Football: USA beat Canada for 2024 Olympic berth and CONCACAF title

MONTERREY, Mexico -- The United States qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics on Monday by defeating Tokyo Olympic champions Canada 1-0 in the CONCACAF W Championship final.

Alex Morgan scored from the penalty spot in the 78th minute to seal victory as the reigning world champions avenged their upset loss to the Canadians in last year's Olympic semi-finals.

Morgan rifled a left-footed spot-kick into the bottom right corner of the goal after Canadian goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan, Morgan's club teammate on the San Diego Wave, dove the opposite way.

It was Morgan's 118th career goal for the US national squad.

The US won the penalty when Canada's Allysha Chapman fouled American Rose Lavelle in the area.

"It always feels good to be called a champion," Morgan said afterwards. "So this game means a lot to us. It's always going to mean a lot. Canada gave us a run for our money. But we prevailed and feel good about the performance."

Morgan's winner continued the veteran striker's recent run of good form. Morgan is leading the NWSL scoring charts with 11 goals for the Wave. 

Morgan only returned to international duty last month after an eight-month hiatus that she says helped her "mentally and physically."

"I feel like I'm in form, and some of the younger players are able to look up to the older players," she said. "Especially in a big tournament like this – you just can't replicate that in friendlies."

The Americans captured a third consecutive CONCACAF crown and ninth overall to secure their ticket to France while Canada was denied a bid for a third North American regional title after 1998 and 2010.

Despite the defeat, the Canadians can still earn a 2024 berth in Paris. They will meet Jamaica next year in a playoff to determine another Paris slot.

Earlier, Kalyssa van Zanten scored in the 102nd minute to give the "Reggae Girlz" a 1-0 extra-time triumph over Costa Rica in the third-place match to advance to that Olympic playoff.

The eight-team North American regional tournament also served as a qualifier for the 2023 Women's World Cup, with the four semi-finalists -- the United States, Costa Rica, Canada and Jamaica -- all securing berths at next year's showdown in Australia and New Zealand.

Agence France-Presse

Quebec to roll out Canada's first vaccine passport

MONTREAL - Canadians wanting to eat at a restaurant, go to a bar or gym, or attend a festival in Quebec will have to present a vaccine passport starting September 1, officials announced Tuesday.

The province will be the first in Canada to require such passes, which are increasingly being used across the world to limit entry to public places to those who have been vaccinated, recovered from Covid-19 or tested negative.

They are also hugely controversial in some jurisdictions leading to mass protests against mandatory inoculations.

"Our objective with the passport is not to go backwards to a lockdown and, at the same time, to avoid overloading our hospitals," Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube told a news conference.

Health officials have warned that Covid-19 infections are once again on the rise after plunging in June and July, despite more than 60 percent of the Canadian population being fully vaccinated.

The Quebec government is to clarify in the coming weeks which public places will be obliged to require the vaccine passports, which will be in paper or electronic format.

New York was the first American city to announce last week the introduction of vaccine passes for access to public places.

Quebec, the second most populous province in Canada after Ontario, recorded 234 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday.

Some 84 percent of Quebecers have received a first dose of vaccine and 70 percent are fully vaccinated.

Dube warned that a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections led by the more contagious Delta variant in the fall was "inevitable."

To date, the Delta variant is responsible for a third of Covid-19 cases in Quebec but the minister expects it to increase to 50 percent "in the coming weeks."

Agence France-Presse 

Pfizer to deliver first vaccine doses to Canada this month: Trudeau

OTTAWA — Pfizer and BioNTech will deliver the first doses of their COVID-19 vaccine to Canada this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday, with inoculations to start as early as next week.

Another vaccine candidate developed by Moderna could also be shipped "as soon as December," the American company said.

At a news conference, Trudeau said a deal was signed with Pfizer and BioNTech "to begin early delivery of doses of their vaccine candidate." 

"We are now contracted to receive up to 249,000 of our initial doses of Pfizer BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine in the month of December," he said.

Pending regulatory approval expected this week, the prime minister said the first shipments to 14 sites across Canada could be delivered next week, with millions more doses to follow in 2021.

Health care workers and vulnerable populations including the elderly would be the first to receive it.

Major-General Dany Fortin, who is leading Canada's COVID-19 vaccine rollout, said it will take only one or two days after the doses arrive to "unpack, thaw, decant, mix" and inject them into the arms of Canadians. 

