Canada's PM say EU ‘associate member’ would be positive move

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0:30most to investors, including policy initiatives for retirement savings, taxes and trade, inflation concerns, the Federal Reserve, and how regulatory developments can affect companies, sectors, and even the entire market. Mike and his guests offer their perspective on how policy changes could affect what you do with your portfolio. Download the latest episode and follow at schwab.com slash Washington Wise or wherever you listen. Can pop music ever be apolitical? I'm Tristan Redman. And I'm Asma Khalid. And together we host the Global Story podcast from the BBC. One of the most successful pop stars in the world, Ed Sheeran, is facing the biggest controversy of his career because the rapper Macklemore has been dropped from tour after he made pro-Palestinian comments on stage.

1:17Now all of Sheeran's supporting acts have dropped out too. For more, listen to The Global Story on bbc.com or wherever you get your pods.

1:31Hello and welcome to NewsHour. It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service studios in central London. I'm Tim Frax. And we're beginning amid the cobbled streets of Europe, which is where the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has been speaking today. And last time he delivered a major speech in Europe, it's safe to say there was a bit of a collective swoon, at least from those with a certain world view. remarkable, lyrical, jaw-dropping, with some of the verdicts pundits and politicians rushed to deliver. They heard Mr Carney make the case for what he saw as a values-driven world, where the medium-sized powers could join forces to stand up against the might-is-right mentality of some larger, more self-interested countries.

2:16The sound of panting admiration was particularly loud in Europe, concerned about Russia and, increasingly, concerned about the US. And that was the context for the proposal yesterday, Wednesday, from the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, for Canada to become an associate member of the European Union. A slightly hazy idea, which nonetheless prompted President Trump to label it a hostile act. So the pitch was rolled for Mark Carney today to speak to members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. We are not fair-weather allies. We do not pursue zero-sum deals. Our commitment to the rule of law and our unyielding defense of human dignity, individual freedom, and democracy share the same deep roots, the same unwavering dedication.

3:13We hold common values for which we have always fought and in whose defence we must always remain vigilant. We believe that a strong economy is not an end in itself, but a means to a just society. We are committed.

3:39And metaphorically swiveling his gaze towards Canada's southern neighbour, Mark Carney had this to say. I'm not proposing a third bloc in order to become a great power rival only with better manners.

4:00We do not seek power to dominate others. On the contrary, we are pursuing resilience so no one, no one can control our open markets, impair our sovereignty, threaten our territorial integrity or undermine our freedoms, our democracies, our rule of law. Mark Carney, speaking to a very enthusiastic chamber at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Martina Stevis-Gridneff is the Canada Bureau Chief of the New York Times, who's been travelling with Mr Carney, saw that speech in Strasbourg. What struck her about it? I think Mark Carney was very clear about how big his vision of what the European Union and Canada can do together.

4:51He mentioned things we know that Canada is interested in, like at a simple level, Canadian students can go to the European Union for studying. And of course, Europeans can go to Canada. But the gamut of what he has in mind is so, so broad, going from artificial intelligence regulation all the way to creating sovereign alternative payment platforms and systems. and of course inviting the European Union to be a strategic partner in buying Canada's vast reserves of rare earths and energy supplies. So it's some pretty big stuff, and once you wrap your head around it, the scope is huge. It was also striking that the Canadian prime minister was really well received by the European lawmakers, with the exception of a few far-right members of the European Parliament.

5:44And he made an effort to really lean into the shared history between Canada and Europe, making references to the World Wars and so on. You know, I don't want to sound too sceptical about these things, but the European Parliament, they love a good speech. And they also love a sort of big, grandly named project. In this case, this sort of slightly hazy idea of associate membership. Do you think back home that Canadians are following this and thinking, great, this might really help with the thing that obviously hugely does matter, which is the trade war between us, the Canadians and the Americans?

6:31Yeah, I mean, I think it's really important to start by saying that Canadians are overwhelmingly in favour of a much deeper connection to the European Union. Recent polling over the past few weeks shows that four in five Canadians want a closer relationship with the European Union, and 58 % of the country in polling was in favour of full membership of the European Union, even when they were told there was not an option. And so I do think Canadians are fully behind the prime minister on this. Obviously, there's skepticism as to the details of what this associate membership means. They are scant right now.

7:07But I think it's important to state that this trade war with the United States has made Canadians really desire their prime minister to make every effort to look elsewhere for more trade. But in this precarious moment for them with the relationship with the United States in such trouble, I think even deep friendship is enough to make many Canadians feel a lot better. Matina Steves-Gridneff, travelling with Mark Carney. Melanie Joly is Canada's Federal Industry Minister. She was formerly the country's Minister of Foreign Affairs. Can she help? What is her understanding of an EU associate membership?

