Latest news with #WaLone
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Canada promises to boost defense spending, meet NATO target much earlier
By Wa Lone TORONTO (Reuters) -Canada's Liberal government will pour extra billions into its armed forces and hit NATO's 2% military spending target this fiscal year, five years earlier than promised, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Monday. Canada has been under pressure from the United States and other NATO allies for years to increase military funding. Canada currently spends about 1.4% of GDP on defense. "Now is the time to act with urgency, force, and determination," Carney said in a speech in Toronto, reiterating promises to work more closely with Europe's defense industry. Carney won the April 28 election on a promise to stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and also to reduce the country's military reliance on Washington. Carney said another reason for Ottawa to act was what he called the decision by the United States to gradually withdraw from the concept of collective security. "Rising great powers are now in strategic competition with America. A new imperialism threatens. Middle powers compete for interests and attention, knowing that if they are not at the table, they will be on the menu," he said. The previous Liberal government last year formally committed to hit the NATO target by 2032. During the election campaign Carney pledged to get to 2% by 2030. Canada will boost pay for the armed forces and buy new submarines, aircraft, ships, armed vehicles and artillery, as well as new radar, drones and sensors to monitor the sea floor and the Arctic, Carney said. "The transformation of our military capabilities can help transform our economy," he said. Officials are due to give more details of the plan before Carney speaks to the media at 1 p.m. Eastern Time (1700 GMT). (Additional reporting by Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru and Promit Mukherjee; writing by David Ljunggren; editing by Rod Nickel)
Straits Times
09-06-2025
- General
- Straits Times
From flames to Falls: Canada's Indigenous wildfire evacuees take refuge in Niagara
FILE PHOTO: Joseph Garrey, 63, a resident of the Pukatawagan First Nation and among those evacuated due to ongoing wildfires, sits for an interview at a hotel in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, June 4, 2025. REUTERS/Wa Lone FILE PHOTO: Steven Castel, a councillor from Pukatawagan First Nation, reflects on the wildfire evacuation experience during an interview at a hotel in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, June 4, 2025. REUTERS/Wa Lone FILE PHOTO: Selena Castel, a councillor from Pukatawagan First Nation in northern Manitoba and among those evacuated due to ongoing wildfires, sits for an interview at a hotel in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, June 4, 2025. REUTERS/Wa Lone FILE PHOTO: Vanessa Hart, a stay-at-home mother from Pukatawagan, shares her experience during a wildfire evacuation during an interview at a hotel in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, June 4, 2025. REUTERS/Wa Lone NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario - As wildfires engulfed Manitoba's remote north in late May, Joseph Garry, 63, fled the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation indigenous reserve, also known as Pukatawagan, on a helicopter. With other evacuees, he took three separate government flights before boarding a bus to find shelter in Niagara Falls, Canada's most popular tourist destination, some 2,000 kilometers from home. Scores of wildfires have swept across Canada since the start of May, forcing more than 30,000 people to evacuate in three provinces, spreading smoke into the United States, and disrupting crude oil and mining production. Indigenous communities have been hit especially hard. Although First Nations people make up only around 5% of Canada's population, they are among the most affected by this year's wildfires. Manitoba is struggling with its largest-ever fire evacuation effort. Early evacuees took shelter in community and sport centers in Winnipeg, but the province's cities are running out of space, forcing officials to turn to other locations such as Ontario's Niagara Falls, which has ample hotels. Around 2,000 evacuees from Manitoba and 500 from Northern Ontario are staying in four hotels in Niagara Falls, with more possibly arriving in coming days, according to Jo Zambito, chief of the Niagara Falls Fire Department. While the city is proud to help fellow Canadians during a crisis, Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati urged the federal and provincial governments to consider alternative accommodations as peak tourism season approaches. Indigenous leaders in Manitoba have criticized both federal and provincial governments for inadequate communication and delays in delivering requested resources during the wildfire crisis, while Pukatawagan residents recounted a chaotic and frightening evacuation. Videos shared by residents with Reuters showed military and civilian helicopters buzzing back and forth over the remote community of roughly 3,000 people, landing on the school field as thick wildfire smoke enveloped the area and flames inched nearer, and dozens of people huddled inside a Chinook military helicopter. At one point, a pilot warned Garry and 100 others waiting to board that the fire was only half a kilometer away and being pushed closer by the wind. 