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Global stock markets mostly fell Wednesday after US President Donald Trump broadened his tariff threats, stoking wider trade war fears.Trump warned the previous day that he would impose tariffs “in the neighbourhood of 25 percent” on auto imports and a similar amount or higher on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.”Understandably this has helped drive European carmakers lower, with the likes of Mercedes-Benz, BMW and VW losing ground,” said Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets. European markets all dropped, with London hit by higher-than-expected inflation figures.Tariff threats also knocked auto firms and semiconductor makers in Tokyo, dragging the index into the red.Shares in US carmaker GM fell but Ford managed a small gain.Trump’s comments widened his trade war, having earlier pledged 25 percent levies on steel and aluminium.While some observers have said that the threats are likely being used as a negotiating tool, it has nonetheless revived worries about the impact on the global economy.”It remains to be seen which of the floated tariffs will be implemented but there are now many tariff spinning plates in play,” said Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid.Wall Street’s main three indices slid lower, with the S&P 500 hanging just below the all-time high that it set at the close of trading on Tuesday.Concerns that share valuations may be too high may also be part of the reason for the retreat in equities along with a rise in Treasury yields, noted Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare. China — a key target in Trump’s tariffs policy — told the World Trade Organization on Tuesday that the United States risked triggering inflation, market distortions and even a global recession.The tariff threats added to market uncertainty since Europe and Kyiv were excluded from the first high-level talks between the US and Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine.Frankfurt’s DAX 40 index set another record high during morning trading, but broke a two-week winning streak as investors have looked forward to a business-friendly government following Sunday’s election. “The uncertainty surrounding the election is likely to negatively impact short-term price developments,” said CMC Markets analyst Konstantin Oldenburger.Asian markets struggled for direction, with Hong Kong was dragged lower by tech firms after Chinese internet giant Baidu’s fourth-quarter earnings saw a fall in revenue and a warning of near-term pressures.The sector has helped the Hang Seng Index surge around 15 percent since the turn of the year, spurred by the emergence of Chinese startup DeepSeek’s new chatbot that has upended the AI universe.President Xi Jinping’s meeting with China’s top business leaders this week — including Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma — added to the optimism amid hopes of a fresh boost for the private sector.The Shanghai stock market rose while Taipei was weighed by a sell-off in chip giant TSMC.In other company news, Swiss mining and commodity trading giant Glencore dropped more than six percent on London’s FTSE 100 after it reported a net loss for 2024.Shares in Dutch medical device maker Philips dropped more than 11 percent on the Amsterdam stock exchange after it posted worse-than-expected losses. – Key figures around 1630 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 44,428.59 pointsNew York – S&P 500: DOWN less than 0.1 percent at 6,126.71New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 20,016.10London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.6 percent at 8,712.53 (close)Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 1.2 percent at 8,110.54 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 1.8 percent at 22,433.63 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.3 percent at 39,164.61 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.1 percent at 22,944.24 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.8 percent at 3,351.54 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0407 from $1.0445 on TuesdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2572 from $1.2608Dollar/yen: DOWN at 151.61 from 152.09 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 82.78 pence from 82.85 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.9 percent at $72.47 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.7 percent at $76.40 per barrelburs-rl/cw

Members of Donald Trump’s Justice Department were set to appear Wednesday before a federal judge to explain their extraordinary decision to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, a move that triggered multiple protest resignations.US District Judge Dale Ho, who is presiding over the case, ordered the Washington prosecutors to attend a 2:00 pm (1900 GMT) hearing in Manhattan to explain the reasons for dismissing the charges just months before the embattled mayor of America’s largest city was slated to go to trial.In asking last week for the case against Adams to be dropped, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove said the prosecution was restricting the Democratic mayor’s “ability to devote full attention and resources to illegal immigration and violent crime.”The remarkable request prompted allegations that it was a quid pro quo in exchange for Adams agreeing to enforce Republican President Trump’s immigration crackdown — a claim the mayor denies.”I want to be crystal clear with New Yorkers: I never offered — nor did anyone offer on my behalf — any trade of my authority as your mayor for an end to my case,” he said.Adams, who pleaded not guilty in September to charges of fraud and bribery, is facing growing pressure to resign, as the suggestion that he is beholden to the Trump administration triggers widespread condemnation.On Monday, the head of New York’s city council called on the mayor — who is up for reelection in November, with the competitive Democratic primary in June — to step down, and four deputy mayors announced that they were resigning.Governor Kathy Hochul, who has the power to remove Adams from office, met with “key leaders” on Tuesday to discuss what she called a “path forward with the goal of ensuring stability for the City of New York.”And city comptroller Brad Lander — who is also running for mayor — has threatened to invoke an untested, little-known lever of the City Charter allowing for convening an “inability committee” to remove a mayor unfit to lead the city.Whether he leaves office early or not, the ruckus appears to be dimming Adams’s chances at reelection, as polling increasingly suggests New Yorkers are fed up with him.