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A historic meeting and Canada at the World Cup: In The News for Mar. 28 – Coast Reporter

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In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of Mar. 28 …

What we are watching in Rome …

ROME — Métis and Inuit delegates are set to speak with Pope Francis at the Vatican in two separate meetings today.

The Métis delegates will have a one hour meeting with the Pope first and the Inuit encounter will follow.

Métis National Council President Cassidy Caron has said she hopes it is an opportunity to share stories from residential school survivors.

Caron adds she also hopes to talk about how Métis people are revitalizing their culture and how the church can support those efforts.

Natan Obed, the president of the national organization representing Inuit people, has said he hopes its an opportunity to get justice and hold accountable members of the church who harmed Indigenous children.

First Nations delegates will meet with the pontiff on Thursday.

All three groups of delegates will then gather with the Pope on Friday. All have expressed an expectation that the Pope will commit to apologizing for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in residential schools during a trip to Canada.

An estimated 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools. More than 60 per cent of the schools were run by the Catholic Church.

There are a total of 32 Indigenous elders, leaders, survivors and youth taking part in the meetings at the Vatican. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has organized and is paying for the delegation, is also sending a handful of members.

Rev. Raymond Poisson, the group’s president, has said he expects the meetings to allow Pope Francis to address the ongoing trauma and legacy of suffering faced by Indigenous people to this day.

What we are watching in Canada …

OTTAWA — Ontario signed a $10.2 billion child-care deal with the federal government Sunday that will cut child-care fees in the province in half by the end of the year.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford will announce the deal today in the Greater Toronto Area, according to sources from both governments with knowledge of the negotiations.

They all spoke to The Canadian Press on the condition they not be named due to the sensitive nature of the talks.

The Ontario deal is the last one needed to fulfil Trudeau’s pledge to bring child-care fees down to an average of $10 a day in every province and territory by the end of 2026.

The 2021 federal budget earmarked $30 billion over five years to set up a long promised, but never delivered, national child-care program.

Ontario was holding out for more money and while they didn’t get that, provincial sources say they secured more flexibility in when the funds are spent, which will allow them to hit the target of lowering fees to an average of $10 a day.

As well, they secured a review mechanism in year three that lets them provide an updated costing model and ask for more money to account for any shortfalls.

Also this …

HALIFAX — The public inquiry investigating the mass shooting in Nova Scotia that claimed 22 lives resumes today with testimony expected from the first three RCMP officers to arrive at the chaotic scene in Portapique, N.S., on April 18, 2020.

The testimony will mark the first time the inquiry hears from anyone directly involved in the worst mass shooting in modern Canadian history.

Lawyers for some of the victims’ families have said they are worried the inquiry’s rules will limit their ability to directly question the officers and other witnesses.

The inquiry’s three commissioners have said participating lawyers must ask permission before they can cross-examine any witness, a rule that is unusual for public inquiries.

The three first responders scheduled to testify are constables Stuart Beselt, Adam Merchant and Aaron Patton, who have already provided previous, closed-door statements to the RCMP and the commission.

The RCMP and the union that represents officers had argued their members should be exempt from testifying because it would be too traumatic for them, but the commissioners rejected that request.

The trio, however, will not face regular questioning from inquiry lawyers. Instead, they will take part in a so-called witness panel, with the initial round of questions coming from the commission’s counsel.

In their previous statements, the three officers confirmed that within minutes of arriving in Portapique at 10:25 p.m., they donned body armour, armed themselves with semi-automatic carbines and quickly moved into the dark, rural enclave where an active shooter had already killed several people.

Testimony is also expected later from five supervising RCMP officers and four senior Mounties, including RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki.

What we are watching in the U.S. …

WASHINGTON — Russia’s war on Ukraine has most Americans at least somewhat worried the U.S. will be drawn directly into the conflict and could be targeted with nuclear weapons. 

That’s according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research that shows a level of anxiety that has echoes of the Cold War era. 

Close to half of Americans say they are very concerned Russia would directly target the U.S. with nuclear weapons, and three in 10 are somewhat concerned about that. 

The poll finds 71per cent of Americans say the invasion has increased the possibility of nuclear weapons being used anywhere in the world.

What we are watching in the rest of the world …

KYIV, Ukraine — With its aspirations for a quick victory dashed by a stiff Ukrainian resistance, Russia has increasingly focused on grinding down Ukraine’s military in the east in the hope of forcing Kyiv into surrendering part of the country’s territory to possibly end the war.

