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Hands off our Camembert! France kicks up a stink over draft EU recycling law

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:23 GMT

Former French President Charles de Gaulle warned years ago: “How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?” Brussels should have listened. French cheesemakers are rallying against a proposed EU recycling law, accusing Brussels of endangering one of the country’s most prized traditional foods. The draft law aims to phase out single-use packaging in favor of recycled materials. But French cheese producers fear the new regulation poses a threat to traditional packaging, such as Camembert’s distinctive wooden box.French media have seized on the cheesemongers’ concerns, accusing the EU of threatening France’s “gastronomic treasures,” saying that certain cheeses would inevitably lose their “geographic indication” seal and warning that up to 2,000 jobs could be affected.French Secretary of State for European Affairs Laurence Boone has joined the chorus of concerned voices, warning Brussels that it risks a PR disast...

EU agrees on first-ever law to curb methane emissions

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:23 GMT

The European Union struck a deal on a law to tackle methane emissions from fossil fuels, paving the way to impose rules on the bloc’s foreign energy suppliers like the United States. MEPs and EU governments in the Council found agreement on the bloc’s first-ever methane regulation in the early hours of Wednesday morning, some two years after Brussels and Washington launched the Global Methane Pledge at COP26 in Glasgow. The law will force operators of fossil fuel infrastructure to measure and report methane emissions and to regularly check their sites for leaks of the powerful greenhouse gas. It also outlaws most cases of flaring and venting by 2027. The legislation also addresses imports, which make up about 80 percent of the EU’s oil and gas consumption — requiring companies importing oil and gas into the bloc to demonstrate that their supply chain has emissions monitoring standards equivalent to the EU’s from 2027. The Council and the Parliament requested the ...

In the news today: No Canadians on Rafah crossing list as Israel raids Gaza hospital

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:23 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…No Canadians on today’s Rafah crossing listNo more Canadians have been approved to leave the Gaza Strip on Wednesday via the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, as hundreds of people connected to Canada continue to wait for help to leave.A total of 356 Canadians, permanent residents and family members have been able to leave the besieged Palestinian territory so far.No one connected to Canada had been cleared to leave on Tuesday, and the last group of 10 people made it across on Monday. Israeli forces raided Gaza’s largest hospital early Wednesday, where hundreds of patients, including newborns, have been stranded with dwindling supplies and no electricity, as the army extended its control across Gaza City and the north.Trudeau in California for APEC summitPrime Minister Justin Trudeau is headed to California for three days of meetings at the Asia-Pac...

Bus accident leaves at least 30 dead and dozens injured in Indian-controlled Kashmir

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:23 GMT

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — At least 30 people were killed and nearly two dozen injured when a passenger bus slid off a Himalayan highway and rolled down a steep slope onto another road in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Wednesday, officials said.The 42-seater bus was on the way to southern Jammu city from Kishtwar town when it veered off the road and fell down about 660 feet (200 meters) on an older road in the mountainous region, said Harvinder Singh, a civil administrator.Residents and authorities rushed to the scene and a rescue operation was launched. Singh said the injured were taken to nearby health facilities. At least 10 in critical condition were transported to hospital in Jammu.The exact cause of the crash was not immediately known.India has some of the highest road death rates in the world, with hundreds of thousands of people killed and injured annually. Most crashes are blamed on reckless driving, poorly maintained roads and aging vehicles.Last year, a century-old cable suspen...

Canada’s former Afghan envoy suggests Ottawa send diplomats to Taliban-held country

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:23 GMT

OTTAWA — One of Canada’s former ambassadors to Afghanistan says it’s time to establish a diplomatic presence in Kabul, arguing Ottawa lacks a firsthand understanding of the Taliban-held country where Canadian troops fought for more than 12 years.“There are ways for us to be on the ground and to see for ourselves, and to act for ourselves and act directly to help Afghans — without lending direct support to the Taliban,” Arif Lalani said in an interview this week.“We should be able to decide for ourselves and inform others about what is really going on in Afghanistan. And the degree to which we can’t do that ourselves, I don’t think it does a service to anyone.”Ottawa recognizes the Taliban as a terrorist organization. The group overthrew a Western-backed government in August 2021, following the retreat of the United States military from its long-time presence in the country.Since then, the Taliban’s government has capped education...

Trudeau heads to Golden State for APEC summit in San Francisco

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:23 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is headed to California for three days of meetings at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in San Francisco. Trudeau will meet today with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, long a liberal-minded ally in the effort to combat climate change. Officials say he’ll attend an APEC reception later in the day hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden before a welcome dinner with tech leaders. Biden sits down today with Chinese President Xi Jinping in an effort to defuse a year of international tensions, a meeting widely seen as the focal point of the summit. Reports suggest the two leaders are working on a deal to resume bilateral military communications and keeping artificial intelligence out of their respective nuclear defence systems. Trudeau, meanwhile, will be aiming for tangible progress on policy priorities in the Indo-Pacific, during bilateral meetings with fellow APEC leaders.Federal officials say at least two bilateral economic initiatives w...

Poll suggests widespread dissatisfaction with Trudeau government

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:23 GMT

OTTAWA — Almost two in three Canadians have a negative impression of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and half want him to resign before the next election, a new survey suggests.While affordability, housing and public debt are higher on the reasons people want Trudeau to go, one in five people surveyed said they want him to resign simply because they are “just tired of him.”The Leger poll for The Canadian Press suggests widespread dissatisfaction with the Liberal government on everything from housing affordability and inflation to health care, government spending and climate change.It was taken online in Canada over three days last weekend, with 1,612 people responding. While the results were statistically weighted it cannot be assigned a margin of error because online polls are not considered truly random samples.It comes after months of unfavourable poll numbers for Trudeau and the Liberals who have just passed the eighth anniversary of their 2015 election win.Nationally,...

Alberta regulator probes mine wall ‘instabilities’ after worker nearly buried: union

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:23 GMT

Alberta’s energy regulator is examining practices at a coal mine in the province after three “instabilities” in its rock walls — including one weeks ago that partially buried a large piece of heavy equipment and its operator.  “It buried the excavator with the operator in it,” said Shayne Jessome, who works at the CST Canada Coal mine in Grande Cache, about 430 kilometres west of Edmonton.“The guy almost got killed.”The boulders were big enough to damage the excavator’s roll cage, Jessome said. Alberta Energy Regulator spokeswoman Teresa Broughton said the company reported three “rock-wall instabilities” in June, September and October. The first was reported to the regulator on July 5 and the others on Oct. 31.“We are assessing the conditions at the site and mitigation activities of (CST) related to these rock-wall instabilities,” she said. The three events occurred after an earlier one in the fall of 2022...

Stock market today: Global shares get a lift from encouraging US inflation report

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:23 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Global shares powered higher on Wednesday, cheered by a broad rally on Wall Street after an encouraging U.S. inflation report raised hopes for an end to interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. France’s CAC 40 rose 0.5% in early trading to 7,221.25. Germany’s DAX edged 0.2% higher, to 15,644.95, while Britain’s FTSE 100 surged 1.0% to 7,515.58. The future for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2% and that for the S&P 500 gained 0.3%. Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 2.5% to finish at 33,519.70 as investors appeared to shrug off news that Japan’s economy contracted at a worse than expected 2.1% annual rate in July-September. In quarterly terms, it contracted 0.5%. The world’s No. 3 economy is grappling with weakening private demand from consumers and businesses, slack demand for Japan’s exports and sluggish wage growth that will continue to drag on consumer spending, which is the main driver of the economy, said Marcel T...

ASEAN defense chiefs call for the fighting in Gaza to cease but struggle to address Myanmar violence

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:27:23 GMT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Southeast Asian defense ministers called Wednesday for an end to the Israel-Hamas war and for the world to collaborate on setting up humanitarian aid corridors in Gaza, but they struggled on how to address the prolonged civil strife in Myanmar.They also reiterated the significance of maintaining freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea and respecting international rules to prevent maritime clashes in the disputed waters. The 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations includes Myanmar, but its defense minister was again barred from attending this week’s meetings due to the military government’s failure to comply with a five-point peace plan drafted to ease the violence.“We are saddened with a deteriorating situation in Myanmar,” Indonesia’s Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto said in an opening speech. “Indonesia encourages other ASEAN member states to support Myanmar to find a peaceful and durable solution to the current situati...