Prince Harry makes surprise Grey Cup appearance in Vancouver

RIO DE JANEIRO – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will meet with U.S. President Joe Biden in Brazil at the G20 summit, as Ottawa seeks its place amid a growing rift between Washington and booming economies in the developing world.

The Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum with leaders ranging from long-standing allies such as French President Emmanuel Macron to populist firebrands like Argentine President Javier Milei.

They’re meeting in Rio de Janeiro to try to find common ground on issues ranging from solving global hunger to setting rules around digital currencies.

The summit comes less than two weeks after American voters decided to send Donald Trump back to the White House next year. During the campaign, Trump promised to pull the U.S. out of global institutions and raise tariffs on foreign goods.

John Kirton, head of the G20 Research Group, says the forum is the main tool countries have to prepare for the second Trump presidency.

“What you really need is basically the most powerful leaders, of the world’s most powerful countries, talking among themselves — because only they know what it’s like to deal with a leader in the same category,” he said.

Much of Trudeau’s time at the summit will likely involve informal chats with various leaders, though he is scheduled Monday to have formal meetings with Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

Trudeau’s meeting with Sheinbaum will come ahead of both countries facing a 2026 review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement.

“There are concerns around the level of Chinese investment in Mexico that I think need to be addressed, but I am hopeful that we’re going to be able to work constructively over the coming months,” Trudeau said at a Saturday news conference in Lima, adding that Mexico has been a “solid partner” to Canada.

Trudeau will likely meet with the summit host, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, commonly called Lula.

Kirton said Trudeau is in lockstep with Lula’s three main priorities for the summit, which are economic equality that includes Indigenous Peoples, climate change and clean energy, and reducing poverty and hunger.

Lula has added a fourth priority, artificial intelligence — something Trudeau championed when Canada hosted the G7 summit in 2018, and that Trudeau says will be a key focus in Canada’s term as G7 host next year.

“It’s hard to think of a G20 summit where the host’s and the Canadian prime minister’s priorities had been so well aligned,” Kirton said. “We’ve got a lot we can do to help Lula get what he wants.”

Another point of alignment is on Lula’s desire for global governance reform, something Ottawa has pushed for among the G7 and at the United Nations.

Countries like Brazil say they don’t have an adequate voice in institutions that were designed at the end of the Second World War, when Europe and Washington had a dominant role in shaping the rules governing military matters, trade and sovereignty.

Countries in regions like the Caribbean have the same grievances about financial institutions designed over the decades. They complain that they cannot get adequate financing to invest in infrastructure to blunt the impacts of climate change that is largely being caused by industrialized countries.

Instead, they are paying massive interest charges at a time of high inflation. In July 2023, a UN report found nearly half the world’s population lived in countries that spend more on debt interest payments than on education or health care.

Brazil prides itself on being a democracy anchored in what it calls a pragmatic approach to diplomacy, though both have been under strain.

Lula has made climate change one of his primary focuses. Brazil has seen large-scale urban floods and record forest fires in crucial areas like the Amazon, where there has been conflict over natural resources projects.

Neighbouring Venezuela’s dictatorship has meted out economic pain and state violence on its people, sending waves of refugees to Brazil.

In early 2023, Brazil was stunned as supporters of Lula’s predecessor Jair Bolsonaro stormed the country’s presidential palace, parliament and Supreme Court in what many likened to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington.

Since then, Brazil has sought to weed out misinformation, blocking access to the platform X for five weeks when the company refused to comply with court orders.

Meanwhile, the country is a member of the BRICS club of emerging economies that have been seeking more influence in the world for countries like China and South Africa, and an end to American dominance in fields like reserve currency.

Vina Nadjibulla, research vice-president for the Asia Pacific Foundation, urged Canadians “to not mistakenly lump Brazil into the … anti-West bloc that Russia, China, Iran and others within the BRICS represent.”

