Latest news with #Birchall
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Demand for respirators, sprinklers on the rise in Manitoba as wildfires worsen air quality
As wildfires are ravaging the province, they are also impacting the air Manitobans breathe, and some are looking for ways to protect themselves. Ian Birchall, a sales representative at ABC Fire and Safety Equipment Ltd., which sells fire, safety and first aid products in Winnipeg, says demand for their respirators has increased significantly since the wildfire season began in earnest earlier this month. "We've sold pretty much out of all of our wildland [fire] equipment just due to the nature of the fires that are going on here in Manitoba. It's a very scary situation for our residents in Manitoba," he said. Items like respirators have been in high demand, he said. "Especially with the smoke that is going on in the province when they are in the smoke-filled areas like Lac du Bonnet or up north in Lynn Lake, they are using that quite a bit right now," says Birchall showing a range of masks in his shop. Birchall says people are not just worried about their health, but also their property, leading to increased demand for fire suppression equipment, sprinkler kits and hoses. "We have been seeing a lot of cabin owners coming and purchasing the Wildfire Protection Kit, which is otherwise usually used by fire departments," he said. That kit is a sprinkler system, with equipment that can be mounted on a cabin's gable and eavestrough, to provide "360 degrees of protection around your property," he said. "Usually every year the residents will stock up on PPE [personal protective equipment] for wildland fires for protection," said Birchall. "This year has obviously been an exception because it's been very dry in the province. So we have noticed a significant increase in our sales with this equipment." Birchall says he's been getting a lot of inquiries from cabin owners from the Bird River area, where a still out-of-control wildfire now covers more than 124,000 hectares, according to the province's latest fire report. The fire near Lac du Bonnet, meanwhile, is now considered under control. That fire became deadly earlier this month, taking the lives of a couple who reportedly got trapped at a family home. Smoke from wildfires is causing poor air quality and reduced visibility in parts of Manitoba, prompting air quality alerts from Environment and Climate Change Canada. Environment Canada meteorologist Justin Shelley says a lot of the northern portion of the province is under special air quality state statements, while an area in the southeast, from the Ontario border to Lake Winnipeg, is under air quality warnings. Shelly urges people to check the air quality index before heading outdoors. On Tuesday, the index was four in Winnipeg, indicating moderate risk, while it was 10+ in Flin Flon, indicating very high risk. When the air quality is at its worst, people should take precautions and limit outdoor exposure, said Shelly. "Consider reducing or rescheduling any strenuous outdoor activities, especially if you are experiencing symptoms like a cough or dizziness or nausea," he said. "And you also want to monitor those who might be more at risk, so especially maybe elderly people or … younger people." Warm and dry conditions are expected through this week, which will cause smoke to linger, Shelly said. WATCH | Smoke raises health concerns in Manitoba: Health experts also warn wildfire smoke can create health risks in both the short and long term. Christopher Pascoe, an associate professor in the University of Manitoba's physiology and pathophysiology department, says short-term effects may include breathlessness. "So difficulty breathing, catching your breath and you may notice that you cough more, have more mucus. If you're somebody who has lung disease, asthma, COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease], you may find that you need to use your medication more and that it's not as effective." He adds people often report needing to go to the hospital more frequently to deal with conditions like asthma or COPD during periods of poor air quality. The potential long-term effects of poor air quality can include worsening of conditions and lung disease, he said. "That long-term exposure is related to these health complications like asthma, exacerbation of other diseases," said Pascoe. "The biggest pollutant that we worry about at this point is something called particulate matter," he said. "That's the smoke or the ash in the air. And so when you see outside … it's hazy, you kind of want to stay inside, being a well-ventilated space." When it comes to protection, he says for people who have allergies or asthma, or are prone to health risks, "the best thing to do is limit your time outside and wearing a well-fitting N95 mask to limit your exposure."
New York Times
25-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Could Mars Be Elon Musk's Next Business Venture?
