Most of Canada’s oil sands production shut down by wildfire
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — The majority of the oil sands industry has stopped production and will only start back up when it is “absolutely safe” but that should happen soon, Alberta’s premier said Tuesday after meeting with company officials to discuss the impact of a massive wildfire that destroyed more than 10 percent of the homes and buildings in Canada’s main oil sands city.
Suncor chief executive Steve Williams, the head of Canada’s largest oil company, said about a million barrels a day went offline but said some of that has already started to come back. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said the massive oil sands mines north of Fort McMurray have not been damaged.
But the wildfire that broke out a week ago has forced as much as a third of Canada’s oil output offline and was expected to impact an economy already hurt by the fall in oil prices. Alberta’s oil sands have the third-largest reserves of oil in the world behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Its workers largely live in Fort McMurray, a former frontier outpost-turned-city whose residents come from all over Canada.
Notley said getting pipelines and electricity operational are priorities. She said getting production back online will be a matter of “days and short weeks.”
“The majority of production has stopped, certainly not all of it, but the majority. If that were to continue for a month or two you would start to see measurable outcomes to our GDP,” Notley said.
Trump says big rallies his key campaign weapon
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump, GOP nomination virtually in hand, is planning a general election campaign that banks heavily on his personal appeal and trademark rallies while spurning the kind of sophisticated data operation that was a centerpiece of Barack Obama’s winning White House runs.
“I’ve always felt it was overrated,” Trump said in an interview Tuesday. “Obama got the votes much more so than his data processing machine. And I think the same is true with me.”
Trump met with The Associated Press at his office in New York, where he’s been huddling with advisers to plan for a fall campaign that came upon him more quickly than even the confident billionaire expected. His remaining rivals abruptly exited the race last week, leaving him an open path to the Republican nomination.
As part of his general election planning, Trump is moving aggressively to identify potential running mates and says he now has “a very good list of five or six people,” all with deep political experience. While he would not provide a full list of names, he did not rule out New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the former rival whom he’s already tapped to head his transition planning.
Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, is running the vice presidential vetting effort “with a group,” Trump said, that includes former competitor Ben Carson and himself.
Debate over transgender bathroom access spreads nationwide
UNDATED (AP) — There was a showdown in Houston last fall. This spring, North Carolina became the battleground. By now, confrontations have flared across the country over whether to protect or curtail the right of transgender people to use public restrooms in accordance with their gender identity.
The upshot, in virtually every case, has been emotional debate over privacy, personal safety and prejudice.
Many of those who favor limiting transgender rights contend that expanding anti-bias protections to bathrooms and locker rooms raises the risk of sexual predators exploiting the laws to molest women and girls on those premises.
Transgender-rights advocates consider this argument malicious and false. They say that 18 states and scores of cities have experienced no significant public safety problems linked to their existing laws allowing transgender people to use bathrooms based on the gender they consider themselves to be.
On Monday, the U.S. Justice Department weighed in, suing to overturn North Carolina’s new law restricting transgender bathroom access and warning that any similar measures elsewhere in the country could also face challenges on grounds they violate federal nondiscrimination rules. North Carolina has sued to keep the law in place.
New Philippine leader seen as emancipator, looming dictator
MANILA, the Philippines (AP) — Rodrigo Duterte, the bombastic mayor of a major southern city, was heralded Tuesday as president-elect of the Philippines after an incendiary campaign that projected him alternatively as an emancipator and a looming dictator.
“Our people have spoken and their verdict is accepted and respected,” outgoing President Benigno Aquino III’s spokesman, Sonny Coloma, said in a statement. “The path of good governance … is already established as all presidential candidates spoke out against corruption.”
Former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, who was running second behind Duterte in the unofficial vote count following Monday’s election, conceded defeat. “Digong, I wish you success,” Roxas said at a news conference, using Duterte’s nickname. “Your victory is the victory of our people and our country.”
Duterte’s harshest critic also conceded that the mayor, known for his off-color sexual remarks and pledges to kill criminal suspects, had emerged the unquestioned winner.
“I will not be the party pooper at this time of a festive mood,” Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who has filed a plunder complaint against Duterte, told The Associated Press. “I will step back, listen to his policy pronouncements. This time we don’t expect a stand-up comedy act but a president who will address the nation.”
