Global National: Feb. 17, 2024 | Will Moscow hand over the body of Alexei Navalny?

Alexei Navalny’s team has confirmed what Russian officials reported just a day ago. The Kremlin’s opposition leader is dead and Navalny’s team, like many others, believe he was murdered by order of the Russian president. Navalny’s supporters and world leaders are demanding answers as Moscow does seemingly everything in its power to avoid handing over the body of the man hailed a hero by many in Russia. Mackenzie Gray has more.

Ukraine was handed a blow on the battlefield Saturday, after months of combat in the eastern city of Avdiivka, Ukrainian troops withdrew after reportedly being at risk of being surrounded by Russian forces. As Reggie Cecchini reports, Ukraine’s wartime leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy is calling for the world to step up as the Kremlin pushes forward.

We’ve all heard the warnings that Artificial Intelligence (AI) could interfere with democracy. Now, 20 tech start-ups and giants including Google, Meta, TikTok, and X have signed an accord promising to work together to stop their software from creating deep fakes depicting political candidates. The companies say they’ll try to detect bogus pictures and videos but won’t ban them. And it’s still not clear how this largely symbolic pact will be enforced. David Akin looks at what one Canadian firm is doing with the technology and where Ottawa is at with regulating it.

Police in Russia arrested citizens on Saturday for attending more memorials honouring Alexei Navalny, who is now confirmed to have died in an Arctic prison. But beyond Russia, protests and tributes keep pouring in for the anti-corruption activist and staunch opponent of Vladimir Putin. Bill Browder, a political activist and friend of Navalny joins Neetu Garcha from Munich, Germany.

A new report from a credit rating service suggests electric vehicle owners will likely have to pay higher insurance premiums in coming years. The primary concern? EV batteries live on the undercarriage of vehicles and are more susceptible to damage. The revelation comes as the Canadian government has set targets to get auto dealers to sell more zero-emission vehicles over the next decade. Kyle Benning reports.

Canada makes most of the world’s maple syrup and had a record harvest in 2022. But last year’s weather impacted supply causing a dip in profits. As Heidi Petracek reports, producers are hoping for a much sweeter season this year.

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On this Saturday night Alexi naval’s team confirms his death they murdered him his mother’s grief the warnings to mourners in Russia and I’ll speak with a friend of navali about his legacy Ukraine loses a besieged City to Russia what’s left of adiva and why Ukraine withdrew its troops when getting greener costs you

Green why driving an electric vehicle may not save you money and Canada’s maple syrup producers wish for Sweet Success we didn’t quite get what I had hoped for what’s needed to get profits flowing again global national with far an Asser reporting tonight meu Guna good evening and thanks for joining us Alexi nal’s

Team confirmed today what Russian officials reported just a day ago the kremlin’s jailed opposition leader is dead and naval’s team like many others believe he was murdered by the order of the Russian president navali supporters and world leaders are demanding answers as Moscow seemingly does everything in

Its power to avoid handing over the body of the man hailed a hero for Russia McKenzie gray begins our coverage tonight on the battle for clarity surrounding the death of one of the country’s most inspiring political figures and Vladimir Putin’s biggest critic it’s a pain only a parent can

Feel Alexi nal’s mother turning up at a Siberian morg still unable to find her son’s body so right now we don’t have access to the body and we don’t know for sure where it is and uh we demand uh that Russian authorities immediately uh give Alexis’s body to his family navali who appeared

To be in good health on Thursday during a court appearance suddenly died on Friday well for a walk in his Arctic Circle penal colony nal’s mother told the vaguely described sudden death syndrome was how her 49-year-old son passed Russian government officials telling nal’s lawyers they’d already wrapped up their investigation less than

48 hours after his death concluding that something criminal had not been established they murdered him uh as they plann to do it uh 3 years ago that timeline referencing naal screaming on this flight in Moscow where Western governments say Russian agents poisoned him with a Cold War era nerve

Agent just like other assassination attempts on Kremlin dissidents the Russian government denied involvement the White House had promised devastating consequences for Putin if navali was killed but hav an outline what those will be Alexi naali has been a brave leader who stood up against corruption and autocracy and he stood up for the

Truth those qualities personified by investigative journalism showing the lavish lifestyles of Putin and other Russian oligarchs leading massive protests against Putin in 2012 and an unsuccessful run for Moscow mayor in elections he labeled as rig that Legacy being remembered despite warnings that leaving flowers or protesting could lead to arrests which

