Another 17 people died in B.C. last week after testing positive for COVID-19, according to the province's latest reports on the pandemic.
As of Thursday, 273 people are in hospital with the novel coronavirus — the same as the week before. There are 32 in intensive care, according to the B.C. COVID-19 dashboard, up 14 per cent from last week.
The government says its weekly report numbers are preliminary. It has been retroactively adjusting them due to delays in the count and the new way in which it measures weekly cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
As vaccination efforts continue, provincial statistics show more than 48,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered from June 19 to 25.
As of June 25, roughly 2.8 million British Columbians have received three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and more than 370,000 people have received a fourth dose.
Other data related to the pandemic is available in a report from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, which tracks cases, hospital admissions and deaths between June 19 and 25.
It shows that 620 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in that time, based solely on lab-reported results, for a total of 374,594 cases to date. More than 40 per cent of the new recorded cases were in the Fraser Health region.
The report shows that the number of new cases is down slightly by about three per cent from 642 in the previous week. However, because testing is now quite limited, the province cautions that the case count underestimates the true number of people with COVID-19 in B.C.
A total of 169 people were admitted to hospital with COVID-19 from June 19 to 25, according to the BCCDC, nearly half of them in the Fraser Health region.
Test positivity rates highest on Vancouver Island
According to the latest weekly report, 17 more people died between June 19 and 25, a figure that is being reported in a very different way from in the past.
Those deaths include everyone who died within 30 days of testing positive for COVID-19, whether or not the virus has been confirmed as an underlying cause of death. Previously, each death was investigated to determine if COVID-19 was a cause.
Test positivity rates are down slightly, hitting an average 7.5 per cent provincewide on Saturday, compared to 7.6 per cent the previous week.
Positivity rates range from as high as 14 per cent in the Vancouver Island to as low as 6.2 per cent in the Fraser Health region, according to the province's dashboard. The province administered more than 12,000 tests in the last reported week.
Scientists have identified a gene that appears to increase the risk of Alzheimer's in women, providing a potential new clue as to why more women than men are diagnosed with the disease.
The gene, O6-Methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase, or MGMT, plays an important role in how the body repairs damage to DNA in both men and women. But researchers did not find an association between MGMT and Alzheimer's in men.
"It's a female-specific finding -- perhaps one of the strongest associations of a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's in women," said senior study coauthor Lindsay Farrer, chief of biomedical genetics at Boston University School of Medicine.
Two-thirds of the 6.5 million Americans currently living with the devastating brain disease are women, according to the Alzheimer's Association. It's a trend that holds true worldwide.
"Women, due to unique genetic risk factors like APOE ε4 and MGMT, and sex-specific risk factors like the sudden reduction in estrogen during the peri-menopause transition, may be in the fast-lane toward the disease, while men are sitting in traffic," said Dr. Richard Isaacson, director of the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Florida Atlantic University's Schmidt College of Medicine, who was not involved in the study.
The APOE ε4 gene is considered the strongest risk factor for the future development of Alzheimer's in people over the age of 65, which is "especially true for women, who are more impacted by APOE ε4 than men," Isaacson said.
However, many women with APOE ε4 don't develop Alzheimer's, while women without the gene may still develop the disease.
"Perhaps MGMT is an important missing piece of the risk prediction puzzle for these women, but further studies are necessary," Isaacson said.
A LUCKY DISCOVERY
The discovery of the new gene's existence was made in two completely separate groups of people. A team of researchers from the University of Chicago were analyzing the genetic makeup of a small group of Hutterian Brethren women who live communally in rural Montana and South Dakota. Hutterites are a closed population who intermarry within their own ranks and keep extensive genealogical records, making them an excellent choice for genetic research.
"The relatively uniform environment and reduced genetic variation in Hutterites increases our power to find associations in smaller sample sizes than required for studies in the general population," said senior study coauthor Carole Ober, chair of human genetics at the University of Chicago, in a statement.
When the new association with MGMT popped up in her analysis, Ober reached out to Boston's Farrer to see if he might help replicate her findings.
Farrer, who was in the midst of a huge genetic analysis of over 10,000 women from the Alzheimer's Disease Genetics Consortium study, was surprised by the call.
"I told her we'd found the exact same gene in our analysis," Farrer said. "Two different studies started independently of one another find by serendipity the same gene, which to me adds a lot of confidence that the finding is robust."
The research team compared the findings to autopsied male brain tissue, and found no association between the MGMT gene and Alzheimer's in men.
When they examined MGMT via epigenetics, which is what happens when a gene is switched on or off by behaviours and environmental factors, researchers found its expression in women was significantly associated with the development of beta amyloid and tau, two proteins that are hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.
The association between MGMT and amyloid plaques and tau tangles was "most pronounced in women who don't have APOE ε4," Farrer said.
Considered an essential protein, a primary function of APOE is to "move cholesterol around in your body, and without that you'd be in trouble," Farrer said. However, studies have found that the APOE ε4 variation may result in depositing more fatty acid buildup than the other members of the APOE family, thus leading scientists to believe there is a cholesterol pathway to Alzheimer's.
"There are many pathways to Alzheimer's disease. There's the lipid, or cholesterol pathway, which is now pretty well established in Alzheimer's, and APOE ε4 is a part of that," Farrer said.
"And there's the inflammatory pathway, which is common to all chronic disease. With MGMT, we may be looking at an additional pathway somehow related to DNA repair, or maybe MGMT participates in one of these other pathways and nobody knows yet how," Farrer added.
