Nova Scotia to close public schools as teachers take job action

All Nova Scotia public schools will be closed Monday as the Liberal government throws a wrench into teacher plans to take job action over recently failed contract negotiations.

Education Minister Karen Casey has decided to close schools province-wide but teachers are still expected to report to work, she told reporters at a press conference Saturday morning.

She said the province is not locking out teachers. The Liberal government says it intends to try to impose a collective agreement on the union.

Teachers in the province are getting ready to begin work-to-rule job action starting Monday morning, which will change the regular school activities for students across the province.

'Unsafe environment'

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union has directed educators to only go to school 20 minutes before class and leave 20 minutes after class, and not volunteer to supervise breaks.

The union has said it is taking precautions for student safety, like having principals available, but the province has disagreed.

"Job actions could put students in unsafe environment," Casey said.

"Students could be left unsupervised. That's unacceptable."

MLAs called back

The Liberal provincial government will enact legislation to remove some of teachers' ability to work-to-rule.

The Nova Scotia House of Assembly also has been recalled for Monday "respecting the public interest," the speaker said in a release.

Casey said teachers are expected to work, and as soon as legislation passes, "they'll be back to work as usual."

"This is clearly about the supervision of students and ensuring the safety of students on the school grounds," Casey said.

"It's unfortunate that this is what is needed, but it's fortunate we can do what's needed at this point in time."

The teachers are in a contract dispute with the Nova Scotia government after talks broke off more than a week ago.

The province is live streaming the announcement. 

Italians set to vote in high-stakes referendum on constitutional change

If long-standing supporters of Italy's Democratic Party are half as angry at their leader as Ermanno Gizzi, the tenure of the once-promising Prime Minister Matteo Renzi may come to an unceremonious end early next week.

It may also put the future of Italy, the European economy and Renzi himself at risk of downward spiral.

Gizzi, 56, is among what recent polls show to be a majority of Italians planning to vote "No" in this Sunday's national referendum on constitutional change. The vote will reduce the power of Italy's Senate, streamline the legislative process and give more power to the party that wins a majority.

The 41-year-old Renzi has pledged to resign should he lose — a possibility that has prompted dire warnings from business leaders and banking experts worried about the instability that could be triggered by a major change in government.Italy has some of the weakest banks in the eurozone, with more than $500 billion in bad debt. Renzi devised a bailout plan, which may crumble, should he resign, along with the country's banks.Yet the very people Renzi might have once called upon for support are now using the referendum to lash out at a leader they see as increasingly autocratic.  

"There was no consultation on these reforms with the people, with civic organizations, not even an email," says Gizzi, a high school teacher in Rome who says he's concerned about removing checks and balances of Italy's constitution. "They made no attempt to even try to explain how the changes will improve our lives."

Teachers such as Gizzi were once a solidly dependable Democratic bloc. But he and many others say the wildly unpopular school reforms that Renzi pushed through last year was just one act in an arrogant political show with no regard for its audience.Renzi became prime minister almost three years ago — not through election, but by being named head of Italy's grand coalition government after a series of other short-term leaders.

Among core members of the Democratic Party, Renzi is viewed as a fox in the henhouse — a pragmatic centrist similar to Silvio Berlusconi — and one who has managed to hijack Italy's traditional left. 

Italians, though, were at first happy to give Renzi a chance, encouraged by his youthful energy and vows to modernize the country and boost the economy after almost two decades of stagnation, with unemployment hovering at 12 per cent.Anti-establishment sentiment grows

But many of his early supporters are now disillusioned, put off by what they perceive as a disdain for Italy's long tradition of governing by wide consensus.

Just like those who voted for Brexit or Donald Trump, many who plan to vote No in Sunday's election feel a deep sense of betrayal by traditional politicians.n Italy, those people encompass a wide, disparate group — from discontented Democrats, to neo-Fascist and Catholic groups, to the country's insurgent parties, the populist Five Star Movement and the anti-immigrant Lega Nord. 

