Alberta votes to remain part of Canada and other top stories | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the Global News podcast from. the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Janet. Jalil and here's what's coming up. >> The Canadian province of Alberta votes. to remain part of the country. We'll. hear from our chief international. correspondent in Ottawa. >> They still said Alberta needs greater. respect. Alberta cannot continue to. subsidize with its oil wealth the rest. of Canada. >> And get reaction from our reporter at a. pro-independence. watch party. >> There was a lot of upbeat chatter. earlier here, but the hum of that.

quickly quieted down when it became. apparent now that Albertans. overwhelmingly voted against holding a. referendum to separate. >> Plus, France says curfews in some cities. have helped to restore calm after a. weekend of violent protests. Police in. Australia charge a man after a car is. driven into a member of parliament. leaving her critically injured. And we. hear how the latest drone attacks in. Sudan have caused mass casualties among.

civilians. People in Alberta have voted to remain. part of Canada in the province's. first-ever referendum on separation. 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 that. Albertans quote chose unity to build.

together and to take care of each other. Above all, Albertans chose Canada. The BBC's chief international. correspondent Lyse Doucet, who's in. Ottawa, gave us more details on the. results of the vote. She spoke to my. colleague Lewis Vaughan Jones. >> A few hours ago, the national. broadcaster CBC projected a win of 75.6%. for the remain camp. And that was good. enough. Those are the initial results. that the premier of Alberta, Danielle. Smith, came out and applauded this.

result. She came to power with the. support of separatists, but she made it. clear that she would be remote voting to. to remain in Canada. And then, not long. after, the prime minister, Mark Carney, also came out and talked. about this as a victory for Canada, that. the albertans had made the decision to. stay as part of the Confederation. And. interestingly, he talked about building. together because the the what. the cloud which has hung over this whole.

process, and it's why Mark Carney has. said it's the worst possible time to be. holding this kind of a vote, is that. Canada, of course, is in a trade war. with the United States. And in Mark Carney's statement, he made. it clear that as Canada diversifies its. trading partners, it wants Alberta, the. richest province, to be at the core of. all that. >> So, what do you think happens now to the. independence movement? >> Well, let's see exactly. what the exact percentages are, who.

voted what, where. But already, the. separatist leaders, even before the. voting began, they said, "We have. started something, and we're not going. to stop." They have gone from being a. fringe movement, 1 or 2% support, to now. even being put on the ballot in this. way. So, they're going to continue. to argue that their grievances can only. be met in a separate state. But they And.

that will have to be listened to. Even. I've been speaking to albertans in the. past 24 hours, even those who told me. they would vote to remain in Canada, they still said. Alberta needs greater respect. Alberta. cannot continue to subsidize with its. oil wealth the rest of Canada without. its own grievances. And that includes grievances about. provincial powers, immigration is a big. issue on the agenda. Don't forget there. are nine other questions on this. referendum dealing with immigration and.

provincial power, selection of judges, the what happens to the to the Senate of. Canada. So, at the end of when this is. all over, there's going to be a lot of. messages from the vote by the people of. Alberta. >> Well, as Leese mentioned, Albertan. separatists have vowed to fight on. Jeth. Rath is a leading figure in the Alberta. independence movement and co-founder of. the Alberta Prosperity Project. >> I'm, you know, as far as I'm concerned, you know, we've already won. We've.

created a massive movement in this. province. We've dominated the. conversation, you know, in the last. year. We've been educating Albertans on. the benefits of independence and we're. continuing to move forward. >> For more on the mood in the separatist. camp, we heard from Nadine Youssef, who. was at a pro-independence watch party. >> There was a lot of upbeat chatter. earlier here, but the hum of that. quickly quieted down when it became. apparent now that some of the early. results are coming out that, you know, Albertans overwhelmingly voted against.

holding a referendum to separate. 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. and 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. Jeffrey. Rath, one of the movement's. 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 Um, basically uh, trying to see if they can. get even more foothold in in in the. Alberta politics conversation and the. conversation in Canada. >> Now, let's take a look at some of the. other news stories we're covering today. Government officials in France say that.

targeted curfews in some cities have. brought a measure of calm after the. worst weekend of violent protests and. looting in French cities in years. Nick. Beake reports from Marseille. >> This is the city of Marseille. It was. badly hit by the violence over the. weekend. Business groups say that more. than 600 shops were looted and so. there's been a big clean-up operation. ever since. You can see lots of police. officers are around today trying to give. reassurance to people here in the heart.

of the city. This began as protests against what was. happening in schools. People saying they. wanted more teachers. They were really. angry about the state of buildings, but. clearly it's become a lot bigger than. that. We saw on Saturday night a lot of. violence. We know that a lot of people, young people from the northern suburbs. here were involved in the looting. because they were filming it and they. were uploading it to social media. So, this reflects a lot of the problems. they've got within French society. People are talking about a sort of. crisis whether it comes to identity,

immigration, lots of other things, the. cost of living, people feeling that they. haven't got any sort of future, that. they won't be able to get a a decent. job. So, all of this is quite an. explosive mix which comes 6 months. before a general election. >> Police in Australia have charged a man. who was detained after an attack on a. member of parliament. The MP, Helen. Haines, has reportedly lost a leg after. being hit by a car outside her office in. Victoria. She remains in critical. condition.

The father of the accused man said the. MP had been a family friend for more. than 20 years. Our correspondent, Katie. Watson, told us that a local barber, Ricky Jeffries, is being hailed as a. hero for pulling the suspect from the. car and taking away his knife. >> While people here in Wangaratta have. been leaving flowers for Helen Haines, they've also been leaving flowers. for Ricky the barber. And I was talking. to another shopkeeper nearby talking. about how how much he did. He doesn't.

think of himself as a hero, but he's. taking a much needed break. I think. trying to process. the what happened here yesterday. And. that's something that I've heard from. several people here that they. 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.

that nobody has a bad word to say about. They talk about her kindness. Helen Haines has been referred to as a. treasure, a politician who is very much. here for the community no matter who. you know who they voted for. She's a. central part of Wangaratta. >> Now let's turn to Sudan where 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 Kordofan state while on their way. back from a funeral. I asked our correspondent Richard Kakoy. about the increased use of drone warfare. in Sudan and what it means for. civilians. >> There has been sort of like a strategic. shift on both sides in the conflict. What they have been doing is basically.

reducing in terms of ground offensive. And so they have resorted to the use of. drones are it's easy to reach uh. you know, the opponent's uh territory. And this is what has really caused uh. the mass uh devastation, not just in. West Kordofan, but across uh the entire. of Sudan. >> And are both sides using drones equally? And are particular areas being targeted? >> Well, both sides indeed have been using. uh you know, drones. And uh the RSF, which has been at war with the army, has. uh largely been reported to be uh using.

that, especially targeting uh central uh. parts of uh Sudan and the east of uh the. country. And uh they've been targeting. specifically populated areas. So, this. include uh markets, they could be. hospital, uh places of worship. And most. recently, we've seen them also targeting. uh mines. >> And that's all for this edition of the. Global News Podcast. To learn more about. any of the stories we covered today, you. can listen to the Global News Podcast. wherever you get your podcasts. If you'd. like to get in touch, our contact. details are below. I'm Jenna Jalil.

Until next time. Goodbye.