tall fence and entered an enclosure home to a lion, a lioness, and two cubs, the report noted.

"The intruder was attacked and injured by one of the lions," Ghana’s state Forestry Commission said in a statement.

The injuries sustained in the attack proved to be fatal.

"The police are working with the management of the zoo and the forestry commission to get to the bottom of this unfortunate incident," the Accra Police Service said.

A motive for the breach has not been determined, but officials suspect the man might have been attempting to steal one of the rare white cubs.

The unusual light coloring makes the fur very valuable for poachers, the report noted.

"The lions have cubs so if you come too close they may feel you are trying to take away their babies," Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources Benito Owusu Bio said.

The corpse of the victim has been recovered.

PHILIPPINES

Cultists burn Misamis Oriental woman, 84, alive for her 'great sins'

Nicholas Yong - Yesterday.

Public uproar has ensued in a town in eastern Misamis Oriental, after an 84-year-old woman was thrown into a fire by 11 members of her own clan, as part of a cult ritual to purge her of her “great sins”.

 (Photo: Getty Images)© Provided by Yahoo News

According to Rappler, the incident took place in the village of Baliwagan in Balingasag town, more than 50 kilometers from Cagayan de Oro City, on Sunday (August 28).

Police said that neighbors rushed to the crime scene, stopped the cultists, and took the victim Teofila Camongay to the town hospital where she subsequently died of third-degree burns.

Seven cult members have since been arrested.

The suspects belong to the Camongay, Cabusas, and Ercilla families – all members of a clan - and lived together in the small and close-knit community in Baliwagan.

They include 20-year-old cult leader Crisanto Ercilla, as well as children and grandchildren of Camongay. Police are also looking for two men and two women from the same clan, who were allegedly involved in the murder.

Investigators said it was Ercilla who ordered his followers to throw his grandmother into a fire after he beat her up for her "great sins." He and the other suspects will be charged with patricide charges on Tuesday, the same day that Camongay is to be buried.
Connection to the PBCM?

According to the police, Ercilla was a self-proclaimed spiritual guru. He claimed to be possessed by the spirit of the late Philippine Benevolent Christian Missionaries (PBCM) founder and master Tomas Eugenio Sr.

The PBCM is an offshoot of the powerful Ecleo political dynasty’s Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA) in the Dinagat Islands and Surigao del Norte.

Eugenio, who claimed to be the embodiment of the Holy Spirit, died in 2004. It is unclear if Ercilla and his followers are affiliated with the PBCM which is now led by Eugenio’s son and successor Charlie, and based in Jasaan, Misamis Oriental.

The story, which was broken by Cagayan de Oro broadcaster Magnum Radio, sparked swift condemnation from religious leaders and local officials.

Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Jose Cabantan called the crime "unimaginable", while Tablon parish priest the Reverend Father Vic Arellano said the suspects were "influenced by an evil spirit."

Misamis Oriental - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misamis_Oriental

Misamis Oriental (Cebuano: Sidlakang Misamis; Tagalog: Silangang Misamis) is a province located in the region of Northern Mindanao in the Philippines. Its capital, largest city and provincial center is the city of Cagayan de Oro, which is governed independently from the province. 

 ...

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Analysis: Scientists look to solve ozone threat to Africa's food security

By Gloria Dickie - Yesterday


Plant ecophysiologist Felicity Hayes places a damaged leaf of a Silver Birch tree inside a LI-COR analyser at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology research site near Bangor

© Reuters/PHIL NOBLE

ABERGWYNGREGYN, Wales (Reuters) - Plant scientist Felicity Hayes checks on her crops inside one of eight tiny domed greenhouses set against the Welsh hills. The potted pigeon pea and papaya planted in spring are leafy and green, soon to bear fruit.


A wheat sample exposed to increased levels of Ozone is seen at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology research site near Bangor

© Reuters/PHIL NOBLE

In a neighbouring greenhouse, those same plants look sickly and stunted. The pigeon pea is an aged yellow with pockmarked leaves; the papaya trees reach only half as tall.

The only difference between the two greenhouse atmospheres - ozone pollution.

