World
Canada pledges millions to 'gender-inclusive' effort to remove landmines from Ukraine
The Canadian government is funding a multimillion-dollar “gender-inclusive” effort in Ukraine to remove landmines and explosive ordnance from the war-torn country, a government official confirmed.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office announced last week that the nation was committing $3.02 billion CAD, or roughly $2.2 billion USD, in financial and military support for Ukraine, as war rages in the country. The press release detailed several initiatives within the funding package, including $4 million CAD, or just under $3 million USD, for an initiative dubbed, “Gender-inclusive demining for sustainable futures in Ukraine.”
“This project from the HALO Trust aims to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of Ukrainians, including women and internally displaced persons, by addressing the threat of explosive ordnance present across vast areas of the country,” the press release on the funding stated.
“Project activities include conducting non-technical surveys and subsequent manual clearance in targeted communities; providing capacity building to key national stakeholders; and establishing a gender and diversity working group to promote gender-transformative mine action in Ukraine.”
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, left, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during a meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, June 10, 2023. (Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Fox News Digital reached out to Trudeau’s office for additional details and information on the initiative, which directed Fox to Global Affairs Canada, the government’s agency that manages the country’s diplomatic and consular relations.
Department spokesperson Charlotte MacLeod said in a statement Canada is funding the project with humanitarian group HALO Trust in an effort to “safeguard the lives and livelihoods of Ukrainians, including women and internally displaced persons.”
“The project will do this by conducting non-technical surveys, explosive ordnance risk education and clearance, as well as building the capacity of state demining institutions,” MacLeod explained.
HALO Trust “established a dedicated in-house Gender and Diversity Working Group, to ensure gender is integrated into every aspect of HALO’s survey, demining and risk education operations in Ukraine, from recruitment to community engagement,” MacLeod added.
A Ukrainian mine clearance team gathers and conducts mine and ammunition clearance after Russian forces withdraw from Izyum, Ukraine. (Photo by Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The HALO Trust is a U.K.-based non-governmental organization that works to remove landmines and explosives left in nations following war. The group, founded in 1988, gained international attention back in 1997 when the late Princess Diana walked through HALO’s minefields in Angola, the group states on its website.
“Clearing landmines inspires confidence by making land safe. It is also empowering for men and women alike. With training and a living wage, they can take control of their destiny,” HALO’s website states.
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In this photo provided by the National Police of Ukraine, a police officer and a rescue worker walk in front of a restaurant, RIA Pizza, destroyed by a Russian attack in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 27, 2023. (National Police of Ukraine via AP)
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News of the Canadian government’s commitment to the HALO Trust and its “gender-inclusive demining effort” has left many on social media scratching their heads and others expressing outrage.
“No joke! YOU’RE ALL PAYING TO PROMOTE GENDER-INCLUSIVE DEMINING IN UKRAINE,” People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier posted.
“@JustinTrudeau what the hell is this? It isn’t even comprehensible. But it’s really on the website,” author and psychologist Jordan Peterson asked in a post earlier this week when news first surfaced of the plan.
Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld quipped on “Gutfeld!” this week that the initiative is an example of “peak idiocy.”
“So how do you know when you’ve reached peak idiocy? When we now need diversity guidelines for clearing landmines. It seems Canada has just donated $4 million bucks toward an effort to clear landmines in Ukraine. But in a gender-inclusive manner,” he said.
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. (ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP via Getty Images)
To ensure the project in Ukraine is “gender-inclusive,” the “gender and diversity group” will work to “unite national and international experts to equip HALO and other mine action operators with data and evidence required to go beyond integration of gender equality considerations, towards implementation of gender-transformative mine action programming in Ukraine,” according to MacLeod.
Canada has a longstanding commitment to “women, peace and security” as part of the country’s global affairs policies. The government explains on its website that Canada “knows that sustainable peace is only possible when women are fully involved in the resolution of conflict.” MacLeod explained that the HALO initiative in Ukraine abides by these commitments, citing a “range of policies” that incorporate “specific interests and needs of women and men.”
“In Ukraine, HALO has been a proponent of gender equality in mine action, a traditionally male-dominated sector. This includes providing fair and equal job opportunities in all program areas, from finance and HR to operational management and explosive ordnance disposal,” the spokesperson said.
An interior ministry sapper defuses a mine on a minefield after recent battles in Irpin close to Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
The official pointed to HALO’s lobbying efforts in 2017 in Ukraine that advocated for the inclusion of women as deminers. A previous Ukrainian labor law banned women from working as deminers, the Canadian spokesperson said, which HALO successfully advocated to overturn.
The group has since trained hundreds of women in “demining, team leadership, intermediate care provision and explosive ordnance recognition and disposal.”
Now, according to data provided to Fox News Digital, 29% of HALO’s 1,127-member staff in Ukraine are women, with hopes to increase the proportion of female staff, especially in senior roles, as the group grows, according to MacLeod.
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In this photo provided by the National Police of Ukraine, firefighters work to extinguish a fire after a Russian attack on an apartment building area in the town of Uman, 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Kiev, Ukraine, on Friday, April 28, 2023. (National Police of Ukraine via AP)
Feb. 24 marked the second year since Russia officially invaded Ukraine, with Trudeau visiting Ukraine’s capital on the anniversary.
“While in Kyiv February 24, Prime Minister Trudeau and the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, held a bilateral meeting to discuss the situation on the ground and Ukraine’s needs over the coming months and the two leaders signed a new, historic agreement on security cooperation between Canada and Ukraine to establish a strategic security partnership. As part of this commitment, Canada will provide $3.02 billion in critical financial and military support to Ukraine in 2024,” the spokesperson added.
World
Minnesota braces for what’s next amid immigration arrests and in the wake of Renee Good shooting
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Already shaken by the fatal shooting of a woman by an immigration officer, Minnesota’s Twin Cities on Sunday braced for what many expect will be a new normal over the next few weeks as the Department of Homeland Security carries out what it called its largest enforcement operation ever.
Protesters screamed at heavily-armed federal agents and honked car horns, banged on drums and blew whistles in attempts to disrupt their operations in one Minneapolis neighborhood filled with single-family homes.
There was some pushing and several people were hit with chemical spray just before agents banged down the door of one home on Sunday. They later took one man away in handcuffs.
“We’re seeing a lot of immigration enforcement across Minneapolis and across the state, federal agents just swarming around our neighborhoods,” said Jason Chavez, a Minneapolis city councilmember. “They’ve definitely been out here.”
Chavez, the son of Mexican immigrants who represents an area with a growing immigrant population, said he is closely monitoring information from chat groups about where residents are seeing agents operating.
People holding whistles positioned themselves in freezing temperatures on street corners in the neighborhood where 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed Wednesday, watching for any signs of federal agents.
More than 20,000 people have taken part in a variety of trainings to become “observers” of enforcement activities in Minnesota since the 2024 election, said Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for Unidos MN, a local human rights organization .
“It’s a role that people choose to take on voluntarily, because they choose to look out for their neighbors,” Argueta said.
The protests have been largely peaceful, but the Twin Cities remained anxious. Minneapolis public schools on Monday will start offering remote learning for the next month in response to concerns that children might feel unsafe venturing out while tensions remain high.
Many schools closed last week after Good’s shooting and the upheaval that followed.
While the enforcement activity continues, two of the state’s leading Democrats said on Sunday that the investigation into Good’s shooting death shouldn’t be overseen solely by the federal government.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said in separate interviews Sunday that state authorities should be included in the investigation because the federal government has already made clear what it believes happened.
“How can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiased investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw — what they think happened,” Smith said on ABC’s “This Week.”
The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” her vehicle.
Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE, defended the officer on Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing.”
“That law enforcement officer had milliseconds, if not short time to make a decision to save his life and his other fellow agents,” he said.
Lyons also said the administration’s enforcement operations in Minnesota wouldn’t be needed “if local jurisdictions worked with us to turn over these criminally illegal aliens once they are already considered a public safety threat by the locals.”
The killing of Good by an ICE officer and the shooting of two people by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, led to dozens of protests across the country over the weekend.
Thousands of people marched Saturday in Minneapolis, where Homeland Security called its deployment of immigration officers in the Twin Cities its biggest ever immigration enforcement operation.
___
Associated Press journalists Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis, Thomas Strong in Washington, Bill Barrow in Atlanta, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
World
Netanyahu and Rubio discuss US military intervention in Iran amid ongoing nationwide protests: report
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the possibility of U.S. intervention in Iran, according to a report.
The two leaders spoke by phone Saturday as Israel is on “high alert,” preparing for the possibility of U.S. military intervention in Iran, according to Reuters, citing multiple Israeli sources. A U.S. official confirmed the call to Fox News Digital but did not provide additional details.
The report comes as nationwide anti-regime demonstrations across Iran hit the two-week mark.
On Saturday, the Iranian regime triggered an internet “kill switch” in an apparent effort to conceal alleged abuses by security forces and as protests against it surged nationwide, according to a cybersecurity expert. The blackout reduced internet access to a fraction of normal levels.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio holds his end-of-year press conference at the State Department in Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2025. (Kevin Mohatt/Reuters)
On Sunday, Iran’s parliament speaker warned that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America strikes the Islamic Republic.
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf issued the threat as lawmakers rushed the dais in the Iranian parliament, shouting, “Death to America!” according to The Associated Press.
President Donald Trump offered support for the protesters on Saturday, writing on Truth Social that “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!”
IRANIAN MILITARY LEADER THREATENS PREEMPTIVE ATTACK AFTER TRUMP COMMENTS
In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran’s Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
At a news conference Friday, Trump said Iran was facing mounting pressure as unrest spreads across the country.
“Iran’s in big trouble,” he said. “It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago. We’re watching the situation very carefully.”
The president said the U.S. would respond forcefully if the regime resorts to mass violence.
“We’ll be hitting them very hard where it hurts. And that doesn’t mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts,” he said.
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Protests in Iran intensify for the 12th day. (The National Council of Resistance of Iran)
Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department and White House for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Emma Bussey, Brie Stimson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
World
Four killed, 20 injured in overnight Russian strikes across Ukraine
Published on
Russia fired more than 150 drones overnight into Sunday targeting close to two dozen locations across Ukraine, killing at least four people and injuring 20 more.
Ukraine’s Air Forces say they intercepted 125 drones aerially but confirmed that at least 25 strike drones struck their targets.
They added that Moscow’s latest barrage mainly targeted Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk, all of which were targeted in Saturday’s overnight strikes as well.
Local officials in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia say the strikes targeted residential areas and energy infrastructure. More than 385,000 homes were affected by electric, gas or water outages, at a critical time as temperatures plunged to 10 degrees below Celsius.
Regional lawmakers say service was restored to most of the affected households and areas by Sunday morning, but added that emergency work was still being carried out to restore power to the remaining homes.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of timing their attacks with the cold peaks of winter as to maximise civilian suffering.
“They struck targets that have no military purpose whatsoever – energy infrastructure, residential buildings. They deliberately waited for freezing weather to make things worse for our people. This is deliberate, cynical Russian terror specifically against civilians,” wrote Zelenskyy in a post on X.
He also noted that this week had seen heightened Russian assault on Ukrainian cities, announcing that his country’s defence forces recorded thousands of attacks using a variety of different weapons.
“Over the course of this week, Russia launched almost 1,100 attack drones against Ukraine, more than 890 guided aerial bombs, and over 50 missiles of various types – ballistic, cruise, and even the Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile.”
The Ukrainian leader thanked all units responsible for protecting the country and responding to attacks, and praised their tireless efforts and resilience.
He also called on allies to ensure his embattled country maintains “stable support”, in defence and diplomatic fields as coordinated dialogue efforts continue in search of peace.
Meanwhile, Russia says that one person was killed in Ukrainian strikes on the western city of Voronezh. Officials say a young woman succumbed to her wounds at an intensive care unit of a local hospital after debris from a drone fell on her house during Saturday’s attacks.
They added that at least three others were injured in the attacks which targeted more than 10 residential apartment buildings, private homes and a high school.
The city of Voronezh lies just 250 kilometres from the Ukrainian border and is home to approximately one million people. The attacks, which Kyiv have yet to confirm, came after the Kremlin’s major offensive on Ukraine in the early hours of Saturday.
Additional sources • AP
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