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Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says a Canadian citizen has died in Iran as anti-government protests continue across the country.
In a social media post, Anand says the Canadian died “at the hands of the Iranian authorities” and consular officials are in contact with the victim’s family in Canada.
The protests over the rapid rise in the cost of living began more than two weeks ago before quickly expanding across the country, despite the government’s violent crackdown.
Anand says the peaceful protests have led the regime to “flagrantly disregard human life.”
The Canadian Press reports.
Canada is entering a “new era of relations” with China, Prime Minister Mark Carney declared Thursday, adding the stage is set for talks about areas where the two countries can be “strategic partners.”
The prime minister made the comments when he was welcomed in Beijing by the second and third most powerful figures in China’s political system: Premier Li Qiang and Zhao Leji, chairman of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress.
While most of the talks took place in secret, media were allowed into the room to hear the opening remarks of some of the meetings and a signing ceremony for a number of memorandums of understanding.
“From energy to agriculture to people-to-people ties to multilateralism, to issues on security, we believe that the spirit and the substance of these discussions, and these agreements, will provide great benefit to each of our peoples,” Carney said at the outset of one of his meetings.
Carney added Ottawa hopes such a renewal will become an “example to the world of co-operation amidst a time globally of division and disorder.”
CP has this one too.
Carney is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday at 11 a.m. Beijing time (Thursday at 10 p.m. EST).
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Internationally
The nationwide protests challenging Iran’s theocracy appeared increasingly smothered Thursday, a week after authorities shut the country off from the world and escalated a bloody crackdown that activists say has killed at least 2,637 people.
The prospect of U.S. retaliation for the deaths of protesters still hung over the region, though President Donald Trump signalled a possible de-escalation, saying the killing appeared to be ending.
Meanwhile, the U.S. announced new sanctions on Iranian officials accused of suppressing the protests, which began late last month over the country’s faltering economy and the collapse of its currency. The Group of Seven industrialized democracies and the European Union said they too were looking at new sanctions to ratchet up the pressure on Iran’s theocratic government.
AP reports.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was at the White House on Thursday discussing her country’s future with President Trump even after he publicly dismissed her credibility to take over after an audacious U.S. military raid captured then-President Nicolás Maduro.
Trump has raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in Venezuela. His administration has signalled its willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president and, along with others in the deposed leader’s inner circle, remains in charge of day-to-day governmental operations.
AP has this one too.
In Other International Headlines
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