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In final speech, Ardern reflects on leading New Zealand

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:23 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — In her final speech to New Zealand’s Parliament on Wednesday, Jacinda Ardern described in emotional terms how she’d navigated a pandemic and a mass-shooting during her tumultuous five-year tenure as prime minister.She also told humorous anecdotes like how a European leader so admired the striking hair of Ardern’s chief-of-staff that he fluffed it like a hairdresser — which she joked had helped secure a free-trade deal — and how her mother once sent her a uplifting, if somewhat grandiose, message: “Remember, even Jesus had people who didn’t like him.”On a more serious note, she urged lawmakers to take the politics out of climate change. “There will always be policy differences,” Ardern said during her valedictory address, wearing a traditional Māori cloak called a korowai. “But beneath that, we have what we need to make the progress we must.” When Ardern finished speaking after about 35 minutes, she she was greeted wi...

Takeaways from AP’s report on elite Russian defector

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:23 GMT

LONDON (AP) — In October, an officer in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s elite personal security service defected while on a business trip in Kazakhstan.Now a wanted man in Russia, Gleb Karakulov spoke out for the first time in a series of interviews with the Dossier Center, an investigative group in London funded by Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The AP took steps to review and verify the material.“Our president has become a war criminal,” said the 35-year-old engineer. “It is time to end this war and stop being silent.”Karakulov is one of few Russians to flee and go public who have rank, as well as knowledge of intimate details of Putin’s life. Karakulov was a captain in Russia’s secretive Federal Protective Service. or FSO, tasked with setting up secure communications for the Russian president and prime minister. Here’s what he had to say about Putin and the war in Ukraine.PUTIN DOESN’T USE A MOBILE PHONE OR THE INTERNETIn 13 years of service, Karakulov s...

Quebec truck attack suspect due in court : In The News for April 5

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:23 GMT

In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of April 5 …What we are watching in Canada …A Quebec man accused of driving his truck into groups of pedestrians last month is due back in court today.Steeve Gagnon is expected to be arraigned on three counts of first-degree murder and nine counts of attempted murder.Gagnon has been in custody since the March 13 crash, when several groups of pedestrians were struck on a main street in Amqui, Que., in what police have described as an intentional act.The appearance is set to take place at the courthouse in Amqui, about 350 kilometres northeast of Quebec City.Gagnon, 38, was charged with two counts of dangerous driving causing death, but the prosecutor had indicated more charges were expected, and a third victim has died since the accused’s initial court appearance.The three people killed were Gérald Charest, 65; ...

Swiss regulators defend rescue of Credit Suisse via UBS deal

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:23 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — The head of the Swiss financial regulator on Wednesday defended the rescue of Credit Suisse through a controversial takeover by rival bank UBS as the best solution with least risk of spreading a wider crisis and severe damaging Switzerland’s standing as a financial center.The merger was “the best option” and one that “minimized risk of contagion and maximized trust,” said Urban Angehrn, chief executive of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, or FINMA.Angern said two other options — a takeover by the Swiss government or putting Credit Suisse into insolvency proceedings — had serious drawbacks. Insolvency would have left the functional parts of Credit Suisse in operation as a Swiss-only bank, but one with a “damaged reputation” through bankruptcy, he told reporters in the Swiss capital of Bern. A temporary takeover by the Swiss government would have exposed taxpayers to the risk of losses.“One can well imagine, what devastating effect the insolvency of...

Feds back away from timeline for law to make First Nations policing essential service

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:23 GMT

OTTAWA — The federal government is backing awayfrom setting a timelineto introduce legislation that would declare First Nations policing an essential service, but at least one regional chief hopes to see it this spring.Ghislain Picard, a member of the Assembly of First Nations executive, says it has been fighting for improvements to First Nations policing on two fronts: securing better funding for existing services and helping to draft new legislation. “We’ve been talking about this for years,” said Picard, one of the leads on justice and policing issues for the national advocacy organization that represents more than 600 First Nations.Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told The Canadian Press last December that the government hoped to table a bill in 2023. This week, however, a press secretary for the minister backed away from any timeline, saying “It is too early to say when the legislation will be tabled.”In September 2022, Mendicino told reporte...

