UH OH, GLOW IN THE DARK

China nuclear plant: US assessing reported leak at facility in Taishan, Guangdong

By Zachary Cohen, CNN 


The US government has spent the past week assessing a report of a leak at a Chinese nuclear power plant, after a French company that part owns and helps operate it warned of an "imminent radiological threat," according to US officials and documents reviewed by CNN.

© Deng Hua/Xinhua/Alamy RBTWTW Beijing, China. 20th Dec, 2018. Photo taken on Dec. 20, 2018 shows the first phase project of Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in Taishan, south China's Guangdong Province. Credit: Deng Hua/Xinhua/Alamy Live News

The warning included an accusation that the Chinese safety authority was raising the acceptable limits for radiation detection outside the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in Guangdong province in order to avoid having to shut it down, according to a letter from the French company to the US Department of Energy obtained by CNN.

Despite the alarming notification from Framatome, the French company, the Biden administration believes the facility is not yet at a "crisis level," one of the sources said.

While US officials have deemed the situation does not currently pose a severe safety threat to workers at the plant or Chinese public, it is unusual that a foreign company would unilaterally reach out to the American government for help when its Chinese state-owned partner is yet to acknowledge a problem exists. The scenario could put the US in a complicated situation should the leak continue or become more severe without being fixed.

However, concern was significant enough that the National Security Council held multiple meetings last week as they monitored the situation, including two at the deputy level and another gathering at the assistant secretary level on Friday, which was led by NSC Senior Director for China Laura Rosenberger and Senior Director for Arms Control Mallory Stewart, according to US officials.

The Biden administration has discussed the situation with the French government and their own experts at the Department of Energy, sources said. The US has also been in contact with the Chinese government, US officials said, though the extent of that contact is unclear.

The US government declined to explain the assessment but officials at the NSC, State Department and the Department of Energy insisted that if there were any risk to the Chinese public, the US would be required to make it known under current treaties related to nuclear accidents.

Framatome had reached out to the US in order to obtain a waiver that would allow them to share American technical assistance in order to resolve the issue at the Chinese plant. There are only two reasons why this waiver would be granted, and one is an "imminent radiological threat," the same verbiage used in the June 8 memo.

The memo claims the Chinese limit was increased to exceed French standards, yet it remains unclear how that compares to US limits.

"It is not surprising that the French would reach out," according to Cheryl Rofer, a nuclear scientist who retired from Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2001. "In general, this sort of thing is not extraordinary, particularly if they think the country they are contacting has some special ability to help."

"But China likes to project that everything is just fine, all the time," she added.

The US could give permission for Framatome to provide the technical assistance or support to help resolve the issue, but it is the Chinese government's decision whether the incident requires shutting down the plant completely, the documents obtained by CNN indicate.

Ultimately, the June 8 request for assistance from Framatome is the only reason why the US became involved in the situation at all, multiple sources told CNN.

However, the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant published a statement on its website Sunday night local time, maintaining that environmental readings for both the plant and its surrounding area were "normal."

The two nuclear reactors in Taishan are both operational, the statement said, adding that Unit 2 had recently completed an "overhaul" and "successfully connected to the grid on June 10, 2021." The statement did not define why or how the plant was overhauled.

"Since it was put into commercial operation, the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant has strictly controlled the operation of the units in accordance with operating license documents and technical procedures. All operating indicators of the two units have met the requirements of nuclear safety regulations and power plant technical specifications," the statement noted.

In a separate statement Friday, hours after CNN first reached out for comment, Framatome acknowledged the company "is supporting resolution of a performance issue with the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in Guangdong Province, China."

"According to the data available, the plant is operating within the safety parameters. Our team is working with relevant experts to assess the situation and propose solutions to address any potential issue," the statement added.

Framatome would not directly address the content of the letter to the Department of Energy when asked by CNN.

The letter comes as tensions between Beijing and Washington remain high and as G7 leaders met this weekend in the United Kingdom with China an important topic of discussion. There are no indications the reports of a leak were discussed at a high level at the summit.

Video: Concerns over possible leak at nuclear plant in southern China (CNN)

Duration 3:30

French utility company Electrictie de France (EDF) said in a statement it has been informed of an increase concentration of "noble gases in the primary circuit" of reactor number one of the Taishan nuclear power plant.

EDF holds a 30% stake in the company with Chinese state energy company China General Nuclear Power Group in TNPJVC, which owns and operates the power plant in southern China.

EDF says "the presence of certain noble gases in the primary circuit is a known phenomenon, studied and provided for in the reactor operating procedures," but did not elaborate on gas levels.

CNN has reached out to the Chinese authorities in Beijing and Guangdong province, where the plant is located, and the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC. None have responded directly, though China is amidst a three-day national holiday that runs through the end of Monday.

A warning from a French nuclear company

The issue first emerged when Framatome, a French designer and supplier of nuclear equipment and services that was contracted to help construct and operate the Chinese-French plant, reached out to the US Department of Energy late last month informing them of a potential issue at the Chinese nuclear plant.

The company, mainly owned by EDF, the French utility company, then submitted an operational safety assistance request on June 3, formally asking for a waiver that would allow them to address an urgent safety matter, to the Department of Energy, warning American officials that the nuclear reactor is leaking fission gas.

The company followed up with DOE on June 8 asking for an expedited review of their request, according to a memo obtained by CNN.

"The situation is an imminent radiological threat to the site and to the public and Framatome urgently requests permission to transfer technical data and assistance as may be necessary to return the plant to normal operation," read the June 8 memo from the company's subject matter expert to the Energy Department.

