Transgeder Females in Women's Prisons

"Throughout their sentence, offenders may apply for a voluntary transfer to a men's or a women's institution according to their gender identity or expression."

"[All transfers are assessed on a case-by-case basis with the Deputy Commissioner for Women having the final decision-making capability]."

Correctional Service Canada (CSC) 

 

"In each specific factual context, CD 100 has been implemented in good faith and consistent with the principles of fundamental justice, including not being arbitrary, overbroad, or grossly inappropriate."

"[The government] wholly denies that any alleged harm to inmates housed in women's institutions flowed from the implementation of CD 100."

Government of Canada 

 

"Female inmates are being exposed to real risks and real harm."

"This case is about protecting their safety, dignity and constitutional rights."

Chris Fleury, constitutional lawyer 

Photo credit: Leah Hennel

 

Canada's federal government filed a statement of defence in a constitutional challenge to Correctional Service Canada's "gender diverse" policy permitting some inmates' transfer on request to women's prisons. One inmate, according to the filing, was charged with one count of sexual assault and one count of criminal harassment, following a female inmate filing a complaint in May of 2020. That inmate was also charged as an instigator in five  other incidents committed against three female inmates.

 

Additionally, a female inmate filed a complaint in October of 2024, leading to a charge of two counts of sexual assault. That inmate was identified in another incident. When particulars in the charges were demanded, the plaintiff spoke of 45 women who had been affected, whom she identified, in 59 incidents of harm. The government responded that "insufficient particulars were provided to allow Canada to respond".

 

Ten of the remaining 14 claims took place at Grand Valley Institution for Women, located in Kitchener Ontario, while three occurred at Fraser Valley Institution in Abbotsford, British Columbia and one other took place at the Okimaw Ohei Healing Lodge in Saskatchewan, on the Nekaneet First Nation. A police investigation took place in 2018 with no charges being laid; there was a 2019 report of sexual assault, and finally, a complaint in 2021 alleging sexual and physical assault.

 

Prison facility (Courtesy of Stocker)

 

Correctional Service of Canada's Commissioner's Directive 100: Gender Diverse Offenders, was implicated in the constitutional challenge against the federal government, brought by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms in 2025. In May of 2022 CSC introduced the policy on "gender diverse" offenders. The Investigative Journalism Bureau found that between 2017 and 2025, 57 transgender women had made 129 requests for transfer to a women's prison.

 

Of those requests, 35 were approved. There were 90 transgender women in federal prison by October 2025, 73 located in men's prisons and 17 accommodated in women's prisons. Of that number, eight had undergone gender-affirming surgery. Funded by the JCCF, lawyers brought the lawsuit on behalf of Canadian Women's Sex-Based Rights, with the argument that allowing transgender inmates to be housed in women's prisons exposes female inmates to potential physical and psychological harms, violating their Charter rights.

 

Constitutional lawyer Chris Fleury, in a JCCF news release, stated that the defence used by the government indicates that serious complaints have been raised by female inmates regarding their experiences in women's prisons. The government has been revealed to have responded to claims involving 13 gender-diverse inmates alleged to have "taken and will continue to take, advantage of CD 100."  No specific allegations were provided for four of the inmates -- "It is their mere presence in a women's institution that is alleged to cause harm to cisgender female inmates". 

 

Correctional facility (Courtesy of Jeffrey Zalesny)

 

Nepal's Flood-Rescue Plight

"There are too many challenges. There are no roads, they have all been washed away, and many areas are just not accessible."

"It is very difficult for my men. The area is still flooded, and elsewhere it is all marshland."

"Once my men are dropped, they have to roam over large distances to conduct search and rescue. But the helicopters have to return because there are not enough of them."

"For example, an area that was dry yesterday is completely flooded today [as the swollen river changes course]."

"It is unpredictable. Floods can come at any time."

E. Hawadi, Nepali police coordinator of rescue efforts, Nuwakot district 

 

"This is the Himalayas."

"We have to be very careful when starting any rescue operation or relief operation."

"The gorges are very deep and steep, so that's the difficulty."

