Europe Must Fully Cooperate with Trump’s Ukraine Peace Efforts

Coalition of the unarmed

Although a ceasefire to stop the killing in Ukraine appeared closer this week after Ukrainian President Zelensky sent President Trump a letter promising to cooperate with his peace efforts, European states are floating several unhelpful proposals that could hurt the peace process.

Zelensky was supposed to sign a deal at the White House last Friday, giving the U.S. access to his country’s rare earth mineral deposits. However, Zelensky’s insistence on first resolving other issues and his rude behavior during an Oval Office meeting with President Trump and Vice President Vance caused him to be booted from the White House and his relationship with Trump to break down.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Ukraine - Russia"

Will Canadians Warm Up to the Steely Banker Eyeing Trudeau’s Job?

It was the summer of 2007. Deep inside Canada’s finance ministry, high-ranking officials were staring down the barrel of a global financial meltdown.

They weren’t sure exactly when, or how, the market would crash, but as Mark Carney tells it, “We knew that the thing was going to fall apart.”

It was a turning point for Mr. Carney, then a senior public servant, and began the next chapter of his career managing economic crises as the governor of national banks in Canada and Britain.

Nope.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Cut Federal Funding to Barnard

President Donald Trump has pledged to cut federal funding to schools that do not protect Jewish students from anti-semitic harassment and violence. The best place to begin this process is Barnard College in New York City. Cutting funding to major research universities threatens cutbacks on grants for medical and other important scientific research. Barnard College, on the other hand, is not a university. It does not have a medical school. Its faculty does little or no research that would affect Americans on a day-to-day basis. Cutting off federal aid to Barnard would have few negative impacts on issues that legitimately concern Americans, especially if it focuses on discriminatory actions and does not interfere with protected free speech.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Oct 7 2023"

Poilievre pledges to close ‘Carney loophole’ on disclosures for leadership candidates

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he would amend the Conflict of Interest Act if elected prime minister, saying it would close the “Carney Loophole.”

… In a video posted to social media, Poilievre blasts Liberal leadership front-runner and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney for whom the policy is named after. 

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada's Corrupt Liberal Government

New Sentencing Guidelines in England Could Lead to Harsher Penalties for White, Male Offenders Than Female, Minority Ones

A fight is brewing in England over new sentencing guidelines that require judges to consider a criminal’s ethnicity and faith before deciding whether to sentence them to jail. The guidelines, critics say, could lead to harsh punishments for Christians and white men, while women and ethnic minorities receive more leniency.

The fight began when the independent Sentencing Council for England and Wales released new guidelines this week ostensibly designed to counteract potential biases during the sentencing period. Under the new guidelines, set to take effect on April 1, it “will normally be considered necessary” for judges to obtain pre-sentencing reports for offenders to help determine their sentencing when the individual is from an ethnic, cultural, or faith minority.

Nothing undermines a society faster than the imposition of two tiered justice.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Identity Politics", "Justice", "Law and Order"

62% of Canadians Plan to Avoid the U.S. for at Least the Next Year Amid Political Tensions

Over the past few weeks, tensions between Canada and the United States have intensified, spurred by President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs and the constant threat of annexation. This heated political landscape has ignited a surge in Canadian patriotism, which is now expressing itself in a very tangible way: through consumer behaviour. In other words, shopping choices, travel plans, and overall spending patterns are no longer driven simply by cost or convenience—political considerations are increasingly at play.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

Military planners map out restructuring the Canadian Army, says top soldier

The Canadian Army is about to embark on a wholesale restructuring in the face of growing demands for troops and equipment both overseas and at home, says the country’s top soldier.

A military modernization team is currently studying the problem against the backdrop of a shortage of as many as 5,000 soldiers, Lt.-Gen. Mike Wright told CBC News in a recent interview at the NATO training centre in Adazi, Latvia.

“The army we have now is not the army that we need for the future,” Wright said when asked if he was satisfied with the equipping of the troops on the Western military’s alliance’s deterrence mission in Eastern Europe.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces"

Trump administration yanks $400M in grants, contracts from Columbia University over antisemitism on campus

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration yanked roughly $400 million in grants and contracts from Columbia University on Friday, citing the school’s noncompliance with anti-discrimination laws.

The funding cancellation comes after months of antisemitic harassment and intimidation on the Morningside Heights campus — with pro-Hamas slogans proclaimed by demonstrators and the NYPD eventually being called in to restore order last April.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Oct 7 2023"

Most Canadians support building a cross-country pipeline, reject adopting U.S. dollar: Nanos survey

Three out of four Canadians would support a national energy corridor and pipeline from Alberta to Eastern Canada, according to a new Nanos survey – even if there were environment and Indigenous land claim concerns about the route.

The survey of 1,001 Canadian adults between Feb. 28 and March 5 found that 54 per cent “support” a cross-country pipeline, while 21 per cent “somewhat support” the idea.

Eleven per cent of those surveyed opposed the idea of a pipeline, while ten per cent “somewhat opposed” the concept.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

A Conservative Leader at odds with corporate Canada?

Mark Carney’s closer Bay Street ties could spell trouble for the Conservative leader

On the 34th floor of First Canadian Place, the BMO-branded tower at the core of corporate Canada’s Bay Street hub, a distinctly downtown crowd of about 150 people gathered to get a glimpse of Pierre Poilievre.

Law firm Bennett Jones hosted the fundraiser. Robert Staley – a close ally of the Conservative leader and chair of the party’s powerful fundraising arm – is the firm’s vice-chair and a partner. Other hosts included Scotiabank vice-chair Mark Mulroney, son of a former prime minister, health care services executive Shaun Francis of Medcan Health Management and former Assante Wealth Management CEO Joe Canavan.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, Conservative Party

South Carolina man to be executed in US by firing squad

A South Carolina prison inmate convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat will be the first person in the US to be executed by firing squad in 15 years.

If Brad Sigmon’s execution proceeds on Friday at 18:00 local time (23:00 GMT), three volunteers standing behind a curtain will simultaneously fire rifles at his chest with specially designed bullets.

The state’s procedure requires that those put to death by firing squad be strapped to a chair when they enter the execution chamber. The inmate then has a target placed on his heart and a bag put over his head.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUSA