text: Liberal Party leadership contender Justin Trudeau has come out in favour of the proposed takeover of Nexen by Chinese state-owned oil company CNOOC.
  In an editorial that appeared at some Postmedia newspapers Tuesday, Trudeau cast the controversial deal as a way to help Canada’s middle class by building new trade relationships for the 21st century.
  “Canada’s economic prospects have always been tied to trade,” he wrote. “We are a small market that must export and attract investment to create jobs and growth, and import to keep costs down and provide choice for middle-class families.”
  Trudeau’s endorsement came amid a Bloomberg news service report that CNOOC has accepted a number of conditions Canada has set out for approval of the $15.1-billion takeover deal.
  According to Bloomberg, the Chinese oil company has accepted demands laid out by Canadian negotiators that at least 50 per cent of the positions on Nexen’s management board be held by Canadians.
  In his editorial, Trudeau argued that the deal is important for the opportunities it creates for Canadian exporters in China.
  “Chinese and other foreign investors will create middle-class Canadian jobs. Foreign investment raises productivity, and hence the living standards of Canadian families. More fundamentally, it is in Canada’s interest to broaden and deepen our relationship with the world’s second-largest economy,” he wrote.
  The proposed takeover of Nexen has proven controversial, with a majority of Canadians saying in polls they oppose selling Canadian natural resource assets to state-owned foreign companies.
  CSIS, Canada’s intelligence agency, has raised concerns about state-owned companies in the oil patch, as have members of the U.S. Congress, who point out that CNOOC is involved in a major offshore natural gas project in Iran and has referred to its assets as a “strategic weapon."
  CNOOC is able to invest in the Iranian gas field because China is among 10 countries that have received a waiver exempting them from strict sanctions imposed on Iran.
  “In certain sectors, national security concerns will be real. However, in the CNOOC case, Chinese ownership of three per cent of oilsands leases hardly constitutes a national security issue,” Trudeau wrote.
  Trudeau also indicated in the editorial that he doesn’t support the construction of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta to the British Columbia coast.
  Because political leaders haven’t put forward a coherent vision for Canada’s energy sector, “it is ... as difficult to reject bad ideas like the Northern Gateway as it is to approve good opportunities like the CNOOC and Petronas deals,” Trudeau wrote.
  The federal government has delayed its decision on the CNOOC-Nexen takeover to early next month. The recent rejection of Malaysian state-owned oil company Petronas’ bid for Progress Energy has made some observers concerned that Canada is taking a protectionist attitude towards foreign investment in the energy industry.
  But recent comments from Harper government politicians about the takeover have been positive, suggesting the government may be leaning towards approving the deal.
  The NDP has come out against the takeover, saying that it can't support the deal because of the secretive way the Harper government is overseeing it.
  Prince Harry is officially a married man but there is light at the end of the tunnel — namely, in the form of the royal's hot cousins.
  Although all eyes were on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex during their royal wedding on Saturday, 24-year-old Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp, and his sister, Kitty Spencer, turned heads when they arrived at St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle.
  Eliza Spencer, Louis Spencer, Victoria Aitken and Kitty Spencer arrive for the wedding ceremony of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle on May 19.
  Not only did Spencer look dashing in his morning coat, but he even kind of looks like his royal cousin, full beard and all.
  Lady Eliza Spencer & Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp attend the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
  Spencer, who arrived at the wedding with his mother, Victoria Aitken, and sisters Lady Eliza and Lady Kitty Spencer, is the son of Charles, Earl Spencer, who's Princess Diana's younger brother.
  According to Cosmopolitan, the young aristocrat will one day inherit his dad's title and will reside at the Spencer family's ancestral home, Althorp, which is where the late Princess of Wales grew up and is also her final resting place.
  In March 2015, the rapper posted an Instagram photo of her getting cozy with Spencer, captioning the pic, "Check out our wedding photo."