- ‘Fool’ or a ‘coward’ -Danielle Sassoon, a Trump appointee and acting US attorney in Manhattan, and assistant US attorney Hagan Scotten who brought the case against Adams, resigned last week along with several Justice Department officials in Washington to protest the order to dismiss the charges.Scotten, the lead prosecutor, in a blistering letter to Bove, said only a “fool” or a “coward” would comply with the Justice Department demand to drop the case.In ordering Wednesday’s hearing, Judge Ho, citing previous rulings, noted that the government has “broad discretion” in deciding which cases to prosecute.But the court, in considering a request for dismissal, “must have sufficient factual information supporting the recommendation.”The Justice Department, which Trump has accused of unjustly prosecuting him, has been the target of a sweeping shakeup since the Republican took office and a number of high-ranking officials have been fired, demoted or reassigned.More than 800 former federal prosecutors released an open letter Monday condemning recent actions by Trump’s Justice Department that are not based on “the facts and the law” but appear intended “to serve solely political purposes.”Among those who signed the letter was Jack Smith, the former special counsel who brought two now-abandoned criminal cases against Trump — for conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden and for mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House.

Pope Francis is alert and still making jokes despite having double pneumonia, Italy’s prime minister said Wednesday after visiting the 88-year-old pontiff in hospital.Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital with bronchitis last Friday, but the Holy See revealed on Tuesday that he had developed pneumonia in both of his lungs.The development caused widespread alarm over the pope’s health, after a series of issues in recent years, from colon and hernia surgery to problems walking.”I was very happy to find him alert and responsive. We joked as always. He hasn’t lost his proverbial sense of humour,” Giorgia Meloni said in a statement after her visit.Amid widespread speculation online, including reports of his death, the Vatican issued an early bulletin Wednesday saying he had spent a “peaceful night” in the hospital’s papal suite and had breakfast.”The pope is breathing on his own. His heart is holding up very well,” a source in the Vatican added.Francis has been speaking to friends by telephone, has been out of bed and sitting in a chair, and working on and off, the source said.- ‘Complex picture’ -The Argentine pope, who has been head of the Catholic Church since 2013, keeps a busy schedule despite his age and ailments, and this year is busy with celebrations of the holy Jubilee year.But he had struggled to read his homilies in the days before his hospital admission.After an initial diagnosis of bronchitis, the Holy See revealed on Tuesday evening that “the laboratory tests, chest X-ray, and the Holy Father’s clinical condition continue to present a complex picture”.A “polymicrobial infection” which has come on top of “bronchiectasis and asthmatic bronchitis, and which required the use of cortisone antibiotic therapy, makes therapeutic treatment more complex”, the Vatican said.”The follow-up chest CT scan which the Holy Father underwent this afternoon… demonstrated the onset of bilateral pneumonia, which required additional drug therapy,” it added.Bronchiectasis is when the bronchi, or air passages, thicken due to infection or another condition.The pontiff had part of his right lung cut away when he was 21, after developing pleurisy that almost killed him.The Vatican has cancelled a papal audience on Saturday and said the pope would not attend a mass on Sunday, although it has yet to announce plans for his weekly Angelus prayer, which is held on Sunday at midday.- ‘Vital energy’ -Cardinal Baldassare Reina, vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, called on all parishes in the Italian capital to pray for the pope’s recovery.Candles, some with pictures of the pope on them, have been set at the bottom of a statue of Pope John Paul II outside the Gemelli hospital, where pilgrims have been coming to pray.”I hope he recovers as soon as possible because this is the Jubilee year and he has so much to do for young people, for everyone, it’s very sad,” said Annamaria Santoro, an Italian woman whose son was in the same hospital.The Vatican published drawings made by children in the hospital for Francis, as well as letters from parents asking him to pray for their sick offspring.Jesuit theologian Antonio Spadaro, who is close to Francis, told Italy’s Corriere della Sera daily the pope could be in hospital for two to three weeks.”It is clear that the situation is delicate, but I have not perceived any form of alarmism,” he said.The pope “has an extraordinary vital energy. He is not a person who lets himself go, he is not a resigned man. And that is a very positive element, we have seen that in the past”, he said.The pope has left open the option of resigning were he to become unable to carry out his duties.But in a memoir last year Francis said it was just a “distant possibility” that would be justified only in the event of “a serious physical impediment”.

