Alberta rejects move towards Canada independence

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Listen now, wherever you get your BBC Podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janut Jalil and at 14 hours GMT on Tuesday the 20th of October, these are our main stories. With most ballots now counted in a referendum, the Canadian province of Alberta has rejected a plan to hold a binding vote on independence. More than 200 people have been killed in a series of drone attacks in Sudan. We look at how civilians are being targeted as both sides in the civil war increasingly use drones. Australian police have charged a man after a lawmaker was hit by a car in what they say was a targeted attack. Also in this podcast could a new AI tool predict your chances of surviving cancer from just a selfie. We start the podcast in Canada where people in Alberta have voted to remain part of the country in the provinces first ever referendum on separation. Even though all the votes have not yet been counted as we record this podcast, it seems our burdens have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to hold an independence referendum. The result was welcomed by the Prime Minister Mark Carney who is trying to unify the country amid Canada's ongoing trade war with the United States and President Trump's threats of annexation. In a statement Mr. Carney said, "Albertons had chosen Canada." I got more details from our Chief International Correspondent, Lee Zusset, who is in the Canadian capital Ottawa. The National Broadcasters CBC hours ago projected that it would be a firm victory for those who wanted Alberta to remain part of Canada, the CBC projected more than 75%. Now that is a huge majority, but if those who say they want to start a legal process to leave Canada is more than 20%, that still is a lot. And it sends a message that they do have grievances that must be addressed. And this is why you're hearing from some of those who are in the remain camps saying, "We're very proud of our victory. We know it's more important. We know it matters to remain in Canada that Alberta is stronger that way. But there certainly will be those who say, "Well, we have to listen more carefully, more closely to what more than 20% of Alberta are saying." Then gone from a fringe movement of one or two percent to actually being on the ballot. And this has all come as a huge relief for the Prime Minister Mark Carney, who's currently engaged in a trade war with the US, and who's also trying to fight off President Trump's threats of making Canada a 51st US state. Yeah, that very much has been the cloud over this process with Mark Carney saying throughout the run-up to this vote, saying it's the worst possible time for Alberta to be putting this to a vote. Without naming the United States, he said they want to break us so they can own us. That's one of his slogans he used in his election campaign, which brought him to the head of the federal government in Canada. And it's interesting when you read his statement that he issued when the preliminary results seem to show a clear victory for the remain camp. He talked about not just remaining in Canada, but building together with Alberta at the core of Canada's a global energy superpower. So it's really saying to Alberta, it's important you stay with us, and it's really important now because we have a job to do to diversify our trade partners and to use all of our energy wealth and bear in mind that Mark Carney used to be seen as more of an environmentalist. Now we say to Alberta that we need you to take on the United States. Well, as Lisa mentioned, separatists in the all-witch province have vowed to fight on. Jeth Rath is a leading figure in the Alberta Independence Movement and co-founder of the Alberta Prosperity Project. We've created a political movement going forward. You know, we're obviously going to continue educating Alberta on the benefit of independence. And quite frankly, the math and the economics of it are undeniable. So we'll see what the numbers are at the end of the day. We'll have a better sense of where we're at tomorrow, but certainly our movement isn't stopping and we're continuing to move forward. For more on the mood in the separatist camp, we heard from Nadine Yusif, who was at Pro Independence Watch Party. So we talked to some people to get some quick reaction. You know, some say that they expected this result that, you know, to them this was really just about sending a message to Ottawa, to the Prime Minister Mark Carney and his liberal government that they're frustrated by some of those policies and they want to see some change and they feel like they've achieved that by at least, you know, having a vote on this issue and getting to go out to the ballot and vote. But we did also speak to the leaders of this movement as well and there's definitely a sense that this conversation is far from over. You know, they feel like, you know, we're just going to Jeffrey Rath, one of the movements leaders told me that, you know, we're just going to roll up our sleeves and work harder. They suggested that they're actually going to be challenging the leadership of the premier of Alberta here and basically trying to see if they can gain even more foothold in the Alberta politics conversation and the conversation in Canada. Nadine Yusif, now let's turn to Sudan. We're more than 200 people have been killed in a series of drone attacks over the past couple of days. In one strike alone, more than 70 people were killed at a market near the border with South Sudan. And in what could be one of the deadliest attacks in the country's three-year civil war, around 150 people lost their lives in West Kordafan state while on their way back from a funeral. The UN says there's been a sharp increase in drone warfare in Sudan. Dr. Mohammed El Sheikh is a spokesman for the Sudan Doctors Network. We started to see understandably more civilian casualties and I believe that civilians are the most affected by these drones. Unfortunately, even some of the drones that are coming attacking some civilian areas are actually coming outside the borders of the country. So this will tell us this, it's becoming more of a war by proxy. It's not only like the rapid support forces versus the Sudanese army or any of that, so now we have unfortunately some of the Sudan neighbors