Trudeau to make first official visit to South Korea : In The News for May 15

The prime minister is expected to be in Seoul between May 16 and May 18, after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s visit to Ottawa last fall. Since then, both countries have released their Indo-Pacific strategies, plans that aim to counterbalance Chinese influence by increasing economic and military ties in the region.

Trudeau is also scheduled to attend the G7 leaders’ summit in Hiroshima, Japan, between May 19 and 21.

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Also this …

Alberta’s election campaign is entering its third week, with the leaders of the United Conservatives and the NDP set to face each other in a debate on Thursday.

Both parties made announcements on health care over the weekend, with NDP Leader Rachel Notley promising to offer bonuses of up to $10,000 to attract doctors, nurses, and other allied health professionals to Alberta.

Notley also pledged an NDP government will create up to 10,000 new post-secondary spaces specific to the health field and others over the next three years.

UCP Leader Danielle Smith, meanwhile, pledged to fund a review by Alberta Health Services to determine whether five additional diseases and conditions should be added to a list of 22 conditions newborns are automatically scanned for at birth.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

From the outside, the residential high-rise on Manhattan’s Upper West Side looks pretty much like any other luxury building: A doorman greets visitors in a spacious lobby adorned with tapestry and marble.

Yet just below in the basement is an unusual set of equipment that no other building in New York City _ indeed few in the world _ can claim. In an effort to drastically reduce the 30-story building’s emissions, the owners have installed a maze of twisting pipes and tanks that collect carbon dioxide from the massive, gas-fired boilers in the basement before it goes to the chimney and is released into the air.

The goal is to stop that climate-warming gas from entering the atmosphere. And there’s a dire need for reducing emissions from skyscrapers like these in such a vertical city. Buildings are by far the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions here, roughly two-thirds, according to the city buildings department.

New York state’s buildings also emit more air pollution than any other state’s.

So building owners must make dramatic cuts starting next year or face escalating fines under a new city law. About 50,000 structures _ more than half the buildings in the city, are subject to Local Law 97. Other cities such as Boston and Denver followed suit with similar rules.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

Turkey’s presidential elections appeared to be heading toward a second-round runoff on Monday, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has ruled his country with a firm grip for 20 years, leading over his chief challenger, but falling short of the votes needed for an outright win.

With votes of Turkish citizens living abroad still being counted, results from the state-run Anadolu news agency showed Erdogan had 49.3% of the votes, with his main rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu garnering 45%.

Erdogan, 69, told supporters in the early hours of Monday that he could still win. He said, however, that he would respect the nation’s decision if the race went to a runoff on May 28.

The vote was being closely watched to see if the strategically located NATO country _ which has a coast on the Black Sea to the north, and neighbors Iran, Iraq and Syria to the south _ remains under the control of the increasingly authoritarian president or can embark on a more democratic course that was envisioned by Kilicdaroglu.

Opinion polls in the runup to Sunday’s vote had given Kilicdaroglu, the joint candidate of a six-party opposition alliance, a slight lead over Erdogan, who has governed Turkey as either prime minister or president since 2003.

Kilicdaroglu sounded hopeful for a second-round victory.

“We will absolutely win the second round … and bring democracy” said Kilicdaroglu, 74, maintaining that Erdogan had lost the trust of a nation now demanding change.

This year’s election came amid a backdrop of economic turmoil, a cost-of-living crisis and a February earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people. Western nations and foreign investors are also awaiting the outcome because of Erdogan’s unorthodox leadership of the economy and often mercurial but successful efforts to put Turkey at the center of international negotiations.

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On this day in 1919 …

The Winnipeg General Strike began and the city was paralyzed for about six weeks. An armed charge by the North West Mounted Police on June 21, which became known as “Bloody Saturday,” killed one and injured 30, with one of the injured later dying of gangrene. The Robson Commission, which later investigated the walkout by 30,000 workers, found it had been aimed only at improving wages and labour’s bargaining position. But most government bodies feared a Bolshevik revolution was brewing. A number of labour leaders were jailed under wartime sedition laws, which were not repealed until 1936.

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In entertainment …

The Cannes Film Festival, which will kick off Tuesday, is such a colossal extravaganza that taking measure of its ups and downs is notoriously difficult. It’s a showcase of the world’s best cinema. It’s a red-carpet spectacular. It’s a French Riviera hive of dealmaking.

But by at least some metrics, Cannes _ following a canceled 2020 festival, a much-diminished 2021 edition and a triumphant 2022 return _ is finally all the way back.

“Let’s just say it’s gotten very hard to get restaurant reservations again,” says Christine Vachon, the veteran producer and longtime collaborator of Todd Haynes.

When the 76th Cannes Film Festival opens Tuesday with the premiere of “Jeanne du Barry,” a historical drama by Maiwenn starring Johnny Depp, the gleaming Cote d’Azur pageant can feel confident that it has weathered the storms of the pandemic and the perceived threat of streaming. (Netflix and Cannes remain at an impasse.)

Last year’s festival, a banner one by most judgments, produced three Oscar best-picture nominees (“Top Gun: Maverick,” “Elvis” and the Palme d’Or winner “Triangle of Sadness” ), again proving Cannes as the premiere global launching pad for films big and small.

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Did you see this?

The $14-billion deal that will see Volkswagen, the world’s largest automaker, set up a manufacturing presence in Canada for the first time in history, took a year of negotiations on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

But the talks that led Volkswagen to choose southwestern Ontario for the location of its first battery plant outside Europe all started with a whim.

Out of the blue in early 2022, Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne decided he should call the company’s then-North American CEO, Scott Keogh. His staff dug up the number.

Champagne said in an interview with The Canadian Press that he’d never met Keogh before, but he got him on the phone on St. Patrick’s Day last year.

“I introduced myself, and I said, ‘Listen, here I am, Minister Champagne from Canada. I would like to start a discussion.”’

Volkswagen has sold cars in Canada for decades, but it has never made them here. Still, like other large automakers, it is making the transition to produce electric vehicles. And producing the batteries that power them requires a solid supply chain.

Canada is in the midst of a massive push to corner at least some of that industry for itself, with enthusiastic buy-in from provincial and municipal governments.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2023.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Trudeau to make first official visit to South Korea : In The News for May 15

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