(CAN)
Man survives ‘predatory’ cougar attack in western Canada by fighting back, officers say
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/n...67500.html
EXCERPTS: The victim is a 69-year-old man, who suffered major injuries while fighting off the cougar, officials said. His identity has not been released. Canada’s Conservation Officer Service says the mauling happened around 3:30 p.m. Monday, near the British Columbia community of Whistler. That’s about 220 miles north of Seattle.
“The man was mauled by a cougar and suffered major injuries to his face and hand,” the Conservation Officer Service wrote on Facebook. “He was taken to (a) hospital via ambulance and is reportedly in stable condition.”
In an update posted Tuesday afternoon on Facebook, the service said the cougar was “a young, emaciated male and the attack was predatory in nature." [...] "CO’s believe the offending cougar was the one put down yesterday and the public is not at risk. The public is urged to be prepared in case of any wildlife encounters,” the Conservation Officer Service reported.
[...] “In the past 100 years, there have been fewer than two dozen fatal cougar attacks in North America,” Outsideonline.com reports... (
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(CAN)
The cancellation of Keystone XL raises the stakes for Trans Mountain
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business...-mountain/
INTRO: With the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline by the new Biden administration, the strategic importance of the
Trans Mountain pipeline project has significantly increased. The Trans Mountain expansion, or TMX, presents the best opportunity for Canada to capture world market prices for our crude oil in the Indo-Pacific while also achieving important benefits for Canada in terms of trade diversification, foreign policy and international energy security.
Antipathy to Keystone XL under the Obama as well as the new Biden administration should now make it abundantly clear that the United States is no longer the dependable market for Canadian energy it once was. Keystone XL was an easy scapegoat to satisfy the environmental lobby within the Democratic Party; the fact that Canada was not consulted in advance makes it even more frustrating.
Instead of bemoaning the cancellation of Keystone XL, however, Canada should see this as an opportunity to put more emphasis on direct access to offshore markets. Specifically, the TMX pipeline will allow Canada to take advantage of direct exports to key markets in the Indo-Pacific.
Trans Mountain Corp., the Crown corporation that operates the TMX pipeline expansion project, estimates that Canada’s oil producers will increase their revenues by $73.5-billion over 20 years...
[...] Despite the loss of the Keystone XL pipeline, it’s likely that Canadian energy companies will find a way to continue to ship crude oil to the U.S. through existing pipelines or by rail. But more crude may be redirected to offshore exports when TMX is completed in about two years’ time. While about 80 per cent of the TMX expansion capacity is already committed to existing shippers, that still leaves 20 per cent that could be used to ship more crude to market in Asia.
Importantly, more of Canada’s crude oil will then be able to fetch world market prices rather than the heavily discounted prices we now receive for our exports to the U.S. Gulf Coast. Today, U.S. buyers who re-export Canadian resources get the global prices, not Canadians. Between May and September, 2019, 16 million barrels of crude oil from Canada was exported from the U.S. Gulf Coast to buyers in China, India, South Korea and Europe.
What this means is that Canada is helping keep American refineries supplied while the U.S. becomes a major exporter to the Indo-Pacific. Not only does Canada not get global prices for its crude, it’s forgoing the strategic benefits of its own resource exports.
Unfortunately, Alberta is now on the hook for a $1.5-billion investment that was made last year... (
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(UK)
UK becomes first in Europe to record more than 100,000 COVID-19 deaths
https://www.euronews.com/2021/01/26/uk-b...-19-deaths
INTRO: The UK has become the first country in Europe to record more than 100,000 COVID-19 deaths. A further 1,631 fatalities were announced on Tuesday, taking it the total number of people who had tested positive for the virus since the pandemic began last year to 100,162.
It means Britain is the fifth country in the world to pass the milestone, after the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was "hard to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic".
"I am deeply sorry for every life that has been lost and as prime minister I take full responsibility for everything that the government has done," he told a televised briefing on Tuesday. "We truly did everything we could and continue to do everything that we can to minimise loss of life and to minimise suffering in what has been a very, very difficult crisis for our country."
Johnson also pledged to "come together as a nation to remember everyone we lost" once the crisis was over.
The figures show the vast majority of fatalities — three quarters — were among people over the age of 75. Just 1% of people who died of the virus were aged below 45.
Yvonne Doyle, medical director at the Public Health England agency, called it a “sobering moment”... (
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(AUS)
PM's Australia Day Speech Reflects on History, Warns of Rising 'Authoritarianism'
https://www.theepochtimes.com/pms-austra...72727.html
EXCERPTS: Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Australia Day praised the patience and resilience of Australians who, along with the rest of the world, endured under the strain of the CCP virus pandemic over the last year.
His speech covered Australia’s journey in overcoming its brutal beginnings 233 years ago to create and defend one of the most successful liberal democracies on earth.
But he also warned that Australia, which has been bolstering its defences and strengthening alliances against China, is now facing down a global threat of authoritarianism that is “once again seeking to push itself forward.”
[...] In a year when the world has struggled due to economic and health impacts caused by lockdowns, layoffs, and COVID-19 clusters, Morrison said Australians who patiently did “the right thing” prevailed “in our own Australian way.”
[...] Morrison acknowledged the settlers and waves of immigrants who sought Australia out to make a better life for themselves and their families. He also welcomed the 12,000 people from over 130 countries who became citizens on Jan. 26... (
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(AUS)
Hidden histories of Chinese Australia - podcast interview
https://www.abc.net.au/radio-australia/p...a/13071452
INTRO: For three years Tim Watts has been researching stories of Chinese migrants to Australia. He found their influence woven right through our history, from pre-Federation, to the Kelly gang, to the Melbourne Olympics.
These people and tales are right in the midst of some of our most well-known cultural events, yet have been largely ignored. This is a deeply personal subject for Tim as well as a political one. His children are descended from Hong Kong-Chinese migrants, as well as from pre-Federation politicians who supported the White Australia Policy.
As MP for one of the country's most culturally diverse electorates, Melbourne’s Gellibrand, Tim sees contradictions every day between the nation’s abstract idea of itself, and how the community behaves. In thinking about how the country has changed across three generations in his family, and what he sees in Footscray and beyond, Tim describes Australia as now being a multicultural society, with monocultural institutions... (
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Jan 21, 2021 09:53 PM
