Month: March 2023

The appointed investigator will review classified reports about the 2019 and 2021 federal elections and will make recommendations for future contests.

Rival political party leaders have called for a public inquiry.

China has denied any election interference, calling the claims “purely baseless and defamatory”.

Speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Monday, Mr Trudeau said the reports challenging Canada’s “sovereignty” are alarming, and “strike us to our very core as Canadians”.

“I will be appointing an independent special rapporteur, who will have a wide mandate and make expert recommendations on combating interference and strengthening our democracy,” Mr Trudeau said.

The rapporteur has not yet been chosen, he said, adding that the appointment will be made in the coming days.

Mr Trudeau also said he would ask members of parliament and senators in the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (Nsicop) to begin a review of foreign interference and to report its findings to parliament.

He added that Canada has long been aware of meddling attempts by China, as well as Iran and Russia.

The countries, as well as several other non-state actors, “have attempted to interfere not only in our democracy, but our country in general”.

“This is not a new problem,” he said.

A series of reports in the Globe and Mail newspaper and broadcaster Global News in recent weeks, based on leaks from Canadian intelligence sources, detailed alleged attempts by China’s Communist Party to interfere in the last two federal elections.

Chinese officials have dismissed the reports as “purely baseless and defamatory” and as “hype”.

Conservative politicians have said publicly they were aware of interference in 2021 race, and believe it had cost them several seats – though not enough to change the election result, which Mr Trudeau’s Liberals won with a 41-seat lead.

A federal public report last week found that efforts to meddle in the 2021 federal election did not affect the results.

Federal opposition parties – the New Democrats and the Conservatives – have been pushing for an “independent and public” inquiry into the accounts.

In response to Mr Trudeau’s announcement, the New Democrats criticised the Nsicop committee probe, arguing it was not an “acceptable substitute for a public inquiry”.

“The way to stop foreign actors from acting in secret is to refuse to keep their secrets,” said New Democrat MP Peter Julian.

The leader of the Conservatives, Pierre Poilievre, called Mr Trudeau’s announcement a “cover up” by Liberals “to avoid accountability”.

The rapporteur will have the authority to recommend a public inquiry, Mr Trudeau said in response to critics.

“We will abide by their recommendation,” he said, calling the decision one of the official’s first tasks after being appointed.

“I know there are people out there who don’t believe this is enough,” Mr Trudeau continued. “I get that. This is why we’re entrusting further work to someone impartial.”

Also on Monday, the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they had opened an investigation into how information about the alleged meddling was leaked to Canadian news outlets.

A poll released last week by the Angus Reid Institute found that around 65% of Canadians say they believe that Beijing attempted to meddle in both recent federal elections.

Two-thirds of Canadians also said that the federal government should do more to combat election meddling.

They were driving through Matamoros in a white minivan when unidentified gunmen opened fire.

Video shows them being put in a pickup truck by heavily armed men.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says the Americans crossed the border to buy medication.

But his statement was not confirmed by US officials, who have not named the four people missing.

President López Obrador said his “entire government” was working to obtain the release of the four US citizens.

He held talks with US Ambassador Ken Salazar at the National Palace in Mexico City on Monday.

“There was a confrontation between groups and they were kidnapped,” the president said.

The incident also resulted in the death of an innocent Mexican citizen, Mr Salazar said.

A video posted on social media shows gunmen loading four people on to the bed of a pickup in broad daylight. One is manhandled on to the vehicle while others appear to be unconscious and are dragged to the truck.

According to an unnamed US official quoted by CNN, investigators believe a Mexican cartel probably mistook the Americans for Haitian drug smugglers.

“We have no higher priority than the safety of our citizens,” the ambassador said. “Officials from various US law enforcement agencies are working with Mexican authorities at all levels of government to achieve the safe return of our compatriots.”

The White House was closely following the “unacceptable” assault and kidnapping, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

“Our thoughts are with the families of these individuals,” she added.

The Mexican government is likely to prioritise finding the US citizens to avoid a major cross-border issue between the two countries.

Mr López Obrador said he had been in contact with the governor of Tamaulipas over the weekend about the kidnappings.

“I think it will get resolved,” Mr López Obrador said. “That’s what I hope.”

