A variant-fuelled fourth wave of the pandemic is pushing COVID-19 case counts to their highest levels in months.
Extreme heat and wildfires are threatening the lives and homes of people in British Columbia.
All of which has Canadians wondering — why exactly are we having an election right now?
Could it be we have a narcissist as PM?
Ontario reports 578 new COVID-19 cases, 2 more deaths
Ontario reported more than 500 new COVID-19 cases for a third day in a row and two additional deaths on Saturday.
Provincial health officials logged 578 new coronavirus infections today, up from 510 cases on Friday and 378 cases a week ago.
‘We are not anti-vaxxers’: Concerns over side-effects, research among main reasons some Canadians are not getting COVID-19 vaccine
EDMONTON/TORONTO — While Canada’s largest-ever mass vaccination program is administering tens of thousands of COVID-19 shots every day, many Canadians haven’t got a shot and don’t plan to anytime soon.
According to CTVNews.ca’s vaccine tracker, as of Aug. 13, approximately 18.3 per cent of the eligible population (12+) was unvaccinated.
SHANGHAI, Aug 13 (Reuters) – China announced scores of new carbon-intensive coal and steel projects in the first half of 2021, research showed on Friday just days after a key U.N. report urged immediate global action to curb use of fossil fuels and prevent runaway climate change.
The push comes as climate experts exhort governments around the world to take drastic action amid increasingly widespread extreme weather events, like deadly wildfires, drought and even central China’s highest rainfall in 1,000 years – events that experts say are directly linked to human impact on the environment via carbon emissions.
Ontario will mandate vaccines for hospital and long-term-care workers and begin targeted COVID-19 booster shots while keeping current pandemic restrictions indefinitely, the Star has learned.
Against the backdrop of the pandemic’s fourth wave, Dr. Kieran Moore, the chief medical officer of health, will announce the sweeping measures next Tuesday, including a pause on any further reopening of the economy.
“The watchword is caution,” said a senior Progressive Conservative government official, speaking confidentially in order to discuss internal deliberations
The word from every sage source, from within the cavernous atrium of CBC Toronto to the tom-toms of the Twitter undergrowth, even unto the seers in the nation’s political science departments where wisdom has her own happy seat, is that this fractious, cantankerous, debt-drowned and perplexed country of ours is to have an election.
Nanci Griffith, a Grammy-winning folk and country music singer-songwriter, has died aged 68.
Her death was confirmed by management and her record label on Friday, without a cause of death being given.
sad.
WASHINGTON, Aug 13 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in a new terrorism warning bulletin, said violent extremists could view the reimposition of COVID-19-related restrictions following the spread of coronavirus variants as a rationale to conduct attacks.
The new DHS bulletin also warned of the risk of “targeted violence” around the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington and around religious holidays.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) snapped at reporters following questions about officer Ella French’s murder and the lead-up to officers turning their backs to the Mayor at the hospital.
Last night….
Computer fritzed or not can’t be sure. May be the the graphics card could be the monitor but I have no way of knowing.
I dug out an old box to test the monitor. Soon as I plugged it in – Zap! It fried.
Now I am working on my old and very slow laptop and hoping it stays alive long enough to get this mess sorted out.
Anyone know how I might be able to test the monitor without being hooked up to a computer? It has power but does not present any menus for calibration etc.
Update – I am only marginally ahead of where things stood last night and still hoping it is simply a monitor problem.
To that end I have purchased a new one which I will pick up when the local Bestbuy opens at 11 am.
They have a nice enough looking BenQ on sale for 250 bucks, that’s with 150 off, hope it performs as well as the reviews say it does.
I am praying it is not a graphics card issue as it seems all AMD cards are sold out locally and am wondering if like all things chip related the “industry shortages” have also impacted their production. My main box runs on AMD not Intel.
My decrepit laptop is holding up so far, 1 of 3 USB ports operable. I did try hooking up my laptop to the old monitor via a HDMI cable last night to no avail. Maybe it is the monitor but given the state of my laptop I can’t be certain the HDMI connector isn’t also fritzed. It’s also AMD and is simply not suited as the daily workhorse at any rate.
If it’s not the monitor at least I’ll have a backup for the future.
A Muslim cab driver tried to sue a taxi company after he was banned from wearing traditional garments and had to wear ‘smart western’ clothing under its dress code.
Zulquarnain Ali alleged he was discriminated on the grounds of his religion because he was not allowed to wear his shalwar kameez – a traditional dress worn in South Asian countries – which would allow him to conveniently visit a mosque and pray.
Leeds Taxi Owners Ltd temporarily suspended the veteran hackney carriage driver from its customer booking system when it emerged he was breaching the dress policy by wearing the traditional garments while working.