US President Donald Trump expanded his offensive against trading partners on Tuesday, threatening 25 percent tariffs on imported cars, and similar or higher duties on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.Trump has announced a broad range of levies on some of the biggest US trading partners since taking office in January, arguing that they will help tackle unfair practices — and in some cases using the threats to influence policy.He recently pledged 10 percent duties on all goods coming from China, and 25 on steel and aluminum imports.At his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, he told reporters that tariffs on the automobile industry will “be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” with specifics to come around April 2.Asked about threatened tariffs on pharmaceuticals and chips, Trump said: “It’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll go very substantially higher over (the) course of a year.”He added he wanted to give affected companies time to bring their operations to the United States, saying that he had been contacted by major firms that “want to come back”. The president also said that Washington’s trading partners could avoid being taxed by investing in factories in the United States. “We want to give them time to come in,” he said. “When they come into the United States and they have their plant or factory here, there is no tariff. So we want to give them a little bit of a chance.”Experts have warned it is often Americans who end up paying the cost of tariffs on imports, rather than foreign exporters.About 50 percent of the cars sold in the United States are manufactured within the country. Among imports, about half come from Mexico and Canada, with Japan, South Korea and Germany, also major suppliers.- Asia cautious -Trump’s tariffs threats have been cautiously received in Asia, home to some of the main US suppliers of the potentially affected industries. Yoshimasa Hayashi, Tokyo’s top government spokesman, told reporters “with regard to automobile tariffs, we have raised the issue with the US government, taking into account the importance of Japan’s auto industry.”Japan will first take appropriate action while carefully examining the specific details of the measures,” he added.Taiwan, a global powerhouse in semiconductor production that Trump has accused of stealing the US chip industry, also remained cautious.”The scope of products subject to tariffs has not yet been clarified. We will continue to monitor the direction of US policies and assist Taiwan’s industries,” Taipei’s economic ministry said in a statement.The island’s government had previously said it would boost investment in the United States as it sought to head off Trump’s duties.Meanwhile a spokesperson for Malaysia’s semiconductor industry, which accounts for around 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, told AFP on Wednesday the United States would be “slapping themselves” with the new tariffs.Malaysia has long been a chip manufacturing hub for many US semiconductor companies.”If we (Malaysia) ship these products back to the US, it will only increase the cost of components back to the US,” Malaysia Semiconductor Industry Association president Datuk Seri Wong Siew Hai said.- EU visit -Trump said he was pleased to see the EU “reduce their tariffs on cars to the level we have.””The EU had 10 percent tax on cars and now they have a 2.5 percent tax, which is the exact same as us… If everybody would do that, then we’d all be on the same playing field,” he said.”The EU has been very unfair to us. We have a trade deficit of $350 billion, they don’t buy our cars, they don’t take our farm products, they don’t take almost anything… and we’ll have to straighten that out,” he added.The US trade deficit in goods with the EU was over $235 billion in 2024, according to Commerce Department data. On the other hand, the United States had a trade surplus of $109 billion with the EU in services in 2023, the last year with consolidated data, according to European Commission data. The European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, Maros Sefcovic, arrived in Washington on Tuesday and will meet with Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative nominee Jamieson Greer.