Nepali Foreign Ministry spokesman Lok Bahadur Poudel Chhetri  

Structures partially submerged in mud brought in by flash floods stand at the banks of the Trishuli river in Nepal's Nuwakot district, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

 

More than a week after catastrophic flooding killed over 1,200 people in Nepal when an unstable glacier broke off and plugged a river to swell into a lake, then went on to cause massive flooding near the border between Nepal and Tibet, rescue work is continuing, with the fading hope of finding some of the 4,471 estimated missing still alive. 

 

Teams of rescuers face treacherous marshlands and an unpredictable river as they search for survivors. Nepal has suffered the majority of deaths and those missing, while Tibet saw 15 dead and 546 people missing, according to Chinese state media.

 

The fate of hundreds of missing hydropower project workers where the full force of the torrent occurred stands at 639 people unaccounted for. According to the Nepalese disaster agency, there remain 3,333 missing citizens. Among them are 45 Nepali army soldiers, 38 police officers, and 18 customs and immigration officers.  

 

Another project the floods hit, the Upper Trishuli 3A facility took rescue workers six days to locate the tunnels encased in the thick mud. Roughly 30 to 40 people stuck in the tunnels there are believed to be alive. "We are expecting survivors in there because we are told there is a dry space inside. We are trying to break into the tunnel now", a Nepali army spokesperson explained. 

A week after the flash-flood hit the Nepal-Tibet border, some officials believe trapped workers at the Rasuwagadhi hydropower plant could still be alive. Photograph: Naveen Srivastava/X/Reuters

 

Where floodwaters have receded, the ground has been transformed into deep, slippery mud whose effect complicates rescue operations, slowing down movement. In other areas floodwaters remain high. Families have been left homeless in heavy rain as entire communities were swept away. Some have found shelter in temporary facilities. Mass graves are receiving unidentified bodies.  

Rescuers, as a result of the difficult conditions they face in the remote settlements, must rely on helicopters presenting as the sole means of reaching those stranded communities. 40 bridges have been washed away in the floodwaters. Teams are dispersed across the sprawling disaster zone, with reinforcements being brought into the small town of Bidur on the banks of the Trishuli River. The problem of supplies reaching those who need them rests in the town, now the main hub for rescue operations.

An aerial view shows vehicles lying amid debris at Timure Bazar following the deadly flash floods and mudslides in Rasuwa, Nepal, Sept. 3, 2026.   Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters

Some 93,000 people are felt to have been affected by the floods, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. Declaring that "many homes have been destroyed or severely damaged".  Both India and China are sending quickly-assembled prefabricated Bailey bridges where no heavy equipment is required.

The UN World Food Programme is shipping in 2.4 tonnes of high-energy biscuits to sustain homeless families lacking the capacity to cook food. "Damage to roads, bridges, settlements, and critical infrastructure has severely disrupted access to affected communities, creating significant challenges for relief operations", they explained. 

 

The swollen river responsible for widespread destruction changes course from time to time, and rescuers are forced to reassess their plans, while struggling with a lack of adequate equipment. Flotation devices are required to safely operate in floodwaters. Nighttime operations have been made impossibly hazardous in many areas, resulting from that unpredictability, while pressure to accelerate the search continues.

 

Nepal army personnel prepare to construct a bridge across Trishuli river at Devighat in Nepal's Nuwakot district on Sept. 3, 2026.    Arun Sankar/AFP via Getty Images

 

 

Giving Haven in the U.S. to Hate-Persecuted Canadian Jews

Columbia University students maintained a protest encampment on their campus following arrest of more than 100 protesters. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

 

"[We appeal to you to expedite a method of entry into the United States for Jewish Canadians] who are experiencing persecution or who credibly fear for their safety because they are Jewish."

"[There exists] an alarming climate of harassment intimidation, vandalism, threats and violence [faced by Canadian families since the Hamas terrorist attacks of 7 October 2023]."

"Advocates working directly with these families report that more than 2,000 Jewish Canadians have expressed interest in relocating because of growing concerns for their safety."

"Accordingly, we respectfully ask that you direct the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security to identify and implement lawful, secure, and appropriately expedited pathways for eligible Jewish Canadian nationals and their immediate family members who face persecution."

