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BURNABY (NEWS 1130) A fire in Burnaby stirred up some chatter Thursday night, but the fire department confirms it was part of a controlled burn near the Parkland Refinery.

Reports first started coming into CityNews and NEWS 1130 around 11 p.m. of large flames lighting up the night sky and smoke coming from the area north of Capitol Hill, west of Burnaby Heights.

Some people told us the sky was glowing orange and red, almost flashing.

In a statement to us, Burnaby Fire says the flames were in fact part of a control burn at the refinery, adding it got a bit out of hand.

People took to social media with images and video of the fire.

Some shared photos of the flames and glow from across the water, in North Vancouver.

I called 9 1 1 and spoke to NV City Fire Dept (sic) and the glow is coming from Burnaby and the oil refinery. Amazing we can see it, one person wrote.

No injuries have been reported as a result of the fire.

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Burnaby fire near refinery part of controlled burn - News 1130

DENVER, Colo., Aug. 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the appointment of Holiday Goodreau, executive director of the LivLyme Foundation and chief executive officer/co-inventor of TickTracker, as co-chair of the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group (Working Group).

Congress established the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group in 2016 as part of the 21st Century Cures Act to provide subject matter expertise and to review federal efforts related to all tick-borne diseases to help ensure interagency coordination and minimize overlap, and to examine research priorities. The focus of the groups effort is the development of a report to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and Congress on the findings and any recommendations of the Working Group for the federal response to tick-borne disease prevention, treatment and research, as well as how to address gaps in these areas. The Working Group is required to submit a report every two years.

It is truly an honor to see caregivers in this leadership capacity as this country and the world continue to fight against tick-borne diseases, said Ms. Goodreau. As my daughter, Olivia, says about her fight against the illness, I was recruited by a tick. In so many ways that same tick recruited me as well, as I continue to advocate for finding a cure and effective treatments for my daughter and the millions of people across the globe suffering from Lyme disease. The work ahead is daunting, but having the support of the federal government, private partnerships, advocacy groups, doctors, scientists, and patients in this fight will surely elevate the conversations and actions that are needed in the fight against tick-borne diseases.

Ms. Goodreau is a part of a new team of Working Group members who were officially sworn in by the Assistant Secretary for Health, Dr. Rachel Levine during the August 26, 2021 meeting.Ms. Goodreau and Linden Hu will co-chair the Working Group, which will produce the third and final report to the HHS Secretary and Congress. The Working Group members are:

New Public Members

Regular Government Employees (Federal Members)

About Holiday Goodreau

Holiday Goodreau is the Executive Director of the LivLyme Foundation whose mission is to provide funding for Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease treatment and research, while delivering tick education and awareness around the globe. She is a co-creator of the free global app, TickTracker, allowing users to report and track ticks in real-time with the use of geo-location, and she is a Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease advocate.

Ms. Goodreau is an inaugural member of the United States Health and Human Services (HHS), Tick-Borne Disease Working Group Access to Care and Patient Support subcommittee. She also serves as a peer reviewer for the Department of Defenses (DoD) Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program for Tick-Borne Disease Research as a consumer advocate and is a board member of the MSIDS (Multiple Systemic Infectious Disease Syndrome) Scientific Research Board in New York. She was selected as a 2019 Fellow for The Gratitude Network, which involved a 12-month leadership development program for those dedicated to serving children and youth.

Ms. Goodreaus advocacy work has led her around the country where she has presented at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Boy Scouts of America, Gates Foundation, Microsoft, Chan Zuckerberg Institute, Stanford University, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Duke University and University of New Haven. In her ongoing efforts to find a cure for her daughters diagnosed Lyme disease in 2011, Ms. Goodreau continues to work for Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease patients and their families through her extensive advocacy work.