are involved somehow in this conflict. The war between Sudan's army and the rival paramilitary rapid support forces has triggered a devastating humanitarian crisis with tens of millions of people displaced and facing severe hunger. For more on the drone attack, I spoke to our correspondent, Richard Pugoi, who is monitoring the conflict in Sudan from Nairobi. The victims basically were a group of people who just attended actually a funeral and at the time boarding a truck and we were traveling to the destination. So it is say the two drones did strike the vehicle which had a capacity of about 200 people and then the owners actually who are actually at a particular area inside a tent and they were heat and about five of them dead. So there's a group that has been tracking the conflict in Sudan. They actually say that the numbers are actually higher, about 150 specifically in a Western quarter fund and so that's reason to about 150 just double of what had been reported on Monday. And why has there been this increase in drone attacks across Sudan? It looks like there has been sort of like a strategic shifter on both sides in the conflict. What they have been doing is basically reducing in terms of ground offensive and so they have resulted to the use of drones because it's easy to reach the opponents are territory and this is what has really caused the mass devastation not just in West Kodofan but across the entire of Sudan. And are both sides using drones equally and are particular areas being targeted? Well both sides indeed have been using drones and are the RSF which has been at war with the army has largely been reported to be using that especially targeting central parts of Sudan and the east of the country. And they've been targeting specifically populated areas. So these include their markets. They could be hospital places of worship and most recently we've seen them also targeting our minds. Richard Kugoy a day after an Australian MP was hit by a car and nearly killed police have charged a 43 year old man for what they say was a targeted attack. The 65 year old MP Helen Haynes has reportedly lost a leg after being hit by the car outside her office in Victoria, she remains in critical condition. One of those who ran to help her was local barber Ricky Jeffries who says he pulled the suspect from the car and took away his knife. I don't think I'm a hero. I think that I just was a person who had an opportunity to intervene in a safeish way. He did have a knife. He didn't pull it out. I just wasn't comfortable with his movements and so I basically just took it out of his pocket and threw it away. A lot of people got involved immediately and they didn't even check for danger. They just ran to help. Driver was still in the car. The car was still on and they sat in front of a rolling car. That's not an exaggeration. There is a man that sat in front of a moving car to help someone. I had no choice but to take him out of the car because it was the right and safest thing to do. The suspect's father says the attack is devastating and unfathomable as the MP has been a family friend for more than 20 years. I spoke to Katie Watson who was at the scene of the attack in Wengerata. While people here in Wengerata have been leaving flowers for Helen Haynes, they've also been leaving flowers for Ricky the barber and I was talking to another shopkeeper nearby talking about how much he did is taking a much needed break. I think trying to process what happened here yesterday and that's something that I've heard from several people here that they can't process what happened. This is a rural town, a small town that's got a very close-knit community. There was a vigil that was held at one of the cathedrals here earlier today and there were several hundred people lining up to light a candle to pay their respects to an MP. Nobody has a bad word to say about, they talk about her kind as Helen Haynes has been referred to as a treasure, a politician who is very much here for the community, no matter who they voted for. She's a central part of Wengerata. And Katie we're also getting more details about the suspect and what do we know about a possible motive? It's too early to speculate about it, motive in fact police are still doing their investigations. I saw offices from the Australian Federal Police going into different shops along this street earlier today. So there's very much in investigation mode. We do know that he's a 43 year-old local man who's been named by media here as Brenda Nugent. His parents have put out a statement and they've talked about the fact that they have been family friends with Helen Haynes for more than 20 years. The what happened to her here yesterday was devastating and unfathomable. So I think that's another thing that people here are processing that she knew the suspect. And of course this is such a tight-knit community. They didn't expect this sort of thing to happen and of course the suspect is a local man still in custody and the investigation is still ongoing. And there are wider questions aren't there Katie about increasing violence or threats against politicians, especially female ones? So the police is saying this is an isolated incident that there's no wider threat to the community but I mean I was talking to the mayor earlier today who said that she called an assassination. She said that these are public figures, Helen Haynes is a public figure and there is an increased threat, there is concern even though they didn't think it could happen. The fact is that it did. And the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was very quick to call it an attack yesterday after it happened. He said you know this was a deliberate act. It was thought so he's very clear that this is an increasingly tense political environment here in Australia, but that this is not just an Australian issue. This is a worldwide issue that you know social media, people listening to other people's opinions and viewpoints, that's something that feels more problematic than ever. That's something I've heard here, speaking to people in Wengerata today. Katie Watson, could a simple photo of your face show how old or how ill you are? While researchers in the US say a new artificial intelligence tool they've developed can not only work out a person's biological age, but also their chances of