Canada’s Feds Raises Unemployment Benefit, Set to Win Opposition Backing

Wildfires Taint West Coast Vineyards With Taste of Smoke

TURNER, Ore.—Smoke from the West Coast wildfires has tainted grapes in some of the nation’s most celebrated wine regions with an ashy flavor that could spell disaster for the 2020 vintage. Wineries in California, Oregon, and Washington have survived severe wildfires before, but the smoke from this year’s blazes has been especially bad—thick enough to obscure vineyards drooping with clusters of grapes almost ready for harvest. Day after day, some West Coast cities endured some of the worst air quality in the world. No one knows the extent of the smoke damage to the crop, and growers are trying to assess the severity. If tainted grapes are made into wine without steps to minimize the harm or weed out the damaged fruit, the result could be wine so bad that…

OTTAWA—Canada’s government on Thursday boosted a proposed weekly payout for the jobless that would replace emergency COVID-19 income support that ends this weekend, a move that looks set to help the ruling Liberals win a parliamentary confidence vote.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is seeking the support of at least one opposition party on a sweeping agenda to battle COVID-19, help those hurt by it, and foster economic growth.

Two of the three other parties in Parliament signaled they would vote against the plan. But the left-leaning New Democrats, which had demanded the increased payout, indicated they could now well support Trudeau.

“They gave us most of what we asked for,” said George Soule, spokesman for party leader Jagmeet Singh, adding the New Democrats were still negotiating with the government over the party’s demand for paid sick leave.

Canada’s current unemployment rate is 10.2 percent, up sharply from 5.6 percent in February, the last full month before the coronavirus outbreak hit.

Canada’s Feds Raises Unemployment Benefit, Set to Win Opposition Backing

Earlier in the day, Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough formally proposed legislation that would make the new unemployment benefit equal to the emergency income support.

The government had initially said it would offer $400 a week for up to 26 weeks, $100 per week less than the emergency funding that expires this weekend.

The three new aid programs are:

* A Canada Recovery Benefit of $500 a week for up to 26 weeks, to workers who are self-employed or are not eligible for employment insurance

* A Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit of $500 a week for up to two weeks, for workers who are sick or must self-isolate for reasons related to COVID-19

* A Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit of $500 a week for up to 26 weeks per household, for eligible Canadians unable to work because they must care for a young child or family member because schools or day-cares are closed due to COVID-19.

By David Ljunggren and Julie Gordon

Focus News: Canada’s Feds Raises Unemployment Benefit, Set to Win Opposition Backing

DOJ: More Than 300 Charged With Crimes Committed Near or at Protests Since May

More than 300 people have been charged for committing crimes “adjacent to or under the guise of peaceful demonstrations since the end of May,” the Department of Justice announced Thursday. The crimes were committed in 29 states and Washington, authorities said. Assaulting a law enforcement officer, attempted murder, arson, and damaging federal property are among the charges filed. Approximately 80 people have been charged with offenses relating to arson and explosives; 15 have been charged with damaging federal property. Rioters inflicted millions of dollars of damage to city and federal property across the United States in recent months, including the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct, the Nashville City Hall in Tennessee, and the聽Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse, a federal building, in Portland, Oregon. Criminals have also targeted small and big businesses,…