He and his team are doing a "dry run" to test the ultra-cold storage delivery chain, flying boxes this week from Belgium and handing them off to health care workers.

The federal government has concluded pre-orders with several pharmaceutical companies -- including AstraZeneca, Pfizer and BioNTech, Sanofi and GSK, Novavax, Johnson & Johnson, Medicago and Moderna -- for 400 million doses, to ensure it eventually gets what it needs for its population of 38 million.

The vaccine developed by US giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech is at the most advanced stage, having proved 95 percent effective in late-stage clinical trials and already secured approval in Britain where its world-first rollout is to begin Tuesday.

In August, Ottawa signed a deal with Pfizer for 20 million doses plus options for more.

Agence France-Presse

Canada's top doctor urges mask wearing during sex, no kissing

OTTAWA —  Canada's chief public health officer on Wednesday urged couples to wear masks during sex to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.

"Sex can be complicated in the time of COVID-19, especially for those without an intimate partner in their household or whose sexual partner is at higher risk for COVID-19," Theresa Tam said in a statement.

"The lowest risk sexual activity during COVID-19 involves yourself alone," she added. 

But those having sex with a partner who is at risk or from  outside their household should be "skipping kissing and avoiding face-to-face contact or closeness (and) consider using a mask that covers the nose and mouth.”

Tam said people should also limit their consumption of alcohol or "other substances so you and your partner(s) are able to make safe decision."

She noted that there is a "very low likelihood" of transmission of the new coronavirus through semen or vaginal fluids. But she still urged condom use.

The number of COVID-19 cases rose on Wednesday to 129,705, including 9,171 deaths. Almost 90 percent of the people who fell sick have recovered.

Agence France-Presse

Johnson & Johnson to stop sales of talc-based baby powder in US, Canada

NEW YORK - Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson said Tuesday it would stop selling talc-based baby powder in the United States and Canada, where sales had already been hit by changing consumer habits and fears the product causes cancer.

The company has long denied claims that the talc powder it uses contains cancer-causing asbestos, but has nonetheless been taken to court several thousands of times over the allegations.

In a statement, Johnson & Johnson said it remained "steadfastly confident" in the product's safety and would "vigorously" defend against the lawsuits, noting that all guilty verdicts passed against the company have been overturned.

"As part of a portfolio assessment related to COVID-19, in March, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health stopped shipping hundreds of items in the US and Canada to prioritize high-demand products and to allow for appropriate social distancing in manufacturing and distribution facilities," the statement said.

It then decided to discontinue around 100 products in the 2 countries, including the talc-based powder.


"Demand for talc-based Johnson's Baby Powder in North America has been declining due in large part to changes in consumer habits and fueled by misinformation around the safety of the product and a constant barrage of litigation advertising," the company said.

Existing stocks of the powder will be sold in the US and Canada until they run out, the company said, and the product will remain for sale in countries where there is "significantly higher consumer demand."


Agence France-Presse

Canada loses most jobs ever due to pandemic; unemployment hits 13%

Canada shed three million jobs in the last two months due to the coronavirus lockdown, causing the unemployment rate to shoot up to 13 percent in April, the government reported Friday.

That rate more than doubled, following a relatively small increase the previous month when restrictions started to be put in place, its statistical agency said.

The new rate is second only to the 13.1 percent observed during a recession in 1982, but lower than analysts had forecast.

Statistics Canada said the figure would have been much higher had it included a large number of people who wanted to work but could not job-hunt "presumably due to ongoing business closures and very limited opportunities to find new work." 

Many also worked fewer hours, the agency said.

All of this has led to 6.7 million Canadians applying for unemployment benefits or government aid, and just over one in five Canadian households reporting difficulties meeting financial obligations.

- 'Nothing to cheer about' -

Although worst-case projections failed to materialize, "when you're rounding the number of jobs lost to the nearest million, there's nothing to cheer about," commented CIBC analyst Avery Shenfeld.

The employment declines over the past two months were observed in all provinces, but Quebec -- which has recorded the highest number of COVID-19 infections and fatalities -- led all of them with 821,000 jobs lost.

Employment also dropped sharply in Canada's three largest cities -- Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

Youths aged 15-24, recent immigrants, low-wage workers and those with the least job security -- temporary or non-unionized, for example -- suffered the most job losses.

Statistics Canada noted, however, that most of the newly unemployed were temporarily laid off, meaning they could return to work when restrictions are lifted.

In March, it said, almost all job losses were observed in the services sector, whereas the following month goods-producing industries saw proportionally larger losses, led by construction and manufacturing.

