In the News

Reacting to U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s brief visit to Taiwan earlier this week, China says it is ending discussions with the U.S. on key issues such as climate change as it ramps up military provocations. The White House summoned China's ambassador, Qin Gang, late August 4 to tell him that the military actions were of “concern to Taiwan, to us and to our partners around the world.”

In the latest effort to address chaos in much of the international air travel market, Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport has extended its passenger cap through October and British Airways has suspended short-haul sales from London Heathrow.

Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Aug. 2 that a major nuclear power station in southeastern Ukraine “is completely out of control” since Russian forces seized it shortly after their invasion of the region. “Every principle of nuclear safety has been violated,” he said, demanding IAEA access to the “extremely grave and dangerous” Zaporizhzhya site in the city of Enerhodar.

The weekend U.S. drone killing of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri in a Kabul “safe house” has resulted in renewed scrutiny of Afghanistan's Taliban rulers and further undermined their efforts to secure international recognition and desperately needed aid. The Taliban promised in 2020 that they would not harbour al Qaeda members.

For the first time since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a shipment of 26,000 tonnes of Ukrainian grain left the Black Sea port of Odesa today under an internationally brokered deal to unblock agricultural exports. Sixteen loaded ships had been blockaded by Russia since February, prompting a UN warning of a looming international hunger catastrophe.

After seizing power again last year, Myanmar’s military rulers today extended their “emergency rule” which, among other things, enables them to detain critics. General Min Aung Hlaing's regime first extended its rule last August, appointing himself prime minister at the same time, and it now will remain in effect until at least next year.

A Saudi-born man who grew up in Toronto has been sentenced in a U.S. federal district court to life in prison after pleading guilty to working with Islamic State terrorists. Mohammed Khalifa, 39, left Canada in 2013 for Syria, where he killed two Syrian soldiers before his capture by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in 2019.

A barrage of hate-filled comments has prompted a pub in Charlottetown to pull photos of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from its social media accounts. After the PM and several Prince Edward Island MPs stopped at the pub last week, social media selfies by the owners, staff and patrons sparked what one of the owners said were vulgar and profanity-laced and occasionally threatening posts.

The roster for an August 3 Conservative Party leadership debate has been reduced to three participants when Toronto MP Leslyn Lewis confirmed July 28 that she would not take part. The perceived frontrunner, Ottawa MP Pierre Poilievre, had already declined and each is being fined $50,000 by the party. That leaves the roundtable discussion without a live audience to Ontario MP Scott Aitchison, former MP Jean Charest and former Ontario legislator Roman Barber.

Two peer-reviewed studies published in Science have concluded that a market in Wuhan, China, was most likely the epicenter for the coronavirus pandemic. Acknowledging that the “exact circumstances remain obscure,” the researchers said the COVID-19 virus was probably present in live animals sold at the market in late 2019.

Canada’s draft legislation which could monetize online streaming services is getting U.S. pushback, raising the prospect of retaliatory tariffs. Introduced last February and passed by the House of Commons June 21, Bill C-11 is now before the Senate. A previous version didn’t survive dissolution of the last Parliament and the possibility of retaliation was raised during the latest North American trade trilateral ministerial meeting.

U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, used a video call today, their fifth since Biden took office, to discuss for more than two hours the future of an increasingly complicated relationship. China’s ascendency as a global power, economic policies, human rights and the ongoing political clash over Taiwan remained key issues.

The federal government says it will audit CP Rail’s safety practices and training after the Transportation Safety Board issued a critical report on a February 2019 freight train derailment in British Columbia which killed three crew members

Alberta resident Tamara Lich, a key organizer of last February’s disruptive “freedom convoy” in Ottawa, has been granted bail for the second time. Lich, who faces multiple charges, was taken back into custody for allegedly breaching her initial bail conditions.

In the event of Russia stopping natural gas exports to European Union customers, the EU says that its members have agreed to reduce usage by 15 per cent next winter while leaving some states to opt out to avoid rationing. The measure would be in effect between August and March but the voluntary aspect would become mandatory if supplies reach crisis levels.

Lithuania has lifted a ban on rail transport of passengers and European Union-sanctioned freight to and from the Russian Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad which depends on the rail link. The moves comes after the EU clarified that its sanctions applied to road transport.

The expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries, including Canada where 681 cases have been confirmed, is an “extraordinary” situation that qualifies as a global emergency, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared July 23. In an unprecedented move, he personally opted for the designation to break a deadlock on the UN agency’s emergency committee.

Four democracy activists, including a former member of the country’s parliament, have been executed by Myanmar's military rulers in what is believed to be the country’s first use of capital punishment in decades. They were sentenced to death in a closed-door trial on what sources say were charges that they “gave directives, made arrangements and committed conspiracies for brutal and inhumane terror acts.”

