Canadians arrive from Wuhan and call to ‘recanvass’ Iowa results; In The News for Feb. 7

Myriam Larouche, a 25-year-old from L’Ascension, Que., who is studying tourism management at the Central China Normal University in Wuhan, described the flight as “pretty long,” but noted everyone slept for most of it.

All evacuees will spend 14 days under quarantine on the military base in southern Ontario being monitored to see if they have contracted the virus.

“I think I’m going to sleep for 20 hours straight,” Larouche said, adding that the last few days have been stressful.

She said she is relieved to be back home because it’s been a long process that felt longer being in a different country.

A United States government flight from Wuhan with about 50 Canadians on board departed a short time after the Canadian evacuation flight.

The American plane will take Canada-bound passengers as far as Vancouver, where they will transfer to a second flight chartered by the Canadian government to CFB Trenton to join the rest of the evacuees.

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Also this …

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is heading to Africa, where he will be the first Canadian prime minister to participate in a session of the African Union.

With just five months left before the United Nations Security Council vote, Trudeau’s trip is widely expected to be focused on wooing African support for Canada’s bid for one of the two available temporary seats.

At a briefing for media prior to the trip on Thursday, officials from the Prime Minister’s Office acknowledged the security council vote is one reason for the journey. But they also said building stronger relationships overall, finding opportunities for Canadian business, and engaging on issues like climate change and the empowerment of women and girls are all part of the agenda.

The officials at the briefing spoke only on the condition they not be identified.

Trudeau will start in Ethiopia, the continent’s fastest-growing economy, which is the headquarters of the African Union.

He intends to meet individually with a number of African leaders on the margins of the gathering, including Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and attend discussions on gender equality and the environment.

He later goes to Senegal for an official visit, where he will meet with President Macky Sall. Senegal is one of the most influential African nations in the Francophonie group of countries.

Trudeau is also stopping in Munich, Germany to attend part of an international security conference before he returns to Canada.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

The chairman of the Democratic National Committee called for a “recanvass” of the results of the Iowa caucuses, saying it was needed to “assure public confidence” after three days of technical issues and delays.

”Enough is enough,” party leader Tom Perez wrote on Twitter.

Following the Iowa Democratic Party’s release of new results late Thursday night, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg leads Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by two state delegate equivalents out of 2,152 counted. That is a margin of 0.09 percentage points. Both candidates have declared themselves victorious.

However, there is evidence the party has not accurately tabulated some of its results, including those released late Thursday that the party reported as complete.

The Associated Press is unable to declare a winner.

The state party apologized for technical glitches with an app that slowed down reporting of results from Monday’s caucuses and has spent the week trying to verify results. However, it was unclear if the party planned to follow the directive of the national leader to recanvass those results, a process that would likely require state officials to review caucus math worksheets completed at more than 1,600 caucus sites to ensure the calculations were done correctly and matched the reported results.

Iowa chairman Troy Price suggested in a statement Thursday that he would only pursue a recanvass if one was requested by a campaign.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

The chief architect of the U.S. blueprint to resolve the decades-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians blamed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for soaring tensions and violence in the occupied West Bank since the plan’s release last week.

Jared Kushner, the son-in-law and adviser to President Donald Trump who spent nearly three years working on the plan, said leaders who are ready for a state “don’t call for days of rage and encourage their people to pursue violence if they’re not getting what they want.”

He said he thinks Abbas “was surprised with how good the plan was for the Palestinian people, but he locked himself into a position” by rejecting it before it came out.

The Palestinian president is going to different forums and putting forward old talking points when the situation on the ground has changed and “this might be the last chance that they have to actually resolve it in a good way,” Kushner said.

Abbas is scheduled to address the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday and then appear at a news conference with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, an opponent of the U.S. plan who was forced to resign a decade ago ahead of a corruption indictment that later sent him to prison for 16 months.

Kushner called Olmert’s appearance “almost pathetic.”