PERSONALIZED MEDICINE
Women should work with their doctors to try to identify which path they may be on, experts advise.
Interventions could include keeping blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar in healthy ranges, while "considering hormone replacement therapy when indicated, and advocating for a brain healthy lifestyle, including regular exercise, a Mediterranean-style diet, adequate sleep and stress-reduction techniques," Isaacson said.
At some point soon, scientists will be able to offer more personalized medicine to women, said Dr. Kellyann Niotis, a neurologist at the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian, who was not involved with the study.
"We will soon be able to offer women at risk more advanced assessments, like comprehensive genetic testing in a clinic setting, to more adequately assess their risk and develop personalized risk reduction plans for optimal brain protection," Niotis said.
A new study suggests the risk of miscarriage may increase in the summer, which researchers say could indicate a link between extreme heat and pregnancy loss.
The study out of Boston University School of Public Health, published in the journal Epidemiology, looked at the seasonal differences in pregnancy data from more than 6,100 survey participants. They found that in North America, pregnant people have a 44 per cent higher risk of having an early miscarriage in the summer than in the winter – in particular, in the month of August in comparison to February. An early miscarriage for the purposes of this study was defined as occurring in the first eight weeks of pregnancy.
According to researchers, up to 30 per cent of pregnancies can end in spontaneous abortion, and up to half of all miscarriages are unexplained.
The risk of miscarriage at any point during the pregnancy was 31 per cent higher in August than in February.
Researchers also looked at geographical data and found that pregnant people who lived in the south or midwest United States, some of the hottest parts of the country, were more likely to experience a miscarriage in late August and early September.
“Any time you see seasonal variation in an outcome, it can give you hints about causes of that outcome,” the study’s lead author Dr. Amelia Wesselink said in a press release. “… Now we need to dig into that more to understand what kinds of exposures are more prevalent in the summer, and which of these exposures could explain the increased risk of miscarriage.”
Researchers said this study filled in gaps in past research, which tends to focus on data from pregnancy losses that occur in care at a hospital, which may exclude data from people who lost pregnancies very early on at home, or people who are not experiencing ongoing fertility issues causing miscarriage and therefore may not have sought care from a medical professional.
The study’s authors suggest that high temperatures may be a contributing factor to pregnancy loss, adding that while more research is needed to understand the possible link, health-care professionals and policymakers can begin to take action now to mitigate the effects of climbing temperatures on pregnant people.
“We know that heat is associated with higher risk of other pregnancy outcomes, such as preterm delivery, low birth weight, and stillbirth, in particular,” Wesselink said. “Medical guidance and public health messaging—including heat action plans and climate adaptation policies—need to consider the potential effects of heat on the health of pregnant people and their babies.”
With the race to lead the United Conservative Party still in its early days, a new poll suggests more Albertans would consider voting for that party than the Opposition NDP in the 2023 provincial election.
The poll by Trend Research, under the direction of Janet Brown Opinion Research, surveyed 900 Albertans between June 13 and 21. It found slightly more than half of Albertans surveyed said they would be very likely (26 per cent) or somewhat likely (26 per cent) to consider voting for the UCP in the next provincial election.
"Now, of course, they don't know who the leader is going to be. But that's very good news for the UCP because they've been doing badly in polls lately," said pollster Janet Brown. "But now, with 52 per cent of voters willing to consider the UCP, it seems they have a new lease on life.
"A new leader could put them in the driver's seat in terms of public opinion."
Thirty-nine per cent said they were very likely or somewhat likely to consider voting for the Alberta NDP.
Alternative parties such as the Wildrose Independence Party — the party that formed after the merger of Wexit Alberta and the Freedom Conservative Party — and the Alberta Party also saw some interest from voters, with 25 per cent and 23 per cent openness, respectively.
And though the UCP was in the lead in the poll, it does come with a caveat.
"People say that not knowing who the leader is going to be, and sometimes a hypothetical leader, can be more popular than an actual leader," Brown said. "So that's a starting base for the UCP. It's good news for them, but they probably have to feel cautious about that number as well."
Issues of concern
Open-ended questions were also asked of Albertans in regards to what they thought were the most important issues facing the province today.
Inflation topped the list and was mentioned by 41 per cent of Albertans. Twenty-five per cent of Albertans also mentioned health care, while 19 per cent mentioned the economy and 16 per cent mentioned issues related to the energy sector.
"Inflation really is critical for Albertans. Right now, it is their No. 1 issue of concern," Brown said. "And it's of much greater concern than the second most important issue of health care, at 25 per cent."
Inflation is top-of-mind for many Albertans, according to a new poll from Janet Brown Opinion Research, though health care, the economy and the energy sector all factor highly. (Submitted by Janet Brown Opinion Research)
Despite that, Brown said inflation has yet to become a serious factor on the campaign trail.
"Interestingly, we're not hearing a lot from political leaders. And that just could come down to the fact that political leaders really don't know what the solutions for inflation are," she said.
"So there is this big gap right now between what the public is thinking about and probably wants to talk about, and what the leadership candidates and other politicians are talking about."
Leader a big question mark
Though the new poll might seem a marked improvement for the UCP, Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt said a potentially grueling leadership race ahead poses some big challenges.
"I wouldn't immediately leap to the conclusion that we're about to see another UCP majority government," Bratt said. "It just shows the unpopularity of [Alberta Premier Jason] Kenney … with no new policies, just simply him resigning has increased support."
Duane Bratt, a political scientist at Mount Royal University, says though inflation was the top concern for those surveyed, leadership candidates for the UCP have spent much of the campaign talking about autonomy and separatism. (Dave Gilson/CBC)
Bratt said the NDP remains a formidable challenge for the UCP to overcome. And a potential range in support for the Wildrose Independence Party might depend on the eventual leader selected, he said.
"If a Brian Jean or a Danielle Smith win, then, sure, I could see [those voters] going to the UCP. But what if it's a Travis Toews or a Leela Aheer win? What does that do?" Bratt said.
The survey also asked where Albertans place themselves on the political spectrum, where zero means left and 10 means right. The average response given was 5.7 out of 10.
The survey was released at the Alberta Relaunch Conference, a full-day event being held by New West Public Affairs in Calgary on June 28.
Methodology:
This survey was conducted June 13 to 21, 2022, by Alberta-based Trend Research under the direction of Janet Brown Opinion Research. The survey sampled 900 Albertans aged 18 and over. Respondents were initially contacted at random by live telephone interviewers and given the option of (1) answering the survey over telephone at that time; (2) answering over the telephone at a more convenient time; or (3) receiving the link and answering the survey online. The initial sample list contained approximately 50 per cent landlines and 50 per cent cellphones. Interviewers made up to five attempts to reach each phone number in the sample before classifying it as unreachable. The margin of error for a probability sample of 900 people is plus or minus 3.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20 (i.e., at a 95% confidence interval).
GENEVA (28 June 2022) – The UN Human Rights Office today published a report that, following rigorous assessment and statistical analysis of available data on civilian casualties, estimates that 306,887 civilians* were killed between 1 March 2011 and 31 March 2021 in Syria due to the conflict. This is the highest estimate yet of conflict-related civilian deaths in Syria.
The report, mandated by the UN Human Rights Council, referred to 143,350 civilian deaths that have been individually documented by various sources with detailed information, including at least their full name, date and location of death. In addition, statistical estimation techniques of imputation and multiple systems estimation were used to connect the dots where there were missing elements of information. Using these techniques, a further 163,537 civilian deaths were estimated to have occurred, bringing the total estimated civilian death toll to 306,887.
“The conflict-related casualty figures in this report are not simply a set of abstract numbers, but represent individual human beings. The impact of the killing of each of these 306,887 civilians would have had a profound, reverberating impact on the family and community to which they belonged,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said.
“The work of civil society organizations and the UN in monitoring and documenting conflict-related deaths is key in helping these families and communities establish the truth, seek accountability and pursue effective remedies. This analysis will also give a clearer sense of the severity and scale of the conflict.”
“And let me be clear: these are the people killed as a direct result of war operations. This does not include the many, many more civilians who died due to the loss of access to healthcare, to food, to clean water and other essential human rights, which remain to be assessed,” Bachelet stressed.
The report also contains disaggregated data for the documented deaths, including by age, gender, year, governorate, actors allegedly responsible and the cause of death by weapon type. The estimate of 306,887 means that on average, every single day, for the past 10 years, 83 civilians suffered violent deaths due to the conflict.
The report notes that, “the extent of civilian casualties in the last 10 years represents a staggering 1.5 per cent of the total population of the Syrian Arab Republic at the beginning of the conflict, raising serious concerns as to the failure of the parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law norms on the protection of civilians.”
This statistical work builds on previous efforts to assess direct conflict-related deaths. In 2013 and 2014, the UN Human Rights Office commissioned three statistical analyses of documented killings in Syria, but this effort was discontinued as the situation in the country grew more complex and dangerous, affecting the Office’s capacity to maintain the required quality and verification standards. In 2019, the Office resumed information-gathering and analysis on casualties, including on Syria, in its global reporting on the UN Sustainable Development Goals indicator on conflict-related deaths (SDG indicator 16.1.2).
The report sets out the challenges in recording casualties during a conflict, beyond the immediate risk to civil society actors who try to access the sites of incidents where attacks have taken place.
“Where civil society actors undertake casualty recording, efforts…can put the recorders themselves at risk. They also face multiple challenges in their documentation efforts, including the collapse of their usual networks of information as people are on the move, displaced or in areas where there is a general information shutdown; the limited, or lack of, access to mobile data, Internet and electricity to collect and transmit information; limitations on their movements; and surveillance,” the report states.
Despite these challenges, there has been “consistent and systematic work” in documenting casualties on the ground for more than a decade now. The data used for the report rely on the courageous work of such individuals and groups.
To produce the report, the Office used eight sources of information pertaining to different periods across the 10 years covered. These include: the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies; the Center for Statistics and Research–Syria; the Syrian Network for Human Rights; the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights; the Violations Documentation Center; Syria Shuhada records; Government records; and records of the UN Human Rights Office itself.
“The work done by casualty recorders in documenting individually verifiable information on each casualty is critical. The process is victim-centred, placing individuals, their families and communities at the centre by ensuring that those killed are not forgotten, and that information is available for accountability-related processes and to access a range of human rights,” the report states.
“Unless and until the conflict ends, there is a continued risk of civilian deaths. It is therefore critical that all States, the United Nations and civil society use all available means to end the conflict and support a transition to peace.”
END
*Accordingly, the total civilian casualties is estimated to be 306,887 with an approximate 95 per cent credible interval. This 95 per cent credible interval implies that, given the observed data and assuming that the model is correct, there is a 95 per cent chance that the true number of civilian deaths is between 281,443 and 337,971.
