Evening News Podcast for Friday, April 11

Good evening. I'm Will Dove and this is the evening news for Thursday, April 11th. Mark Carney has pledged to defend access to transgender medical treatments for minors if he wins the April 28th election. "Access to health care in Canada is not a business, it is a fundamental right, and we will defend it for all Canadians, without exception," Carney stated during a recent appearance. He was responding to questions about whether the Liberals would intervene to protect access to transgender treatments under the Canada Health Act. This stance puts Carney in direct opposition to provinces like Alberta, which has implemented Bill 26. This legislation prohibits health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors and restricts prescribing puberty blockers to those under 16 years of age without parental approval. The treatments in question include puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, which can have significant long-term effects. Medical experts note these interventions can result in sterility and permanently affect sexual function. For males, genital development may be halted, while females may experience deeper voices, stronger jawlines, and reproductive tissue atrophy. Carney, 59, will face Conservative Party leader Pierre Pollyev in the upcoming election. Pollyev has previously spoken out against child sex change treatments, creating a clear policy distinction between the two candidates. Anti-American sentiment is intensifying across Canada following President Trump's imposition of steep tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, with some Canadians developing apps to avoid American products. GB News correspondent Steven Edginton, traveling through Canada, has encountered increasingly critical views of the United States. The tariffs have sparked significant resentment. This tension has been further inflamed by Trump's repeated suggestions that Canada should become America's "51st state." Canadians interviewed expressed harsh criticisms of their southern neighbors. "I think Americans are very siloed - they think the world surrounds them and they don't even leave their state," one Canadian told Edginton, adding bluntly, "They're totally ignorant." Many expressed a sense of superiority, with one stating, "I don't think we feel better than Americans, I think we know we are." Meanwhile, developer Ryan Checora has created an app called "O SCANada" to help Canadians identify and purchase domestically-made products. The app allows users to search for or scan products to determine their Canadian origin. "It's a buy Canadian app. It's a topic on everyone's mind especially with the threats of tariffs and trade wars," Checora explained. Member states of the International Maritime Organization have voted in favor of a global pricing system to help curb maritime carbon emissions, the UN shipping body announced today. From 2028, all ships will be required to use a less carbon-intensive fuel mix or face financial penalties, according to the IMO. The carbon pricing measure must now be formally adopted at an IMO assembly in October. A majority of members—63 states—voted for the carbon pricing system, including the European Union, Brazil, China, India, and Japan. Sixteen states voted against the measure, including major oil producers Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates. Pacific Island states abstained from the vote, deeming the proposals insufficient to meet decarbonization goals. The United States did not participate in the vote, with a wave of environmental rollbacks by President Trump, including carbon limits on power plants, tailpipe emissions standards, and protections for waterways. Under the new system, those who do not meet the guidelines will have to pay annually for every tonne of greenhouse gas emissions that exceeds the targets set. The IMO said the funds raised will be used to "reward" zero or near-zero greenhouse gas emissions technologies and to financially support developing countries to transition to lower-emissions shipping. Shipping accounts for nearly three percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the IMO. China has dramatically escalated the ongoing trade war with the United States by hiking tariffs on American goods to 125%, up from the previous 84%. In a significant policy shift, the Chinese Communist Party also announced it would "no longer respond" to any further tariff increases from Washington. The State Council Tariff Commission announced the new tariff rate will be effective Saturday, directly responding to President Trump's effective tariff rate on Chinese imports, which now totals 145%. "Given that at the current tariff level, there is no market acceptance for U.S. goods exported to China. If the U.S. continues to impose tariffs on Chinese goods exported to the U.S., China will ignore it," the council stated. Beijing appears to be shifting toward non-tariff retaliation methods—limiting Hollywood film imports, slowing rare earth export shipments, and allowing the yuan to weaken. Economist Zhiwei Zhang noted, "This is the end of the escalation in terms of bilateral tariff rates. Both China and the U.S. have sent clear messages, there is no point of raising tariffs further." Wall Street analysts have already trimmed sales estimates for American companies in China, including Apple and Tesla. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs has lowered China's GDP growth forecasts for 2025 and 2026 to 4.0% and 3.5% respectively, down from previous projections of 4.5% and 4.0%. Gold prices surged by more than $100 an ounce today, marking the largest one-day dollar increase in the history of the precious metal. The price closed just under $3,100 an ounce, reflecting growing concerns about the global economic landscape amid escalating trade tensions. Economist Peter Schiff attributes America's persistent trade deficits to the nation's lack of savings and investment. "The reason we have these horrific trade deficits is because as a nation we spend too much and save too little," Schiff explained. "And so because we don't save enough, we don't make the capital investments to build up the factories and the supply chains and the infrastructure." Schiff warns that America's financial vulnerability stems from its dependence on foreign money to sustain unsustainable living standards. He predicts this dependence will end painfully as a weakening dollar forces America to lower its consumption and accept a lower standard of living. "It's America that's been taking advantage of the world because we rely on the world to live beyond our means," he stated. Most alarmingly, Schiff notes that international investors are already moving away from the U.S. currency. For investors, Schiff highlights that worsening economic conditions and stagflation have created an attractive environment for gold investments, with mining companies particularly well-positioned to benefit from strong gold prices and reduced oil costs. American and Russian delegations met Thursday in Istanbul for talks lasting more than five hours as part of ongoing efforts toward diplomatic normalization. Moscow's newly appointed ambassador to Washington, Aleksandr Darchiev, led the Russian side, while the US delegation was headed by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Sonata Coulter. Darchiev stated that an "understanding has been reached to pursue further measures aimed at easing the movement of diplomats in the host country as well as related visa procedures." The two sides are also working on a road map to restore Russian diplomatic properties previously seized by the US. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that both diplomats committed to "facilitating uninterrupted banking and financial services for Russian and American diplomatic missions." The State Department characterized the talks as "constructive" but emphasized that Ukraine was "absolutely not on the agenda." State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce had previewed earlier in the week that "these talks are solely focused on our embassy operations, not on normalizing a bilateral relationship overall, which can only happen, as we've noted, once there is peace between Russia and Ukraine." Broader talks on achieving a ceasefire in Ukraine remain stalled as the White House deals with fallout from Trump's tariff policies and the trade standoff with China. President Putin appears in no hurry to negotiate, perceiving Russian forces as having momentum on the battlefield, particularly in Donetsk and the south, though some reports indicate frontlines have been largely stalemated for months. Gaza's civil defence agency reported that a pre-dawn Israeli air strike today killed 10 members of the same family, including seven children, in the southern city of Khan Yunis. The Israeli military said it was looking into the attack, adding in a separate statement that it had struck approximately 40 "terror targets" across Gaza over the past day. Medics and rescuers transported the dead and injured to hospital in multiple ambulances, with several bodies wrapped in white shrouds and blankets. Footage of the house showed a heavily destroyed structure, with mangled concrete slabs and twisted metal strewn across the site. Witnesses reported continuous and intensive Israeli tank fire in Khan Yunis. The civil defence agency also reported two people killed in an Israeli strike in the Al-Atatra area in the northern city of Beit Lahia. Early today, the Israeli military issued an "urgent and serious" evacuation warning to residents of several areas east of Gaza City. Israel resumed intense strikes on the Gaza Strip on March 18th, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. Efforts to restore the truce have so far failed. A top Houthi official has offered Washington a truce in the Red Sea conflict, stating that the group would cease military operations against the United States if American forces stop attacking Yemen. Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of Ansarallah's political bureau and longtime spokesperson for the Houthis, made the offer in a rare interview. "We do not consider ourselves at war with the American people. If the U.S. stops targeting Yemen, we will cease our military operations against it," al-Bukhaiti stated. However, he clarified that attacks on Israeli ships and territory would continue until certain Gaza-related conditions are met. Al-Bukhaiti suggested that if President Trump truly seeks peace, "his efforts should have been directed at pressuring Netanyahu to implement the ceasefire agreement, which includes lifting the siege on Gaza and allowing food and medicine to enter. Only then will we stop all military operations against the Zionist entity." Interestingly, there could be a basis for agreement between American and Houthi forces, given President Trump's previous statement: "The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at U.S. ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed this sentiment, stating: "The minute the Houthis say, 'We'll stop shooting at your ships, we'll stop shooting at your drones,' this campaign will end." A groundbreaking peer-reviewed study involving 85 million people has confirmed that COVID-19 vaccines have caused a significant increase in cardiovascular events worldwide, including strokes, heart attacks, and other potentially fatal conditions. The comprehensive analysis, published in the International Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that mRNA and viral vector COVID-19 vaccines are associated with alarming increases in cardiovascular incidents: strokes increased by 240%, heart attacks by 286%, coronary artery disease by 244%, and arrhythmia by 199%. Led by Raheleh Karimi from the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in Iran, the research team included scientists from Spain and Portugal. Their Bayesian multivariate meta-analysis evaluated over 85 million individuals, including nearly 46 million vaccinated people and approximately 40 million unvaccinated or control participants. The study examined individuals who had received first, second, or third doses of COVID vaccines, including mRNA shots from Pfizer and Moderna and AstraZeneca's viral vector injections. The analysis spanned multiple countries across Asia, Europe, and North America. When compared to the unvaccinated group, researchers found that cardiovascular events increased dramatically even after a single dose of any COVID vaccine. Pfizer's mRNA shots were specifically linked to substantial increases in stroke, myocardial infarction, and coronary artery disease, with risks especially high following first and second doses. AstraZeneca's viral vector vaccines were associated with the greatest surge in arrhythmia, showing an 811% increased risk overall. The researchers provided detailed risk assessments for each condition, using odds ratios with 95% credible intervals to demonstrate the statistical significance of their findings. Donald Trump has called on Congress to adopt permanent daylight saving time, describing the proposal as "very popular" and a way to avoid the "costly" changing of clocks twice a year. His comments follow a Senate Commerce Committee hearing held yesterday that weighed the issue of permanent time changes. During the hearing, senators from both parties expressed support for ending the biannual clock changes but disagreed on whether to permanently adopt standard time or daylight saving time. Advocates for permanent standard time argue it would lead to better sleep, while daylight saving time supporters point to benefits of extended evening sunlight for recreation and exercise. Senator Todd Young of Indiana raised concerns about regional differences, noting that under permanent daylight saving time, the sun wouldn't rise until 9 am in winter in his state. Environmental activists concerned about climate change are increasingly choosing not to have children, potentially reducing their own demographic presence in future generations, according to a report published today. Environmental absolutists cite research claiming a child emits 9,441 tonnes of carbon dioxide during their lifetime, leading many to forego parenthood entirely. Some green ideologues have even suggested adding figures to account for carbon-emitting grandchildren in their calculations. This trend is particularly evident in UK cities with strong green political movements. Bristol, Brighton, and Cambridge have experienced significant declines in fertility rates, with Total Fertility Rates or TFR falling below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman. In several districts, the TFR has dropped below 1.0, meaning these populations would drop by 50% in one generation. Bristol, which hosted a project titled "Motherhood in a Climate Crisis" through its Brigstow Institute, has seen its fertility rate plummet from 1.89 a decade ago to just 1.14 in 2023. The university project used "therapeutically informed participatory theatre techniques" to explore reproductive decision-making during climate crisis, with many participants deciding against having children for environmental reasons. As Ross Clark notes in The Spectator, this could represent "nature's revenge – Darwinism in action, in which people with loony ideas shrink their gene pool before they can do too much damage." That is all for this evening’s news. "The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home." - Confucius