Elbows Up: Trump Slams Canada With Tariff Threat as Cross-Border Tensions Flare
In a fiery Truth Social post, Trump vows a 35% tariff on Canadian goods, revives fentanyl falsehoods, and jeopardizes a critical U.S.-Canada deal—just days before a major negotiation deadline.
U.S. President Donald Trump has once again turned the attention of his aggressive trade agenda on Canada with yet a new tariff threat. In a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney posted to Truth Social, Trump threatened a 35 per cent tariff on “Canadian products sent into the United States, separate from all Sectoral Tariffs.” “If for any reason you decide to raise your Tariffs, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added onto the 35 per cent that we charge,” the letter adds. The new tariff would take effect on Aug. 1. The letter once again references fentanyl allegedly “pouring into” the U.S. from Canada, but also cites other complaints, including trade deficits and Canadian supply management in the dairy sector. The U.S. government’s own statistics showing minuscule amounts of fentanyl entering the U.S. from Canada were buttressed earlier this month by a report from New York think tank The Manhattan Institute, which found 99 per cent of the pills and 97 per cent of the powered form of the drug entering the U.S. in the last decade came from Mexico. The new threat comes as Canada and the U.S. are locked in negotiations over a wider economic and security agreement, with a July 21 target date - Global News
The Globe and Mail had this to say about Mr. Trump’s latest tariff salvo at Canada: “In announcing new tariffs on Canadian goods and throwing yet another wrench into the country’s most important economic relationship, Mr. Trump exemplified why Ottawa has been scrambling to find new trading partners in order to reduce Canada’s reliance on its neighbour to the south. Whether that is possible is debatable, given that the U.S. currently accounts for more than 68 per cent of all Canadian trade, but it has supercharged ongoing efforts to strengthen economic ties in Asia, even as Ottawa is still working to smooth over diplomatic spats with the region’s two largest economies, China and India.” Another analyst in the same newspaper said that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s appeasement of Mr. Trump, “got Canada less than nothing. In exchange for so grovelingly ceding our sovereignty, Mr. Carney got the promise of a serial liar to continue talks on an agreement that, because it’s not a treaty, will exist wholly at the whim of the capricious authoritarian in the White House.”
“In exchange for so grovelingly ceding our sovereignty, Mr. Carney got the promise of a serial liar to continue talks on an agreement that, because it’s not a treaty, will exist wholly at the whim of the capricious authoritarian in the White House” - Blayne Haggart is a professor of political science at Brock University
The International Criminal Court believes war crimes and crimes against humanity are continuing to take place in Sudan's vast western Darfur region where civil war has raged for more than two years, the tribunal's deputy prosecutor said Thursday. Nazhat Shameem Khan told the U.N. Security Council that the depth of suffering and the humanitarian crisis in Darfur "has reached an intolerable state," with famine escalating and hospitals, humanitarian convoys and other civilian infrastructure being targeted. "People are being deprived of water and food," she said. "Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized. Abductions for ransom or to bolster the ranks of armed groups have become common practice….And yet we should not be under any illusion," Shameem Khan warned the U.N.'s most powerful body. "Things can still get worse." Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions, including Darfur. Some 40,000 people have been killed and nearly 13 million displaced, including to other countries, according to U.N. agencies. - AP
At least 15 people, including 10 children and two women, were killed and dozens injured by an Israeli strike while lined up outside a health clinic Thursday morning, according to Project HOPE, the organization that runs the clinic. Among those killed were children as young as 1 and 4. Video verified by NBC News of the immediate aftermath of the strike in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, showed children slumped into pools of blood and women cradling limp toddlers. The area was shrouded in smoke and dust. Many people were screaming. “Project HOPE’s health clinics are a place of refuge in Gaza where people bring their small children, women access pregnancy and postpartum care, people receive treatment for malnutrition, and more,” Rabih Torbay, the organization's president, said in a statement. “Yet, this morning, innocent families were mercilessly attacked as they stood in line waiting for the doors to open.” Asked for comment by NBC News, the Israel Defense Forces said that the strike targeted a member of Hamas, and that it “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals.” In one scene captured on video, several bloodied children, including a girl in a pale pink princess dress, along with her twin brother, were piled onto a donkey cart to be taken to Al-Aqsa Hospital - NBC
In this CNN interview with Isa Soares Tonight, I delivered a blunt message: it’s time for Donald Trump to use his leverage to choke off the flow of money and resources fuelling Vladimir Putin’s war machine. I called out countries—including U.S. allies—helping Russia evade sanctions and urged Trump to tighten the noose around the Kremlin. When asked if Trump would really act, I responded: Trump’s ego and ambition for the Nobel Peace Prize may be the key motivators.
The U.S. State Department is firing more than 1,300 employees on Friday in line with a dramatic reorganization plan from the Trump administration that critics say will damage America’s global leadership and efforts to counter threats abroad. The department has begun sending layoff notices to 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers with domestic assignments in the United States, according to a senior department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters before individual notices were emailed to affected employees. Foreign service officers affected will be placed immediately on administrative leave for 120 days, after which they will formally lose their jobs, according to an internal notice obtained by The Associated Press. For most civil servants, the separation period is 60 days, it said. The American Academy of Diplomacy, an association that includes hundreds of former senior diplomats, said the State Department layoffs “will seriously undermine the ability of our government to understand, explain, and respond to a complex and increasingly contested world.” - AP
The head of the French army, General Thierry Burkhard, said that France was Russia’s “main enemy in Europe” as gave a rare press conference in Paris on Friday in a context of what the Élysée Palace of described as "worsening international threats". Burkhard said Russia saw Paris as a primary adversary largely due to French support for Ukraine since the full-scale Russian invasion. “It was [Vladimir] Putin who said” this, the general added. While France is not currently under threat of a direct attack on its territory by Russia, Putin has “many other options” for waging hybrid warfare, including disinformation, cyberattacks and espionage, Burkhard said. All are activities that Russia – as a “powerful danger” – is currently pursuing, he added, via methods such as sabotage of undersea infrastructure, disinformation campaigns in France and acts of espionage. The general said that France must now defend itself against Russia on multiple fronts - France 24
A Fragile Calm Shattered in Odesa
A rare period of quiet in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa was violently broken on Friday morning, as multiple drones slammed into civilian areas—including a beloved horse stable that ferried the animals throughout the city so that children could pet and ride them.
The attacks, which followed several air raid sirens throughout the day, left a scene of devastation and grief. Damage was recorded in 63 flats in 21 buildings, the state-linked news service, Suspilne, reported.
At the stable, one horse was killed, another severely injured.
As I posted on Twitter, this was yet another brutal reminder—if one was even needed—that no place in Ukraine is truly safe, and no living creature is immune from Russia’s war of aggression. Not civilians. Not animals. Not even moments of peace.
📽️ Watch my on-the-ground video below for more.
The journals…
