Despite weather conditions making it difficult for firefighters to do their jobs, Chibougamau residents would not need to be evacuated for the time being, the community’s mayor said Sunday.

The city of Chibougamau is currently “a fair distance” from stoplights 334 and 379, Mayor Manon Cyr said in a video posted to the community’s Facebook page.

“Trigger lines” were set up in cooperation with the Society for the Protection of Forests from Fires (SOPFEU). Should the fires reach those locations, more than ten kilometers from Chibougamau, the town of 7,300 would have seven to 10 hours to evacuate the site. The fires are still a long way off for now.

“We know the SOPFEU people are doing everything they can to get the job done, but the smoke and weather conditions aren’t helping at the moment,” Ms Cyr said. We’re lucky, the winds aren’t as fierce as we thought. »

Rain is expected in the coming days but air quality remains an issue in the community. The mayor reminded how important it is to close the windows of her house and the air exchanger.

“Can we sleep peacefully? Yes, but let’s stay vigilant, let’s stay careful,” the mayor summarized, specifying that she would only believe in the rain once she saw it.

All Chibougamau residents had to be urgently evacuated on the evening of June 6 before they could begin the journey home almost a week later, on June 12. The population had been invited to drive to Roberval, about a three-hour drive away.

Maintained evacuation in Lebel-sur-Quévillon

In Lebel-sur-Quévillon, in Jamésie, another complete evacuation took place on Thursday evening, which was still in force on Sunday morning. The return of the rain is eagerly awaited.

Fire 344 threatening Lebel-sur-Quévillon remained stable on Sunday, Councilor Denis Lemoyne said in a video posted on the municipality’s Facebook page.

“For fires 256 and 314, which are further north, the fires have progressed a little further south. Air support has been requested and ground crew with machines are on the ground,” Lemoyne said. He also urged the population to help out at the Val-d’Or shelter, which is currently short of volunteers.

Households that have to be evacuated a second time have the right to apply for a new $1,500 compensation offered by the Quebec government.

Air tankers are on the ground

SOPFEU tanker planes and helicopters had to remain on the ground on Sunday because of the heavy smoke that affected their visibility. The Radisson sector in North-du-Québec was the only one where airborne operations could be conducted.

“Our flight operations have been more difficult for a few days due to the smoke. That doesn’t mean that we can’t do a few missions every day, but at the moment the ability to fly is very limited due to the smoke,” explains Stéphane Caron, Coordinator for Prevention and Communication to SOPFEU.

Rain forecast for the next few days could help contain some fires and allow teams to resume aerial work.

Several factors explain the large amount of smoke from the current fires. “The last week we went through was very difficult. It has been more than a week since it rained, temperatures are very high and relative humidity is low. It’s generating a lot of activity on the fires,” Mr Caron said. The large area of ​​the fires also has something to do with it.

Our flight operations have been hampered for a few days due to smoke development

According to SOPFEU on its website, 81 fires were still active across the province on Sunday, in addition to 33 others in the northern zone.

SOPFEU said Sunday it was fighting 43 priority fires. Of the active fires in the province, 25 are uncontrolled.

Four areas of concern

According to an update published on the website on Sunday, the regions of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Côte-Nord, Nord-du-Québec and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean remain those of greatest concern to authorities. Ministry of Public Security website.

Flammability indexes were still fluctuating from “very high” to “extreme” in several Quebec regions as of Sunday morning, according to public safety.

In addition to Lebel-sur-Quévillon, evacuations are also taking place in certain sectors of Senneterre and Val-d’Or in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, as well as in Mistissini and the town of Valcanton in North-du-Quebec.

In its update, the city of La Sarre said that citizens of Valcanton will be able to return to their homes from 5 p.m. tonight. A fire that was just across the Ontario border was reported entering Quebec north of fire 281 yesterday.

“Fire 281 was already very active in the Northwest Sector, near the Ontario border. Yesterday, four tankers carried out an operation in the morning and at the end of the day another operation could be carried out to limit the advance towards Val-Paradis,” the city of La Sarre said on its Facebook page.

Saturday’s winds, which would blow more easterly, should steer those fires toward Ontario.

In addition, as a preventive measure, more than 430 vulnerable people were also evacuated from the municipality of Obedjiwan in Mauricie.

The situation in Senneterre was stable on Sunday, with no new evacuations announced. However, Mayor Nathalie Ann Pelchat urged residents to exercise caution on the roads, as accidents involving animals are reported in the region.