Matteo Salvini, leader of Lega Nord, and Beppe Grillo, the bombastic comedian who heads the Five Star movement, have served up inflammatory speeches at rallies that match Trump's hostility while outshining him in linguistic dexterity.

Grillo has called Renzi "a scared shitless … wounded sow" and depicted the Democratic Party as "dedicated to cyber-masturbation" with the flood of Vote Yes emails they've sent out in recent weeks. This week, Salvini dubbed the banks, ratings agencies, industry leaders and celebrities who have warned a No vote would be cataclysmic for Italy as a bunch of "vultures and jackals."

It wasn't racism: Young Brexiteers say economy, EU control more important than immigration

"What's at stake for Italy and Europe are months of instability," says Giovanni Orsina, deputy director of the School of Government at Rome's Luiss University.

Italy is used to it, he says. In the past seven decades, the country has had more than 60 governments — in part the result of a constitution that, in the wake of Fascism, has protected Italy from the dominance of any one party at the expense of giving elected leaders enough power to properly govern.

Or in the case of Renzi, the power to pass reforms.

Europe on shaky ground?

But it is Europe's instability that worries Orsina more.

France, Germany and the Netherlands are all holding national elections in the coming year. With Renzi's promise to resign should he lose tomorrow, Orsina says the lack of continuity could put Europe, already divided over the migrant crisis and jolted by Brexit, on shakier ground.

"If the Yes vote wins in Italy, we are going to have a relatively stable government, so that will mean not everything will be in flux in Europe," says Orsina. "If the No wins, that's another country in doubt and uncertainty."

North Dakota pipeline protest about underground leak that will 'ultimately happen'

When Ron His Horse Is Thunder gazes out from the porch of his log cabin ranch house on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in southern North Dakota, he guesses he can see about 40 kilometres away in the horizon.

The former tribal chairman sees approximately 100 Black Angus cattle and rolling hills blanketed in snow. He can spot the water tower in nearby Fort Yates.

But his sight line also looks right out on a reservoir of the Missouri River, a body of water he sees as threatened by the potential completion of the contentious Dakota Access Pipeline."Someday that pipeline will leak," he said. "They all leak and someday that pipeline will leak too."

He's not alone with that assessment.

Other tribal members here say they, too, fear a potential leak that could impact local drinking water.His Horse Is Thunder has lived most of his life on the reservation. He says he fears a small pipeline leak could go undetected and he would ultimately like to see it re-routed.

There are many factors at play, he explains.Perhaps lower oil prices could take a toll. Perhaps oil contracts could be impacted the longer the protest camps endure.

"It is still a small place compared to the land we used to have," said His Horse Is Thunder. "And of all the places in the world, this is the one place where our language is still alive, our culture is still alive."

"That's why we fight this so darn bad," he said.His Horse Is Thunder said he still goes to visit the camps that have grown nearby in opposition to the pipeline about three times a week.

And the main Oceti Sakowin camp is set to swell this weekend, with potentially thousands of U.S. veterans pouring into the area.

On Friday, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch called for calm after speaking with both local law enforcement and the current tribal chairman.

"We recognize the strong feelings that exist about the Dakota Access Pipeline — feelings that in many instances arise from the complicated and painful history between the federal government and American Indians," she said.The local sheriff's department continues to call for federal help in dealing with the issue.

Outside a community centre in Fort Yates, activist and former tribal councilwoman Phyllis Young says this community has long struggled with land and water issues before this specific pipeline debate.

She, too, lacks confidence in the pipeline's integrity.

Taiwan leader's call to Donald Trump 'petty action,' says China

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's call with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen was a "petty action" by Taiwan that does not change its status as part of China, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday.

