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Netherlands fears Chinese cyberattacks amid chips battle

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:50 GMT

The Netherlands is concerned about Chinese cyberattacks, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said, weeks after The Hague introduced export restrictions on advanced microchips technology to China.“Domestic interference, but also […] cyberattacks stemming from Chinese soil, is something about which we are increasingly worried,” Hoekstra told POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook.Hoekstra’s concerns echo reports from the Dutch intelligence services, which label countries with “cyberattack programs” including China as posing a “massive threat.”The Netherlands is home to ASML, a keystone for global chips production and the only company outside the U.S. and Japan that is able to produce the printers needed to manufacture advanced semiconductors. The firm has faced intellectual property theft incidents linked to China in the past. In February it said a China-based former employee stole data about its machinery, and in 2019 it revealed it had been the victim of ...

Brad Treliving leading candidate to be next Maple Leafs GM

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:50 GMT

Brad Treliving is the leading candidate to be the next general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports.“Until I’m given any reason to believe otherwise, I’m leaning more and more towards him. But it’s not set 100 per cent, not confirmed,” Friedman said in an interview on NHL Network on Tuesday.The former Calgary Flames GM would replace Kyle Dubas, who was let go by the Leafs on May 19 after five years at the helm. Toronto was ousted in five games in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Florida Panthers – following losses in the first round of the post-season in Dubas’ first four years in charge.The Flames and Treliving mutually agreed to part ways in April after the team missed the playoffs.Treliving was hired as Flames’ GM in April 2014.The Leafs have had plenty of off-ice drama since being eliminated. Four days before Dubas was fired, he said during a press conference he wasn’t sure he wanted to return to the Leafs as GM...

Israeli strike on eastern Lebanon kills 5 Palestinian fighters, wounds 10

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:50 GMT

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — An Israeli airstrike targeting positions of a Syria-backed Palestinian group in eastern Lebanon early Wednesday killed five Palestinian militants and wounded 10 others, an official with the group said.Anwar Raja of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, said the Israeli strike hit positions in the Lebanese eastern town of Qusaya near the border with Syria. He said two of the wounded are in critical condition.The PFLP-GC has positions along the Lebanon-Syria border as well as military presence in both countries. The group had carried out attacks against Israel in the past. The Associated Press

In The News for May 31 : How did Canada’s economy fare in March?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:50 GMT

In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of May 31 …What we are watching in Canada …Statistics Canada is set to release today its latest reading on how the economy fared in March, as well as for the first quarter of the year.The federal agency’s preliminary estimate suggested real gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of 2.5 per cent during the first three months of 2023.However, after posting slight growth in February, Statistics Canada’s initial estimate released last month suggested the economy contracted by 0.1 per cent in March. The GDP report comes ahead of the Bank of Canada’s interest rate decision next week. The central bank, which is focused on returning inflation to its two per cent target, paused its aggressive rate hiking cycle earlier this year.However, governor Tiff Macklem has signalled that the Bank of Canada i...

Germany arrests 7 alleged members of network that helped finance Islamic State

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:50 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Seven people were arrested in raids across Germany on Wednesday against alleged members of a network that helped finance the Islamic State extremist group’s activities in Syria, prosecutors said.The suspects — four women and three men, with German, Turkish, Moroccan and Kosovo citizenship — were arrested in five German states, while investigators searched 19 properties in Germany and one in the Netherlands, federal prosecutors said in a statement. The suspects are accused of supporting a foreign terrorist organization and, in some cases, of violating export laws.Prosecutors allege that the suspects were “financial intermediaries” in a network in which two supporters of IS in Syria had sought donations for the group via Telegram since 2020. They allegedly collected and helped transfer donations.The money was used to strengthen IS and in particular to improve supplies to members of the group held at two camps in northern Syria, prosecutors said. In some cases, they...