Four British women who have accused notorious influencer Andrew Tate of rape said Wednesday they were “concerned” by reports the US government was petitioning Romania to ease his travel restrictions.American and British dual-citizen Tate faces several charges in Romania including trafficking of and sexual relations with minors, as well as money laundering and organising a criminal group, all of which he denies.According to the Financial Times, US President Donald Trump’s administration brought up his case with Romanian authorities last week, calling for Bucharest to return the passports of both Tate and his brother Tristan.Romanian prosecutors allege that former kickboxer Tate, 38, his brother, 36, and two women set up a criminal organisation in early 2021 in Romania and in Britain, and sexually exploited several victims. The brothers say they are innocent.The four women, who are bringing a civil case against Tate at the High Court in the UK accusing him of rape and coercive control between 2013 and 2016, urged Washington not to get involved.”We hope that the Romanian and the UK authorities will be left alone to do their jobs,” the alleged victims said in a statement, saying any relaxation of the travel restrictions would allow the brothers to flee justice.Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said Tuesday the United States has “not made any requests” over the brothers’ “legal situation”.But Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu confirmed Trump’s envoy Richard Grenell raised Tate’s case with him at the Munich Security Conference last week, Romanian media reported. The victims’ UK lawyer, Matthew Jury, said he found “the development, if true, equally bizarre and outrageous”.”It would be embarrassing for the UK government and a complete abdication of its responsibility to the victims if it stands by and lets this continue,” said Jury, adding the women were “absolutely distraught”.Andrew Tate moved to Romania years ago after first starting a webcam business in the UK.He lept to fame in 2016 when he first appeared on the UK’s “Big Brother” reality television show, but was removed after a video emerged showing him attacking a woman.He then turned to social media platforms to promote his often misogynistic and divisive views on how to be successful.A Romanian court has granted a British request to extradite the Tates, but only after legal proceedings in Romania have concluded.Robert Jenrick, the UK’s shadow foreign secretary, Tuesday said the Tate brothers “must face our justice system”.

US President Donald Trump painted Elon Musk as his enforcer-in-chief Tuesday, hailing the tech billionaire’s zeal in implementing the blizzard of executive orders the president has issued since returning to office.In a joint interview broadcast on Fox News, the two men spent substantial time singing the other’s praises and dismissing concerns that Trump is overstepping his executive powers.Trump has signed scores of executive directives in the past three weeks, many of which have been challenged in the courts as potentially unconstitutional. Billionaire Musk, who was Trump’s top donor during his 2024 presidential campaign, was tasked with leading the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with the declared goal of rooting out “waste, fraud and abuse” in federal spending. “One of the biggest functions of the DOGE team is just making sure that the presidential executive orders are actually carried out,” Musk told Fox News.In the interview, Trump insisted his policies — including a wholesale onslaught on federal institutions — should be implemented without delay and said Musk was instrumental in pushing them forward.”You write an executive order and you think it’s done, you send it out, it doesn’t get done. It doesn’t get implemented,” Trump said.He added that Musk and the DOGE team have now become an enforcement mechanism within the federal bureaucracy to enact his administration’s agenda without anyone standing in their way — or else risk losing their jobs.”And some guy that maybe didn’t want to do it, all of a sudden, he’s signing it,” Trump said.- ‘The will of the people’ -The Fox interview was broadcast just hours after Trump signed a sweeping executive order that sought to extend and consolidate direct White House control over federal regulatory agencies. The order, which is likely to face legal challenges, would force agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to submit regulatory proposals to the White House for review. “For the Federal Government to be truly accountable to the American people, officials who wield vast executive power must be supervised and controlled by the people’s elected President,” the executive order states.Musk found humor in his role as Trump’s executor, describing himself as a “technologist” and donning a T-shirt that read “Tech Support” for the interview. Musk waved off criticism that he was acting as if he were the US president, saying none of Trump’s cabinet members were elected and that he views his role as facilitating Trump’s agenda.”The president is the elected representative of the people, so it’s representing the will of the people,” Musk explained.”And if the bureaucracy is fighting the will of the people and preventing the president from implementing what the people want, then what we live in is a bureaucracy and not a democracy.” – President Elon? -Musk’s prominent role in the Trump administration has led to public questioning of who is really in charge at the White House, though the Republican leader was quick to dismiss rumors of bad blood between the two.”Actually, Elon called me,” Trump said. “He said, ‘You know, they’re trying to drive us apart.’ I said, ‘Absolutely.'”But Trump expressed confidence that Americans will not be fooled by alleged efforts to strain ties between him and Musk.”I used to think they were good at it,” Trump said, referring to the media. “They’re actually bad at it, because if they were good at it, I’d never be president.””The people are smart,” he went on. “They get it.”