Hayes, who works at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH), is pumping ozone gas at various concentrations into the greenhouses where African staple crops are growing. She is studying how rising ozone pollution might impact crop yields - and food security for subsistence farmers - in the developing world.


Spatial data analyst Katrina Sharps examines a wheat crop that has been exposed to increased levels of Ozone inside a solar dome at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology research site near Bangor

© Reuters/PHIL NOBLE

Ozone, a gas formed when sunlight and heat interact with fossil fuel emissions, can cause substantial losses for farmers, research suggests, by quickly aging crops before they reach full production potential and decreasing photosynthesis, the process by which plants turn sunlight into food.


Plant ecophysiologist Felicity Hayes monitors the level of Ozone being added to solar domes at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology research site near Bangor

© Reuters/PHIL NOBLE

Ozone stress also reduces plants' defences against pests.

A 2018 study in the journal Global Change Biology estimated global wheat losses from ozone pollution totalled $24.2 billion annually from 2010 to 2012.

In a January paper published in Nature Food, researchers tallied some $63 billion in wheat, rice and maize losses annually within the last decade in East Asia.

Scientists are particularly worried about Africa, which will see more vehicle traffic and waste burning as the population is set to double by mid-century.

That means more ozone pollution, a major challenge for smallholder farmers who make up 60% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa.

"There is a serious concern that ozone pollution will affect yields in the long run," said senior scientist Martin Moyo at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics in Zimbabwe.


Damage is seen on the leaf of a Silver Birch tree exposed to increased levels of Ozone at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology research site near Bangor

© Reuters/PHIL NOBLE

He called out an "urgent need for more rural studies to determine ozone concentrations" across the continent.

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Earlier this year, scientists with the UK-based non-profit Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) set up ozone monitoring equipment around cocoa and maize fields in Ghana, Zambia and Kenya.

But most African countries do not have reliable or consistent air pollution monitors, according to a 2019 UNICEF report. Among those that do, few measure ozone.

RISING OZONE

In the stratosphere, ozone protects the Earth from the sun's ultraviolet radiation. Closer to the planet's surface, it can harm plants and animals, including humans.

While air quality regulations have helped reduce ozone levels in the United States and Europe, the trend is set to spike in the opposite direction for fast-growing Africa and parts of Asia.

Climate change could also speed things along.

In areas of Africa with high fossil fuel emissions and frequent burning of forests or grassland, new research suggests hotter temperatures could make the problem worse as they can accelerate chemical reactions that create ozone.

While research has found North American wheat is generally less impacted by ozone than European and Asian counterparts, there have been fewer studies on African versions of the same crops that over decades of cultivation have been made more suitable to those environments.

Once every two weeks in a Nairobi market, farmers from the countryside bring samples of their ailing crops to a "plant doctor" in hopes of determining what is affecting their yields.

"A lot of (ozone) symptoms can be confused with mites or fungal damage," said CABI entomologist Lena Durocher-Granger. "Farmers might keep applying fertilizer or chemicals thinking it's a disease, but it's ozone pollution."

Her organization is working with UKCEH to help people identify signs of ozone stress and recommend fixes, such as watering less on high ozone days. Watering can leave leaf pores wide open, causing plants to take in even more ozone.

RESILIENT CROPS

In her Welsh greenhouses, Hayes was exposing crops in one dome to the lowest amount - 30 parts per billion - similar to the environment of North Wales. In the dome with the highest ozone level, plants were receiving more than triple that amount, mimicking North Africa's polluted conditions.

Hayes and her colleagues have found that certain African staples are more affected than others.

In a dome filled with a mid-level amount of ozone, North African wheat plants had quickly turned from green to yellow within just a few months.

"You get tiny thin grains that don't have all the good bits in them, a lot of husk on the outside and not as much protein and nutritional value," Hayes said.

That fits with research her team published last year on sub-Saharan plant cultivars, which found that ozone pollution could be lowering sub-Saharan wheat yields by as much as 13%.

Dry beans could fare worse, with estimated yield losses of up to 21% in some areas, according to the same study, published in Environmental Science and Pollution Research.