National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL)

The NACL letter urged the administration to coordinate with state and local governments, Jewish organizations, churches, nonprofits and employers willing to help families establish new lives in the United States.

 

This Christian group forwarded a proposal to the White House, attention of the President of the United States, appealing for a legal pathway to welcome Jewish Canadians fearing for their safety during a renascent flood of antisemitism whose effects have impacted the sense of security of Canadian Jews for the past three years and more. Led by Palestinian student groups, fuelled by hatred of Israel, incited and paid for from abroad through the Muslim Brotherhood and its sponsor Qatar, manifestations of that in-your-face antisemitism have taken place in the streets through mass protests, on university campuses and has seeped into public medical institutions where Jews now fear being treated in hospitals that employ Muslim medical staff where they are met with hostility.

 

There have been far too many instances of vandalism perpetrated against Jewish-owned businesses and institutions, in Canada, with Jewish parochial schools and community centers and synagogues being targeted with the violence of being shot at, vandalized, and fire-bombed. Crowds of Jew-hating Muslims and leftist allies have marched through Jewish neighbourhoods in Toronto and Montreal, shouting invective, chorusing 'Globalize the Intifada', 'Final Solution', and 'From the River to the Sea', terrorizing the residents, with insufficient response from municipal authorities and related police services.

 

Christian organizations like that of the NACL have expressed their sympathy at the plight of Jews in North America and Europe being verbally attacked and facing violent threats. Their empathetic responses, fellowship and offers of assistance have been heart-warming and serve as a balm to the wounded sentiments of Jews everywhere. However, the solution sought here, to encourage and formalize a system whereby Jews can leave Canada for haven in the United States, while a kindly gesture, would only move Jews from one threatened place to another, since American Jews are also facing very similar circumstances of exposure to racist hatred from the very same sources.

 

Trump shared a link to the report on Truth Social on Sunday evening, but did not comment on the contents.

 

The letter, sent to the attention of President Donald Trump, signed by Jason Rapert, founder and president of NACL, along with state representatives and religious leaders, with copies to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other U.S. senators and representatives, expresses a heartfelt concern with the hope of ameliorating the pain and vulnerability being felt by some Jews in Canada who have expressed a wish to leave the country for another that they believe promises them greater safety, respect and dignity. Yet, there too the harassment and hatred will assail them. Just as fundamentalist Muslims in Canada preach hatred of Jews, so too do those in the United States.

 

People set up a makeshift memorial for the hostages taken in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led militant attacks on Israel near an ongoing pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia University campus. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

 

As good-hearted as the move by the Christian group is, in the expression of its concern for a beleaguered community with which they feel a brotherhood, it is but a band-aid solution to a serious disease immune to band-aid responses. Calling for the Trump administration to cooperate with states, local governments, Jewish organizations, churches, non-profits and employers willing to assist arriving families does nothing to solve the larger issue. That issue is the presence of antagonistic, hostile religious exponents of fundamentalist Islam for whom obligatory jihad for the faithful begins with expunging the presence of Jews.

 

Statistics Canada's latest data reflect that 71 percent of religious hate crimes in the country targeted its Jewish population. In the United States, the Anti-Defamation League's August report highlighted that 63 percent of all reported religion-based hate crimes in 2025 targeted American Jews, according to data from the FBI, making 2025 the third-highest year on record of anti-Jewish hate crimes in America. "We believe this moment presents another opportunity for America to demonstrate those principles" of "America's historic commitment to stand against religious persecution", the letter states.

 

CHRISTIAN LEADERS HOLD EMERGENCY SUMMIT IN JERUSALEM TO CONFRONT GLOBAL RISE IN ANTISEMITISM   Fox News

 

"For generations, America has served as a refuge for people fleeing religious persecution."

"We urge you to ensure that, consistent with federal law and the security interests of the United States, that door remains open to our Jewish brothers and sisters in Canada who need it today."

National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL) 

Students demonstrate on the campus of Atlanta's Emory University on Thursday as campus protests across the U.S. lead to confrontational standoffs with police, mass arrests and accusations of antisemitism. (Elijah Nouvelage/AFP/Getty Images)

 

 

Dead In The Water : With or Without

"If  your vetting process the first go-round mandates that you have to claim that the 2020 election was stolen, then the pool of candidates was probably already small and getting smaller now."