7:51Our goal is to become closer to the EU. And what does that mean concretely? It is in key sectors. So we know that Europe needs more energy, as the war in Ukraine is having definitely an impact on the possibility of having access to Russian oil and gas, which has been a key vulnerability for Europe. So we want to do more of that. We also know that we have to do more on critical minerals in order to develop many different capabilities that are key to our economies. And right now, the key critical minerals are controlled by China. And we need to be able to find and develop an option for the West.

8:33And Canada has every single critical mineral that China has. So that's also important. We can do more in terms of defense. We're both part of NATO. Well, the vast majority of the EU members are part of NATO. And so we've been deeply integrated with European allies on many different fronts from the First World War, the Second World War, and then the Balkans and Afghanistan, Africa, and now Ukraine. And so this is not new. It's actually something we've worked on over more than a century. And we want to do more also on AI and social media. So making sure that we have strong digital sovereignty. Well, OK, so you want more ties, deeper ties across a range of sectors.

9:24It's reasonable enough, isn't it, to be a little bit sceptical about this, given that you've had a trade deal with the European Union. It was agreed about 10 years ago. Ten European Union member states have yet to ratify that trade deal. So, you know, talk of an associate membership, even if it were to come to something, I mean, it may not come to something for years and years and years. Well, it depends how you define an associate member to your first question. And so we have many partnerships with the EU, including recently the SAFE agreement, which is a really important defense procurement agreement where we create a common market for defense procurement, which is really, really important.

10:11And so that's been a key integration of Canada with the EU that was concluded just in the last year. When it comes to your question about the free trade agreement, it is implemented. At this point, the EU is in many countries, including those that have not ratified, including, for example, France, have been benefiting a lot from it, including on the side of agricultural products, which is always a key issue when it comes to European regulations. Our goal is to be closer to the EU, but of course, it's a sovereign decision by our country. And we will make sure that we align interests. And that's what we certainly want to do at the time where geopolitics is much more complicated.

11:00We live in a much more dangerous world and trade is being weaponized. Yeah. Well, I mean, just on that, you mentioned that Canada is a proud sovereign country. I mean, again, you know, some of those who've had relationships, formal relationships with the EU will say part of the issue here is that actually if you sign up to deals, sign up to agreements and even have something that approaches membership, then you can end up having to swallow a huge number of rules. It's potentially tricky for Canada. No, I don't think so. I think that the rules of the game are being laid out, which is very different from membership.

11:42And I think that the UK could inspire itself from us, to be frank. Well, that's a separate issue. The other question I guess that a lot of your compatriots will be asking is just even if this somehow were to progress, how far it's going to allay the huge, I mean, and it really could be huge damage that the trade war between you and the US is going to inflict on your country. The US obviously is an economy 12, 13 times larger than yours. Most of your exports have traditionally gone to the US. And even a senator, a US senator like Susan Collins, who's who's no fan of these tariffs, has said that your moves towards closer ties with Europe could actually delay or prevent the Trump administration reaching a deal with you that will somehow end this this trade war.

12:45So she's no fan of the tariffs, but she's warning you that you may just have made things more difficult for yourselves. Oh, no. I think that we are in a trade war and we need to be able to find different options. But that's not our only strategy, Tim. I was just at the investment summit, which we were able to gather the world and met with investors from the U.S., from the U.K., all across Europe, from Asia, China, India, Australia, etc. And we are also changing many of our legislations, many of our ways of attracting capital to Canada in key sectors, definitely infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, tech, critical minerals, energy, etc.

13:40And we're doing that and we are modernizing our airports financing, for example, in order to have more private capital in them. We are also tabling a new legislation about one project, one review, one year to offer predictability for investors. And we're doing that at the time where we just want to create more jobs for Canadians. And that was Melanie Jolie, Canada's Federal Industry Minister. You're listening to NewsHour from the BBC.

14:27And coming up on the programme will be in Russia, where our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg is following a very unusual campaign ahead of the parliamentary elections.

14:41During another TV election debate, one candidate bursts into song. The Communist Party, on we go. We're with the people, don't you know? The one thing the Duma has got was a lot of MPs loyal to the Kremlin. And for the president, that's the point of a Russian parliament. More from Steve Rosenberg in about 30 minutes. One headline from the BBC newsroom, we'll be looking at this in just a moment. The UN says that climate change is having a serious effect on the global supply of fresh water.

15:29This is NewsHour. It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service. I'm Tim Franks. It was three weeks ago that flash floods crashed across the border from Tibet into Nepal with devastating, deadly consequences.