A Mexican official told Reuters news agency three men and one woman had been kidnapped.

Tamaulipas is one of six states in Mexico that the US state department advises travellers not to visit because of “crime and kidnapping”.

It is considered one of the more dangerous parts of Mexico, where drug cartels control much of the territory and often hold more power than local law enforcement.

The FBI is seeking help from the public and offering a $50,000 (£41,620) reward for information leading to the return of the missing US citizens and the arrests of the kidnappers.

The Americans were driving in a van with North Carolina licence plates, according to the FBI.

Matamoros is located directly across the border from Brownsville, Texas.

According to the US state department, organised crime “including gun battles, murder, armed robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, forced disappearances, extortion, and sexual assault – is common along the northern border” including in the state of Tamaulipas.

Criminal groups have targeted buses as well as cars driving through the state, often taking passengers and asking for ransom payments in an area where local law enforcement has limited ability to respond to crime, the state department said.

The US government estimates that hundreds of thousands of Americans cross the border into Mexico each year to receive healthcare services, including prescription drugs. The majority of Americans cite cheaper costs as the most common reason to get treatment abroad.

It has revealed that annual damage caused by flooding could increase by more than a fifth over the next century.

That is unless international pledges to reduce carbon emissions are met.

Climate change is set to have a particular impact on “hotspots” where homes and businesses are in harm’s way.

Even if climate change pledges are met – keeping temperature increase to around 1.8C – places including south-east England, north-west England and south Wales are set to experience significantly increased flooding.

The detail in the new “flood risk map” also reveals locations that will be largely unaffected. This level of detail, the researchers say, is critical for planning decisions.

To create these flood risk maps, the research team from Bristol University and Fathom – a company that assesses flood and climate risk – simulated all types of flooding in the coming decades.

They used information about terrain, river flow, rainfall patterns and sea level to build a detailed picture of how much flood damage there would be to people’s homes and businesses across England, Scotland and Wales.

They combined this with Met Office climate predictions over the next century.

The team is also currently modelling flooding in Northern Ireland to expand the forecasts to include the whole of the UK as the climate warms.

The annual cost of flood damage across the UK currently, according to the Association of British Insurers, is £700m.

Chief research officer at Fathom, Dr Oliver Wing, explained that it was crucial to understand how that “flood risk landscape” would change in a warming world, because it will be different for every community.

 “Our model shows that there are many places where flood risk is growing,” said Dr Wing. “Being able to understand the communities where this is likely to happen allows us to make sensible investment decisions – about flood defence structures, natural flood management or even moving people out of harm’s way.”

Calder Valley in West Yorkshire is one of the areas at particularly high risk from flooding caused by heavy rain.

Katie Kimber, from community volunteer group Slow the Flow, explained that the steep-sided valley meant that run-off swelled the river quickly.

“When it happens it’s really fast – it’s a wave of destruction,” she told BBC News. “Then it’s a case of clearing up the damage – it’s mentally and physically very hard for people here.”

During the 2015 Boxing Day floods, more than 3,000 properties were flooded in the Calder Valley, causing an estimated £150m of damage.

After the clean-up, Katie and other volunteers started their own flood-prevention efforts, with the help of the National Trust.

“We’re essentially creating speed bumps for the water running down the hillside [before it gets to the homes and businesses below],” she explained. “We’re stuffing the channels with branches.”

The community members also dig diversion channels to divert and slow water down.

Calderdale is a flood hotspot on the new map. But many places are set to see very little change or – when it comes to flood risk – actually improve, Dr Wing explained. Those areas include swathes of north-east and central England as well as eastern and northern Scotland.

This level of detail, according to the scientists, is missing from the government’s own current efforts to measure flood risk.

“Current government flood maps are not scrutinised by scientists, generally speaking,” said Dr Wing. “The methods they use are not transparent.

“And every pound we spend on flood risk mitigation is a pound that could be spent on teachers, nurses, hospitals, schools, so it’s really important that it’s grounded in accurate science.”

The scientists add that the UK as a whole is “not well adapted to the flood risks it currently faces, let alone any further increases in risk due to climate change”.  They hope this detailed forecast could help change that.

Back on the Calderdale hillside, Katie says that better forecasting would be invaluable.