  However, since Spencer seems to keep a low profile (he has no public Instagram or Twitter pages), we don't know whether he's currently dating anyone, and that has some people feeling, well, excited.
  @ Meghan Markle's friend who set her up with Prince Harry, can you please set me up on a blind date with his cousin thanks pic.twitter.com/YZMcM7AU2L
  On another note, I'm trying to have my own royal wedding with Prince Harry's cousin pic.twitter.com/ZBPoJvqHD2
  Kitty, in fact, is more used to the spotlight than her brother. The 27-year-old model, who is Princess Diana's niece, has walked the runway for Dolce & Gabbana, appeared on the cover of Tatler magazine twice, and, according to Fashion magazine, is known as a "regular on the British social scene."
  Lady Kitty Spencer, mother Victoria Aitken and brother Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp, attend Tatler's English Roses 2017 in June, 2017.
  Is It Naïve to Think That an Individual Can Launch a Global Mental Health Campaign? Well You Can Certainly Try | HuffPost UK
  Is It Naïve to Think That an Individual Can Launch a Global Mental Health Campaign? Well You Can Certainly Try
  Tomorrow I am giving a talk at the Malaysian Mental Health Association (MMHA). Dr Ang, the Secretary General, has already published an article of mine in their bulletin and featured my work in a book they are publishing which chronicles the stories of the mentally ill patients they work with. On 6th &7th October I've been invited to speak at the World Federation for Mental Health at the 2nd Asia Pacific Conference in Singapore. On 30th April I am giving another talk and meeting with the Director of MMHA to discuss how I can work with them to promote greater mental health awareness. Next Monday I am giving an interview for Female magazine here in Kuala Lumpur about mental health. Dr Ang told me candidly that very few people feel able to talk openly about mental health in Malaysia, well it took me years to come out about my own issues, now I have no choice but to be honest.
  Detail from Forest of Minds, the first scroll I created with mentally ill patients at TrActor, in partnership with KAOS, Brussels (30-foot scroll, mixed media, 2013). I am proposing to do a similar project with mentally ill patients attending MMHA in Kuala Lumpur.
  Talking openly is the only way forward to encourage others to speak without fear about their mental health. But is it possible for an individual to launch a global mental health campaign? Well I can only try - this is how passionately I feel about the cause.
  It is important to give people hope, to remember that I am an artist, writer and a mother of two young children as well as being diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. I don't want to be defined by a mental health label. Hearing my story might make people see that it is possible, albeit difficult, to manage the condition, work and be a mother.
  Perhaps the hardest thing of all is trying to be normal and fit in, well everyone does have to wear a mask, but for someone with a mental health condition it is essential - if you want to integrate within society and not be ostracised.
  The stigma related to mental health in the UK and Brussels, which is where I mainly work, is endemic, but in Asia it is far worse. According to statistics 12 percent of the population in Malaysia has a mental health issue, in Indonesia the practice of chaining the mentally ill is pervasive. The mentally ill are perceived as weak, as failures and as a burden on society.
  For some mentally ill patients perhaps it is the case that they might be on long term medication for the rest of their lives and almost totally debilitated by their condition, but they are still human beings and deserve care, compassion and stimulation.
  Then there are those mentally ill women who are pregnant, I am desperate to try and help them, to pass on the knowledge that I have acquired about my own maternal mental health problems and of course it is vital that we protect future generations. Mental illness is a rising problem for our young, perhaps due to the pressures of social media we have never seen a time where there have been so many cases of depression, self-harm and eating disorders, to name a few of the conditions afflicting young people.
  This is why I am now campaigning for greater global awareness and understanding regarding mental health. It is a global epidemic and we cannot rely on mental health care practitioners to come up with all the solutions; we have to work together to spread some light, to somehow cut through the sea of darkness that many of us find ourselves drowning in. If there is a crisis in mental health in Europe, this is certainly the case in Asia, so we all have to do our bit to instigate change. If local Malaysians are too afraid to speak openly about mental health, I am happy to take on that role. There is no shame in it, I didn't ask to have psychosis or postpartum psychosis and no one should be vilified for being afflicted with such mental ailments.
