Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- CBC News reports on the rise of COVID levels in Saskatchewan cities' wastewater. David Axe reports on the development of the BA.4.6 variant which looks likely to represent an even greater threat than the currently-dominant version. And Bruce Mirken discusses how the failure to recognize and mitigate the risk of long COVID has resulted in the U.S. (and Canada) sleepwalking toward disaster. 

- Meanwhile, Zak Vescera reports that overburdened hospitals in Saskatoon are clogging up other elements of the health care system, including the availability of ambulances which are spending hours waiting to hand off patients.

- The Washington Post maps the extreme heat covering much of the U.S. Jon Henley reports on the extreme drought which is drying up rivers in Europe, while Darrell Roberts reports on the fires threatening communities in Newfoundland which are being exacerbated by a lack of moisture. And Chris Saltmarsh discusses how the privatization of water has made it more difficult to protect limited resources against the effects of a climate breakdown. 

- Jacques Gallant reports on the federal government's failure to act despite being well aware of the drug poisoning crisis.

- Finally, Aaron Saad wonders whether we've devolved to the point of living in post-empathy times, while noting that collective acceptance of the view that we don't need to care about each other is an obvious predictor of impending fascism.