Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
France's European Union partners agreed Tuesday to put the country's festering dispute over a major Indo-Pacific defense deal between the U.S., Australia and Britain at the top of bloc's political agenda, including at an EU summit next month.
The Indo-Pacific security pact known as AUKUS will see Australia cancel a multibillion-dollar contract to buy diesel-electric French submarines and acquire U.S. nuclear-powered vessels instead. The French government is suggesting it was betrayed by the deal.
“It's definitely something that raised interest and will occupy us in the months to come,” Gasper Dovzan, Slovenia's foreign affairs chief, told reporters after chairing a meeting of the bloc's European affairs ministers in Brussels.
EU leaders are set to meet in Slovenia on Oct. 6 and again in Brussels on Oct. 21-22.
European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic said the chaotic U.S. troop pullout from Afghanistan last month and the surprise Australian security deal involving the United States are signs that “we need to focus more on the strategic autonomy” of the 27-nation EU.
Earlier, French European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune told reporters that he would urge other EU nations to consider delaying the bloc's trade pact negotiations with Australia, which have been underway since 2018.
No comment was made about that possibility after the meeting, but a discussion scheduled for Wednesday among EU envoys on an EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council has now been taken off the agenda. The TTC - a forum for coordinating on trade, economic and technology issues - was launched when Biden visited Brussels in June. The council is holding its first meeting in Pittsburgh on Sept. 29.
The Europeans see the previously unannounced security deal as the second time in weeks that President Joe Biden has focused on an “America First” policy, similar in substance if not in tone to his predecessor Donald Trump, following the debacle at Kabul airport with the U.S. withdrawal.
It's raised questions about Europe's ability to provide for its own security outside of the U.S.-led NATO and resulted in appeals for the EU to develop a “strategic autonomy” from the military alliance that breaks with the dependence on American military and logistical muscle.
For France, it's a matter of trust.
“When you have your word, it has some value between allies, between democracies, between partners and in this case this word was not respected... so of course it creates a breach of trust,” Beaune told reporters.
“We have to be firm, not as French but as Europeans, because it's a matter of the way we work together as allies,” he said.
Germany's European Affairs Minister, Michael Roth, said he has “great understanding for the disappointment felt by our French partners.”
“It's once more a wake-up call for all of us in the European Union to ask how we can strengthen our sovereignty, how can we stand as one even in question related to foreign and security policy, and how can we use our economic and political clout in such a way that we can contribute to security and multilateralism,” Roth said.
But the ruckus also comes amid a busy election campaign period in Europe. Germans go to the polls on Sunday and France is holding elections in April.
EU nations bordering Russia or Belarus, such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, count on the security guarantee provided by the U.S. through NATO and might opposed moves that complicate relations.
“What is important is to keep trans-Atlantic unity, because we believe this is our biggest strength and biggest value, especially vis-a-vis such countries as Russia and China,” Lithuanian deputy European Affairs Minister Arnoldas Prankevicius told reporters.
In New York, the EU's two top officials, EU Council President Charles Michel and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, held talks Tuesday with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
------
Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Golf is a sign of spring and summer and a major driver for seasonal tourism, experts say.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
Drew Carey took over as host of 'The Price Is Right' and hopes he’s there for life. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he told 'Entertainment Tonight' of the job he took over from longtime host Bob Barker in 2007.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.