Elon Musk is leaving his full-time Washington assignment next month to try to save Tesla (which has seen its stock battered), to keep up with SpaceX (which is positioned to do big business with the Trump administration) and to chart a new course for xAI, which he just combined with X itself. He's a busy guy. So what's another company — or three? Two months ago, even as Musk appeared consumed by his work at yet another job, at the Department of Government Efficiency, his top adviser, Jared Birchall, quietly created an intriguing-sounding set of limited-liability companies in Texas, whose existence has not been previously reported. Their names: Red Planet I, II and III. For the world's richest man, who is pursuing an elaborate, decades-long plan to colonize Mars, this seemed no idle corporate filing. When Musk bought Twitter, after all, he formed three holding companies (X Holdings I, II and III) to execute the transaction. So, is he planning to buy Mars? Birchall hasn't returned my requests for comment since I learned of the LLCs a few weeks ago. But he doesn't typically take actions like this without his boss's direction. He registered them on Feb. 25, listing himself as the manager of each and using an Austin address that other Musk entities have used. Still, it is surprising to see Musk take this step now, when he has so much on his plate and is already facing pressure to do less, not more. On a Tesla earnings call last week, he said he would substantially reduce the amount of time he spent on DOGE to spend more time on the car company, whose quarterly revenue is way down from a year ago. And yet here he goes again, sprawling out even more. Birchall runs Musk's family office, called Excession. To hold that job is to do anything and everything for your demanding client. A Brigham Young University graduate from Modesto, Calif., Birchall has been Musk's all-purpose fixer for a decade now. His remit is as wild as Musk's life: He addresses issues with Musk's romantic partners. He helped Musk master the extraordinarily complicated finances of his acquisition of Twitter. He once even hired a private investigator on Musk's behalf, though he did so under a pseudonym. ('I work in finance. I have a family. This isn't what I do,' he later testified.) And when Musk's pursuits took him to Mar-a-Lago, there was Birchall by his side. My colleagues and I reported in December that Birchall, who had no experience in foreign affairs, was interviewing candidates for jobs at the State Department along with advising the Trump transition team on other matters. The companies that Birchall has set up for Musk include a philanthropy, an early-childhood school and a now-defunct entity called Pravda Corp., which Musk said would rate the accuracy of individual journalists. It later became clear that this was a joke. At least to a degree. But is Red Planet a joke? Some corporate entities, and their names, can be insignificant. A company might be created for a specific real-estate purchase or to be responsible for a specific business operation, and to ensure that any problems there don't bleed into other endeavors owned by the same person or business. But the words 'Red Planet' don't have the ring of insignificance — not for Musk, who wants SpaceX to send humans to the red planet, who declared last month that an unmanned crew would go to Mars by the end of 2026, who suggested that 'human landings' could occur as soon as 2029 and who on Friday reposted (not for the first time) a clip featuring President Trump urging him to 'get those rocket ships going because we want to reach Mars before the end of my term.' Musk has also occasionally referred to Mars by that nickname. 'Technology must advance faster or there will be no city on the red planet in our lifetime,' he wrote in 2020. A fun twist to this mystery is that there is already a company called Red Planet Ventures, and its founder, John Spencer, says he knows Musk. Spencer founded Red Planet Ventures in California in 2001, around the time that Musk moved to Los Angeles. Spencer said he got to know Musk 'really well.' In fact, Spencer said he was part of the group of people who introduced Musk to Gwynne Shotwell, now the C.E.O. of SpaceX. Spencer said he last talked to Musk in 2014, when Musk spoke at a conference he helped chair. Spencer said that he, Musk and the astronaut Buzz Aldrin all spoke in the event's green room for about half an hour. Told of Musk's new LLCs, Spencer, whose Red Planet Ventures involves 'space tourism,' gently suggested that 'there might be issues with name stuff down the line.' 'I don't know what they're planning with their Red Planet,' Spencer said, adding, 'But I'd like to know.' So would I. Email me if you do: Cheerleading the administration's case against judges My colleague Tiffany Hsu, who covers technology and political speech, looks at how Musk has been busy using X to attack judges and fuel the idea of an unconstitutional third Trump term. On Friday, Musk shared a post from Kash Patel, the director of the F.B.I., that praised agents in Milwaukee for arresting Hannah Dugan, a sitting state court judge in Wisconsin, on charges of obstructing immigration agents trying to apprehend an undocumented immigrant in her courtroom. 'More judicial corruption,' Musk captioned one of several posts about the arrest, which constituted a major escalation in the Trump administration's efforts to force his agenda on local authorities. Musk seconded Kari Lake, a Trump loyalist, who reacted to a court order blocking the Defense Department from halting medical care for transgender troops by posting that 'these judges are out of control.' He reposted a comment calling for cuts to 'the federal judiciary's budget and power.' And, after Vice President JD Vance used the word 'lawless' on X to describe district court judges who rejected Trump's wishes, Musk added the post to his own feed. Musk also added his voice to Trump's increasing talk of seeking another four years in office, which the Constitution explicitly prohibits. Musk amplified one post suggesting that 'the real problem' isn't who spends multiple terms in the White House but rather members of Congress who serve for decades on Capitol Hill. And he wrote, 'Think ahead!' above a reposted image of a red hat emblazoned with 'Trump 2032.' Other notable posts: New details on the Musk-Trump relationship Please indulge me as I plug a story I had a hand in. Several of my colleagues and I reported this week several behind-the-scenes details about the forces that led Musk to promise to reduce his time in Washington, including that he told friends he was frustrated by his interactions with Trump's trade advisers; that Trump has sometimes told associates that he wanted to see Musk return to his companies; and that Trump had not been aware of a plan to brief Musk at the Pentagon on sensitive national security matters. How will Musk's cost-cutting initiative fare after Musk leaves? One of his closest friends, Shaun Maguire, likened DOGE to SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, whose initial thrust of energy is enough to achieve escape velocity — overcoming gravity even after it has separated from its engines. 'At this point, a rocket is only a couple hundred kilometers from Earth, but it has escaped its gravity well and can travel far into the solar system,' Maguire told me in an interview. 'DOGE has escaped D.C.'s gravity well.' Read more here.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Elon Musk Tried Desperately to Keep This Information Secret
It's no secret that Musk is anxious about the world's population. In 2022, he made the controversial proclamation that "population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming." That wasn't just one of his many idle thoughts, but a serious mantra to live by. The centi-billionaire now has at least 14 children with at least four different women — Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis, author Justin Wilson, musician Claire "Grimes" Boucher, and right-wing influencer Ashley St. Clair — and those are just the ones we know about. It's all part of his sci-fi addled worldview, where humanity is somehow at risk of extinction unless he can sire an army of kids and waste tens of billions of dollars trying to get to Mars — instead of doing something concretely useful like ending homelessness, an issue he's called "propaganda." In 2024, the world's richest man bought a $35 million compound to house his "legion" — his eyebrow-raising word for his children — and their mothers, so that his kids could "be a part of one another's lives." Musk has likewise explored ways to fill the compound as fast as possible, telling a then-pregnant St. Clair that "to reach legion-level before the apocalypse, we will need to use surrogates." As Musk's profile rises to simply un-ignorable levels thanks to his reckless work dismantling the US government, so too have the billionaire's efforts to keep his growing brood a secret from prying eyes. Unfortunately for Musk — or, more accurately, his kids — he's just not very good at it. Damning reporting by the Wall Street Journal this week has uncovered the ways Musk tries to keep his harem under wraps. Not surprisingly, it has a lot to do with money, veiled threats, and sinister innuendo intended to silence the many mothers of his children. Working through a personal fixer named Jared Birchall, Musk deploys nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) and payment contracts designed to keep the mothers of his children quiet under threat of legal action. St. Clair, for example, told the WSJ she was offered $15 million on top of $100,000 a month for her silence about Musk's child. Months after their child was born, Musk began ghosting St. Clair, prompting her to file for sole custody of the infant. Musk then immediately retaliated by substantially reducing his child support payment while refusing a paternity test, St. Clair's lawyer told People. Per the WSJ, St. Clair told Birchall "I don't want my son to feel like he's a secret." The fixer's response? That going the "legal route" with Musk "aways, always leads to a worse outcome for that woman than what it would have been otherwise." "Privacy and confidentiality is the top of the list in every aspect of his life," Birchall told St. Clair at the time. Even the women who reject Musk's uncomfortable advances are subject to strict privacy rules. Tiffany Fong, for example, is a cryptocurrency influencer whom Musk privately messaged back in 2024, asking if she was interested in having his kid. Fong, who made hundreds of thousands of dollars posting on Musk-owned X-formerly-Twitter, turned him down, but confided to friends her worry that the rejection would hurt her revenue. Sure enough, once Musk learned she shared details of his babymaking proposal, he lost it. The billionaire scolded her for her "indiscretion," unfollowed her on X, and severely limited her earnings on his app — exactly the vindictive repercussion she'd been worried about. There's a popular rumor swirling that Musk has many more children than is commonly known. If his previous attempts to keep things on the down low are any indication, it's only a matter of time until someone spills the beans on them too. More on Poppa Musk: Elon Musk Is Such a Garbage-Tier Dad That His Kids Find Out About Their New Siblings While Browsing Reddit
BBC News
11-04-2025
- BBC News
Britain's tastiest town: Where Michelin chefs and gingerbread queens reign
Home to three Michelin-starred restaurants and a royal gingerbread legacy, the unassuming Lancashire town of Ormskirk is fast becoming the UK's most delicious destination. When it comes to UK destinations for a gourmet weekend away, there's a new name on the lips of serious foodies. Forget the metropolitan streets of Chelsea, Mayfair or even Edinburgh. Britain's latest gastronomic hotspot is in the rural hinterlands of deepest Lancashire. Holidaymakers journeying to this historic county in north-west England – a key location in the English and Industrial revolutions – would have traditionally been heading for Blackpool, the classic British seaside resort whose best-known epicurean delight is Blackpool Rock, a tooth-shatteringly tough cylindrical stick of boiled sugar and glucose syrup. But, for those with more refined palates – or more delicate dental work – the tastiest rewards are to be found in Ormskirk, a bustling market town that was once a Viking settlement, and in Aughton, the small village next door. It's in this small village where Mark Birchall serves as chef patron of Moor Hall, a produce-driven restaurant within the grounds of a Grade II-listed, 16th-Century manor house. And at this year's Michelin awards, he was the only chef in Britain and Ireland to have been awarded a third Michelin star. As such, he has become one of only 10 chefs in the country (and fewer than 150 in the entire world) to hold the three-star accolade, a designation signalling that, according to the tyre company's inspectors, a restaurant is worth making a dedicated journey for. No stranger to recognition, Moor Hall was voted Best Restaurant in England in the 2023 National Restaurant Awards, and also possesses a green Michelin star for the sustainable cooking practices used to create its 18-course tasting menu. Additionally, Birchall's "neighbourhood restaurant", The Barn (offering more casual dining at a lower price point), is a mere 30 second stroll around the lake from Moor Hall and possesses a Michelin star of its very own too. As if that weren't enough, less than 10 minutes' walk away is Chef Tim Allen's restaurant sō-lō which has a Michelin star as well, bringing the total to a rather stellar six in the space of less than half a mile. So what makes the food so special in this part of Lancashire, I ask Birchall as he forages for micro herbs and other ingredients on Moor Hall's six-acre country estate, dotted with secluded luxury garden rooms where diners can stay. "Aughton and Ormskirk have a deep-rooted connection to the land, and that plays a massive part in why the food here is so special," he tells me. "The landscape, the soil, the weather – it all contributes to the quality of the produce. We're lucky to have incredibly fertile, well-draining soil, which means the fruit and vegetables – particularly leafy greens, brassicas and root veg – even the grass that feeds the livestock, are all packed with flavour." Indeed, the West Lancashire coastal plain between Preston and Southport is often referred to as "the salad bowl of England". According to the National Farmers Union, England's north-west region accounts for 15% of the country's food production, leading them to call it "Britain's farming powerhouse". "The climate, too, plays its role," Birchall continues. "We get just the right balance – enough rain to keep things abundant, but not so much that it drowns the land. That allows for a longer growing season, and when you combine that with generations of skilled farmers who understand how to work with the land, you get outstanding ingredients. It's that connection between produce and place that really sets the region apart." Allen agrees with Birchall, with whom he consulted before opening sō-lō. He has seen an influx of foodies not just from London (which is a little more than two hours away by train) but from right across the globe. "We get people coming from America, Mexico, Norway, Finland, even Singapore," Allen tells me. "But also, because we're located midway between Liverpool and Manchester – whose football teams (Everton, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United) are massive – you get a lot of people travelling for the football. And many of them, it turns out, quite like eating Michelin-starred food." Perhaps unsurprisingly, these discerning fans eschew the