Irish civil servants compiled a list of “major leaks” they claimed originated from the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) and Special Branch officers in the region, records show. The confidential briefing note is part of the tranche of documents made public in the annual release of State papers from the Irish National Archives. An Irish Department of Foreign Affairs official focusing on justice and security created the list in October 2002. The document starts by referencing a 1999 interview given by George Mitchell, the chairman of the Good Friday Agreement negotiations, in which he claimed the British and Irish governments, as well as Northern Ireland’s political parties, had leaked information to manipulate public opinion. However, he further accused the NIO of attempting to sabotage the process by leaking information on British Government policy to the media. Mr Mitchell, a former US senator, is said to have expressed alarm and anger over the frequency of leaks from the NIO – saying they were uniquely “designed to undermine the policy of the British Government of which they were a part”. The Irish civil servant notes Mr Mitchell himself was subjected to an attempted “smear” when he first arrived in Northern Ireland, as newspaper articles falsely claimed his chief of staff Martha Pope had had a liaison with Sinn Fein representative Gerry Kelly with ulterior motives. The Irish civil servant goes on to list several “leaks”, starting with the publication of a proposed deal in a newspaper while “intense negotiations” for the Downing Street Declaration were under way. Next, the Department lists two “high-profile and damaging leaks issued from the NIO”. A so-called “gameplan” document was leaked in February 1998, showing papers had been prepared weeks before the Drumcree march on July 6, 1997. In the preceding years, there had been standoffs and clashes as nationalists opposed the procession of an Orange parade down Garvaghy Road in Portadown. The gameplan document showed then secretary of state for Northern Ireland Mo Mowlam, who was publicly expressing a desire for a negotiated solution to the 1997 parade, advocated “finding the lowest common denominator for getting some Orange feet on the Garvaghy Road”. In 1997, a large number of security forces were deployed to the area to allow the march to proceed. The incident sparked heightened tension and a wave of rioting. The document further describes the release of a document submitted by the NIO’s director of communications to the secretary of state as a “second major leak”. It claims a publicity strategy was released to the DUP in the aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement and showed how the UK Government would support a yes vote in a referendum following any talks agreement. In addition, it is claimed unionists used leaked sections of the Patten report on policing to invalidate its findings ahead of its publication in 1999. The report recommended the replacement of the Royal Ulster Constabulary with the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the changing of symbols, and a 50-50 recruitment policy for Catholics and Protestants. At the time, UUP leader David Trimble said the recommendations would lead to a corruption of policing in Northern Ireland. Chris Patten, chairman of the independent commission on policing, said some of the assertions were a “total fabrication” and designed to “muddy the waters” to create a difficult political atmosphere. Elsewhere, the author notes it was leaked to the media there was serious disagreement between the governments of the UK and Ireland on the composition of that commission – with not a single name submitted by the Irish side being accepted by the other. The author notes this incident, still under the heading “NIO leaks”, was believed by British officials to have emanated from the Irish side. The report turns to leaks of other origin, claiming “disgruntled Special Branch officers in Northern Ireland” were blamed by the British Government for a series of releases about the IRA which were designed to damage Sinn Fein in the 2001 general election in Northern Ireland. One senior Whitehall source was quoted in the Guardian as complaining that Special Branch was “leaking like a sieve” after details of an IRA intelligence database containing the names of leading Tories – described at the time as a “hit list” – was passed to the BBC in April 2002. The briefing note adds: “This was followed days later by a leak to The Sunday Telegraph which alleged that senior IRA commanders bought Russian special forces rifles in Moscow last year. “The newspaper said it was passed details by military intelligence in London.” The briefing note adds that other Special Branch leaks were associated with the Castlereagh break-in. The final incident in the document notes the Police Ombudsman’s Report on the Omagh bombing was also leaked to the press in December 2001. Then Northern Ireland secretary John Reid said at the time: “Leaks are never helpful and usually malicious – I will not be commenting on this report until I have seen the final version.” The reason for creating the list of leaks, which the Irish National Archives holds in a folder alongside briefing notes for ministers ahead of meetings with officials from the UK Government and NIO, is not outlined in the document itself. – This document is based on material in 2024/130/6. We do not moderate comments, but we expect readers to adhere to certain rules in the interests of open and accountable debate.
