Month: February 2020

A plane carrying Canadians from a quarantined cruise ship in Japan will leave the region by week’s end, the federal government says, as the number aboard sickened with the novel coronavirus continues to rise. More than 450 people from the Diamond Princess, held in the port of Yokohama, had tested positive for the virus known…

OTTAWA — Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has offered effusive thanks to New Democrats and stinging criticism of the Conservatives after the NDP supported the minority Liberal government’s efforts to more speedily ratify the new North American trade agreement. Freeland said the government wanted to limit study of the new deal, which replaces the quarter-century-old…

MONTREAL — CN Rail is laying off about 450 workers in its operations in Eastern Canada after cancelling more than 400 trains in the past week over a rail blockade protesting an LNG pipeline in British Columbia. The layoffs will affect operational staff, including employees working at Autoport in Eastern Passage, Moncton, Charny and Montreal.…

LONDON — Surgeons at King’s College Hospital in London removed a brain tumour from a woman who played the violin during the procedure. Doctors for violinist Dagmar Turner, 53, mapped her brain before the surgery to identify areas that were active when she played the instrument and those responsible for controlling language and movement. Doctors…

The Netflix documentary Knock Down the House, which follows the campaigns of female Democratic hopefuls in the 2018 election cycle, and highlights Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), is so far the highest rated film of 2019, according to Rotten Tomatoes. The documentary, which had its rights purchased by Netflix for a whopping $10 million, has a 100 percent approval…

Angela Merkel has backed Manfred Weber’s bid to be lead candidate for the European People’s Party in next year’s European Parliament election — but he still has major obstacles to overcome if he is to become the next Commission president. Merkel’s support puts the 46-year-old Bavarian, who leads the EPP in the European Parliament, in…

Hollywood actor and left-wing activist John Cusack claims a “bot” is to blame for sharing an anti-Semitic meme on Twitter Monday. New York Magazine contributor Yashar Ali shared a screenshot to Twitter of Cusack writing “follow the money” in response to a cartoon of a large hand with a blue Star of David weighing down on…

ROME — The European Commission remains on track to kickstart a disciplinary process against Italy next week. Three weeks after Brussels rejected Rome’s draft budget plan for 2019, the Italian government on Tuesday night officially said it will not rework it as demanded. The confrontation could ultimately lead to an unprecedented sanction of a member country…

Far-left filmmaker Rob Reiner has demanded that Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi “pull the trigger” on impeaching President Donald Trump, arguing that FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report was “loaded with criminal offenses.” The Stand By Me director, who regularly uses Twitter to lambast both the president and his supporters, said that Trump was the “most lawless”…

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2017 | Tobia Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images Franco-German alliance splinters over climate policy Paris is leading a group of ambitious countries in Brussels as Germany gets cold feet. By Kalina Oroschakoff and Paola Tamma 3/22/19, 12:35 PM CET Updated 4/19/19, 1:09 AM CET The revamped…