plastic platefuls of pie and chips usually consumed on the terraces to partake of Allen's altogether more elevated offerings; dishes made with ingredients such as Louet Fessier oyster emulsion, Oscietra caviar and salt-baked celeriac (which he employs somebody to grow purely for sō-lō's seven-course tasting menu). But this part of Lancashire offers more than the ultra-modern cordon bleu cuisine of Moor Hall and sō-lō; travellers in search of the area's deepest culinary roots may find them at the famous Omskirk Market. Held on Thursdays and Saturdays, it is one of the country's oldest (King Edward I granted it a Royal Charter in 1286) and is where you can sample the town's original claim to culinary fame: gingerbread. As far back as 1732, recipes for the spicy baked treat were being passed down through generations of Ormskirkers. Sellers – almost exclusively women identified by their white shawls and aprons – would tout fresh gingerbread to passengers on the stagecoaches that stopped at the inns along Aughton Street on their way from Liverpool to Preston. When Ormskirk railway station opened in 1849, the women switched to targeting train passengers. More like this:• The English wine that's rivalling Champagne• Is the future of French cheese at stake?• The surprising 'lesbian capital of the UK' "They would make their way along the platform, loudly knocking on all the carriage windows crying out 'Gingerbread! Who will buy my freshly baked gingerbread?'," explains Kathryn MacDonald of the Ormskirk and District Family History Society. "There were so many of them and they were such persuasive sellers that Ormskirk's gingerbread women became well known around the region. So when, in 1885, the Prince of Wales alighted here – he was going to a shooting party at nearby Lathom House – there was a welcome reception put on for him at the station and three of the gingerbread women were allowed to present the Prince with a gift of Ormskirk gingerbread. A few years later, when he became king (Edward VII), he'd stop the royal train at Ormskirk on his way up to Balmoral, and stock up with supplies for himself and the royal family. So, he obviously must have really liked our gingerbread!" The white-aproned women no longer ply their wares at the station, but one baker of Ormskirk gingerbread can still be found today in the town. Mr Thompson's Bakery is a family business run by Neil Thompson, his wife Janet and daughter Lilli who bake the treats in a converted shed in their back garden. "Back in 2010, we revived an ancient Ormskirk gingerbread recipe but made some tweaks, such as using less salt, to suit modern tastes," says Lilli, who mans their stall each week at Ormskirk's famous food market. The Thompsons' bakery, which has appeared in an episode of BBC TV's The Hairy Bikers Go West, is also carrying on the town's tradition of reeling in royalty with its legendary gingerbread. Janet reveals how she and Lilli were given the honour, when Princess Anne visited Ormskirk in 2022 to open a new facility at Edge Hill University, of including some of their gingerbread in a welcome hamper. "Has she come back since to stock up with supplies, like her great-grandfather Edward VII did?" I ask. "Not as far I know," she laughs, "but I'd like to think there's a secret stash of Ormskirk gingerbread somewhere in one of the larders of Buckingham Palace!" Each year the town hosts Ormskirk Gingerbread Festival which, this year, is scheduled to take place on 13 July. The family-friendly event allows locals and visitors to learn more about the town's culinary heritage, and some women dress up in white shawls and aprons to honour Ormskirk's most famous gingerbread hawkers. It's also an opportunity to celebrate this unassuming pocket of Lancashire that has quietly become a food lover's destination in its own right – no small achievement in a country where most culinary trends tend to point south. Whether you come for the royal gingerbread, the six Michelin stars or the rich farming roots that nourish it all, Ormskirk delivers the goods… and they're anything but half-baked. -- For more Travel stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Yahoo
Woman jailed 27 years for murdering elderly man
A woman who bashed her de facto father-in-law and left him for dead has been jailed for 27 years. Danielle Birchall, 49, closed her eyes as Victorian Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale handed down her sentence on Friday morning. Birchall sneaked into Kon Kritikos' Coburg home on November 11, 2020, and beat the 87-year-old with a weapon before leaving him for dead. She told a series of lies to cover up the murder and returned to Mr Kritikos' home with her partner, his son George Kritikos, later that evening. The couple found Mr Kritikos on the floor, surrounded by blood, moaning but still semi-conscious. George asked his father "who did it?" to which he replied "afti, afti, afti" in Greek, meaning "she did it". Mr Kritikos was taken to hospital but died two weeks later from his injuries. Birchall pleaded not guilty to Mr Kritikos' murder but a jury found her guilty of the crime in November 2024. Justice Beale described the killing as vicious as he sentenced Birchall to 27 years behind bars. She will be eligible for parole after 20 years.
