Canada not a significant source of fentanyl flowing into U.S., CBSA says

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) commissioner Michael Duheme testifies at the Foreign Interference Commission in Ottawa on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle © The Canadian Press OTTAWA — As Canada looks to beef up its border security after president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs while raising concerns about illicit fentanyl pouring into his country, border officials pointed out there's barely any coming from Canada. Though, none of them wanted to say the name Trump when they said so. “Canada is not a significant source of fentanyl in the United States," said Aaron McCrorie, vice-president of intelligence and enforcement at the Canada Border Services Agency. He made the comment to a House of Commons committee studying the impact of president-elect Donald Trump's plans for border security and migration. McCrorie said border officials seized 4.9 kg of fentanyl in the first three quarters of the year, with the biggest amount being 4.1 kg bound for the Netherlands. The other seizures were all small, personal amounts caught along the land border, and there are no statistics to suggest significant shipments out of Canada. CBSA President Erin O'Gorman also said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has characterized the amount coming from Canada as "slippage" — small amounts sent over for personal use, mostly by post. Still, that doesn't trivialize the problem. Small package shipments are where CBSA is focusing its efforts, she said, which are hard to detect and can result in many lives lost. During the presidential race, Trump also threatened to deport millions of undocumented people, stirring fears that could trigger an influx of migrants into Canada. When questioned by NDP MP Alistair MacGregor about what Canada could face if Trump follows through and if the country's immigration detention centres are up to the task, O'Gorman said her organization does not have projections or estimates of what that could look like. “We are prepared for a surge,” O'Gorman said. Ottawa is compiling new measures to bolster border security through more staff and equipment in the face of Trump's tariff threats. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shared his border plan with the premiers during a Wednesday evening meeting, and Ottawa plans to add their suggestions into the soon-to-come package of measures. Several media outlets have reported that the tab for that could surpass $1 billion, citing confidential sources. RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme said he was surprised to see that figure bandied about in headlines, but he's not clear whether Ottawa will actually put that much into beefing up the border. He would not share with reporters any of the specifics on his wish list -- or how much money he's asked for, saying the announcement is coming soon enough. "You heard the minister in the past saying drones, helicopters, and we want to modernize everything we have with technological equipment and additional human resources," he said outside the committee room. "We have drones right now that we use to patrol areas that are hard to get to and what not. We just want to modernize the equipment and go to the more advanced technology that they have so we can better secure the border." An RCMP official said the police force currently has more than 900 drones and nine helicopters located across the country, with six helicopters that occasionally provide border surveillance. Meantime, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, when announcing Alberta's own new border security plan Thursday featuring a new patrol unit and drones, said the province doesn’t support retaliatory tariffs and prefers the diplomatic route. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said he and other premiers support the need for stronger border security to deal with illegal migrants and street drugs. “There is broad support to increase the investment in border security on behalf of Canadians, not just because President-elect (Trump) has asked for it,” Moe said. According to the CBSA, there are 1,200 ports of entry across the country staffed by approximately 8,500 front-line employees. CBSA also employs over 200 criminal investigators and some 60 international officers at 40 missions in 35 countries abroad. "The CBSA strategically dedicates its resources to address the threats that Canada faces while supporting the flow of legitimate trade and travel across the border," said CBSA spokesperson Rebecca Purdy. In the past fiscal year, she said CBSA seized close to 51 million grams of illicit drugs, more than 27,000 banned weapons and almost 900 firearms. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2024. -- With files from Chris Purdy in Edmonton and Jeremy Simes in Regina. Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press

The United States is paralyzed...and it's not going to get any better

The United States is paralyzed...and it's not going to get any better The “Lake Effect” phenomenon is currently sweeping across the northeastern United States. The "Lake Effect" has resulted in an exceptional snowstorm, paralyzing part of the country, including Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York - all regions bordering the Great Lakes. As reported by 20 Minutes, the “Lake Effect” occurs when cold winds cross the relatively warm waters of the Great Lakes. Air masses are created that capture the moisture in the lakes, which then condenses into snow when they hit the cold lands downstream. The amount of snowfall, mostly concentrated in narrow but intense bands, then increases sharply. Exceptional snowfalls Because temperatures on the Great Lakes are currently higher than the seasonal average, the meteorological phenomenon gains in energy and power, leading to substantial snowfalls. In some regions, snowfalls have reached 90 centimetres, and could even reach 2 metres by the end of the week. The consequences? Freeways are at a standstill, forcing drivers to spend the night in their cars or seek refuge in service stations. Heavy goods vehicles are also banned from certain main roads. What about the future? In the future, climate change could have a major impact on both the frequency and intensity of snowstorms associated with the lake effect. Shorter winters and longer periods of ice could help intensify the phenomenon. In the long term, if temperatures continue to rise, the snow could turn to rain, threatening the regions concerned with major flooding. Until the end of the week, and according to weather forecasts, snowfalls and strong winds are expected to continue to hit this part of the United States.