A new Deloitte Canada report raises concerns about the potential of hacking control systems on the latest generation of increasingly connected vehicles. The report examines the implementation of cybersecurity measures and cites, among other things, last year’s hacking of a transport company's 25 automated vehicles.

The Canada Border Services Agency has been given 12 months to find its own detention facilities in B.C. after Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said the province’s jails will no longer be used to house migrants the province’s human rights comissioner calls “innocent migrants” who have been detained “simply for administrative reasons like missing documentation.”

The Conservative Party of Canada has confirmed that a third leadership debate will be held August 3 in response to the “overwhelming” results of a survey of 24,000 party members. Candidates have already participated in two official debates, one in English in Edmonton and a second in French in Laval. However, the perceived front-runner, Ottawa MP Pierre Poilievre, has said he would not participate despite the prospect of a $50,000 fine by the party.

The International Civil Aviation Organization has accused senior Belarus officials of being behind the forced grounding in May 2021 a Ryanair flight between Greece and Lithuania that led to the arrest of a dissident journalist. The flight was forced to land by Belarus air traffic control because of what ICAO called a “deliberately false” bomb threat and the Montreal-based UN organization now says Minsk had committed “an act of unlawful interference” with commercial aviation rules.

Americans remained deeply divided on how to slow climate change that scientists say is driving much of the extreme weather seen in many parts of the world. Recently-released results of a national poll by the Washington-based Pew Research Center found that while 49 per cent of respondents agree that the administration’s policies are appropriate, 47 per cent disagreed. Also, while a majority might acknowledge climate change, there’s disagreement on the causes and potential solutions.

The U.S. administration is hoping to refine its predecessor’s offensive cyber capabilities to fit “within our foreign policy goals.” Deputy National Security Advisor Anne Neuberger confirmed the decision July 19, explaining that the review should give U.S. Cyber Command more discretion to engage in time-sensitive operations so as to determine whether cyber capabilities are “resilient, flexible, and ready to be used when needed.”

The European Central Bank today raised interest rates for the first time since 2014 in a bid to control widespread inflation. Announcing a 0.5 percentage point increase to zero from the negative rate previously in effect, the bank plans further hikes this year

The federal government’s push for a new emissions cap for the petroleum industry threatens the industry and thousands of workers nationwide, says Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage. “I’m a little amazed by the timing of it,” she says. “It’s tone deaf from the federal government to be pushing this at a time when the world is looking for more energy. And it’s looking like in Europe, they’re going to be rationing natural gas over the winter.”

Canada's former chief of the defence staff Rick Hillier said July 19 that Canada should not have agreed to return six turbines to Germany needed to keep Russian natural gas flowing into Europe because Russian President Vladimir Putin could see it as a “sign of encouragement" and a signal that western sanctions in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine could weaken.

The European Commission asked its 27 member states today to begin reducing natural gas consumption by 15 percent to ensure that a Russian cut-off would not disrupt industries next winter. The EC also is seeking authority to mandate reductions “when there is a substantial risk of a severe gas shortage or an exceptionally high demand of gas occurs, which results in a significant deterioration of the gas supply situation.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned today that his country’s eventual goal as its invasion of Ukraine hits the five-month mark extends beyond the country’s breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk regions. “Now the geography is different,” he said. “This process is continuing logically and persistently” and if the West out of “impotent rage” continues to supply Ukraine with long-range weapons, “that means the geographical tasks will extend still further from the current line.”

The Newfoundland & Labrador government is facing a class-action lawsuit over the use of solitary confinement. The province’s Supreme Court certified the class action last fall and a lawyer now says the case is gaining momentum with scores of potential participants sharing their experiences of “cruel and unusual punishment.”

Dozens of wildfires in Western Canada, including one near a B.C. community devastated by a fire in 2021, are being blamed on continued warm dry weather. Manitoba has reported 45 blazes

IMF Chair Kristalina Georgieva is signalling retrenchment in the organization’s global economic outlook. In its April outlook, the IMF predicted 3.6 per cent growth for 2022 but the Bulgarian economist now says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, coupled with inflation and the ongoing pandemic are forcing a recalculation.

Hamid Noury, a former official at a prison in Iran, has been sentenced to life in prison by a Swedish court after being convicted of committing grave war crimes and murder during the Iran-Iraq war. Iran’s foreign ministry dismissed the verdict as “political” but Human Rights Watch Says the verdict “sends a message to the most senior Iranian officials implicated in these crimes that they can’t remain beyond the reach of justice.”

Pat King, a key figure of February’s “freedom convoy” which paralyzed Ottawa’s core, was granted bail today five months in custody. There is a publication ban on the evidence and judicial reasons, but the Alberta resident, who faces a variety of charges, was ordered to, among other things, leave the capital within 24 hours and avoid contact with other persons involved in the protest.