Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for February 6, 2022
Newsline: Former US ambassador to Canada says US groups need to stop interfering in Canada
A former US ambassador to Canada said groups in the US need to cease interfering in what many call an occupation in Canada’s capital as protesters opposed to vaccine mandates and COVID-19 restrictions held rallies in cities across the country in a show of solidarity with a week-long demonstration in Ottawa. “Under no circumstances should any group in the USA fund disruptive activities in Canada. Period. Full stop,” Bruce Heyman, a former US ambassador under President Barack Obama, tweeted late on Saturday. (https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2022/02/06/US-groups-need-to-stop-interfering-in-Canada-says-former-US-envoy) Texas Attorney General Ken Paxon tweeted: “Patriotic Texans donated to Canadian truckers’ worthy cause.” In Canada’s largest city, Toronto, police set up road blocks throughout downtown, preventing any protesters in trucks or cars from getting near the provincial legislature, which is near where five major hospitals are located. And police later moved in to clear a key intersection in the city. Thousands descended in Ottawa again on Saturday. Participants roasted hotdogs and doled out baked goods under tarps, while two men on horseback traipsed through the town, one carrying a flag in support of former US President Donald Trump. The “freedom truck convoy” has attracted support from Trump and many Republicans. “The Freedom Convoy is peacefully protesting the harsh policies of far left lunatic Justin Trudeau who has destroyed Canada with insane Covid mandates,” Trump said in a statement released on Friday. In Toronto a couple hundred health-care workers and supporters marched from the University of Toronto to Hospital Row just south of the legislature. They held placards reading, “free-dumb” and “N95 masks for all.” Demonstrators also gathered in Quebec City, Fredericton and Winnipeg, with rallies also planned for Regina, Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria and the US border crossing in Coutts, Alta.
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Newsline: U.S. Envoy on North Korea to Meet With Japanese, South Korean Officials
The U.S. special representative for North Korea will meet with Japanese and South Korean officials later this week, the U.S. State Department said on Sunday, following nine ballistic missile tests U.S. officials said Pyongyang launched last month. (https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-02-06/u-s-envoy-on-north-korea-to-meet-with-japanese-s-korean-officials-statement) U.S. Ambassador Sung Kim will travel to Honolulu Feb. 10 to Feb. 15 for the trilateral meeting “to discuss a broad range of issues, including the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the importance of trilateral cooperation, and the immediate resolution of the abductions issue,” the department said in a statement.
Newsline: Top US diplomat in Ukraine says embassy drawdown done ‘out of an abundance of caution’
Kristina Kvien, Chargé D’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv said her decision to evacuate embassy families from Ukraine was embassy due to ‘an abundance of caution’. “My number one job and challenge is to secure the safety of our diplomats and their families,” shae said. (https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/top-us-diplomat-in-ukraine-embassy-drawdown-done-out-of-an-abundance-of-caution/vi-AATtScJ) “So ultimately, I made the decision to send the families back home out of an abundance of caution and because we have a very large presence here,” said Kvien.
Newsline: Fire hits Russian Embassy in Manila
A large fire broke out at the Russian Embassy in the Philippine capital, prompting the evacuation of employees and their families but causing no injuries, Russian and Filipino authorities said Saturday. (https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/fire-hits-russian-embassy-manila-employees-evacuated-82688672) Investigators were trying to determine the cause of the hours-long fire, which started on the second floor of the embassy in the financial district of Makati city in metropolitan Manila on Friday night and caused more than 100 million pesos ($2 million) in damages, the Philippine Bureau of Fire Protection said. More than a dozen firetrucks helped to extinguish the blaze in the upscale and tightly guarded Dasmarinas village, where several embassies and diplomatic residences are located.
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