In death of dinosaurs, it was all about the asteroid -- not volcanoes

Illustrated scene of dinosaurs and asteroid (stock image).

Volcanic activity did not play a direct role in the mass extinction event that killed the dinosaurs, according to an international, Yale-led team of researchers. It was all about the asteroid.

In a break from a number of other recent studies, Yale assistant professor of geology & geophysics Pincelli Hull and her colleagues argue in a new research paper in Science that environmental impacts from massive volcanic eruptions in India in the region known as the Deccan Traps happened well before the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago and therefore did not contribute to the mass extinction.

Most scientists acknowledge that the mass extinction event, also known as K-Pg, occurred after an asteroid slammed into Earth. Some researchers also have focused on the role of volcanoes in K-Pg due to indications that volcanic activity happened around the same time.

"Volcanoes can drive mass extinctions because they release lots of gases, like SO2 and CO2, that can alter the climate and acidify the world," said Hull, lead author of the new study. "But recent work has focused on the timing of lava eruption rather than gas release."

To pinpoint the timing of volcanic gas emission, Hull and her colleagues compared global temperature change and the carbon isotopes (an isotope is an atom with a higher or lower number of neutrons than normal) from marine fossils with models of the climatic effect of CO2 release. They concluded that most of the gas release happened well before the asteroid impact -- and that the asteroid was the sole driver of extinction.

"Volcanic activity in the late Cretaceous caused a gradual global warming event of about two degrees, but not mass extinction," said former Yale researcher Michael Henehan, who compiled the temperature records for the study. "A number of species moved toward the North and South poles but moved back well before the asteroid impact."

Added Hull, "A lot of people have speculated that volcanoes mattered to K-Pg, and we're saying, 'No, they didn't.'"

Recent work on the Deccan Traps, in India, has also pointed to massive eruptions in the immediate aftermath of the K-Pg mass extinction. These results have puzzled scientists because there is no warming event to match. The new study suggests an answer to this puzzle, as well.

"The K-Pg extinction was a mass extinction and this profoundly altered the global carbon cycle," said Yale postdoctoral associate Donald Penman, the study's modeler. "Our results show that these changes would allow the ocean to absorb an enormous amount of CO2 on long time scales -- perhaps hiding the warming effects of volcanism in the aftermath of the event."

The International Ocean Discovery Program, the National Science Foundation, and Yale University helped fund the research.

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Materials provided by Yale University. Original written by Jim Shelton. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Black holes – to be or not to be?

Those enigmatic black holes that lead to places unknown may not be what we thought they were – or at least that’s what some scientists think.

Since first proposed in 1784 by John Mitchell and their prediction in 1915 by Einstein’s theory of general relativity, evidence supporting the idea of black holes has continued to be found.

Described as infinitely dense points in space time – where not even light can escape – the presence of a black hole is thus inferred from the gravitational effects on the surrounding material. But what if something else – other than a black hole – could produce these same effects?

Such a question was addressed in two recent papers by a team of scientists at the University of Hawaii. They consider the consequences of replacing all black holes with a class of objects with ‘dark energy’ interiors known as Generic Objects of Dark Energy (GEODEs).

GEODEs, as they are now referred to, were first postulated in 1966 by Russian physicist Erast Gliner who suggested such objects as viable stellar remnants – the end point of stars.

The current understanding of stellar evolution states that for stars massive enough, the stellar remnants would be black holes. However, there are alternative models in which black hole interiors are described by a ‘dark energy’ equation of state – an equation describing the state of matter in terms of its pressure, temperature and volume, for example. Gliner thus proposed that instead of the end stage of stars gravitationally collapsing into black hole singularities, they would collapse into non-singular ‘dark energy’ objects (GEODEs) that only appear to be black holes from the outside.