Has happened to hundreds of MERS across dozens of Russian cities G7 foreign ministers including Canada’s Melanie Jolie are demanding further clarification on naval’s death nethu with German officials later implying that he was deliberately killed McKenzie gray in Ottawa thanks for that McKenzie later on I’ll speak with political activist and friend of

Naval Bill Browder on what he feels about his death and what it means for democracy in Russia Ukraine’s President says there is a link to what is happening in his country and the death of naali in Russia who he says was killed by Putin Putin kills whoever he wants be it an opposition

Leader or anyone else who seems at the Target exactly to him zalinsky made the comments during the Munich security conference today as Ukraine was handed a blow on the battlefield after months of intense combat Ukrainian soldiers have withdrawn from the eastern city of abiva where

Troops were said to be at risk of being surrounded by Russian forces as regie Chini reports Ukraine’s wartime leader is calling for the world to step up as the Kremlin p pushes forward this will be how Ukraine’s military remembers abva a Hol out decimated Wasteland of buildings that

Now lies in the hands of the aggressor we can get our land back and Putin can lose amid an unrelenting Russian push Ukraine’s new general pulled his troops out in what he called an effort to preserve life and Equipment it’s not a strategic win for Russia but symbolic of Ukraine struggles

The Russian sort of Victory is getting them control over a tragic smoking husk of the town the fall of aiva comes amid what vomir zalinski says is an artificial deficit of weapons Ukraine is using more than it received with some allies including its biggest backer struggling to meet demand cost of

Inaction by the Congress is Stark and it’s being borne on the shoulders of Ukrainian soldiers a US bipartisan Senate passed defense Bill still faces stiff resistance from House Republicans giving the Russian military a leg up our allies are watching this closely our adversaries are watching this closely

Every week we wait means that there will be more people killed on the front line in Ukraine a diminished Ukrainian defense exposes faults along its borders with NATO countries which could only embolden the Kremlin to push harder and deeper into Ukrainian territory if we allow an aggressor like Putin to take

Land with impunity they keep going in a phone call on Saturday President Joe Biden reaffirmed the United States commitment to continue supporting Ukraine even as politics stand in the way while people are playing partisan games in Washington real people are losing their lives as a result of this delayed or diminished Aid

Do not ask Ukraine when the war will end ask yourself why is Putin still able to continue it an almost Eternal question nearly 2 years after this war erupted Reggie Chini Global News Washington foreign ministers from G7 Nations including Canada are expressing deep concern about the plight of 1.5

Million Palestinians trapped in southern Gaza warning of devastating civilian consequences if Israel launches a full-scale military operation in Rafa the US Secretary of state is urging Israel to open new dialogue and seek peace with its Arab neighbors I think there’s an extraordinary opportunity before Israel in the months ahead to actually

Once and for all end uh that cycle but in Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said whoever is telling us not to operate in Rafa is telling us to lose the war and there is no point in truce talks until Hamas changes its delusional demands in advance of Israel’s assault

Scores of civilians are fleeing Rafa with nowhere safe to go while the US Secretary of State is talking about peace Donald Trump has his mind elsewhere he says if he becomes president again NATO allies like Canada better meet their defense spending targets or else he’ll encourage Russia

To attack them so how serious is this threat Mercedes Stevenson speaks with Canada’s defense minister and Trump’s former National Security adviser nethu the liberal government has been brushing off threats from former US president Donald Trump that he would force some NATO members to fend for themselves in

The case of a Russian attack the front runner for the Republican Presidential nomination took aim at Alliance countries like Canada that don’t meet NATO’s 2% defense spending Target here’s a reminder of what Trump said about that last week no I would not protect you in fact I would encourage them to do

Whatever the hell they want you got to pay you got to pay your bill on this week’s episode of the West block I asked defense minister Bill Blair if he’s concerned that a reelected Donald Trump would pull out of NATO and if NORAD could also be in Jeopardy if Trump

Is dissatisfied with Canada’s defense spending something that would undermine Canada’s sovereignty and ability to defend itself I will tell you I’m I’m not worried but I’m highly motivated we are looking to do more Canada must do more and needs to do more we will be doing more with respect to defense

