In The News is a collection of stories from the Canadian press designed to start your day. Here’s what’s on our editors’ radar for the morning of September 22… What are we watching in Canada… Some long-term COVID patients suffering from symptoms such as fatigue and shortness of breath are showing signs of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, a Canadian study suggests, building on similar findings elsewhere. Manali Mukherjee, who led the study and is a respiratory researcher at McMaster University in Hamilton, said two specific abnormal antibodies, or autoantibodies, which attack healthy tissue and are known to cause autoimmune diseases, persist in about 30 percent of patients a year later. they got infected. The research was based on blood samples from patients diagnosed with COVID-19 between August 2020 and September 2021 and treated at two hospitals in Vancouver and another in Hamilton. Persistence of autoantibodies for a year or more indicates the need for patients to see a specialist who could screen for signs of autoimmune disease, he said, for conditions that also include type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis. “If you have lingering COVID symptoms, even 12 months after infection, consider getting a rheumatologic test, just to make sure there’s not a trajectory toward systemic disease,” Mukherjee said. The study, which also involved Dr. Chris Carlsten, of the University of British Columbia’s department of respiratory medicine, published Thursday in the European Respiratory Journal and involved 106 patients. The work supports emerging research on long-term COVID, which primarily affects women, Mukherjee said. A study of 300 patients published earlier this year in the journal Cell by researchers in the United States was the first to show that autoantibodies among those infected with the virus can lead to long-term COVID symptoms, but it was limited to three to four months after the recovery. , Mukherjee said. A Swiss study of 90 patients published last April in the journal Allergy showed that autoantibodies may be present a year after infection in 40 percent of patients. — Also this… The next airline hoping to pose a threat to the country’s Air Canada-WestJet duopoly is set to take its maiden flight on Thursday. Canada Jetlines, a new airline startup based in Mississauga, Ont., is scheduled to begin service with twice-weekly flights from Toronto’s Pearson International Airport to Calgary International Airport. The airline said it will hold a ribbon-cutting celebration to mark the occasion when its first flight arrives in Calgary on Thursday morning. Canada Jetlines describes itself as a “value-focused Canadian leisure company.” While Toronto-Calgary is the only scheduled route right now, the company’s primary commercial offering, Duncan Bureau, said the airline plans to serve the leisure market both domestically and cross-border with flights to the Caribbean and the Americas. . The airline currently has one Airbus A320 and a second will join in December, with plans to expand the fleet to 15 Airbus A320s by 2025 at a rate of five aircraft per year, the Bureau said. Canada Jetlines is the latest airline startup to launch in Canada, joining the likes of Flair, Lynx and WestJet’s Swoop. — This also… Federal ministers are expected to launch a long-awaited review of the government’s cannabis laws today. The Liberals lifted a century-old ban on the recreational use and sale of cannabis in October 2018, with a provision to review the law three years after it comes into force. This review is almost a year overdue. The legislation dictates that the federal government must investigate the impact of legalization on public health, youth consumption and Indigenous peoples and communities. The review will also look at growing cannabis in homes. Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos and Addictions Minister Carolyn Bennett must report to the House of Commons and Senate within 18 months of the review starting. — What are we watching in the US… WATERBURY, Conn. _ Seven days after his trial for calling the Sandy Hook school a hoax, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is expected to make his first courtroom appearance and begin testifying Thursday as he and his attorney try to limit the damage it must pay the families who lost loved ones in the massacre. Jones was in Connecticut this week preparing for his deposition, but appeared only briefly in court Tuesday and did not enter the courtroom. The Infowars host called the proceedings a “travesty of justice” and the judge a “tyrant” in comments outside the courthouse in Waterbury, about 20 miles from the scene of the 2012 shooting in Newtown. Twenty first graders and six teachers were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Several relatives of the victims, meanwhile, have given emotional testimony during the trial about being traumatized by people who called the shooting a fake, including confrontations in their homes and in public and messages that included death and rape threats. The plaintiffs include an FBI agent who responded to the shooting and relatives of eight of the victims. Judge Barbara Bellis last year found Jones liable for damages to the plaintiffs without a trial, as punishment for what she called his repeated failures to turn over documents to their lawyers. Only the six-judge jury will decide how much Jones and Free Speech Systems, the parent company of Infowars, should pay the families for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Bellis said in court Wednesday that she was prepared to handle any incendiary testimony from Jones in contempt of court proceedings if necessary. Bellis was also expected to tell Jones, when he took the stand for the first time and with the jury not in the courtroom, what issues he can’t talk about — including free speech rights and the $73 million Sandy Hook families earlier this year with gun manufacturer Remington. who made the Bushmaster rifle used to kill the victims at Sandy Hook. Jones was also found liable by default in two similar lawsuits related to the hoax in his hometown of Austin, Texas, where a jury in one of the trials ordered Jones last month to pay nearly $50 million in restitution to the parents of one of children. he was killed. A third trial in Texas is expected to begin near the end of the year. — What are we watching in the rest of the world… Mexico City _ A powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck Mexico early Thursday, shaking buildings and leaving at least one person dead in the country’s capital. The quake struck just after 1 a.m., just three days after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake rocked western and central Mexico, killing two. The US Geological Survey said Thursday’s quake, like Monday’s, was centered in the western state of Michoacan near the Pacific coast. The epicenter was about 246 kilometers south-southwest of Aguililla, Michoacan, at a depth of about 24.1 kilometers. The Michoacan state government said the quake was felt across the state. He reported damage to a building in the town of Uruapan and some landslides on the highway that connects Michoacan and Guerrero to the coast. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Twitter that it was an aftershock from Monday’s quake, which was also felt in the states of Colima, Jalisco and Guerrero. Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said via Twitter that a woman died in a central neighborhood after falling down the stairs of her home. Residents crowded the streets as earthquake alarms sounded. The earthquake shook an already troubled country. Monday’s strongest earthquake was the third major earthquake to hit on September 19 _ in 1985, 2017 and now 2022. The 2017 and September 19, 2022 earthquakes came very shortly after the annual earthquake drill held every September 19 to commemorate the devastating September 19 earthquake that killed an estimated 9,500 people. — On this day in 1851… The capital of Canada was moved from Toronto to Quebec City. — In entertainment… NEW ORLEANS _ Actor Anthony Mackie wasn’t carrying Captain America’s shield when he returned to his hometown of New Orleans to help repair hurricane-damaged roofs, but for people in his old neighborhood, it was a big hit. Mackie is working with GAF, one of the nation’s leading roofing manufacturers, to fix roofs for New Orleans homeowners who suffered damage during last year’s Hurricane Ida. The project is particularly close to Mackie’s heart. The actor who currently plays Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe grew up in New Orleans working in his family’s roofing business. “It gives me a sense of pride to provide my people with a service. I know what the people in this neighborhood are going through because I was born in this neighborhood, I grew up in this neighborhood,” he said. “It’s important to me to bring back the gifts and blessings I received outside the city.” GAF, a subsidiary of Standard Industries that manufactures items such as shingles, underlayment and other related roofing products for homes and businesses, has committed to installing 500 roofs throughout the Bay Area. That includes 150 rooftops in New Orleans’ 7th Ward, an area hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and then Ida that hit on the same day 16 years later. The roofing effort is part of the company’s Community Matters program that began in 2020 and has already repaired or replaced 3,000 roofs. The company and Mackie were recently in New Orleans to remove blue tarps from homes damaged by Ida and replace the tarps with…
