Manulife CEO Roy Gori to retire in May, Phil Witherington named next CEO

OTTAWA – Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the annual pace of housing starts in October rose eight per cent compared with September.

The national housing agency said the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 240,761 units in October, up from 223,391 in September.

The increase came as the annual pace of urban housing starts rose six per cent to 223,111 units.

The annual pace of multi-unit urban starts such as apartments, condominiums and townhouses gained seven per cent at 175,705, while the rate of single-detached urban starts increased one per cent at 47,406 units.

The annual pace of rural starts was estimated at 17,650.

CMHC chief economist Bob Dugan said the Prairies, Quebec and Atlantic provinces have seen higher activity this year, while Ontario and B.C. recorded declines.

“Despite these results, we remain well below what is required to restore affordability in Canada’s urban centres,” Dugan said in a news release on Monday.

Actual year-to-date housing starts between January and October 2024 were up 12 per cent in Montreal from the same period last year, while in Vancouver, actual starts were down 18 per cent after a record high year in 2023.

In Toronto, actual year-to-date housing starts were down 21 per cent from 2023.

CMHC said the six-month moving average of the annual rate of housing starts was flat in October at 243,522 units.

TD economist Rishi Sondhi said October’s “healthy” level of starts “sets homebuilding off on the right foot in terms of its contribution to overall economic growth in the fourth quarter.”

But the outlook for housing starts remains “soft,” he said, even when considering October’s gains.

“This is largely due to the outsized weakness expected for Ontario, which will bring down the national figures,” Sondhi said in a note, adding starts in Ontario over the past 12 months have fallen to levels last seen in 2020.

“Pre-sales activity remains exceedingly weak in the GTA, pointing to more of the same through 2025. This is the key factor underpinning our forecast that starts will decline next year, even with homebuilding likely to hold up better in other parts of the country.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 18, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

About one in five Americans – and a virtually identical share of Republicans and Democrats – regularly get their news from digital influencers who are more likely to be found on the social media platform X, according to a report released Monday by the Pew Research Center.

The findings, drawn from a survey of more than 10,000 U.S. adults and an analysis of social media posts posted this summer by influencers, provide an indication of how Americans consumed the news during the height of the U.S. presidential campaign that President-elect Donald Trump ultimately won.

The study examined accounts run by people who post and talk regularly about current events – including through podcasts and newsletters – and have more than 100,000 followers on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X or TikTok. They include people across the political spectrum, such as the progressive podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen and conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro, as well as non-partisan personalities like Chris Cillizza, a former CNN analyst who now runs his own newsletter.

The report found that news influencers posted mostly about politics and the election, followed by social issues like race and abortion and international events, such as the Israel-Hamas war. Most of them – 63% – are men and the majority – 77% – have no affiliation, or background, with a media organization. Pew said about half of the influencers it sampled did not express a clear political orientation. From the ones that did, slightly more of them identified as conservative than as liberal.

During the campaign, both parties and presidential campaigns had courted influencers, including creators who weren’t very political, to compete for voters who are increasingly getting most of their news from non-traditional sources.

The Republican and Democratic national conventions had credentialed influencers to cover their events this past summer. Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with Alex Cooper for her “Call Her Daddy” podcast and talked a little Bay Area basketball with the fellows on “All the Smoke.” Meanwhile, Trump hung out with the bros on the “Bussin’ With the Boys,” “Flagrant” and the popular podcaster Joe Rogan as part of a series of appearances targeting young male voters.

“These influencers have really reached new levels of attention and prominence this year amid the presidential election,” Galen Stocking, senior computational social scientist at Pew Research Center, said in a statement. “We thought it was really important to look at who is behind some of the most popular accounts – the ones that aren’t news organizations, but actual people.”

Even though 85% of news influencers have a presence on X, many of them also have homes on other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

Racial minorities, young adults and adults with a lower income were more likely to get their news from news influencers, according to the report. Most of the people surveyed by Pew said news influencers have helped them better understand current events, while roughly a quarter say what they hear has not made much of a difference. A small share — 9% — say influencers have confused them more.

Media analysts have long been concerned about how influencers – most of whom don’t have to abide by editorial standards – could fuel misinformation, or even be used by America’s adversaries to churn out content that fits their interests. On social media, though, some influencers have positioned themselves as figures presenting neglected points of view.

