In The News for April 27 : More details on last year’s mass stabbing in Saskatchewan

Eleven people were killed and 18 were injured on the James Smith Cree Nation and in the nearby village of Weldon on Sept. 4.

Myles Sanderson, the 32-year-old accused in the attacks, died in police custody a few days later.

RCMP expect the latest update to take four hours and say it will include comments from Blackmore, as well as the officer in charge of major crimes in Saskatchewan.

Mounties say it won’t affect two coroner’s inquests set for early next year.

One of the inquests is to focus on the killings, while the other is to look at the suspect. Police have said Sanderson went into medical distress shortly after he was arrested near Rosthern, Sask.

An independent investigation is also being conducted by Saskatoon police and the Saskatchewan Serious Incident Response Team.

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Also this …

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in New York City to pitch America’s movers and shakers on the virtues of Canada as a trade and investment partner.

Experts on both sides of the border hope to hear more about how Ottawa plans to rapidly grow its critical minerals sector.

Former diplomat Louise Blais, now a senior adviser with the Business Council of Canada, says it’s time to detail the plan for getting those 21st-century riches out of the ground.

Trudeau is hoping to capitalize on the momentum from what most observers say was a successful and productive visit last month from President Joe Biden.

Today, he’s stopping in at Global Citizen NOW, an annual summit meeting of change-minded celebrities, activists and lawmakers.

Trudeau is also scheduled to meet with a UN task force on sustainable development and speak to the influential Council on Foreign Relations think tank.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

HELENA, Mont. _ Moves to stifle the voice of the first transgender woman elected to Montana’s legislature over her stand on gender-affirming care for children may have silenced her in the chambers of the state House, but Rep. Zooey Zephyr said she’s confident they’ve only amplified her message to constituents at home and others watching across the nation.

“There are many more eyes on Montana now,” Zephyr said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But you do the same thing you’ve always done. You stand up in defence of your community and you … stand for the principles that they elected you to stand for.”

Zephyr was thrust into the national spotlight last week when she was prevented from speaking in the House after telling lawmakers backing a bill to ban gender-affirming medical care for minors that they would have blood on their hands. The Republican response to her comments, and her refusal to apologize for them as demanded, have transformed the lawmaker into a prominent figure in the countrywide battle for transgender rights and placed her at the centre of the ongoing debate over the muffling of dissent in statehouses.

The attention is a new phenomenon for Zephyr, a 34-year-old serving her first term representing a western Montana college town after being elected last November. She will spend her first day in legislative exile when the Montana House reconvenes Thursday morning, a day after the Republican majority voted to bar her from the House floor for the rest of the session.

Lawmakers made the move in retaliation for her participation in a protest that disrupted Monday’s floor session. Protesters upset that she was prevented from taking part in House debates after making her comments packed the gallery and chanted “Let her speak!”

She stood by the remarks even after House Speaker Matt Regier said they violated decorum rules and demanded she apologized.

“The Montana House will not be bullied,” Regier said this week. He said the only person preventing Zephyr from speaking was Zephyr herself.

In her interview with the AP, Zephyr likened efforts to silence her to the decision by Tennessee lawmakers to expel two Black representatives for disrupting proceedings when they participated in a gun control protest after a school shooting in Nashville that killed three children and three adults. The two were quickly reinstated.

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about, is when young Black men stand up and say `We have a gun violence problem in this country’ and you are failing to recognize it, you’re failing to take action on it,” she said.

Zephyr’s stand has drawn attention from lawmakers throughout the country. On Tuesday, Tennessee Rep. Justin Pearson, one of the lawmakers who was expelled earlier this month, called the Montana standoff anti-democratic.

“We will not let our democracy die without fighting for every voice. We are in this fight from Memphis to Montana!” he tweeted.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

BENGALURU, India _ Asia must rapidly cut fossil fuel subsidies and plow more money into a clean energy transition to avoid catastrophic climate change that puts its own development at risk, according to a new report Thursday from the Asian Development Bank.

The region’s economic development is being fuelled in a carbon-intensive way that is well above the world average, said David Raitzer, an ADB economist and one of the authors of the report. He urged quick action on an energy transition for greater benefits and lower costs.

“Ambitious action on climate change with well-designed policies can have a massive payoff,” Raitzer said.

Several countries are developing new coal-fired power plants in Asia, which accounts for 94% of the global pipeline of coal-fired power plants under construction, planned, or announced, according to the report.

