Headline

Canada Votes For New Government To Take On Trump

Published

1 month ago

April 28, 2025

Canada elects a new government on Monday to confront annexation threats from the United States and deal directly with President Donald Trump, whose trade war has defined the campaign.

The Liberal Party, led by new Prime Minister Mark Carney, looked set to lose easily to the Conservatives’ Pierre Poilievre until the US president’s attacks on the country sparked a sudden reversal in poll forecasts.

Carney, 60, has never held elected office and only replaced Justin Trudeau as prime minister last month. He had a lucrative career as an investment banker before serving as the central bank governor in both Canada and Britain.

Carney has argued his global financial experience has prepared him to guide Canada’s response to Trump’s tariffs.

He has also promised to revitalise internal trade and expand Canada’s economic opportunities abroad to cut reliance on the United States, a country Carney says “we can no longer trust.”

The United States under Trump “wants to break us, so they can own us,” he has warned repeatedly through the campaign.

“We don’t need chaos, we need calm. We don’t need anger, we need an adult,” Carney said in the campaign’s closing days.

Poilievre, a 45-year-old career politician, has tried to keep the focus on domestic concerns that made Trudeau deeply unpopular toward the end of his decade in power, especially soaring living costs.

The Tory leader has argued Carney would bring a continuation of what he calls “the lost Liberal decade,” arguing that only a new Conservative government can take action against crime, housing shortages and other non-Trump issues Canadians rank as priorities.

“You cannot handle another four years of this,” he said over the weekend.

Poilievre has critiqued Trump, but insisted ten years of poor Liberal governance had left Canada vulnerable to a newly hostile United States.

– ‘A good pick’ –

Final polls indicate a tight race but put Carney as the favourite.

Surveys have also consistently shown voters view the ex-central banker as the best candidate to deal with Trump.

Jeff Sims, who lives in Quebec near Canada’s capital Ottawa, said he believes Carney has “the pedigree” to be prime minister.

“Two central banks under his belt, I think that’s a good pick,” the 46-year-old told AFP on Sunday.

At a weekend Conservative rally in the battleground city of Oakville, west of Toronto, Janice Wyner rejected the notion that Carney marked a departure from Trudeau.

Trudeau’s “policies stunk and it’s the same party,” she told AFP.

“Canada is just in a mess. I’m 70 years old. It’s not even a country that I recognise and I’m worried for my grandkids.”

Like many voters, Nadine Sokol, a 41-year-old who also lives near Ottawa, listed “the threat coming from the US” as her “number one issue.”

– Historic turnaround –

If the Liberals win, it would mark one of the most of dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history.

On January 6, the day Trudeau announced he would resign, the Conservatives led the Liberals by more than 20 points in most polls, and Poilievre looked on track to be Canada’s next prime minister.

But Carney replacing Trudeau combined with nationwide unease about Trump transformed the race.

Public broadcaster CBC’s poll aggregator on Sunday put the Liberals’ national support at 42.8 per cent, with the Conservatives at 38.8 per cent.

As with US elections, national polling numbers may not predict a result.

The performance of two smaller parties — the left-wing New Democratic Party (NDP) and the separatist Bloc Quebecois — will be closely watched.

In past elections, strong NDP performances in Ontario and British Columbia, and a good showing by the Bloc in Quebec, have curbed Liberal seat tallies, but polls suggest both smaller parties could be facing a setback.

Nearly 29 million of Canada’s estimated 41 million people are eligible to vote. A record 7.3 million people cast advanced ballots.

In the massive G7 country which spans six times zones, polls open at 8:30 am local time in the Atlantic province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Canadians will elect 343 members of parliament, meaning 172 seats are needed for a majority. The Liberals won a majority in 2015 but have governed with a minority since 2019.

AFP

Headline

Nine Dead In Austria School Shooting

Published

4 hours ago

June 10, 2025

Editor

A mass shooting at a secondary school in Austria’s second-largest city has left nine people dead and at least 10 others injured in what authorities are calling one of the country’s worst school attacks in recent history, Al-Jazeera reported.