Within the services sector, employment losses continued, led by wholesale and retail trade, and accommodation and food services.

Some sectors managed to avoid the carnage. Utilities, public administration, and finance, insurance and real estate, for example, were "relatively less affected by the COVID-19 economic shutdown," said Statistics Canada.

Large firms and institutions appeared to have been able to keep workers on the job better than small businesses.

An additional 3.3 million Canadians also worked from home.

After previous downturns, services jobs returned "relatively quickly," or within four months, to pre-downturn levels.

Workers in goods-producing industries were not as lucky, with recoveries from recessions in 1981-1982 and 1990-1992, and the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, taking more than six and 10 years, respectively.

This time, said Statistic Canada, "as economic activity resumes industry by industry following the COVID-19 economic shutdown, the time required for recovery will be a critical question."

Agence France-Presse

Suspect dead after more than 10 killed in Canada rampage: police

MONTREAL  - A gunman who drove a mock-up police car killed at least 16 people in an Atlantic Canada shooting rampage, federal police said Sunday, the worst case of its kind in Canadian history.

The shooter, identified as Gabriel Wortman, 51, was shot dead by officers after a 12-hour manhunt in Nova Scotia province ended Sunday morning.

Among the victims was a veteran female constable with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which also handles municipal and provincial law enforcement in the province.

Police said the suspect had been on the run since Saturday night, when officers were alerted to shots fired in the town of Portapique, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Halifax.

Gun violence in Canada is far less frequent than in the neighboring United States, and weapons more strictly controlled, but the killings were the country's worst ever, exceeding the toll in 1989 when a gunman murdered 14 female students at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique.

Public broadcaster CBC quoted RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki as saying police know of at least 16 victims, besides the shooter.

"What has unfolded overnight and into this morning is incomprehensible and many families are experiencing the loss of a loved one," Nova Scotia RCMP Commanding Officer, Assistant Commissioner Lee Bergerman, wrote on the force's local Facebook page.

"That includes our own RCMP family. It is with tremendous sadness that I share with you that we lost Constable Heidi Stevenson, a 23-year veteran of the Force who was killed this morning, while responding to an active shooter incident."

In addition to Stevenson, a mother of two, a male officer was injured and is in hospital with non-life threatening injuries, Bergerman said.

The National Post newspaper said another victim was an elementary school teacher, citing a Facebook post from the woman's sister.

Several victims were discovered both outside and inside a house in Portapique, sparking the manhunt through multiple communities, police said.

"The search for the suspect ended this morning when the suspect was located. And I can confirm that he is deceased," RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leather told a press conference.

Leather said that at one point, the suspect appeared to be wearing part of a police uniform and was driving a vehicle made to look like an RCMP cruiser.

FIRES BURNED

RCMP tweeted several times that he was not an officer and warned he was considered "armed and dangerous."

"The initial search for the suspect led to multiple sites in the area, including structures that were on fire," Leather told the news conference.

Another police spokesperson said, without further details, that the gunman was killed after an officer intervened.

An independent agency, the Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT), which probes certain incidents involving the province's police, said that it "is investigating the shooting of a male in Enfield by RCMP officers."

SiRT said in a statement that a confrontation had occurred in Enfield, which is near the Halifax airport, "resulting in officers discharging their firearms. The suspect was found to be deceased at the scene."

Police said they had no indication of a motive. Lucki told CBC there was no indication "at this point" of a terrorist intent.

"What I would say is that it appears to be at least in part, very random in nature," said Leather.

"We are in the early stages of an incredibly detailed and complex investigation that has forever changed countless lives," he said. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement that he "was saddened to learn about the senseless violence in Nova Scotia," and he hopes for a full recovery of the wounded.

The National Post quoted Tom Taggart, a councilor who represents Portapique in the Municipality of Colchester, as saying the community was devastated.

He described the community as a "subdivision in the woods where people have acre lots along the shore," and where Wortman owned three properties.

"It's absolutely unbelievable this could happen in our community. I never dreamt this would happen here," Taggart said.

Agence France-Presse

Canada coronavirus death toll jumps, PM Trudeau predicts crisis to last months

OTTAWA - The Canadian death toll from the coronavirus outbreak jumped almost 50 percent percent to 19 in less than a day and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau predicted on Sunday the crisis would last for months.

Ottawa said late on Saturday that 13 people had died from the respiratory illness caused by the virus, but by 9 a.m. ET (1300 GMT) on Sunday that number had grown to 19.

The number of confirmed cases rose to 1,302 from 1,099, with a further 69 people listed as probably suffering from the highly contagious virus.

Canada has already closed its borders to all but essential travel and announced a C$27 billion aid package for the people and businesses most affected by the crisis.

"These are only a very first step -- we're looking now at what those next steps are to ensure that our economy is able to pick up again once we're through this, whether it takes weeks or months. It is likely to take months," Trudeau told reporters.

Trudeau said the House of Commons would return on Tuesday to approve the stimulus package. A minimum of 20 members of Parliament are needed to conduct business and officials said it was likely 32 legislators would be present.

Trudeau said Ottawa was looking at a range of other measures to help the economy but declined to give details.

The government is urging people to practice self-isolation but has yet to invoke emergency powers to clamp down on the movement of citizens, despite evidence on social media that some people are ignoring orders to avoid gathering in large crowds.

Nova Scotia on Sunday became the latest of Canada's 10 provinces to declare a state of emergency, closing its borders to non-residents and threatening to arrest those who did not practice self-distancing.

Premier Stephen McNeil told a news conference that despite warnings to avoid meeting in large groups, people were flocking to provincial parks and other common areas.

"We are dealing with a deadly virus and this behavior is unacceptable," he said. His Atlantic province is banning gatherings of more than five people, a much stricter limit than other jurisdictions. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Bill Berkrot)

Canada PM's wife tests positive for new coronavirus

OTTAWA - The wife of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has tested positive for the new coronavirus, his office said late Thursday.

"Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau was tested for COVID-19 today. The test came back positive," the Prime Minister's office said in a statement.

"Following medical advice, she will remain in isolation for the time being. She is feeling well, is taking all the recommended precautions and her symptoms remain mild," it said.

"The Prime Minister is in good health with no symptoms. As a precautionary measure and following the advice of doctors, he will be in isolation for a planned period of 14 days," but will not be tested.

"The Prime Minister will continue to fully assume his duties and will address Canadians tomorrow."

Trudeau and his wife had announced earlier Thursday they were self-isolating while she underwent tests for the COVID-19 illness after returning from a speaking engagement.

Gregoire-Trudeau's symptoms, after returning from Britain, had included "a low fever late last night," an earlier statement said. She immediately sought medical advice and testing.

bur-it/jah/rbu

Agence France-Presse

Canada reports first coronavirus death as number of infected climbs

OTTAWA - Canada on Monday reported its first death from the new coronavirus as the number of people in the nation who have contracted the disease rose to above 70, officials said.

The dead man had been living in a nursing home, the Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver, British Columbia's chief health officer Bonnie Henry told a news conference.

"We unfortunately have had a death here in British Columbia," Henry said.

The man was one of two residents infected at the long-care facility with no recent travel history. Henry said the dead man was in his 80s and had a number of underlying medical conditions.

Canada now has at least 71 presumptive and confirmed cases of the virus that causes the respiratory illness COVID-19, up from 51 on Friday and nine more than reported on Sunday.

Virus outbreaks are especially problematic in nursing homes because residents live in close quarters and tend to have weaker immune systems and underlying health conditions, so infections can spread easily.

On Saturday, Henry said two Lynn Valley residents had contracted the virus from one of the facility's health workers who had been infected.

"The risk to the general population within Canada is still low, but this could change rapidly," Theresa Tam, Canada's chief medical officer, said earlier on Monday.

In a potential sign of future challenges, Reuters reported that millions of face masks stockpiled by Ontario to protect healthcare workers during a future epidemic have expired.

That raises questions about the readiness of Canada's most populous province to deal with the spreading coronavirus.

In the central province of Alberta, medical officials said the number of cases had risen to seven from four, all of which were linked to people who had traveled.

The novel coronavirus that emerged in central China in December has now spread to more than 100 countries and infected over 110,000 people worldwide with more than 3,800 deaths.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government says it will help people who are forced into quarantine due to the virus. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland told legislators on Monday there would also be extra support for the healthcare system.

Canada is also now urging people not to take cruise ship vacations.

Canada is poised to repatriate more than 200 citizens aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship, which is due to dock in Oakland, California after an outbreak on the vessel carrying some 3,500 passengers and crew. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Canada moves to ban 'conversion therapy'

OTTAWA - The Canadian government on Monday announced a bill to ban so-called "conversion therapy," which tries to change the sexual orientation of young LGBT people.