Even as China, India and Indonesia accounted for a third of all emissions of planet-warming gases in 2019, six of the top 10 countries most affected by extreme weather in the first two decades of this century were in Asia, according to earlier studies. It’s estimated that up to $1.5 trillion in losses and damage to property were recorded in the region during that period, including unprecedented flooding in Pakistan that affected 33 million people last year.

The report estimated that 346,000 lives would be saved annually by 2030 if developing countries in Asia meet their goals for shifting to clean energy, leading to reduced air pollution. And it projected social and economic benefits from the shift equal to five times the cost of climate change impacts.

But investment in clean energy is lacking. Developing countries in Asia spent $116 billion in 2021 on subsidizing fossil fuels _ much more than subsidies for renewables. Raitzer said international coordination is essential to change that.

“To reduce emissions efficiently, perverse subsidies for fossil fuels that exist now must be removed and there should be no new coal,” said Raitzer.

Other energy experts agree.

“A lot of development in Asia is linked to fossil fuel systems, which becomes a problem,” said Swati D’Souza, a New Delhi-based energy analyst with the Institute for Energy, Economics and Financial Analysis who has been researching Asia’s energy transition for most of a decade.

New investments in fossil fuels should be avoided, D’Souza said.

“They will become stranded assets and the costs of dealing with them will fall on governments and ultimately the local communities and people,” she said.

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On this day in 2011 …

Responding to critics’ relentless claims, U.S. President Barack Obama produced a detailed Hawaii birth certificate in an extraordinary attempt to bury the issue of where he was born and confirm his legitimacy to hold office.

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In entertainment …

NEW YORK _ Tucker Carlson emerged Wednesday, two days after Fox News fired him, with a two-minute, campaign-style monologue that didn’t address why he suddenly became unemployed.

He posted a video on Twitter shortly after 8 p.m. Eastern, the time his Fox show used to begin, that talked about a lack of honest political debate in the media.

Carlson said one of the things he noticed, “when you step away from the noise for a few days,” is how nice some people are, and how hilarious some are.

“The other thing you notice when you take a little time off is how unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are,” he said. “They’re completely irrelevant. They mean nothing. In five years we won’t even remember we heard them. Trust me, as somebody who participated.”

Fox fired its most popular personality on Monday without explanation, less than a week after settling a lawsuit concerning the spread of lies about the 2020 presidential election.

The mystery about why Fox Corp. leadership, Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan, decided to suddenly dismiss Carlson lingered. The company has not explained it, although some media reports Wednesday centred on material uncovered during Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit but redacted from court papers.

Private messages sent by Carlson with “highly offensive and crude remarks” were a “catalyst” in Fox’s decision to cut him loose, according to The New York Times.

Both The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post said one redacted message included a slur against a senior Fox executive. Each of the reports relied on sources that were not identified.

Some of the Dominion evidence that was publicly revealed showed some offensive remarks by Carlson, including use of a vulgarity to refer to Sidney Powell, the Trump supporter who was pushing bogus election conspiracy theories on Fox and elsewhere.

A Fox News representative did not comment on the reports or Carlson’s re-emergence, instead referring to Monday’s statement where the company said, “we thank him for his service.”

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Did you see this?

WINNIPEG _ Security video of a tense exchange between two Manitoba politicians inside the legislature was released by the Speaker’s office Wednesday, but the footage appeared unlikely to put to rest a dispute over exactly what happened.

The footage was recorded two weeks ago at a public event in the second-floor rotunda just outside the legislature chamber, and only made public Wednesday evening.

Obby Khan, the Progressive Conservative minister for sport, culture and heritage, complained to the Speaker that Opposition NDP Leader Wab Kinew held him in a long handshake at the event, swore at him and shoved his stomach.

Kinew denied the accusation, saying there was a “tense verbal exchange” and a handshake, but no swearing or shoving.

The footage, shot from a security camera far away, does not include audio. It shows Khan approaching a row of dignitaries after speaking at the event, which marked Turban Day, a commemoration of Sikh and Punjabi cultures.

Khan is seen giving a brief hug and handshake to one of Kinew’s colleagues in the NDP caucus, then approaching Kinew.

Kinew stands up and shakes Khan’s hand while also grabbing the bicep of Khan’s arm with his other hand.

The handshake appears to go on for 20 seconds. Khan takes a step away at one point and appears to try to leave, but Kinew continues to talk to him and the handshake does not break immediately.

At one point, Khan’s back is to the camera. There is no evidence of a shove.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 27, 2023

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

In The News for April 27 : More details on last year’s mass stabbing in Saskatchewan

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