The full report is accessible here and contains charts with disaggregated data, as well as an explanation of the statistical techniques used.
Students being referred to well-being teams at school more than doubled during the pandemic, a legislative committee heard Tuesday.
Well-being teams consist of social workers, nurses, outreach workers and other staff that help students who are struggling with mental, social and physical health issues.
Just prior to the school year disrupted by the pandemic, there were close to 600 referrals to well-being teams. That figure has grown ever since:
2017-18: 183 referrals.
2018-19: 573 referrals.
2019-20: 914 referrals.
2020-21: 1,353 referrals.
2021-22: 971 referrals (Final number not yet finalized).
"We have seen a little bit of a decline this year from what we saw last year … I think last year was certainly a peak year," said Elizabeth Kennedy, acting program lead for the well-being program.
"The mental health needs are there. Kids do have a lot of stress and they have a lot on their plate that they're trying to manage."
At committee, education officials also said as the number of referrals swells each year so do wait lists, with some students waiting upwards of three months to see a well-being team.
'Give them the skill set they need'
Kennedy said the number one referral is for anxiety, with many youth having trouble with stress every day.
Elizabeth Kennedy says they're looking at offering more group services, to complement the one-to-one settings available. (Steve Bruce/CBC News)
"Any time kids are going through transitions where school's starting and stopping, that certainly adds stress levels to students. So we see that as a difficult time for kiddos," she said.
"Then, certainly, what the parents are dealing with at home, all the stressers — financial stressers, housing stressers — that all transpires and comes through the kids as well. They're feeling that."
Committee members asked about the well-being team's staffing problems, in light of the growing wait lists for students.
Kennedy said that their focus is figuring out ways to be more effective and efficient with the staff they have next year.
"We're looking at increasing some of the upstream work we do, in getting into classrooms and doing some well-being presentations," she said.
"If we can give them those prevention pieces ahead of time, and give them the skill set they need that when they encounter stressful situations, they've got the tools to be able to deal with that."
Kids do have a lot of stress and they have a lot on their plate that they're trying to manage.— Elizabeth Kennedy
Kennedy said they're looking at offering more group services, to complement the one-to-one settings available.
"Sometimes the group is the service that we would be suggesting for a student, because that may be more appropriate than the one-to-one service," she said.
Additionally, the program is offering drop-in clinics throughout the summer which are available for students 12 and older.
Parents can also access the drop-in clinics for supports and resources to help their children "going through a tough time," Kennedy said.
The controversial subject of suburban development heads to city hall on Monday.
The growth strategy that goes to a city committee on Monday says over the 2023 to 2026 period, Calgary‘s population is expected to grow by 22,000 people annually or an additional 88,000 people in total.
City bureaucrats are now recommending five new communities to help meet demand and three more if “risks around servicing, operating cost efficiency and absorption can be mitigated.”
“It’s really quite appalling what’s before us and I do hope this new council — which has declared a climate emergency — will just reject this outright,” said Noel Keough, co-founder of Sustainable Calgary Society and a retired associate professor of sustainable design at the University of Calgary.
“It’s supposed to be a city-wide growth strategy but really it seems that it’s a suburban growth strategy.”
He says the price of suburban homes may look cheap but there are many other costs associated with them, including infrastructure and environmental.
“I think taxpayers, above all fiscal conservatives, should be most concerned because this is enormous spending that comes from continuing to build a sprawling city — which is a more expensive city,” Keough said.
“We were pretty clear moving forward that we want to review these business cases from a financial perspective but we also want to review them from a climate perspective,” said Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra.
Carra said upgrading infrastructure and using existing roads is cheaper and better for the environment. However, Carra added that it’s not realistic to go “cold turkey” when it comes to building on the outskirts because that will just push people into places like Airdrie and Chestermere.
Carra admits the city’s new climate strategy is at odds with the growth strategy but he says “life is messy” and at least council is talking about the cost of subsidizing urban sprawl.
“Inner-city redevelopment will win every day but we are not there yet. So right now we are having a very difficult conversation about continuing to accommodate growth on the edge,” Carra said.
“It’s frustrating but at least we’re having that conversation publicly.
“The report is also acknowledging that we are still paying money from 2018 and 2020 and they are acknowledging that there’s a big chunk of change that we are paying from previous growth decisions as well.”
The report states that approval of the business cases would increase city-wide greenhouse gas emissions and result in the destruction of over 300 hectares of natural assets.
The committee will decide if administration should include the new communities in the four-year budget plans that will go before council in November.
“We are living in an age of a climate emergency and it’s a rough situation. I’ve spent the last 11 years of my life working to scale up inner-city redevelopment and we’re almost there,” Carra said.
The report states that “approval of new communities will lock in generations of high-energy intensity land use and transportation patterns and eliminate large areas of climate-mitigating natural assets that would make it more difficult to achieve the city’s 2050 net-zero emissions goal.”
“Approval of the recommended portfolio of business cases would result in an increase in city-wide GHG
emissions of approximately one per cent, increase climate risk through additional exposure of developed lands and assets to climate hazards, and result in the destruction of over 300 hectares of natural assets and the ecosystem services they provide.”
With the Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival back after a two-year pandemic hiatus, one team pushed off into the Rideau River Saturday with more than just speed and a gold medal in mind.
One of the boats gliding across the waves in Mooney's Bay held the team from Ausome Ottawa, a sports and recreation charity for kids on the autism spectrum.