The bulk of the Ukrainian army is concentrated in eastern Ukraine, where it has been locked up in fighting with Moscow-backed separatists in a nearly eight-year conflict. If Russia succeeds in encircling and destroying the Ukrainian forces in the country’s industrial heartland called Donbas, it could try to dictate its terms to Kyiv and, possibly, attempt to split the country in two.

The Russian military declared Friday that the “first stage of the operation” had been largely accomplished, allowing Russian troops to concentrate on their “top goal — the liberation of Donbas.”

Many observers say the shift in strategy could reflect President Vladimir Putin’s acknowledgment that his plan for a blitz in Ukraine has failed, forcing him to narrow his goals and change tactics amid a disastrous war that has turned Russia into a pariah and decimated its economy.

U.S. and British officials also have noted that Moscow has increasingly focused on fighting the Ukrainian forces in the east while digging in around Kyiv and other big cities and pummeling them with rockets and artillery.

The chief of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said Sunday the change of focus could reflect Putin’s hope to break Ukraine in two, like North and South Korea, and enforce “a line of separation between the occupied and unoccupied regions.”

“He can’t swallow the entire country,” Budanov said, adding that Russia appears to be trying “to pull the occupied territories into a single quasi-state structure and pit it against independent Ukraine.”

In sports … 

TORONTO — Canadian soccer fans rejoiced upon seeing Canada’s men’s soccer team clinch a berth in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar after a 4-0 win over Jamaica on Sunday at BMO Field.

This is just the second time Canada’s men’s soccer team has reached the World Cup in its history and the first time since 1986.

The World Cup is considered to be the most prestigious international soccer event in the world, taking place every four years.

The 2022 World Cup will take place from Nov. 21 to Dec. 18.

“In a way I’ve been waiting 36 years (for this moment), but it’s been mostly the last 15-20 years when I’ve been watching it closely,” said Rob Nootenboom, who travelled from Regina to witness Canada’s clinching moment. “It feels like half my life, and I guess it is half my life, almost.”

The scene at BMO Field was a festive one with fans coming into Sunday’s game ready to celebrate knowing that Canada only needed to draw or outright beat Jamaica in order to see their team reach the World Cup.

“This is probably going to be one of the biggest sporting moments in the history of our country,” said Bruce Rayakovich of Brampton, who jumped onto the bandwagon last June during Canada’s World Cup qualifying campaign. “To be here for an event like that is just an unbelievable feeling.”

The historic win drew reaction from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who Tweeted “That’s what I’m talking about! Congratulations to the Canada men’s national soccer team – taking us to the World Cup for the first time in 36 years.” 

In entertainment …

TORONTO — Newly minted Oscar-winner Patrice Vermette says his Academy Award win for production design on “Dune” is “a dream” come true.

The Montreal artist is one of two Canadians to take home Oscars at last night’s star-studded bash in Hollywood.

Vermette won the best production design trophy for his work on “Dune,” which was directed by longtime collaborator and Montreal director Denis Villeneuve.

Meanwhile, Halifax director Ben Proudfoot won best documentary short subject with his film “The Queen of Basketball.” It’s about Lucy Harris, the only woman to be drafted by the N-B-A.

Both won their awards at an hour-long ceremony just before the live broadcast on A-B-C and C-T-V, which included edited footage from the early celebration.

“Dune” director/producer Villeneuve was one of several Canadians chasing hardware for best picture, with Quebec producer Roger Frappier behind nominee “The Power of the Dog” and Toronto producer J. Miles Dale behind “Nightmare Alley.”

The deaf family drama “CODA” from Apple T-V Plus ultimately took the top prize.

Did you see this?

LOS ANGELES — Will Smith marched on stage and smacked presenter Chris Rock in the face during last night’s Oscars after Rock made a joke about the appearance of Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. 

Smith was awarded best actor for his role in “King Richard” moments later and while tearfully apologizing to the academy during his speech, he pointedly did not apologize to Rock.

The crowd at the Dolby Theatre hushed as Smith twice shouted at Rock to “keep my wife’s name out of your (expletive) mouth.” 

Rock made a joke about Pinkett Smith’s shaved head. 

Pinkett Smith revealed in 2018 that she was diagnosed with alopecia. 

