China’s president has scolded Justin Trudeau for leaking details of a meeting in which the Canadian prime minister expressed concern about China allegedly interfering in Canada’s affairs.
Their brief exchange at the G20 summit in Indonesia was overheard by a TV camera.
“Everything we discussed has been leaked to the paper; that’s not appropriate,” Xi Jinping told Mr Trudeau through an interpreter.
“And that’s not… the way the conversation was conducted, if there is sincerity on your part,” Mr Xi said, at which point Mr Trudeau interrupted.
“In Canada, we believe in free and open and frank dialogue and that is what we will continue to have,” Mr Trudeau said.
“We will continue to look to work constructively together, but there will be things we will disagree on.”
“Let’s create the conditions first,” Mr Xi responded through the interpreter, before the pair shook hands.
The Canadian PM and Mr Xi first spoke at the G20 last Tuesday.
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A Canadian official said they discussed Ukraine, North Korea and climate change, and that Mr Trudeau raised “our serious concerns around interference activities in Canada”.
Asked later at a news conference about the confrontation, Mr Trudeau said “not every conversation is always going to be easy, but it’s extremely important that we continue to stand up for the things that are important for Canadians”.
‘He’s red in the face’
Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China, said he thinks Mr Xi berated Mr Trudeau in front of the camera on purpose.
“When you look at him, he is red in the face, he is moving his arms,” he said.
“He looks agitated. Clearly, he was not pleased with Trudeau for leaking to press the detail of the meeting. Interesting he said it’s not the way the meeting went.”
Image: The exchange happened at the G20 summit
Mr Saint-Jacques said it was likely Mr Xi wanted to send a message that Canada will not dictate the terms of the relationship and that Mr Trudeau had better take notice.
“It’s very unusual to see Xi Jinping engaging in this kind of public exercise to criticise someone,” Mr Saint-Jacques added.
Canadian foreign minister Melanie Joly also said she discussed interference with her Chinese counterpart at the G20.
Ms Joly said last week that China was an increasingly disruptive power and warned businesses against deepening ties with the country.
Canadian police charged a Hydro-Quebec employee on Monday with espionage for allegedly sending trade secrets to China.
Relations between Beijing and Ottawa have also deteriorated in the last few years after Canadian authorities arrested a top executive from technology firm Huawei who had been charged with fraud by the US.
China jailed two Canadians shortly after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou – Huawei’s chief financial officer and the daughter of the company’s founder, on a US extradition request.
They were sent back to Canada last year, the same day Ms Meng returned to China after reaching a deal with US authorities in her case.
Many countries have accused China of engaging in “hostage politics”, while Beijing has described the charges against Huawei and Ms Meng as a politically motivated attempt to hold back China’s economic and technological development.
Canada has banned wireless carriers from installing Huawei equipment in its high-speed 5G networks, joining allies, including the UK, in shunning the company over its close ties with the Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hit out at the US over its “weak” response to lethal Russian attacks on his hometown on Friday.
President Zelenskyy posted a lengthy and emotional statement on X about Russia’s strikes on Kryvyi Rih, which killed 19 people.
Meanwhile Ukrainian drones hit an explosives factory in Russia’s Samara region in an overnight strike, a member of Ukraine’s SBU security service told Reuters.
In his post, President Zelenskyy accused the United States of being “afraid” to name-check Russia in its comment on the attack.
“Unfortunately, the reaction of the American Embassy is unpleasantly surprising: such a strong country, such a strong people – and such a weak reaction,” he wrote on X.
“They are even afraid to say the word “Russian” when talking about the missile that killed children.”
America’s ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink had written on X: “Horrified that tonight a ballistic missile struck near a playground and restaurant in Kryvyi Rih.
“More than 50 people injured and 16 killed, including 6 children. This is why the war must end.”
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5:49
Strike on Zelenskyy’s home city
President Zelenskyy went on in his post to say: “Yes, the war must end. But in order to end it, we must not be afraid to call a spade a spade.
“We must not be afraid to put pressure on the only one who continues this war and ignores all the world’s proposals to end it. We must put pressure on Russia, which chooses to kill children instead of a ceasefire.”