Rapper A$AP Rocky was found not guilty of two counts of felony assault at the conclusion of a trial in Los Angeles on Tuesday.The musician, who has two children with singer Rihanna, had faced more than two decades in prison if he had been convicted of the alleged attack on a former friend in Hollywood in 2021.There was commotion in the courtroom as the jury’s verdict was read out, with the Grammy-nominated hip hop star, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, hugging people in relief as he was declared not guilty.During the weeks-long trial, prosecutors said Mayers had shot a nine-millimeter semi-automatic weapon during a confrontation with Terell Ephron, also known as A$AP Relli, on November 6, 2021, in the heart of Hollywood, grazing Ephron’s hand.Mayers, 36, had insisted he had been carrying only a harmless prop gun.The two had previously been friends, and had both been part of A$AP, a rap collective from New York, but had fallen out because other members of the group felt Mayers’ commercial success had made him arrogant.Ephron told the jury he had been lured to a parking garage for an encounter that was partially caught on grainy surveillance video.He claimed that after the two exchanged words, Mayers pulled a gun from his waistband, put it toward Relli’s stomach and said, “I’ll kill you right now.”Ephron said two bullets were fired, with one of them grazing his knuckles.Defending attorney Joe Tacopina said the weapon was “absolutely nothing more than a prop gun… a starter gun, a blank gun, a fake gun. It’s used in pop movies and music videos.”Describing Ephron as “a criminal and a perjurer,” Tacopina said seven police officers searched the scene of the shooting hours later but found neither shell casings nor a weapon. Yet, after officers left, Ephron returned to the scene and discovered a pair of nine-millimeter shell casings he said he had picked up from the street where he was shot at, Tacopina said.Neither side was able to produce the gun they said had been used on the night.- ‘Extortion’ -Tacopina said the whole story of a shooting had been manufactured to extort money from his wealthy and successful client.Speaking after the verdict, Tacopina told reporters the jury had seen through the “mirage of a case.””I’ve always said this was an extortion. The extortion played out live in court,” he said.”The district attorney should look long and hard at prosecuting Terell Ephron.”Tacopina paid tribute to Mayers and Rihanna, whom he described as “the greatest people.”There was no immediate reaction from either Mayers or Rihanna, who had been in court frequently during the trial. A$AP Rocky shot to fame in the first half of the last decade with two mega-selling albums: “Long. Live. A$AP” and “At. Long. Last. A$AP.” In 2019, he was given a suspended prison sentence in Sweden after a fight, in an affair that caused diplomatic tensions between Stockholm and Washington, pushing then-president Donald Trump to intervene.