To see in the video

A man is voting in San Juan Sacatepequez this Sunday. LUIS ACOSTA (AFP)

Guatemala is waiting to find out which two candidates will face off in the second round of voting. Barring surprises, if all polling results are correct over the course of the campaign and tradition since the first democratic elections in 1985, the next president will be elected in the second round between the two candidates with the most votes this Sunday. According to the polls, the front-runners are former first lady Sandra Torres, diplomat Edmond Mulet and former MP Zury Ríos, daughter of dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, so the two are expected to compete for the presidency next August 20. Guatemalans also elected Congress and mayors.

More information

At 6:00 p.m. local time, polling stations across the country closed and the count began after a peaceful day of polling station crowds and isolated incidents. The worst case occurred in the municipality of San José del Golfo in the north of the department of Guatemala, where riots have been raging since Saturday night because people from other cities were being transported and relocated to vote in that municipality. Faced with this situation, a group of neighbors threatened to set fire to a bus carrying people who were not from that town. Tensions continued until Sunday morning, after which the electoral authority decided to suspend voting, which will be repeated in the second round of voting scheduled for August 20.

Elsewhere, five of the country’s 340 municipalities experienced incidents such as ballot burning due to dissatisfaction with voter recruitment. According to prosecutors, as of 3 p.m., 31 people had been arrested for election-related crimes. The independent platform Mirador Electoral has reported more than a hundred complaints about the delivery of goods, farm equipment and money in return for voting for certain parties.

The voices of the three hands

Nine million Guatemalans were called upon to elect a president and renew Congress, in addition to 20 members of the Central American Parliament (Parlacen) and municipal mayors. The first round of voting took place this Sunday, after a campaign marred by fatigue due to corruption permeating various levels of the state and suspicions of “fraud” by the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE), which excluded three candidates from the process had, who were considered the top candidates. In addition, in the last few days before the vote, various publications reported about alleged bribes that electoral judges received from the ruling party.

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subscribe toZury Ríos is voting this Sunday in Guatemala City. Esteban Biba (EFE)

Of the top three candidates, according to the polls, the first to vote was Zury Ríos, daughter of Ríos Montt, the dictator who died in 2018 at the age of 91, charged with the genocide of indigenous Mayan Ixils during the civil war war was before the court. The former MP cast her ballot at the National School of Commercial Sciences in the historic center of the capital, dressed in a Chichicastenango dog, a traditional Mayan shawl, and accompanied by her daughters. “Voting is the most important thing, it’s our vote that shapes the ballot,” he said before urging citizens to vote. The candidate from the right-wing alliance Valor-Unionista is in third place in the polls with just over 9% of voting intentions.

First in these polls is Sandra Torres, who has 21.3% of support according to the latest poll released Thursday. The former First Lady voted at the Valle Verde School in Zone 15 of Guatemala City. “Today the future of our country and of Guatemalan families is being defined in the years to come and it is important to cast an intelligent and conscious vote,” said the National Unity of Hope (UNE) candidate, encouraging young people to go to the polls . Over the course of his political career, Torres moved from social democracy to more conservative positions. It is the third time that Álvaro Colom’s widow is running for a presidential election. The top two lost in the second round to Jimmy Morales and Alejandro Giammattei.

The last of the three frontrunners to vote was Edmond Mulet, and he did so as a family with his wife Karen Lind and one of their two children. The centre-right candidate is second in the polls with his Cabal faction.

“Absence rates will increase,” warned Manfredo Marroquín, former columnist for elPeriódico and director of Acción Ciudadana, a group that makes up the Electoral Viewpoint. These elections were marked by popular disillusionment and the zero and blank votes, which polls say have doubled in just over a month.

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The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has opened an investigation into the implosion of the Titan mini-submersible that was aboard the Canadian-flagged vessel Polar Prince.

Canada is involved in this story in several ways. It was a small underwater robot from another Canadian vessel, the Horizon Arctic, based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, which first discovered the submersible’s wreck about 500 meters from the wreck of the Titanic. The discovery was announced shortly after the Wall Street Journal reported that the sound of the small travel submersible’s “catastrophic implosion” was first recorded by the US Navy.

The US Navy confirmed the news, adding that “other partners” had cooperated in collecting the acoustic data.

The implosion first discovered in Halifax?

This is undoubtedly Canada, which along with the United States is participating in an underwater listening network – a series of hydrophones placed on the seabed – to detect the presence of enemy submarines near North American shores.

This integrated underwater acoustic surveillance system called SOSUS (SOund SURveillance System), which provides long-range detection capability in deep water, was developed during the Cold War to detect Soviet nuclear-armed missile submarines approaching Canadian and US territorial waters.