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Denver Mom of Chronically Ill Child Becomes First Caregiver - GlobeNewswire

Taliban members patrol the streets of Jalalabad city, Afghanistan on August 17, 2021, as the Taliban takes control of Afghanistan after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

Stringer | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

World leaders are racing to evacuate their citizens from Afghanistan after the Taliban's lightning takeover last week but the impact of the Islamist militants' control will have implications beyond its borders, analysts warn.

The capital of Kabul fell into the hands of the ultraconservative militants more than a week ago, marking the collapse of the civilian government as the U.S. withdrew its military presence ahead of the Aug. 31 deadline.

The international community will likely have to confront three issues as the Taliban's takeover reverberates across the globe, experts told CNBC.

They include: a rise in terrorism activities, an influx of refugees as Afghans flee violence and persecution, as well as escalating tensions between India and its neighbors, Pakistan and China.

Afghanistan could once again become a "hotbed" for terrorism, providing sanctuary for extremists, experts warned.

The Taliban have "never broken" their alliance with al-Qaeda over the last two decades despite military pressure and two years of negotiations in Qatar, according to Richard Fontaine, CEO of the Center for a New American Security.

A United Nations report this year reached a similar conclusion: It said the Taliban and al-Qaeda "remain closely aligned and show no indication of breaking ties." The Taliban previously refuted those claims.

The militant group has said it would not allow other terrorist organizations to use Afghanistan as a base to launch attacks, but some analysts expressed doubts over its pledge.

"The Taliban doesn't really stick to its ideals. We will have to wait and see," Amir Handjani, a fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told CNBC's "Capital Connection" last Tuesday.

As the Taliban swept across Afghanistan, it reportedly released about 5,000 to 7,000 prisoners from Parwan prison some of whom are hardened Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters.

Fontaine explained that the thinking in the U.S. is that it can handle any potential threats from outside Afghanistan. "We'll see how effective that is, if it comes to that. But I think it's something of a gamble," he added.

Afghanistan was a haven for terrorist groups when the Taliban were in power in the late 1990s. But the U.S. invaded the country in 2001 after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Former U.S. national security advisor John Bolton told CNBC last week that the U.S. invasion was targeted at ousting the Taliban and the "sanctuary they had provided to al-Qaeda."

There are growing fears of an impending refugee crisis much like the one from 2015, when more than a million refugees fled the war in Syria to seek refuge in Europe.

"You are likely to have an influx of refugees pretty much anywhere the [Afghans] can go," said Shamaila Khan, director of emerging market debt at AllianceBernstein.

"We can see from the pictures that have emerged from Kabul airport that they are desperate to leave, so if they can find a route to any of these countries, they will go," she told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" last Tuesday.

Scenes of thousands of Afghans at the Hamid Karzai International Airport, desperate to escape the country, flooded social media and grabbed media headlines last week. One video showed a U.S. military aircraft attempting to take off as Afghans ran alongside and clung to the exterior of the plane as it lifted off.

Analysts from Eurasia Group, however, said in a recent note that the European Union's concerns about an influx of Afghan refugees may be overblown since the bloc has taken steps to reduce irregular migration.

Additionally, anti-refugee sentiment in Turkey where many refugees normally travel through could mean President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may take a tougher stance against migrants. Any refugee influx that reaches the EU will likely be "manageable," Eurasia Group said.

The political chaos in Afghanistan could spill into neighboring countries, and potentially exacerbate tensions between India and its neighbors, Pakistan and China.

Indian analysts are worried that the Taliban's return may create space for terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed to launch attacks against Indian targets, according to Elizabeth Threlkeld, senior fellow and deputy director of the South Asia Program at the Stimson Center.

"They also recognize that a Taliban government would give Pakistan significant influence in Kabul to India's detriment," she told CNBC.

India appears to have adopted a wait-and-see approach for now. If an attack against Indian targets were to originate from Afghanistan, New Delhi would almost "certainly point the finger of blame at Islamabad," explained Threlkeld, who was previously a foreign service officer with the U.S. State Department in Pakistan.