Spending I’m conf confident in in NATO’s commitment and I’m also confident in the United States continues supportive of that commitment someone who knows Trump very well says NATO allies should be worried Trump’s former National Security adviser told the West block that the US was pretty close to pulling out of the

Military Alliance under Trump and that his threats are more than just rhetoric in Brussels in 2018 uh we were right on the edge of withdrawing from NATO then and uh fortun it it didn’t happen Trump is doing this to lay the foundation to withdrawal and if anybody really thinks he’s not

Serious uh they need to think again we’ll also speak to John Bolton about the threat posed by Iran he is someone who has been targeted by the regime for assassination nethu Mercedes Stevenson in Ottawa thanks Mercedes and you can watch her full interviews with Bill Blair and John Bolton tomorrow morning

On the west block right here on global we’ve all heard the warnings artificial intelligence could interfere with democracy now 20 Tech startups and Giants including Google meta Tik Tok and X have signed an accord promising to work together to stop their software from creating deep fakes depicting political candidates the companies also

Say they’ll try to detect and label bogus pictures and video but won’t ban them and it’s still not clear how this largely symbolic pact will be enforced AI is being used legitimately within politics though David Aken looks at what one Canadian firm is doing with the technology and where Ottawa is at on

Regulating it what a bunch of mil this is not the real Joe Biden important that you save your vote for the November election that was a rooc call created with artificial intelligence software to sound like the US president but it was a fake intended to deceive as many as

25,000 voters in the recent New Hampshire primaries Authority investigated and they charged a Texas man it’s providing us a a real life example of an attempt to use AI to interfere with an election but AI is also being used by political actors in legitimate ways a new us-based product

Called vo ofate for example uses AI to help campaigns quickly find potential voters analyze voter data and help get out the vote well AI use in US politics both good and bad is on the in inrease it’s still at the beginning stages in Canada I don’t think Canadian political

Parties are there yet um I think and I I to be quite honest I don’t know of any party that is really investing in that space aggressively right now Dean tester’s firm helps political clients one of which is for example the Saskatchewan party use digital tools for

Voter Outreach he’s using AI for some basic tasks we primarily use artificial intelligence as an accelerator so helps us speed up the research process speed up the writing process it helps us ident uh generate ideas the big fear though is that a rogue actor in Canada will try

Something like that Biden robocall to deceive voters in the US authorities this month moved to ban all Ai robocalls and several states are already regulating AI use in politics in Canada though parliamentarians are only just starting to consider potential regulations we’re obviously very concerned as should every Member of

Parliament or person running for a provincial legislature be concerned about the potential inappropriate use of artificial intelligence there are three provincial elections this year in New Brunswick saskat and British Columbia and election authorities in all three provinces say they are alert to the misuse of AI and they’ll have voter

Education campaigns to guard against any disruption David aen Global News Ottawa dozens detained coming up Russian police arrest people mourning Alexi nalii and we hear from a friend of the Fallen Russian activist police in Russia arresting more citizens today for attending memorials honoring Alexi navali who’s now

Confirmed to have died in an Arctic prison but beyond Russia from the Netherlands to India protests and tributes keep pouring in for the anti-corruption activist and staunch opponent of Vladimir Putin and joining me now from Munich is Bill Browder a Critic of Putin’s regime and a friend of

Alexi navali Mr Browder thank you so much for doing this especially during such a difficult time H first of all as someone who knew navali personally and worked closely with him what were your thoughts and emotions when you heard the news of his death um absolutely abely heart heartbroken um shocked um emotionally

Destroyed Alexi nalni was was a larger than life character he was the the face of of what was good about Russia and um and basically uh I mean it’s hard to even describe the the feeling that I have then and I have now um that he was murdered by Vladimir Putin it’s

Just in Indescribable the the the hor of it all I’ve read some of your recent writings and you’ve mentioned that naval’s motivation seemed to stem from a deep sense of patriotism and outrage over the corruption in Russia how do you think his legacy will influence the future of activism and descent in the

Country well I think the the the point that Putin wanted to make was was that um by killing Alexi nalni it it basically said that anyone else who tries will die and so uh in the in the short term anyways uh unfortunately I think that that Putin’s point will have been

Made that no nobody is going to challenge him and that that that’s what Alexi um Alexia challenged him and he died can you shed some further light on the challenges faced by activists like nval and yourself in advocating for human rights and democracy in Russia and