She has often discussed the challenges of hair loss on Instagram and other social media platforms.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Mar. 28, 2022

The Canadian Press

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STD epidemic slows as new syphilis and gonorrhea cases fall in US

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NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. syphilis epidemic slowed dramatically last year, gonorrhea cases fell and chlamydia cases remained below prepandemic levels, according to federal data released Tuesday.

The numbers represented some good news about sexually transmitted diseases, which experienced some alarming increases in past years due to declining condom use, inadequate sex education, and reduced testing and treatment when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Last year, cases of the most infectious stages of syphilis fell 10% from the year before — the first substantial decline in more than two decades. Gonorrhea cases dropped 7%, marking a second straight year of decline and bringing the number below what it was in 2019.

“I’m encouraged, and it’s been a long time since I felt that way” about the nation’s epidemic of sexually transmitted infections, said the CDC’s Dr. Jonathan Mermin. “Something is working.”

More than 2.4 million cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia were diagnosed and reported last year — 1.6 million cases of chlamydia, 600,000 of gonorrhea, and more than 209,000 of syphilis.

Syphilis is a particular concern. For centuries, it was a common but feared infection that could deform the body and end in death. New cases plummeted in the U.S. starting in the 1940s when infection-fighting antibiotics became widely available, and they trended down for a half century after that. By 2002, however, cases began rising again, with men who have sex with other men being disproportionately affected.

The new report found cases of syphilis in their early, most infectious stages dropped 13% among gay and bisexual men. It was the first such drop since the agency began reporting data for that group in the mid-2000s.

However, there was a 12% increase in the rate of cases of unknown- or later-stage syphilis — a reflection of people infected years ago.

Cases of syphilis in newborns, passed on from infected mothers, also rose. There were nearly 4,000 cases, including 279 stillbirths and infant deaths.

“This means pregnant women are not being tested often enough,” said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of medicine at the University of Southern California.

What caused some of the STD trends to improve? Several experts say one contributor is the growing use of an antibiotic as a “morning-after pill.” Studies have shown that taking doxycycline within 72 hours of unprotected sex cuts the risk of developing syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia.

In June, the CDC started recommending doxycycline as a morning-after pill, specifically for gay and bisexual men and transgender women who recently had an STD diagnosis. But health departments and organizations in some cities had been giving the pills to people for a couple years.

Some experts believe that the 2022 mpox outbreak — which mainly hit gay and bisexual men — may have had a lingering effect on sexual behavior in 2023, or at least on people’s willingness to get tested when strange sores appeared.

Another factor may have been an increase in the number of health workers testing people for infections, doing contact tracing and connecting people to treatment. Congress gave $1.2 billion to expand the workforce over five years, including $600 million to states, cities and territories that get STD prevention funding from CDC.

Last year had the “most activity with that funding throughout the U.S.,” said David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors.

However, Congress ended the funds early as a part of last year’s debt ceiling deal, cutting off $400 million. Some people already have lost their jobs, said a spokeswoman for Harvey’s organization.

Still, Harvey said he had reasons for optimism, including the growing use of doxycycline and a push for at-home STD test kits.

Also, there are reasons to think the next presidential administration could get behind STD prevention. In 2019, then-President Donald Trump announced a campaign to “eliminate” the U.S. HIV epidemic by 2030. (Federal health officials later clarified that the actual goal was a huge reduction in new infections — fewer than 3,000 a year.)

There were nearly 32,000 new HIV infections in 2022, the CDC estimates. But a boost in public health funding for HIV could also also help bring down other sexually transmitted infections, experts said.

“When the government puts in resources, puts in money, we see declines in STDs,” Klausner said.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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World’s largest active volcano Mauna Loa showed telltale warning signs before erupting in 2022

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists can’t know precisely when a volcano is about to erupt, but they can sometimes pick up telltale signs.

That happened two years ago with the world’s largest active volcano. About two months before Mauna Loa spewed rivers of glowing orange molten lava, geologists detected small earthquakes nearby and other signs, and they warned residents on Hawaii‘s Big Island.

Now a study of the volcano’s lava confirms their timeline for when the molten rock below was on the move.

“Volcanoes are tricky because we don’t get to watch directly what’s happening inside – we have to look for other signs,” said Erik Klemetti Gonzalez, a volcano expert at Denison University, who was not involved in the study.

