Free trade is great, except American trade deals are not “free” trade.
One of the better podcasts out there is Patrick Bet David’s Valuetainment show, which I pick up on YouTube a good bit. And, in a segment on Tuesday, Bet David and his guests spent some time talking about the “trade war” with Canada and Mexico that Donald Trump touched off with his demands for cooperation in fighting the scourge of Chinese fentanyl which has poisoned some quarter of a million Americans to death.
Thieves in the US state of Pennsylvania have stolen more than 100,000 eggs – worth $40,000 (£32,000) – from a single grocer.
The heist targeted the back of a lorry at Pete & Gerry’s Organics in Greencastle on 1 February, police say.
It comes as the price of eggs has risen amid a bird flu epidemic, making them an unexpectedly costly menu option. The national chain Waffle House has just hiked their egg charge.
Trump’s stance is less about territorial ambitions and more about pushing Europe to take responsibility for key regions threatened by Russian and Chinese expansion.
Denmark is adjusting its strategic position on Greenland as U.S. President Donald Trump intensifies pressure on Europe to bolster its defense capabilities, particularly in the Arctic.
While the possibility of the U.S. taking control of Greenland has dominated headlines in recent weeks, Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen’s response reveals a more profound reality: Trump’s stance is less about territorial ambitions and more about pushing Europe to take responsibility for key regions threatened by Russian and Chinese expansion.
OTTAWA — The clock is ticking.
Canada now has less than 30 days to convince U.S. President Donald Trump not to trigger a trade war that could devastate the Canadian economy.
Key to that effort will be showing progress on $1.5 billion worth of border security measures Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised Trump in an effort to secure a temporary reprieve from U.S. tariffs.
If we want to be economic masters in our own house, then “buying Canadian” to protest U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign to attack our sovereignty through a tariff war, while admirably patriotic, isn’t enough.
Nor is there any instant solution to this ongoing threat posed by an aggressive and often irrational Trump administration that we’re going to have to deal with for the next four years, based on its first two weeks in office alone.
Justin Trudeau woke up Monday morning believing that the Donald Trump tariffs were inevitable.
As the prime minister admitted on Saturday, he had not been able to speak to the U.S. president since the inauguration on Jan. 20 and the threat of tariffs had become reality over the weekend with the signing of an executive order.
Trump’s Gaza plan: bluff or not, one man benefits
As President Trump laid out his plan to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to “countries of interest with humanitarian hearts”, Binyamin Netanyahu sat next to him, smiling wordlessly and nodding along.
Many commentators agreed that the proposal was too audacious to take seriously. But in pledging a US takeover of Gaza, the president handed the Israeli leader a political lifeline.
Netanyahu, in Washington on a week-long diplomatic mission, has faced threats back home from far-right members of his cabinet to quit the coalition underpinning his government if the war ends with Hamas still in control in Gaza.
Meanwhile …
Trump’s Gaza plan will be seen as flying in face of international law
When US President Donald Trump began speaking 10 days ago of Gaza as a demolition site, calling to “clean out that whole thing”, it wasn’t clear how far these were off-the-cuff remarks.
But in the lead up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit, in his Oval Office comments before the meeting, and in the press conference itself, it’s now clear he is profoundly serious about his proposals.
They amount to the most radical upending in the established US position on Israel and the Palestinians in the recent history of the conflict; and will be seen as flying in the face of international law.
The Guardian Squeals! – Trump’s declaration US will ‘take over’ Gaza Strip sparks global condemnation
‘New world order’ or ‘dangerous delusions’? Israeli officials react to Trump’s Gaza plan
Senior Hamas officials call Trump’s proposal for Gazans to relocate from the Gaza Strip “racist” and “a move that could lead to chaos and tension in the Middle East.”
Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Doug Ford has reneged on his vow to tear up a $100 million agreement with Elon Musk’s Starlink after U.S. President Donald Trump paused his tariff threat on Canada for 30 days.
Ford confirmed on Feb. 3 the Starlink agreement with Musk will proceed for the time being and other retaliatory measures planned by Ontario, such as banning U.S. alcohol from LCBO stores, will be put on hold.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has come under scrutiny after tech billionaire Elon Musk chose the agency as the first target in his campaign to reduce ballooning government costs and root out progressive ideology from within the executive branch.
Musk’s decision to first declare war on USAID in his role as head of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency should come as no surprise, given the agency’s long history of wasteful, ideologically driven spending.
Established in 1961 under the Kennedy administration, USAID is meant to oversee humanitarian, development, and security programs, doing so in over 100 foreign countries. As originally conceived, the agency was meant to distribute aid in a way that advances U.S. interests, ideally without antagonizing the local population.
President Trump has declared that the illegal transit into the U.S. of migrants and drugs, chiefly fentanyl, is a national emergency, and he has targeted Mexico, Canada and China with tariffs to force them to halt the flow.
How fentanyl became part of the tariff equation comes down to the production and smuggling of an opioid that has caused the overdose deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
The U.S. has long pressured Mexico, by far the main source of fentanyl, to do more to halt the drug’s production and export, and the money-laundering activities that are vital to the drug trade. Canada entered the picture because of the growing presence of Mexican cartels there.
Uncertainty and turmoil gripped the U.S. Agency for International Development for a second day, as employees locked out of their offices braced for potential cuts to the work force, while Democrats denounced the Trump administration for what they said was an illegal power grab.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who took control of U.S.A.I.D. as its acting administrator on Monday, insisted during a Fox News interview that night that the takeover was “not about getting rid of foreign aid,” and that the goal had been to reform the agency.
“But now we have rank insubordination,” he said, adding that U.S.A.I.D. employees had been “completely uncooperative, so we had no choice but to take dramatic steps to bring this thing under control.”
President Trump is making good on his campaign promise of deporting illegal aliens. So, of course, various self-described Christian leaders are outraged.
Mariann Budde, the Episcopalian “bishop” who reportedly owns a $2 million D.C. mansion, has drawn much attention to herself due to her lecture at the Washington National Cathedral. “I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” Budde said to Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance at the inaugural prayer service, adding that “the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals” but are “good neighbors” and members of religious communities.
Donald Trump is well-advised to pause his unprovoked act of aggression against Canada.
The once “friendly giant of the North” has the means to inflict a serious energy and industrial crisis on America if pushed too far. Ottawa has conspicuously refused to rule this out.
Canada is the world’s fourth biggest producer of crude oil, exporting some 4m barrels a day to the US. It is the fifth biggest producer of natural gas.
I always loved the idea of DOGE, but was a skeptic that anybody could fight the Deep State and win. I expected a few billion in real cuts, some exposure of waste, fraud, and abuse, and a lot of symbolic action.
Boy, was I wrong, and boy, am I happy about it.
The imposition of 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports—now suspended for a month—by President Trump was an outrage, but it is also an opportunity.
It is offensive because the president says the tariffs are a result of inadequate efforts on the part of Canada and Mexico to prevent the entry of undesirables and dangerous narcotics into the United States. As I’ve written elsewhere, Canada is not East Germany and does not construct a wall to keep people in the country. It is well-settled international law and usage that sovereign countries maintain their own borders. Mr. Trump’s complaint is not with us but with his predecessor, who wilfully allowed 10–12 million or even more illegal migrants to cross the southern border, a significant number of them dangerous criminals bringing with them horrifying quantities of fentanyl and other lethal drugs.