The bill would create five new offenses in the Canadian criminal code, including prohibiting subjecting a minor to the practice, either in Canada or abroad.

An adult would also not be able to undergo conversion therapy against his or her will, and no one would be allowed to profit from or advertise it.

If the bill passes, Canada's laws on conversion therapy would become some of the "most progressive and comprehensive in the world," David Lametti, the minister of justice, told reporters while presenting the bill to parliament.

Two adults who had been forced to undergo conversion therapy in childhood testified on about their experiences.

"I'm a survivor of conversion therapy," said Erika, a trans woman.

"My body is a prison because of what my conversion therapist did to me, and I live with that every day," she said in a vehement denunciation of the practice.

The bill's adoption by parliament appears all but assured, even though Justin Trudeau's Liberal government is the minority in the House of Commons. The left-wing New Democratic Party has already announced it intends to back the bill.

The bill states that conversion therapy causes harm not only to the victims but also to society, particularly because the practice is founded on and helps spread myths and stereotypes about sexual orientation and gender identity, including the myth that sexual orientation and gender identity can and should be changed.

The law would define conversion therapy as "any service, practice or treatment designed to change a person's sexual orientation to heterosexual, gender identity to one that matches the sex assigned at birth, or to repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behaviors."

According to a recent official survey, 47,000 Canadian men who identify as part of a minority sexuality group had been subjected to conversion therapy.

jl/et/cjc/to/caw/

Agence France-Presse

How a Canadian start-up used AI to track China virus

TORONTO — On the shores of Lake Ontario, a Canadian start-up raised one of the earliest alarms about the risk posed by the mystery virus that emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan. How did it do it? Artificial intelligence.

BlueDot has developed an algorithm that can sift through hundreds of thousands of news stories a day along with air traffic information in order to detect and monitor the spread of infectious diseases.

It sent an alert to clients on December 31 about the new coronavirus outbreak -- a few days before major public health authorities made official statements. 

BlueDot, which is based in Toronto, also correctly predicted the countries in which the risk of contagion was most acute.

"What we are trying to do is to really push the boundaries -- to be using data and analytics and technology to keep moving faster," the company's founder Kamran Khan told AFP in an interview.

"Ultimately when you're dealing with an outbreak, time and timing is everything."

The 49-year-old Khan, an epidemiologist by training, first had the idea to launch BlueDot after the SARS epidemic of 2002-03. 

At the time, Khan was a doctor specializing in infectious diseases at a Toronto hospital. He watched helplessly as the illness left 44 people dead in Canada's largest city.

"A number of health care workers were infected including one of my colleagues. We had a number of health care workers who died," he said.

"This was a really eye-opening experience and was the motivation behind everything that we're doing at BlueDot."

65 LANGUAGES, 150 DISEASES 

In 2014, Khan launched BlueDot, which now has 40 employees -- a team of physicians, veterinarians, epidemiologists, data scientists and software developers.

Together, they thrashed out a real-time warning system based on natural language processing and machine learning.

Every 15 minutes around the clock, the company's algorithm scans official reports, professional forums and online news sources, searching for key words and phrases.

It can read text in 65 languages and can track 150 different types of diseases.

"We call it the needles in the haystack," Khan says.

"There's a massive amount of data and the machine is finding the needles and presenting it to the human experts," who then review it and train the machine to understand if that information corresponds to an actual threat.

If it is credible, it is punched into a database that analyzes the location of the outbreak, nearby airports and commercial air travel itineraries from around the world.

Climate data, national health system databases, and even the presence of mosquitoes or animals that transmit diseases to humans are also taken into account.

Once that analysis is complete, BlueDot sends an alert to its clients -- government agencies, airlines, hospitals -- where the majority of those airline passengers might land. 

The goal is to allow authorities to prepare for the worst: a major disease outbreak.

ELEMENTS 'SIMILAR' TO SARS 

So on December 31, in the early morning, the BlueDot system picked up an article in Mandarin that mentioned 27 people suffering from pneumonia, all linked to a wet market in Wuhan.

The virus was not yet identified, but the BlueDot algorithm noted two key phrases: "pneumonia" and "cause unknown."

At 10 a.m., a first alert went out to clients, notably in Asia.

"While we didn't know this was going to become a big global outbreak, we did recognize that it had certain ingredients that were similar to what we saw during SARS," Khan explained.