Framatome reached out to the US government for assistance, the document indicates, because a Chinese government agency was continuing to increase its limits on the amount of gas that could safely be released from the facility without shutting it down, according to the documents reviewed by CNN.

When asked by CNN for comment, the Energy Department did not directly address the memo's claim that China was raising the limits.

In the June 8 memo, Framatome informed DOE the Chinese safety authority has continued to raise regulatory "off-site dose limits." It also says the company suspects that limit might be increased again as to keep the leaking reactor running despite safety concerns for the surrounding population.

"To ensure off-site dose limits are maintained within acceptable bounds to not cause undue harm to the surrounding population, TNPJVC (operator of Taishan-1) is required to comply with an regulatory limit and otherwise shut the reactor down if such a limit is exceeded," the June 8 memo reads.

It notes that this limit was established at a level consistent with what is dictated by the French safety authority, but "due to the increasing number of failures," China's safety authority, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has since revised the limit to more than double the initial release, "which in turn increases off-site risk to the public and on-site workers."

As of May 30, the Taishan reactor had reached 90% of the allegedly revised limit, the memo adds, noting concerns the plant operator may be "petitioning the NNSA to further increase the shutdown limit on an exigent basis in an effort to keep running which in turn would continue to increase the risk to the off-site population and the workers at the plant site."

The NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency in China responsible for enhancing national security through the military application of nuclear and radiation science.

The US State Department came into possession of the June 8 letter and immediately began engaging with interagency partners and with the French government, State Department officials said.

Over the course of 48-72 hours, the US government has been in repeated contact with French officials and US technical experts at DOE, State Department officials said, noting that this flurry of activity was due to the June 8 letter.

Subsequently, there were several urgent questions for the French government and Framatome, they added. CNN has reached out to the French embassy in Washington for comment.

Still, Rofer, the retired nuclear scientist, warns that a gas leak could indicate bigger problems.

"If they do have a gas leak, that indicates some of their containment is broken," Rofer said. "It also argues that maybe some of the fuel elements could be broken, which would be a more serious problem."

"That would be a reason for shutting down the reactor and would then require the reactor to be refueled," Rofer told CNN, adding that removing the fuel elements must be done carefully.

For now, US officials do not think the leak is at "crisis level," but acknowledge it is increasing and bears monitoring, the source familiar with the situation told CNN.

While there is a chance the situation could become a disaster, US officials currently believe it is more likely that it will not become one, the source added.

China has expanded its use of nuclear energy in recent years, and it represents about 5% of all power generated in the country. According to China Nuclear Energy Association, there were 16 operational nuclear plants with 49 nuclear reactors in China as of March 2021, with the total generation capacity of 51,000 megawatts.

The Taishan plant is a prestige project built after China signed a nuclear electricity generation agreement with Électricité de France, which is mainly owned by the French government. The construction of the plant started in 2009, and the two units started generating electricity in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

The city of Taishan has a population of 950,000 and is situated in the southeast of the country in Guangdong province, which is home to 126 million residents and has a GDP of $1.6 trillion, comparable to that of Russia and South Korea.

© CNN

China nuclear plant: US assessing reported leak at facility in Taishan, Guangdong (msn.com)

'No such thing as impossible:' Nunavut MP reflects on time in Parliament

Sitting in her Ottawa apartment on a hot morning, Mumilaaq Qaqqaq thinks about her grandparents, who, like most Nunavut Inuit of their generation, grew up on the land. 

 Provided by The Canadian Press

She thinks about her father, who was also born there but moved with his family into what's known today as Baker Lake, the only inland community in Nunavut and the closest one to the geographic centre of Canada.

"Thinking about those two completely different worlds and completely different times — how short the amount of time there is in between them — and then all our communities, and all the hurt and turmoil that's happened," Qaqqaq told The Canadian Press.

Qaqqaq is the only member of Parliament for, geographically speaking, the largest riding in the country. The 27-year-old represents about 40,000 people spread over three time zones and 25 fly-in-only communities.

She grew up in Baker Lake and worked for the territory's land claim organization and the Nunavut government in Iqaluit before she was elected in 2019.

Becoming a politician wasn't something she planned to do.

Qaqqaq says she was asked to be the NDP's candidate about two months before the vote.

"I came into this not knowing what I was walking into whatsoever. It took me a really long time to even wrap my head around what I did when I got elected."

She "hit the ground running and never really stopped."

“It’s been crazy. I can’t think of another word to describe it. I don’t think life-changing is even strong enough. It’s been a lot of things, but ultimately a huge learning experience."

Nancy Karetak-Lindell, a former Liberal MP for Nunavut, has a similar story. She was asked to run in April 1997 and was elected that June. She served 11 years before deciding she wanted to spend more time with her family.

"You don't fully grasp what the requirements of you are until you get elected," says Karetak-Lindell, who now lives in Rankin Inlet.

Qaqqaq and Karetak-Lindell both say they had to learn quickly that Nunavut's problems, including housing, health care and food security, put heavy burdens on them as the territory's only representative in Ottawa.

"You have challenges that are not felt by any other member of Parliament. The issues here are very different compared to most of the ridings in Canada," Karetak-Lindell says.

Qaqqaq took time away from work after she went on a housing tour of Nunavut last fall. At the time, she said it left her feeling anxious, depressed and overwhelmed.

"I wish I could look back and (say), 'Hey, slow down. Pace yourself. There's time to figure things out,'" she says.

The tour helped bring the territory's housing crisis to light, but there is still more work to do, she says.

"There’s an awareness of the current struggles, but not about how it’s gotten to that point and what that means for an individual and entire families and entire communities.

"I wasn’t taught about my own history about what happened in the North. When you’re around a lot of oppression and turmoil, sometimes you don’t even realize it."

Karetak-Lindell agrees the job was difficult.

"People have gone through so much hardship. You can't not feel for them. You hear things that impact you forever and it's not something you can turn off when you leave your workplace."

Qaqqaq took another leave from work in late April following a social media post she made questioning whether Labrador Liberal MP Yvonne Jones was Inuk. A doctor recommended she take time off.

"I learned my limits. Learned my balance. Learned the importance of self care and counselling and finding that balance in me."

In late May, Qaqqaq announced she won't be seeking re-election, but will be working hard in Ottawa in the meantime "fighting for Nunavummiut to have basic human rights."

"I want to talk a lot more about how the federal institution, the RCMP, the churches all played key, key roles in breaking down Inuit, in breaking down our communities."

Rebecca Kudloo, president of the Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada, says Qaqqaq's voice in Parliament has been "courageous and important" for Inuit.

"Anyone would have looked at me, including myself, until October 2019 and laughed and said, 'Yeah, right as if she’s going to get elected,'" Qaqqaq says.

"I just keep showing people don't ever let anyone tell you no you can't. I keep showing people I can make decisions for myself and stay true to myself and I can still do a good job in spaces that aren't built for Indigenous people.

"There's no such thing as impossible. I've been proving that to everybody my entire term."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2021.

___

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

Emma Tranter, The Canadian Press

#YEG; RACISM, MISOGYNY, ISLAMOPHOBIA
Somali-Canadian group says another woman wearing a hijab attacked in Edmonton


EDMONTON — The chair of a group representing Somali Canadians in Edmonton says there has been another local attack on a woman who was wearing a hijab.

Jibril Ibrahim alleges the Somali-Canadian woman was walking by herself in northeast Edmonton on Friday evening when an unknown man grabbed her by her neck and pushed her down to the sidewalk before fleeing the scene.

He says her face was bloodied, some of her teeth are loose and she spent Friday night in hospital.

Police said in an email they are investigating a report of a Black woman in her 50s who was walking in the area at around 9 p.m. when she was assaulted by an unknown suspect.

They said she received treatment for non-life-threatening injuries at a local medical centre and then reported the incident to police.

Ibrahim says the alleged attack, the latest in a spate of similar incidents, has left the woman badly shaken.

"She's traumatized," Ibrahim said in a phone interview after visiting with the woman on Sunday, noting she's afraid now to leave her home alone.

He said she wasn't up to being interviewed on Sunday, and was frightened to appear on camera.

Edmonton has seen a number of alleged attacks on Muslim women in recent months.

City police say two women wearing hijabs were sitting in a mall parking lot in December when a stranger shattered a window, assaulted the passenger as she tried to flee and then assaulted the second woman when she tried to help. A man faces charges of assault and mischief in that case.

Video: Muslim women on the fear they experience daily in Canada (cbc.ca)

In March, a man was charged after three allegedly hate-motivated attacks on women in Edmonton.

In the first, police said the Black victim was followed inside a convenience store on Jan. 18 and allegedly assaulted.

The second and third attacks took place on the same day in early February. One woman was wearing a hijab and the other wore a burqa.

A 44-year-old man faces three counts of uttering threats and three of assault in those incidents.

"What we are aware of is only what has been reported to police. There is more than that, and a lot of people are afraid to report it, afraid that someone is going to follow them to their house," Ibrahim said.

Police said in their email that their Hate Crimes and Violent Extremism Unit has been told about the most recent incident on Friday, but its Investigative Response Team is still handling the case.

The incidents, as well as the deaths of four members of a Muslim family in London, Ont., earlier this month, have many Canadian Muslims on edge.

Ibrahim says the most recent victim has been in Canada for 30 years, and while she's been harassed in shops and other places, she's never experienced such violence.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced on Friday that groups that experience hate crimes will soon be able to apply for grants to pay for security upgrades.

Ibrahim is calling for the bar for hate crimes to be lowered.

"So far, it looks like more or less, our leadership from the prime minister to the mayor, they're hoping that these people will go away. But it doesn't work that way," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2021.

Rob Drinkwater, The Canadian Press

Montreal-area ambulance paramedics announce strike; say medical care to be maintained


MONTREAL — The union representing ambulance paramedics in the Montreal and Laval areas says just over 1,000 of its members are on strike as of midnight.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Union spokeswoman Eve-Marie Lacasse says the strike involves mostly administrative tasks, such as billing, and that medical services offered to the public will not be affected.

Lacasse says negotiations have stalled in part because the province's Treasury Board has not given the employer, Urgences-santé, a mandate to negotiate salary increases.

She said that in addition to a raise, the paramedics are calling for better base salaries and mental health supports.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault said today that it would be unfortunate if a strike were to have an impact on anyone's health.

He said members of his government would accelerate their discussions with Urgences-santé in order to help the parties reach an agreement as soon as possible.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2021

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press

THE METHOD OF SCIENCE, THE AIM OF RELIGION

Rev. Pamela Conrad: Meet the Mars rover scientist who is also a priest

By Gregory McNamee, CNN 


When Rev. Pamela Conrad looks into the heavens, she really looks into the heavens.

© Courtesy of Pamela Gales Conrad Rev. Pamela Conrad is rector of an Episcopal church in Maryland and a NASA scientist focused on Mars.

By night, and at odd moments during the day, Conrad moonlights as a research scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Science in Washington, DC. A member of the tactical operations team for the Mars Perseverance rover mission, she is a co-investigator for two scientific instrument suites, acquiring and analyzing data, and collaborating in team planning, with colleagues at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and other scientific institutions around the country.

© Courtesy of Pamela Gales Conrad

By day, the 68-year-old is an Episcopalian priest, leading a congregation at St. Alban's Episcopal Church, in Glen Burnie, Maryland.

© Courtesy of Pamela Gales Conrad

It has long been received wisdom that science and the humanities, to say nothing of science and religion, are mutually incomprehensible domains that look at entirely different problems. That idea has been crumbling in recent years, when academic specializations have given way to interdisciplinary approaches.

Trained as a geologist, among other disciplines, Conrad has different ideas.

"There's no clash between science and religion," she said. "Both investigate the wonder of the world and our place in it."

Of rocks and people

This crossing of disciplinary lines hasn't been easy, at least not for the pioneers, who had to overcome lots of institutional resistance.

"The academic system forces students to be either scientists or humanists. It doesn't recognize that the same spirit and some of the same techniques underlie both art and science," graphic designer and computer scientist John Maeda, a former MIT Media Lab professor, once told me.

"Our goal should be to produce Renaissance people who take a cross-disciplinary approach to problems, da Vincian people who are interested in everything and can do everything."

"I studied everything," Conrad said. A quick look at her credentials reveals just that da Vincian person of whom Maeda spoke.

She earned all her degrees at George Washington University in the US capital, starting as a music major who, along the way, discovered geology and was smitten. She took lots of science courses her first year and a half before closing in on a bachelor's degree in music in 1974, then added a master's degree in music composition — she was contemplating a career as an opera singer — in 1987. She returned to science to complete a doctorate in geology in 1998.

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© Courtesy of Pamela Gales Conrad Rev. Pamela Conrad was already working from home on the day the Mars Perseverance rover landed.

Underlying that "terminal" degree was an interest in how life formed in unpromising situations, such as thermal vents deep down on the ocean floor. Thanks to one of those right-place, right-time moments, as she recounts, she chanced to meet the renowned director James Cameron, who had taken the proceeds from films such as "Titanic" and built a submersible research vessel. Thanks to deep-sea footage Cameron shot for a 3D IMAX film, footage that he later put to work in the science-fiction feature "Avatar," Conrad was able to study thermal vents in more detail than any researcher had seen to date.

The year after she earned her doctorate, NASA — looking for scientists to work on geobiological aspects of the Curiosity rover — hired her as a contractor at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed by the California Institute of Technology.

"We are trying to understand if the processes that allowed life to develop and flourish on Earth ever occurred on Mars. If they did, we want to know if life appeared — and, if not, then why not?" she told an interviewer from her alumni magazine recently. It's a question whose answer she pursues as actively today as she did on first being hired in 1999.

The first experiments she helped design weren't selected — as she explains it, there is a stiff but collegial rivalry among NASA researchers to get their equipment on what is, after all, a pretty small craft. Still, she kept at it. Conrad transitioned from her role at JPL in 2010 and served as a full-time civil servant scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, until 2017. As the deputy principal investigator for sample analysis at Mars, she worked on the Curiosity rover mission and other projects while refining the questions she would later explore.

Turning to the spirit — and returning to Mars

It wasn't until much later in her life that Conrad turned to the study of religion. After experiencing an epiphany on a wind-blasted day during a work trip to Antarctica, she rejoined the Episcopalian Church of her youth, then entered the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

She completed a master's degree in divinity in 2017, just as the school became affiliated with Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Soon afterward, she assumed leadership of her Maryland congregation.

When NASA turned up the heat on the Mars Perseverance Rover mission at about the same time, one of her experiments was selected for inclusion. This one is a suite of instruments called SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals), which, she said, "was not mature enough" to find a place on earlier missions.

It's meant to look for microbial life, with tools that include a vibrational spectrometer that can identify minerals and organic molecules found on the Martian surface — such as hydrogen and carbon, the building blocks of life on Earth. It also includes two high-resolution cameras.

"Putting all this together involved a big team of people," she said, "and I'm just one person on that team."

Searching for life on Mars isn't her top priority anymore, though.

"I want to make this very clear," Conrad said. "My first job, and my first responsibility, is now as the pastor of a church. What you see on Sunday is just a part of it. I have duties to my parishioners and their needs, and in the end, people have to come first. People are a lot more tender than rocks."

Even so, she logs plenty of hours in her now part-time role in matters Martian, working from her home office since the Covid-19 pandemic hit. The schedule is breakneck and, to be sure, holding down two jobs can be more than a little exhausting.

Tired or not, there are lessons she wishes to impart while acting as a priest. Foremost, Conrad insisted, is the sacredness of all things.

"Understanding that is just one of the tools that people need to live a good life, to live in community and to treat each other well. My other lesson, I suppose, is the virtue of going gently, of living quieter and more thoughtful lives."

The pandemic, she adds, made for the perfect opportunity to reflect on that, and to deepen her mission with those lessons in mind.

Onward to the stars

If Conrad has any regrets, they center on her early life — for when John Glenn's Mercury craft went skyward in 1962, she was just 9 and wanted more than anything else to become an astronaut. That path was denied women for decades, and she has had to make do with the distinguished, variety-packed trajectory that followed. Though studded with honors and intellectual excitement, it has kept her earthbound.

Her inquiry has broadened with the addition of a clerical role to her scientific one: the question of whether life can exist on other planets is reshaped to something more like, "If God can create life here, can God create — and has God created — life elsewhere?" The answer to that question, Conrad said, is simple: "Of course."

That life, she added, is likely to be microbial and simple, and not the ETs of our imagination. But it will be life, and that's a quest that keeps Conrad motivated and nonstop busy.

But will she ever venture into space? Don't rule it out.

Canada to donate 100M COVID-19 vaccines to world, Trudeau says

Hannah Jackson

GLOBAL NEWS

JUNE 13,2021


Canada is set to share 100 million COVID-19 vaccines with the world, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says

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© ajw Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau participates in a plenary session at the G7 Summit in Carbis Bay, England on Friday June 11, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Speaking at a press conference at the end of the G7 leader’s summit in England on Sunday, Trudeau said Canada will provide funding to the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, to help 87 million doses be provided to developing countries.


VIDEO "Canada to donate 100M COVID-19 vaccines to world, Trudeau says"

Read more: ‘We need more’: WHO chief says COVID-19 vaccine needs outstrip G7 promises

Trudeau said “in addition,” the country is donating 13 million doses procured by Canada to other countries through the global vaccine-sharing initiative COVAX.

Of those shots, 1.3 million doses will be Johnson&Johnson vaccines, while another 4.1 will be the vaccines manufactured by Oxford-AstraZeneca. All will be bought via COVAX.

The remaining 7.3 million doses will be Novovax shots.

According to the prime minster, the G7 leaders’ collective commitments “will result in over 2 billion doses being shared with the rest of the world.”

To date, Trudeau said Canada has spent $2.5 billion to “help address this crisis globally.”

Trudeau said Canada will “also have more to say in the coming weeks, as our vaccine procurement process identifies even more doses that can be shared with the world.”

“We are one of only four countries that has already paid our fair share to the ACT-Accelerator, which supports global access to vaccines, tests, and treatments,” he said.

Trudeau said in order to "truly beat COVID-19 anywhere, we have to beat it everywhere."

"That is something we have understood right from the start of the pandemic."

Video: U.S. to share 25 million surplus COVID-19 vaccine doses with the world

Video: Officials say COVID-19 vaccine donations won’t affect Canada’s rollout (Global News)

The announcement comes just days after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the U.K. would share 100 million COVID-19 vaccines.

U.S. President Joe Biden announced the U.S. would be donating 500 million shots.

“We’re going to help lead the world out of this pandemic working alongside our global partners,” Biden said ahead of the summit.

France, Japan, Germany and Italy have also promised to share millions of doses to COVAX, an international vaccine sharing initiative.

Trudeau said the global commitment on vaccines is “in addition to, and in parallel with our vaccine rollout at home.”

“We have millions of doses being delivered into the country each week, and every day more and more people get their first and second shots.”

According to vaccine tracker Canada, by Sunday morning, 28,644,442 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Canada.

That means 63.96 per cent of the Canadian population has received at least one dose, while 11.40 per cent are fully vaccinated against the virus.

Read more: Canada received Pfizer COVID-19 doses earlier than planned, but paid premium

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, the head of the World Health Organization welcomed the vaccine-sharing announcements from the G7, but said “we need more, and we need them faster.”

“The challenge, I said to the G-7 leaders, was that to truly end the pandemic, our goal must be to vaccinate at least 70 per cent of the world’s population by the time the G-7 meets again in Germany next year,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

Tedros said in order to do this, 11 billion doses of the vaccines are needed.

He added that it is “essential” for countries to waive intellectual property protections for the vaccines, a move the U.S. has announced its support for.

Asked by reports if he supports the waiving of intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccine patents, Trudeau said his government is “looking at every possible way" to ensure that everyone "gets vaccinated as quickly as possible.”

The prime minister was also asked about vaccine passports.

Trudeau reiterated that "now is not the time to travel, except for essential purposes."

"However, we know full well that once people get fully vaccinated, once a restrictions are starting to ease in our country, we will have people wanting to travel around the world," he said. "And that is certainly something we're looking at to ensure that whatever documentations (and) whatever processes Canada puts in place, they're able to align with our friends, allies and indeed partners around the world, and we will continue to work together on that."

Trudeau added that the "best approach" to vaccine passports is one that “respects people’s privacy,” is “reliable and easy” and treats everyone fairly.

AOC Blasts Dems Who 'Mischaracterized' Ilhan Omar's Remarks and Helped Fuel 'Right-Wing Vitriol'

Zoe Kalen Hill, NEWSWEEK, JUNE 13,2021

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defended fellow congresswoman Ilhan Omar on Sunday, after a number of House Democrats called out Omar over remarks that seemed to compare the U.S. to Hamas and the Taliban.

© Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) pauses while speaking during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on July 15, 2019. AOC came to fellow congresswoman's defense on Twitter.

We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity.

We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban.

I asked @SecBlinken where people are supposed to go for justice. pic.twitter.com/tUtxW5cIow— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) June 7, 2021

After several House Democrats sent a letter to Omar and asked her to clarify her words, she responded on June 10 via Twitter: "It's shameful for colleagues who call me when they need my support to now put out a statement asking for 'clarification' and not just call. The Islamophobic tropes in this statement are offensive. The constant harassment & silencing from the signers of this letter is unbearable."

 

Video AOC Says 'Climate Crisis Is Born Of Injustice' In Green New Deal S

It’s shameful for colleagues who call me when they need my support to now put out a statement asking for “clarification” and not just call.

The islamophobic tropes in this statement are offensive. The constant harassment & silencing from the signers of this letter is unbearable. https://t.co/37dy2UduW0— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) June 10, 2021

Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, took to Twitter to defend Omar on the subject. She retweeted a number of tweets from lawmakers supporting the Minnesota congresswoman, including representatives Ayanna Pressley, Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman.

"Pretty sick & tired of the constant vilification, intentional mischaracterization, and public targeting of @IlhanMN coming from our caucus," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on June 10. "They have no concept for the danger they put her in by skipping private conversations & leaping to fueling targeted news cycles around her."

Pretty sick & tired of the constant vilification, intentional mischaracterization, and public targeting of @IlhanMN coming from our caucus.

They have no concept for the danger they put her in by skipping private conversations & leaping to fueling targeted news cycles around her.— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 10, 2021

During a CNN interview Sunday morning, host Dana Bash spoke with Ocasio-Cortez about her tweet and asked the congresswoman to explain what she meant by Omar being "mischaracterized."

"I believe that her comments were absolutely mischaracterized," Ocasio-Cortez said. "She was very clearly speaking about the ICC investigations which name these four actors in two suits. To equate these two entities when she was speaking about the ICE investigations... was not a generous interpretation whatsoever."

Ocasio-Cortez said targeting Omar and mischaracterizing her words contributes to the "right-wing vitriol." She said that the misunderstanding began with intense right-wing outlets taking her words out of context.

"As someone who has experienced that, you know, it's very difficult to communicate the scale and how dangerous that is," Ocasio-Cortez said.

The Progressive Caucus said in a statement that the "right-wing media echo chamber" has purposefully and repeatedly put minority Congress members in the line of fire for threats. The statement urged House colleagues to not participate in the perpetuation of taking Omar any other representatives out of context.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi concisely told CNN that the House leadership and Omar settled it, and that they were done with the incident.

"She clarified, we thanked her, end of subject," Pelosi said.

ROFLMAO
Hamas 'Deplores' Rep. Ilhan Omar's Comparison of U.S., Israel to Their Mission

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday said House leadership "did not rebuke" Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar last week, after criticism from the left that the caucus was unfairly targeting Omar and mischaracterizing her comments about the US, Israel, Hamas and the Taliban.

© Getty Images

"We did not rebuke her. We acknowledged that she made a clarification," Pelosi told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union." "Congresswoman Omar is a valued member of our caucus. She asked her questions of the Secretary of State. Nobody criticized those, about how people will be held accountable if we're not going to the International Court of Justice. That was a very legitimate question. That was not of concern."

The dust up within the party began Monday when Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, tweeted that "we have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban," along with video of her questioning Secretary of State Antony Blinken that day during a House hearing.

The disagreement spilled into public on Wednesday when a group of Jewish House Democrats accused her of equating the US and Israel with the Taliban and Hamas.

Facing calls from the group of fellow Democrats to clarify her comments, Omar said Thursday that she was "in no way equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries," but that her conversation with Blinken was about accountability for specific incidents regarding ongoing International Criminal Court investigations.

Video: Pelosi dismisses Omar comments: 'She clarified. End of subject' (CNN)

On Thursday, Pelosi and House leadership later issued a statement saying they welcomed the clarification from Omar, but that also read, "Drawing false equivalencies between democracies like the U.S. and Israel and groups that engage in terrorism like Hamas and the Taliban foments prejudice and undermines progress toward a future of peace and security for all."

Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who along with Omar is part of the progressive group of lawmakers known as "the Squad," criticized the statement from House leadership, saying they "should be ashamed of its relentless, exclusive tone policing of Congresswomen of color." Other progressives criticized Democrats for issuing their statement publicly rather than first discussing the issue privately with Omar.

Following the House leadership's statement, the progressive caucus issued a statement Thursday in support of Omar and urging colleagues "not to abet or amplify such divisive and bad faith tactics" from a "right-wing media echo chamber" that is "distorting" Omar's views.

Also appearing on "State of the Union" Sunday, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York told CNN that she believes Omar's comments were "absolutely mischaracterized" and taken out of context by right-wing websites.

"When we feed into that, it adds legitimacy to a lot of this kind of right-wing vitriol. It absolutely increases that target," she told Bash. "And as someone who has experienced that, it's very difficult to communicate the scale and how dangerous that is."

Asked if she wants people to let the matter go, Pelosi replied, "She clarified, we thanked her, end of subject."

Ocasio-Cortez later added, "As Speaker Pelosi said, we are putting this behind us and I believe that we will ultimately come together as a caucus."

WHITE POLICE FRATERNAL ORDERS ARE NOT UNIONS
Police union PACs have spent $510,000 targeting The Squad, but may not be aiming to unseat them as much as raise funds for themselves, report says

kvlamis@insider.com (Kelsey Vlamis) 

© Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks as Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) listen during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on July 15, 2019 in Washington, DC. Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images

Police union PACs have spent $510,000 on text messages attacking The Squad, Axios reported Sunday.

The Squad, four US representatives that are women of color, are deeply unpopular with Republicans.

The attacks seem aimed at fundraising off of their unpopularity rather than unseating them.

Two political action committees affiliated with a national police union have spent $510,000 on text messages that attack The Squad, Axios reported Sunday.

The groups are affiliated with the International Union of Police Associations, which is based in Sarasota, Florida, and represents 20,000 people in law enforcement.

The PACs, Law Enforcement for a Safer America PAC and Honoring American Law Enforcement PAC, have spent $127,500 on each member of The Squad, records reviewed by Axios showed. In total, the outlet said it marks the "largest independent political expenditure of the 2022 cycle to date."

The specific content of the text messages was not clear.

"The Squad" refers to a group of four US representatives that are women of color: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Known as some of the most progressive members of Congress, they have drawn the ire of conservatives, including former president Donald Trump.

None of the members are especially at risk of losing their seats, prompting Axios to report that the police union's attacks seem less aimed at unseating them than at raising funds for the PACs themselves by capitalizing on The Squad's unpopularity with Republicans.

Debates over policing are also high on Republicans' minds after the racial justice protests of last year and calls for police reform. Squad members split on a recent vote in Congress to expand funding for Capitol police in the wake of the insurrection. Omar and Pressley voted against the measure, while Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib voted present, ultimately allowing the bill to pass by one vote.

Peru's socialists cheer election win as conservatives pledge to fight on

By Marco Aquino 20 hrs ago

© Reuters/ANGELA PONCE Peruvians await presidential election results

LIMA (Reuters) - Peru's socialist party and presidential candidate Pedro Castillo have cheered their likely victory in the Andean country's tightly-contested election, despite right-wing rival Keiko Fujimori's pledge to fight on until the last vote is counted.

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© Reuters/SEBASTIAN CASTANEDA Peru's presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori looks at supporters while leading a demonstration in Lima

The polarized contest, a crossroads moment for the mineral-rich nation, seems set to tilt Peru sharply to the left, which has rattled the political establishment, markets and miners in the world's no. 2 producer of the red metal copper.

Castillo, a former teacher, is leading with 50.14% of the vote with 99.935% of ballots tallied, with the route back for Fujimori, who has made unfounded allegations of fraud, looking increasingly unlikely - barring an unexpected late twist.

© Reuters/SEBASTIAN CASTANEDA Supporters of Peru's presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori gather during a demonstration in Lima

"The people have already chosen their path," Castillo told hundreds of his followers on Saturday night in Lima and asked the authorities to wrap up the count as fast as possible.

"No more polarization in the country. Let us leave it to the authorities so that once and for all these things are no longer prolonged and so the popular will is respected."

Thousands of Peruvian supporters of both Castillo and Fujimori marched in Lima on Saturday as anxiety over the painstaking vote count has continued to build.

The gap between the two candidates is less than 0.3 of a percentage point, or some 49,420 votes. Fujimori, the heir of a powerful political family and daughter of ex-President Alberto Fujimori who is in prison for human rights abuses and corruption, has insisted on claims of fraud and sought unsuccessfully to annul as many as 200,000 votes.

"I am a person who never gives up," Fujimori, 46, told hundreds of supporters as she led a protest on Saturday in downtown Lima, many of her backers holding the red and white Peruvian flag.

Castillo's party has rejected accusations of fraud and international observers of the process in Lima have stated that the elections were transparent.

© Reuters/ALESSANDRO CINQUE A supporter of Peru's presidential candidate Pedro Castillo holds a sign reading "#Fujimori never again" in Lima

Castillo, 51, has already received congratulations from some leftist Latin American leaders, prompting official protests from Peru's current interim government who has asked everyone to wait until the electoral body formally announces the result.

 

© Reuters/ALESSANDRO CINQUE Supporters of Peru's presidential candidate holds signs during a demonstration in Lima

Peru's new president should come into office on July 28, facing the challenge of steering the country beyond the world's deadliest COVID-19 outbreak per capita, healing a divided nation and reviving an economy amid rising level of poverty.

(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Dave Sherwood and Adam Jourdan; editing by Diane Craft)

Congress remains a hurdle as Biden sells 

G-7 on global tax

By Oneindia Correspondent

| Published: Sunday, June 13, 2021

Washington, June 13: President Joe Biden might have persuaded some of the world's largest economies to hike taxes on corporations, but the U.S. Congress could be a far tougher sell.




White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that leaders of the Group of Seven which also includes the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Germany, Italy and Japan agreed with Biden on placing a global minimum tax of at least 15 per cent on large companies.

The G-7 leaders, participating in a three-day summit in England, affirmed their finance ministers who earlier this month endorsed the global tax minimum.

America is rallying the world to make big multinational corporations pay their fair share so we can invest in our middle class at home, Jake Sullivan, the president's national security adviser, said Friday on Twitter.

A minimum tax is supposed to halt an international race to the bottom for corporate taxation that has led multinational businesses to book their profits in countries with low tax rates.


This enables them to avoid taxes and encourages countries to slash rates. The minimum rate would make it tougher for companies to avoid taxes, and could possibly supplant a digital services tax that many European nations are imposing on U.S. tech firms that pay at low rates.

Biden administration officials believe the use of overseas tax havens has discouraged companies from investing domestically, at a cost to the middle class.

PM Modi may have the first in-person meeting with Joe Biden later this year

The president hopes a G-7 endorsement can serve as a springboard for getting buy-in from the larger Group of 20 complement of nations.

The agreement is not a finished deal, as the terms would need to be agreed upon by countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and implemented by each of them.

