Biden sees shortages to stop climate-change fueled wildfires - ABC News

President Joe Biden is sounding the alarm about the need for more resources to fight a series of wildfires in Western states

By JOSH BOAK Associated Press

July 30, 2021, 6:39 PM

• 2 min read

President Joe Biden is sounding the alarm about the need for more resources to fight a series of wildfires in western states, as climate change has worsened the spread and ferocity of the blazes.

“Our resources are already being stretched to keep up,” Biden told a bipartisan group of governors at a virtual meeting Friday. “We need more help.”

The president opened the meeting with a nod to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who sought the Democratic nomination for president against Biden by stressing the threats from climate change. The mix of intense heat, droughts and other events tied to rising average temperatures has turned the fires into a national challenge as the smoke is worsening air quality as far away as New York City.

“Jay, you’re beginning to convince the American people there is a thing called climate crisis,” the president said at the start of his remarks, before reeling through a series of troubling numbers.

It was the second meeting between Biden and the governors, and the situation has only worsened since the first, putting a strain on aircraft, hoses and other supplies.

“Since our last meeting, the number of large uncontained wildfires has nearly doubled to 66 fires,” Biden said. “The number of firefighters on the job to battle them has tripled. Over 3.4 million acres have already burned.”

The Washington governor took the opportunity to discuss the shortage of supplies to stop the fires. But he said his biggest worry is that Biden's agenda to reduce carbon emissions and limit climate change won't clear Congress.

“That’s going to ultimately decide whether these forests survive in the next century,” Inslee said.

Other governors attending the virtual meeting included: Oregon's Kate Brown, Montana's Greg Gianforte, Wyoming's Mark Gordon, Idaho's Brad Little, California's Gavin Newsom and Minnesota's Tim Walz.

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Tough trails won't stop a Jeep Gladiator, but a microchip just did - Driving

Production comes to a halt on the off-road truck due to the global semiconductor shortage

Author of the article:

Jil McIntosh

2021 Jeep Gladiator Overland Photo by Stellantis

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The semiconductor shortage continues to affect the auto industry, with news that the Jeep Gladiator is the latest vehicle halted in production due to the issue.

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As reported by The Detroit News, the company’s South Assembly plant in Toledo, Ohio will temporarily stop assembly of the off-road truck because of the global chip shortage, which has affected almost all automakers to some degree. Production of the Jeep Wrangler, built at the Toledo North Assembly plant, will continue.

The report said that Brampton Assembly in Ontario, which builds the Chrysler 300, Dodge Challenger, and Dodge Charger, was idled but will start production in early August, as will Windsor Assembly, also in Ontario, which builds minivans.

The chips are required for numerous functions, including infotainment systems and engine management. The shortage is a direct result of the pandemic. When vehicle sales fell, automakers cut production and subsequently ordered fewer chips. The chip manufacturers diverted the supply to the electronics industry, where sales soared as consumers bought devices for stay-at-home work and entertainment.

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It isn’t easy to ramp up chip production, and when car demand returned and automakers started building again, the chip manufacturers continued to prioritize the larger orders from their electronics customers. No one’s really sure how long the shortage will continue, with some companies estimating mid-2022 or as far out as 2023.

1. 

   What the global chip shortage means for the auto industry and car buyers

2. 

   Jeep officially reveals 2022 Grand Cherokee 4xe plug-in hybrid

General Motors idled some of its pickup truck production in North America, but according to Automotive News, will also restart production at its truck plants in Michigan, Indiana, and Mexico for the first week of August. But it’ll come at a cost for some car and SUV production, with extra downtime added to some of those plants — including one that hasn’t operated in nearly six months — so the chips can be diverted to the hotter-selling trucks and full-size SUVs.

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Earlier this year, to save chips for more vital functions, GM removed cylinder deactivation, a fuel-saving technology, from some of its truck engines; and more recently ceased adding start-stop technology, which automatically shuts the engine off at idle and then restarts it for driving, which reduces fuel use and emissions.

Ford dealt with the shortage by continuing to build and stockpile F-Series trucks that were missing the vital chips. Early in July, it reported that it had received a supply of semiconductors, which it was putting into thousands of these stored trucks —– the exact number not divulged –— so they could be shipped to dealers.

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Biden sees shortages to stop climate-change fueled wildfires - ConchoValleyHomepage.com

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Fentanyl, cash seized during Tillsonburg, Ont. traffic stop - CTV News London

LONDON, ONT. -- A 37-year-old Norfolk County man has been charged after allegedly being caught with drugs during a traffic stop in Tillsonburg.

OPP made the stop Thursday on Broadway.

Some fentanyl, cash and property were seized. The value is estimated to be $3,900.

The accused is charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking and two counts of failure to comply with a release order and will appear in a Woodstock court Friday.

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Vaccination is not enough by itself to stop the spread of variants, study finds - CNN

They said people need to wear masks and take other steps to prevent spread until almost everyone in a population has been vaccinated.

Their findings, published in Nature Scientific Reports, support an unpopular decision by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to advise even fully vaccinated people to start wearing masks again in areas of sustained or high transmission.

"We found that a fast rate of vaccination decreases the probability of emergence of a resistant strain," the team wrote.

"Counterintuitively, when a relaxation of non-pharmaceutical interventions happened at a time when most individuals of the population have already been vaccinated, the probability of emergence of a resistant strain was greatly increased," they added.

"Our results suggest that policymakers and individuals should consider maintaining non-pharmaceutical interventions and transmission-reducing behaviors throughout the entire vaccination period."

