Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Migrant families sent back to Haiti by the United States after attempting to enter the country from Mexico are angry at their treatment and fearful of returning back home to a life punctuated by gang violence.
The deportation of Haitian migrants had been temporarily suspended by Washington after a devastating earthquake hit the Caribbean nation last month.
PARIS (Reuters) - France has cancelled a meeting between Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly and her British counterpart planned for this week after Australia scrapped a submarine order with Paris in favour of a deal with Washington and London, two sources familiar with the matter said.
Parly personally took the decision to drop the bilateral meeting with British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, the sources said.
By David Ljunggren
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadians go to the polls on Monday in an election that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called two years early, seeking to turn public approval for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic into a fresh, four-year mandate.
WHY NOW?
Since 2019, Trudeau has only commanded a minority in parliament, leaving him dependent on other parties to govern. Trudeau argues the pandemic has changed Canada like World War Two did and Canadians should now choose who they want to make important decisions for decades to come.
WHAT HAS HAPPENED?
Trudeau has struggled https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/early-canada-election-call-backfires-trudeau-who-now-trails-polls-2021-09-03 to explain why an early election during a worsening fourth wave of COVID-19 was a good idea. Conservative leader Erin O'Toole https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-election-o-toole-newsmaker/slow-and-steady-may-win-the-race-canada-opposition-leader-seeks-to-dethrone-trudeau-idUSKBN2G40ZT?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews consistently accuses the Liberal leader of putting Canadians in harm's way for personal ambition. People also seem to be tiring of Trudeau, who carries the baggage of having governed for six years.
After Trudeau called the election, his hefty opinion poll lead vanished. Recent surveys point to a tight race in which he might retain power with another minority. Polls:
Steady Conservative gains during the first three weeks stopped as Trudeau attacked O'Toole for his opposition to vaccine mandates and his promise - now reversed https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-opposition-leader-under-pressure-scraps-vow-end-assault-weapon-ban-2021-09-05 - to legalize some assault weapons the Liberals had banned.
Trudeau said on Sunday only his Liberals could end the COVID-19 pandemic and accused O'Toole of taking the wrong approach.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN ISSUES?
To tackle the pandemic the Liberals ran up a record national debt of C$1 trillion ($785.7 billion) and pushed budget deficits to highs not seen since World War Two. In the campaign they promised another C$78 billion in new spending over five years.
O'Toole says he will balance the books https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadas-conservatives-pledge-big-spending-deficit-reduction-election-platform-2021-09-08 within a decade without making cuts.
Analysts say financial markets do not appear overly worried about the fiscal implications of either promise although the stocks of bank and insurance firm could suffer after Trudeau promised a new windfall tax on their profits.
VACCINE MANDATES
The Liberal government has introduced COVID-19 vaccine mandates. During the campaign, Trudeau has been abused https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadas-trudeau-trailing-polls-goes-attack-two-weeks-before-vote-2021-09-06 and heckled by people opposing the move and says his Conservative rival is taking his cues from the crowds. O'Toole opposes https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadas-pandemic-election-unvaccinated-candidates-are-knocking-doors-2021-08-23 vaccine mandates, including for his own candidates, and says he prefers frequent testing.
CHILDCARE
Employment of women has plummeted thanks to COVID-19. The Liberals are promising to spend up to C$30 billion over five years to set up a long-promised C$10 a day national childcare https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/fate-national-daycare-hands-canadian-voters-2021-09-02 program. The Conservatives say they will cancel those deals and instead offer tax credits of up to C$6,000 a year to help pay for daycare.
HOUSING AFFORDABILITY
Housing prices have soared about 70% since Trudeau took office. He is promising https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trudeau-pledges-foreign-home-buyer-ban-rent-to-own-scheme-bid-canada-voters-2021-08-24 to build, preserve, or repair 1.4 million homes over the next four years, among other measures. The Conservatives would boost supply https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadas-conservatives-promise-job-boom-challenge-trudeau-2021-08-16 by building a million homes over three years and loosening some mortgage requirements.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Forest fires in western Canada and a drought in crop-growing areas are focusing https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/canadas-infernal-summer-puts-climate-change-forefront-election-2021-09-01 attention on climate change. The Liberals promise more aggressive emissions cuts than the Conservatives, who are major advocates of the oil and gas industry.
($1 = 1.2665 Canadian dollars)
(Editing by Bernadette Baum and Lisa Shumaker)
By Steve Scherer and Tyler Choi
MONTREAL/OAKVILLE, Ontario (Reuters) -Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, crisscrossing the country making a last pitch to voters before Monday's election, said on Sunday only his Liberals could end the COVID-19 pandemic and accused his main rival of taking the wrong approach.
Opinion polls indicate the political advantage moving to Trudeau, who is stepping up attacks on Conservative Party leader Erin O'Toole over the pandemic. Trudeau favors vaccine mandates opposed by O'Toole, who prefers testing to control the public health crisis.
If Trudeau does win, it would most likely be another minority government, leaving him dependent again upon other parties to govern. Trudeau, 49, took power in 2015.
O'Toole, 48, has been on the defensive since ally Jason Kenney, the conservative premier of Alberta, apologized on Wednesday https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadas-alberta-province-brings-vaccine-passport-premier-apologises-2021-09-16/#:~:text=CALGARY%2C%20Alberta%2C%20Sept%2015%20(,apologised%20for%20mishandling%20the%20pandemic for relaxing COVID-19 controls too early and mishandling the pandemic. Cases in the western province have soared.
"We do not need a Conservative government that won't be able to show the leadership on vaccinations and on science that we need to end this," Trudeau told reporters in Montreal.