“Anything that helps us to prepare and plan,” she said. “Because we want to keep living here – we love this area. So we need to face these challenges, particularly with climate change.”

Dr Wing added that the new, detailed maps could help land use planning decisions.

 “Those are something that ultimately put people in the way of floods in the first place,” he said. “That’s something we see the world over – that the most important part of flood risk is where people are, not necessarily how the floods are changing.”

A bill expected to be introduced on Tuesday would also prevent those arriving illegally from claiming asylum or returning to the UK in future.

Writing in the Sun, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the plans were “fair for those at home and those who have a legitimate claim to asylum”.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer described the plans as “unworkable”.

More than 45,000 people entered the UK via Channel crossings last year, up from around 300 in 2018, leading to pressure on the government to tackle the issue.

Under the plans, the home secretary would have a duty to remove those who arrive in the UK illegally.

This “duty to remove” would take precedence in law over the right to claim asylum, although there would be exemptions for the under-18s and those with serious medical conditions.

Anyone removed would also not be permitted to return to the UK or seek British citizenship in future.

While the bill will not become law for several months it will apply retrospectively, meaning anyone arriving in the UK illegally from Tuesday will be at risk of deportation under the laws.

In an opinion piece for the Sun, Mr Sunak said the UK has a “proud history of welcoming those most in need” and the new measures were “fair for those at home and those who have a legitimate claim to asylum”.

“Those arriving on small boats aren’t directly fleeing a war-torn country or facing an imminent threat to life,” he said.

“Instead, they have travelled through safe, European countries before crossing the Channel. The fact that they can do so is unfair on those who come here legally and enough is enough.”

He added that the plans would “send a clear signal that if you come to this country illegally, you will be swiftly removed” and “help break the business model of people smugglers”.

Speaking to the Daily Express, Home Secretary Suella Braverman acknowledged the bill would push “the boundaries of international law” but said it was necessary to “solve this crisis”.

The plans have met with criticism from opposition figures and refugee groups.

Ministers expect this bill to cause a row.

It is perhaps the first row they have consciously picked since Rishi Sunak became prime minister, rather than walked into by accident.

It is, remember, one of the PM’s five key promises. Three relate to the economy, one to the NHS and the final one is to “stop the boats”.

Quite the challenge.

It is the “last chance for the Conservatives to sort this,” one insider acknowledges – and Tory MPs say it really matters to plenty of the voters they want to keep onside.

Speaking to LBC radio, the Labour leader said the issue of Channel crossings “has got to be dealt with” but “the only way to deal with it is to break the criminal gangs who are driving this”.

Sir Keir Starmer said the National Crime Agency should be given the resources to set up a specialist unit to tackle the issue and that more should be done to speed up processing existing asylum applications.

Asked if the plan was legally feasible, Sir Keir – who is a former director of public prosecutions – said: “I don’t know that it is and I think we’ve got to be very careful with international law here.”

Numerous critics have also argued that, aside from schemes for people from specific countries such as Afghanistan and Ukraine, there are currently no safe and legal routes for most people to seek asylum in the UK.

The Liberal Democrats said the new law was “immoral, ineffective and incredibly costly for taxpayers while doing nothing to stop small boat crossings”.

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said it would “shatter the UK’s long-standing commitment under the UN Convention to give people a fair hearing regardless of the path they have taken to reach our shores”.

Freedom from Torture, a charity which provides therapy to asylum seekers, described the measures as “vindictive and dysfunctional”.

No casualties have been reported, but the fire on Sunday razed 2,000 shelters after spreading quickly through gas cylinders in kitchens, officials said.

Police are investigating if the fire was an act of sabotage. One man has been detained, local media reported.

The camp in the south-east is believed to be the world’s largest refugee camp.

Most of its more than one million residents, Rohingya refugees, had fled persecution in neighbouring Myanmar.

On Monday, hundreds had returned to the Cox’s Bazar area to see what they could salvage from the ruins.

The blaze had started at about 14:45 local time Sunday (08:45 GMT) and quickly tore through the bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelters, an official said.

“Some 2,000 shelters have been burnt, leaving about 12,000 forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals shelterless,” Mijanur Rahman, Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner, told AFP news agency.

