Deforestation ‘roaring back’ despite 140-country vow to end destruction

Deforestation ‘roaring back’ despite 140-country vow to end destruction

Champlain College receives $300,000 grant to support bilingual education shift

Champlain College receives $300,000 grant to support bilingual education shift By William Crooks Local Journalism Initiative Champlain College Lennoxville has been awarded nearly $300,000 under the Entente Canada-Québec (ECQ) agreement to support its implementation of Quebec’s Law 14, a new policy requiring CEGEP students to complete additional French-language courses as part of their programs. This mandate has created fresh challenges for the college, where administrators, teachers, and students are working to adapt to the bilingual course structure. The project proposal, spearheaded by Champlain College pedagogical counsellors Daniela Fernandes and Jordan Glass, was developed in partnership with Professor Sunny Lau of Bishop’s University. According to Glass, “the grant will provide crucial support for our teaching staff, helping them manage the new language requirements while ensuring students from diverse linguistic backgrounds don’t fall behind.” Navigating Law 14’s impact Law 14, known also as Bill 96, which came into effect in recent years, mandates that all students attending CEGEPs in Quebec, regardless of their linguistic background, complete a set of core courses in French. For Champlain College, which traditionally offers English-language programs, this requirement means a substantial shift. As Fernandes explained, “Previously, all general courses were conducted in English. Now, each program will have at least two courses taught in French.” The law also adds an administrative layer to the college’s curriculum design. Students who are recognized as “rights holders” – typically anglophone students – are allowed to complete their core courses in English, but are still required to take five courses in French. This includes two basic French courses and three additional courses that vary by program. Non-rights holders, who include recent immigrants and Indigenous students, must also complete five French-language courses, but their curriculum will focus more heavily on French literature to prepare them for Quebec’s mandatory French exit exam. “The addition of the French exit exam is a particularly heavy burden for non-rights holders,” Glass noted. “This exam is challenging even for francophone students, so you can imagine the pressure it puts on allophones and others for whom French isn’t their primary language.” This challenge is compounded for students who come from immigrant backgrounds or Indigenous communities, whose first language may be neither English nor French.

How to follow the Vendée Globe

How to follow the Vendée Globe Next Sunday, that is the 10th of November, the 40 skippers of the Vendée Globe will start the 10th edition of the legendary solo non stop round the world race. From 8 a.m. (local time France, +1hr UTC), the boats will cast off from the race pontoon one by one, every three minutes. The first to leave the dock will be Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance), one of the favourites for the event. The sailors will then pass down the famous Les Sables d'Olonne channel, a symbolic passage which is always the public's last chance to bid farewell to the skippers and for the solo racers themselves to share this special, emotional moment with the tens of thousands of well wishers who always line the channel. After three weeks of celebrations in the race Village this, as always, is the final interaction before the start gun to send the fleet on its way around the world. The race itself starts at 1302hrs (local time).

Meet the Vendée Globe Racing Fleet

Meet the Vendée Globe Racing Fleet The Vendée Globe is arguably the pinnacle of solo ocean racing. On November 10, 40 skippers will set out from Les Sables d’Olonne, France, with the aim of sailing nonstop, unassisted around the world. Many will not make it. In recent years, the race has had an attrition rate between 20 and 30%, with everything from sinking to electrical failures ending campaigns. While the podium always reflects the best of the best, in a race this tough, for most skippers just getting to the finish line is the ultimate goal, and no matter where you look in the fleet, inspirational stories of grit and passion abound. Winning the race is one thing, winning the hearts of spectators is another. The fleet of IMOCA 60s is dominated by the French, but in total, this year’s 40 skippers will include 11 nationalities, among them Japan, China, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, and Hungary. Conrad Coleman will sail under the joint flags of the United States and New Zealand and will be the only American in the fleet. The fleet will also include six female skippers and two para-athletes. In recent years, American offshore racing has really started to come into its own, as seen in particular with 11th Hour Ocean Racing’s victory in The Ocean Race, and Cole Brauer’s record-setting solo circumnavigation in the Global Solo Challenge. If this has put you in the mood to follow the Vendée Globe, but you’re not sure exactly where to start, here are some unsung campaigns to get excited about.

New foils and motors for SailGP

New foils and motors for SailGP When the fifth season of SailGP gets underway in November, modification for the F50s include two sets of new foils plus an electric motor for light winds. . After testing has occurred over the past 18 months at venues around the world, high-speed T-Foils will be added to the fleet of F50s in January 2025, in time for the second event being held in New Zealand. The T-Foils will replace the existing L-Foils that have been used since SailGP’s inception in 2019. Constructed from machined titanium and carbon, the high-speed T-Foils have thinner sections than the current L-Foils, reducing the drag at high speed. “The T-Foils will enable teams to have more control at high speed and better performance,” said SailGP CEO Russell Coutts . “One of the big surprises has been the increased performance when sailing upwind, approximately 5.5 km/h faster.” Coutts said the foils would also level the playing field for new teams joining the league – and create a learning curve for even the most experienced crews: “With the change impacting the entire fleet, no team will have more experience using these foils, which will likely level the playing field. Fans may be set for a new pecking order and some surprise results next season, which should make for a great spectacle.” SailGP has had a long-term ambition to introduce T-Foils, which have been specifically designed to improve performance, control and safety of the F50s at high speeds. They are also less prone to damage when subjected to high negative loads in a nose-dive which has been an issue with the original foils. Safety was also a key consideration in the upgrade. In addition to providing more control and performance, the outer tips of the T-Foils – which protrude outside the hulls – have been designed to break off in the event of a high-impact boat on boat collision. Further testing and refinement of the T-Foils will be carried out ahead of Auckland, before final adoption across the fleet. In addition to the high-speed T-Foils, SailGP is also in the process of producing new light-wind foils, designed to ensure the F50s are able to get up onto the foils at almost 3 km/h less wind than currently feasible. Ahead of testing in Dubai, which is where SailGP’s opening event of its 2024/2025 will take place, Coutts said, “I expect the light-wind foils to have an even bigger impact on our racing and the competition as a whole. It will provide faster-paced, more entertaining racing for the athletes and fans in lighter winds and provide greater certainty of racing within the targeted broadcast window – irrespective of conditions.” A New York Times report also noted how all boats this season will be equipped with a drop-down electric motor that can be deployed in light-air situations to enable foiling, or to help boats get back onto their foils if they fall off, for example during a maneuver. Falling off the foils has been problematic at some events with light winds where boats have trouble achieving the necessary speed through the water — about 16 knots – under wind power alone. Without this speed, F50s drag their hulls through the water, which slows the boat. While SailGP is still completing the details for how this will be integrated into racing, the motors represent a step change. “It’s a new innovation for sailing that hasn’t really existed before,” said said Andy Thompson, SailGP Mmanaging Director . “I think it will ruffle some feathers for sure, but we’ll implement it in the right way.”

Trump Media Outsourced Jobs to Mexico

Even as Trump Pushes “America First”

by Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

Former President Donald Trump’s social media company outsourced jobs to workers in Mexico even as Trump publicly railed against outsourcing on the campaign trail and threatened heavy tariffs on companies that send jobs south of the border.

The firm’s use of workers in Mexico was confirmed by a spokesperson for Trump Media, which operates the Truth Social platform. The workers were hired through another entity to code and perform other technical duties, according to a person with knowledge of Trump Media. The reliance on foreign labor was met with outrage among the company's own staff, who accused its leadership of betraying their “America First” ideals, the person said.

The outsourcing to Mexico helped prompt a recent whistleblower letter from staff to Trump Media’s board that has been roiling the company.

That complaint, reported by ProPublica last month, calls for the board to fire CEO Devin Nunes, a former Republican congressman. The letter alleges he has “severely” mismanaged the company. It also asserts the company is hiring “America Last” — with Nunes imposing a directive to hire only foreign contractors at the expense of “American workers who are deeply committed to our mission.”

