Medical charity condemns Israel’s use of hunger as ‘weapon of war’ in Gaza


By AFP
May 13, 2025


The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) in late April said it had depleted all its food stocks in Gaza - Copyright Pakistan's Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR)/AFP -

Chloe ROUVEYROLLES-BAZIRE

A months-long Israeli blockade is worsening acute malnutrition in the Gaza Strip, medical charity Medecins du Monde warned on Tuesday, accusing Israel of using hunger as “a weapon of war”.

Israel halted all aid from entering the war-ravaged Palestinian territory on March 2, days before resuming its offensive triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.

The United Nations and aid agencies have repeatedly warned of a growing humanitarian catastrophe for the roughly 2.4 million people in Gaza, amid dwindling supplies of everything from fuel and medicine to food and clean water.

Aid reaches Gaza mainly through Israeli-controlled entry points, though the flow has fluctuated — even before the March shutdown.

After more than a year and a half of war, acute malnutrition in Gaza has “reached levels comparable to those seen in countries facing prolonged humanitarian crises spanning several decades,” said Medecins du Monde.

MDM said data from six health centres it runs in the Palestinian territory highlighted “the human responsibility for hunger in Gaza”.

“Acute malnutrition rates among pregnant and breastfeeding women and children depend on the Israeli authorities’ decisions to allow or block humanitarian aid,” it said.

The medical charity said the peaks in acute malnutrition it observed in 2024 “coincided with the sharpest decline in the monthly number of trucks delivering aid to Gaza”.

MDM said it saw a peak in child acute malnutrition of 17 percent in November, during a significant reduction of humanitarian aid.



– ‘Moral bankruptcy’ –



Aid access is limited to Israeli-controlled crossings, with the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt closed since the Israeli army took control of the city in spring 2024.

Israeli authorities have closed the crossing points since March 2, saying they want to force Hamas to release hostages.

The security cabinet in early May approved the “possibility of humanitarian distribution, if necessary” in Gaza, but insisted there was “currently enough food”.

The UN’s World Food Programme in late April said it had depleted all its food stocks in the territory.

“We are not witnessing a humanitarian crisis but a crisis of humanity and moral bankruptcy with the use of hunger as a weapon of war,” said Jean-Francois Corty, president of MDM.

“The failure of other countries with the power to pressure the Israeli authorities to lift this deadly siege is unacceptable and could be seen as complicity under international law,” he added.

In April, one in five pregnant or breastfeeding women and nearly one in four children MDM observed were suffering or were at high risk of acute malnutrition, the charity said.

The MDM report also detailed the domino effect of dwindling food reserves, as well as the destruction of agricultural facilities and sanitation systems, on the malnutrition crisis.

The organisation said it could not officially declare famine underway due to a lack of comprehensive data covering the entire Palestinian territory.

The UN- and NGO-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification warned Monday that Gaza was at “critical risk of famine”, with 22 percent of the population facing an imminent humanitarian “catastrophe”.

Rights groups take UK govt to court over Israel arms sales


By AFP
May 13, 2025


Rights groups accuse the UK government of breaching international law by supplying fighter jet parts to Israel - Copyright POOL/AFP Gavriil GRIGOROV, Nhac NGUYEN

Laurie CHURCHMAN

Rights groups and NGOs took the UK government to court on Tuesday accusing it of breaching international law by supplying fighter jet parts to Israel amid the war in Gaza.

Supported by Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam and others, the Palestinian rights association Al-Haq is seeking to stop the government’s export of UK-made components for Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets.

Israel has used the US warplanes to devastating effect in Gaza and the West Bank — both Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories — and the head of Amnesty UK said Britain had failed to uphold its “legal obligation… to prevent genocide” by allowing the export of key jet parts to Israel.

Around 50 protesters gathered outside court ahead of the hearings, waving Palestinian flags and placards with the words “STOP ARMING ISRAEL: STOP THE GENOCIDE”.

The plane’s refuelling probe, laser targeting system, tyres, rear fuselage, fan propulsion system and ejector seat are all made in Britain, according to Oxfam, and lawyers supporting Al-Haq’s case said the aircraft “could not keep flying without continuous supply of UK-made components”.

Opening their case against the government, lawyers said the UK’s trade department had allowed exports of F-35 parts knowing there was a “clear risk” they would be used to commit violations of international law.