Donald Hammen, 80, and his longtime next-door neighbor in south Minneapolis, Julie McMahon, have an understanding. Every morning, she checks to see whether he’s raised the blinds in his dining room window. If not, she’ll call Hammen or let herself into his house to see what’s going on. Should McMahon find Hammen in a bad way, she plans to contact his sister-in-law, who lives in a suburb of Des Moines. That’s his closest relative. Hammen never married or had children, and his younger brother died in 2022. Though Hammen lives alone, a web of relationships binds him to his city and his community — neighbors, friends, former co-workers, fellow volunteers with an advocacy group for seniors, and fellow members of a group of solo agers. McMahon is an emergency contact, as is a former co-worker. When Hammen was hit by a car in February 2019, another neighbor did his laundry. A friend came over to keep him company. Other people went on walks with Hammen as he got back on his feet. Those connections are certainly sustaining. Yet Hammen has no idea who might care for him should he become unable to care for himself. “I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it,” he told me. These are fundamental questions for older adults who live alone: Who will be there for them, for matters large and small? Who will help them navigate the ever more complex health care system and advocate on their behalf? Who will take out the garbage if it becomes too difficult to carry? Who will shovel the snow if a winter storm blows through? American society rests on an assumption that families take care of their own. But 15 million Americans 50 and older didn’t have any close family — spouses, partners or children — in 2015, the latest year for which reliable estimates are available. Most lived alone. By 2060, that number is expected to swell to 21 million. Beyond that, millions of seniors living on their own aren’t geographically close to adult children or other family members. Or they have difficult, strained relationships that keep them from asking for support. These older adults must seek assistance from other quarters when they need it. Often they turn to neighbors, friends, church members or community groups — or paid help, if they can afford it. And often, they simply go without, leaving them vulnerable to isolation, depression and deteriorating health. When seniors living alone have no close family, can nonfamily helpers be an adequate substitute? This hasn’t been well studied. “We’re just beginning to do a better job of understanding that people have a multiplicity of connections outside their families that are essential to their well-being,” said Sarah Patterson, a demographer and sociologist at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. The takeaway from a noteworthy study published by researchers at Emory University, Johns Hopkins University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai was this: Many seniors adapt to living solo by weaving together local social networks of friends, neighbors, nieces and nephews, and siblings (if they’re available) to support their independence. Still, finding reliable local connections isn’t always easy. And nonfamily helpers may not be willing or able to provide consistent, intense hands-on care if that becomes necessary. When AARP surveyed people it calls “solo agers” in 2022, only 25% said they could count on someone to help them cook, clean, get groceries or perform other household tasks if needed. Just 38% said they knew someone who could help manage ongoing care needs. (AARP defined solo agers as people 50 and older who aren’t married, don’t have living children, and live alone.) Linda Camp, 73, a former administrator with the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, who never married or had children, has written several reports for the Citizens League in St. Paul about growing old alone. Yet she was still surprised by how much help she required this summer when she had cataract surgery on both eyes. A former co-worker accompanied Camp to the surgery center twice and waited there until the procedures were finished. A relatively new friend took her to a follow-up appointment. An 81-year-old downstairs neighbor agreed to come up if Camp needed something. Other friends and neighbors also chipped in. Camp was fortunate — she has a sizable network of former co-workers, neighbors and friends. “What I tell people when I talk about solos is all kinds of connections have value,” she said. Michelle Wallace, 75, a former technology project manager, lives alone in a single-family home in Broomfield, Colorado. She has worked hard to assemble a local network of support. Wallace has been divorced for nearly three decades and doesn’t have children. Though she has two sisters and a brother, they live far away. Wallace describes herself as happily unpartnered. “Coupling isn’t for me,” she told me when we first talked. “I need my space and my privacy too much.” Instead, she’s cultivated relationships with several people she met through local groups for solo agers. Many have become her close friends. Two of them, both in their 70s, are “like sisters,” Wallace said. Another, who lives just a few blocks away, agreed to become a “we’ll help each other out when needed” partner. “In our 70s, solo agers are looking for support systems. And the scariest thing is not having friends close by,” Wallace told me. “It’s the local network that’s really important.” Gardner Stern, 96, who lives alone on the 24th floor of the Carl Sandburg Village condominium complex just north of downtown Chicago, has been far less deliberate. He never planned for his care needs in older age. He just figured things would work out. They have, but not as Stern predicted. The person who helps him the most is his third wife, Jobie Stern, 75. The couple went through an acrimonious divorce in 1985, but now she goes to all his doctor appointments, takes him grocery shopping, drives him to physical therapy twice a week and stops in every afternoon to chat for about an hour. She’s also Gardner’s neighbor — she lives 10 floors above him in the same building. Why does she do it? “I guess because I moved into the building and he’s very old and he’s a really good guy and we have a child together,” she told me. “I get happiness knowing he’s doing as well as possible.” Over many years, she said, she and Gardner have put their differences aside. “Never would I have expected this of Jobie,” Gardner told me. “I guess time heals all wounds.” Gardner’s other main local connections are Joy Loverde, 72, an author of elder-care books, and her 79-year-old husband, who live on the 28th floor. Gardner calls Loverde his “tell it like it is” friend — the one who helped him decide it was time to stop driving, the one who persuaded him to have a walk-in shower with a bench installed in his bathroom, the one who plays Scrabble with him every week and offers practical advice whenever he has a problem. “I think I would be in an assisted living facility without her,” Gardner said. There’s also family: four children, all based in Los Angeles, eight grandchildren, mostly in L.A., and nine great-grandchildren. Gardner sees most of this extended clan about once a year and speaks to them often, but he can’t depend on them for his day-to-day needs. For that, Loverde and Jobie are an elevator ride away. “I’ve got these wonderful people who are monitoring my existence, and a big-screen TV, and a freezer full of good frozen dinners,” Gardner said. “It’s all that I need.” KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