The end for Afghan forces in the south-western provincial capital of Zaranj, a trading hub close to the Iranian border, was announced by a Taliban commander. Except that he framed it as a start, and an ominous one.
“This is the beginning,” he declared in a statement. “See how other provinces fall in our hands very soon.”
The capital of Nimroz province, Zaranj was captured on 6 August, the first major city to fall to a Taliban assault in years.
Teachers in Scotland are being told to ‘affirm’ the trans identities of four year olds.
‘Trans’ is a magic word. It is impervious to science, common sense and even to concerns about the safeguarding of children. The Scottish government has now released guidance entitled Supporting Transgender Pupils In Schools, which instructs teachers to affirm, unquestioningly, children’s trans or non-binary identities from the age of four.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – US Special Counsel John Durham is expected to present the results of his two-year investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia collusion and there are chances criminal charges will be pressed against several employees of the FBI, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
Durham was appointed as a Special Counsel by the former US Attorney General William Barr in May 2019 to review the FBI’s actions in the alleged Trump-Russia collusion probe, including the FBI spying on a former Trump campaign adviser. Durham was expected to present the results of his investigation by the end of this summer but the report said this term will be pushed back.
Note – Sarcasticat’s internet is Kaput. I am filling in. Breakfast is pretty basic fare.
As #ReinstatementDay trends, Twitter rushes to inform its users that Trump cannot be reinstated
The ‘reality czars’ at Reuters and USA Today were quick on the scene to pour cold water on the notion that Friday would see the return of former president Donald Trump to the White House. QAnon was blamed – or was it trolls?
Here’s how the federal leaders will pitch voters as an election campaign kicks off
OTTAWA – The lines of attack have been traced for months, but now federal parties’ battle plans are poised to go into effect with an election campaign set to kick off Sunday.
The Liberals hope to tout their record of steering the country through a global pandemic that threatened Canadians’ health and economic stability, and can be expected to keep casting doubt on Conservatives’ commitment to green efforts and LGBTQ rights.
Vance told woman behind sexual misconduct allegation to be ‘clear on our story’ in calls
Former chief of the defence staff Gen. Jonathan Vance contacted one of the women at the heart of allegations against him multiple times before Global News reported them on Feb. 2, and advised her of the need to be “clear on our story, and that you stick to it.”
He also contacted her multiple times after publication.
Police: Toddler fatally shot Fla. woman during work video call
ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FLA. — A toddler found an unsecured, loaded handgun inside an apartment and fatally shot a woman while she was on a work-related video call, police in central Florida said.
According to news outlets, the woman was the mother of the toddler who shot her in the head Wednesday.
Rift with US grows as UK minister voices fears over Afghanistan exit
Joe Biden’s decision to rapidly withdraw from Afghanistan is threatening to turn into one of the biggest Anglo-American foreign policy rifts in decades, with potentially dangerous political consequences if the UK government’s warnings about a return of terrorism and mass movement of refugees to Europe eventually prove correct.
Canada’s biggest public pensions heavily investing in fossil fuels, new report suggests
Canada’s biggest public pensions continue to invest heavily in fossil fuels despite rising concerns about climate change, according to a new report.
The Canada Pension Plan’s (CPP Investments) total fossil fuel investments across its entire portfolio have increased from $9.9 billion in 2016 to $11.6 billion in 2020, according to the report by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a left-leaning research group.
Moment ‘British spy’ was snared in his German home: Photo shows embassy worker accused of selling secrets to the Kremlin being led away in handcuffs
Pictures reveal the dramatic moment a suspected British spy was led away in handcuffs by police outside his home near Berlin after being accused of selling secrets to Russia.
David Smith, 57, who worked as a guard at the British embassy in the German capital, was arrested at his flat in Potsdam after a long running investigation by security services in Germany and the UK.
And more details about his past emerged – including his Ukrainian wife and a past job in the RAF.
Seven-hundred seventy-eight billion dollars spent. Twenty years of warfare. 3,000 American lives lost. And Afghanistan looks like it’s going to collapse by the day Joe Biden pulls out on 9/11. The Taliban has done an ISIS-like blitzkreig-style takeover of the country in the last month and they’re dancing with glee in government offices of the provincial capitals they’ve taken over. As Joe Biden pleads with the barbarians not to attack the embassy, they’d get a kick out of setting fire to the soon-to-be undefended U.S. embassy in the capital on that grimly symbolic day.
This is far from Joe Biden’s only idiocy on the Afghan pullout front.
Everything he’s done in recent days has been a colossal mistake.