15:56Well, that video recorded on a smartphone, you can see water surging through a town, sweeping away a bridge. The disaster is thought to have been sparked by the collapse of a glacier in the Himalayas. And today, the UN's weather and climate agency, the World Meteorological Organization, warned that the retreat of glaciers worldwide is just part of a deeply concerning picture in which there's not just a declining amount of fresh water stored on the planet, but also that the water cycle itself is increasingly erratic. Celeste Saulo is the Secretary General of the WMO. What does she mean by erratic?

16:36We are seeing, we are witnessing more extreme events. You need to manage something that is starting to behave on the extremes. It's very challenging because the decision making is extremely difficult in those situations. So in other words, you're saying that regions may have to deal with drought and also with flood and it's becoming more unpredictable and more extreme. Exactly. We can sometimes, of course, predict it, but the decision making associated with that is completely different. And in terms of predictability, I mean, obviously, fresh water comes from lots of different sources. But we saw just within the last few weeks the appalling events of the flash flood in Nepal and Tibet, which it's thought was caused by a glacier collapse.

17:31in terms of glacier retreat which is something that you've been warning about for well and indeed recording for some time how much of a challenge is that for you presumably a lot of these glaciers are in quite remote areas are quite difficult to monitor exactly high mountain areas are very difficult to monitor but due to global warming glaciers are not stable anymore and with with this lack of stability of the glaciers and the rocks below the glaciers, we are exposed and this is part of the explanation of what we saw in Nepal, is that the lack of stability in the rocks and in the glaciers suddenly collapse and then you are exposed to a catastrophe like we witnessed in this case.

18:27It's doubly dangerous, isn't it, really? Because it's very difficult to be able to predict when such a catastrophic event might take place. And obviously, you know, potentially thousands of people lost their lives in that. But also just the overall picture, I don't want to sort of sound the alarm too frantically, but the numbers that you've got in your most recent report is just saying that over the last three years, with the glacier retreat, it's equivalent to about a third of the freshwater the world withdraws in a year. I mean, that is an astonishing amount, isn't it? Yes, yes. And we are trying to translate these numbers into numbers that people can understand, decision makers can understand, policy makers can understand, because we need to drive action.

19:21And that's why this is a scientific report, of course, but I hope that it is well taken by those that need to take decisions on top of this. The numbers are astonishing and we cannot continue business as usual in terms of how we manage water, how we use water, because in the end we all, every single individual on the earth, they understand the importance of water for their living or for their survival. So, yes, the numbers are really alarming. And that was Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the United Nations World Meteorological Organization.

20:09It's still six years to the Brisbane Olympics, but there's been quite a bit of turbulence today over the choice of venue for the rowing and canoeing events. The Games organisers have just announced they've chosen a site on the Fitzroy River, 600 kilometres north of the host city of Brisbane, and critics have warned a place of unpredictable currents and unpredictable crocodiles. I've been speaking to one of those critics. Drew Ginn is one of Australia's most celebrated rowers, a triple Olympic gold medalist among many other world titles. I sort of find myself thinking about the athlete experience and very much around the fairness and integrity of the venue.

20:49So that's been a concern. A report that's come out today that the government is yet unwilling to share is saying that field of play has been assessed and it's all good. I don't believe that, to be fair. And so the first concern is, yeah, fairness, integrity, it's a river, it flows, it floods. I think in the last 10 years, it's had twice where the course has been destroyed up there through floods. and another five times where the course hasn't actually been laid. Really, when you think about it, like six or seven hours away from Brisbane, the concern is for the athletes and the spectators, that changes the Olympic experience dramatically.

21:24And then you sort of think about the legacy of this. You know, Sydney venue in Penrith is a great legacy item. The course there is used after the 2000 Games, fantastic. This venue won't get used a whole lot, not internationally and probably not even nationally. It'll be used domestically, local club races and the odd thing in Queensland. But that just seems a bit bonkers to sort of invest in so much in the infrastructure and not have it sort of play out as a legacy item. Right. I mean, I'm struck by you saying that you don't believe the assessment that was carried out by the Australian government.

21:54Yeah, I've asked a number of people today, can we get the report? And I've heard the government said they're not going to publish the report. That just sort of smells a bit off to me. But world rowing and paddle worldwide, obviously the two international bodies that govern the sports, I mean, they've said that they're satisfied with the independent technical assessment that's been carried out. Yeah, that's okay. So saying it is one thing, delivering on it's another. Like an S is a guarantee there's a high probability of it being fair and also no risk of it being cancelled or called off or changed.