BlueDot also was able to predict that the virus was at risk of spreading from Wuhan to Bangkok, Taipei, Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

All of those places have since reported cases of the novel coronavirus, which has killed 2,000 people, almost all of them in China.

BlueDot already had a feather in its cap: in 2016, it predicted the spread of Zika from Brazil to south Florida.

"These viruses are complex and these diseases are complex, but we are continuously pushing the envelope in learning from each one of these outbreaks," Khan said.

Agence France-Presse 

Airbnb to limit bookings by people under 25 in Canada

OTTAWA — People under 25 will no longer be able to rent local listings for entire homes on Airbnb in Canada, the company announced Wednesday after a fatal shooting at a Toronto apartment booked through the website.

The restriction will apply only to homes young Airbnb users attempt to rent within the communities where they already live. 

Guests under 25 years will still be able to book a private room within a host's primary residence, and could be exempted from the prohibition if they receive positive evaluations in at least three recent stays.

The aim is to curb unauthorized use of Airbnb properties, including for "unauthorized parties," Airbnb Senior Vice President Chris Lehane told a press conference.

"We know from our research that 99.9 percent of the people on Airbnb are good people... and treat homes like their own homes," he said.

"We have a 0.3 percent incident rate across our platform when it comes to issues involving property damage and a 0.6 percent incident rate when it involves personal security issues.

"Those numbers," he said, "get higher when you're looking at... reservations made by people under 25... within the community they live in."

The pilot, if it succeeds in reducing violence and damage to properties, may be applied in other jurisdictions, he said.

It comes just days after three men aged 19, 20 and 21 were shot dead at a Toronto downtown waterfront neighborhood apartment. Two others were injured.

On January 8, an 18-year-old was also killed at an Airbnb-rented house in downtown Ottawa.

And last October, a gunman opened fire at a house party in Orinda, California that was an Airbnb rental. Four men and a woman were killed. 

Lehane also announced a 24-hour hotline for neighbors who suspect mischief at an Airbnb property, as well as a partnership with a group of Canadian doctors lobbying for stricter gun control laws.

Airbnb says that 2 million people stay at its listed homes in 100,000 cities every night.

Agence France-Presse 

Trump signs long-awaited North American trade deal

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed the new North American trade pact with Canada and Mexico into law, pronouncing a "glorious future" for US industry.

It was another opportunity for Trump to tout successes in the midst of an impeachment trial where he is fighting charges of abuse of office and obstructing Congress. On Tuesday he announced a Middle East peace plan -- rejected immediately by the Palestinians -- and earlier this month he signed a truce in his trade war with China.

But even if the new USMCA trade deal with America's neighbors was crafted in close consultation between Trump's Republicans and the Democrats, the president pointedly didn't invite any of the Democratic leaders to his big White House signing ceremony.

The USMCA replaces the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which Trump has long targeted, saying that it resulted in shipping US jobs abroad.

"Today, we are finally ending the NAFTA nightmare," he said at the White House.

Analysts say USMCA retains many elements of NAFTA, a mammoth deal that created a free trade zone across all of North America, shaking up entire industries and supply chains.

Economists say that overall NAFTA increased growth and raised the standard of living in North America, binding the three countries in a complex web of trade rules and services.

But the new deal does change content rules on auto manufacturing, to boost US jobs, and requires higher salaries for some Mexican auto workers. 

It also makes changes to e-commerce, intellectual property protections and dispute settlement for investors, as well as imposing tougher labor provisions, requiring reforms to Mexico's laws.

'COLOSSAL'

Mexico ratified the new agreement December 10, and Canada is expected to follow suit in coming weeks.

For Trump, the "colossal victory" of USMCA fits neatly into his "America first" campaign message ahead of a difficult November reelection fight and his current battle to see off impeachment over alleged abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

"Two decades of politicians ran for office vowing to replace NAFTA... yet when selected they never even tried," he told government members, lawmakers, union representatives and selected workers assembled at the White House's South Portico.

"I'm not like those other politicians -- I guess in many ways," he said. "I keep my promises."

Under NAFTA, "we lost our jobs, we closed our factories and other countries built our cars. But we changed that," he said. "The USMCA closed these terrible loopholes."

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who led Washington's negotiations both with USMCA and the recent truce in an even higher-stakes trade battle with China, called it a "great, historic agreement."

NAFTA, he said, had been "highly controversial from the start" and many lawmakers subsequently "came to regret" their support.

And Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is a senior advisor, said the president was wrong-footing his many critics with USMCA, the China deal and the Mideast plan.

