Argentina’s Milei strengthened. President Javier Milei’s ruling party will expand its presence in Argentina’s legislature after outpacing the main opposition alliance by a wide margin in yesterday’s midterms. The election was seen as a referendum on Milei’s pro-market economic overhaul. Ahead of the vote, the Trump administration pledged billions of dollars to back Milei’s reforms and support the Argentine peso.
U.S. tariffs on Canada. Trump announced a 10 percent tariff increase on Canadian goods Saturday in response to a recent anti-tariff ad paid for by the province of Ontario. Trump called the ad, which included an old clip of Ronald Reagan denouncing tariffs, a “hostile act.” The announcement came as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney visited Asia to court new trade partners. A senior Canadian official wrote on social media that Canada stands ready to resume trade talks with the United States.
Paramilitary advance in Sudan. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) claimed yesterday they had captured the Sudanese city of El Fasher, one of the last cities under government control in the country’s Darfur region. Fighting in the city has left hundreds of thousands of people trapped, the UN emergency relief coordinator warned, calling for an immediate ceasefire in El Fasher and across Sudan. A militia that supports Sudan’s army said yesterday that residents of the city continued to fight.
Cambodia-Thailand border deal. Trump presided yesterday over the signing of a deal formalizing a July ceasefire agreement between the two countries. The deal commits both sides to withdrawing heavy weapons from their shared border and establishing a monitoring mechanism. Cambodia, which has sought to have the conflict resolved by the International Court of Justice, called it a peace deal, while Thailand dubbed it a pathway to peace.
Sanctions on Colombia’s Petro. The Trump administration on Friday sanctioned Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his family, and his interior minister, saying that Petro allowed drug trafficking to “flourish.” Petro vowed to fight the sanctions and maintained he had long worked to counter drug trafficking. The sanctions followed Petro’s criticism of Trump’s military campaign against alleged drug boats from Latin America.
ASEAN expands. Timor-Leste, Asia’s youngest country, became the eleventh member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) yesterday. It is the bloc’s first expansion since the 1990s. Timor-Leste emerged from Indonesian occupation in 2002; the country of 1.4 million people remains one of the poorest in the region.
U.S.-Brazil talks. The two countries committed to launch trade negotiations at a meeting yesterday between Trump and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Malaysia. Trump said the leaders “get along very well” and he believed the two countries could reach a deal quickly. It marked a shift in tone from Trump’s earlier criticism of Brazil and imposition of 50 percent tariffs on the country.
Debate over Gaza force. Israel will not accept Turkish troops as part of an international stabilization force in Gaza, Israel’s foreign minister said today. He claimed that Turkey had “a hostile approach” to Israel under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week the force would need to be made up of countries that “Israel’s comfortable with.”