Pew, which is doing the study as part of an initiative funded by the Knight Foundation, said 70% of the survey respondents believe the news they get from influencers is somewhat different than what they hear elsewhere. Roughly a quarter said it was “extremely or very different.”

The report found TikTok is the only one of the major platforms where influencers who identify as right-leaning do not outnumber those who are more liberal. Pew said news influencers on the short-form video app were more likely than those on other sites to show support for LGBTQ+ rights or identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community. The platform also had the smallest gender gap for news influencers.

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AP media writer David Bauder contributed to this report.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip killed eight people, including two children aged 7 and 9 and their parents, Palestinian officials said Monday.

A third child, 10 years old, was wounded in an overnight strike on a tent where displaced people were sheltering in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to the Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government. An Associated Press reporter saw the children’s bodies at nearby Nasser Hospital.

A separate strike early Monday killed four people, including a woman and a child, in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

The Israeli military blames civilian deaths on Hamas, accusing militants of hiding among civilians and fighting from residential areas. It rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.

The war began when Hamas stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 43,800 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. They do not distinguish between militants and civilians but say most of those killed are women and children. The fighting has left some 76 people dead in Israel, including 31 soldiers.

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Death toll rises to 7 in Israeli strike in central Beirut

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Health Ministry said the toll from Sunday’s Israeli strike in central Beirut rose to seven killed, including a woman, and 26 wounded.

The Health Ministry also said Monday that three people were killed and 29 wounded in a separate strike Sunday in the Mar Elias area of central Beirut.

The Hezbollah militant group said five members were killed including its spokesperson Mohammad Afif in the strike in the Ras Al Nabaa area.

9 members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad killed in Israeli strikes are buried in Damascus

DAMASCUS — Nine members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group who were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Damascus were buried Monday in the Syrian capital.

Women in the crowd wept as the dead were transported to the Yarmouk cemetery in the Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus. Some held images of slain Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

Israeli strikes on Thursday targeted two buildings with the offices of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, killing 15 people, including Syrian civilians, and wounding 20 others, officials said.

The funeral on Monday was held for the nine Islamic Jihad members, including two high-ranking officials — commander Abdel Aziz Saeed Minawi and Rasmi Youssef Abu Issa, who was in charge of the group’s Arab affairs.

The wife of Ali Kabalan, a 44-year-old fighter who was killed Thursday, told The Associated Press that while the loss was unbearable, she and their five children were “proud” that he died “a martyr for the cause of Palestine’s liberation.”

The Israeli military claimed the strikes dealt significant damage to its group’s leadership. Israel has accused the Islamic Jihad, alongside Hamas, of coordinating the Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel that ignited the ongoing war.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria targeting members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and officials from Iranian-backed groups.

Head of UNRWA says banning the agency would leave Israel responsible for the needs of Palestinians

GENEVA — The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees says Israel would have the “responsibility” to respond to their needs if it goes through with plans to ban the agency.

Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, on Monday stepped up appeals to the international community to help convince Israeli authorities not to go through with the ban.

Measures passed by the Knesset, if carried out as anticipated in January, would ban UNRWA from operating and cut all ties between the agency and the Israeli government.

“The clock is ticking,” Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva.

Critics say the Knesset moves culminated a long-running campaign against UNRWA, which Israel contends has been infiltrated by Hamas. They say Israel’s real aim is to sideline the issue of Palestinian refugees.

Lazzarini all but suggested that the considerable work helping Palestinian refugees would otherwise fall to Israel under international humanitarian law.

“I keep being asked, Is there yes, or not, a Plan B? There is no plan B within the U.N. agency — within the U.N. family because there is no other agency geared to provide the same activities,” he said.

“UNRWA is the response of the international community to the plight of the Palestinian refugees, through the mandate provided by the GA (United Nations General Assembly) resolution,” Lazzarini added. “So, if there is no U.N. or international community response, the responsibility will go back to the occupying power, being Israel.”

“And that’s where we have to ask: Where does a plan B sit today?” he said.

Israeli troops deliver fuel and medical equipment to hospitals in northern Gaza, military says

TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military said Monday it had delivered fuel and medical equipment to hospitals in a besieged part of northern Gaza, where troops have launched an intense operation since October.

COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza said, said they delivered 10,000 liters of fuel and 149 packages of medical equipment to two hospitals, and helped oversee the evacuation of 64 patients and their escorts, along with the U.N., from hard-hit hospitals in the north.

The hospitals that serve the area have been largely inaccessible because of the fighting, and a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital last month left it barely functional.

Israel has faced international pressure to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, particularly in the war-ravaged north. Last week, the United States said it would not limit arms transfers to Israel as it had threatened to do in October if aid was not significantly stepped up.

In November, COGAT said they facilitated at least two aid deliveries to the far north, after a month in which virtually no supplies reached these areas. But international aid groups warned much more is needed, and famine is imminent in parts of northern Gaza.

Funeral held for the Hezbollah main spokesman killed in an Israeli strike

BEIRUT — A funeral was held Monday in southern Lebanon for Mohammad Afif, Hezbollah’s head of media relations, a day after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut.

Afif’s coffin, draped in Hezbollah’s yellow flag, was carried through the streets of Sidon on the shoulders of mourners.

“Resistance is the response, and the convoys of martyrs create victory,” Afif’s brother, Sadiq al-Naboulsi, said at the funeral.

“Hajj Mohammad Afif was a big figure in the media, and therefore the Israelis and Americans were hurt by his voice. For that reason, they assassinated him. The killing of Hajj Mohammad Afif and all the martyrs and leaders will not turn (us) back at all,” he said.

The strike that hit central Beirut for the first time in over a month also killed three other people on Sunday, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

Afif had been a prominent spokesperson for Hezbollah, especially during the recent escalation of tensions with Israel. Days before his death, he held a press conference in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where he declared that Hezbollah was prepared for a prolonged war and denied claims that the group had lost its missile capabilities.

Lebanon will convey its positive response to a US cease-fire proposal, minister says

BEIRUT — A government minister close to Hezbollah says Lebanon will convey its “positive position” on a United States-backed cease-fire proposal this week.

The Biden administration is trying to halt the war between Israel and the militant group after months of sputtering cease-fire efforts.

Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who is mediating for the militants, is expected to meet with U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday.

Labor Minister Mostafa Bayram, who met with Berri on Monday, said Hezbollah’s function “is to make sure the (Israeli) aggression fails to achieve its goals, while negotiation is for the state and the government.”

A Western diplomat familiar with the talks told The Associated Press there is a sense of “cautious optimism.”

“Diplomatic efforts are converging towards a cease-fire, but it’s still in the hands and heads of key players to decide if it’s in their interest or not to stop things right now,” said the diplomat, who was not authorized to brief media and so spoke on condition of anonymity.

The efforts are aimed at reestablishing a U.N. buffer zone in southern Lebanon established after the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. Israel is said to be pushing for guarantees it can continue to act militarily against Hezbollah if needed, a demand the Lebanese are unlikely to accept.

— By Kareem Chehayeb

Turkey denies overflight permission for a plane carrying Israel’s president

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey has denied Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s plane the right to use its airspace, preventing him from traveling to Azerbaijan, the Turkish state-run news agency reported.

The Anadolu Agency report late Sunday said Israeli authorities requested permission for the plane to access the Turkish airspace on its way to Baku, Azerbaijan, where Herzog was scheduled to attend the COP29 conference on climate change.

The agency based its report on unnamed Turkish officials. It did not say when the permission was denied. A statement from Herzog’s office said the decision to cancel the president’s trip to Baku was due to “the situation assessment and for security reasons.” It did not comment on the Turkish report.

Turkey has emerged as one of the strongest critics of Israel’s military actions in Gaza and Lebanon. It has suspended trade relations with Israel, accused the country of genocide and voiced support to Hamas.

Children and their parents among 8 killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza, officials say

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed eight people, including two children aged 7 and 9 and their parents, Palestinian officials said. A third child, 10 years old, was wounded in the same strike.

The Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, said Monday that the two children were killed in an overnight strike on a tent where displaced people were sheltering in the southern city of Khan Younis.

An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies at nearby Nasser Hospital. The two children were beheaded by the blast and their remains were placed in one body bag.

A separate strike early Monday killed four people, including a woman and a child, in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

The Israeli military blames civilian deaths on Hamas, accusing militants of hiding among civilians and fighting from residential areas. It rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.

The war began when Hamas stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 43,800 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. They do not distinguish between militants and civilians but say most of those killed are women and children.

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