The blaze was brought under control within three hours but at least 35 mosques and 21 learning centres for the refugees were also destroyed, he added.

Photos are now emerging that show the extent of the devastation.

Many of those who lived there can be seen picking through the charred area, where only metal struts and singed corrugated roofing remains.

Hrusikesh Harichandan, from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told the BBC there had been “massive damage” to the camp.

He said basic services such as water centres and testing facilities had also been affected.

“My shelter was gutted. [My shop] was also burnt,” Mamun Johar, a 30-year-old Rohingya man, told AFP.

“The fire took everything from me, everything.”

Thick black clouds were seen rising above Camp 11, one of many in the border district.

It will be difficult to relocate the estimated 12,000 people affected by the fire – given the already overcrowded conditions in the “mega camp”, said Hardin Lang from Refugees International.

Delivering basic services to those people in other parts of the camp would also be a challenge because many services – health clinics, schools – have been destroyed.

“This is in essence an acute incident on what was already a chronically very vulnerable and precariously poised population,” he told the BBC.

The camps, overcrowded and squalid, have long been vulnerable to fires.

Between January 2021 and December 2022, there were 222 fire incidents in the Rohingya camps including 60 cases of arson, according to a Bangladesh defence ministry report released last month.

In March 2021, at least 15 people were killed and some 50,000 were displaced after a huge fire tore through a camp in the settlement.

The refugee camp houses people who fled from Myanmar following a military crackdown against the Rohingya ethnic minority.

The Rohingya are Muslims in largely Buddhist Myanmar, where they have faced persecution for generations.

The latest exodus of Rohingya escaping to Bangladesh began in August 2017, after Myanmar’s military brutally retaliated when a Rohingya insurgent group launched attacks on several police posts.

It was announced at the National People’s Congress (NPC), a rubber-stamp parliament, which is due to confirm President Xi Jinping’s third term.

Beijing’s stated military budget – around $225bn (£186bn) – is dwarfed by that of the United States, which is four times greater.

But analysts believe China downplays how much it spends on defence.

In the past decade, China’s defence budget has risen by about 10% each year, with 2014 seeing the highest increase of 12.2%.

The “external attempts to suppress and contain China are escalating”, according to Outgoing Premier Li Keqiang’s government work report.

“The armed forces should intensify military training and preparedness across the board,” the report said.

It was also announced at the meeting that China would pursue a reduced economic growth target of about 5% this year.

The Two Sessions, as the meetings are known, are an annual affair.

But this year’s sessions are particularly significant as delegates are expected to reshape several key Communist Party and state institutions.

This week’s NPC meeting will also formalise Mr Xi’s leadership of the country, as he will be elected president of China and head of the armed forces.

He secured his position in the echelons of Chinese power in October last year, when the Communist Party re-elected him as their leader for a third term.

The increase in military spending comes as Mr Xi is navigating worsening ties with the US over the Ukraine war and the recent spy balloon saga, even as he warms his embrace of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

US officials have also repeatedly warned that China may invade Taiwan in the coming years. China has held ever-growing displays of military force in the air and seas around Taiwan, including the firing of ballistic missiles.

China sees self-ruled Taiwan as a breakaway province that will eventually be under Beijing’s control.

The NPC will also unveil the new premier, China’s equivalent of a prime minister who traditionally oversees the economy and administrative aspects of governance.

Li Qiang, one of Mr Xi’s most trusted colleagues, is expected to assume the role.

Seoul’s proposal aims to resolve a colonial grievance that has long hindered relations between the nations.

Officials on both sides hailed the proposal as a breakthrough on Monday.

But Korean victims have criticised the plan, saying it does not hold Japan accountable.

About 150,000 Koreans were forced to work in factories and mines in Japan in the war, due to Japan’s colonisation of the Korean peninsula from 1910-1945.

On Monday, protesters in Seoul held demonstrations outside South Korea’s foreign ministry to condemn the plan by their government, which will see South Korean companies pay into a public fund for victims.

Meanwhile, Japan’s government welcomed South Korea’s move away from demanding two Japanese firms pay compensation.

Previous South Korean governments had attempted to make Tokyo pay reparations.