Fifty years later, the Hawaiian team led by Kevin Croker and Joel Weiner started to look at the Friedman equations – the equations derived in 1922 that describe the expansion of the universe where ultra-dense regions of space such as neutron stars and black holes were treated in the same way as all other regions of space. The current understanding of a black hole is that of a singularity, which is a mathematical construct, and the physicality of such is yet to be understood. What Croker and Weiner found is that in order to incorporate black holes into the framework of an expanding universe, they can’t be singularities. When treated as non-singular GEODEs, they found that if only a fraction of the oldest stars collapsed in this way their averaged contribution would naturally produce the dark energy responsible for the accelerated expansion of the universe.

“If what we thought were black holes are actually objects without singularities, then the accelerated expansion of our universe is a natural consequence of Einstein’s theory of general relativity” – Dr Kevin Croker

The assumption made by cosmologists that the Universe is insensitive to the details of the objects it contains now it seems no longer stands. Not only does this give us a new way of looking at black holes, but also how we look at the Universe and its interconnectedness.

Further support of black holes being more like these GEODEs comes from the binary black hole merger mass found when assuming the colliding binary black holes were instead GEODEs. The resultant mass was greater than if the objects were black holes, and thus more in agreement with the 2016 LIGO-Virgo observations. Of course, this doesn’t confirm the existence of GEODEs just yet and, unfortunately, although observational signatures have been developed, there does not yet seem to be a way to distinguish between the different models.

As well, the GEODEs as proposed by Gliner and described by the team at the University of Hawaii are not the only description of such objects. In 2015, the Gravastar was described by physicists Pawel Mazur and Emil Mottola, and more than 80 years ago George McVittie proposed such a solution in which he describes a mass-particle in an expanding universe.

RSF in perspective

These ideas of objects where the interior region is made of the quantum vacuum – rather than a singularity – is very much in agreement with the unified physics perspective which sees all matter as emerging from the granular Planck scale structure of spacetime, otherwise known as the quantum vacuum. Furthermore, this quantized view of the Universe, as offered by the unified perspective in the form of the generalized holographic approach, similarly describes the expansion of the universe. Notably, the expansion of the Universe as originally proposed by George Lemaitre starts from a primeval super atom, not a singularity. Similarly, when we consider the vacuum energy of a Planck particle as it expands to the size of the Universe, we can explain the expansion of the Universe without the need for dark energy and as well resolving the vacuum catastrophe.

Article: https://bgr.com/2019/10/02/black-hole-theory-geode-study/

Amazon deforestation and number of fires show summer of 2019 not a 'normal' year

Burning in Amazon rainforest

The fires that raged across the Brazilian Amazon this summer were not 'normal' and large increases in deforestation could explain why, scientists show.

The perceived scale of the Amazon blazes received global attention this summer. However, international concerns raised at the time were countered by the Brazilian Government, which claimed the fire situation in August was 'normal' and 'below the historical average'.

An international team of scientists writing in the journal Global Change Biology say the number of active fires in August was actually three times higher than in 2018 and the highest number since 2010.

Although fires in the Amazon can occur in a number of ways, the scientists show that there is strong evidence to link this year's increases to deforestation.

They have used evidence collected from the Brazilian Government's DETER-b deforestation detection system -- which calculates deforestation by interpreting images taken by NASA satellites.

This shows that deforestation in July this year was almost four times the average from the same period in the previous three years. This is important as deforestation is almost always followed by fire -- the cut vegetation is left to dry before being burned.

Professor Jos Barlow, lead author of the paper said: "The marked upturn in both active fire counts and deforestation in 2019 therefore refutes suggestions by the Brazilian Government that August 2019 was a normal fire month in the Amazon."

August's blazes occurred at a time without a strong drought. Droughts can provide conditions favourable to the spreading of human-made fires. The scientists also show that the 'enormous' smoke plumes that reached high into the atmosphere, which were captured by media footage of the blazes, could only have been caused by the combustion of large amounts of biomass.

The researchers acknowledge that the number of active fires decreased in September by 35 per cent. Though they say it is not clear whether that fall is due to rains or President Bolsonaro's two-month moratoria on fires.

Images from DETER-b show that deforestation continued at a rate well above the average in September, despite the President's moratoria.

The extent of August's fires is unclear. Although the numbers of fires are counted, their extent is not, the researchers acknowledge in their paper 'Clarifying Amazonia's burning crisis'.