'To tell you the truth, it's... It's scary. Not for myself, but for everybody else. Especially children,' Garry said, in tears while speaking at the hotel the federal government is housing him in. Garry, a manager at the local airfield, left all his belongings behind except for a few sets of clothing and was briefly separated from two of his daughters and their children. His 50-person extended family was later reunited in Niagara Falls. Vanessa Hart, 43, a stay-at-home mother from Pukatawagan who was evacuated to Niagara Falls, said that despite repeated pleas from their chief and council, help did not arrive for three to four days. She believes a faster evacuation could have prevented significant distress. "They didn't come and help right away," Hart said. Indigenous Services Canada, which managed the evacuation, said emergency response is a shared responsibility and first response is generally up to local authorities. "The Government of Canada is working alongside First Nation partners, as well as provincial and territorial counterparts, and continues to closely monitor the rapidly evolving wildfire situation across the country," the agency said in a statement. Manitoba's government said in an email that smoky conditions near Pukatawagan early in the emergency response prevented water bombers from providing vital air support. "They (planes) were grounded for all fires in the air support has been used extensively in the north whenever and wherever possible," it added. A date to return home for the evacuees in Niagara Falls is uncertain and depends on when plane and rail access are restored - possibly in one to two months. Wildfire response in First Nations communities has been "pretty chaotic," said Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak. She called for more investment in basic infrastructure such as fire hydrants and fire trucks. "We need more coordination. And we've been asking for it for decades," she said. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Few doctors, throttled aid: How Myanmar's junta worsened earthquake toll
By Wa Lone, Poppy McPherson and Shoon Naing (Reuters) - Burmese academic Sophia Htwe spent hours desperately trying to call home from Australia after the 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck her hometown in Myanmar in late March, learning that a childhood friend had been trapped in the rubble. Friends from the central-northwestern region of Sagaing told her that she had been freed but died from her injuries after receiving no medical treatment. "That just really broke me... This is actually the failure of the military junta and the military coup," she said, referring to the junta's attacks on healthcare since seizing power in February 2021. The earthquake, which killed more than 3,700 people and injured 5,000, quickly overwhelmed a severely depleted health system in which the number of doctors and nurses had fallen dramatically under military rule, according to World Health Organization figures. Many blame the situation on attacks on healthcare facilities as the military administration sought to root out opponents to its rule, after medics took a prominent role in the anti-junta movement that emerged after the coup. That meant many victims of the earthquake went without immediate medical attention or had to wait a long time to receive the care they needed, according to two doctors who worked in the quake zone, two opposition activists and two human rights groups monitoring the response to the disaster. Rights groups Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights said doctors had described medicine and staff shortages and patients whose wounds had rotted in the absence of medical care. In a joint statement on April 29 they said the military's "years of unlawful attacks on healthcare facilities and workers" had severely hindered the emergency response. The situation was compounded, they said, because some medical workers were too afraid of arrest to operate in junta-controlled areas or scared of passing through checkpoints to reach areas where they were needed. Some areas affected by the earthquake are contested by both rebel and junta forces and their affiliated militias, creating an environment of tension and suspicion. Despite declaring a ceasefire on April 2, the junta has continued daily aerial attacks that have killed civilians, according to a Reuters analysis of data. More than 172 attacks have occurred since the ceasefire, 73 of them in areas devastated by the earthquake. A spokesman for the junta did not respond to several requests for comment. WORKFORCE SHORTAGES Before the coup, which toppled the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and ignited a civil war, the number of healthcare workers was growing. It surged 13.3% between 2016 and 2020 to about six doctors and nine nurses per 10,000 people, the WHO said. That figure fell to 1.01 doctors and 1.96 nurses in 2022 – far short of the recommended WHO minimum standard of 22.8 healthcare workers per 10,000 – as medical workers joined the anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement, refusing to work for government-run clinics. According to Insecurity Insight, a Swiss non-governmental organisation, that tracks attacks on healthcare across the world. Soldiers have killed at least 74 health workers, attacked at least 263 health facilities, and arrested and prosecuted more than 800 since the coup. While some who left have since returned to work, the shortage of health workers remains "very serious", said Dr Thushara Fernando, the WHO's Myanmar representative. In January this year, junta leader Min Aung Hlaing acknowledged in state media that some hospitals did not have a single doctor. Non-government medical facilities were "severely restricted", the WHO said, by a lack of skilled health workers and difficulties imposed by the junta in importing medical supplies - restrictions that have created a shortage of life-saving medicines. Before the quake, the military shut at least eight private hospitals in Mandalay, one of the cities devastated by the disaster, according to the National Unity Government, a parallel civilian administration, while the quake destroyed at least five health facilities and partially damaged 61, according to the WHO. Healthcare workers aligned with the opposition are providing lifesaving care through underground networks, but "they are operating with extremely limited resources, and their safety remains a serious concern," said an NUG official who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation. The junta has detained doctors aligned with the opposition, which it characterises as "terrorists". The two doctors who travelled to the earthquake zone and asked not to be named for fear of retribution also described manpower problems. One said medics treating quake victims lacked triage expertise because the senior doctors who once led training had been imprisoned