"Beans are a useful protein source in Africa, and subsistence farmers grow a lot of it," said Katrina

Sharps, a UKCEH spatial data analyst.

Sub-Saharan millet, however, seemed more ozone tolerant. Yet Africa produced about half as much millet as wheat in 2020.

"If the soil and growing conditions are suitable," Sharps said, "subsistence farmers may consider growing more millet."

(Reporting by Gloria Dickie; Editing by Katy Daigle, Marguerita Choy and Bill Berkrot)

Jamaica’s labour minister responds to workers’ claims of abuse at Canadian farms

Jamaica’s minister of labour and social security is refuting migrant workers’ claims that Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) is akin to “systemic slavery.”

Earlier this month, Jamaican farm workers in Ontario sent a letter to Minister Karl Samuda detailing abysmal living and working conditions on two farms he was set to tour days later. The letter urged Jamaica to lobby Canada to grant seasonal workers permanent resident status to address the precarity of being tied to an employer who can fire and deport workers at any time.

Nearly two weeks after visiting the farms, Samuda’s office released a statement responding to the letter that painted a different picture.

“While the conditions varied from farm to farm, the housing conditions ranged from good to excellent,” Samuda said. “We observed no evidence of mistreatment.”

He added that “it is not appropriate for the government of a democratic country to lobby another to grant its people permanent residency.”

An average of 10,000 Jamaicans participate in SAWP each year, a majority of whom are returning workers, said Samuda. He called the program “essential” to thousands of Jamaican families, rural communities and the entire country.

“I cannot see persons enthusiastically participating in a [program] for 35 years under the conditions which are now being asserted,” his statement reads.

The conditions he refers to were described in the farm workers’ letter as crowded and surveilled living quarters, insufficient food, physical intimidation and verbal threats from bosses, punishments for “not working fast enough” and exposure to dangerous pesticides.

It is important to protect the rights of farm workers and safeguard the program, said Samuda.

The anonymous workers who wrote to Samuda with their grievances say they feel “betrayed” by his response, according to a press release from Migrant Workers Alliance for Change. They said their bosses threatened to shut down the farm after their appeal to the minister garnered media attention.

The Jamaican government employs liaison officers based in Canada to safeguard the interests of workers and address any challenges they experience, Samuda’s statement noted. The liaison service collaborates with Canadian authorities to investigate reports of mistreatment and relocate workers if needed, it added.

In their letter to Samuda, Jamaican workers said liaison officers do not respond to their calls for help, or worse, side with the bosses and make it difficult for them to be rehired next season.

The minister’s message is clear: migrant workers can’t look to the authorities for help; they must protect themselves, the workers’ statement said.

Foreign workers have the same rights to workplace protections as Canadians and permanent residents under applicable federal, provincial and territorial employment standards and collective agreements, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) communications officer Jeffrey MacDonald told Canada’s National Observer in an emailed statement. Along with reporting mistreatment to provincial and territorial labour authorities — which establish labour and workplace safety standards for all workers — tips can be reported to Service Canada.

As of June 2019, foreign workers with an employer-specific work permit can apply for an open work permit if they are being mistreated by their current employer, which allows them to find work on another farm, MacDonald said.

When this happens, the worker’s former place of work is inspected and employers found breaking program rules can be fined or banned from hiring foreign workers.

“Tens of thousands of temporary workers transition to permanent status each year,” the IRCC statement said, noting: “Of the 406,000 foreign nationals who became permanent residents in 2021, nearly 169,000 of them transitioned from worker status.”

The department said it will continue to explore methods to improve the process of transitioning foreign nationals from temporary status to permanent residency.

Despite Samuda’s response, migrant workers will continue to organize and push for permanent residency “to combat these abusive bosses so they have less power to threaten us and our families,” the authors of the letter said.

“The agri-food industry in Canada exported C$82.2 billion worth of goods, which is four times the GDP of Jamaica,” Syed Hussan, executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, said in a press release. “It is no surprise that the Jamaican government has turned to exporting people for the sake of remittances, and takes the side of exploitative bosses instead of workers.”

Natasha Bulowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer