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Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says Canada has been considering a "game plan" for how it would respond if the United States takes a far-right, authoritarian shift after next year's presidential election.

"We are certainly working on scenarios," Joly said in French during an interview with a Montreal radio station Wednesday.

Joly added that Ottawa's close political and economic ties to the U.S. mean that "we must certainly prepare several scenarios."

She suggested Canada has a game plan in mind but wouldn't get into details.

"In general, there is our game plan, precisely to be able to manage what could be a rather difficult situation," she said.

"I will work with my colleagues and with the mayors, the provincial premiers, with the business community, with the unions, with everyone in the country, so that we are ready regardless of the election outcome."

Joly drew an analogy to her government's experience working with the administration of former U.S. president Donald Trump, which sought to limit long-established trade in crucial sectors.

Trump is again running for the Republican nomination in next November's election, and has promised "retribution" against his opponents and civil servants.

We'll see how much this forestalls the bottom falling out of illustration etc. How much manual adjustment will it take for copyright to be established? Not a lot, I'd guess, but that'll be decided some other day.

Still do like to see intellectual property rights not being expanded, extended, or strengthened for once.

A new study suggests children near oil and gas wells are 5-7 times more likely to develop lymphoma.

After dozens of childhood cancer cases surfaced in Southwestern Pennsylvania in 2019, state health officials embarked on a multi-study project to determine whether the region’s boom in oil and gas extraction might be to blame. This week, the results of that work are in: Epidemiologists at the University of Pittsburgh, which was contracted to do the research, found evidence that minors living close to fracking sites are over 5 times more likely to develop a rare type of childhood cancer. They also found a greatly increased risk of asthma attacks and lowered birth weights.

The eight counties that make up Southwestern Pennsylvania comprise one of the nation’s most important fossil fuel-producing regions. Much of the state’s natural gas is buried thousands of feet beneath the earth, under sheets of fine-grained rock known as shale. These once-inaccessible fuel reserves were unlocked in the early 2000s with the widespread adoption of fracking, a method of fuel extraction that involves injecting huge volumes of water and other chemicals underground to shatter bedrock and free up oil and gas reserves. The number of fracking wells has increased more than tenfold over the last two decades, and Pennsylvania is second only to Texas in the number of wells it contains.

While previous research has identified numerous chemicals used in fracking as capable of causing cancer — among them formaldehyde, hexavalent chromium, benzene, and ethylene oxide — the science that actually links fracking directly to adverse public health outcomes is still coming into view. This week’s studies helped to fill this gap by using existing medical records from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

The authors analyzed cancer incidence data from 2010 through 2019, which included 498 total cases in children born and diagnosed in the eight-county study area. Of the four types of cancer analyzed, they found significant evidence that children living within five miles of an active oil and gas well were 5 to 7 times more likely to develop lymphoma. They did not find evidence that the other three childhood cancers — leukemia, brain tumors, and bone cancers — were associated with proximity to oil and gas development.

However, James Fabisiak, an author on all three studies that were released this week, said that doesn’t mean a connection to those cancers can be ruled out. A separate state-wide study from Yale University last year found a link between fracking and a subtype of leukemia in children aged 2 to 7.

“In any scientific study like this, you always have some uncertainty about the negative result,” Fabisiak told Grist. “If I had more patients, if I had more sample size, might I find a statistically significant difference?”

The researchers wanted to understand how each phase of the fracking process affects the health of nearby residents. Before workers start injecting fluid into the earth, they often have to clear sites, build roads, and drill deep crevices in the ground. The subsequent fracking phase of the process is typically short, lasting only about three to five days, while the production phase, when fuel is actually extracted from the ground, takes much longer — from a few weeks to decades.

The studies analyzed records of more than 46,000 patients, aged 5 through 90, over the past two years, and found that people with asthma are 4 to 5 times more likely to have an asthma attack if they live near a fracking well during production. The researchers also connected this phase of the fracking process to lower birth weights. On average, babies born to people living near oil wells during the production process were 1 ounce smaller at birth. (The researchers noted that such a difference does not usually pose a significant health risk.)

Fabisiak said that he found the findings of the asthma study to be most troubling, given how widespread the condition is — more than 25 million Americans have asthma.

“I have a son who grew up with asthma, and I know the burden of what that particular disease has on an individual in a family,” he said.

The studies were not able to identify what particular hazard connected with fracking caused the adverse health effects that they observed in Southwestern Pennsylvania, but it builds on research documenting the relationship between fossil fuel development and asthma and birth defects in other parts of the world. It’s well-known that flaring, a practice that involves burning off unwanted gas, can generate substantial air pollution, and that the chemicals used in fracking, if not properly extracted and disposed of, can leak into the soil and groundwater, exposing nearby residents for prolonged periods. Fabisiak said that drawing a direct link between those hazards and poor health outcomes should be the work of future studies.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/367939

They are sooooooooooo fucking mad that gen z caused the GOP to get wrecked in the midterms lol. Absolutely fuming.

Oh and nobody there is prepared for a hurricane.

https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/storminfo/

In a statement to the Guardian, the EPA said its latest definition was more “expansive” than the previous. Its approach was designed “to focus on substances most likely to be persistent in the environment, including some chemical substances whose structures or sub-structures resemble, at least in part” more thoroughly studied PFAS compounds, like PFOS and PFOA.

But public health advocates warn that all PFAS are persistent in the environment and all that have been studied are toxic, and for those reasons many are calling on the government to largely restrict the entire chemical class.

Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, a current EPA employee in the toxics office said the chemical’s definition has been evolving for several years. The employee said they first learned of the latest change in public comments made by Michal Freedhoff, a Biden-appointed toxics office administrator.

I know most of y'all have fully abandoned Twitter, but good lord if he actually does this (which is not guaranteed mind you) a LOT of vulnerable people are going to get hurt.

Fucking 1312

The national children's commissioner says she has written to the Northern Territory's police minister, calling for an NT Police promotional video of officers chasing and arresting two teenagers to be taken down.

Key points:

• Bodycam vision showing the arrests attracted hundreds of comments
• The majority of users praised police with some calling for dogs to attack the youths
• Police and the NT government have defended the content as showing the reality for police

WARNING: This story contains details some readers may find distressing.

The video, which is overlaid with up-tempo rock music, shows officers and a police dog pursuing one of three teenage boys through bushland outside of Darwin after intercepting a vehicle.

The arrests, made on Wednesday afternoon, came after the three 16-year-old boys allegedly stole two vehicles.

The boys were intercepted using tyre deflation devices in Darwin's rural area and charged with multiple property offences.

After being posted to the Facebook page of the Northern Territory's Police Fire and Emergency Services on Thursday evening, the video had received over 1,100 reactions and 220 comments.

The vast majority of comments praised the actions of police.

But several comments — which were removed after the ABC approached NT Police — included remarks such as "hope the dog had a taste" and "let the dogs take a couple of chunks".

He [Rep. Andy Harris] said of Ukraine’s springtime offensive that was intended to turn the tide of the war: “I’ll be blunt, it’s failed.” And he was blunt, too, about the prospects for a victory ahead: “I’m not sure it’s winnable anymore.”

What the article describes is absolutely horrific.

China sends a hospital ship to provide medical support for Tongans, and western journalists predictably do the BUT AT WHAT COST? routine. The article does at least highlight some of the positive work they're doing:

Residents came from across Tonga to access the services, including Mele Maka from Tatakamotonga village, who brought her two children for check-ups.

“I am grateful for the free treatment my children received,” she said.

“I brought my nine-year-old son, Fine’eva, and seven-year-old daughter, Silia, to check their ears, eyes and teeth. I’m very pleased to be told that they’re both in good health.”

As of Wednesday, 35 surgeries and more than 3,000 other operations had been performed. Clinics dealing with ophthalmology, orthopaedics and Chinese medicine were among the most visited.

y'all still don't get it

It was her turn

She didn't go down in a rain of bullet fire when the feds showed up to arrest her.