It is not certain when a decision could be made following the four-day hearing at London’s High Court, which marks the latest stage in a long-running legal battle.

Lawyers for the Global Action Legal Network (GLAN) have said they launched the case soon after Israel’s assault on Gaza began, following the October 7, 2023, attack in Israel by militants from Hamas.

Israel has repeatedly denied accusations of genocide.

The lawyers said the UK government had decided in December 2023 and again in April and May 2024 to continue arms sales to Israel, before suspending licences in September 2024 for weapons assessed as being for military use by the Israeli army in Gaza.

The new Labour government suspended around 30 licences following a review of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law.

But the partial ban did not cover British-made parts for the advanced F-35 stealth fighter jets.

A UK government spokesperson told AFP it was “not currently possible to suspend licensing of F-35 components for use by Israel without prejudicing the entire global F-35 programme, due to its strategic role in NATO and wider implications for international peace and security”.

“Within a couple of months of coming to office, we suspended relevant licences for the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) that might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of International Humanitarian Law in Gaza,” they said.

– ‘UK not a bystander’ –

The government insisted it had “acted in a manner consistent with our legal obligations” and was “committed to upholding our responsibilities under domestic and international law”.

But GLAN described the F-35 exemption as a “loophole” which allowed the components to reach Israel indirectly through a global pooling system.

Charlotte Andrews-Briscoe, a lawyer for GLAN, told a briefing last week the UK government had “expressly departed from its own domestic law in order to keep arming Israel”, with F-35s being used to drop “multi-ton bombs on the people of Gaza”.

The 2023 attack in southern Israel by militants from Palestinian group Hamas resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 52,862 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry, whose figures the United Nations deems reliable.

The figure includes at least 2,749 who have died since Israel ended a two-month ceasefire in mid-March.

“Under the Genocide Convention, the UK has a clear legal obligation to do everything within its power to prevent genocide,” said Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive.

“Yet the UK government continues to authorise the export of military equipment to Israel — despite all the evidence that genocide is being committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

“This is a fundamental failure by the UK to fulfil its obligations.”

Al-Haq’s general director Shawan Jabarin said: “The United Kingdom is not a bystander. It’s complicit, and that complicity must be confronted, exposed and brought to account.”

Customer data stolen in Marks & Spencer cyberattack

By AFP
May 13, 2025


The data stolen could include names, dates of birth and home addresses of its customers, Marks & Spencer said - Copyright AFP

 Hector RETAMAL

British retailer Marks & Spencer said on Tuesday that some personal data of its customers was stolen in a cyberattack that has crippled its online services for weeks.

M&S operations have since Easter been hampered by a ransomware sting which has forced the retailer to suspend online sales, contactless payments instore and even recruiting operations.

“We are writing to customers informing them that due to the sophisticated nature of the incident, some of their personal customer data has been taken,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

The information stolen could include names, dates of birth, home addresses and telephone number, it said.

M&S added that the data taken did not include “useable payment or card details”, nor account passwords.

There is “no evidence” that the data taken has been shared, it said in the statement.

The retailer did not specify how many of its shoppers had been impacted.

It said there is “no need for customers to take any action”, but warned them to be wary of emails or text messages that include links to click.

M&S said it has reported the incident to relevant government authorities and law enforcement.

A wave of cyberattacks have hit British retailers in recent weeks, including luxury department store Harrods and the Co-op food chain.

Scottish refinery closure spells trouble for green transition


By AFP
May 11, 2025


Andrew Petersen, a mechanical maintenance technician who was recently made redundant from the Grangemouth Oli Refinery - Copyright AFP Richard A. Brooks

Akshata KAPOOR

Andrew Petersen is a third-generation oil refinery worker from a small, industrial Scottish town.

When he was growing up, working at Grangemouth refinery meant you “had a job for life”.

But last month “everything changed”, Petersen told AFP near the refinery, its giant cooling towers looming in the background.

On April 29, owner Petroineos announced it had ended operations at the refinery after more than a century, triggering the first of a phased wave of redundancies, including Petersen’s.

The closure of the UK’s oldest and Scotland’s only refinery will result in more than 400 job cuts, which locals say the impoverished adjoining town of Grangemouth can ill afford.

Petroineos — a joint venture of British chemical giant Ineos and the Chinese state-owned PetroChina -– says the refinery was losing around $500,000 (£376,600) a day as a result of changing market conditions and carbon-cutting measures.

