Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Ryan Tumulty reports on Theresa Tam's warning that Canada may be headed for another COVID wave this fall. CBC News reports on the warning from Fahad Razakthat the province shouldn't have lifted mask mandates this week, while Jennifer Lee points out that Alberta is facing its deadliest pandemic year to date. Adam MacNeil discusses the need for people to serve as the immune response to a disease which will otherwise circulate unabated. And Anneli Uuskula et al. find that COVID infection results in three times the risk of mortality in a year compared to people who are able to avoid the coronavirus, while Matthew Durstenfeld et al. study how long COVID also reduces exercise capacity. 

- David Hencke reports on the billions of dollars in personal protective equipment which has been deemed unfit for use after being supplied by UK Con-connected businesses. And Emily Leedham reports that Manitoba is among the provinces which saw a conservative government hand massive contracts to businesses affiliated with the Plymouth Brethren for no remotely apparent reason. 

- Rani Molla writes that some of the people being required to return to office settings are gaining little besides long commutes as a result. 

- Rob Merrick reports on Boris Johnson's demand that UK workers bear the brunt of inflation (worsened by his party's Brexit) by accepting pay cuts in the midst of soaring prices. And Nadia Whittome writes that the proper response is instead a living wage to ensure workers can afford a reasonable standard of living. 

- Rishika Pardikar reports on how fossil fuel giants are using trade agreements to bully governments into avoiding effective climate policy - and collecting massive windfalls from those which dare to defy them. Carbon Tracker examines how the resources set aside for remediation of wells in the Gulf of Mexico (as in so many other places) fall far short of what's needed, even as oil companies rake in massive profits. And Mickey Djuric reports on the Moe government's failure to ensure resource companies pay what they owe Saskatchewan for extracting natural resources. 

- Finally, Aditya Chakrabortty writes about the collapse of the UK's collapsing political order - along with the hope (however remote) that something better will emerge from the wreckage.