An asteroid that could level a city now has a 3.1-percent chance of striking Earth in 2032, according to NASA data released Tuesday — making it the most threatening space rock ever recorded by modern forecasting. Despite the rising odds, experts say there is no need for alarm. The global astronomical community is closely monitoring the situation and the James Webb Space Telescope is set to fix its gaze on the object, known as 2024 YR4, next month.”I’m not panicking,” Bruce Betts, chief scientist for the nonprofit Planetary Society told AFP. “Naturally when you see the percentages go up, it doesn’t make you feel warm and fuzzy and good,” he added, but explained that as astronomers gather more data, the probability will likely edge up before rapidly dropping to zero.2024 YR4 was first detected on December 27 last year by the El Sauce Observatory in Chile.Astronomers estimate its size to be between 130 and 300 feet (40–90 meters) wide, based on its brightness. Analysis of its light signatures suggests it has a fairly typical composition, rather than being a rare metal-rich asteroid.The International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN), a worldwide planetary defense collaboration, issued a warning memo on January 29 after the impact probability had crossed one percent. Since then, the figure has fluctuated but continues to trend upward.NASA’s latest calculations estimate the impact probability at 3.1 percent, with a potential Earth impact date of December 22, 2032.That translates to odds of one in 32 — roughly the same as correctly guessing the outcome of five consecutive coin tosses.The last time an asteroid of greater than 30 meters in size posed such a significant risk was Apophis in 2004, when it briefly had a 2.7 percent chance of striking Earth in 2029 — a possibility later ruled out by additional observations.Surpassing that threshold is “historic,” said Richard Moissl, head of the European Space Agency’s planetary defense office, which puts the risk slightly lower at 2.8 percent.- Webb observations in March -“It’s a very, very rare event,” he told AFP, but added: “This is not a crisis at this point in time. This is not the dinosaur killer. This is not the planet killer. This is at most dangerous for a city.”Data from the Webb telescope — the most powerful space observatory — will be key in better understanding its trajectory, said the Planetary Society’s Betts.”Webb is able to see things that are very, very dim,” he said — which is key because the asteroid’s orbit is currently taking it out towards Jupiter, and its next close approach will not be until 2028.If the risk rises over 10 percent, IAWN would issue a formal warning, leading to a “recommendation for all UN members who have territories in potentially threatened areas to start terrestrial preparedness,” explained Moissl.Unlike the six-mile-wide (10-kilometer-wide) asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, 2024 YR4 is classified as a “city killer” — not a global catastrophe, but still capable of causing significant destruction.Its potential devastation comes less from its size and more from its velocity, which could be nearly 40,000 miles per hour if it hits.If it enters Earth’s atmosphere, the most likely scenario is an airburst, meaning it would explode midair with a force of approximately eight megatons of TNT — more than 500 times the power of the Hiroshima bomb.But an impact crater cannot be ruled out if the size is closer to the higher end of estimates, said Betts.The potential impact corridor spans the eastern Pacific, northern South America, the Atlantic, Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and South Asia — though Moissl emphasized it is far too early for people to consider drastic decisions like relocation.The good news: there’s ample time to act. NASA’s 2022 DART mission proved that spacecraft can successfully alter an asteroid’s path, and scientists have theorized other methods, such as using lasers to create thrust by vaporizing part of the surface, pulling it off course with a spacecraft’s gravity, or even using nuclear explosions as a last resort.

Donald Trump’s threats of import tariffs have sent shockwaves through Canada, forcing businesses to question their dependence on the United States — a reassessment that is creating headaches for many sectors.”It was an absolute shock,” Matthew Holmes, vice president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, told AFP. “There’s an incredible anxiety that comes from the unpredictability and the uncertainty.””It got everybody talking in Canada about (how) we can’t trust this partnership anymore,” he added.Earlier this month US President Trump announced 25 percent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports, then granted a 30-day reprieve.The pause, however, has done little to reassure Canadian businesses that send more than 75 percent of Canada’s exports to the United States, and who worry that a trade war would lead to a recession and hundreds of thousands of job losses.Canada must prepare for the tariffs by removing barriers to trade between provinces and diversify its export markets, Holmes said. “We need to be ready and have the infrastructure and relationships and start building those out now.”Otherwise, he said, Canadian businesses will be “really, really screwed.”- ‘No quick fix’ -According to a recent survey, nine out of 10 Canadians agree on the need to lessen Canada’s trade reliance on the United States.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently hosted a summit in Toronto that brought business leaders together to discuss ways of growing the Canadian economy, including removing internal trade barriers, diversifying export markets and boosting productivity.Provincial governments and business leaders, he told delegates, must “step up and push hard” to make Canada more competitive, while acknowledging that it has been easy to just sell to the country’s southern neighbor.But that may be easier said than done, according to Robert Gillezeau, an economics professor at the University of Toronto.”The two economies are extremely interconnected with over a trillion dollars in trade between the two countries,” he told AFP, pointing to their close proximity and “longstanding good relations” for how ties developed.”For some sectors, it’ll be a little bit easier” to disentangle from the United States, Gillezeau said.For others, “it’s going to be a mess,” he added. “You can’t just snap your fingers and take that integrated industry and have it work with someone else or have it become fully domestic… There is no quick fix.” The food industry is a case in point.”We’ve frozen our purchases of some American goods and we’re looking elsewhere for alternatives,” explains Mike Bono of Can-Am Food Services.But it is not possible for the company — which is one of the largest distributors of fruits and vegetables in Quebec and Ontario with nearly 3,000 customers including restaurants and hotels — to find substitutes for all of its American offerings.- Interprovincial trade barriers -The removal of interprovincial trade barriers was flagged in a report as a way to boost Canada’s economy as far back as 1940.Ottawa led efforts to dismantle them in 2017 but hundreds of exceptions were kept in an agreement signed by the provinces.Removing these barriers would improve productivity and increase Canadian GDP, but “would take a level of effort and coordination that we rarely see in the federation,” Gillezeau said.Internal Trade Minister Anita Anand, who wants to see these barriers abolished as soon as possible, believes that “in the face of Donald Trump’s repeated threats, we must choose Canada.”She explained that removing the barriers — such as alcohol sales restrictions, different labelling rules, varying professional licensing certifications, and independent dairy marketing boards in each province — could lower prices by 15 percent, boost productivity and inject up to Can$200 billion into the economy.Some are also calling for east-west oil and gas pipeline projects to be revived in order to lessen dependency on US infrastructure. Oil from western Alberta, for example, is currently shipped via a pipeline that dips into the United States before emerging in Ontario.

A US judge on Tuesday declined a request to temporarily block Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from firing federal employees and accessing agency data, a victory for President Donald Trump in his bid to shrink the government workforce.Fourteen Democratic-ruled states had filed suit last week contesting Musk’s legal authority but District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied their emergency request to pause his actions.”Plaintiffs have not carried their burden of showing that they will suffer imminent, irreparable harm absent a temporary restraining order,” Chutkan said.DOGE is a free-ranging entity run by Musk, the world’s richest person and Trump’s biggest donor. The billionaire has taken an assertive role in the new administration, with his agency aiming to cut hundreds of billions of dollars in government spending.His plans have effectively shuttered some federal agencies, sent thousands of staff members home and sparked legal battles across the country.In their suit, the 14 states claimed that Musk and DOGE lacked statutory authority for their actions because he had not been formally nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.”(Musk) exercises virtually unchecked power across the Executive Branch, making decisions about expenditures, contracts, government property, regulations, and the very existence of federal agencies,” they said.In addition, Musk and DOGE have gained access to “sensitive data, information, systems, and technological and financial infrastructure across the federal government,” they added.The 14 states had sought to block DOGE from accessing the data systems of the Office of Personnel Management and the Departments of Education, Labor, Health and Human Services, Energy, Transportation and Commerce, and from terminating any of their employees.- ‘Considerable uncertainty’ -Chutkan, in her ruling, said “the court is aware that DOGE’s unpredictable actions have resulted in considerable uncertainty and confusion for Plaintiffs and many of their agencies and residents.”But the ‘possibility’ that Defendants may take actions that irreparably harm Plaintiffs ‘is not enough,'” she said.Musk’s cost-cutting spree has been met with legal pushback on a number of fronts and a mixed bag of rulings.A different federal judge last week lifted a freeze he had temporarily imposed on a mass buyout plan offered by the Trump administration to federal workers.In the mass buyout case, labor unions representing federal employees had filed suit to block the scheme masterminded by Musk to slash the size of government by encouraging federal workers to quit.In an email titled “Fork in the Road,” the more than two million US government employees were given an offer to leave with eight months’ pay or risk being fired in future culls.According to the White House, more than 75,000 federal employees signed on to the buyout offer from the Office of Personnel Management.Trump’s executive actions have been challenged in dozens of court cases and the White House has accused “judges in liberal districts” of “abusing their power” to block the president’s moves.The decisions have come from judges nominated by both Republican and Democratic presidents, including Trump himself during his first term.Chutkan, an appointee of Democratic former president Barack Obama, presided over the now-abandoned case against Trump on charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.