or feared arrest if they travelled to the disaster zone. The other said people with chronic illnesses had been unable to access vital medications, and quake survivors were suffering from diarrhoea, skin-related diseases and heat-stroke as temperatures climb to about 40 degrees Celsius (104°F). "During the earthquake, people didn't receive the immediate aid they desperately needed," he said, adding that authorities frequently questioned people helping survivors. UNDERGROUND RESPONSE The military, which controls most but not all of the areas worst hit by the quake, has not eased its communications bans or stringent customs rules since the disaster happened, said James Rodehaver, Myanmar head for the United Nations Office on Human Rights. He said a requirement by the junta that all organisations working on earthquake relief register with authorities had driven some Burmese humanitarian responders underground, while there was no evidence the military – fighting across multiple frontlines – was deploying troops to help deliver aid. In 2022, state media reported the junta diverted funds from the natural disaster management budget to provide loans in a bid to boost the sluggish economy, a move Win Myat Aye, the top official for disaster management under the former civilian government, says left a shortage of emergency supplies, logistical support, and recovery programmes. In Sagaing, Nyi Nyi Tin, whose home was damaged by the quake, said there was no official support beyond an offer of about $61 to the families of the dead and some compensation for the injured. As the monsoon rains loom, tens of thousands are still living in makeshift tents and the WHO says it fears the spread of communicable diseases. In comparison with massive community responses to past disasters, including the COVID-19 pandemic, there were only small teams of people helping and little cooperation between civil society and authorities, Nyi Nyi Tin said. "That sense of unity is gone. I think it's because people are afraid," he said. (Reporting by Wa Lone, Poppy McPherson, and Shoon Naing. Writing by Poppy McPherson; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Carney pledges tax cuts, defense spending in Canada election platform
By Wa Lone TORONTO (Reuters) -Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's campaign platform plans released on Saturday include tax cuts and new spending on infrastructure and defense, as he pledges a new economic order that is less reliant on the United States. Carney has campaigned on his experience managing crises while running the central bank of Canada during the 2008 financial crisis and that of Britain during Brexit. He often says he is the best person to stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump, who has imposed tariffs on Canada and threatened to annex the country. "We're in an enormous crisis, so we have to be able to do two things. One, hold down on that wasteful spending, which we will do, but much more than that, we need to be bold and drive investment in the economy and take the amazing opportunities we have," Carney said at a press conference. Carney has also aimed to distance himself from predecessor Justin Trudeau by promising a leaner government. Carney's plan would push the federal government's deficit to 1.96% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the 2025-26 fiscal year, down to 1.83% of GDP the following year, and to 1.35% by 2028-29, the platform says. Trudeau's government had last forecast a deficit of 1.6% of GDP for the previous fiscal year that ended in March. Carney plans to break up spending into operating and capital spending, which would be new in Canada. Carney told the press conference government spending had been growing by around 9% every year and his government would bring that rate of spending growth to around 2% without cutting any transfers to provinces, territories or individuals. He promised to balance the operating budget over the next three years. "Our plan gets government spending under control because the government has been spending too much and Canada has been investing too little," Carney said. Carney plans to increase defense spending to exceed a NATO target of 2% of GDP and said Canada would invest in transatlantic security with "like minded" European partners.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Carney says China is a foreign interference, geopolitical threat for Canada
By Wa Lone TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney said that China is one of the largest threats with respect to foreign interference in Canada and is an emerging threat in the Arctic. In a debate Thursday night ahead of the April 28 election, Carney replied "China," when asked to name Canada's biggest security threat. Asked to elaborate at a news conference in Niagara Falls on Friday, Carney said Canada has to counter Chinese foreign interference threats. He also criticized China for being a partner with Russia in the war with Ukraine and said it is a threat to broader Asia and Taiwan in particular. Carney said China is the biggest threat "from a geopolitical sense." "We're taking action to address," he added. The Chinese embassy in Ottawa did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Carney's Liberal Party is leading polls as the campaign enters its final stretch. Canada is also locked in a trade war with its long-term ally the United States. Canada has imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods in response to U.S. tariffs on Canadian autos, steel and aluminum, and goods that do not comply with a North American Free Trade deal. Carney said Canada would not try to match the U.S. dollar for dollar in retaliation, but said the entire global trading system is being reordered. "That level of shared values with the U.S. is shifting, so our level of engagement will shift," he said. There were opportunities for Canada to engage beyond the United States and China, the world's two largest economies, he said. "There are huge opportunities in Europe, in ASEAN, Mercosur, other parts of the world where we can further deepen, and we should, and I think we will," Carney said. (Writing by Caroline Stauffer, Editing by Franklin Paul)