The charity seeks to fill a gap in the community, as many sporting events aren't designed for children with autism or other neurodivergent conditions.
"Neurotypical sport isn't really geared to our kids," said Kayla Garvey, program supervisor and long-serving staff member.
"These programs that we run, we mould them to fit our children. We don't want to change our children. We don't want them to fit the typical mould that some coaches would want."
Sticking to that mission statement, during Saturday's race the team allowed for parents and others to show support by jumping in the boat, with staff cheering them all on.
If someone in the boat felt angry that something wasn't going their way, the team was also ready to just take a second to breathe and calm down before continuing to push through the water.
About more than winning
Garvey said some children become "very excited" when told they need to use their "superhero power" and push harder — with some even screaming.
"Dragon boats [are] something special. We're all trapped on a boat together," she said. "So we have to make the best of it. We have to get along."
In Town and Out10:26Ausome Ottawa dragon boat team
We tag along with a group of children with autism (and a few of their parents) as they train for the Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival.
The team's coach, Andrea Nicholls, said children in the boat don't always communicate verbally, sometimes relying on physical cues instead.
Speaking ahead of race day, Nicholls said their goal was to not only finish the race but also improve on their previous times.
"It's not about winning the race for us. It's about being together, being a team and putting what we practiced into action," she told CBC Radio's In Town and Out.
Members of Ausome Ottawa's dragon boat team practice ahead of the city's annual dragon boat festival, held in June 2022 for the first time in three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Giacomo Panico/CBC)
'Go big or go home'
"In our house, it's go big or go home," said Tori Hammond, whose son Finn helps paddle the boat.
"Otherwise, he'll be one of those kids that we never know how far he can go. We never know what challenges he wants to do."
Logan Ryan, who sits at the dragon boat's front, said he feels like an important part of the team. With his mother Nina sitting next to him, the two help set the pace for those behind them.
While some of Logan's classmates may feel frustrated he can't play other sports at the same level, Ausome Ottawa has created an environment, Nina said, where her son quickly picked up the skills to race on the water.
"I feel proud. Like I can do things. Like I can accomplish things," Logan said.
"They have a knack for teaching kids on the spectrum," Nina added. "I'm super proud of him."
There are ten times more asteroids than astronomers thought according to new data from a space telescope.
The findings come from a huge data release earlier this month from the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope, which was launched in 2013 and since then has been gradually creating an ever more detailed 3D map of our Milky Way galaxy.
The so-called “DR3” dataset includes more than 150,000 objects in the solar system objects, most of them asteroids—though also some moons.
“Based on Gaia DR3, Finnish researchers will change the conception of asteroids in our solar system,” said Karri Muinonen, Academy Professor at the University of Helsinki, Finland, which was involved in the new data release.
It’s thought that the new data will enormously help astronomers in calculating accurate orbits for asteroids. That’s because Gaia data adds-in the physical properties of asteroids. Rather than just seeing them as a point of light, its astrometry —precise measurements of the positions and movements—adds data on its size, shape, rotation and surface light scattering properties.
Something the Gaia DR3 data release has also revealed is the color of about 60,000 asteroids, something that was only known for a handful of asteroids beforehand. That’s going to help astronomers determine what they’re made of, which tells a story about where it comes from—and effectively the evolution of the whole Solar System.
The Gaia DR3 data release on June 13, 2022 was a big moment for astronomy that’s not gotten the media coverage it deserves. About 50 scientific articles were published from ground-breaking new data from Gaia on the chemical compositions, temperatures, colors, masses, brightnesses, ages and radial velocities (”wobbles”) of stars.
As well as uncovering many more asteroids than were previously thought to exist, DR3 contains the largest ever binary star catalog for the Milky Way as well as millions of galaxies and quasars beyond our Milky Way.
Gaia launched atop a Soyuz-Fregat rocket on December 19, 2013 from Europe’s spaceport in French Guina and has been observing from the same Lagrange L2-point where the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) resides. About a million miles/1.6 million kilometers from Earth, it’s at this precise point in space the spacecraft is in gravitational equilibrium in the Earth-Moon-Sun system.
Revolving one every six hours, Gaia observes the stars in vast circles. It studies the cosmos using two optical telescopes and three science instruments, which allow it to measure objects’ positions, how fast they’re moving and what they look like.
So far it’s collected new and/or more detailed data on almost two billion objects in our galaxy and the surrounding cosmos. It’s expected to continue observing through 2025.
A gunman opened fire in Oslo's nightlife district early Saturday, killing two people and leaving more than 20 wounded in what the Norwegian security service called an "Islamist terror act" during the capital's annual LGBTQ Pride festival.
Investigators said the suspect, identified as a 42-year-old Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, was arrested after opening fire at three locations in downtown Oslo.
Police said two men, one in his 50s and and the other in his 60s, died in the shootings. Ten people were treated for serious injuries, but none of them was believed to be in life-threatening condition. Eleven others had minor injuries.
The Norwegian Police Security Service raised its terror alert level from "moderate" to "extraordinary" — the highest level — after the attack, which sent panicked revellers fleeing into the streets or trying to hide from the gunman.
The service's acting chief, Roger Berg, called the attack an "extreme Islamist terror act" and said the suspect had a "long history of violence and threats," as well as mental health issues.
People stand at a memorial site for victims of Saturday's shooting, carried out in central Oslo during the Norwegian capital's annual LGBTQ Pride festival. (Sergei Grits/The Associated Press)
Berg said the agency, known by its Norwegian acronym PST, first became aware of the suspect in 2015 and later grew concerned he had become radicalized and was part of an unspecified Islamist network.