surviving cancer with just a single photograph. The AI tool is reported to have been trained on more than 40 million pictures with cancer estimates checked against real patient data. While it's still in the early stages, the researchers say their goal is to help doctors recommend the right treatments for their patients. Our digital health editor, Michelle Roberts, told me more about how it works. This is an AI tool that these researchers are looking to develop and they've put in millions of different photos of people that they found on the internet, healthy faces, all ages and ranges, and then they've also taken 35,000 faces of people in hospital with cancer at various degrees of severity. What they're trying to do is find out whether they can look at a photo and predict using the AI tool, how well that patient is doing or how much survive or they might have left, how long they might have left to live. At the moment, doctors already use their own assessments. This wouldn't be to replace that, but it would be to help doctors get a better idea. So, just to be clear, this tool wouldn't help you detect whether a person could get cancer simply from looking at a photo, it would just help you detect how long their disease is likely to progress. Exactly. So, it's all about trying to assist all of the current things that you would do in hospitals. So, you know, it's not to replace your blood tests and your scans and things like that, but they're suggesting that if you can look at different parts of the face that with the naked eye, we're all pretty good at looking at somebody and seeing if they look ill or not. But they're saying that the AI might really be able to analyse and give extra information. By particularly looking around the eyes was the area that they were interested in with this tool and with the cancer patients, it appeared to be sort of the bit just beneath the eyelids and across the bridge of the nose that seemed to give them some sort of detective power. So, is this a special photo that will be taken by the AI tool that we're talking about, or is it just any photo? These are just selfies, these are just simple photos that you can take yourself, so that's why they're really interested in it. And they've also been looking at whether they can use AI to look at face age as well. So, obviously, we all know how old we are on our birth certificate, but it's very different to how biologically old we might be, so some people might be 10 years younger physiologically in their general health and wellbeing, and they're seeing if AI can help predict your biological age too. So, there would be a lot of interest in that, so you're saying this won't replace doctors, it would just be a tool to help them. Could it just be a tool that's available for you and me to download and use, and are there any risks in that? They're stressing that these two tools, the one that looks at face age and the other one that looks at survival, they're still in research, they're not to be used in everyday practice or anything like that, but they are inviting the public to take part, so people can, if they want to, just in the face age stuff, they can download their own photograph, and then they will get a little read out from the company saying what sort of face age your current face is looking like in terms of whether you're on track for your birthday or whether you're looking a bit older or a bit younger, and one of the things that they found seemed to be the most linked to face age was smoking, that seems to age people the most. Michelle Roberts. Still to come in this podcast? The quarrel that I have requires no arms but these of mine, and these shall meet my foe in a deep march of penetrable groans. New research concludes that another play can be added to the canon of Shakespeare's works, we'll tell you what it is shortly and who he said to written it with. This week on the interface, millions of kids have grown up on camera with their childhood turned into content. And an attack on Russian data center started a rumor that all the evil disinformation bots had been deleted from the internet, but the truth might actually be a lot scarier. For our take, join me, Just Maddox, and me, Thomas Jermaine, for the interface. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcast. This is 30 minutes, trouble with Hubble from the BBC World Service. Listen now, wherever you get your BBC podcast. So quick summer recap. Heat waves, data leaks, AI hacks, holding phones, and a viral spinally challenge track here. Yeah, I think that covers it, right? I'm Thomas Jermaine. I'm Just Maddox, and the interface is back from its summer break. New season, new co-host, same deep dives into the tech that's shaping our world in our lives. So before AI wipes out all of humanity, allegedly, join us for the interface. Available now on the documentary from the BBC World Service. In the UK, the security services are warning of a spying threat from China. Universitors are being told to protect sensitive research from hostile Chinese agents. Join me, Paul Kenyon, to find out why a once flourishing relationship has soured. Listen now by searching for the documentary wherever you get to your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast. A key adviser to President Zelensky says that Ukrainians are dying because Kiev is still not receiving reliable US warnings of incoming Russian attacks. Sir, he, best crest off, told the BBC that lives had been lost because they had not been enough time to warn people about Russian ballistic missile strikes. This comes as restrictions to Ukraine's use of the Starlink Internet network, which is owned by Elon Musk and managed by the Pentagon continue to hinder Ukraine's ability to defend itself and attack Russia. The White House has denied making any changes to intelligence sharing, even as relations between Kiev and Washington have deteriorated sharply in recent days. The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on a visit to India, defended President Trump, saying he simply wanted the war to end. I think the important takeaway for you is that there has not been some deliberate political directive to go out and harm Ukraine. This is just not accurate. Even this talk about, I think on the 13th and again on the 18th, there were air strikes in Ukraine that were not detected. That is not because