"The result [will] be an India-Pakistan crisis with dangerous escalatory potential," she said, adding it will likely be easier for Pakistan and China to seek deals with the Taliban to ensure their security.

While India has reportedly made efforts to engage with the Taliban, experts say it will be harder for New Delhi to secure similar deals to those with Pakistan and China. India's political willingness to do so would also be less, they added.

If renewed instability in Afghanistan spreads to Pakistan, India may also be compelled to shore up its defenses along the western border that may limit New Delhi's attention and resources to respond to Beijing's military pressure, according to Eurasia Group.

Threlkeld pointed out that although neighboring countries are wise to be concerned, it is still "too soon to say how significant the terrorist threat from a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan will be."

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Three ways the victory of the Taliban might reverberate around the world - CNBC

This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated.

Kate Linebaugh: A quick note before we start. Today's episode contains descriptions of sex work, and might not be appropriate for all listeners.The pandemic changed a lot of people's jobs, including Ayla's. for the past 10 years, Ayla's made her living as a sex worker. How do you define sex?

Ayla: So a lot of people use sex work to refer to anybody who creates any sort of sexual content to sell. So, this includes prostitution, this includes pornography. Also live camming, stuff like that. Selling nudes.

Kate Linebaugh: In March 2020, Ayla was working as an escort.

Ayla: So you can't exactly have a social distancing when you're an escort. So I was laying off the escorting work a bit, and around that time OnlyFans was starting to pick up.

Kate Linebaugh: OnlyFans. A social media site best known for adult content. Creators can post nude photos, videos, and other explicit material, and charge followers a monthly subscription. For Ayla, it was a chance to work from home. So she set up shop on the site and started posting.Can you describe one of your favorite videos? Something that would be okay to air on this family podcast?

Ayla: So one of the things I'm most proud of is I'm a pretty good mine. So I do a mime routine where I, it's hard to describe, but I place a jacket on one of my arms to make it look like the arm belongs to somebody else, and then we can get a little freaky. But it creates this really striking visual illusion that there's somebody else there through the jacket, which I really enjoy doing, and people respond very well to it.

Kate Linebaugh: People responded really well to a lot of Ayla's videos. She's become one of OnlyFans' top creators. When she's working regularly, she told us she can pull in a $100,000 a month. That's a lot.

Ayla: Yeah, it's a huge amount of money. It's really spectacular.

Kate Linebaugh: But last week, OnlyFans made an announcement that could threaten Ayla's business, and the future of the platform itself. OnlyFans, a website built on sex, said it was banning sexually explicit content.Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Kate Linebaugh. It's Tuesday, August 24th.Coming up on the show, why OnlyFans is banning its most popular product, and what it could mean for the site and its creators.Our colleague, Georgia Wells covers social media, including OnlyFans. What is OnlyFans?

Georgia Wells: OnlyFans is a subscription only social media site, with a twist. It allows adult entertainment. It's basically the X-rated Patreon, or the X-rated Substack.

Kate Linebaugh: How did this site begin? What's its origin story and where did it come from?

Georgia Wells: So, British entrepreneur, Tim Stokely, in 2016, he creates OnlyFans. And from the beginning, he had the idea that the adult entertainment market was underserved. So he starts reaching out to adult entertainers, individually.

Kate Linebaugh: Stokely would email these adult entertainers and ask them to come over to his new platform and bring their fans. He said he'd make it worth their while.

Georgia Wells: His pitch was, "On my platform, you can make 80% of the revenue that users pay." I've heard of other social media companies in the past brute forcing signups, but this is the most specific and direct I've ever heard of.

Kate Linebaugh: And do you have a sense of how popular OnlyFans was among creators?

Georgia Wells: OnlyFans is huge among creators because it transformed, for many of them, their businesses. It's given them control over their content, over their career, in a way many of them didn't have control when they were working for porn studios. Or if there were sex workers, on the streets.