Marc Short, served in the first Trump administration

 

"President Trump has built the greatest political movement in history, staffing his administration with talented, dedicated patriots who work tirelessly to execute his agenda."

"This movement is bigger than any one staff member, and the president's mission to make America greater than ever before will continue unabated." 

Taylor Rogers, White House spokeswoman

 

"This also is, without question, the hardest time to hire into an administration."

"The real question is, who's going to fill these roles? Will they be the right people, an will they be people that the president listens to?"

"It's not so much about the vacancies, but who's willing to go into the second two years of an administration that largely will face headwinds with a change in Congress."

Lisa Camooso Miller, former Republican National Committee communications director 

 

"Nothing but choppy waters ahead, treacherous waters ahead."

"But I’m not so sure that these departures are — it’s sort of we’re talking about degrees of being dead in the water — he’s dead in the water with or without them."

"It’s going to be ugly and unproductive and maybe even worse over the next two years."

Chris Whipple, political analyst, contributing writer, Vanity Fair 

President Donald Trump, joined by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, speaks to the media at the White House on July 15, 2025.  Anna Moneymaker/Getty 

 

Halfway through his second term, with two more years to follow, President Donald J. Trump is facing a situation where he has been left without the services of some of his senior staff, with the circle of his trusted aides shrinking. The president's chief spokesperson, his top legal adviser, a key national security adviser and his liaison to Capital Hill have all resigned. Nothing to be nonchalant about, particularly since there are other senior officials considering their own exit in the next few months, revealed by insiders familiar with what's happening. 

 

It is the departure of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt that appears to have taken some within the establishment with its particular unexpectedness by surprise. A week following Press Secretary Leavitt's announcement, James Braid, director of legislative affairs in the White House announced his own plans to leave. Two trusted advisers close to the president who fiercely defend him, taking the comfort level of their loyalty with them as they leave. Also set to leave are deputy national security adviser Andy Baker and White House Counsel David Warrington.

 

 

 

Dealing with foreign and domestic challenges, these departures could not have come at a more awkward time for President Trump. His party is facing the prospect of congressional majority losses in the November midterm elections; opening the potential of subpoenas against his administration leading to investigations under a Congress led by the Democrats, particularly  troubling for him as he faces abysmally low approval ratings, an insecure economy and a war in Iran whose unpopularity links to a global energy crisis. 

 

The legislative affairs branch under director James Braid had already lost a good proportion of his staff over the last six months, making his job to press congressional Republicans on the president's legislative agenda beyond difficult. The team that remains, in addition to resolving conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, is conflicted, with some among them pushing the White House for new plans for the economy inclusive of tax cuts linked to the president's tax and spending law. 

 

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during his meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., March 20, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

 

"I think people are seeing the writing on the wall and thinking Republicans probably aren’t going to have the House, might not have the Senate either, and things are going to be stalled."

"People are thinking, ‘what are my post administration business prospects? Is it worth taking these hits every single day, being part of these battles, and how does that hurt my prospects when I go to the private sector'?"

Identity-protected first Trump term official 

 

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes -- Your Lungs and Your Brain

"It's not just a few days in these extreme events that you need to protect  yourself."

"It is also the days when the sky looks OK [while air quality indexes or weather reports warn of the presence of smoke]."

Dr. Kai Chen, associate professor, Yale School of Public Health 

 

The health effects of short-term PM_2.5 exposure, and subsequently smoke, can range from relatively minor (e.g., eye and respiratory tract irritation) to more serious health effects (e.g., exacerbation of asthma and heart failure and premature death). In addition, there is initial evidence that short-term smoke exposure may lead to preterm birth (Picciotto et al. 2024) and impact brain function (i.e., cognitive performance as measured through a brain-training game) (Cleland et al. 2022). Fine particles are respiratory irritants, and exposures to high concentrations can lead to persistent coughing, phlegm, wheezing and difficulty breathing. Exposure to PM_2.5 may affect the body’s ability to remove inhaled foreign materials, such as viruses and bacteria, from the lungs. For example, some studies have reported an increase in the risk of COVID-19 cases and deaths in response to wildfire smoke exposure (Zhou et al. 2021; Meo et al. 2021; Schwarz et al. 2022). Although most healthy people will recover quickly from smoke exposure, some may experience health effects such as pulmonary inflammation and transient reductions in lung function (U.S. EPA 2019).