Leaders who had their chances and failed should be encouraging other people’s efforts in trying to make peace, “as opposed to trying to grab a headline when you’re irrelevant and try … to get involved in a situation to get some attention,” Kushner said.

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ICYMI (In case you missed it) …

GUERNSEY, Sask. — The federal government on Thursday ordered lower speed limits for all trains carrying large amounts of dangerous goods, hours after a fiery derailment in rural Saskatchewan sent thick black smoke into the air.

A Canadian Pacific Railway freight train carrying crude oil jumped the tracks about 6:15 a.m. near Guernsey, 115 kilometres southeast of Saskatoon. Thirty-one of 104 cars derailed and a dozen caught fire, the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency said.

It also said there were no injuries.

Jack Gibney, reeve of the Rural Municipality of Usborne, which includes Guernsey, said about 85 residents were evacuated from homes in the agricultural community. The hamlet is surrounded by farmland and is near a potash mine operated by Nutrien.

Tom Lukiwski, the member of Parliament for the area, said he was shocked to learn the derailment was the second to happen on the same stretch of rail within two months.

About 19 cars on another CP train ran off the tracks Dec. 9 about 10 kilometres to the west, causing a major blaze and leaking 1.5 million litres of oil.

“To have two major derailments that are incredibly serious … is something that is almost incomprehensible,” Lukiwski said. “I am not a big believer in coincidence, and this seems to be that it’s more than just coincidence.”

Transport Minister Marc Garneau said the ministerial order requires trains carrying 20 or more cars of dangerous goods to travel at lower speeds while the crash is investigated.

“That speed reduction will require them to go at no more than 25 miles (40 kilometres) per hour across the country except … 20 miles (32 kilometres) per hour in built-up metropolitan areas,” Garneau said in Ottawa. Those speed limits are half as fast as limits currently listed on Transport Canada’s website.

“This will be put into effect for the next 30 days. We could shorten that — we’re looking for the causes to see if there is a common pattern — or we could lengthen it depending on how things are progressing,” he said.

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Weird and wild …

CALGARY — Police in Calgary are encouraging babysitters to screen phone calls following reports of a man making lewd calls.

Police say there have been multiple complaints since the start of last year about a man phoning girls who advertise babysitting services online.

The man calls from a blocked number and engages the girls in conversation, but as the chat progresses, he becomes more inappropriate and graphic.

The recipients of the calls have all been between 11 and 16 years old.

The police service is urging babysitters to avoid posting photographs with their listings, not to answer calls from blocked or private numbers, and never to meet a potential employer alone.

It’s also suggesting a parent or guardian be around before girls answer a call from someone looking to hire a babysitter.

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Know your news …

The nominations for the East Coast Music Awards were announced Thursday. Name the actor and comedian who will be hosting the awards show. She is best known for her Marg Delahunty character on “This Hour Has 22 Minutes.”

(Keep scrolling for the answer)

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On this day in 1867 …

The British North America Act, creating the Dominion of Canada, was introduced in the House of Lords.

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Entertaiment news …

TORONTO — Netflix is finally letting viewers turn off the auto-play preview function.

The much-maligned feature, which forced viewers to watch clips and trailers of movies as they browsed the platform’s titles, can now be disabled under account settings.

It’s a feature that subscribers have begged the company for in order to give them control.

The backlash over auto-play intensified a number of weeks ago after Netflix released the documentary “Don’t F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer.”

Auto-play of a trailer for the docuseries, about the international hunt for Canadian killer Luka Magnotta, included brief clips of his cat torture videos. Some viewers expressed their anger on social media over unexpectedly encountering flashes of animal cruelty footage with a feature they couldn’t disable.

Other Netflix users have complained that auto-play is especially startling when it’s triggered as they hover over a particular title.

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Know your news answer …

Mary Walsh will host the April 30 awards show at Mile One Centre in downtown St. John’s, N.L.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 7, 2020.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Canadians arrive from Wuhan and call to ‘recanvass’ Iowa results; In The News for Feb. 7

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