Federal lawyers set to explain legal rationale for government use of Emergencies Act

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:23 GMT

OTTAWA — Lawyers for the federal attorney general are set to elaborate today on the legal rationale for the historic use of the Emergencies Act to dispel “Freedom Convoy” protesters early last year.The lawyers plan to spell out reasons the Federal Court should dismiss arguments from several groups and individuals who reject the Liberal government’s invocation of the emergency law.Civil liberties and constitutional defence groups have told Justice Richard Mosley this week the government did not meet the legal threshold for resorting to the Emergencies Act.The act allowed for temporary measures including prohibition of public assemblies, the designation of secure places, direction to banks to freeze assets and a ban on support for participants.The government says the extraordinary measures were targeted, proportional, time limited and compliant with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.The Federal Court’s three-day review is slated to wrap up today.This report by...

French envoy: Canada should link with Europe, surpass ‘weak’ military engagement

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:23 GMT

OTTAWA — France’s ambassador to Canada says Ottawa must choose between tying itself entirely to Washington or broadening its links to partner more with Europe — while also calling out Canada’s “weak” military engagement.“This nagging question of the future American commitment offers, in any case more than ever, the opportunity for Europe, France and Canada to play a role together,” Michel Miraillet said in a French-language speech Tuesday to the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations.Miraillet argued that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year was the culmination of a decade of Moscow and Beijing working to weaken democracies.He said both Russia and China have sold their citizens a narrative of patriotic nationalism, while building up their military capabilities and involvement in developing countries, in anticipation of an inevitable decline of a faltering western world.“This relationship goes far beyond the assertion of com...

Man accused of killing people with truck in Quebec court today on murder charges

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:23 GMT

AMQUI, Que. — A Quebec man accused of driving his truck into groups of pedestrians last month is due back in court today.Steeve Gagnon is expected to be arraigned on three counts of first-degree murder and nine counts of attempted murder.Gagnon has been in custody since the March 13 crash, when several groups of pedestrians were struck on a main street in Amqui, Que., in what police have described as an intentional act.The appearance is set to take place at the courthouse in Amqui, about 350 kilometres northeast of Quebec City.Gagnon, 38, was charged with two counts of dangerous driving causing death, but the prosecutor had indicated more charges were expected, and a third victim has died since the accused’s initial court appearance.The three people killed were Gérald Charest, 65; Jean Lafrenière, 73; and Simon-Guillaume Bourget, 41.This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 5, 2023.The Canadian Press

Victim of alleged terrorist attack on B.C. bus had no idea of motive: brother-in-law

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:23 GMT

SURREY, B.C. — Family members of a man whose throat was slashed Saturday in Surrey, B.C., say his assailant gave no indication of his motive during an attack that RCMP allege was an act of terrorism.Abdul Aziz Kawam is charged with attempted murder, assault causing bodily harm, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon, all in association with terrorist group the Islamic State.Kawam is to reappear in Surrey provincial court today for a hearing whose details are covered by a publication ban.Chris Jensen, whose partner is the victim’s sister, says the injured man told him “he had no idea” what motivated the attacker who did not call out or say anything at the time.Jensen says the man told him “there was no warning” before the attack, and terrorism didn’t enter the minds of the family until police announced the charges.None of the allegations have been proven in court.Metro Vancouver Transit Police have alleged a man took out a knife and slashed a...

‘Amazing story of survival’: 30,000-year-old mummified ground squirrel found in Yukon

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:23 GMT

WHITEHORSE — The ancient remains of a ground squirrel dug up by miners near Dawson City, Yukon, still has lessons to teach 30,000 years after it died, an expert says. At first glance, the small, brown discovery looks more like a wrinkly leather ball than a rare archeological find, though a more careful look reveals hair, tiny ears and claws. It was only with X-rays taken at a Whitehorse veterinarian’s office that the discovery of a complete mummified animal was confirmed, said Yukon paleontologist Grant Zazula.“Arctic ground squirrels are tiny of course, it’s curled up in a ball, so just by looking at it it’s hard to tell what it is,” he said. “But then, when you see the X-ray, you can see this curled-up skeleton, and the head, and the leg bones, and whatnot, and the tail, all curled up together and it looks amazing under the X-ray.”The remains, believed to be an animal that died while hibernating, were found several years ago by miners at H...