United States Environment Protection Agency  

Vancouver skyline   Wildfires and smoke have always occurred in British Columbia, but they are becoming more frequent and severe as the climate changes. Wildfire smoke is a form of air pollution that can affect your health.  BC Centre for Disease Control 

 

Evaluation of air pollution from wildfires presents unique challenges, compared to air pollution from other sources, such as traffic or industrial point sources, as smoke exposure is seasonal and episodic in nature (Gould et al., 2023). Also, as the number and size of wildfires impacting an area are variable and as smoke production from wildfires is not constant or steady, the concentration of smoke experienced by populations can vary considerably, and can include high levels of exposure for short time periods or moderate exposure levels lasting for several days or longer. Additionally, to evaluate the health effects of wildfire smoke, it is necessary to distinguish the contribution of wildfire smoke from that of other sources of air pollution within the mixture that people are exposed to. To address this, researchers have employed a variety of methods to assess exposure to wildfire smoke for use in health studies including use of land-based PM monitors, satellite imagery, air quality modelling, comparison of fire versus non-fire periods, proximity to wildfire burn area, and self-reports. In these studies, the most commonly used surrogates for wildfire smoke exposure are PM_2.5 (particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or less) and PM₁₀ (particles with a diameter of 10 micrometres or less). For the primary investigations included in the systematic reviews considered here, the health outcome data were based on administrative sources (for example, mortality registries, health care utilization data), surveys, or self-reports. In addition, most of the primary studies focused on short-term or episodic exposure to wildfire smoke (that is, daily exposure), while some of the studies assessing mental health impacts considered health effects in years following the wildfires, and studies of reproductive or developmental impacts considered wildfire smoke exposure during the gestational period. It is noted that the health effects of PM_2.5, a key pollutant in wildfire smoke, have been extensively studied and Health Canada has evaluated the health risks of ambient PM_2.5 (that is, PM_2.5 from all sources combined) (Health Canada 2022). 

Government of Canada 

People who are exposed to smoke from wildfires, according to more recent scientific investigations, are increasingly assailed by lung-damaging toxins, but new discoveries identify that hearts, brains and other body organs are also being damaged by wildfire smoke. Smoke exposure could sound the death knell of up to 1.9 million people in the United States alone, over three decades, according to one 2025 study. Lungs can be penetrated deeply by the concentration of airborne particles known as PM2.5, from wildfires.

 

PM2.5 is a primary pollutant that air quality indexes measure, but fails to reflect other substances that can be contained in wildfire smoke that include lead, mercury and formaldehyde, cautions Karl Nadeau, dean of the University of California, Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health. Preliminary research suggests that wildfire smoke may be of greater harm than air pollution from more common sources such as car exhaust. Fire in proximity to urban areas, moreover, may be of particular toxicity, through consuming buildings vehicles and electronics.

 

Smoke and flames from the Palisades Fire fill the sky as seen from the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. | Getty Images

 

Associations between wildfire smoke and cardiovascular hospitalization, diabetes complications, preterm birth, cancer, impaired cognition and other problems, as well as respiratory effects including  attacks of asthma have been associated through scientific analytical studies. Wildfire smoke was linked in a 2024 study to deaths from cardiovascular, digestive, endocrine and kidney diseases. Asthma attacks and heart attacks can increase within an hour, in the presence of the severity of ambient smoke, pointed out professor Michael Brauer with the University of British Columbia.

 

Cognitive effect research has seen a significant expansion, explains Stephanie Cleland, associate professor at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. Dr. Cleland was lead author of a 2022 study finding smoke exposure to be associated with lower scores on a 'brain training' game. A link between cumulative exposure throughout a school year and lower standardized test scores was also found through research, while other studies indicate a possible association with dementia. 

