Ukrainian PM to meet with Trudeau today : In The News for April 11

Canada has contributed billions of dollars in economic and military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022.

That includes a $2.4-billion loan announced in last month’s federal budget, as well as tanks, armoured vehicles and ammunition.

Shmyhal’s visit comes as reports suggest the Ukrainian military is preparing a spring offensive aimed at pushing Russian forces from the east of the country.

The visit also coincides with the apparent leak of secret U.S. documents on social media detailing Ukrainian and Russian military capabilities and losses in war.

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Also this …

Two Canadian women who were arrested after returning to Canada from a prison camp in northeastern Syria last week are expected to appear in a Brampton, Ont., court today.

The RCMP says the two women are scheduled to appear for a bail hearing while the Mounties seek a terrorism peace bond against them under the Criminal Code.

They were among four Canadian women and 10 children who landed in Montreal last week after being held for years at the al-Roj prison camp in northeastern Syria.

The detainees in the camps are mostly women and children who were rounded up after the fall of the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in 2019.

About 10,000 of them are foreign nationals from more than 60 countries outside Syria and Iraq, and the Kurds have asked those countries to repatriate their citizens.

Some are relatives of suspected ISIL fighters, but they have never been brought before a court.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

A Louisville bank employee armed with a rifle opened fire at his workplace Monday morning, killing five people _ including a close friend of Kentucky’s governor _ while livestreaming the attack on Instagram, authorities said.

Police arrived as shots were still being fired inside Old National Bank and killed the shooter in an exchange of gunfire, Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said. The city’s mayor, Craig Greenberg, called the attack “an evil act of targeted violence.”

The shooting, the 15th mass killing in the country this year, comes just two weeks after a former student killed three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, 260 kilometres to the south. That state’s governor and his wife also had friends killed in that shooting.

In Louisville, the chief identified the shooter as 25-year-old Connor Sturgeon, who she said was livestreaming during the attack.

“That’s tragic to know that that incident was out there and captured,” she said.

Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, said in a statement that it had “quickly removed the livestream of this tragic incident this morning.”

Social media companies have imposed tougher rules over the past few years to prohibit violent and extremist content. They have set up systems to remove posts and streams that violate those restrictions, but shocking material like the Louisville shooting continues to slip through the cracks, prompting lawmakers and other critics to lash out at the technology industry for slipshod safeguards and moderation policies.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has condemned China’s military drills in the Taiwan Strait, saying Tuesday that China did not demonstrate the “responsible” behavior of a major Asian nation.

China’s three-day, large-scale drills that ended Monday were retaliation for Tsai’s meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California last week on her tour of Taiwan’s official and unofficial allies.

“As the president, I represent our country in the world, whether it’s a visit to allied countries or stopping through in the U.S. and interacting with our international friends, and not only has this been going on for years, it’s the Taiwanese people’s shared expectation,” Tsai said in a short statement. “But China used this as a pretext to start military drills, creating instability in the Taiwan Strait and region. This is not the attitude of a responsible major nation in this region.”

China sees such meetings as encouraging people who formal independence for the island, a step China’s ruling Communist Party says would lead to war. The sides split in 1949 after a civil war, and the government says the island is obliged to rejoin the mainland, by force if necessary.

The People’s Liberation Army issued a threat as it concluded the exercises. “The theater’s troops are ready to fight at all times and can fight at any time to resolutely smash any form of `Taiwan independence’ and foreign interference attempts,” the PLA’s eastern command said in a statement.

In recent years, China has been increasing its military presence in the Taiwan Strait, with warplanes being sent on a near-daily basis and military drills being conducted in the waters and skies near Taiwan.

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On this day in 1768 …

Fire destroyed one-third of Montreal. It was one of several major fires in the community in the 1700s, a time when most of Montreal was built out of wood and there was no fire pump. The only way to fight fire was with pails of water.

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In entertainment …

Al Jaffee, Mad magazine’s award-winning cartoonist and ageless wise guy who delighted millions of kids with the sneaky fun of the Fold-In and the snark of “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions,” has died. He was 102.

Jaffee died Monday in Manhattan from multiple organ failure, according to his granddaughter, Fani Thomson. He had retired at the age of 99.

Mad magazine, with its wry, sometimes pointed send-ups of politics and culture, was essential reading for teens and preteens during the baby-boom era and inspiration for countless future comedians. Few of the magazine’s self-billed “Usual Gang of Idiots” contributed as much _ and as dependably _ as the impish, bearded cartoonist. For decades, virtually every issue featured new material by Jaffee. His collected “Fold-Ins,” taking on everyone in his unmistakably broad visual style from the Beatles to TMZ, was enough for a four-volume box set published in 2011.

Readers savored his Fold-Ins like dessert, turning to them on the inside back cover after looking through such other favorites as Antonio Prohias’ “Spy vs. Spy” and Dave Berg’s “The Lighter Side.” The premise, originally a spoof of the old Sports Illustrated and Playboy magazine foldouts, was that you started with a full-page drawing and question on top, folded two designated points toward the middle and produced a new and surprising image, along with the answer.

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Did you see this?

There’s a growing trend of online encrypted drug dealing that a study says needs more attention by police.

Richard Frank, an associate professor of criminology at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., says the encrypted markets are attractive to buyers and sellers for lower prices, contactless transactions and a large variety of drugs available.

He is part of a research team studying the illegal activity for the Office of Crime Reduction and Gang Outreach, which wants data on the size and scope of the online problem to justify the need for more funding to combat the problem.

Frank, who is also the director of the International CyberCrime Research Centre, says the group analyzed eight of the largest so-called cryptomarkets between June 2021 and January 2022.

The study showed almost 17 tonnes of drug products were trafficked for $234.7 million in eight markets, with the most popular drugs being stimulants, cannabis, opioids and benzodiazepines.

Frank says the first cryptomarket was identified around 2010, and while police work to shut down sites whenever possible, it has been “like whack-a-mole” ever since.

“You shut down one (and) two or three spring up. Some disappear on their own, but still, you shut some down and they’re simply replaced,” he said in an interview Monday. “This problem is growing, but it’s not for a lack of effort on the law enforcement side. It’s more that this is just becoming a bit more established.”

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 11, 2023.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Ukrainian PM to meet with Trudeau today : In The News for April 11

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