  Altruism is one way of healing and making sense of what has happened to me, this is how I rationalise it all, perhaps I have been faced with these mental health challenges in order to help and educate others.
  This is why I wrote my book Schizophrenics Can Be Good Mothers Too, written under the pseudonym Q.S.Lam (Muswell Hill Press, 2015), this is why I conceive art projects with mentally unwell patients, because I believe art and using your hands have a palliative impact on the mind. It is possible to seize the darkness that inhabits us and transform it into something amazing. This is why I write poems, which pour out of me fully formed, to make sense of the injustice that I see thrust upon the mentally ill. This is why I am here in Asia to take my campaign beyond the parameters of the UK and Belgium to the rest of the world. And I have already presented my book in Burma and Bangladesh via the British Council.
  Reading excerpts from my book and showing examples of my work demonstrate how the power of creativity can be used to fortify the mind against all that is hurled at it on a daily basis. Mine is a lifelong battle that I will never win, but I accept the fight and I never stop fighting for that splinter of light to guide me out of the dark prison that my mind often becomes. My main motivation for fighting are my children, I want to protect them from the 'mad' gene they might have inherited from me, to give them the tools to understand the complexities of their own minds. If, globally, we teach our young mental health skills early on in life maybe they can dodge the bullet.
  The baby hippo who took the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden (and the world) by storm last year turned 1 year old on Wednesday.
  Fiona was the first Nile hippo born at the Cincinnati Zoo in 75 years and arrived on Jan. 24, 2017, weighing just 29 pounds. The average newborn baby hippo weighs 55 to 120 pounds.
  She was due in March, but came barreling into the light of day six weeks early. Because she was barely able to walk and nurse after birth, Fiona was taken care of by a round-the-clock care team, known as “Team Fiona.”
  You may recognize Fiona from the zoo Facebook page’s frequent updates on her life. She’s become a hippo sensation, with a line of merchandise and even her own ice cream flavor. (We live in a weird time!)
  At a year old, Fiona is happy, healthy and gaining more and more weight every day. She’s also the star of The Fiona Show on Facebook Watch. The Season 2 premiere aired Wednesday, featuring Fiona going to town on her birthday “cake,” a delicious-looking watermelon and pineapple display.
  Bibi had no problem helping Fiona out with her cake! Here you can see her taking a big bite out of it! Watch the entire birthday video on the Cincinnati Zoo’s Facebook page. #FionasFirst #TeamFiona 🍰🎉💕 pic.twitter.com/44H63v0Rmj
  In case you didn't know, we're celebrating a birthday! #Fiona turns 1 on Wednesday. Send video or photos you have with America's favorite hippo to https://t.co/VVsCOuZFNQ or add to the gallery here: https://t.co/aeoTcQi1j7
  @FionaHippo Happy Birthday Fiona the Hippo, may your day be full of swims, delicious treats and lots of selfies. pic.twitter.com/6l2FaWLb2M
  Happy Birthday to our favorite sweet Hippo #Fiona !! Tune into @WLWT , I'll have all of the ways you can celebrate Fiona's Birthday! pic.twitter.com/Sg711QJ153
  Broadly even mapped Fiona’s astrological chart for her on this momentous day, after finding out that she was born at 2:58 a.m. at the Cincinnati Zoo.
  “She’s a rebel,” wrote Broadly staff astrologer Annabel Gat in the report. “She’s an Aquarius, which is one of the most free-thinking signs in the zodiac.”
  Christina Gorsuch, the Cincinnati Zoo’s curator of mammals and one of the first people to see and hold Fiona when she was born, told Broadly that the assessment seemed accurate.
  “She has been curious her whole life and her fearlessness is in part the source of her strength and ability to conquer all adversity,” said Gorsuch.