It will be replaced by an import terminal, employing just 65 of the workforce including Chris Hamilton, who currently works as a refinery operator.

Since Petroineos announced its intention to wind down operations in 2023, workers like Petersen and Hamilton who are members of the Unite trade union have been campaigning to “Keep Grangemouth Working”.

The campaign was not against ending polluting refinery work, but sought to “future-proof” the site and transition to low-carbon options such as Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) without job losses, explained Hamilton.

However, Petroineos told AFP the “existing regulatory, policy and fiscal framework did not support low-carbon manufacturing” at Grangemouth, or any of the UK’s other industrial clusters.

A recent report by Scotland’s Just Transition Commission (JTC) concluded that Grangemouth had seen an “accountability breakdown” on the part of the government and Petroineos.

As a result, for the last six months, Petersen and his colleagues have been shutting down the refinery’s units one-by-one.

“It was really tough,” said Petersen. “You got the feeling you’re almost digging your own grave.”

– Just transition –

Located between Glasgow and Edinburgh on the Firth of Forth, the refinery, which first opened in 1924, is part of a sprawling industrial site.

Petroineos and the UK government this year published Project Willow, a feasibility study into low-carbon futures for the site.

However, its suggestions — including SAF production or plastic recycling — would take years to implement and billions of pounds of investment.

And £200 million pledged by the UK government for the site is contingent on private investment, which is not yet forthcoming.

“With the refinery closing… workers can’t wait a decade,” Grangemouth’s Westminster MP Brian Leishman told AFP.

“A real, proper, just transition means that you take the workers and their communities along with you,” he added.

JTC commissioner Richard Hardy told AFP that the refinery’s “car crash” closure was a “litmus test for just transition”.

He argued that the UK and devolved Scottish governments needed to do more to bridge the gap between shuttering polluting industries and the transition to greener energy — which will accelerate closer to Britain’s 2050 net zero target.

Just last month, the UK had to step in to save hundreds of jobs at a British Steel plant after its Chinese owners decided to shut down the furnaces.

Leishman had called for the government to do the same for Grangemouth.

One of the UK’s six remaining crude refineries, Grangemouth was the primary supplier of aviation fuel to Scotland’s main airports and a major petrol and diesel supplier in the central belt.

“Being in charge of our own destiny, for me, that’s just plain common sense,” said Leishman.

– ‘Ghost town’ –

Built around the refinery and once known as Scotland’s “boomtown”, Grangemouth has seen a steady decline in recent years.

The population has fallen in the last decade to about 16,000 residents, with more expected to leave with the refinery’s closure.

Petersen said he would likely move elsewhere, and had even considered the Middle East.

There are options there, he said: “But just not here.

“It’s going to turn into a ghost town,” he added.

In the run-down town centre dotted with half-shuttered shop fronts, the local butcher Robert Anderson said he was already losing business.

“We don’t see them anymore”, he said of the workers in their high-visibility vests.

Hannah Barclay, a homelessness support worker, told AFP that the refinery employed many of her friends.

For a “lot of people here, uni and college and further education, it is not an option,” said the 19-year-old.

The refinery closing is “taking away so much opportunity for people”, and leaving behind an “uncertain” future.

“It’s just quite disheartening to see all these young people who should be really excited for the future, who are just scared.”

Ocalan: founder of the Kurdish militant PKK who authored its end


ByAFP
May 12, 2025


Kurdish demonstrators carry an image of PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan - Copyright POOL/AFP Mikhail KLIMENTYEV, Thibault CAMUS

Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed founder of the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), is an icon to many Kurds but a “terrorist” to many within wider Turkish society.

After a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, the PKK said on Monday it was disbanding and ending its armed struggle.

The move came after Ocalan issued a historic call on February 27 for his fighters to lay down their arms in a major step towards ending the decades-long conflict.

Now 76, Ocalan has been held in solitary confinement since 1999 on Imrali prison island near Istanbul.

But since October, when Turkey tentatively moved to reset ties with the PKK, Ocalan has been visited several times by lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish opposition DEM party.

For many Turks, the PKK leader is public enemy number one.

He founded the group in 1978. Six years later, it began an insurgency demanding independence and later broader autonomy in Turkey’s mostly Kurdish southeast.