In 2018, South Korea’s supreme court ordered Japanese companies to compensate 15 victims of forced labour. But the companies – among them Mitsubishi and Nippon Steel – refused, sparking further animosity.

However South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol, elected last year, has aimed to mend relations with Japan – another US ally in the region. The US has pressed both nations to improve their relations.

US President Joe Biden called the deal “ground breaking” on Monday. South Korea’s foreign minister Park Jin told reporters: “If we compare it to a glass of water, I think that the glass is more than half full.”

Japan’s foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi also welcomed the plan, saying the Japanese government would allow domestic firms to join the public fund. He also expressed hope that political and cultural exchanges between the neighbouring countries would expand.

The deal should allow both nations to overcome a huge obstacle in their relationship – and thereby co-operate more closely on security, at a time when mutual threats posed by North Korea and China are increasing.

Seoul’s plan proposes that South Korean companies who benefitted from a 1965 post-war treaty will pay donations. The fund of $3m (£2.5m) will be distributed among 15 families.

Since 1945, there have been a series of long-standing bilateral disputes. Tokyo maintains that the 1965 treaty, which included a reparations package of about $800 million in grants and cheap loans, settled all claims relating to the colonial period. However Seoul has long disputed this.

There was also the issue of compensation for Korean “comfort women” who were enslaved in wartime brothels.

In 2015, a deal was penned to resolve the comfort women issue with a Japanese apology and the formation of a billion-yen fund for survivors.

However a bitter diplomatic row ensued three years later when Seoul dissolved the fund on the grounds that it did not to do enough to consider victims’ concerns.

It appears the former health secretary was told in late 2020 that scientific advisers wanted to try out replacing 14-day quarantine for confirmed contacts with five days of testing.

He replied that the idea “sounds very risky” and “like a massive loosening”.

He also questioned whether the 14-day period was “too long all this time”.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify the messages, between Mr Hancock and England’s chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty.

The texts are the latest release from more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages leaked to the Telegraph by journalist Isabel Oakeshott.

An ally of Mr Hancock said the Telegraph’s story was a “partial account,” and the newspaper “only has partial information”.

The leaked exchange between the two men took place on 17 November 2020, when confirmed contacts of Covid cases in England had to isolate for 14 days.

Prof Whitty is shown telling Mr Hancock that the UK’s chief medical officers, as well as Sage, the government’s group of scientific advisers, were “in favour” of a pilot “with presumption in favour of testing for 5 days in lieu of isolation (alternative 10 days isolation)”.

He added that the pilot was to “check it works” – whilst the MHRA, the medicines regulator, had “not yet signed off for self use”.

In the exchange published by the Telegraph, Mr Hancock replies that the idea “sounds like a massive loosening”.

Prof Whitty then says that scientific modelling “suggests it’s pretty well as good”.

In a reply, Mr Hancock says he is “amazed” – adding that “this sounds very risky and we can’t go backwards”. He asks whether allowing people to test for 10 days would be “a safer starting point”.

Prof Whitty replies that “we could push to 7 [days]” but “the benefits really flatten off after 5”.

Mr Hancock is then shown to reply: “So has the 14 day isolation been too long all this time?”

The chief medical officer then replies that a 14-day isolation period is “marginally safer than 10” – but at the expense of reduced compliance, meaning “it probably balances out”.

Mr Hancock replies that cutting the isolation period to seven days would be “huge for adherence” but any lower than that would “worry people and imply we’d been getting it wrong”.

Prof Whitty then says he will “go back” to the chief medical officers, adding, “I think they will be sympathetic to this”.

The isolation period for close contacts was reduced to 10 days across the UK the following month.

Some exemptions for double-jabbed critical workers were introduced seven months later, in July 2021, following disruption to businesses and public services.

Self-isolation for all fully-vaccinated contacts was dropped the month after that.

The WhatsApp messages were handed to the Telegraph by Ms Oakeshott, who had been given them by Mr Hancock for the purposes of co-writing his book, Pandemic Diaries. She has argued there is a public interest in publishing the messages.

That argument was been rejected by Mr Hancock, who says he had already handed the messages over to the public inquiry into the pandemic, and their release constitutes a “massive betrayal and breach of trust”.