China will "unswervingly" stick to its position of opposing Taiwan independence, it said, in a statement released on the official Xinhua news agency.The Chinese foreign minister expressed concerns after Trump tweeted on Friday Tsai had called him to congratulate him on winning the U.S. presidency, a move that breaks with 40 years of White House diplomatic protocol.Washington has pursued a so-called "one China" policy since 1979, when it shifted diplomatic recognition of China from the government in Taiwan to the communist government on the mainland. Under that policy, the U.S. recognizes Beijing as representing China but retains unofficial ties with Taiwan.

Taiwan split from the Chinese mainland amid civil war in 1949. Current U.S. policy considers Taiwan's sovereignty "unsettled."

In light of Trump accepting the call, China said it has lodged a complaint with the U.S. — what the Chinese foreign ministry called "stern representations" — and reiterated its commitment to seeking "reunification" with the self-governed democratic island, which it considers a renegade province.

After the phone conversation, Trump tweeted that Tsai "called me." He also groused about the reaction to the call: "Interesting how the U.S. sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call."The city's mayor, Cheng Wen-tsan, said in a statement on the city government's website last month that a representative of the Trump Organization had visited the city and expressed interest in investing in hotels near the airport. The statement said the visit was too brief for both sides to get into details.

The Trump Organization has denied it has any projects planned in Taiwan.The Taiwanese presidential office said Trump and Tsai discussed issues affecting Asia and the future of U.S. relations with Taiwan. "The (Taiwanese) president is looking forward to strengthening bilateral interactions and contacts as well as setting up closer co-operative relations," the statement said.

Tsai also told Trump that she hoped the U.S. would support Taiwan in its participation in international affairs, the office said, in an apparent reference to China's efforts to isolate Taiwan from global institutions such as the United Nations.

The call is the starkest example yet of how Trump has flouted diplomatic conventions since he won the Nov. 8 election. He has apparently undertaken calls with foreign leaders without guidance customarily lent by the State Department, which oversees U.S. diplomacy.

Trump 'shooting the from hip'

"President-elect Trump is just shooting from the hip, trying to take phone calls of congratulatory messages from leaders around the world without consideration for the implications," said Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

China is likely to be trying to identify whether this signals any intent on the part of Trump to alter long-standing U.S. policy toward Taiwan, Glaser said.

"They will hope that this is a misstep, but I think privately, they will definitely seek to educate this incoming president and ensure that he understands the sensitivity of Taiwan," she said.

Last month, Trump had a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping during which Trump's office described him as saying he believed the two would have "one of the strongest relationships for both countries."

Despite China's muted response Saturday, concern about Trump's policy toward China is growing, said Shi Yinhong of Renmin University in Beijing, one of China's best-known international relations scholars.

Taiwan elects pro-independence leader as president

Tsai was elected in January and took office in May. The traditional independence-leaning policies of her party have strained relations with Beijing.

The call with Trump could "convince people in Taiwan that the island can establish good relations with the U.S. and encourage (Tsai) to continue to resist pressure from Beijing," Shi said.

China believes Tsai wants to push for the island's formal independence, a red line for Beijing. However, Tsai has said she wants to maintain the status quo with China and wants peaceful relations.

​

At least 9 dead in California warehouse party fire

At least nine people are dead and about 25 others were unaccounted for after a massive fire broke out during a late-night party in a warehouse in Oakland, California, the city's fire chief said on Saturday.

Fire officials were still trying to determine how the fire started, said Chief Teresa Deloach-Reed, who described the 

building as "huge." She said the roof had collapsed, complicating efforts to recover bodies. The warehouse in the 

Fruitvale district housed units where people lived and worked.

"There is a large majority of that building that has not been searched," Deloach-Reed said during a news briefing.

"We are hoping that the number nine is what there is and that there are no more," the fire chief said, referring to the 

number of known fatalities. "But we have not done a complete search of the building."

A Facebook event page showed 176 people planned to attend the party, which featured a performance by the electronic music act Golden Donna. The page, which listed 355 others as interested in going, carried posts from people who were either missing or accounted for.