Grandmother ‘burned to death in her home’
Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s defense council, said the missile attack, followed by a drone attack, had killed 19 people, including nine children.
“The Iskander-M missile strike with cluster munitions at the children’s playground in the residential area, to make the shrapnel fly further apart, killed 18 people.
“One grandmother was burnt to death in her house after Shahed’s direct hit.”
Russia’s defence ministry said it had struck a military gathering in a restaurant – an assertion rebutted by the Ukrainian military as misinformation.
“The missile hit right on the street – around ordinary houses, a playground, shops, a restaurant,” President Zelenskyy wrote.
Mr Zelenskyy also detailed the child victims of the attack including “Konstantin, who will be 16 forever” and “Arina, who will also be 7 forever”.
The UK’s chief of the defence staff Sir Tony Radakin said he had met the Ukrainian leader on Friday, along with French armed forces leader General Thierry Burkhard.
“Britain and France are coming together & Europe is stepping up in a way that is real & substantial, with 200 planners from 30 nations working to strengthen Ukraine’s long term security,” Sir Tony wrote.
The IDF has admitted to mistakenly identifying a convoy of aid workers as a threat – following the emergence of a video which proved their ambulances were clearly marked when Israeli troops opened fire on them.
The bodies of 15 aid workers – including eight medics working for the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) – were found in a “mass grave” after the incident, according to the head of the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Jonathan Whittall.
The Israeli military originally claimed an investigation found the vehicles did not have any headlights or emergency signals and were therefore targeted as they looked “suspicious”.
But video footage obtained by the PRCS, and verified by Sky News, showed the ambulances and a fire vehicle clearly marked with flashing red lights.
In a briefing from the IDF, they said the ambulances arrived in the Tel Sultan neighbourhood in Rafah shortly after a Hamas police vehicle drove through.
Image: Palestinians mourning the medics after their bodies were recovered. Pic: Reuters
An IDF surveillance aircraft was watching the movement of the ambulances and notified troops on the ground. The IDF said it will not be releasing that footage.
When the ambulances arrived, the soldiers opened fire, thinking the medics were a threat, according to the IDF.
The soldiers were surprised by the convoy stopping on the road and several people getting out quickly and running, the IDF claimed, adding the soldiers were unaware the suspects were in fact unarmed medics.
An Israeli military official would not say how far away troops were when they fired on the vehicles.
The IDF acknowledged that its statement claiming that the ambulances had their lights off was incorrect, and was based on the testimony from the soldiers in the incident.
The newly emerged video footage showed that the ambulances were clearly identifiable and had their lights on, the IDF said.
The IDF added that there will be a re-investigation to look into this discrepancy.
Image: The clip is filmed through a vehicle windscreen – with three red light vehicles visible in front
Addressing the fact the aid workers’ bodies were buried in a mass grave, the IDF said in its briefing this is an approved and regular practice to prevent wild dogs and other animals from eating the corpses.
The IDF could not explain why the ambulances were also buried.
The IDF said six of the 15 people killed were linked to Hamas, but revealed no detail to support the claim.
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1:22
Bodies of aid workers found in Gaza
The newly emerged footage of the incident was discovered on a phone belonging to one of the workers who was killed, PRCS president Dr Younis Al Khatib said.
“His phone was found with his body and he recorded the whole event,” he said. “His last words before being shot, ‘Forgive me, mom. I just wanted to help people. I wanted to save lives’.”
Sky News used an aftermath video and satellite imagery to verify the location and timing of the newly emerged footage of the incident.
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2:43
Aid worker attacks increasing
It was filmed on 23 March north of Rafah and shows a convoy of marked ambulances and a fire-fighting vehicle travelling south along a road towards the city centre. All the vehicles visible in the convoy have their flashing lights on.
The footage was filmed early in the morning, with a satellite image seen by Sky News taken at 9.48am local time on the same day showing a group of vehicles bunched together off the road.
Global financial markets gave a clear vote of no-confidence in President Trump’s economic policy.
The damage it will do is obvious: costs for companies will rise, hitting their earnings.
The consequences will ripple throughout the global economy, with economists now raising their expectations for a recession, not only in the US, but across the world.