The suspect's defence lawyer, John Christian Elden, said his client "hasn't denied" carrying out the attack, but he cautioned against speculating on the motive.
"He has not given any reason. It is too early to conclude whether this is hate crime or terrorism," Elden said in an email to The Associated Press.
Upon the advice of police, organizers cancelled a Pride parade that was set for Saturday as the highlight of a weeklong festival. Scores of people marched through the capital anyway, waving rainbow flags.
Police lawyer Christian Hatlo said it was too early to say whether the gunman specifically targeted members of the LGBTQ community.
"We have to look closer at that, we don't know yet," he said.
Police examine the restaurant whose windows were shattered during the shooting. (Rodrigo Freitas/Getty Images)
Police said civilians assisted them in detaining the man in custody, who was being held on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and terrorism, based on the number of people targeted at multiple locations.
Investigators seized two weapons after the attack: a handgun and an automatic weapon. Hatlo described both as "not modern" but did not give details.
Not far from Oslo's cathedral, crime-scene tape cordoned off the bars where the shootings took place, including the London Pub, which is popular with the city's LGBTQ community.
Crowds gathered outside and dropped off cards and flowers at impromptu memorials.
People pay their respects near the scene of the shooting in central Oslo on Saturday. (Terje Pedersen/NTB Scanpix/The Associated Press)
Martin Ebbestad, 29, had walked by earlier, seen the memorials and returned with flowers.
London Pub "is our go-to place. My boyfriend left 20 minutes before [it happened]. He was sitting outside in the smoking area," Ebbestad said. "We know this place so well. It doesn't feel unsafe, but it does feel very close."
Norwegian television channel TV2 showed footage of people running down Oslo streets in panic as shots rang out in the background. Olav Roenneberg, a journalist from Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, said he witnessed the shooting.
"I saw a man arrive at the site with a bag. He picked up a weapon and started shooting," Roenneberg told NRK. "First I thought it was an air gun. Then the glass of the bar next door was shattered, and I understood I had to run for cover."
'A cruel and deeply shocking attack'
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere called the shooting a "cruel and deeply shocking attack on innocent people."
He said while the motive was unclear, the shooting had caused fear and grief in the LGBTQ community.
"We all stand by you," Gahr Stoere wrote on Facebook.
People take part in a protest march in Oslo after two people were killed and at least 20 were injured when a man opened fire early Saturday morning near a popular LGBTQ club in the city's downtown, hours before the now-cancelled annual Oslo Pride parade. (Rodrigo Freitas/Getty Images)
Christian Bredeli, who was at the London Pub, told Norwegian newspaper VG that he hid on the fourth floor with a group of about 10 people until he was told it was safe to come out.
"Many were fearing for their lives," he said. "On our way out, we saw several injured people, so we understood that something serious had happened."
Desta G. Selassie, a co-owner of the London Pub, told The Associated Press that employees who witnessed the shooting were in shock and receiving psychological counselling.
Police said the suspect had a criminal record that included a narcotics offence and a weapons offence for carrying a knife.
PST said it spoke to him in May of this year "because he had shown a certain interest in statements that were interpreted as insults to Islam."
"In these conversations, it was assessed that he had no intention of violence, but PST is aware that he has had challenges related to mental health," the agency said in a statement.
WATCH | Anti-LGBTQ threats hang over North American Pride celebrations:
Anti-LGBTQ threats hang over Pride celebrations
1 day ago
Duration 4:47
Pride month is underway, but a recent string of violent threats and extremist confrontations are hanging over this year’s celebrations. CBC’s Jayme Poisson looks at what’s fuelling the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and talks to drag performer Tynomi Banks.
Parade cancelled
Organizers of Oslo Pride cancelled the parade and other scheduled events, and encouraged "people all over Norway to show solidarity" in their homes, neighbourhoods and on social media instead.
"We'll be back later, proud, visible, but right now it's not the time for that," Inge Alexander Gjestvang, leader of FRI, a Norwegian organization for sexual and gender diversity, told TV2.
Norway's King Harald V said he and the royal family were devastated by the attack.
Security forces stand at the site where several people were injured during a shooting outside the London Pub in central Oslo early Saturday. (Javad Parsa/NTB/Reuters)
"We must stand together and defend our values: freedom, diversity and respect for each other. We must continue to stand up for all people to feel safe," the monarch said.
Norway has a relatively low crime rate but has experienced a series of lone-wolf attacks in recent decades, including one of the worst mass shootings in Europe. In 2011, a right-wing extremist killed 69 people on the island of Utoya after setting off a bomb in Oslo that left eight dead.
Former children's services minister Rebecca Schulz is running to become the leader of the United Conservative Party.Photo by Ian Kucerak /Postmedia, file
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UCP leadership hopeful Rebecca Schulz says she would consider boosting education funding if elected premier.
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In an interview Saturday with Postmedia, Schulz said she would commit to more educational assistants in K-12 classrooms, and more mental health support programs for students in schools.
“I really feel strongly that we need to do some things differently in education,” she said, adding she would “look at” an increased budget line although she didn’t offer any specific dollar figures.
“We have to make sure that there is accountability, but then we also have to make sure that there is funding to address some of the needs in the classroom,” she said.
Schulz said her platform would look at pilot programs offering wraparound youth mental health supports, “recognizing that schools are at the hub of the community.”