Kate Linebaugh: And OnlyFans' 80% cut for creators, a level that was unheard of in the adult entertainment industry, was a big draw, including for Ayla.

Ayla: It's the greatest cut I've seen on any sex work website. Any successful one, at least. Before OnlyFans, the industry standard was taking 50% or more. The very first website I started working for took 80%.

Kate Linebaugh: Over the past decade, Ayla says she's worked on several online platforms, and she's thought a lot about what makes each economic model pay off for workers like her. Take for example, Ayla's first foray into sex work, when she worked as a cam girl.What is a cam girl?

Ayla: A cam girl is similar to OnlyFans, but you provide a live stream. This live stream, it can vary on how accessible it is, but typically anybody can see it for free. Typically, the girl makes most of her money by accepting tips from people who are sending her money, live.

Kate Linebaugh: Ayla says she made good money camming, up to $10,000 a month. Though, it varied a lot. But camming had downsides. First, the camming platform took a hefty cut. Also, camming was labor-intensive. If Ayla wasn't live streaming, she wasn't making any money. And often, she says, her income dependent on a small number of high tippers, which she says has a lot to do with how camming works.

Ayla: When men tip you, they're not just trying to make you happy. They're also trying to demonstrate their high status in the eyes of other men. This is why very successful cam girls tend to use very masculine, competitive language like, "Oh, you're my king. You're my hero. Wow, you just beat everybody here." This language that's designed to foster this environment of competition between the viewers. That is what webcamming feeds off of, is the status play, which ends up resulting in the vast majority of your tips coming from the small percentage of men who can afford it. I think 80-90% of my income came from two to three people throughout the duration of my cam career.

Kate Linebaugh: Wow.

Ayla: This is very extreme, and it can be very stressful because your rent can depend on making like one or two people happy.

Kate Linebaugh: OnlyFans solved a lot of those problems. Because Ayla didn't have to stream performances live, her OnlyFans content was less labor-intensive and could stay posted on the site for longer. And because OnlyFans is based on subscriptions, she could earn money from a wider audience.

Ayla: On OnlyFans, my top tippers, my richest top five tippers, probably make maybe 1% of my income. The difference in distribution is extremely stark.

Kate Linebaugh: You've talked about your work camming and your work as an escort. Did your work on OnlyFans feel more empowering, or how was it different from the others?

Ayla: It's so much better than camming. It's so much. It's more relaxing. You have more freedom, you get more money. You are less beholden to the three people who pay you the most and maybe they're angry at you one day and you have to text them frantically to make them not mad. There's a lot more emotional abuse that goes on in the camming livestream worlds because of just the way that the payments are structured. In OnlyFans, you're totally free of that. I'm free to tell even my high tippers, to be like, "... off" if I don't like this. I don't have to tout to their whims, and it just really distributes my income of much wider range of people, so that I'm much more flexible.

Kate Linebaugh: When you got this very successful business going on OnlyFans, what did it feel like?

Ayla: Absolutely fantastic. It was life-changing. Before that, I had been slowly growing a retirement account, but really worried because with sex work, you have an expiration date. A very slow, sad expiration date. And that was really stressful for me because it's like, I've committed my whole life to doing sex work and it's not like I have clear job options otherwise. I'm sure I could make something work, but it's still this strong not knowing.But with OnlyFans, I started finally making enough money that I realized, "Hey, I could probably retire in a few years if I kept this up." And that was a huge relief. I stopped worrying about my expiration date quite so much because I figured I probably could make it before I started showing visible signs of aging. I was really thrilled that it allowed me to move into a larger house. It allowed me to build up my savings quite a bit, to help my sister, for example. It was really wonderful.

Kate Linebaugh: Ayla had started on OnlyFans at just the right time. In the past year and a half, the platform's experienced massive growth. Here's Georgia again.

Ayla: OnlyFans was bobbing along, and during the pandemic, it caught fire. Everyone is stuck at home with nothing to do. They turn to their devices for entertainment.