The Canadian nerve center of this network is in the ultra secret area trinity, the Canadian Naval Base in Halifax Harbour. Deteriorating NATO allies’ relations with Russia, which accelerated with the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the invasion of Ukraine, updated the Russian underwater threat, which had subsided but never disappeared after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Trinity works with the Intelligence Fusion Center in Virginia operated by the US Coast Guard. The SOSUS line, which covers the east coast of North America, is codenamed “Caesar”.

Russians are always very interested in what’s going on at Trinity. They paid a Canadian naval officer working there, Jeffrey Delisle, to find out.

Delisle sold information to the Russian Military Intelligence Service (GRU) in what was the largest theft of classified documents in Canadian history. Between 2007 and 2012, he leaked secrets to Russians over the Internet for $71,000.

Almost five years after his betrayal, it was the FBI that brought him to the attention of the RCMP and CSIS in 2011. In February 2013 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Thanks to an incredible forbearance, Jeffrey Delisle regained his total freedom in March 2019. The parole board ruled that he was not at risk of reoffending.

Toshiba’s silent propellers

The Canadian part of SOSUS was initially based in Argentina, Newfoundland. When the base closed in 1995, the underwater listening system was moved to Trinity Base in Halifax.

Steven Ratkai was arrested on June 11, 1988 in possession of classified documents from the Argentia base. He worked for the GRU, who wanted to know if the base’s controlled hydrophones could still detect their submarines, which had been newly fitted with quiet propellers sold to them by the Japanese company Toshiba.

While Russian subs could be spotted up to 200 nautical miles with traditional propellers, with the new Toshiba propellers they were difficult to spot even at 10 miles! In retaliation, Washington banned Toshiba products from its territory for three years beginning January 1, 1988.

Ratkai is sentenced to nine years in prison for espionage for the benefit of the Soviet Union.

It’s a majestic sea scene. On a still day, a ship slices through the water as a pair of whales breach the surface just meters away.

They appear to swim with the ship, splashing water into the air as they do so.

But suddenly the illusion bursts. With a loud bang, an exploding harpoon is fired from the deck, impaling the nearest of the two creatures.

The shot does not kill the fin whale immediately. Instead, a two-hour struggle for survival ensues as the gentle giant meets an agonizing death at the hands of Icelandic fishermen. It’s all captured in this graphic video.

Footage filmed by a person on board a trawler has shed new light on the barbaric practice of whaling after it was reportedly leaked by an animal rights group – and may have finally put an end to the practice in Iceland.

This footage of exploding harpoons being used to hunt a whale, filmed by a person aboard a trawler, sheds new light on the barbaric practice after it was reported to have been leaked by an animal rights group – and it may have been put an end to the practice in Iceland

Iceland, Norway and Japan are the only countries in the world that continue to hunt whales, despite fierce criticism from animal rights activists.

Every year, images of Iceland showing the butchering of giant whale carcasses emerge at facilities across the island nation, sparking a global outcry.

Iceland’s whaling season runs from mid-June to mid-September. Annual catch quotas allow for the killing of 209 fin whales – the second longest marine mammal after the blue whale – and 217 minke whales, one of the smallest species.

While catches have plummeted in recent years due to a shrinking market for whale meat, the slaughter continues.

The Nordic country is left with just one whaling company, Hvalur, after another company finally gave up its harpoons in 2020, saying it was no longer profitable.

According to Icelandic newspaper Heimildin, it is a Hvalur-operated ship – Hvalur 8 – that is featured in the gruesome video. It set sail on September 20, 2022.

At the time the leaked footage was recorded, the crew had already caught a 60-foot fin whale (called Langreyður in Icelandic) but wanted more.

As the ship passed through Selvogsbanki, a reef about 25 miles south of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, the crew spotted the two fin whales swimming together.

Just before 8 p.m., when whoever was swimming closest to Hvalur 8 came up to breathe and sprayed a stream of water into the air, the crew released the harpoon and landed a direct hit.

A whale is seen breaching the surface of the water in video taken on September 20, 2022 from the deck of an Icelandic whaling ship. Moments later, an explosive harpoon is shot into the fin whale’s side by the fishermen, launching a five-hour battle

Pictured: The moment when an explosive speargun from the deck of the Hvalur-8 ship struck the left flank of a female fin whale just before 8 p.m. on September 20, 2022

According to Heimildin, the explosive harpoon struck the 65-foot-long female fin whale in her stomach. But it didn’t kill her right away, as the video shows.

With this shot the battle of the titans begins, in which there can only be one winner.

