Can the Gray Lady’s COVID Pope restore some common sense at the White House and the CDC? While Joe Biden and the Department of Justice plot to appeal the ruling striking down the transit mask mandate, David Leonhardt reminds us that it never did work well in practice — and likely not even in theory.
Canada is expected to send four of its relatively new M-777 howitzers to Ukraine to help it face down a renewed Russian offensive from the east, CBC News has learned.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the plan to ship “heavy artillery” earlier this week, but offered no details on what the Canadian military would be donating.
“Their most recent ask was exactly for that, for heavy artillery, for reasons of operational security,” Trudeau said on Wednesday. “I can’t go into the details at this point on how and what we’re getting to them exactly.”
Eye opener – The shipment is expected to include an unspecified amount of ammunition, including precision-guided Excalibur rounds left over from the Afghan war, said a third source. The GPS-guided shells are worth about $112,000 US per round.
Two recent reports highlight a disturbing trend in the global power dynamic. They are not receiving much attention because of the ongoing war in Ukraine, but China is exploiting this out-of-the-spotlight moment to work smartly at increasing its influence within the Muslim world. Meanwhile, the US is squandering this moment by trying to negotiate a renewed Iran nuclear deal with Russia’s assistance.
At a recent meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s Council of Foreign Ministers, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was a special invitee. It was the first time that a Chinese government official had ever been invited to be present at an OIC meeting. The OIC has 57 member countries, making it the world’s second-largest international organization.
Maybe we’re better off if Elon Musk’s attempt to take over Twitter fails. No, wait, hear me out.
I’ve been rooting for the Tesla CEO in his battle with Twitter’s sad board of directors, whose members seem eager to protect their power and position. And it’s been fun to watch all the establishment pundits, academics and regulators circle the wagons against a man whose unpardonable sin is a desire to let people speak freely. He might even stop them from abusing their power to affect elections (always on behalf of Democrats, of course), which is intolerable.
Frank Graves, President and founder of EKOS Research Associates, went on the attack against Pierre Poilievre’s populist-tinged bid to become leader of the Conservative party. Unquestionably, Graves has the right to express his opinions, but his online onslaught, as head of a prominent political polling firm, only dumped fuel on the populist fire he loathes.
Today is Earth Day. It is a holiday created by environmentalists in the 1970s to help protect the environment and save the planet. Like many things in this country’s history, the annual celebration has its roots in Philadelphia. Earth Day’s founder, Ira Einhorn, was born there, and the first Earth Day event occurred in the city’s famous Fairmount Park in 1970. But while Einhorn magnanimously wanted to save the planet, he showed no such virtue to his girlfriend Holly Maddux, whom he murdered in cold blood.
While a student at the University of Pennsylvania, Einhorn was in a relationship with Maddux, a graduate of nearby Bryn Mawr College. After dating for five years, Maddux ended the relationship in 1977. Afterward, Einhorn descended into a jealous rage and killed her.
Stephen Maher: How the racial makeup of Poilievre rallies could be used against him
Last week, when Pierre Poilievre held a huge rally in a show-jumping facility on Calgary’s southern edge, I observed on Twitter that the enthusiastic crowd seemed to be mostly made up of white people, which might pose a problem for Poilievre.
This tweet — part of a long, not very interesting thread about Poilievre’s event — struck some people the wrong way, and I have since then been denounced hundreds of times, most recently in the National Post earlier this week by columnist Rupa Subramanya, who implied my comment constitutes a racist attack on Poilievre and his supporters.
WASHINGTON, April 22 (Reuters) – Canada’s Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on Friday said that it was impossible to collaborate with Russia in the G20, a group of countries that meets to discuss ways to foster global economic growth, as long as Moscow is waging war in Ukraine.
“The G20 can’t function effectively with Russia at the table,” Freeland said in a joint news conference with Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko in Washington, where G20 countries held talks on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings.
Police across Canada are investigating alleged acts of vandalism, theft and even arson against Ukrainian Canadians or those showing their support amid Russia’s invasion of the neighbouring country.
Alexandra Chyczij of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress said these kinds of incidents across Canada are “a growing phenomenon.”
“It’s a very troubling tendency and has frankly a lot of people frightened,” Chyczij told CTV National News’ John Vennavally-Rao.
Russia aims to seize southern Ukraine and to open a route to the separatist region of Transnistria in Moldova, a senior Russian general says.
Maj Gen Rustam Minnekayev specified that Moscow would seek to take “full control” over the south in addition to the eastern Donbas region – the stated objective of the Russian authorities.
Transnistria is a small Russian-backed region that borders Ukraine.
It is unclear if Gen Minnekayev’s comments were officially sanctioned.
Russian commander suggests plan is for permanent occupation of south Ukraine
A senior Russian military commander has said that the goal of Russia’s new offensive is to seize control of southern Ukraine and form a land bridge to Crimea, indicating that Russia plans a permanent occupation of Ukrainian territory taken in the war.
Rustam Minnekayev, acting commander of the central military district, also told members of a defence industry forum on Friday that control over southern Ukraine would give Russia access to Transnistria, a pro-Russian breakaway region of Moldova, indicating that Russia may attack the port city of Odesa.
#Ukraine: In Polohy, #Zaporizhzhia Oblast a Russian BMP infantry fighting vehicle was damaged by a RKG-1600 (RKG-3 based) projectile, dropped from a Ukrainian R18 Octocopter. pic.twitter.com/tca4kyrscL
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 21, 2022
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier this week that Canada will send artillery to Ukraine in response to a request from President Volodymyr Zelensky — which would mark a shift in the nature of the military aid Canada is offering the embattled nation.
Though Trudeau hasn’t said what type of artillery Canada plans to provide, he called the move a response to the shifting state of the war as Russia concentrates its forces in eastern Ukraine.
Foreign minister Pekka Haavisto says Finns ‘on the streets’ are concerned with nuclear question
The prospect of Russia using nuclear weapons in Ukraine is a key factor behind Finland’s debate over whether to join Nato, the country’s foreign minister has said.
Pekka Haavisto is having a busy few weeks. As Finland’s foreign minister, Haavisto, 64, may soon oversee the biggest political shift the country has experienced since it joined the EU almost three decades ago. “Finland is currently making its choices. And among those choices, Nato membership is one,” Haavisto told the Guardian in an interview on Thursday.
This could make Putin Go Nuke! Report: Chinese credit card processor rebuffs Russian banks
BEIJING (AP) — China’s credit card processor has refused to work with banks in Russia for fear of being targeted by sanctions over its war on Ukraine, cutting off a possible alternative after Visa and Mastercard stopped serving them, according to the Russian news outlet RBC.
UnionPay’s decision affects Sberbank, Russia’s biggest commercial bank, and smaller institutions, RBC reported Wednesday. It cited five unidentified sources in large Russian banks.
OTTAWA – Even as he decries government policies for pushing up the cost of housing, Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre is defending investments he and his wife made in rental properties of the kind that some economists say contribute to rising real estate prices.
Poilievre co-owns a real estate investment company that owns a rental property in Calgary and his wife owns a rental home in Ottawa.
