A group of 61 Canadians will be “indefinitely prohibited” from entering the Russian Federation, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced Thursday.
Among the Canadians banned are foreign and defence policy adviser to the prime minister of Canada Dan Costello, Toronto Mayor John Tory, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Premier of Alberta Jason Kenney, chairman of the Bank of Canada Tiff Maclem, and president and CEO of CBC/Radio Canada Catherine Tait.
Batteries are the new oil — and the U.S. is lagging behind Europe and China in the race to make them.
Why it matters: The historic shift to electric vehicles will give the U.S. a fresh chance to achieve energy independence, but it will require complex strategic moves that won’t pay off for years.
The big picture: Most of today’s advanced batteries — not only to power cars and consumer electronics but also to store clean energy — are sourced in Asia.
Last month, Biden invoked the Cold War-era Defense Production Act -I guess Canada has a shot at a traditional role as hewers of lithium for the US Market or perhaps the future is Balkanized state production as the article suggests.
The latest battle zone in the Russia-Ukraine war was in the quiet, mostly mannerly halls of the United Nations. There, in the UN’s iconic New York headquarters, the world voted on Russia’s largest invasion since World War II — revealing fractures and fissures in global support for democracy.
Suspending Russia from the UN Human Rights Council was technically the issue put before the delegates. But every diplomat knew it was really a vote on Russia’s assault on Ukraine. The consensus for democracy and self-determination was fragile: only 93 states (out of 193) voted for removing Russia from the UNHRC, and therefore condemning its actions against its smaller, weaker neighbor. Another 24 nations (including China) voted with Russia. Most worrisome, 58 countries abstained, refusing to take sides in what many see as a duel between the great powers. Others feared that energy, food, and fertilizer prices might continue to climb if the conflict escalates. (Both Russia and Ukraine are major producers of oil, gas, wheat, and fertilizing petrochemicals — all of which are a matter of life and death for developing nations.) Fear and food are more important to many developing nations than democratic ideals.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) scored a public relations coup last month when it filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government on behalf of three Muslim Americans who complained of being repeatedly interviewed upon returning from trips abroad. The plaintiffs claim that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents single out Muslim travelers and subject them to intrusive interrogations about their religious beliefs.
Numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal and ABC News, dutifully repeated the concerns of one plaintiff in particular, describing how Minnesota cleric Abdirahman Kariye endured “religious questioning” at airports and border crossings and was forced to hide his Muslim identity to avoid additional screening. However, Kariye’s affiliation with extremist elements, including a mosque that served as a pipeline for terrorist recruitment, explains why authorities may be interested in his foreign travels.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has compared the current climate of fear surrounding the discussion of transgender issues to the Soviet Union, quoting an anti-communist hero and leader of the Velvet Revolution.
“A spectre is haunting Eastern Europe: the spectre of what in the West is called dissent.”
Electricity has been the most successful sector of the Canadian economy in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, albeit at an enormous cost to provincial taxpayers and hydro ratepayers.
But a new plan by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to achieve net zero emissions by 2035 could lead to blackouts, brownouts, soaring electricity bills and massive new debt.
I don’t know why this hasn’t gone viral. 😂 pic.twitter.com/fGqRFuMWDx
— Wake Awake (@WakeAwake1) April 19, 2022
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday announced an additional $800 million in military aid to help Ukraine fight back in its strong but increasingly difficult battle against the Russian invasion, but he also warned that Congress will need to approve even more assistance if the U.S. is to keep up its crucial support.
The new military package includes much needed heavy artillery, 144,000 rounds of ammunition and drones for the escalating battle in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. It builds on roughly $2.6 billion in military assistance that Biden had previously approved.
… A poll published Thursday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows Americans’ desire to get involved has waned somewhat. Some 32% say the U.S. should have a major role in the conflict. That’s ticked down from 40% last month, though it’s slightly higher than the 26% who said so in February. An additional 49% say the U.S. should have a minor role.