Her proposals would follow on the recommendations of the UCP government’s Child and Youth Well-Being review, which gathered information over about two months in mid-2021 to determine how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected children and youth. The report noted that health and mental health professionals reported “increased stress, anxiety, grief, depression, eating disorders, self-harm, suicide and suicidal ideation, and substance misuse among children and youth.”
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The provincial government has said it’s taking several new steps in response to the panel’s 10 broad recommendations, including expanding “prevention and early intervention supports” like virtual counselling and in-school supports.
Alberta is set to be flush with cash from high oil and gas prices, and could see at least a $10 billion surplus. When asked what she would do with that extra money, Schulz focused on saving and paying down debt, especially when interest rates are high and the province is paying more to service that debt.
“We have to have a practical plan to pay that off, and I will have that in my platform,” she said. However, with affordability issues top of mind, Schulz said she would be looking for ways to support Albertans.
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Fellow leadership candidates Rajan Sawhney and Leela Aheer have promised to re-index Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) payments to inflation. Schulz said Saturday she would reconsider it.
“This is something that is important, especially at a time right now when costs are going up, and if it makes sense, I’ll do it,” she said.
When asked if she would switch gears or carry on with the UCP’s plan to revamp public health care, Schulz said private health-care providers have long operated in the province and most Albertans just want to see shorter wait times, especially for surgery. She acknowledged Albertans want to know they have local family doctors and paramedics, but pointed to fixing processes and red tape in the health-care system.
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“I do believe that frontline workers have the answers to many of those questions.”
The UCP had been working to save $2 billion in doctor pay after it came into office in 2020, but Schulz said now, the government needs to repair relationships with doctors, and doctors understand a need to curb growth in compensation.
When asked if she would continue funding the Canadian Energy Centre, known as the war room, Schulz said the province has to keep fighting for its energy sector and telling its story.
“I’m not going to commit to ending the war room.”
Schulz worked for three years under Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall, and said during that time she learned how important good communication is.
“You can have a government that is fiscally conservative and wholly committed to economic growth, but also be compassionate and show common sense when making decisions and be able to communicate those decisions well,” said Schulz.
Thirty-three countries have reported 920 probable cases of severe acute hepatitis in children so far, a jump of 270 from May, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
The WHO said that the European Region accounted for half the probable cases, including 267 from the United Kingdom, while a third of the probable cases were from the United States.
Health authorities globally have been investigating the mysterious rise in severe cases of hepatitis – or liver inflammation – in young children. The outbreak was first reported in April in Britain and has since then hit dozens of other countries.
U.S. health officials say infection with adenovirus, a common childhood virus, is the leading hypothesis for the cases.
The latest WHO data was as of June 22 and excluded four countries with reported cases yet to be classified.
Of the 422 cases in which gender and age-related information is available, close to half occurred in males, with most of them under 6 years of age, according to the report.
The WHO said 45 children with acute hepatitis have required liver transplants, and there have been 18 deaths, most of them occurring in the Americas region.
(Reporting by Amruta Khandekar; Editing by Aditya Soni)
The U.S. Supreme Court shocked many people Friday morning by overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion across that country. It's become up to each state to decide whether or not to ban medical or surgical abortions.
Although this doesn't impact Canadian women directly, it does embolden anti-choice groups and sentiments, worries Roz Gunn, director of communications and Advocacy for YWCA Cambridge
“I think they are going to take this as a signal that their notions of rights and reproductive rights are true.”
"It has ripple effects, I don’t see it playing out in policy in Canada but I see it influencing prevailing narratives and emboldening anti-choice advocates or groups here in Canada," says Gunn.
"I do worry were going to see a resurgence of those groups, at our clinics and at our health care centres.”
The news that came out Friday upset the team at YWCA Cambridge who Gunn said work hard to fight for equal rights and help women with their sexual health in Cambridge.
“It’s not necessarily going to mean abortions aren’t going to happen, it means unsafe abortions are going to happen and that’s the scariest thing."
YWCA Cambridge is hoping not to see any more anti-choice protesters at its doorsteps but Gunn things it will start happening more now that Roe v. Wade was overturned.
In a statement provided to CambridgeToday from the Right to Life Cambridge group's spokesperson, Camilla Gunnarson, they stated they were thrilled with the decision made.
"We hope the effects of this momentous decision trickle into Canada in which our nation will one day recognize the harm abortion has done to women and society, and thus restore legal protection to the preborn child in the womb. We work toward a future where every woman has the support and resources she needs to bring her child to life. Women deserve better than abortion."
Gunn hopes the news coming out today will generate collective action and open a broader conversation in Canada about equal access to abortion care.
“It’s beyond time we treat abortion like healthcare because that's what it is, abortions are healthcare and it’s just infuriating to see these types of decisions and see rights clawed back,” said executive director of SHORE Centre, TK Pritchard.
The SHORE Centre helps not only women in Waterloo Region but women across the province get access to sexual healthcare and help them when their pregnant.
“The news is not unexpected but its still devastating. This is such a big blow to abortion access, not just in the states but beyond that. I think it’s really difficult news to grapple with and its definitely having an impact on our entire team today.”
In May, Pritchard spoke about the barriers still remaining in Canada for abortion access. They mentioned that it can be hard for people in smaller communities to find care in Canada, often having to travel long distances.
In Canada, many women get sent to the US for later term pregnancy abortion care and access. This decision changes the ability for those women to access care as well, as the states that do keep abortion access will start to have longer wait times, making it more challenging as it is a time sensitive issue, added Pritchard.