Kate Linebaugh: OnlyFans also got a boost from some key celebrities. Last summer, Cardi B announced she'd be sharing non-explicit behind the scenes footage from a music video exclusively on OnlyFans. And Beyonc name-dropped OnlyFans in the remix of the hit song, "Savage".

Beyonc: (singing).

Kate Linebaugh: OnlyFans has ballooned to 130 million users, and 2 million creators.

Georgia Wells: OnlyFans was riding this hockey stick of growth, and they've suddenly become a household name. I don't think we've ever seen an adult entertainment platform brand ever become a household name so quickly like that.

Kate Linebaugh: And then last week, OnlyFans made an announcement that could threaten all of that. Why the company did it? That's after the break.So, tell us what happened last week. What was the news?

Georgia Wells: Last week, OnlyFans announced it was banning sex.

Speaker 4: And OnlyFans getting out of the pornography business.

Georgia Wells: It said it would allow nudity, but sexually explicit content would be verboten.

Speaker 4: The company will prohibit sexually explicit conduct on its website.

Kate Linebaugh: Was this surprising?

Georgia Wells: Yeah, it's a company saying they're going to ban the thing they're known for. I'm struggling to come up with an analogy here, but it's...

Kate Linebaugh: It's like Burger King banning the burger.

Georgia Wells: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Kate Linebaugh: Okay. So what has the company said about why it is making this move?

Georgia Wells: OnlyFans has said that it's doing it because of pressure from banking partners and payment processors.

Kate Linebaugh: Payment processors. These firms facilitate the flow of money into and out of businesses. Whenever you buy something online or an online business pays a vendor, payment processors are involved.Why wouldn't a payment processor want to work with an adult business? Is it legal or is it moral?

Georgia Wells: There are two reasons. Payment processors, many don't want to handle content that can be, culturally, a hot potato. So many payments processors don't want contact with drugs, sex. But there's also legal issues around child exploitation that can happen on them sites.

Kate Linebaugh: And in recent months, reporting from the BBC has raised questions about how OnlyFans polices child pornography.

Georgia Wells: Last week, before OnlyFans said they were banning sex, the BBC released a report that OnlyFans has a strike system in which creators will get reprimanded before OnlyFans shuts down their account, demonstrating a degree of tolerance for certain legal content, including child exploitation. After that report, OnlyFans says, "Okay, you know what, no more sex."

Kate Linebaugh: When we reached out to OnlyFans for comment, the company referred us to an interview Stokely gave to The Financial Times. In that interview, Stokely blamed OnlyFans' banks for imposing obstacles that made it hard for the site to pay creators. Last week, OnlyFans also released its first ever transparency report. It said in July, the company had deactivated 15 accounts after finding images of child exploitation.Do you have any sense of why the payment processors acted now?

Georgia Wells: No, I do not know. But according to people familiar with the payments processors, it's their investors are the ones who were saying, "We want out of this business." There's a challenge around child exploitation and how seriously OnlyFans takes that challenge. And I think it's safe to assume that unless the investors or the payment processors are convinced that OnlyFans takes that risk very seriously, their motivation to not want to do business with OnlyFans checks out.

Kate Linebaugh: OnlyFans' ban on sexually explicit content will take effect October 1st, which means Ayla is thinking about her options.

Ayla: I'm stressed in maybe a different way than you might expect. In some way, I don't feel worried, because sex work will always continue. I still have in person work to return to. The problem is that I don't know how much this problem will follow us. OnlyFans solved a lot of problems for sex workers, but now it's subject to issues working with payment processors. And I'm like, "Okay, so if we move to a different platform and then that gets big, they're subject to the same exact problems with these payment processors." The issue is much deeper and much more systemic than OnlyFans. And so that's the thing that really stresses me out.

Kate Linebaugh: What could OnlyFans move mean for you and your business?

