News
Nova Scotia Flooding Leaves Nearly 18,000 Households Without Power
Heavy rain lashed Nova Scotia Canada, flooding roads, knocking out power, and prompting families to flee their homes as officials feared a dam would fail. The heavy rain in Nova Scotia comes only weeks after the province was devastated by Canada’s catastrophic wildfire season.
“Some of the same residents affected by the wildfires are now dealing with flooding,” Halifax Councillor Lisa Blackburn told reporters.
On Friday, the rain began in Nova Scotia. Parts of the province had already received nearly six inches of rain as of Saturday morning. Rain dropped at a rate of more than an inch per hour in some regions.
“The ground, which is already near saturation, has little ability to absorb additional rainfall,” Environment Canada said in a statement.
On Saturday, rain will fall between 1-4 inches across central and eastern Nova Scotia. The storm is anticipated to linger until late afternoon in central Nova Scotia and until late evening in the east.
According to Nova Scotia Power, nearly 18,000 households were without power as of Saturday morning.
Because of concerns that a nearby dam may soon overflow, the Nova Scotia government issued an evacuation order for individuals living near the Saint Croix River system. Residents around the Mersey River have been asked to prepare for an evacuation.
As a result of flash flooding, many highways in Halifax, Nova Scotia’s capital, were closed, and residents were advised to avoid driving.
According to preliminary accounts, roughly 150 homes in Halifax were destroyed by the storm, and Blackburn expects that number to rise.
“Due to flooding, numerous roads have been washed out and remain closed.” The Halifax Regional Municipality posted on Twitter, “There are abandoned cars on roads and highways causing dangerous conditions.”
On Friday night and Saturday morning, search and rescue teams were deployed by boat in Halifax to locate anybody who may have become stranded in the flood.
According to Nova Scotia officials, wildfires in Canada forced thousands of individuals to abandon their homes and damaged approximately 200 homes or structures between May and June. As of Saturday, flames were still raging across Western Canada.
Wildfires in Alberta Canada
Authorities say the pilot of a helicopter that crashed during wildfire battling operations in Canada’s Alberta province has died.
Investigators are on their way to the crash scene, which occurred south-east of Manning in the Peace River area.
The incident comes only days after two wildfire fighters were killed in the line of duty. Almost 900 fires are blazing across Canada, with 553 of them labelled “out of control.”
The helicopter pilot, a 41-year-old man from Whitecourt, Alberta, was assisting with “bucketing” operations, which include the use of specialist buckets hanging by cables to extinguish fires, according to officials.
“I’m heartbroken to learn that another Canadian fighting wildfires has lost their life,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted. “We’ll never forget his service to his province and our country.”
According to a representative for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), authorities initially received transmissions from an emergency beacon at the collision site at 18:15 local time (00:15 GMT).
“It collided with the ground during firefighting operations,” said Chris Krepski of the TSB.
“I’m not sure what phase it would have been, whether it would have been picking up or releasing water,” he added. “That is typically what we would try to find out.”
Two hours later, officers arrived at the crash scene, which is inaccessible by road. After being airlifted to Peace River Airport, the pilot was declared deceased. It comes only days after two wildfire fighters died battling blazes in the Northwest Territories and British Columbia.
“We mourn their death, but we celebrate what they were doing, and their dedication to their communities and countries,” environment minister Steven Guilbeault said on Thursday, before word of the helicopter crash broke.
Canada has broken its own record for the most land burned by wildfires in a single year.
Wildfires have destroyed almost 24 million acres (10 million hectares) of land this year, an area roughly the size of Iceland or the US state of Indiana.
“We know that climate change makes wildfire season worse,” Mr Guilbeault continued. “We’re working hard to keep people safe this year while also preparing for future years.”
Climate warming increases the likelihood of hot, dry weather that fuels wildfires. The world has already warmed by around 1.1 degrees Celsius since the beginning of the industrial age, and temperatures will continue to rise unless governments around the world drastically reduce emissions.
This year’s fire smoke has triggered air quality alerts across large swaths of the United States, affecting tens of millions of people.
News
Canadian Man Arrested for TikTok Video That Threatened Trudeau
A TikTok video that went live earlier this week has led to a Toronto man facing charges of threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. Andrew Marshall, 61, is facing two counts of uttering threats.
On Friday afternoon, the Ontario Court of Justice granted him bail with a surety and restrictions after the RCMP charged him on Wednesday.
Following Monday’s upload to TikTok, CBC Toronto conducted its own independent investigation of the video. Marshall vehemently opposes what he perceives as restrictions on free expression in Canada in it.
“I get them taken down all the time— I make videos — or all my comments, that are just simple comments,” Marsh says in the TikTok. “It’s just getting ridiculous, Marshall said.”
According to the CBC more and more people are threatening politicians. The commissioner of the RCMP has hinted that further measures may be necessary to ensure their safety.
In the TikTok video, Marshall explains in great detail how he would brutally assassinate Trudeau and Freeland “if it was up to him.”
Marshall attacks multiple groups throughout the roughly 11-minute TikTok video, including the media, Muslims, migrants, and the police who defend the government.
Among Marshall’s bail terms are the following: he must not communicate with Trudeau or Freeland; he must not use the internet to make social media posts or comments; he must not own any weapons; and he must not apply for a firearms permit.
During the bail hearing, the prosecution provided all of the evidence that is often not published.
Nate Jackson, Marshall’s attorney, stressed his client’s liberties and privileges as a Canadian in an email message.
“He has the right to freedom of speech, the right to reasonable bail and the right to a fair trial,” he said. “Having secured his release from custody, we will continue to defend Mr. Marshall’s Charter rights as his case proceeds.”
Neither Freeland’s nor the prime minister’s office would comment on the allegations, according to the CBC.
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Canada’s Unemployment Rate Hits its Highest Point Since 2017
As the job market remains dismal, the national unemployment rate in Canada has risen to its highest point since 2017. This has led some analysts to question whether the Bank of Canada should be reducing interest rates more quickly.
In spite of a net gain of 22,000 jobs, Statistics Canada reported on Friday that the unemployment rate increased to 6.6% from 6.4% the previous month. The rise was due to an uptick in part-time employment and a fall in full-time employment.
Outside of the pandemic years, the national unemployment rate has reached its highest position since May 2017, according to StatCan.
Rapid population expansion in Canada has increased the overall labour pool, but the country’s unemployment rate has persisted in rising.
The summer job market was especially tough for students, according to StatCan. Not including the pandemic, the unemployment rate among students going back to school in the autumn was 16.7 percent, which is the highest level since 2012.
Two days after the Bank of Canada dropped interest rates for the third time in a row, reducing borrowing costs to alleviate economic pressure, the most recent reading of the Canadian job market follows suit.
According to TD Bank economist Leslie Preston, who wrote a note on Friday, the central bank is “giving the OK” to keep dropping rates due to the bad August jobs report. Preston predicts two more quarter-point decreases at the remaining decisions this year.
According to CIBC senior economist Andrew Grantham, there are indications that the labour market is quickly contracting more than initially thought, since the unemployment rate is nearly two percentage points greater than the record low of 4.9% in June 2022.
“Due to this, we believe the Bank should be contemplating a quicker rate of reductions in order to bring interest rates to less restrictive levels,” he informed clients in a letter on Friday morning.
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US Job Growth Falls Short of Expectations: Economy Struggles Under High Interest Rates
Last month, job growth in the United States was weaker than predicted, prompting concerns that the world’s largest economy is beginning to struggle under the weight of increased interest rates.
The Labour Department said that employers added 142,000 jobs in August, which was less than the nearly 160,000 economists predicted. It also stated that job gains over the preceding two months were weaker than expected.
However, the jobless rate went down to 4.2%, down from 4.3% in July.
The report is one of the most important indicators of the US economy and arrives at a vital time, as voters consider presidential candidates for the November election and the US central bank contemplates its first interest rate decrease in four years.
Analysts said the latest statistics kept the Federal Reserve on pace for a rate drop at its meeting this month, but did little to answer worries about the trajectory of the US economy or how much of a cut it should make.
“There has rarely been such a make-or-break number; unfortunately, today’s jobs report does not completely resolve the recession debate,” said Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management.
Soaring prices in 2022 caused the Federal Reserve to hike its key lending rate to 5.3%, a nearly 20-year high.
Faced with increased borrowing costs for homes, vehicles, and other debt, the economy has slowed, helping to alleviate pressures that were boosting inflation but exacerbating market concerns.
As inflation has fallen to 2.9% in July, the Fed is under pressure to decrease interest rates to prevent additional economic deceleration.
Although job increases in August fell short of expectations, they were greater than in July, when a slowdown aroused anxieties and triggered several days of stock market volatility.
Last month, construction and health-care firms hired the most, while manufacturing and retailers laid off employees.
Ms Shah stated that the data in Friday’s report was mixed, but provided enough concerning indicators that the Fed should make a larger cut.
“On balance, with inflation pressures subdued, there is no reason for the Fed not to err on the side of caution and frontload rate cuts,” she told reporters.
Others, however, felt the advances were just steady enough to warrant a 0.25 percentage point decrease, as markets had long projected – though this could signal more cuts than expected in the coming months.
Paul Ashworth, Capital Economics’ senior North America economist, predicted that the Fed’s decision will be “close run.”
“The labour market is clearly experiencing a marked slowdown,” he said, adding that the new statistics were “overall still consistent with an economy experiencing a soft landing rather than plummeting into recession”.
Concerns about the economy are a major issue in the US election.
According to polls, a majority of Americans feel the US is in a recession, despite healthy 2.5% growth last year.
Donald Trump has declared that the economy is headed for a “crash,” and his team instantly latched on the latest data to criticise Vice President Kamala Harris, publishing a press release titled “warning lights flash as Kamala’s economy continues to weaken.”
Democrats have defended their performance, claiming that the United States survived the pandemic and inflation better than many other countries.
They believe the slowdown is a sign that the economy is returning to a more sustainable rate of growth following the post-pandemic boom.
“Although hiring has slowed, the US job market continues to generate solid job gains and wage growth that is consistently beating inflation,” the White House Council of Economic Advisors stated in a blog.
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