Canada’s Carney in Europe. Mark Carney yesterday made his first foreign trip as Canada’s leader to Paris and London—rather than to Washington, as is tradition. The visit came amid trade tensions with the United States and suggestions by Trump that Canada could become the fifty-first U.S. state. Ottawa is determined “to maintain the most positive possible relations with the United States,” Carney said, but also said that Trump’s talk of annexing Canada would “have to stop” before he would sit down for a meeting. Carney pushed back against a question about Washington potentially using force for annexation, saying that the countries are NATO allies.
Rebels pull out of DRC peace talks. M23 rebels will no longer participate in peace talks that were due to start today after the European Union (EU) announced sanctions on several group members yesterday, an M23 spokesperson said, also citing alleged military offensives by the Congolese government. The EU sanctioned some Rwandan security forces as well, saying they were fueling the conflict. Rwanda responded by severing ties with Belgium, which had backed the sanctions.
Trump warns Iran over Houthis. Following U.S. strikes on the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, Trump wrote on social media yesterday that any retaliation will be viewed “as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership” of Iran. He added that Tehran would be “held responsible” with “dire” consequences. Iran’s UN ambassador called Trump’s statements “reckless and provocative” in a letter to the UN Security Council. A U.S. spy drone pulled back from a position near Iranian airspace after an encounter with Iranian fighter jets and reconnaissance drones, Iran’s Nournews reported yesterday.
Telegram CEO leaves France amid probe. Pavel Durov, the messaging app’s founder, was allowed to leave France on relaxed bail while charges against him continue to move forward in French court. French prosecutors accuse Telegram of refusing to cooperate with anti-crime investigators, which Durov denies. After his arrest, Telegram increased its cooperation with law enforcement. Born in Russia, Durov has French and Emirati citizenship and lives in Dubai.
Syria-Lebanon truce. The two countries agreed to a cease-fire last night after two days of deadly border clashes. Syria’s interim government accused Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah of abducting and killing three Syrian soldiers on Saturday. Amid subsequent fighting, seven Lebanese people were killed, Lebanon’s health ministry said. The truce agreement calls for “enhanced coordination and cooperation between the two sides,” Syria’s defense ministry said.
Mexico’s hunt for the disappeared. President Claudia Sheinbaum pledged policies to strengthen the search for missing people in Mexico after a mass grave was discovered last week. More than 120,000 people have been forcibly disappeared in the country since the start of official records in 1962. Many of the cases are thought to be linked to drug violence. Authorities have not provided an estimate of how many bodies were in the mass grave, but Sheinbaum said they would issue an update on the probe on Wednesday.
Trump mulls visit by Xi. Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Washington in the “not-too-distant future,” Trump said yesterday. The White House and the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not comment on his statement. While the United States and China have traded new rounds of tariffs in recent weeks, the two countries have held back from the kind of intense engagement that Canadian and Mexican officials have favored.
OECD estimates on trade war. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) yesterday became the latest organization to estimate the financial cost of the current global trade escalation. It calculated that global growth will slow to 3 percent by 2026, 0.3 percent lower than its previous forecast just three months ago. Canada and Mexico were the two countries with the largest downgrade in growth projections since December, with Mexico’s economy projected to shrink in 2025. The OECD also projected that U.S. growth would fall to 1.6 percent in 2026—its lowest level since 2011, barring the COVID-19 pandemic.
