Climate researchers urge preparation for future fires : In The News for June 12

“So the first thing is to immediately revamp municipal and regional planning to not just consider the risk of fires, but to expect the occurrence of fires.”

Andrew MacDougall, a professor at St. Francis Xavier University who contributed to the most recent United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change _ or IPCC _ report, said that when wildfire records are broken _ as occurred this year in southern Nova Scotia _ it’s probable that global warming is a factor and that the trend will continue.

MacDougall noted a study assessing the direct role of climate change in creating extreme conditions hasn’t been completed on the recent Nova Scotia wildfires, nor is he aware of one being underway.

However, MacDougall said it’s “likely there’s a climate change effect” regarding the largest wildfire in the province’s history _ in Shelburne County _ and in the fires northwest of Halifax.

Together the two fires destroyed about 210 residences and created mass evacuations.

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Also this …

When Torontonians enter the polling booth on June 26 to elect a new mayor, they will stare down a ballot with 102 candidates before marking a single vote.

Whoever gets the most votes wins, regardless of their share of the overall ballots cast.

With more than half a dozen high profile candidates in the packed field, city hall watchers say the next mayor of Canada’s most populous city could be elected with less than a third of the popular vote.

“That’s not good for democracy,” said John Beebe, founder of the Democratic Engagement Exchange at Toronto Metropolitan University.

The next mayor could be handed the weakest democratic mandate in Toronto’s history while inheriting largely untested “strong mayor” powers, allowing them to pass budgets with just one-third council support, veto bylaws and unilaterally shape the city’s top-level administration.

Electoral reform advocates have long argued Toronto’s use of a first-past-the-post system is outdated, saying it fuels polarized campaigns and unrepresentative results. But the record number of candidates this election has exposed glaring issues, advocates say.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

A Utah woman who wrote a children’s book about coping with grief after her husband’s death, and was later accused of fatally poisoning him, is scheduled to appear in court Monday to determine whether she should remain detained or have an opportunity to post bail.

Kouri Richins, 33, is charged with murder and drug possession.

Prosecutors say in court documents that she slipped five times the lethal dose of fentanyl into a Moscow mule cocktail she made for her husband, Eric Richins, amid marital disputes and fights over a multimillion-dollar mansion she ultimately purchased as an investment.

The mother of three self-published an illustrated book about an angelic father watching over his sons.

The case became a true-crime fixation when charges were filed last month, prompting people to pore over the children’s book and scrutinize remarks she made while promoting it as a tool to help children grieve the loss of a loved one.

Prosecutors have painted a picture of a conniving woman who tried to kill her husband weeks earlier by lacing a Valentine’s Day sandwich with hydrocodone and repeatedly denied her involvement on the day of his death in March 2022, even telling police, “My husband is active. He doesn’t just die in his sleep. This is insane.”

In a motion calling for her release filed on Friday, Kouri Richins’ attorneys argued the evidence against her is circumstantial because police never seized fentanyl from the family home. They also called into question the credibility of the key witnesses expected to support the prosecutors’ request to keep her in custody.

The attorneys said prosecutors “simply accepted” the narrative from Eric Richins’ family that his wife had poisoned him “and worked backward in an effort to support it” by spending about 14 months investigating and finding no evidence to support their theory.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

The Pakistani government on Monday welcomed the arrival of the first shipment of discounted crude from Russia under a key deal between Islamabad and Moscow.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif hailed it as a “fulfillment of promises” to the nation while Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb tweeted that it marked a “true service” for the people.

The cargo was being unloaded in the port city of Karachi, the country’s main hub for imports. Cash-strapped Pakistan had been in talks with Russia to import discounted crude since February 2022, when former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan visited Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin.

Khan’s visit coincided with the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine _ a visit that at the time strained relations between Pakistan and the United States. Moscow has since grappled with Western sanctions over the war, rerouting much of its supply to India, China and other Asian countries at discounted prices after Western customers shunned it in response to the invasion.

Pakistan’s deputy oil minister, Musadiq Malik, told the Geo news TV that Islamabad had initially signed an agreement with Russia for the purchase of 100,000 tons of oil, which is supposed to arrive in two ships. The first vessel with the crude arrived in Karachi on Sunday. The size of its cargo load was not immediately known.

He did not share any details about the price of Russian oil, saying only that Pakistan will try to ensure a steady import with the expectations that prices at the pump will decrease.

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On this day in 2008 …

Ontario MPPs voted unanimously to retain the recitation of “The Lord’s Prayer” to begin daily proceedings in the Legislature but supplemented it by a rotating series of seven prayers of other faiths, a non-denominational prayer and a moment of silence.

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In entertainment …

The intimate, funny-sad musical “Kimberly Akimbo” nudged aside more splashier rivals on Sunday to win the best new musical crown at the Tony Awards on a night when Broadway flexed its muscle in the face of Hollywood writers’ strike and fully embraced trans-rights with history-making winners. Victoria Clark, as the lead in the show, added a second Tony to her trophy case, having previously won one in 2005 for “The Light in the Piazza.” Earlier, Tony Awards history was made when Alex Newell and J. Harrison Ghee became the first nonbinary people to win Tonys for acting.

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Did you see this?

The Conservative Party is willing to work with other opposition legislators to set the terms of reference for a possible inquiry on foreign interference.

Party Leader Pierre Poilievre says he will reach out to the New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois next week and begin the work.

The Liberal government says it is willing to hold a public inquiry on allegations that China meddled in two recent federal elections, but it wants the opposition parties to come up with its terms of reference, timeline and potential leader.

The government is undertaking work to find possible gaps in how it handles allegations of foreign interference, and initially appointed former governor general David Johnston as a special rapporteur to probe the issue.

But Johnston resigned from the role on Friday, citing the highly partisan atmosphere around his work.

Poilievre says he wants the government to call a public inquiry quickly, and before the next federal election.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2023.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Climate researchers urge preparation for future fires : In The News for June 12

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