With the harpoon low in its side and still attached to the boat, the whale tries to swim for its life. Instead of trying to capture her and put an end to her suffering, the crew lets the whale swim on like a dog on a leash.

The footage is time-stamped to show the sun dips below the horizon at around 8:30 p.m. and it begins to get dark.

To keep track of their catch, the crew shines a spotlight on the whale, showing how the rope is tightened each time it tries to break free.

Each time she does, clouds of bright red blood rush to the surface of the water, showing the depth of the wound inflicted by the harpoon.

As the light quickly fades, the crew decides that a harpoon isn’t enough.

Another bang signals that a second has been fired. But the whale is still fighting, even though it’s now attached to the ship with two ropes.

At this point in the footage, the fight is taking place in near total darkness. The blood continues to boil on the surface and the crew fires another harpoon.

The whale disappears from view for a while, but then reappears, sending another jet of water into the sky and rising to breathe.

Another loud bang is heard as a fourth harpoon is fired, delivering the final blow.

According to Heimildin, of the 148 fin whales caught during last summer’s 100-day hunting season, 36 had to be shot twice or more.

The fact that the whales are being killed in such a gruesome and lengthy manner was apparently the reason someone was on board to film the incident. Heimildin reported that inspectors from Norway’s Food Standard agency were on board to monitor the whales’ welfare, according to Icelandic Food Minister Svandís Svavarsdóttir.

To keep track of their catch as night falls, the crew of Hvalur 8 illuminates the whale as its fight for survival continues

At this point in the footage, the fight is taking place in near total darkness. The blood continues to boil on the surface and the crew soon fires another harpoon

The whale is seen gasping for air while continuing to fight the harpoon

Pictured: The whale squirts water into the air and releases a red mist from its wounds

So it seems no coincidence that the Icelandic government announced on Tuesday that it would suspend this year’s whale hunt for animal welfare reasons until the end of August, likely bringing the controversial practice to an historic end.

Officials said recent monitoring of fin whale hunts by the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority found the killing of the animals was taking too long in relation to the key objectives of the Animal Welfare Act.

“I have made the decision to suspend whaling until August 31,” Svavarsdóttir said in a statement after a government-commissioned report concluded that the hunt was not in line with Iceland’s Animal Welfare Act.

“If the government and licensees cannot guarantee the welfare requirements, these activities have no future,” the minister said.

Given that Hvalur’s license will expire at the end of 2023 and it’s doubtful its boats would set sail after the end of August, this practice may have ended for good in the Nordic country.

Animal rights groups and environmentalists welcomed the decision, and Humane Society International called it “an important milestone in the compassionate protection of whales.”

“There is no humane way to kill a whale at sea and so we urge the Minister to make this a permanent ban,” said Humane Society International’s executive director for Europe, Ruud Tombrock.

“Whales already face so many serious threats in the oceans from pollution, climate change, entanglement in fishing nets and ship attacks that ending cruel commercial whaling is the only ethical conclusion.”

Sea Shepherd UK chief Robert Read said the decision was also a “devastating blow” to other whaling nations.

“If whaling cannot be humanely conducted here, then it cannot be humanely conducted anywhere.”

“Whales are architects of the ocean.” “They help boost biodiversity and fight climate change by influencing the carbon cycle,” he added.

Opposition to whaling is growing in Iceland, and a majority are now in favor of ending the practice.

Hvalur 9 transports a 20-meter-long fin whale from its hull to the processing plant in Hvalfjördur, near Reykjavik. At the time, the whale was the first to be caught in almost four years

Every year, images emerge from Iceland showing the slaughter of giant whale carcasses from facilities on the island nation, sparking a global outcry

Iceland’s whaling season runs from mid-June to mid-September. Annual catch quotas allow for the killing of 209 fin whales – the second longest marine mammal after the blue whale – and 217 minke whales, one of the smallest species

Iceland is left with just one whaling company, Hvalur, after another gave up its harpoons for good in 2020, saying it was no longer profitable. Pictured: whaling ship Hvalur 9 in 2022

A poll published in early June found that 51 percent of Icelanders were against hunting and 29 percent were in favour, with those over 60 the most in favour.

Iceland has been heavily dependent on fishing and whaling for centuries.

But over the past two decades, the tourism industry, including whale-watching tours, has thrived — and the two key sectors of the economy have divergent interests.

However, whaling continues in other parts of the world. Japan, by far the largest market for whale meat, resumed commercial whaling in 2019 after a three-decade hiatus, drastically reducing the need for imports from Iceland.