Trudeau Orders Oil Tanker Ban That Could Kill Northern Gateway

NATIONAL

OBSERVER

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a set of directives to his cabinet ministers Friday that included instructions to end oil tankers transits on B.C.’s northern coast — a move that observers say could finally kill the long embattled Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline proposal. Story here.

24 Hours of Live Earth and Reality: The World is Watching (2015 - Video).

TPP Caves to The Tobacco Industry, Threatens Public Health

bilaterals.org

The vacuous “tobacco control” provision in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) virtually capitulates to the demands of multinational tobacco corporations, jeopardizing nations’ health and economic welfare. Story here.

TPP is About Many Things,But Free Trade? Not So Much

The Globe and Mail

Let’s be clear about the just-released, negotiated-in-secret Trans-Pacific Partnership deal. Despite how it’s being referred to, it is definitely not a “free-trade” agreement. It’s much more than that. Story here.

Maternal Deaths Fell 44% Since 1990 – UN

Report from WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank Group and the United Nations Population Division highlights progress 

GENEVA/NEW YORK, 12 November 2015 – Maternal mortality has fallen by 44% since 1990, United Nations agencies and the World Bank Group reported today.

Maternal deaths around the world dropped from about 532 000 in 1990 to an estimated 303 000 this year, according to the report, the last in a series that has looked at progress under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  This equates to an estimated global maternal mortality ratio (MMR) of 216 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births, down from 385 in 1990.

Three Trends in US Wildfires

World

Resources

Institute

While fires in Indonesia may be making headlines recently, unprecedented forest fires have also scorched the Western United States this year…Story here.

Smoke From Wildfires Is Killing Hundreds of Thousands of People

National Geographic

And fires like the ones raging in Indonesia can cross mountains and oceans, spreading lung-clogging particles and toxic chemicals. Story here.