Police were called to BORG Dreierschutzengasse school in Graz on Tuesday morning after reports of gunfire. Emergency services responded swiftly and secured the area.

Authorities later confirmed that the suspected shooter had died by suicide, bringing the total number of dead to ten, including the attacker.

According to local officials, at least seven of those killed were students. Graz Mayor Elke Kahr described the shooting as a “terrible tragedy.” One adult was also among the dead, though their identity has not yet been released.

The incident reportedly began shortly after 10 a.m. local time and unfolded across two classrooms. Students, many aged 14 and older, were evacuated and are now receiving psychological support alongside their families.

The attacker is believed to have acted alone and is reported to be a former school student. The motive behind the shooting remains unclear.

Headline

17 Palestinians Killed In Israeli Strikes Near Gaza Aid Site

Published

5 hours ago

June 10, 2025

Editor

At least 17 Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured on Tuesday near a humanitarian aid distribution site in central Gaza, according to local health authorities as reported by Reuters.

The casualties reportedly occurred as large crowds of displaced residents gathered in the area to receive aid.

The deaths were attributed to Israeli gunfire by Gaza’s health officials.

The Israeli military said its forces had fired warning shots at “suspects who were advancing in the area of Wadi Gaza and posed a threat to the troops.”

It added that it was aware of reports that several were injured, but said numbers released by local health authorities did not align with the information it had collected.

“The warning shots were fired hundreds of meters from the aid distribution site, prior to its opening hours and toward the suspects who posed a threat to the troops,” the military added.

Medics confirmed that those injured were transported to Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp and Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City.

The Israeli military contested the reported casualty figures but acknowledged that several people were wounded during the incident.

The shooting occurred in an area where the military has labelled a hazardous zone for its personnel.

This came after a warning issued last week by the Israeli army, advising Palestinians to avoid roads leading to Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., which were designated as “closed military zones.”

The incident adds to growing concerns over civilian safety amid ongoing conflict in Gaza. Just last week, at least 27 Palestinians were reported killed near another aid site in Rafah, also by Israeli fire.

That event marked the third consecutive day of disruption to aid operations, according to local health officials.

“Day after day, casualties & scores of injured are reported at distribution points manned by Israel & private security companies,” Philippe Lazzarini, the chief of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), wrote on X.

“This humiliating system continues to force thousands of hungry & desperate people to walk for tens of miles excluding the most vulnerable & those living too far,” he said.

The war erupted after Hamas-led militants took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the Oct. 7, 2023, single deadliest day.

Israel’s military campaign has since killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened much of the coastal enclave.

AFP

Headline

Britain’s Jobless Rate Climbs To 4.6% As Economy Weakens

Published

5 hours ago

June 10, 2025

Editor

Britain’s unemployment rate has reached its highest level since July 2021, according to official data released on Tuesday, following a UK tax rise and the implementation of US tariffs.

The rate climbed to 4.6 percent in the three months to the end of April, according to the Office for National Statistics.

That compared with 4.5 percent in the first quarter of this year, the ONS added.

Tuesday’s data covers the start of a hike in business tax laid out in the Labour government’s inaugural budget last October.

April also saw the beginning of a baseline 10-percent tariff imposed on the UK and other countries by US President Donald Trump.

“There continues to be weakening in the labour market, with the number of people on payroll falling notably,” said ONS director of economic statistics Liz McKeown.

“Feedback from our vacancies survey suggests some firms may be holding back from recruiting new workers or replacing people when they move on.”

Analysts said the data, which included slowing growth to wages, would likely see the Bank of England continue to cut interest rates into 2026, weighing on the pound but lifting London’s stock market in early trade on Tuesday.

“With payrolls falling, the unemployment rate climbing and wage growth easing, today’s labour market release leaves us more confident in our view that the Bank of England will cut interest rates further than investors expect, to 3.50 percent next year,” noted Ruth Gregory, deputy chief UK economist at Capital Economics research group.

The Bank of England last trimmed borrowing costs in May by a quarter point to 4.25 percent.

AFP