“It’s a really common misconception that abortion is easily accessible in Canada but the reality is a lot of folks don’t have access to them.
"People travel quite far so the logistics can be really difficult as well as the stigma and anti-choice beliefs.”
Pritchard and others at the SHORE Centre worry the news will embolden local anti-choice groups, like Right to Life Cambridge, creating more stigma and limiting access by validating conversations about anti-choice sentiments.
“I know our partners across the country and definitely our partners in the US there has been a rise of anti-choice sentiments in their community.”
“We really need to focus on increasing access and now were likely going to be focused on responding to these pieces,” added Pritchard.
Raise your voices in rage. In solidarity. Be infuriated that anyone believes they can regulate and restrict our bodies. Our choices. We’re here with you in anger. In grief. In the knowledge that we will never stop fighting.
The SHORE Centre is planning a rally for next Wednesday to support women and equal abortion access across the country while protesting against the recent decision that overturned women's rights in the US Friday.
Families Minister Karina Gould, the minister responsible for passport services, said Thursday the government is adding more staff on the ground to help triage hours-long lineups at many passport offices as tens of thousands of people look to get their hands on travel documents.
The strategy shift comes as policy experts, and the government's Conservative critics, say the situation should never have been allowed to get so dire when it was obvious to many that there'd be a strong interest in travel as the pandemic receded.
Gould said, after reports of chaos at some passport offices in the Montreal area this week, Service Canada is deploying managers to walk the lineups that have popped up at some offices.
These managers will speak to would-be travellers about their applications before they get to a customer service agent — a system that will help staff identify people who are most in need of a passport.
People who require a passport for travel in the next 12, 24 and 36 hours will get priority service while others will be told to come back at another time, Gould said.
WATCH: Anger boils over as passport applicants wait days in line:
Anger boils over as passport applicants wait days in line
1 day ago
Duration 2:16
Long lines persist at passport offices across the country with desperate applicants waiting days in line. Montreal improved the situation slightly by handing out tickets for appointments, but the prime minister called the backlog 'unacceptable.'
The minister said, after the first day it was in place in Montreal, the process "didn't go as smoothly, quite frankly, as we had hoped, but today we're seeing much better progress."
While Gould reported "progress," the government website that tracks wait times was warning people to expect delays of at least six hours at busy sites like Montreal's Guy-Favreau complex and Ottawa's only passport office on Meadowlands Drive.
The minister said a similar process is being rolled out in Toronto Thursday and Vancouver-area offices will also have managers triaging passport applicants as of Monday.
People camp out overnight in line outside a Service Canada passport office, in Vancouver, on Wednesday, June 22, 2022. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)
Gould also said more passports will be printed in bulk at the Gatineau, Que. processing centre near Ottawa and ferried to other locations, which will take some of the stress off of smaller passport offices that don't have large industrial printers to churn out hundreds of passports each day.
"We have received a large volume of passports. That doesn't make the situation acceptable," Gould said. "Canadians should never have to experience this."
Bureaucrats warned government about passport onslaught
Andrew Griffith is a former director general with Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and a former top official at Service Canada and the Privy Council Office.
In an interview with CBC News, Griffith said the government should never have allowed the situation to get to this point.
In Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada's 2022-23 department plan, bureaucrats told the government there would almost certainly be a surge in passport applications as COVID-related travel restrictions were relaxed, Griffith said, and yet not enough was done to prepare passport offices for the onslaught of applicants.
In that department plan, which Griffith shared with CBC News, internal experts advised the government that "forecasts predict that a recovery to pre-COVID-19 demand will begin in spring of 2022, and that demand for passports will continue to increase over the next three years."
"This growth will be due in part to applications being delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and an anticipated surge related to the renewal of the first wave of passports issued with a 10-year validity period," the departmental plan reads.
People wait outside in line outside a Services Canada Passport office in Surrey, British Columbia on Tuesday, May 24, 2022. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
Griffith said the passport situation is a clear instance of the government "neglecting its core responsibilities and not planning or preparing properly."
"It's very clear that the policy folks were aware that there would be an increase but it wasn't connected to the operations side to make sure they were putting adequate preparations in place. It's one of those unfortunate examples of where the government sort of tends to over promise and under deliver," he said.
Speaking to CBC Radio's The House in an interview that will air Saturday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended the government's record on the passport issue but vowed to do more to address an "unacceptable" situation.
Trudeau said the government did hire 600 more passport workers in January to support the existing workforce and it's looking to add more in the coming weeks to clear mounting backlogs.
Griffith said subjecting thousands of Canadians to hours-long lineups risks undermining faith in government institutions. Canadians expect a certain level of service from the federal government and, when it fails to deliver, there's an erosion of trust, he said.
"If they can't get service in a timely manner, people become disillusioned. People are understandably frustrated about these things. I think it's a really serious issue," Griffith said.
'This is a waiting nation'
Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre said Thursday, in a video posted to his social media channels, that Canadians deserve better than what has transpired at passport offices in recent weeks.
Poilievre is seen walking the lines that have formed at Ottawa's passport office in the video, speaking to applicants who have camped out since 3 a.m. to get to an agent.
"What's the deal folks? Well, this is a waiting nation. We are asked to wait for everything as sleepy bureaucrats and government gatekeepers stand in the way of you getting the basic services to which you are entitled — one of them is a passport," Poilievre said.
"You see what's happening here? The government is doing a lot of things poorly rather than a few things well."
