Author: Darren Leonard

Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man how to fish, and he may live to regret the havoc climate change wrecks on the fish’s natural habitat. Salmon fishers in Alaska face a cascade of challenges as state regulators implement a series of restrictions to prevent overfishing of a species that’s struggling to survive in rapidly warming waters brought by climate change, according to a Wall Street Journal report last weekend. Put a Sockeye in ItAlaska’s biodiverse sea stock typically fuels a $6-billion-a-year fishing industry. But in the Kenai River, one of the state’s most…

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East condemns Canada’s abstention on a UN General Assembly emergency resolution late Friday, which called for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce” in Gaza. Many considered the resolution to be the last opportunity to prevent the bloody and devastating ground assault that was subsequently launched on Gaza by Israel. The resolution was sponsored by Jordan and passed with 120 votes in favour, 14 against and 45 abstentions. In addition to calling for a truce, it also called for all parties to respect international humanitarian law and allow the “continuous, sufficient and…

As part of the President’s Investing in America agenda, the U.S. Department of Commerce identified regional centers primed for technological innovation and job creation. The Biden-Harris administration, through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), today announced the designation of 31 Tech Hubs in regions across the country. This is the first phase of the new Tech Hubs program, which is an economic development initiative designed to drive regional innovation and job creation by strengthening a region’s capacity to manufacture, commercialize, and deploy technology that will advance American competitiveness.  The program invests directly in burgeoning, high-potential U.S. regions and…

Despite last year’s CHIPS and Science Act, which was meant to boost innovation, report predicts that Congress will cut spending on science. Last year, lawmakers in the United States passed bipartisan legislation intended to maintain US competitiveness with countries such as China by boosting funding for science and innovation. But concerns are mounting that the US Congress will fail to deliver on its promises. The money allotted to a handful of major US science agencies that had been targeted for a budget boost is likely to fall short of the legislation’s goals by more than US$7 billion in 2024, according to a report.…

Strong winds on Thursday downed trees across Anchorage and knocked out power for thousands of residents. The National Weather Service forecast had called for southeast winds to rapidly increase across the Anchorage Bowl by late morning, with gusts of 30 to 50 mph to continue through late afternoon, reaching up to 60 mph on the Hillside. The wind came from the remnants of a tropical storm in the Pacific Northwest that moved across the Aleutian Chain and is heading toward Southwest Alaska, said National Weather Service meteorologist Christian Landry. “With higher pressure over the Prince William Sound area and low pressure over Southwest…

The U.S. expanded the restriction of exports of sophisticated Nvidia (NVDA.O) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) artificial-intelligence chips beyond China to other regions including some countries in the Middle East. Nvidia said in a regulatory filing this week that the curbs, which affect its A100 and H100 chips designed to speed up machine-learning tasks, would not have an “immediate material impact” on its results. Rival AMD also received an informed letter with similar restrictions, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters, adding that the move has no material impact on its revenue. U.S. officials usually impose export controls for national security reasons. A…

Russian shelling killed seven people, including a 22-day-old infant, and wounded at least 22 in Ukraine’s southern region of Kherson on Sunday, prompting local officials to declare Monday a day of mourning and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to promise justice. Kyiv reclaimed part of Kherson from Russian occupation last November but Kremlin troops have continued shelling the regional capital and areas around it from across the Dnipro River. Five people were killed in the village of Shyroka Balka, including a 22-day-old girl, her 12-year-old brother who died from serious injuries in hospital, and their 39-year-old mother, Olesia, Zelenskiy said. “The terrorists…

Majority of Americans view ex-president unfavourably, but Donald Trump has strong support among Republicans, poll shows. People in the United States are divided along party lines in their views on Donald Trump and the criminal cases against him, a new poll shows, as the former US president retains strong support among Republican voters. The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released on Wednesday was conducted before charges were filed this week in Georgia against Trump. It found that 53 percent of Americans approved of an earlier federal indictment against Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Eighty-five percent…

The state government is taking aim at eliminating one of the most common barriers for people who want to open child care centers in remote communities: The state requirement for a special internet connection called a “static IP address.” Every device connected to has its own Internet Protocol, or IP, address. While most device addresses can change, static IP addresses don’t. They can be costly and hard to get in remote parts of Alaska where internet access is a known challenge. Would-be child care providers in remote parts of Alaska have said they can’t get licensed because the state’s requirements are logistically…

US president pledges to ramp up heat-related worker protections as more than 100 million Americans affected by heatwave. US President Joe Biden has announced a series of measures to help protect workers from the effects of extreme heat as people across the United States struggle to cope with blazing temperatures. The White House said on Thursday that Washington would step up heat safety violation inspections in key industries, such as construction and agriculture. The Biden administration also said it would put a so-called “Hazard Alert” system in place to make employers aware of what they should be doing to help their workers stay cool,…