"He's brought a businessman's approach to Washington. He's a pragmatist," Kushner said on the FOX & Friends show, which provides mostly uncritical coverage of Trump's White House.

"The people in Washington may not like it that he's making them do work and he's making things happen that people have spoken about for many years before but couldn't deliver on," Kushner said.

Agence France-Presse

Canada identifies first case of coronavirus

TORONTO/BENGALURU, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Canada on Saturday declared the first "presumptive" confirmed case of the deadly coronavirus in a resident who had returned from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak of the viral disease.

Ontario health officials told a news conference the patient is a male in his 50s, who arrived in Toronto on Jan. 22 and was hospitalized the next day after developing symptoms of respiratory illness.

Barbara Yaffe, Ontario's associate chief medical officer of health, told reporters that the man is being treated in a public hospital and is in a stable condition.

Ontario health officials are investigating the details of the man's contact with others since arriving in Toronto. Early indications are that he took private transportation home after arriving at Toronto airport and then paramedics brought him to the hospital, they added.

The health officials said it is a relatively small family situation, though they declined to give a number, and there is very little by way of contact. They said his family members have been put into self isolation.

Officials said the results from the provincial laboratory confirming the positive case arrived earlier on Saturday. Once the results from the local laboratory are confirmed by Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory, the case will be declared the country's first confirmed case of coronavirus.

Canada is on high alert to prevent the spread of coronavirus and avoid the repeat of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, that killed 44 people in Canada, the only country outside Asia to report deaths from that virus in 2002-2003. Government health officials say Canada is better prepared this time.

The deadly coronavirus has infected more than 1,975 people and killed at least 56 in China. The virus has spread to several countries including the United States, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Australia and France. (Reporting by Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru and Denny Thomas in Toronto ; Editing by Diane Craft and Sandra Maler)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Neil Peart, Rush's star drummer, dies at 67

LOS ANGELES, United States - Neil Peart, the drummer and lyricist of Canadian rock group Rush, has died at 67 in California of brain cancer, the group announced Friday.

"It is with broken hearts and the deepest sadness that we must share the terrible news that on Tuesday, our friend, soul brother and band mate of over 45 years, Neil, has lost his incredibly brave battle with brain cancer, glioblastoma," they said in a statement posted on Twitter.

Rush was founded in 1968 and Peart joined in 1974, replacing John Rutsey, alongside singer and bass player Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson.

After starting out in hard rock and moving gradually toward jazz rock, Peart was known for his flamboyant style and very precise technique, which won him a legion of admirers among professionals and fans.

Questlove, the drummer for hip-hop group The Roots, posted a black and white photo of Peart on Instagram sitting behind his imposing drum set, sending his condolences.

Danish drummer Lars Ulrich of Metallica also said on Instagram that Peart was a big inspiration for him.

Rush entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. The band sold 25 million albums in the United States.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Backlash over Tim Hortons offer to Harry, Meghan

MONTREAL — A Canadian coffee chain that offered disenchanted British royals Prince Harry and his wife Meghan free coffee for life if they move to Canada has faced an online backlash.

The response came after Tim Hortons -- synonymous with coffee in Canada -- posted a tongue-in-cheek tweet on Wednesday saying: "No pressure, Meghan and Harry, but if you do choose to move to Canada, free coffee for life. Think about it."

The offer proved hard to swallow for Canadians upset by the chain's labor relations practices. Canadian media reported that a branch of Tim Hortons in Winnipeg locked out unionized workers who were asking for a pay rise.

In a shock announcement on Wednesday Harry and Meghan said they will step back as senior members of the royal family and spend more time in North America, where Meghan lived for several years while filming the television series "Suits."


One Twitter user observed that the royals "can afford to buy the company. Your employees can't afford the rent."

An observer in Quebec commented: "Y'know, the company that cuts break times for employees on minimum wages... and offers free coffee for members of the royal family."

"No pressure, Tim Hortons, but you'll stop losing customers if you use that money for free lifetime coffee for Meghan and Harry to stop nickel and diming your employees into a strike over 10 cents an hour," said a Twitter user with the handle "Oooh, Canada!"

Agence France-Presse

Young Filipino-Canadian sells handmade jewelry to help local charity

RICHMOND, British Columbia - While other kids are busy asking for gifts this Christmas, 5-year old Estella Bañez is doing something else.

She’s selling handmade earrings, necklaces and bracelets to help a local charity.