She said Ottawa should instead focus on shared priorities with Brazil such as free trade, democracy and respecting global rules — including moves to make those rules work better for countries where most of the world’s population live.

“It’s important as we enter this much more volatile, unpredictable period in international relations to maintain nuanced, smart approaches and policies to emerging and middle powers like Brazil,” she said.

Nadjibulla said it can be challenging to hit the right balance, but she said to not do so would drive partners like Brazil into the arms of disruptive powers like Russia and China, and foster more anti-Western sentiment.

“We need to be much more forthcoming in making those global institutions fit for purpose,” she said.

“That’s going to be really challenging with the next Trump administration, which has a very limited commitment to multilateralism and global institutions, and has a lot more isolationist tendencies.”

Similar to the past two G20 summits, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is in Rio for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who since March 2023 has been the subject of an arrest order from the International Criminal Court for his role in the deportation of Ukrainian children.

After Trudeau’s arrival Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, he addressed a conference held by the anti-poverty group Global Citizen on the sidelines of the G20 summit. Attendees came from around the world, and included Indigenous people from Amazon regions who wore traditional outfits.

The prime minister encouraged youth to not lose faith in fighting climate change, and defended his government’s embattled carbon-pricing policy.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2024.

RIO DE JANEIRO – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is defending his embattled carbon-pricing program on the world stage, and he argues that misinformation is threatening environmental progress.

Trudeau arrived today in Brazil for the G20 leaders summit, and addressed a conference held by the anti-poverty group Global Citizen.

He touted Canada’s consumer carbon levy, arguing it is among the world’s strongest but “an easy political target” in Canada.

Trudeau acknowledged pushback to the policy, but he said it is being fuelled by what he called propaganda and misinformation that affordability is in contrast with fighting climate change.

He said his Liberal party has already won three elections on carbon pricing as an issue, and he said the policy is “very much in question” for the next election.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has vowed to cancel the policy, pushing for a “carbon-tax election” to bring down the cost of living.

Trudeau made the comments at a panel themed around Canada’s hosting of the G7 summit next year, though Trudeau did not speak to that looming initiative.

Before the event, his office said the remarks would discuss “the economic case for climate action and Canada’s climate finance and international assistance” policies for the G7 presidency.

Trudeau’s remarks almost entirely related to defending the carbon levy, saying that it has been subject to “propaganda, misinformation, disinformation and flat-out lies.”

The federal NDP and some of their provincial counterparts have distanced themselves from the policy which they previously supported.

Ottawa sends the rebates to offset what people pay in carbon pricing when they buy fuel so they’re not less worse off as a result. People who do things to lower their fuel use are even better off, because they still get the same rebate but pay less in carbon pricing.

The levy applies in provinces and territories that do not have carbon-pricing systems that Ottawa deems to be in line with its federal targets.

The parliamentary budget officer says the vast majority of households get back more in rebates than they pay for carbon pricing, but for most, those gains are erased after broader economic factors are taken into account.

Trudeau has disputed that analysis, including in his Sunday remarks.

“It actually has become a way of helping with affordability and putting more money in the pockets of people who are struggling,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2024.

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BEIRUT (AP) — A rare Israeli strike in central Beirut killed the Hezbollah militant group’s chief spokesman on Sunday, while an Israeli strike in northern Gaza ’s Beit Lahiya killed at least 30 people, the director of a hospital there told The Associated Press.

Mohammed Afif was killed in a strike on the Arab socialist Baath party’s office in Beirut, according to a Hezbollah official who was not authorized to brief reporters and spoke on condition of anonymity. Afif had been especially visible after all-out war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah in September.

It was the latest targeted killing of senior Hezbollah officials. On Sunday night, another strike in central Beirut hit a computer shop, killing two people and wounding 13, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The strikes occurred as Lebanese officials consider a United States-led cease-fire proposal. Israel also bombed several buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has long been headquartered, after warning people to evacuate.

