- The 25% tariffs on nearly all imports from Canada and Mexico ware going ahead. Canada, along with China who are being hit with 20% tariffs, are imposing a number of retaliatory measures in response; stock markets on both sides of the border have taken a beating. Doug Ford is vowing to cut off electricity exports to the US if this goes ahead. Perhaps an even more effective measure would be a potash embargo - they can find other sources of electricity a lot more easily than potash. Some also think that American fast food franchises could be replaced by Canadian ones; whether patriotism is enough to overcome marketing in the case of things like McDonalds or KFC remains to be seen, though.
- Following remarks by Volodymyr Zelenskyy that an agreement to end the war is "very far away", Trump has announced that he is pausing all military aid to Ukraine until Zelenskyy is able to satisfy him that Kyiv is "committed to good faith negotiations for peace". This will apparently be assessed entirely on Trump's subjective perceptions, just like every other judgment he makes.
- Trump has issued an executive order expanding logging on federal lands, and wants to use emergency powers to get around the habitat protection provisions of the Endangered Species Act.- There was apparently a conspicuous lack of political expression at the Oscars over the weekend. Given that in the past people like Michael Moore often weren't shy about what they said while accepting their awards, it's kind of strange, if this report is accurate. And unsettling - it's a sign of how scared they are.
- WWE co-founder Linda McMahon has been appointed Secretary of Education by the Trump administration. They don't leave a whole lot left for the satirists to do, do they?
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