“I like OMB, it stands for Oh My Bling,” said Bañez.

Bañez worked on her beads after school in the past months and made 300 pairs of earrings, 40 bracelets and 50 necklaces for sale.

They were showcased at a recent fashion show and launch party where proceeds go to the Richmond Christmas Fund that help local families in need.

“Toys, gift cards, baskets… it’s really tough when everybody seems to be happy during holidays with families and a lot of them don't have support or financial means to do so,” said Kaye Bañez, Estella's mom.

The kindergartener started the project last year in honor of her lola who passed away.

She donated $200 then and wanted to give bigger this year.

Friends and family came to support the project.

"It’s important to give back whenever we can," said Chantal Wu.

Many of them were inspired by the little girl who wanted to bring cheer to the community.

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Huawei plans to shift research center to Canada from US

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd plans to shift its research center to Canada from the United States, Ren Zhengfei, the founder of the Chinese telecoms equipment maker, said in an interview with Canada's Globe and Mail.

Ren's remarks came as Reuters reported on Friday that the United States is weighing expanding its power to stop more foreign shipments of products with US technology to Huawei. The US Commerce Department in May placed Huawei on a trade blacklist, citing national security concerns.

Huawei's "center for research and development will be moved out of the United States, and that will be relocated to Canada," Ren told the Globe and Mail, adding that the company will also manufacture some mobile network equipment outside China.

The Huawei founder wants to build new factory capacity in Europe to make fifth-generation (5G) networking equipment there, hoping to assuage fears stemming from US allegations that its product could be used by China for spying, the Globe and Mail reported.

Huawei was not immediately available to comment on Ren's interview when contacted by Reuters. The firm has previously denied it is a risk to US national security.

The company spent $510 million on the operations of its US research arm last year, according to the Globe and Mail report, which added that it has now trimmed the arm's work force by 600 to about 250.

Separately, Ren's daughter and Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested by Canadian police on a US warrant late last year, is fighting extradition to the United States on charges of violating sanctions against Iran. She is currently out on bail.

Huawei has denied the charges and China has urged Canada to release her.

Commenting on her case, Ren said that it is an example of "obvious political interference from the US."

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Huawei asks Canadian court to stay extradition process for CFO to US

Lawyers for Huawei Technologies Co Ltd asked a Canadian court to immediately stay proceedings seeking to extradite the company's Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou to the United States, a company spokesman said on Wednesday.

Huawei spokesman Benjamin Howes said in an email that the company believes the extradition fails to meet the Canadian standard of double criminality.

The standard means the alleged conduct for which Meng was arrested in 2018 has to be illegal in both countries for her to be extradited.

Meng, 47, was arrested at the Vancouver International Airport on Dec. 1 at the request of the United States, where she is charged with bank fraud and accused of misleading the bank HSBC about Huawei Technologies' business in Iran. She has said she is innocent and is fighting extradition. Howes said the company is arguing that because Canada did not have sanctions against Iran at the time Canadian officials authorized commencing with the extradition process, double criminality cannot be met. The application "doesn't seek to challenge whether the facts behind the logic of this charge are true or not," Howes said, noting that the company would challenge this during a sufficiency hearing to be held in September 2020.

Canada's federal justice ministry was not immediately available for comment.

Meng's lawyers may have a sound argument, but it's premature, said Vancouver-based extradition lawyer Gary Botting who is not involved in the case.

"They're jumping the gun a bit, because the whole notion of a full extradition hearing is to determine whether or not there is dual criminality. The judge is bound to say, 'Hurry up and wait," Botting said.

Meng's arrest has strained China's relations with both the United States and Canada. China detained two Canadians - Michael Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat, and businessman Michael Spavor - just days after Meng's arrest. Spavor and Kovrig are still being held in China, despite diplomatic efforts on Canada's part to get them released.

Meng's lawyers say the United States is using the CFO for economic and political gain, noting that after her arrest, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would intervene if it would help close a trade deal.

Meng, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, spent 10 days in jail in December but was then released on C$10 million ($7.5 million) bail and is living in one of her two multi-million-dollar homes in Vancouver.

Meng and her lawyers returned to a British Columbia court last month, requesting additional documents pertaining to Meng's arrest at the Vancouver airport. Meng's argument is part of a broader strategy to prove that her arrest was illegal and violated her rights according to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

If Canadian officials abused their authority, her lawyers say, the extradition proceedings should be halted.

Her extradition hearing is set to begin on Jan. 20, 2020. 

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