Quebec firm to pay $10M to avoid charges over bribes promised to Philippine officials

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:50 GMT

A Quebec forensics company promised millions of dollars in bribes to officials in the Philippines, including a cabinet minister and his brother, as it sought lucrative police contracts, according to a statement of facts attached to a deal the firm struck to avoid prosecution in Canada.The deal between Ultra Electronics Forensic Technology Inc. and federal prosecutors has been approved by the Superior Court of Quebec and is Canada’s second remediation agreement — also known as deferred prosecution — since the mechanism was added to the Criminal Code in 2018 to address corporate wrongdoing. The other deal was struck between Quebec provincial prosecutors and SNC-Lavalin over corruption in its contract to refurbish the Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal.The latest agreement requires the Montreal firm to pay about $10.5 million, co-operate with investigations, report to prosecutors about implementing the agreement and abide by an anti-bribery and corruption program overseen by an e...

Halifax fire officials worry about sudden ‘reburn’ of northwest of city

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:50 GMT

Halifax’s deputy fire chief says an out-of-control wildfire burning northwest of the city has not grown beyond the evacuation perimeter, where 200 homes and structures have been either damaged or destroyed since the fire started Sunday.But Deputy Chief David Meldrum stressed at a late-day news conference Tuesday that the blaze is not out, adding it can still “wake up and gain new energy.”No deaths or injuries have been reported as a result of the fire.But about 16,000 people have been ordered to leave their Halifax-area homes, most of which are within a 30-minute drive of the port city’s downtown.An evacuation order for another 2,000 people has been issued in southwestern Nova Scotia, where a 100-square-kilometre fire continues to grow northwest of Barrington, N.S.Fire officials have voiced concern about a potential “reburn” due to the extended forecast calling for hot, windy weather today and Thursday, and no rain until Friday night at the earlie...

Statistics Canada to release GDP figures for the first quarter of 2023 today

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:50 GMT

OTTAWA — Statistics Canada is set to release today its latest reading on how the economy fared in March, as well as for the first quarter of the year.The federal agency’s preliminary estimate suggested real gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of 2.5 per cent during the first three months of 2023.However, after posting slight growth in February, Statistics Canada’s initial estimate released last month suggested the economy contracted by 0.1 per cent in March. The GDP report comes ahead of the Bank of Canada’s interest rate decision next week. The central bank, which is focused on returning inflation to its two per cent target, paused its aggressive rate hiking cycle earlier this year.However, governor Tiff Macklem has signalled that the Bank of Canada is still evaluating whether interest rates need to go higher to tame inflation which ticked higher in April.This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 31, 2023.The Canadian Press

Funded deals, investment totals fall as VCs adjust to new normal: BDC

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:50 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s venture capitalists settled into a new normal marked by fewer and more cautious investments last year — and a new report suggests the pattern will continue.Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) said Wednesday that venture capital lending, which focuses on early stage companies with significant growth potential, dropped in 2022 and is expected to remain slow as companies grapple with higher interest rates, a wave of tech layoffs and the fallout from the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank.The research found the number of venture capital deals done in 2022 shrank by 12 per cent from the year before to 706, while the total amount invested declined 34 per cent to $10 billion. The average deal size pulled back 24 per cent to $14.2 million over the same period.“We’ve entered into a more challenging time,” said Jérôme Nycz, executive vice-president at BDC Capital.“We’ve gone a long way in the last 10 years in creating a more mature...

Freedom Mobile workers seeking union after acquisition: Teamsters Canada

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:50 GMT

TORONTO — On the heels of the sale of Freedom Mobile, labour union Teamsters Canada said retail and call centre employees at the telecom company are interested in unionization. As a condition of the merger between Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc., which was closed in April, Shaw agreed to sell Freedom Mobile to Quebecor’s Videotron. New ownership can lead to change in workplaces, and so workers concerned about their future have been reaching out to the union, said Christopher Monette, director of public affairs at Teamsters Canada. Since the merger, the union has had “hundreds of conversations” with workers across the country, said Monette.“It’s been very positive,” he said. “The campaign is progressing rapidly.”No major changes to Freedom Mobile’s retail or call centre workforce have been announced since the acquisition, but Monette said it has “set off a wave of uncertainty and anxiety among workers at the company, who are now looking for ways to prote...