Do you think you are a target of Putin today well there’s no question that I’m a target of Putin um uh he’s made it very clear that he wants to uh kill me as well um I’ve been the subject of death threats kidnapping threats multiple interpole arrest warrants

Extradition requests uh Putin has it out for me and he obviously had it out for Naval which is why we saw naval’s life ended um he had it out for Boris dsof another opposition politician who was killed in 200 15 he’s he has it out for

My friend Vladimir caram morza who is um in prison right now serving a 25e sentence for uh uh basically standing up to Putin I’m curious how do you assess the international response to naval’s treatment by the Russian government and then his subsequent death and what actions if any do you think the

International Community should take well the um International response is one of absolute shock um I’m at the Munich security conference um right now which is a gathering of of major political figures and government officials from all over the world and everybody is shocked outraged um the problem is that that ever since Putin

Invaded Ukraine we have rolled out whatever sanctions we could think of I mean Russia and Putin have been sanctioned um immensely and so it’s hard to think of what additional sanctions we could put on him which would have any effect which doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t put additional sanctions on

Him but I think that the main thing that the International Community should do right now is is try to save the other political prisoners who are in jail all right that is Bill Browder a Critic of Putin’s regime and a friend of the late Alexi naali Bill thank you very much thank

You the future of car insurance ahead why a rise in electric vehicles also means a surge in premiums Canadian drivers are being encouraged to ditch their gas powered vehicles and go electric to help save the environment turns out it may not help save you money though Kyle Benning

Explains it open while EV owners might see cost savings on fueling and maintaining their vehicles they could take a financial hit a new report from credit rating service Morning Star dbrs says it’s mostly due to costs of repairing or replacing batteries batteries on the underc courage if it

Gets damaged even for a minor Collision it may have to be replaced and the cost is significant and at times the battery could cost us more as the vehicle 3% of all registered vehicles in 20122 were electric according to stats Canada the federal government put in a mandate to

Have electric vehicles account for all new car sales by 2035 insurers note there is little Canadian data on costs associated with EV repairs and whether batteries can be repaired or if the car has to be written off some of the components that would be required to to

Repair a battery don’t exist yet but having said that some of the older technology batteries that exist right now um there is the ability to repair them BC Institute of Technology School of Transportation has started training for Ev battery servicing with more repairability options and better training and advancements in technology

Some of those costs could be coming down in the future and that would be reflected in the overall premiums the report noted in jurisdictions with higher EV uptake like the United Kingdom some insurers have denied coverage because of higher cost costs but it said the silver lining in Canada is the

Provincial oversight of auto insurance which would prevent a sharp increase in rates Kyle Benning Global News sweet dreams are made of this next maple syrup producers hope to escape a sticky Situation Canada makes most of the world’s maple syrup and had a record harvest in 2022 but last year the weather drain profits as Heidi pic explains producers are hoping for a much sweeter season this year okay we would have tapped here a few years ago maple syrup producer Jason havord expects to

Be tapping his trees in Nova Scotia soon for what he sees as an uncertain season I was hoping for a really good growing year and everything to kind of fill back the voids back in when the trees were missing but uh we didn’t quite get what I had hoped

For H Court’s sugar Woods took of beating in post-tropical storm Fiona in 2022 he lost more than 6,000 trees which take decades to mature I’ll Never See areas tapped again now he needs the right weather below freezing at night and above freezing during the day for a

Good harvest don’t want it to get too warm too fast Canada is the largest producer of maple syrup in the world but last year production was down 40% that’s all to do with Mother Nature she tells us what we’re going to what kind of weather going to have so it’s up to her

To decide in New Brunswick warmer weather caused some Taps to run dry last year the province has introduced crop insurance to cushion the blow of changing conditions we’re seeing more and more climate uh extreme climate events and uh it’s the adaptation and mitigation sides of of

The of that are are things that we’re very cognizant of for Canada’s biggest producer a premature start to the 2023 season caught some off guard so we were just not ready for the Harvest Quebec has added 7 million Taps to help make up for that and meet Global demand a

Surprise sap flow this December also unexpected that’s very unusual but we were able to uh uh to tap a couple of trees and uh you know extract a couple of barrels at this point producers like H Court have done as much as they can for this year their hopes for a sweet return

Now up to Nature IDI pic Global News Annie ganish Nova Scotia