 

Less dramatic, lower-level exposures over time have an add-on impact, according to Professor Chen, who suggests the wearing of masks to be avoidance-helpful to exposure to ambient smoke during such events, not necessarily only when the surrounding air is redolent of burning, charred wood, and the atmosphere turns grey in reduced visibility with wildfire smoke. One study published in 2025 linked the risk of death from all causes with three-year exposure to wildfire smoke. Yet another 2025 study concluded that as average wildfire exposure increased, North Americans over age 65 suffered a higher risk of dying from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.  

 

A woman wears an N95 mask to protect herself from high levels of smoke pollution. Daniiielc, Getty Images

 

"The data pretty clearly say that there is no safe level of exposure to wildfire smoke: the more exposure we get, the worse a range of health outcomes. The data also pretty clearly show that our notion of sensitive groups should probably be greatly expanded. In addition to kids, elderly populations, or anyone else with preexisting conditions, like asthma, we need to think about populations like pregnant people whose birth outcomes can be substantially affected by exposure. Portable indoor filtration is often the best option for many households, and well-fitting N95 masks can help when outside. "

"Climate change, and in particular increasing fuel aridity brought about by hotter temperatures and variable rainfall, is playing a central role in the recent rapid increase in wildfire activity and smoke exposure throughout the US. It is certainly not the only factor, but is substantially amplifying the risk brought about by other factors, which include a century of fire suppression that has left abundant fuels in our wildlands, as well as increased human construction and activity in the wildland-urban interface. We can say with strong confidence that climate change has made these events much more likely and much more severe."

Marshall Burke,  associate professor, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability 

Our Warming El Nino Oceans

"[This new record being set  for hottest temperatures in the world's oceans is] very troubling." 

"An ocean this warm destabilizes weather patterns and threatens food security, economic prosperity and marine life."

"A warmer ocean is not our friend."

Jane Lubchenco, oceanographer, former chief of U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

 

"This is yet another sign of our climate system under strain and the ocean under immense pressure."

"When we have a warmer ocean such as we've had in Europe this summer, it amplifies the impact of heat waves because you don't get the cooler nighttime temperatures with the sea breeze coming off the ocean when the ocean is very warm."

"Samantha Burgess, strategic climate lead, Copernicus climate service, Europe

 

"The thing that makes my heart sink is that this starts so early and it's so out-of-normal that you know when it hits its peak it's going to be unprecedented."

"The ocean is not supposed to do this. It's just that there is no normal anymore."

"[With hotter water], not everybody is hit equally, obviously, but the whole system collapses."

"It's like when you pull out the rug from underneath an economy. The whole thing collapses. Some sectors may do a little bit better but, overall, everybody suffers."

Boris Worm, biology professor, Dalhousie University, Canada 

A very strong El Niño developing in the southern Pacific Ocean will disrupt global weather patterns in the months ahead, but climate scientists say it's not something we can attribute to the heat waves and wildfires that raged across the northern hemisphere this summer, like the ones in British Columbia's interior earlier this month. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

 

This year's El Nino has already reached the peak of other recent such appearances, and it's continuing to grow and expected to reach unprecedented levels when it does eventually peak. With the current El Nino, the oceans will keep heating  up, and it is  expected to peak at some time between November and January. That's abnormal since most of the Southern Hemisphere is ocean, and the world's sea surface temperature generally peaks around March and April as the southern summer draws to its close. But not this year.

 

El Nino is nature's temporary warming of portions of the Pacific Ocean which warps weather, raising global temperatures. This is a weather phenomenon recognized as being responsible for most of the heat that develops in the world's oceans -- along with long-term warming resulting from burning coal, oil and gas. This year, ocean waters have warmed by 0.8C, seeing the world's oceans at their hottest temperatures on record last weekend. That's bad news, but even worse is that they're entirely likely to keep warming. 

 

Coral in Tubbatah Reef in the Philippines.  Adobe

 

Aquatic lifeforms are placed under stress with warming water. The supersized El Nino of this year is proving to be of greater concern than the record previously set in March of 2024. A warming ocean becomes more acidic with less oxygen, inimical to the health of its sealife. Ocean currents become altered along with changed weather patterns. Storm systems are enhanced by the warming oceans, becoming wetter and producing larger storm surges.

 

According to Dr. Bruno, heat-sensitive corals now are roughly one-fifth of the levels of 1990. Some species of coral -- not the longer-lived staghorn corals -- are adapting to the hotter water, although they're 'weedy'. The current situation of warmer oceans and even warmer yet as time moves on and the heating persists, is predictive of collapsed fisheries resulting in universal food shortages.The Peruvian anchovy fishery, considered the largest world fishery, generally collapses during El Nino.

 

Corals from the Galápagos Islands contain chemical signatures that scientists were able to use to trace a 1,000-year history of El Niño events.   Greg Asner/DivePhoto.org

 

The food web becomes altered, since larger fish are able to swim off to cooler water to escape the heat, as far as halfway across an ocean. "Anchovies can't leave so they just don't reproduce, or [they] starve", explained Dr. Worm, affecting both the humans and the seabirds who depend on them. The presence of more jellyfish is being observed off Europe, stated Dr. Bruno, believing something similar will be seen on the East Coast of the United States.

 

"Jellyfish are often opportunistic and they like warm waters. So yes, I would expect them to do a little bit better", added Dr. Worm. And when's the last time you saw jellyfish on the dinner menu? "As long as we depend on a healthy ocean for our safety, prosperity and well-being, these record-breaking sea surface temperatures portend even greater challenges for us all", added Rick Spinrad, another former NOAA chief. 

"It's frightening. We're not even in October yet."

"You know, usually the Caribbean peaks at like late September, early October."

"And I think next year in the Southern Ocean, the Great Barrier Reef, yeah I'm really worried about what's going to happen in the southern hemisphere in February, March."

John Bruno, marine ecologist, University of North Carolina 

A satellite map from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows sea surface temperature anomalies recorded on Aug. 20, with hotter than average temperatures stretching across the El Niño region toward the west coast of South America. (NOAA)

Juvenile Impulsivity

"That's [renaming Lake Ontario] going to take place right now as I sign the order."

"And we filed all the necessary papers, documents, everything else. We've notified all of the various people that we have to notify."

"So we've done everything that you have to do. And this is official effective immediately."

"No message. Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade, very sadly. We defend Canada for nothing; they don't pay us."

United States President Donald J. Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the interior secretary to rename Lake Ontario to 'Lake America,' as the trade war with Canada continues. Screen grab from video

 

Playing the role of a trade ogre by unilaterally slapping ruinous trade tariffs on one country after another, President Trump has of late focused his attention more closely on one particular country that just happens to neighbour the United States, as the northern half of North America. Defense and security is big on the agenda for the U.S., the wealthy nation that commands world events through its invaluable work as an international interventionist in the never-ending cycle of events that threaten world stability, while at the same time intervening at other times in foreign affairs by committing its military to endless conflicts with no endgame success.

 

This is a relatively new, in recent times, self-directed, wide-targeting economic bullying of allies and foes alike that Mr. Trump derides for not sufficiently respecting and being grateful to the America he now controls, for its generosity in stabilizing the world from conflicts (those not led by American might) and in offering its goods and services to trading partners at what he now feels to be cut-rate prices. All of which he proclaims has come to an end under his watch, with new eye-opening tariffs and demands of military spending by nations far too dependent on the United States' without adequate commitments of their own.

 

Canada has been particularly remiss, resting on the assurance that the United States would always come to its rescue in response to foreign threats. That assurance lies in the fact that the U.S. would be geographically vulnerable if Canada were to be invaded or forced into self-protective conflict. There have been military partnerships between the two countries and complete trust in one another in the past. Canada was lulled into a state of complacency over its own obligations to the partnership and is now being pulled up short by accusations of coasting along for its security through reliance on the U.S. But it has been the trade issue and economic threats that has proven to be the breaking point in formerly congenial and respectful relations between the two countries, brought to a head by Mr. Trump. 

 

This is a president for whom diplomacy is a concept for weaklings. He has continued to needle Canada as a 'pretend country', one that deserves nothing better than to surrender its sovereignty to the U.S. by agreeing to become the union's 51st state, its prime ministers converted to 'governor' status. That Canada and Canadians have not the slightest interest in becoming a vassal state of America riles this president. All the more so that his diktats over tariff rates imposed on that neighbour are resisted. Punishment, therefore in order.