Ayla: I anticipate I'm going to make a lot less money now. I anticipate everybody who is working on OnlyFans who was relying at all on explicit content is going to see their income drop. I think even people who aren't relying on explicit content are going to see their income job because total traffic to OnlyFans is going to drop. And I'm not looking forward to that. I'm going to have to look at alternatives. I'm likely going to get back into in-person sex work after this. And I'm going to focus much more on distributing my platforms and my income, and not relying so wholly on one website.

Kate Linebaugh: Over the weekend, OnlyFans tweeted a message to sex workers, saying, "The OnlyFans community would not be what it is today without you." "We are working around the clock to come up with solutions."So Georgia, what do you see as the wider significance of this moment?

Georgia Wells: OnlyFans became mainstream in a way other adult sites haven't before, and it also pushed up against the limits of how our financial system works. And so, we're approaching this moment where we're going to get to see if it's possible for a site like OnlyFans to exist in the way that it has. So, I really want to see what happens there.

Kate Linebaugh: That's all for today, Tuesday, August 24th. The Journal is a co-production of Gimlet and The Wall Street Journal. If you like our show, follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We're out every weekday afternoon. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.

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Why OnlyFans Banned Sexual Content - The Journal. - WSJ Podcasts - The Wall Street Journal

Nine Entertainment has surged back into profit after last years coronavirus slump and is expecting an increase in revenue next year as deals with Google and Facebook kick in.

But the result disappointed the market, with shares falling 7.7% on Wednesday morning after Nine failed to hit profit expectations.

The company declared a profit after tax of $184m for the 12 months to the end of June, compared with a loss of $574m in the previous year.

This compares with market forecasts of about $260m, based on CommSec data.

Earnings from TV and streaming service Stan, which benefited from Covid lockdowns, drove the turnaround.

Revenue at Nines news mastheads, which includes the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age, fell as print circulation and advertising continued their long-term decline, but the fall was more than offset by increasing digital subscriptions and $35m in costs the company ripped out of the division.

The company also did well out of its 60% stake in real estate advertising group Domain, which delivered good results as the Australian obsession with home buying persisted despite the pandemic.

However, radio, which includes rightwing Sydney station 2GB, was a black spot. Brands such as 2GB are now worthless after the company slashed $62m from the value of its the business to $129m and said its only radio assets were its broadcast licences.

Radio earnings fell from $9.8m to just $8.4m after revenue fell due to the sale of two businesses within the division and a lower share of the ad market.

The company also endured a cyberattack during the year that left staff scrambling to get bulletins to air and newspapers to bed after key systems were locked up.

No sensitive data was compromised in relation to this attempted breach and the financial impact on the business was not material, the company said in its annual report.

Former chief executive Hugh Marks, who left Nine in March after controversy over his personal life, was rewarded with a package worth $7.9m. About $4m of that will be paid this year, including a termination benefit of $2.9m.

This compares with the $2.3m package he received the previous year, which was his last full year as CEO.

Mike Sneesby, who replaced Marks as CEO, painted a rosy picture of the future.

We will continue to focus on expanding our ownership and control of content, doubling the volume of Stan originals in FY22, combined with continued growth in live streaming, and Stan Sport, he said.

In publishing, further growth in reader revenue and more particularly digital subscription and licensing revenue is key.

This will be achieved by focusing on the content that resonates most strongly with our current and potential subscriber base as well as ensuring an optimal consumer experience through continued enhancement and features available in our apps.

The company is expecting strong growth in the short term in revenue at its mastheads as a result of the Google and Facebook deals, it said in its annual report.

However, Sneesby said revenue from the deals, which were obtained after the government threatened the tech giants with an enforceable code, would not be booked until next year.

He thanked staff for their efforts in recent weeks during the ongoing lockdowns in Sydney and Melbourne.

Time and again, you have all found ways around these challenges and ensured we meet the needs of our of readers, listeners and viewers every day, he said in an all-staff email.

Originally posted here:
Nine surges back with $184m profit on back of TV and Stan earnings - The Guardian