A Marxist-inspired group, the PKK was blacklisted as a “terror” organisation by Ankara, Washington, Brussels and many other Western countries.

– An olive branch –

Attitudes began shifting in October when ultra-nationalist MHP leader Devlet Bahceli, a close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, offered Ocalan an olive branch if he would publicly renounce violence.

The next day, the former guerrilla, who embodies the decades-long Kurdish rebellion, received his first family visit in four years.

He sent back a message saying he alone could shift the Kurdish question “from an arena of conflict and violence to one of law and politics”, later offering assurances he was “ready to… make the call”.

Ankara’s move came shortly before Syrian rebels overthrew ruler Bashar al-Assad, upending the regional balance of power and thrusting Turkey’s complex relationship with the Kurds into the spotlight.

– From village life to militancy –


Ocalan was born on April 4, 1949, one of six siblings in a mixed Turkish-Kurdish peasant family in Omerli, a village in Turkey’s southeast.

His mother tongue is Turkish.

He became a left-wing activist while studying politics at university in Ankara and was first jailed in 1972.

He set up the PKK six years later, then spent years on the run, launching the movement’s armed struggle in 1984.

Taking refuge in Syria, he led the fight from there, causing friction between Damascus and Ankara.

Forced out in 1998, he moved from Russia to Italy to Greece in search of a haven, ending up at the Greek consulate in Kenya, where US agents got wind of his presence and tipped off Turkey.

He was arrested on February 15, 1999, after being lured into a vehicle in a Hollywood-style operation by Turkish security forces.

Sentenced to death, he escaped the gallows when Turkey started abolishing capital punishment in 2002, living out the rest of his days in isolation on Imrali prison island in the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul.

For many Kurds, he is a hero whom they refer to as “Apo” (uncle). But Turks often call him “bebek katili” (baby killer) for ruthless tactics that include the bombing of civilian targets.

– Jailed but still leading –

With Ocalan’s arrest, Ankara thought it had decapitated the PKK.

But even from his cell he continued to lead, ordering a ceasefire that lasted from 1999 until 2004.

In 2005, he ordered followers to renounce the idea of an independent Kurdish state and campaign for autonomy in their respective countries.

Tentative moves to resolve Turkey’s “Kurdish problem” began in 2008 and several years later Ocalan became involved in the first unofficial peace talks, when Erdogan was prime minister.

Led by then spy chief Hakan Fidan — who is now foreign minister — the talks raised Kurdish hopes for a solution with their future within Turkey’s borders.

But the effort collapsed in July 2015, sparking one of the deadliest chapters in the conflict.

The government has defended its de facto silencing of Ocalan, saying he failed to convince the PKK of the need for peace.

Seen as the world’s largest stateless people, Kurds were left without a country when the Ottoman Empire collapsed after World War I.

Although most live in Turkey, where they make up around a fifth of the population, the Kurds are also spread across Syria, Iraq and Iran.

Turkey’s widescale use of combat drones has pushed most Kurdish fighters into northern Syria and Iraq, where Ankara has continued its raids.

White S.Africans resettled in US did not face ‘persecution’: govt


By AFP
May 12, 2025


White Afrikaners make up most of South Africa's 7.3 percent white population - Copyright AFP Tauseef MUSTAFA

The white Afrikaners who have accepted resettlement in the United States did not face “any form of persecution” in South Africa, the foreign ministry said on Monday.

It came hours after a first group of 49 white South Africans flew out of Johannesburg following US President Donald Trump’s offer to grant refugee status to white Afrikaners.

Mainly descendants of Dutch settlers, Trump has said white Afrikaners face “racial discrimination” in South Africa, heightening tensions between the two countries.

“They can’t provide any proof of any persecution because there is not any form of persecution to white South Africans or to Afrikaners South Africans,” Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told reporters.

Their claims that white farmers are targeted for murder — despite official data that most victims of killings are young black men in urban areas — have morphed into a myth of a “white genocide”, also repeated by Trump.

The US president, whose tycoon ally Elon Musk was born in South Africa, said in February he would prioritise access to a refugee programme “for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination”.

“We are glad that a number of organisations, even from the Afrikaner structures, have denounced this so-called persecution,” Lamola said, adding that preparations for a meeting between Trump and South African President Cyril Rampahosa were “very advanced”.