“This approach not only contradicts the America First principles we stand for but also raises concerns about the quality, dedication, and alignment of our workforce with our core values,” the complaint reads.

A Trump Media spokesperson said the company uses “two individual workers” in Mexico. “Presenting the fact that [Trump Media] works with precisely two specialist contractors in Mexico as some sort of sensational scandal is just the latest in a long line of defamatory conspiracy theories invented by the serial fabricators at ProPublica,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson declined to answer other questions about the company’s Mexican contractors, including how much they’ve been paid, how many have been used over time and how their hiring squares with Trump’s promises to punish firms that send jobs outside of the U.S. The Trump campaign did not respond to questions.

For a company of its prominence, Trump Media has a tiny permanent staff, employing just a few dozen people as of the end of last year, only a portion of whom work on the Truth Social technology.

Trump Media’s hiring of Mexican coders also prompted frustration within the staff, the person with knowledge of the company said, because they were perceived by staff to not have the technical expertise to do the work.

On its homepage, Truth Social bills itself as “Proudly made in the United States of America. 🇺🇸”

Both as president and in his campaign for a second term, Trump has criticized companies that send jobs abroad, particularly to Mexico. If elected, he has pledged to “stop outsourcing” and “punish” companies that send jobs abroad.

For example, Trump recently threatened agricultural machinery giant John Deere with tariffs if it went through with plans to move some of its manufacturing to Mexico.

“I’m just notifying John Deere right now, if you do that, we’re putting a 200 percent tariff on everything you want to sell into the United States,” Trump said.

He has made a similar threat against automakers building cars in Mexico, demanding they hire American workers and manufacture domestically.

“I'm not going to let them build a factory right across the border,” Trump promised, “and sell millions of cars into the United States and destroy Detroit further."

Trump owns nearly 60% of the social media company, a stake worth around $3.5 billion at the stock’s Friday closing price — more than half of the former president’s net worth.

The results of the election are widely seen as a major factor in the future value of the company. As the Nov. 5 election draws closer, Trump Media’s stock price has fluctuated wildly even as little or nothing has changed in the company’s actual business, which generates scant revenue. The stock closed Friday down 40% from its recent peak on Tuesday. Despite that drop, it has still nearly doubled since the beginning of October.

One Trump Media board member, Eric Swider, offered a defense of relying on foreign labor in a statement to ProPublica from his lawyer.

“President Trump maintains an America First policy, which includes prioritizing American workers. Trump Media, however, is a global multi-media company. For a global multi-media company to utilize subcontractors, which in turn may utilize coders located in a foreign country, is a practice common to the industry,” the statement said. “Such global multi-media companies like Trump Media would have no right to control the employment decisions of its subcontractors, which may employ workers in a multitude of different countries in addition to the United States.”

Swider, a businessman based in Puerto Rico, serves on the board alongside better known figures such as Donald Trump Jr. and Linda McMahon, the former Trump cabinet member who is now co-chair of his transition team.

The outsourcing to Mexico is not the only instance of Trump Media relying on foreign workers. ProPublica previously reported that the company used a foreign firm to source labor in the Balkans.

Nunes, for his part, is quoted in a new book about Truth Social, “Disappearing the President,” boasting about his ability to keep costs down at Trump Media, though he didn’t mention outsourcing.

“Nobody grew as fast as we did. I don't think there's any other example even close to us out there, especially with as little money as we spent,” Nunes said. “Don't forget that. We built this for a fraction of what these other companies were built for.”

Do you have any information about Trump Media that we should know? Robert Faturechi can be reached by email at robert.faturechi@propublica.org and by Signal or WhatsApp at 213-271-7217. Justin Elliott can be reached by email at justin@propublica.org or by Signal or WhatsApp at 774-826-6240.

Mica Rosenberg contributed reporting.

Jeff Bezos killed Washington Post endorsement of Kamala Harris, paper reports

Jeff Bezos killed Washington Post endorsement of Kamala Harris, paper reports