Trudeau deflects Trump and Belgian bluebells in bloom; In The News for April 17

That promise was the subject of discussion during a conference call among first ministers late Thursday.

No details of the call were immediately forthcoming, other than a brief summary of the discussion issued by the Prime Minister’s Office which said first ministers “agreed on the urgent need to ensure long-term care facilities have the resources they need to protect the health and well-being of their residents and workers.”

Since the salaries paid to workers in long-term care homes fall under provincial jurisdiction, Trudeau has been clear whatever the federal government does must be in collaboration with the provinces.

Seniors Minister Deb Schulte told CBC News late Thursday that the federal government will boost transfer payments to the provinces and territories, to allow them to top up wages. She did not say how much money Ottawa is prepared to ante up.

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Also this …

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tried to let Donald Trump down gently, warning that Canada is still a long way from being ready to agree to relax mutual travel restrictions along its border with the United States.

Trudeau said he discussed the issue with the U.S. president during a videoconference with fellow G7 leaders, and the two agreed, given the unique relationship between the two countries, that they would continue to take a different approach to managing bilateral travel with each other from the ones they use with the rest of the world.

That does not mean, however, that a decision to relax the travel ban is imminent, he added.

“The work that we continue to do to keep our citizens safe, while co-ordinating very carefully, is unlike our approaches with other countries around the world. There’s a recognition that as we move forward, there will be special thought given to this relationship,” Trudeau said.

“But at the same time, we know that there is a significant amount of time still before we can talk about loosening such restrictions.”

Trump, who often makes it abundantly clear that he’s in a hurry to get the American economy back on its feet, seemed to suggest Wednesday that his impatience might well extend to the northern border — a shift in the usual balance of anxieties that has tended to define the Canada-U.S. relationship.

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COVID-19 in the U.S. …

President Donald Trump and some of his officials are flirting with an outlier theory that the new coronavirus was set loose on the world by a Chinese lab that let it escape. Without the weight of evidence, they’re trying to blame China for sickness and death from COVID-19 in the United States.

“More and more, we’re hearing the story,” Trump says. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo adds, “The mere fact that we don’t know the answers — that China hasn’t shared the answers — I think is very, very telling.”

A scientific consensus is still evolving. But experts overwhelmingly say analysis of the new coronavirus’ genome rules out the possibility that it was engineered by humans, as some conspiracy theories have suggested.

Nor is it likely that the virus emerged from a negligent laboratory in China, they say. “I would put it on a list of 1,000 different scenarios,” said Nathan Grubaugh of Yale University, who studies the epidemiology of microbial disease.

Scientists say the virus arose naturally in bats. They say the leading theory is that infection among humans began at an animal market in Wuhan, China, probably from an animal that got the virus from a bat.

Even so, Pompeo and others are pointing fingers at an institute that is run by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and has done groundbreaking research tracing the likely origins of the SARS virus, finding new bat viruses and discovering how they could jump to people.

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COVID-19 around the world …

The British government announced that a nationwide lockdown imposed to slow the spread of the new coronavirus will remain in place for at least three more weeks, as health officials said the U.K.’s coronavirus outbreak — one of Europe’s worst — was nearing its peak.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said “any change to our social distancing measures now would risk a significant increase in the spread of the virus.”

The lockdown has been in place since March 23. Schools, pubs, restaurants and most shops are closed, and most people are allowed to leave home only for essential errands or exercise.

Medical officials say the outbreak in the U.K. is reaching its peak but it’s too early to loosen restrictions on daily life.

Chief Scientific Officer Patrick Vallance said that while transmission of the virus has been dramatically reduced, “we run the risk of a second peak” if the lockdown is loosened now.

As of Thursday, 13,729 people have died in U.K. hospitals after testing positive for coronavirus, an increase of 861 from a day earlier. That number still understates the true toll of the pandemic since those figures do not include hundreds, and maybe thousands, of virus-related deaths in nursing homes and other settings.

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COVID-19 in entertainment…

Chris McKhool still has many questions about how the federal government will support Canadian artists in the latest update to the COVID-19 emergency benefits program — but for now he’s trying to stay focused on the music.

The violinist in Sultans of String, a three-time Juno nominated act, has spent the past several weeks in a holding position as he wondered if accepting live streaming performance spots that paid a couple hundred bucks might disqualify him from the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).

He got a somewhat clearer answer on Wednesday after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expanded the reach of CERB to include support for people who are still working, but earning $1,000 or less per month, meaning McKhool could start accepting those gigs with confidence.

“I can still be an artist because of this, that’s how I feel,” McKhool said.

“It’s a huge burden lifted off me, that I don’t have to worry about whether or not I can be performing.”

But he’s still unclear on the specifics around getting paid, including whether the Canada Revenue Agency will claw back more of his earnings than anticipated in the future. Similar questions have echoed across Facebook groups dedicated to musicians and others in the creative community.

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COVID-19 in springtime…

When nature is at its brightest this year, it needs to be hidden from sight.

Parks and woods in Belgium, like in much of Europe, are a riot of colour and scents in springtime, many so magnificent they would draw far too thick a crowd in the times of a pandemic.

So some are closed, or parking areas are off limits and non-locals are banned from visiting. Many tourists are sent back and some are even fined if they won’t take no for an answer.

The extraordinary measures are felt deeply as bluebells are in bloom in the Hallerbos forest, some 15 kilometres (10 miles) south of Brussels. In a good year, up to 100,000 tourists come to gaze in wonder at its vast purple carpet under the beech trees.

“This pains the heart badly,” Halle mayor Marc Snoeck told the Associated Press. “This goes against anything that we normally work for.”

During the annual April Bluebell Festival, the throngs on weekends or sunny days are so big that social distancing would become impossible along the walking paths. During their three-week stretch of flowering, the bluebells attract tourists from as far as China and the United States.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 17, 2020.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Trudeau deflects Trump and Belgian bluebells in bloom; In The News for April 17

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