 

North America's Great Lakes, one of nature's geographic-hydrology gifts to the continent, suddenly took on focus in center-stage when Lake Ontario's name was found offensive to this president. In the verbal-hydrology naming assault analogous to a schoolyard fight and ensuing black eyes, President Donald J. Trump triumphed in his power to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America. Musing at the same time that the renaming of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific appealed greatly to him, as well, as Oceans America. 

 

A map labelling Lake Ontario as 'Lake America' is seen behind U.S. President Donald Trump as he speaks in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

 

The U.S. Department of the Interior was ordered to  update maps and databases to reflect this impromptu renaming exercise. Located between New York state and the province of Ontario, Mr. Trump seriously expects the world to henceforth refer to Lake America as one of the five Great Lakes. The naming of the lake, in point of fact, predates both Canada and the United States by hundreds of years. Lake Ontario's name, according to the Center for Great Lakes Literacy, comes from the Iroquoian word "oniatari:io", though the Hurons had a similar etymology. 

"The body of water currently known as Lake Ontario is a tremendous asset to the United States and part of our Nation's heritage."

"With the deepest parts of the Lake's waters lying within United States territory, the United States claims most of the Lake's volume."

"[America is] the greatest protector of the Great Lakes". U.S. Executive Order 14420   

Toronto skyline from Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario, the easternmost of the Great Lakes, has a rich history and many unique characteristics. Here are some cool facts about Lake Ontario:

1. Smallest of the Great Lakes: Lake Ontario is the smallest of the Great Lakes by surface area, covering about 7,340 square miles (19,000 square kilometers). However, it is the second smallest by volume, holding approximately 393 cubic miles (1,639 cubic kilometers) of water.
2. Lowest Elevation: Lake Ontario sits at the lowest elevation of all the Great Lakes, at about 243 feet (74 meters) above sea level.
3. Natural Outlet: The lake serves as the natural outlet for the Great Lakes system, draining into the Saint Lawrence River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean.
4. Deep Waters: Despite its smaller size, Lake Ontario is relatively deep, with a maximum depth of 802 feet (244 meters) and an average depth of 283 feet (86 meters).
5. Niagara Falls: The lake receives water from Lake Erie via the Niagara River, which includes the world-famous Niagara Falls. The water from Lake Erie travels over the falls before reaching Lake Ontario.
6. Thousand Islands: The lake is home to the Thousand Islands, an archipelago of more than 1,800 islands located in the Saint Lawrence River, which begins at the lake’s eastern end. These islands are a popular destination for boating and tourism.
7. Toronto: The largest city on the shores of Lake Ontario is Toronto, Canada’s largest city and a major cultural and economic center. Other significant cities on the lake include Hamilton and Kingston in Ontario, Canada, and Rochester in New York, USA.
8. Important Ports: The lake supports significant commercial shipping traffic, with major ports in Toronto, Hamilton, and Rochester. These ports are crucial for trade and transportation.
9. Diverse Ecosystem: Lake Ontario supports a rich and diverse ecosystem, including various fish species such as salmon, trout, bass, and perch. Efforts are ongoing to preserve and protect the lake’s natural environment.
10. Historical Significance: The lake has played a crucial role in the history of the region, from Native American settlements to European exploration and colonization. It was a key route for trade and transportation.
11. Lake Ontario’s Name: The name “Ontario” is derived from the Huron word “Ontarí’io,” which means “great lake” or “beautiful water.”
12. Ice Volcanoes: During winter, the lake’s shores can form “ice volcanoes,” which are mounds of ice created by waves pushing water through cracks in the ice, resulting in mini-eruptions of water and ice.
13. Military History: The lake has been the site of significant military activity, particularly during the War of 1812 between the United States and Britain. Forts such as Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York, and Fort Henry in Kingston, Ontario, are historical sites related to this period.
14. Water Source: Lake Ontario serves as a vital source of drinking water for millions of people living in the surrounding regions in both the United States and Canada.
15. Recreational Activities: The lake is a popular destination for recreational activities such as boating, fishing, swimming, and bird watching, with numerous parks and beaches along its shores.

National Museum of the Great Lakes, Toledo, Ohio