“The crime that we have in South Africa affects everyone irrespective of race and gender,” he said.

– ‘Beyond absurd’ –

The 49 left Johannesburg’s main airport on a chartered flight on Sunday and are due to land in the United States on Monday.

Under eligibility guidelines published by the US embassy in South Africa on Monday, applicants must either be of Afrikaner ethnicity or belong to a racial minority in South Africa.

One must also “be able to articulate a past experience of persecution or fear of future persecution,” it said.

The rapid pathway for resettlement comes at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries over several policy issues, including relations with China and BRICS membership.

America’s biggest trading partner in Africa is also under fire from Washington for leading a case at the International Court of Justice, accusing US-ally Israel of “genocidal” acts in its Gaza offensive, a claim Israel denies.

Many have expressed indignation and bemusement that whites could be assigned victim status in South Africa and that the resettlement stands in stark contrast to the shutdown of all other refugee admissions in the US.

Loren Landau, who studies migration at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said while racism existed in South Africa, there was no evidence of systematic persecution of white people.

On the contrary, “foreigners are targeted by people making it clear that they want Somali, Pakistanis and Zimbabweans out of the country,” he told AFP.

Prominent Afrikaner author Max du Preez said the resettlement was “beyond absurd” as South Africa had bodies to deal with any form of discrimination.

“This is about Trump and MAGA, not about us. Its about their hatred for DEI,” he told AFP, referring to diversity programmes that have become a frequent Trump target.

“The people who have now fled have probably been motivated by financial considerations and/or an unwillingness to live in a post-apartheid society where whites no longer call the shots,” he said.

Whites, who make up 7.3 percent of the population, generally enjoy a higher standard of living than the black majority of the country. They still own two-thirds of farmland and on average earn three times as much as black South Africans.

Mainly Afrikaner-led governments imposed the race-based apartheid system that denied the black majority political and economic rights until it was voted out in 1994.

Nazi files found in champagne crates in Argentine court basement


By AFP
May 12, 2025


The crates contained Nazi-themed postcards, photographs, progapanda material, notebooks and party membership documents - Copyright ARGENTINA'S SUPREME COURT OF JUSTICE/AFP Handout

A hoard of World War II-era Nazi propaganda and membership documents has been unearthed in the basement of Argentina’s Supreme Court, where it has lain, stashed in champagne crates, since 1941.

Seven crates containing postcards, photographs, Nazi propaganda, notebooks and party membership documents were found by staff in the process of moving non-digitized archive material, the court said Monday of the “discovery of global significance.”

A staffer who peeped into one of the crates found material “intended to consolidate and propagate Adolf Hitler’s ideology in Argentina,” said a court statement.

The rest of the boxes were opened last Friday in the presence of the chief rabbi of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) and officials of the Buenos Aires Holocaust Museum.

Argentina has the largest Jewish community in Latin America, but was also the preferred destination for several top Nazis who fled Germany after the wartime genocide of six million European Jews.

“Given the historical relevance of the find and the potential crucial information it could contain to clarify events related to the Holocaust, the president of the Supreme Court, Horacio Rosatti, ordered an exhaustive survey of all the material found,” the court said.

“The main objective is to… determine if the material contains crucial information about the Holocaust and if any clues found can shed light on aspects still unknown, such as the route of Nazi money at a global level,” it added.

The crates, sent from the German diplomatic mission in Japan to the embassy in Buenos Aires, arrived in Argentina in June 1941 on a Japanese cargo ship.

German diplomats in Argentina claimed they contained personal effects, but the shipment was held up by customs and became the subject of a probe by a special commission on “anti-Argentine activities.”

A judge later ordered the seizure of the materials, and the matter ended up before the Supreme Court, which took possession of the crates.

After World War II, Argentina became a haven for Nazis — thousands of whom are believed to have fled there, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish rights group.

They included top war criminals such as Adolf Eichmann — considered a key architect of Hitler’s plan to exterminate Europe’s Jews. He was captured in Buenos Aires in 1960 and sent to Israel where he was tried and executed.

Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, too, hid away in Argentina before fleeing to Paraguay and later Brazil, where he died.

Argentina’s Jewish population was the target of a bombing in 1994 of the AMIA center that killed 85 people and injured 300, just two years after the bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires claimed 29 lives.

