Trudeau arrives at G20 after pledging support at ASEAN : In The News for Nov. 14

As the summit host, Indonesia has asked leaders to focus on shoring up health systems and boosting food and energy security.

Indonesia has stressed the importance of focusing on consensus instead of division, a view at odds with Ottawa.

“My focus is going to be making sure that the world comes together to reinforce that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin made a terrible, terrible choice when he decided to invade a peaceful, neighbouring country,” Trudeau said Sunday, in reference to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

His remarks came at the end of the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Cambodia.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrapped up his first stop of a tour in Southeast Asia by announcing nearly $1 million to help remove unexploded landmines and cluster bombs from the region.

He made the $990,000 pledge at an event focused on women in security as the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations drew to a close in Cambodia.

The funding will support grassroots and government projects in Cambodia and Laos to clear unexploded ordinances, which stem from civil wars as well as American bombing during the Vietnam War.

“When land is cleared, not only are people safer and children can play, but land can be used for farming and development,” Trudeau said at a roundtable with local groups focused on women in peace-building.

Canada has been pushing countries in the region to stop using these types of munitions, and to fund remediation for decades. The 1997 Ottawa Treaty sought to ban the production of anti-personnel mines and commit to remediation, a pledge embraced by most, but not all countries.

The money will support the first dedicated national demining team in Laos, and support grassroots groups such as Cambodian Self-Help Demining.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

The rapid collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX into bankruptcy last week has also shaken the world of philanthropy, due to the donations and influence of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried in the “effective altruism” movement.

The FTX Foundation — and other related nonprofits mostly funded by Bankman-Fried and other top FTX executives _ says it has donated $190 million to numerous causes. Earlier this year, the foundation’s Future Fund announced plans to donate an additional $100 million, with hopes of donating up to $1 billion in 2022. Because of the bankruptcy, that won’t be happening now. And donations to numerous nonprofits, even those that have already received money from groups related to Bankman-Fried, are now in doubt.

FTX, the hedge fund Alameda Research, and dozens of other affiliated companies sought bankruptcy protection in Delaware Friday after the exchange experienced the crypto equivalent of a bank run. Customers tried to remove billions of dollars from the exchange after becoming concerned about whether FTX had sufficient capital.

Bankman-Fried has resigned from the company. His net worth, estimated earlier this year at $24 billion, has all but evaporated, according to Forbes and Bloomberg, which closely track the net worth of the world’s richest people.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

Iran renewed missile attacks on northern Iraq on Monday, targeting the bases of exiled Iranian Kurdish opposition groups and killing at least one person, local Kurdish officials said. Eight other people were wounded.

The casualty number from Iran’s attacks in the northern province of Sulimaniyah in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish-run region is expected to rise, said Saman Barzanji, the regional Kurdish Health Minister.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard confirmed the attack and said it had targeted the bases of “terrorist groups” by drones and missiles, according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency.

A security official from the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran, one of the exiled groups targeted on Monday, confirmed they had suffered casualties but did not provide more details. The official was not authorized to talk to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity. The party has waged an insurgency against the Iranian government since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran stepped up attacks targeting Kurdish opposition groups exiled in northern Iraq in September accusing them of orchestrating ongoing anti-government protests that have swept Iran over the past two months.

Those protests first focused on ending Iran’s mandatory headscarf, or hijab, but have since transformed into calls to end the country’s clerical rule.<

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On this day in 1849 …

Toronto became the seat of the Canadian government after a mob burned the Parliament buildings in Montreal earlier in the year.

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In entertainment …

Taylor Swift has won big at Sunday’s MTV EMAs. Swift who led the nominations along with Harry Styles with seven a piece, walked away with four wins including for best artist, best video, and best longform video. Currently topping the charts with “Anti-Hero” from her record-breaking new album “Midnights,” Swift made a surprise appearance at the awards in Dusseldorf to collect her haul, the latest in a long line of accolades for the singer-songwriter. Accepting her first award of the night she said “the fans are the only reason any of this happens for me.”

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Carissa Waugh says her family hasn’t been able to set up their fish nets like they used to due to declining salmon numbers in Yukon.

“With that we are losing our connection to our culture,” said the 29-year-old, who also goes by the Northern Tutchone name Eke Ewe.

“We aren’t able to set up that net and teach the younger generation how to go and set up the net, how to take the fish out of the net, how to filet it and feed the community.”

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game said that this past summer 12,025 Chinook salmon crossed into Canada, where their spawning grounds are located. That’s the lowest number on record and well below the goal of 42,500 to 55,000 fish under an agreement between Canada and the United States.

Waughis Taku River Tlingit First Nation belonging to the crow clan, and of Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation ancestry. A fellow with the Yukon First Nations Climate Action Fellowship, she’s one of several Indigenous and youth delegates from Yukon and the Northwest Territories who have travelled to Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, for the United Nations climate conference, also known as COP27, to share how they’ve seen first-hand their communities affected by climate change.

The United Nations climate change conference is taking place from Nov. 6 to 18 with a focus on climate change adaptation, building resilience and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The N.W.T. and Yukon delegations are co-hosting a panel on climate adaptation and resiliency in Canada’s North. Some Yukon delegates are also part of a panel with P.E.I. and B.C. on efforts across Canada to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 14, 2022.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Trudeau arrives at G20 after pledging support at ASEAN : In The News for Nov. 14

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