"When most people are vaccinated, the vaccine-resistant strain has an advantage over the original strain," Simon Rella of the Institute of Science and Technology Austria, who worked on the study, told reporters.

"This means the vaccine resistant strain spreads through the population faster at a time when most people are vaccinated."

But if so-called non pharmaceutical interventions are maintained -- such as mask use and social distancing -- the virus is less likely to spread and change. "There is a chance to remove the vaccine resistant mutations from the population," Rella said.

The team used a mathematical model to predict these changes, but their findings follow what is known about the epidemiology of viruses and what's known as selective pressure -- the force that drives any organism to evolve.

The findings suggest that policymakers should resist the temptation to lift restrictions to celebrate or reward vaccination efforts.

This is likely to be especially true with a more transmissible variant such as the Delta variant, said Fyodor Kondrashov, also of the Institute of Science and Technology Austria.

"Generally, the more people are infected, the more the chances for vaccine resistance to emerge. So the more Delta is infectious, the more reason for concern," Kondrashov told reporters.

"By having a situation where you vaccinate everybody, a vaccine-resistant mutant actually gains a selective advantage."

On Tuesday, the US CDC altered its guidance on mask use. The CDC said earlier this year that fully vaccinated people are very safe from infection and can take off their masks in most situations.

Now, it says even fully vaccinated people can sometimes catch the virus and if they catch the Delta variant, they are just as likely to infect someone else as an unvaccinated person would be. It advised everyone in areas of high or sustained virus transmission to wear masks when around others.

Many GOP politicians have derided the new advice. On Thursday, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves called it "foolish."

While the CDC was not thinking about the evolution of variants, Kondrashov said people skeptical of maintaining vigilance should be.

"The individual who already vaccinated and putting on a mask should not think this is pointless but should think that there is a vaccine resistant strain running around," he said.

"By preventing spread of vaccine resistant strains, you are preventing evolution of this virus," he added.

"We have two tools in our toolbox to do this. One is non pharmaceutical interventions such as mask wearing and the whole shebang, and the second is vaccines. From an evolutionary perspective, what is necessary to reduce this (spread) is to vaccinate as many people as possible as fast as possible and across the globe."

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Everybody needs to STOP! at Old Town entrance - Toronto Star

Big changes are coming to how drivers get into and out of Old Town.

The pivotal intersection of Queen Street and Mississagua streets will become a three-way stop as of Tuesday, Aug. 3, following unanimous approval at a council meeting this week.

The intersection will be closed for the day during installation and traffic will be temporarily detoued, the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake said in a public notice.

The three-way stop is a pilot project and resident opinions will be gathered to determine whether is becomes a permanent feature. As well, a “bump out” will be installed on the north side of Queen Street in the intersection, to help slow traffic.

All the new features are intended to control traffic flow along Queen Street and create a moment of pause so tourists and drivers leaving Old Town do not miss the turn up Mississagua Street to get to the QEW.

Coun. Gary Burroughs was concerned that the appropriate traffic study was not completed by the town before making the changes.

“I’m kind of concerned that we do to many things that are not following the rules but following council’s directions,” Burroughs said.

A traffic study is usually done to ensure road installations maintain provincial standards.

Director of operations Sheldon Randall said a study is not needed, referring to the changes as a “traffic-calming feature.”

For the time being, the bump out will be limited to repainting the lines at the intersection. It is expected to be incorporated into the new gateway design planned for the site, with a garden bed planted to redirect traffic.

The bump out was recommended in the town’s transportation master plan and is intended to direct traffic up Mississagua Street when vehicles leave Old Town.

Drivers frequently drive right through the intersection not realizing they missed their turn for the highway, ending up in the narrow laneways of the Chautauqua neighbourhood, Randall said.

This was a common concern cited by the Friends of Ryerson Park group during their presentations to council trying to solve traffic concerns in the area.

“Our point is to try and create a feature that they have to navigate around and then stop so they have time to take a look at the signs directing them back to the QEW,” Randall said.

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Saskatchewan to stop releasing daily COVID-19 updates - CBC.ca

Saskatchewan says it will soon stop providing daily COVID-19 updates as the virus "moves from pandemic to endemic."

That decision means there will no longer be a daily recap issued by the province on how many new cases or deaths were recorded or how many vaccines were administered. 

Instead, the province will move to a weekly recap as of Aug. 3. 

Saskatchewan's dashboard of COVID-19 data will still be updated on a daily basis, the province said. 

The news comes as the number of active COVID-19 cases reached a level not seen since the province dropped all public restrictions on July 11.

As of Thursday the number of active cases in the province stood at 412.

On July 10, the number of active cases was 413. 

The increase in active case numbers was caused by 52 new cases reported on Thursday.

The new cases are located in the following health zones; 

• Far northwest: nine.
• Far north central: two.
• Far northeast: three.
• Northwest: six.
• North central: four.
• Northeast: two.
• Saskatoon: nine. 
• Central east: one.
• Regina: six.
• Southeast: five.

The new cases have also bumped the seven-day rolling average of new known COVID-19 cases in the province. The average is now 44. 

Saskatchewan did not report any new COVID-19-related deaths on Thursday, keeping the figure at 578.

The current number of hospitalizations remained at 43, the same as it was on Wednesday. Nine of the 43 people are receiving intensive care. 

An additional 6,019 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered since the province's last update. 

Vaccines continue to be dominated by second doses, with 80 per cent of the doses administered on Thursday being categorized as second doses. 

As of Thursday 1,400,844 doses have been administered in Saskatchewan. 

The province said 75 per cent of those eligible to receive the vaccine have now received at least a first dose, while 63 per cent have had their second dose. 

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