Group of investors submits revised offer to buy Quebec-based Lion Electric

By The Canadian Press
Updated: May 12, 2025 

The Lion Electric Company's lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility in Mirabel, Que., THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

A group of investors has submitted a revised offer to buy Quebec vehicle-maker Lion Electric, providing a possible lifeline to the beleaguered company.

The new offer comes after the Quebec government refused to inject more public money into the St-Jérome, Que.-based electric-vehicle manufacturer, causing an earlier transaction to fall through.

According to court documents, the buyers have reached an agreement with the Quebec government to renew a recently expired subsidy program for electric school buses. On Friday, they made their new offer to buy the company, which sought protection from its creditors in December.

On May 5, the court-appointed monitor for Lion Electric told a Quebec Superior Court judge that the company would very likely be liquidated following the government’s decision not to provide any more public funds.

The investors had made a previous bid to buy the company, but it was contingent on the Quebec government “agreeing to participate and invest in the operations of the Lion Group going forward,” according to the court documents. Recent news reports said the group of buyers was seeking $24 million from the province to relaunch the company.

On April 30, Quebec Economy Minister Christine Fréchette announced it would be irresponsible to offer Lion more public money. She later told reporters she “would have expected the private sector to be more involved.”

Quebec has already invested heavily in Lion Electric, and Premier François Legault has said the province stands to lose about $140 million on the company, which manufactured electric school buses and trucks.

Following the hearing last week, Lion Electric continued discussions with the group of investors and with other companies interested in liquidating its assets, the court documents say. On Friday, the investors reached an agreement with the Quebec government to renew a program that had expired in March and offered subsidies to help school bus operators afford the higher cost of electric buses.

That program was integral to Lion’s success in Quebec, where the government has required since 2021 that all new school buses be electric. There are currently about 1,175 Lion school buses on the road in the province.

The new agreement allowed the investors to submit a new offer to buy the company “with minimal conditions,” according to the court documents. The monitor will ask the court Monday afternoon for an extension until Friday to finalize the deal.

Lion Electric has been seeking a buyer since December, with a restructuring plan that would focus only on school buses and return all manufacturing to Quebec. The company shut down production at a plant in Illinois last year after undergoing several rounds of layoffs. It has now laid off all but 12 of its employees.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2025.

Alberta government announces indefinite freeze on industrial carbon price

By The Canadian Press
Updated: May 12, 2025 

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks with reporters before a meeting in Halifax, 

. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government is freezing its industrial carbon price effective immediately at $95 per tonne of emissions.

Smith told reporters Monday the move is critical to keep industry competitive and defend jobs as Canada navigates a tariff fight with the United States.

“With the change in government south of the border, it is essential that we have a reasonable carbon pricing system, not one that will price our industries out of global markets,” she said.

“We are providing certainty, stability and economic relief to the businesses that contribute so much to all of Canada. And we are supporting the energy producers whose expertise and innovation are quite literally shaping the world’s energy future.”

The price had been set to rise to $110 per tonne in 2026 and was to continue increasing to $170 per tonne by 2030.

Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz said going over $100 a tonne would make the province “wildly uncompetitive.”

She said the freeze, which is indefinite, doesn’t mean Alberta is giving up on its emission reduction goals.

“We are absolutely a leader when it comes to energy and resource development, but also when it comes to emissions reduction,” Schulz said.

“Instead of punishing our industry, we want to allow them to grow, thrive, continue to increase production and reduce global emissions all at the same time.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2025.

‘Sets the tone’: More than half of PM Carney’s new cabinet will be fresh faces

By Spencer Van Dyk  and Rachel Aiello
Updated: May 12, 2025 


PM Mark Carney set to unveil new cabinet

When Prime Minister Mark Carney unveils his new front bench on Tuesday, more than half of its members will be fresh faces, CTV News has confirmed.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) tells CTV News that Carney’s new cabinet will be a more focused roster, and while the core slate of cabinet ministers is expected to stay under 30 people, he’ll also be appointing up to 10 secretaries of state.

This return to a practice used by past prime ministers — while not employed by former prime minister Justin Trudeau — of using junior ministers, will see Carney’s central team take the lead on the biggest portfolios, while the secretaries of state could be tapped to stickhandle specific files.

More than 50 per cent of those being sworn-in at Rideau Hall tomorrow will be rookies, according to PMO.