Upswelling ground and increased earthquake activity near the volcano resulted from magma rising from lower levels of Earth’s crust to fill chambers beneath the volcano, said Kendra Lynn, a research geologist at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and co-author of a new study in Nature Communications.

When pressure was high enough, the magma broke through brittle surface rock and became lava – and the eruption began in late November 2022. Later, researchers collected samples of volcanic rock for analysis.

The chemical makeup of certain crystals within the lava indicated that around 70 days before the eruption, large quantities of molten rock had moved from around 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) to 3 miles (5 kilometers) under the summit to a mile (2 kilometers) or less beneath, the study found. This matched the timeline the geologists had observed with other signs.

The last time Mauna Loa erupted was in 1984. Most of the U.S. volcanoes that scientists consider to be active are found in Hawaii, Alaska and the West Coast.

Worldwide, around 585 volcanoes are considered active.

Scientists can’t predict eruptions, but they can make a “forecast,” said Ben Andrews, who heads the global volcano program at the Smithsonian Institution and who was not involved in the study.

Andrews compared volcano forecasts to weather forecasts – informed “probabilities” that an event will occur. And better data about the past behavior of specific volcanos can help researchers finetune forecasts of future activity, experts say.

(asterisk)We can look for similar patterns in the future and expect that there’s a higher probability of conditions for an eruption happening,” said Klemetti Gonzalez.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Waymo’s robotaxis now open to anyone who wants a driverless ride in Los Angeles

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Waymo on Tuesday opened its robotaxi service to anyone who wants a ride around Los Angeles, marking another milestone in the evolution of self-driving car technology since the company began as a secret project at Google 15 years ago.

The expansion comes eight months after Waymo began offering rides in Los Angeles to a limited group of passengers chosen from a waiting list that had ballooned to more than 300,000 people. Now, anyone with the Waymo One smartphone app will be able to request a ride around an 80-square-mile (129-square-kilometer) territory spanning the second largest U.S. city.

After Waymo received approval from California regulators to charge for rides 15 months ago, the company initially chose to launch its operations in San Francisco before offering a limited service in Los Angeles.

Before deciding to compete against conventional ride-hailing pioneers Uber and Lyft in California, Waymo unleashed its robotaxis in Phoenix in 2020 and has been steadily extending the reach of its service in that Arizona city ever since.

Driverless rides are proving to be more than just a novelty. Waymo says it now transports more than 50,000 weekly passengers in its robotaxis, a volume of business numbers that helped the company recently raise $5.6 billion from its corporate parent Alphabet and a list of other investors that included venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz and financial management firm T. Rowe Price.

“Our service has matured quickly and our riders are embracing the many benefits of fully autonomous driving,” Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said in a blog post.

Despite its inroads, Waymo is still believed to be losing money. Although Alphabet doesn’t disclose Waymo’s financial results, the robotaxi is a major part of an “Other Bets” division that had suffered an operating loss of $3.3 billion through the first nine months of this year, down from a setback of $4.2 billion at the same time last year.

But Waymo has come a long way since Google began working on self-driving cars in 2009 as part of project “Chauffeur.” Since its 2016 spinoff from Google, Waymo has established itself as the clear leader in a robotaxi industry that’s getting more congested.

Electric auto pioneer Tesla is aiming to launch a rival “Cybercab” service by 2026, although its CEO Elon Musk said he hopes the company can get the required regulatory clearances to operate in Texas and California by next year.

Tesla’s projected timeline for competing against Waymo has been met with skepticism because Musk has made unfulfilled promises about the company’s self-driving car technology for nearly a decade.

Meanwhile, Waymo’s robotaxis have driven more than 20 million fully autonomous miles and provided more than 2 million rides to passengers without encountering a serious accident that resulted in its operations being sidelined.

That safety record is a stark contrast to one of its early rivals, Cruise, a robotaxi service owned by General Motors. Cruise’s California license was suspended last year after one of its driverless cars in San Francisco dragged a jaywalking pedestrian who had been struck by a different car driven by a human.

Cruise is now trying to rebound by joining forces with Uber to make some of its services available next year in U.S. cities that still haven’t been announced. But Waymo also has forged a similar alliance with Uber to dispatch its robotaxi in Atlanta and Austin, Texas next year.

Another robotaxi service, Amazon’s Zoox, is hoping to begin offering driverless rides to the general public in Las Vegas at some point next year before also launching in San Francisco.

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