A record pile of yuan in Hong Kong is making its way to corporate loans while driving a surge in capital market activity, signaling that China’s drive to internationalize its currency is advancing

At least two people were killed and another 11 injured in a US strike on the Shalamcheh border crossing between Iran and Iraq, the Islamic Republic’s state broadcaster reported, citing local authorities.

The checkpoint continues to operate, with assistance being provided to the injured on-site, according to the authorities.

A new threat by Yemen's #Houthis could widen the Iran war and put another trade chokepoint at risk

President Donald #Trump’s super political action committee is sitting on $401 million in cash, more than any other super PAC, but has spent just $2.3 million — 0.6% of that total — to help Republicans win elections.

#Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is adding $100 billion to its investments in Arizona to meet strong demand from US customers and to ward off ambitious rivals, a senior executive said this week

#Spain won its second World Cup title, defeating Lionel Messi’s Argentina 1-0 thanks to substitute Ferran Torres’ goal in extra time.

#US Central Command said the #strikes were aimed at degrading Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping and to “swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps" after attacks against #US troops

New research aims to protect honeybees and strengthen Canadian #agriculture. Honeybees are best known for producing honey, but their most important contribution is the role they play in pollinating #Canada’s food crops.

However, the western honeybee (Apis mellifera) faces growing threats from disease, parasites and environmental stressors driven by a changing climate.

To address these growing issues, Dr. Nuria Morfin of the University of Manitoba is researching how microbes, parasites and environmental conditions combine to impact the health of honeybees.

“Honeybees are very important and contribute billions of Canadian dollars to the economy through the pollination of crops and also providing jobs and other sources of revenue,” said Morfin, an assistant professor of entomology in the faculty of agricultural and food sciences.

One of the greatest threats to these honeybee colonies is the parasitic mite Varroa destructor. The mite weakens bees’ immune systems by feeding on them, leaving colonies more vulnerable to viral infections such as deformed wing virus.

While the effects of the mite are well documented, researchers like Morfin are still working to understand how the mite interacts with different bacteria and viruses that affect honeybee colonies.

“We’re working to understand how these stressors interact and affect bees, and at the end, we want to propose solutions to the beekeeping industry so they can have more productive and healthier bees,” she said.

“We are also testing, for example, new treatments against Varroa mites, but also other diseases like European foulbrood and American foulbrood,” she said.

Morfin’s research at the University of Manitoba’s UM Honey Bee Lab uses the pathobiome approach — a research framework that recognizes diseases rarely have a single cause.

The team is investigating how Varroa destructor, microorganisms and environmental stressors work together to weaken honeybee immunity and trigger disease.

The research will also explore how changing environmental conditions, including temperature fluctuations and humidity, influence bee health and their ability to resist infection.

“We believe these will not stop, and we want to be prepared, understand more and provide more tools to the beekeeping industry,” she said.

“Apart from that, from a scientific point of view, honeybees are a very interesting model organism to understand diseases, behaviour and behavioural immune responses, so they are an amazing way of conducting basic research as well,” she said.

Morfin was awarded a new Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) discovery grant to conduct these studies, which she estimates will take around five years.

Master’s student Danika Strelaeff says it’s important to understand all the different factors that impact honeybees to protect them for the future

“Honeybees are the pollinators that we rely on for large agricultural practices, so if we can keep them safe, then we can keep our agriculture safe,” she said. “I think it’s especially important that we take these diseases with high importance and we look for new, innovative solutions.”

Charu Sharma, a technician in apicultural research with the University of Manitoba, says honeybees don’t just have an impact across Canada, but globally.

“They are found in all the continents except Antarctica; it’s too cold for them,” she said.

“Honeybees are very important organisms in many ways, and the thing that I like about this is that they are part of research, they are part of industry, and food production.”
Beekeeping industry feeling the effects

For Manitoba beekeepers, managing these diseases remains a major concern.

Paul Gregory, vice-president of the Manitoba Beekeepers’ Association and co-founder of Interlake Honey Producers in Fisher Branch, about 150 kilometres north of Winnipeg, says it’s been tough to manage all the stressors bees are facing.

“Last year, we lost almost half the bees, and the bees that did come through were weaker,” said Gregory. “We’ll eventually get back to our numbers of 1,200 colonies, but it’s a lot of work and a lot of cost, and it’s a lot of stress for my son and myself.”

“We had a neighbour, in fact, that lost 90 per cent of his bees, so there’s a lot of stress,” Gregory said.

He says the issues honeybees face have intensified in recent years.

“It’s frustrating because the practices that we used two or three years ago are obviously not working today,” he said. “We’ve got to control the mites, but we have to be careful.”

Air defenses destroyed 375 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions last night, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported.

One civilian was killed and four others suffered injuries in a drone attack on the Yaroslavl Region. Several people were injured in a drone strike on the city of Engels in the Saratov Region, where civilian infrastructure facilities sustained damage.

TASS has gathered the key information about the consequences of the attacks.
Scale of attack

- On-duty air defenses intercepted and destroyed 375 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles over Russian regions between 9:00 p.m. Moscow time on July 15 and 8:00 a.m. Moscow time on July 16 (6:00 p.m. - 5:00 a.m. GMT), the Defense Ministry said.

- According to the ministry, the drones were shot down over the Belgorod, Bryansk, Volgograd, Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Lipetsk, Oryol, Rostov, Ryazan, Saratov, Smolensk, Tver, Tula, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Krasnodar, and Stavropol regions, as well as Crimea, the Sea of Azov, and the Black Sea.
Aftermath

- Several people were injured in a drone strike on the city of Engels in the Saratov Region, Governor Roman Busargin said on the Max social media platform.

- Response teams are working at the site of the attack.

- Civilian infrastructure was damaged in the drone attack on Engels.

- A civilian was killed and four others suffered injuries in a Ukrainian drone attack on the Yaroslavl Region, Governor Mikhail Yevrayev wrote on Max.

- The injured were provided with the necessary medical assistance.

- According to the governor, three men received outpatient care.

- Earlier, Yevrayev said that traffic had been blocked just outside of Yaroslavl on a road leading to Moscow due to a drone strike.

- Three ambulance workers were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on the city of Gorlovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic, city administration head Ivan Prikhodko said on Max.

Extreme weather making insurance more expensive for Canadians, However, Maloney says his insurance company won’t cover any of the damages because he’s had two other flooding claims in the last few years.

“I went upstairs, laid on the bed, and I’m like, ‘OK, what’s the next step?’” Maloney said, describing the moment his insurer informed him the claim would be denied. “It just, it was a gut punch. It hollowed me out.”

With extreme weather becoming a more common occurrence, it’s increasingly more difficult for some to get protection against sudden natural disasters. Maloney’s policy didn’t cover overland flooding or drain backup because of the two recent claims.

“An insurance company might say, ‘We’re not going to offer that coverage anymore, because it makes no sense for an insurance company to pay tens of thousands of dollars every year, or every couple of years, for the same thing,’” said Anne Marie Thomas, director of consumer and industry relations with the Insurance Bureau of #Canada.