Sources tell CTV News that two rookies who will be among those promoted are former Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson, who will take over the housing file, and former Quebec cabinet minister Carlos Leitao, whose title has yet to be confirmed.

While two sources initially told CTV News that longtime minister Chrystia Freeland was on her way out, CTV News has since learned she is to remain in cabinet, and is expected to be in attendance at tomorrow’s swearing-in ceremony.

Cabinet team will be two-tiered

Carney opting to appoint two levels of key Liberals comes as part of his aim to streamline decision-making.

According to a PMO source, the secretaries of state wouldn’t take part in all major cabinet meetings or cabinet committees, but could be tapped in on specific issues or government-wide decisions.

Per parliamentary rules, anyone Carney names a cabinet minister will receive a $99,900 top-up to their MP base salary, while secretaries of state are slated to see salary top-ups of $74,700.

“In lieu of having many more ministers around the table, he wants a smaller group to get to decision making more expeditiously. That’s clear,” said Marci Surkes, the chief strategy officer and managing director at Compass Rose, in an interview with CTV News on Monday.

“Tiering is not a negative. In fact, if you look at other Westminster models, this is very commonplace in terms of how cabinets organize themselves,” said Surkes, who played key roles behind the scenes during Justin Trudeau’s tenure, including as executive director of policy and cabinet affairs in the Prime Minister’s Office between 2019 and 2022.

“Mr. Trudeau chose to organize his cabinet in a different way. This is the prime minister’s prerogative… But it doesn’t mean that junior ministers, so to speak… have less of a role to play.”

“What it allows for is very robust decision making to happen with that core group of ministers, but you can, and on a regular basis, have the ability to tap into a broader group for different perspectives from some of the smaller portfolio agencies that actually bring a lot of color and importance to those decisions,” Surkes said. “But they may not be key to being there all of the time, and that’s okay.

Rookies to keep an eye on

Expect this new front bench to be made up of those Carney thinks can deliver quickly on his promise to set Canada on a “new path.”

Several prominent names won a seat in last month’s election, whether they entered politics for the first time, or made the switch from municipal or provincial government.

Some of those include former broadcaster Evan Solomon, former IBM Canada CEO Claude Guay, and engineer and survivor of the École Polytechnique mass shooting Nathalie Provost.

Meanwhile, Carney’s first cabinet — which was sworn in, in mid-March — kept some of Trudeau’s longtime ministers and core team in place, including Dominic LeBlanc, Melanie Joly, Francois-Philippe Champagne, and Anita Anand.

Cabinet choices ‘set the tone’

Surkes said that deciding who is going to be in the ministry “sets the tone for the entirety of the mandate.”

“The prime minister understands that, (his) closest advisors understand that. They know that to the extent possible, there’s little room for error,” she said.

Surkes said watch for Carney to leverage having a more regionally diverse roster, and recruits with big resumes.

“The prime consideration for Mr. Carney is going to be ‘who has the skills to take the decisions and to lead at this critical moment for our country?’ Period. End of sentence.”

“He is running this cabinet like a business. He’s running the government of Canada like a corporation,” Surkes said. “And for the moment we are in, it makes a lot of sense to have a more streamlined perspective around that big table.”

According to Scott Reid — a CTV News political analyst and former communications director to former prime minister Paul Martin — Carney doesn’t seem to want to “play incremental games.”

“Early in his leadership campaign, Mark Carney said this to Radio-Canada: he said, ‘no crisis, no Mark Carney,’ and I think he genuinely believes that and feels that,” Reid said on CTV Question Period’s Sunday Strategy Session panel.

“It isn’t just a question of who you pick,” Reid added. “It’s also a question of the priorities you’ve established and the focus and concentration of your agenda that comes out of this transition.”

Reid also said he’s predicting “getting things done is going to be a watermark for this prime minister.”

The new cabinet is set to be sworn in at Rideau Hall Tuesday morning at 10:30 a.m. EDT.

With files from CTV News’ Colton Praill, Jeremie Charron and Mike Le Couteur
Correction

This article initially reported, based on two sources, that longtime cabinet minister Chrystia Freeland was being shuffled out of cabinet, but CTV News has since confirmed she is to remain a member of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s front bench. This article has been updated to reflect that.

Spencer Van Dyk
Writer & Producer, Ottawa News Bureau, CTV News

Rachel Aiello
National Correspondent, CTV Ne