WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden isn’t making any promises about whether he’s willing to alter his controversial tax credit proposal for new electric vehicles.
Biden, meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the Oval Office, says that’s one of the issues the two leaders will talk about.
“I don’t know,” the president said, Trudeau seated to his right, when asked whether he might consider amending the proposal to avoid harming the Canadian auto industry.
President Biden on Wednesday released a statement mourning the more than 100,000 Americans who died last year from drug overdoses — without mentioning China’s leading role exporting fentanyl, which drove the 29 percent annual increase in deaths.
Nearly two-thirds of deaths were caused by fentanyl and related synthetic opioids that can kill a person at extremely low doses. Fentanyl is increasingly added to non-opioid drugs such as cocaine and counterfeit prescriptions.
Federal agents say hackers pretended to be Proud Boys in messages to Republican lawmakers and targeted Democratic voters with threats.
Two Iranians ran a “targeted, coordinated campaign to erode confidence in the integrity of the U.S. electoral system and to sow discord among Americans,” a top Justice Department official said Thursday.
Seyyed Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi, 24, and Sajjad Kashian, 27, were charged in an indictment unsealed on Thursday.
The indictment alleges that the hackers got information off of state voter information websites, pretended to be “Proud Boys volunteers” in sending messages to Republican elected officials and members of Donald Trump’s campaign, and intimidated Democratic voters. They also tried to use stolen credentials to get into an American media company’s system.
Sure this wasn’t Comey?
One early December morning in 2016, Joe Biden got up, inquired into President Barack Obama’s health, and set off for a snowy Ottawa.
The lame duck vice-president was feted at a ritzy state dinner in the capital, where he called on Justin Trudeau to be a defender of the international “rules of the road” during the period of deep uncertainty he predicted would follow Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 45th president of the United States.
There may be less drama in this relationship since Mr Biden took office but it hasn’t been smooth sailing and there are rough seas on the horizon.
One observer has said what was once a strategic partnership has become a “largely transactional” relationship.
A big bone of contention is Mr Biden’s embrace of “Buy American” which has become central to his trade agenda.
Critics argue such protectionist policies would increase the costs of goods to consumers and potentially shut out Canadian companies from lucrative US contracts. Alarm bells are ringing “a little louder right now for me”, Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, told the BBC.
I don’t think Biden is driving the electric bus on trade issues, likely not on any issue for that matter. His handlers are and they need to please Big Labour.
Last week, a poll by Suffolk University revealed that just 28 percent of American voters approve of the job Vice President Harris is doing. That result is shocking . . . ly high.
That America’s voters disdain Harris as much as they obviously do gives me an extraordinary amount of hope for our future. In December of 2019, I celebrated Harris’s departure from the presidential primary with a “good riddance” that turned out to be woefully premature: “May Harris’s failed attempt,” I hoped, serve to “destroy her career and sully her reputation for all time.” Alas, the first part did not happen; on the contrary, Harris was springboarded up to within a heartbeat of the most potent office in the land. But the second part? Well, I got that in abundance. We are now ten months into this baleful presidency, and already Harris is the most unpopular vice president in history. And they say Christmas doesn’t come early!
… The prime minister argued that the tax credit plan flies in the face of decades of continental integration of the auto sector, from the signing of the 1965 Auto Pact to the new North American trade deal.
“We are a little bit concerned about the zero-emission vehicle mandates, or rebates,” Trudeau said at the event, moderated by former U.S. ambassador to Canada David Jacobson.
“[That] could have a real negative impact.”
If that doesn’t ensure the bill’s passage nothing will.
Data reveals deaths caused by opioids rose 28.5% compared with the year before, with fentanyl involved in over 60% of the deaths
The estimated number of drug overdose deaths in the US during a 12-month period ending in April rose by 28.5% compared with the same period the year before, according to new provisional data released Wednesday by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.
There were an estimated 100,306 drug overdose deaths across the country during a 12-month period ending in April, compared with 78,056 deaths reported during the same period the year before.
It’s inevitable that when a Canadian prime minister visits Washington, the trip to the White House generates the most attention — a reality of cross-border politics as enduring as the recycling of quotes from JFK and old jokes about mice sleeping with elephants.
That tradition continues this week, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Washington for a two-day visit culminating in meetings Thursday with the presidents of the United States and Mexico.
But this time, one of the most important stories in continental relations might be unfolding elsewhere, a day early, a dozen blocks east of the White House.
Trudeau’s electric car dreams may go up in smoke. I doubt he cares that Line 5 may be shut down.
In response to a question of “which is a bigger threat, the climate or China?” Kirby said, “You’ve heard the secretary talk about the climate as a — a real and existential national security threat . . . And we considered China as the number one pacing challenge for the department. Both are equally important. Both are — are challenges that the secretary wants the senior leadership at the Pentagon to be focused on, as well as many others, too.”
h/t Marvin
Enbridge’s pipeline supplies Eastern Canada with much of its energy supply
With climate pledges and inflation running high on both sides of the border, a recent report made some waves by indicating that the Biden administration was evaluating the impacts of shutting down a major Canadian pipeline passing through the U.S. state of Michigan.
Politico reported in early November that the White House was doing a “deep data dive” to evaluate the impacts on fuel prices in Michigan and surrounding areas if Enbridge’s Line 5 were to be shut down.
It’s the prime minister’s first visit to Washington since Biden was sworn in 10 months ago — a short stretch of time that has left Canada with hard feelings.
Goldy Hyder, president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada, says the end of the Donald Trump era may have lulled the federal government into a false sense of security.
The US has accused Russia of “dangerous and irresponsible behavior” after it conducted an anti-satellite weapons test that forced astronauts on the International Space Station to prepare for evacuation.
Russia fired a missile at one of its own satellites over the weekend, generating more than 1,500 pieces of trackable orbital debris and hundreds of pieces of smaller debris, which the US said “now threaten the interests of all nations”.
Astronauts aboard the ISS floated into special “lifeboat” pods following the release of the debris. The pods can detach from the ISS and fly crews back to Earth.
Facing Some Hard Truths Twenty years after 9/11, is its leadership about anything more than Washington’s revolving door and huge contracts?
When USMC Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller first got news that an explosion had rocked one of the gates at the Kabul airport on Aug. 26, killing 13 U.S. service members and 169 Afghan civilians, he decided to post a YouTube video with his reaction — knowing it could kill his 17-year career and current post as a Marine advanced infantry battalion commander.
“I’m making this video because I have a growing disconnect and contempt for perceived ineptitude at the policy level,” said Scheller, donned in his Marine fatigues and looking a bit shell shocked. “The reason people are so upset right now … they are upset that senior leaders let them down and no one is raising their hands and saying we messed this up.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly made the trip the American capital Friday to press issues surrounding protectionist measures being pushed by the Biden administration.