Dr Erika Berenguer, a Brazilian researcher jointly affiliated with Lancaster University and the University of Oxford, said: "Our paper clearly shows that without tackling deforestation, we will continue to see the largest rainforest in the world being turned to ashes. We must curb deforestation.

"Brazil has for the past decade been an environmental leader, showing to the world that it can successfully reduce deforestation. It is both economically and environmentally unwise to revert this trend."

The paper's authors are Jos Barlow of Lancaster University, Erika Berenguer of Lancaster University and the University of Oxford, Rachel Carmenta of the University of Cambridge, and Filipe França of the Universidade Federal do Pará.

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Materials provided by Lancaster University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Amazon deforestation and number of fires show summer of 2019 not a 'normal' year

Burning in Amazon rainforest

The fires that raged across the Brazilian Amazon this summer were not 'normal' and large increases in deforestation could explain why, scientists show.

The perceived scale of the Amazon blazes received global attention this summer. However, international concerns raised at the time were countered by the Brazilian Government, which claimed the fire situation in August was 'normal' and 'below the historical average'.

An international team of scientists writing in the journal Global Change Biology say the number of active fires in August was actually three times higher than in 2018 and the highest number since 2010.

Although fires in the Amazon can occur in a number of ways, the scientists show that there is strong evidence to link this year's increases to deforestation.

They have used evidence collected from the Brazilian Government's DETER-b deforestation detection system -- which calculates deforestation by interpreting images taken by NASA satellites.

This shows that deforestation in July this year was almost four times the average from the same period in the previous three years. This is important as deforestation is almost always followed by fire -- the cut vegetation is left to dry before being burned.

Professor Jos Barlow, lead author of the paper said: "The marked upturn in both active fire counts and deforestation in 2019 therefore refutes suggestions by the Brazilian Government that August 2019 was a normal fire month in the Amazon."

August's blazes occurred at a time without a strong drought. Droughts can provide conditions favourable to the spreading of human-made fires. The scientists also show that the 'enormous' smoke plumes that reached high into the atmosphere, which were captured by media footage of the blazes, could only have been caused by the combustion of large amounts of biomass.

The researchers acknowledge that the number of active fires decreased in September by 35 per cent. Though they say it is not clear whether that fall is due to rains or President Bolsonaro's two-month moratoria on fires.

Images from DETER-b show that deforestation continued at a rate well above the average in September, despite the President's moratoria.

The extent of August's fires is unclear. Although the numbers of fires are counted, their extent is not, the researchers acknowledge in their paper 'Clarifying Amazonia's burning crisis'.

Dr Erika Berenguer, a Brazilian researcher jointly affiliated with Lancaster University and the University of Oxford, said: "Our paper clearly shows that without tackling deforestation, we will continue to see the largest rainforest in the world being turned to ashes. We must curb deforestation.

"Brazil has for the past decade been an environmental leader, showing to the world that it can successfully reduce deforestation. It is both economically and environmentally unwise to revert this trend."

The paper's authors are Jos Barlow of Lancaster University, Erika Berenguer of Lancaster University and the University of Oxford, Rachel Carmenta of the University of Cambridge, and Filipe França of the Universidade Federal do Pará.

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Story Source:

Materials provided by Lancaster University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Amazon deforestation and number of fires show summer of 2019 not a 'normal' year

Burning in Amazon rainforest 

The fires that raged across the Brazilian Amazon this summer were not 'normal' and large increases in deforestation could explain why, scientists show.

The perceived scale of the Amazon blazes received global attention this summer. However, international concerns raised at the time were countered by the Brazilian Government, which claimed the fire situation in August was 'normal' and 'below the historical average'.

An international team of scientists writing in the journal Global Change Biology say the number of active fires in August was actually three times higher than in 2018 and the highest number since 2010.

Although fires in the Amazon can occur in a number of ways, the scientists show that there is strong evidence to link this year's increases to deforestation.

They have used evidence collected from the Brazilian Government's DETER-b deforestation detection system -- which calculates deforestation by interpreting images taken by NASA satellites.

This shows that deforestation in July this year was almost four times the average from the same period in the previous three years. This is important as deforestation is almost always followed by fire -- the cut vegetation is left to dry before being burned.

Professor Jos Barlow, lead author of the paper said: "The marked upturn in both active fire counts and deforestation in 2019 therefore refutes suggestions by the Brazilian Government that August 2019 was a normal fire month in the Amazon."

August's blazes occurred at a time without a strong drought. Droughts can provide conditions favourable to the spreading of human-made fires. The scientists also show that the 'enormous' smoke plumes that reached high into the atmosphere, which were captured by media footage of the blazes, could only have been caused by the combustion of large amounts of biomass.

The researchers acknowledge that the number of active fires decreased in September by 35 per cent. Though they say it is not clear whether that fall is due to rains or President Bolsonaro's two-month moratoria on fires.

Images from DETER-b show that deforestation continued at a rate well above the average in September, despite the President's moratoria.

The extent of August's fires is unclear. Although the numbers of fires are counted, their extent is not, the researchers acknowledge in their paper 'Clarifying Amazonia's burning crisis'.

Dr Erika Berenguer, a Brazilian researcher jointly affiliated with Lancaster University and the University of Oxford, said: "Our paper clearly shows that without tackling deforestation, we will continue to see the largest rainforest in the world being turned to ashes. We must curb deforestation.

"Brazil has for the past decade been an environmental leader, showing to the world that it can successfully reduce deforestation. It is both economically and environmentally unwise to revert this trend."

The paper's authors are Jos Barlow of Lancaster University, Erika Berenguer of Lancaster University and the University of Oxford, Rachel Carmenta of the University of Cambridge, and Filipe França of the Universidade Federal do Pará.

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Materials provided by Lancaster University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Not so selfish after all -- Key role of transposable elements in mammalian evolution

The human genome contains 4.5 million copies of transposable elements (TEs), so-called selfish DNA sequences capable of moving around the genome through cut-and-paste or copy-and-paste mechanisms. Accounting for 30-50% of all of the DNA in the average mammalian genome, these TEs have conventionally been viewed as genetic freeloaders, hitchhiking along in the genome without providing any benefit to the host organism. More recently, however, scientists have begun to uncover cases in which TE sequences have been co-opted by the host to provide a useful function, such as encoding part of a host protein. In a new study published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research, Professor Hidenori Nishihara has undertaken one of the most comprehensive analyses of TE sequence co-option to date, uncovering tens of thousands of potentially co-opted TE sequences and suggesting that they have played a key role in mammalian evolution.

"I was specifically interested in the potential influence of TE sequences on the evolution of the mammary gland," notes Dr. Nishihara, "an organ that is responsible for producing milk and is, as the name suggests, a key distinguishing feature of mammals." To identify potentially co-opted TE sequences, Dr. Nishihara used four proteins -- ER?, FoxA1, GATA3, and AP2? -- that bind to DNA to regulate the production of proteins involved in mammary gland development. Dr. Nishihara then located all of the DNA sequences in the genome to which these proteins bind. Surprisingly, 20-30% of all of the binding sites across the genome were located in TEs, with as many as 38,500 TEs containing at least one binding site. The majority of these were in a copy-and-paste type of TE known as a retrotransposon, which duplicates itself, leaving a new copy in a new location.

The TE-derived binding site sequences were more conserved across species than expected, indicating that they are being preserved by evolution because they serve some important function. Dr. Nishihara believes that these TE sequences have been co-opted to serve as enhancers, DNA elements that increase the transcription of nearby genes. By binding to one of the four master regulators of mammary gland development, these enhancers ultimately increase the production of proteins involved in mammary gland development.

Dr. Nishihara then investigated when in mammalian evolution these TE sequences were acquired and found two distinct phases of acquisition: roughly 60-70% were acquired in the ancestor of all placental mammals (Eutheria), while 10-20% could be traced back to the ancestor of New World monkeys (Simiiformes). In addition, there appeared to be another wave of acquisition of ER? binding sites in the ancestor of mice and rats (Muridae). Thus, by providing a vast number of potential regulatory element binding sites throughout the genome, TEs may have had a substantial impact on the emergence of the mammary gland and its evolution within mammals.

Dr. Nishihara's study sheds light on the deep involvement of TEs in the evolution of mammary gland regulatory elements. However, it remains unclear how common this mode of TE-mediated regulatory network evolution is. Dr. Nishihara, at least, believes that the mammary gland is not unique in this respect. He notes that, "in addition to mammary glands, mammals share many features, such as the neocortex, closed secondary palate, and hair. I expect future research to uncover many additional kinds of TEs that have been similarly involved in the evolution of these features in mammals."

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Materials provided by Tokyo Institute of Technology. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.