Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Naomi Grimley, Jack Cornish and Nassos Sylianou report on the World Health Organization's recognition that COVID-19 deaths far exceed official totals, while Sheryl Gay Stoberg reports on the Biden administration's warning that there are more deadly waves to come. Ian Froese reports that Winnipeg is already filling up hallways and staff lounges due to a lack of space for patients in the midst of the current wave, while Karen Bartko reports on the deterioration of emergency care at Edmonton's children's hospital due to the UCP's choice to place the burden of uncontrolled spread on the health care system. And Laura Osman reports that the Public Health Agency of Canada is just beginning to figure out how to track long COVID even as so many governments have decided to make it the expected future for large segments of their population. 

- Linda McQuaig writes that nobody with the intelligence and social awareness of a 5-year-old should be supporting a Ford government which has chosen avoidable death for so many people. And Fred Hahn and Angella MacEwen discuss how Ford is trying to buy voters off with shiny trinkets to get them to ignore the PCs' gross mismanagement. 

- Neel Dhanesha reports on the widespread pollution by plastic beads which is going unregulated even as it causes growing damage to wildlife and people alike. And Katharine Gammon reports on the U.S.' pitiful record in recycling even the plastic waste which it has chosen to document and regulate. 

- Natasha Bulowski reports on ShiftAction's research into the entanglement between fossil fuel companies and pension plans which has offered the industry roasting our planet with massive pools of capital. And Saphora Smith discusses how the UK Cons' political case against a windfall profit tax is indefensible even on the account of the oil companies who are actually taking the profits. 

- Finally, Marc Fawcett-Atkinson discusses the combination of commodity speculators and corporate profiteers who are inflating food costs for the general public.