22:35I just find that questionable. The other thing that's got people like me excited because of the tabloid bones in my body is all the headlines about crocodile infested river chosen. Is that one of your concerns at all, that there are crocs up there? Personally, I'm not fearful of the Australian animals. But, yeah, I've never had a crocodile near me. I'm sure I'd row faster. I'm sure all the athletes would row faster. I don't think it's the highest priority and concerns, but it was certainly cited very early on. things like relocating crocodiles out of the river you sort of go well does international rowing want to have the athletes at jeopardy of that sort of stuff but even it's a waterway it's an environmental area where you sort of go you're going to have to remove things that are going to be risk to the athletes and i just don't know if the international athletes have yet realized and woken up to the fact that there could be huge risks to the health other concerns in terms of you've said crocodiles but even just the idea of being in a venue that you could have your race decided by half a second and they could show that it's different in lanes by two or three seconds You will be aware, Drew, that there are people who've championed this course, who've called people like you a member of the elite, an agitator.

23:42What do you make of all that? If elite means having some expertise in the sport over 20 odd years, I'm proud of that. I grew up in a country town called Inverloch, two hours out of Melbourne. Regional activities for me, regional centres are really important in the Australian culture. But I would never want my little town to host an Olympic Games venue. and while I'm thinking Rockhampton's a great area, a great town, I just don't think it's right for the Olympic Games to spread the venues out in such a way that jeopardises the experience for the athletes and the spectators. Drew Ginn, one of Australia's greatest Olympic rowers, and he was speaking to me about the choice of the Fitzroy River to host the rowing and canoeing events at the Brisbane Olympics.

24:28Can pop music ever be apolitical? I'm Tristan Redman. And I'm Asma Khalid. And together we host the Global Story podcast from the BBC. One of the most successful pop stars in the world, Ed Sheeran, is facing the biggest controversy of his career because the rapper Macklemore has been dropped from tour after he made pro-Palestinian comments on stage. Now all of Sheeran's supporting acts have dropped out too. For more, listen to The Global Story on bbc.com or wherever you get your pods. welcome back to news hour police in south africa have confirmed the discovery of a ninth woman's body in just two months the spate of killings east of johannesburg of course caused immense fear and raised questions about the scale of gender-based violence in the country uh southern africa correspondent nomse maseko is in johannesburg nomse what more do we know well this the body that was found is that of a woman who's now been identified she's about 35 years old and she had been she had left her home to visit her friends a few days ago and just never returned home and the police have told us that she was found with her throat cut and that she had several stab wounds in her body and this is the ninth body that has been found but the sixth just this week alone and that has sparked really outrage and fear among women in South Africa who have said, you know, a countless number of times that they do not feel safe at all.

26:01Well, as you say, I mean, this has been an issue that's been raised many times in South Africa. I mean, last year, there were big protests, I think, ahead of the G20 meeting that Cyril Ramaphosa, the president, hosted about gender-based violence. Just how high are the rates in South Africa? The numbers are staggering, but the conviction rate remains very low. And that is what is of concern. Last November, the BBC did a story about the fact that there was a huge uptake of women going for, you know, a firearm training and acquiring firearm licenses because they wanted to arm themselves in order, you know, to protect themselves and their families.

26:51The president has in the past spoken about the fact that, you know, the uncertainty and the fear of women that, you know, that they're feeling here in South Africa, but also established a gender commission. But, you know, rights groups have said the government has been talking a lot, but there's been very little action to show that the government of South Africa really is serious about taking such crimes, you know, as a high priority and ensuring that they are dealt with accordingly. And the police have been handing out, well, or advising women not to walk alone, use isolated routes and so on and so forth.

27:34How do you think people are responding to this? I mean, are people saying, well, look, fair enough, until this murderer or whoever it is is caught yeah we need to take more care or are people saying you know this this risks victim blaming you know I think what's concerning is the fact that police have not said that whether they are investigating the possibility of a serial killer or they are also looking into the possibility that these are copycat crimes that are being committed you know by several people, but they've only said that they are closing in and say women need to just look after themselves as a precautionary.

28:16Nomsa Maseko, thank you very much for bringing us the latest live from Johannesburg.

28:28You're with NewsHour. It's coming to you from the BBC World Service with me, Tim Franks. We may only be in September, but the chances are that this year will be remembered for, among other things, the moment when our relationship with artificial intelligence went from an interesting debate, rumbling mainly in the background, to a much louder, even frantic, argument. Do we need urgent new controls on the technology? If so, controlled by whom and how and when? Are we close to the point where we lose control? One of the leading and one of the most pointed voices in all this is Mustafa Suleiman. He's the head of Microsoft's AI division, and he's told the BBC that developers encouraging artificial intelligence to think of itself in human terms could lead, in his words, to a new silicon species which will compete with us for resources.