Trudeau added that Canadians "have a really important choice to make, whether they want Erin O'Toole to continue working with Jason Kenney on not ending this pandemic, or do they want a Liberal government."
O'Toole has sidestepped questions about his earlier support for Kenney's approach.
Sunday offered the last chance to sway voters. Parties are not allowed to campaign on election day. Trudeau intends to make stops across Canada, covering some 2,800 miles (4,500 km). O'Toole instead focused on parliamentary constituencies near Toronto, Canada's largest city.
Trudeau called the vote two years early to seek approval for his left-of-center government's handling of the pandemic and regain the Parliamentary majority he lost in 2019. His initial healthy lead in the race vanished amid unhappiness with the early call.
Polls show neither the Liberals nor the right-leaning Conservatives having the 38% public support needed for a majority.
Trudeau's government racked up record debt to tackle the pandemic. O'Toole, who has said Trudeau will amass unsustainable levels of debt if re-elected, initially took a lead after hammering the prime minister over what he called an unnecessary power grab during the fourth wave of COVID-19.
Aiming to broaden his appeal, O'Toole has tried to move his party toward the center, taking more progressive stances on gay rights and climate change than his predecessor.
"We're not your grandfather's Conservative Party. We're reaching out to everyone - we're a big, blue positive tent," O'Toole told supporters at a restaurant in Oakville, Ontario.
A senior Liberal campaign official said Trudeau had gained late momentum. A string of opinion polls in the final days show the Liberals and Conservatives tied at around 32%.
This favors the Liberals, whose support is focused in large urban centers rich with constituencies. The Conservatives' support base is in more sparsely populated rural regions and the west of the country.
Trudeau could be hurt if there is low voter turnout, which tends to favor the Conservatives.
If Trudeau does win another minority, he most likely would depend again on the left-leaning New Democrats of Jagmeet Singh, who want higher levels of spending. Singh on Saturday said both Trudeau and O'Toole have shown "an abject failure in leadership" in their handling of the pandemic, while also criticizing the early election call.
(Reporting by Steve Scherer and Tyler Choi; Writing by David Ljunggren; Editing by Will Dunham)
KYIV (Reuters) - Thousands of people including soldiers and diplomats marched peacefully through the Ukrainian capital on Sunday in an annual gay pride parade despite some opposition to an event called off last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Organisers said about 7,000 attended the Equality March this year, compared to 8,000 in 2019, which saw the biggest turnout since the event was initiated a decade ago despite opposition from religious and nationalist groups.
Homophobia is widespread in Ukraine, according to a survey by the sociological group "Rating" published in August, which said 47% of respondents had a negative view of the LGBTQ+ community.
The marchers were flanked by police as a few hundred anti-gay rights protesters gathered nearby, but there was no violence.
"So fantastic to be out on the streets alongside my cool
@UKinUkraine colleagues and friends supporting LGBTQ groups in Ukraine," British Ambassador Melinda Simmons wrote on Twitter.
She posted a picture of herself surrounded by dozens of young smiling people with rainbow flags, some wearing rainbow masks.
"We want to protect the rights of LGBT people, because they first of all are humans," student Olexandra told Reuters.
Dressed in military uniform, Anastasia, a veteran of the war with Russian-backed separatists, said the army had issues with equal rights.
"The service regulations do not allow you to reveal your (true) face," she said. "This is the second time we have come to the pride (march) to openly say that in the army and other organisations not usually associated with the LGBT movement, there also are LGBT people."
The government has increased support for LGBTQ+ rights since Western-backed leaders came to power in 2014. Parliament passed legislation in 2015 to ban discrimination in the workplace, but it does not allow for same-sex marriage or adoption of children.
"This is already the 10th pride, it was successful, it went calmly," Leni Emson, director of the KyivPride non-government organization, told journalists.
Ukraine ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova wrote on Facebook on Sunday that the constitution recognises all people "equal in their rights from birth, regardless of any characteristics, including sexual orientation and gender identity".
"I urge citizens to be tolerant to one another and refrain from manifestations of discrimination," she said.
(Reporting by Natalia Zinets and Sergiy Karazy; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Tapachula (Mexico) (AFP) - After weeks on the road, traversing mountains and jungles, risking assault and drowning, thousands of Haitian migrants hoping to reach the United States have instead found themselves stranded in Mexico.
Many embarked on the journey encouraged by family and friends already living the American dream -- but who often failed to mention the dangers that lay in wait.
By Lidia Kelly and John Mair
SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia defended its scrapping of a deal for French submarines on Sunday, saying the government had raised concerns to Paris for months, as a new deal with the United States and Britain continued to fuel a multinational diplomatic crisis.
By Aditya Kalra
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A senior U.S. trade official privately criticised India's July decision to ban Mastercard Inc from issuing new cards, calling it a "draconian" move that caused "panic", according to U.S. government emails seen by Reuters.
A Dutch National Holocaust Memorial is to be officially opened in Amsterdam on Sunday, after years of legal dispute.
King Willem-Alexander is to unveil the monument that was created by the Dutch Auschwitz Committee and designed by architect Daniel Liebeskind.
MANILA (Reuters) -Boxing star Manny Pacquiao said on Sunday he will run for president of the Philippines next year, after railing against corruption in government and what he calls President Rodrigo Duterte's cozy relationship with China.
Pacquiao accepted the nomination of his political allies during the national assembly of the faction he leads in the ruling PDP-Laban Party, days after a rival faction nominated Duterte's long-time aide, Senator Christopher "Bong" Go https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/philippine-senator-first-declare-2022-run-presidency-2021-09-08, as its presidential candidate.