Screams in central Beirut

There was no Israeli evacuation warning before the strike near a busy intersection in central Beirut that killed Afif. An AP photographer there saw four bodies and four wounded people. There was no comment from the Israeli military.

“I was asleep and awoke from the sound of the strike, and people screaming, and cars and gunfire,” said witness Suheil Halabi. “I was startled, honestly. This is the first time I experience it so close.”

After the second strike in central Beirut on Sunday night, firefighters struggled to control the blaze in the busy residential neighborhood of Mar Elias. Small explosions could be heard in the shop. Bystanders said they heard a second explosion and a car nearby appeared to be hit.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack ignited the war in Gaza. Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes in Lebanon and the conflict steadily escalated.

Israeli forces invaded Lebanon on Oct. 1. On Sunday, Israel’s military said mobile artillery batteries had crossed into Lebanon and began attacking Hezbollah targets, the first time artillery was launched within Lebanese territory.

More than 3,400 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry, and over 1.2 million driven from their homes. It is not known how many of the dead are Hezbollah fighters.

Hezbollah has fired dozens of projectiles into Israel daily. The attacks have killed at least 76 people, including 31 soldiers, and caused some 60,000 people to flee. Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said a teenager suffered blast injuries Sunday in Upper Galilee.

Lebanon’s army, largely on the sidelines, said an Israeli strike on Sunday hit a military center in southeastern Al-Mari, killing two soldiers and wounding two others. There was no immediate Israeli comment.

In Gaza, an escalation

Hosam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, said there were dozens of wounded after the Israeli strike there, and others likely were still under the rubble.

Fleeing residents told the AP that houses were hit.

An Israeli military statement earlier said it conducted several strikes on “terrorist targets” in Beit Lahiya. It said efforts to evacuate civilians from the “active war zone” there continued.

Israeli forces have again been on the offensive in northern Gaza, saying Hamas militants have regrouped there.

“Tonight we did not sleep at all,” said one fleeing Beit Lahiya resident, Dalal al-Bakri. “They destroyed all the houses around us. … There are many martyrs.”

A woman, Umm Hamza, said the bombing had escalated overnight. “It’s cold and we don’t know where to go,” she said.

Earlier, officials said Israeli strikes killed six people in Nuseirat and four in Bureij, two built-up refugee camps in central Gaza dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.

Two people were killed in a strike on Gaza’s main north-south highway, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah.

Israel’s military said two soldiers were killed in northern Gaza on Sunday.

The war between Israel and Hamas began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7. last year, killing about 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting around 250 others. Around 100 hostages remain in Gaza, about a third believed to be dead.

On Sunday, Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency said it held a joint meeting with the heads of the army and intelligence to discuss mediation efforts to release the hostages. It was the first public word of any such effort since Qatar announced it was suspending its mediation work earlier this month.

The Health Ministry in Gaza says around 43,800 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but has said women and children make up more than half the fatalities.

Around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians have been displaced, and large areas of the territory have been flattened by Israeli bombardment and ground operations.

Pope Francis has called for an investigation to determine if Israel’s attacks in Gaza constitute genocide, according to excerpts released Sunday from an upcoming book.

3 arrested after flares fired at Netanyahu’s home

Israeli police arrested three suspects after two flares were fired overnight at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in the coastal city of Caesarea.

Netanyahu and his family were not there, authorities said. A drone launched by Hezbollah struck the residence last month, also when they were away.

The police did not provide details about the suspects, but officials pointed to domestic political critics of Netanyahu.

Netanyahu has faced months of mass protests. Critics blame him for the security and intelligence failures that allowed the Oct. 7 attack to happen and for not reaching a deal with Hamas to release hostages.

His government also faces anger from the ultra-Orthodox community over military draft notices. Some protested Sunday in the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv after the government said 7,000 new notices would be issued.

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Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press reporters Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv, Israel, Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem and Kareem Chehayeb and Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed.

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