The Ontario election race appears to be tightening ahead of the formal start of the campaign, with one new poll putting the Liberals only four points back of Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative party.
The Abacus Data survey of 1,500 Ontarians found that 36 per cent of decided voters plan to cast a ballot for Ford’s PC party in June, compared to 32 per cent who intend to vote for Steven Del Duca’s Liberal party and 23 per cent who said they would vote for Andrea Horwath and the NDP. About six per cent of respondents indicated that they vote for the Green party while four per cent said that they would vote for another party entirely.
What a sad, embarrassing time it is for the great republic that is our neighbour. There is the famed United States, still the pre-eminent power in the world, still the centre of invention and technology — despite the terrible degeneration of its politics and the crazed partisanship of its two parties and so large a portion of its press — yet still a country of unsurpassed achievement.
Germany is no longer a nation, it is a condominium and the rest of Europe is following its lead. We haven’t seen anything yet.
Shortly after playing time for the German football championship match between Augsburg and Mainz, the referee, Matthias Jollenbeck, stopped the match to allow Muslim footballer Moussa Niakhaté to break his fast for Ramadan and quench his thirst at sunset. For the first time, a Bundesliga match was stopped for this reason. But the initiative was welcomed by the German Football Association and will not be the last.
Europe is changing so rapidly that we haven’t even noticed it. From concession to concession, we have capitulated on everything.
Let’s stay with Germany, which for me is no longer even a nation, but a condominium.
Warner Bros. Discovery is shutting down CNN+ as of April 30, marking one of the company’s first significant maneuvers since completing the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery less than two weeks ago.
The decision puts an abrupt end to an ambitious and aggressive venture that people familiar with the matter say rankled David Zaslav, the new CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, from the start. Zaslav was annoyed by the decision of Jason Kilar, the former CEO of WarnerMedia when it was owned by AT&T, to launch CNN+ just weeks before Discovery was set to take over operations.
Actor Alec Baldwin said the latest report from the New Mexico Occupational Health and Safety Bureau exonerates him from the on-set shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza.
“We are grateful to the New Mexico Occupational Health and Safety Bureau for investigating this matter,” Baldwin’s attorney said in a statement, posted to the actor’s Instagram. “We appreciate the report exonerates Mr. Baldwin by making clear that he believed the gun held only dummy rounds.”
The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) has the right to make a partnering U.S. lab wipe all data arising from their collaborative work, a legal document reveals.
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) of cooperation, signed between the Wuhan lab and the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch, makes it obligatory for each of the two labs to delete “secret files” or materials upon the request of the other party.
Last month, Russian army tanks entered Mariupol, a peaceful city of 431,000 inhabitants, which has since been bombarded for weeks. Tens of thousands of people left the city; those still there have taken refuge in cellars, often with no food, water or electricity. No one knows how many civilians are still alive in the city.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called in Chechen militias, accused of crimes against humanity, and sent by Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Russian Federation’s Chechen Republic. Putin seems to be about to deliver an even more brutal assault. Schools, hospitals, supermarkets, retirement homes — Russia has spared nothing. A theater where children were gathered — and the Ukrainians had written the word “children”, hoping that the Russian soldiers would at least spare them — was reduced to ashes. Ukrainian officials estimated that 300 people were killed there. People trying to rescue them also were shelled. A small contingent of Ukrainian soldiers is still heroically resisting Russian forces in what remains of the destroyed city. Is anyone coming to their rescue?
(Link fixed)
Ontario NDP pledges free prescription birth control if elected in June
The Ontario NDP is promising to cover all prescription contraception under OHIP if it is elected to form government in June.
“People should not have to shell out $30 a month, every month for years on end, for birth control,” Party Leader Andrea Horwath said in a statement. “And no one who wants contraception should go without because it’s just not in the monthly budget.”
The New Democrats say they could implement free birth control “within weeks” of a victory in June.
A worthwhile initiative.
h/t MP