The president needs other countries to back a global minimum tax to ensure that his own plans for an enhanced one in the U.S. don't hurt American businesses.

It has the potential to stop the race to the bottom," said Thornton Matheson, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center.

"It would be a huge sea change in the way things have been going in corporate taxes for the last three decades.

The idea of an enhanced global minimum tax is also an integral part of Biden's domestic agenda, but it faces resistance in Congress.

The president has proposed using a global minimum tax to help fund his sweeping infrastructure plan.

His budget proposal estimates it could raise nearly USD 534 billion over 10 years, but Republicans say the tax code changes would make the United States less competitive in a global economy.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen framed the agreement as a matter of basic fairness after the finance ministers' meeting.

We need to have stable tax systems that raise sufficient revenue to invest in essential public goods and respond to crises and ensure that all citizens and corporations fairly share the burden of financing government, she said.

Texas Rep. Kevin Brady, top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, said GOP lawmakers would fight tooth and nail against the tax.

Republicans view lower taxes as encouraging companies to invest and hire, putting little stock in Biden's argument that improved infrastructure and better-educated workers would help increase growth.

It is an economic surrender," Brady said Friday. President Biden has managed to do the impossible -- he has made it better to be a foreign company and a foreign worker than an American company and an American worker.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has repeatedly said his party will oppose any measures that undo the 2017 tax cuts signed into law by President Donald Trump.

The 2017 overhaul did create a new way to tax companies' foreign profits with what is known as global intangible low-taxed income.

Congressional Democrats said that framework encouraged firms to invest in foreign countries, instead of at home.


Biden has proposed raising that rate to 21 per cent among other changes to the code. The administration views the G-7's 15 per cent as a floor rather than a ceiling for rates.

But the G-7's plan varies from what Biden has proposed and there are details to be finalised, with tax experts noting that there appear to be gaps in rates and the treatment of assets such as buildings and equipment.

Democrats want to dig into the fine print of any agreement before giving their full-throated approval of what comes out of the G-7, which means that Biden will have to keep making the sale to U.S. voters and their representatives.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden of Oregon favors the general idea of a global minimum tax.

But Wyden said in a statement with House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal of Massachusetts that they need to dig into the agreement to see if Americans would really benefit.

We are optimistic that a strong multilateral agreement can be reached to harmonize our international tax rules, end the race to the bottom and put a stop to digital services taxes, the two Democratic lawmakers said.

"We look forward to working with the administration and evaluating the outcome of these negotiations for American workers, businesses and taxpayers.

This Awkward-AF Photo Of The G7 Leaders Went Viral For All The Wrong Reasons

Helena Hanson 

 NARCITY

JUNE 13,2021


Bring on the memes! A photo of the G7 leaders has gone totally viral this weekend, thanks to a gloomy background, awkward smiles and some weird socially-distanced poses.

© Provided by Narcity

The group — which included world leaders like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Angela Merkel — posed for the picture on June 11, the first day of the G7 summit in Britain.

Despite the seriousness of the summit in general, it didn't take long for the internet to start poking fun at the bizarre image.

Twitter users from all over the world took the opportunity to transform the original photo into memes or to add hilarious captions to the image.

CBS's Late Show host Stephen Colbert got involved in the fun, sharing the image and asking, "Before I order these figures, does anyone know if you can take them out and play with them or are they glued to the display stand?"

Jimmy Kimmel compared the group to the lost souls from the TV Series Lost, referring one of the show's final episodes by saying, "We have to go back."

Other creative Twitter users also made America's Next Top Model, Love Island and Avengers references.

It's not the first time the G7 summit has gotten a little weird. Back in 2019, Melania Trump was spotted lovingly gazing at Justin Trudeau, and the Canadian PM was also accused of going for a "fake" run.

Pikachus gather at G-7 summit, call on Japan to stop burning coal

Joseph Choi 12 hrs ago

A group of protesters dressed as the popular Japanese animated character Pikachu gathered at the Group of Seven (G-7) summit in Cornwall, England, and called on Japan to stop burning coal.

© Getty Images Pikachus gather at G-7 summit, call on Japan to stop burning coal

The Independent reports that the demonstration was organized by the No Coal Japan coalition. The group called on Japan to stop using fossil fuels by 2030. Pikachu, an icon from the massive Pokémon franchise, is a character that is known for generating electricity.

The organization is made up of over a dozen civil society groups from around the world, according to its website, and is dedicated to preventing the "reckless rise of new coal plants."

"While the rest of the world moves towards safe, reliable renewable energy, Japan is considering funding a fleet of new coal-fired power stations in Southeast Asia and beyond," the coalition's website says.

This demonstration was one of several environmentally-minded actions that took place near the G-7 meeting this past weekend.

As The Guardian reports, the environmental NGO Greenpeace created a massive 3D show in which it displayed endangered animals walking along the coast of Cornwall through the use of hundreds of drones.

A second-hand electronics retailer based in the UK, musicMagpie, also commissioned an enormous sculpture to be built in the style of Mount Rushmore, composed of electronic waste from around the area. The sculpture was built across the beach from where the summit was being held.

The sculpture, made by noted British artist Joe Rush, was meant to bring attention to how electronics need to be more easily recyclable and reusable.

On Sunday, the G-7 countries agreed to increase their contribution to meet a spending pledge of $100 billion a year from rich countries to poorer countries to help cut down on carbon emissions.

 As Reuters reports, however, only two countries - Canada and Germany - made firm commitments to expanding their contributions to the fund.