America did not provide information. I saw somebody associated with the Ukrainian government say that people in Ukraine are dying because the US is denying them information. That's scandalous, that's outrageous, that's just simply not true, that's not accurate. Now that there was a problem identifying that perhaps there was an internal issue in terms of them being able to take the information that was being provided and systemize it and react to it, that's possible. We're looking at it. Our understanding is that to the extent that happened on the 13th and on the 18th, it was a technical matter. It was not the result of any sort of US directive not to provide advanced warning of a strike. The BBC's Dan Johnson asked President Zelensky's advisor, sir, he best-crushing off how vulnerable Ukraine's citizens are. Right now we list this alarm one minutes before the attack, so it's nothing. If people who are living in the block flat, for example, 16 levels, 17 levels, it's not enough time to go to basement, so it's a problem. We know what happens in case a ballistic comes to building, to block flats. It's a really disaster. What is the risk then if that intelligence is not reliably restored? It's dangerous, it's risky for our people to die, so I think it's really very bad. Have people already died because of that? Yeah, people already died, yeah. Let's talk about Starlink, Starshield then. What is the problem there and how much of a difference is that making? We actually use the Starlink in our defence process. People thinking that we are using Starlink only for our deep strikes, attacks, but it's not only a problem with deep strikes. First of all, we have very big problems right now with a jet, Shahid, and we develop very effectively decision against this Russian weapon, this jet interceptor, but Starlink, SpaceX, activates their limitation. And now this radio communication channel is not working through the satellite and it's a problem for us because we cannot protect our country against the jet, Shahid. So it's a very huge problem for us. Marco Rubio said StarShield was not available to Ukraine and they had no access to it. It's very strange. Is he wrong? I think yes, because our partner provides us with this StarShield package. It's absolutely impossible to buy StarShield on open market, so it's special military product control by Pentagon and the United States government. So it's a possible to receive the StarShield in any other ways. Have you lost faith in Starlink as a reliable product? It's not secret that Starlink play very important roles in our game in army, so it's critical important because I many times say that Starlink is not, if you're talking about military, the Starlink is not only technology like a weapon. It's technology that helps to our soldiers to have communication with family. So we show to our partner to SpaceX, to Elon Musk, to Pentagon Trump, that we in the really case, that we use Starlink to protect our country. Then we kindly ask to our partner, please remove the limitation. It's important for us. Sir, he best crest off speaking to Dan Johnson. Who wrote the play, Edward III, about the 12th century English King, who was famous for starting the Hundred Years War? It's a mystery that's lasted for more than 400 years, but it seems to have finally been solved. And the answer is an intriguing one. William Shakespeare, but in collaboration with his contemporary and rival, Christopher Malu, he is a flavor of that play. The quarrel that I have requires no arms, but these of mine, and these shall meet my foe in a deep march of penetrable groans. My eyes shall be my arrows, my size shall serve me as the vantage of the wind to whirl away my sweetest artillery. Ah, but alas, she wins the son of me for that is she herself, and thence it comes that poets turn the wantent warrior blind, but love had eyes as judgments to his steps, till too much loved glory dazzles them. Roy Loughland, from the University of Kent in southern England, carried out the research. He told Anna Foster more about it. Edward III was published anonymously in 1596, and scholars, for some time suspected or shakes, there are probably real parts of it, but this new research provides compelling evidence that Marla was also involved. So it makes us rethink that working relationship between the two playwrights. Yeah, tell me about that research. What did you do to pinpoint this? Well, every writer has a kind of linguistic fingerprint, so we compared Edward III with plays by ten other alas-beaten dramatists using two different computer-assisted methods. So what my colleague brought, rightly, a harsh from the University of Leeds, we were trying to use a metal which looked at the distribution of words and not simply how frequently they were used, and crucially, both independent tests pointed towards Marla's involvement in certain parts of the play. Interesting, because of the language and the way that language was used. Yeah, exactly. It's like identifying someone's handwriting, but true, there are patterns of language. You mentioned using computer models there. Is it the sort of thing? Well, I said this mystery is endured for more than 400 years. Is it the sort of thing that you need that kind of technology to do this this sort of really fine, detailed comparison? Yes, absolutely. We're looking at both kind of conscious and unconscious language choices and linguistic patterns and keep computer-assisted research can help it out. And you're 100% sure that this is definitely, is there any doubt remaining, or do you think this is pretty much it now, mystery-sold? Absolutely, the nature of the game is that there is always a kind of spectrum of doubt. The evidence is compelling for us because the two independent tests are locking on the same sections, and provide more definitive proof of Shakespeare's own contributions to the play. So in some ways, it reinforces earlier critical impressions of who might have written which part. Rory Locknan from the University of Kent. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at [email protected]. This edition was mixed by Darcy Obrey, the producer was Alice Adley, the editor is Karen Martin. I'm Jonak Jalil. Until next time, goodbye. For our take, join me, Jess Maddox. And me, Thomas Germain, for the interface. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcast.