Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today...
Feds to publish oil and gas cap plans today
The federal Liberals will finally provide details on their long-promised oil and gas emissions cap today.
The policy is a critical piece of Canada's long-term emissions reduction plan but today's framework will show the sector won't be asked to cut emissions as deeply as previously thought.
The 2022 emissions reduction plan anticipated regulating that emissions from oil and gas in 2030 fall more than 40 per cent from current levels.
Industry balked at that demand, saying it could not cut that much in just seven years without also cutting production.
The government compromised and lowered its expectations in a bid to make the cap feasible without affecting production.
AFN assembly continues without new national chief
The Assembly of First Nations' special chiefs assembly continues in Ottawa Thursday without a new national chief.
First Nations leaders were growing impatient late Wednesday as voting for the new national chief of the Assembly of First Nations went long into the night, with neither front-runner reaching the 60 per cent victory threshold.
After six separate rounds of voting, AFN regional chief Cindy Woodhouse had collected 50.8 per cent of the registered vote, leading her closest challenger: David Pratt, vice-chief of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations.
Max FineDay, the CEO of Indigenous consulting firm Warshield, said it's clear there is no consensus in the assembly shortly after delegates began to vacate the building minutes before midnight on Wednesday.
The seventh vote will take place at 11 a.m. Thursday.
N.W.T. legislature meets to elect new premier
Newly elected members of the Northwest Territories legislature are meeting today to choose their new premier and cabinet.
The territory doesn't have political parties.
Under its consensus-style government, MLAs run as independents and meet to choose a premier and members of cabinet from among themselves.
The premier then assigns the ministers their portfolios, and the remaining members function as the Opposition.
The territory's general election, originally set for October, was delayed to Nov. 14 because of wildfires.
Defence expected to start in Mountie murder trial
Defence lawyers are expected to present their case today in the murder trial of a former Saskatchewan Mountie.
Previously, three years of text messages between Bernie Herman and his wife were submitted as evidence.
The wife of 55-year-old Herman sent him messages on the day of the killing accusing him of letting down his family by having a sexual relationship with the victim.
Images found on Herman's phone show what appear to be Snapchat messages from the victim that include explicit sexual references, conversations about love and messages about the officer's wife.
Herman has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the 2021 death of 26-year-old Braden Herman, no relation, in Prince Albert.
Hanukkah Celebrations Kick-Off
Jewish Canadians are preparing to gather and light menorahs as Hanukkah begins tonight at sundown.
The ritual of lighting a nightly candle is part of the eight-day celebration of the liberation of Jerusalem by a small group of Jewish fighters in the 2nd century B-C.
However, some Jews say it will be a challenge to feel joyful this year as the two-month-old Israel-Hamas war rages on in Gaza.
Police forces across Canada have reported a rise in what they suspect are hate-motivated incidents in recent months, many of them anti-semitic.
In Vancouver, Rabbi Jonathan Infeld with the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue says the rise in hate makes it all the more important to celebrate holidays like Hanukkah, which are intended to bring light into the world at the darkest moments of the year.
The war in Israel rages on
Israeli troops say they are battling Hamas militants in the centre of the Gaza Strip’s second-largest city, Khan Younis.
The fighting has sent tens of thousands of Palestinians fleeing to the territory’s southernmost edge, where shelters are overflowing.
Aid groups warn of a worsening humanitarian catastrophe as fighting has prevented aid groups from delivering food, water and other supplies to the vast majority of Gaza’s population.
Khan Younis is now seeing the sort of fierce urban fighting and intensified bombardment that wreaked heavy destruction across northern Gaza.
Mispronounced words of 2023: in review
Some of the words tied to this year’s hottest topics were also among the most mangled when it came to saying them aloud.
This year’s lists of the most mispronounced words in the U.S. and Britain were released Thursday by Babbel.
The online language learning company commissions The Closed Captioning Group in the U.S. and the British Institute of Verbatim Reports in the U.K. to identify the top words that news anchors, politicians and other public figures have struggled with.
Pronunciations that stumped included the first name of the Irish actor starring in “Oppenheimer,” Cillian Murphy. The experts at Babbel his name is pronounced KI-lee-uhn. Another name making the list was the singer SZA, which they say is pronounced SIZ-uh.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec.7, 2023
The Canadian Press