By ROB GILLIES, Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Donald Trump that Americans would also suffer if the president-elect follows through on a plan to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products , a Canadian minister who attended their recent dinner said Monday. Trump threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if they don’t stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders with the United States. He said on social media last week that he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders. Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose responsibilities include border security, attended a dinner with Trump and Trudeau at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club on Friday. Trudeau requested the meeting in a bid to avoid the tariffs by convincing Trump that the northern border is nothing like the U.S. southern border with Mexico . “The prime minister of course spoke about the importance of protecting the Canadian economy and Canadian workers from tariffs, but we also discussed with our American friends the negative impact that those tariffs could have on their economy, on affordability in the United States as well,” LeBlanc said in Parliament. If Trump makes good on his threat to slap 25% tariffs on everything imported from Mexico and Canada, the price increases that could follow will collide with his campaign promise to give American families a break from inflation. Economists say companies would have little choice but to pass along the added costs, dramatically raising prices for food, clothing, automobiles, alcohol and other goods. The Produce Distributors Association, a Washington trade group, said last week that tariffs will raise prices for fresh fruit and vegetables and hurt U.S. farmers when the countries retaliate. Canada is already examining possible retaliatory tariffs on certain items from the U.S. should Trump follow through on the threat. After his dinner with Trump, Trudeau returned home without assurances the president-elect will back away from threatened tariffs on all products from the major American trading partner. Trump called the talks “productive” but signaled no retreat from a pledge that Canada says unfairly lumps it in with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States. “The idea that we came back empty handed is completely false,” LeBlanc said. “We had a very productive discussion with Mr. Trump and his future Cabinet secretaries. ... The commitment from Mr. Trump to continue to work with us was far from empty handed.” Joining Trump and Trudeau at dinner were Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department, and Mike Waltz, Trump’s choice to be his national security adviser. Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, told The Associated Press on Sunday that “the message that our border is so vastly different than the Mexican border was really understood.” Hillman, who sat at an adjacent table to Trudeau and Trump, said Canada is not the problem when it comes to drugs and migrants. On Monday, Mexico’s president rejected those comments. “Mexico must be respected, especially by its trading partners,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said. She said Canada had its own problems with fentanyl consumption and “could only wish they had the cultural riches Mexico has.” Flows of migrants and seizures of drugs at the two countries’ border are vastly different. U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border during the last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border. Most of the fentanyl reaching the U.S. — where it causes about 70,000 overdose deaths annually — is made by Mexican drug cartels using precursor chemicals smuggled from Asia. On immigration, the U.S. Border Patrol reported 1.53 million encounters with migrants at the southwest border with Mexico between October 2023 and September 2024. That compares to 23,721 encounters at the Canadian border during that time. Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day. About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports as well. Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing for national security.
By HALELUYA HADERO, Associated Press President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause the potential TikTok ban from going into effect until his administration can pursue a “political resolution” to the issue. The request came as TikTok and the Biden administration filed opposing briefs to the court, in which the company argued the court should strike down a law that could ban the platform by Jan. 19 while the government emphasized its position that the statute is needed to eliminate a national security risk. “President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute. Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case,” said Trump’s amicus brief, which supported neither party in the case. The filings come ahead of oral arguments scheduled for Jan. 10 on whether the law, which requires TikTok to divest from its China-based parent company or face a ban, unlawfully restricts speech in violation of the First Amendment. Earlier this month, a panel of three federal judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously upheld the statute , leading TikTok to appeal the case to the Supreme Court. The brief from Trump said he opposes banning TikTok at this junction and “seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office.”
On a recent Saturday night on Sunset Boulevard, a pair of black 1940s low-riders guided the diverse, sold-out crowd into the Comedy Store. Cypress Hill hung out in the green room. Los Angeles photographer and director Estevan Oriol oversaw six cameras and the taping of George Perez’s debut hour special, “Misunderstood,” presented by Foos Gone Wild. “There were no fights,” Perez enthuses. “And,” with the mark of a successful Perez show traditionally measured in beer sales, “they sold out of 805s, Coors Lights and Peronis!” Originally from Orange County (“the Republican L.A.,” he calls it), Perez’s material combines deeply personal narrative with sociopolitical insight. Before releasing “Misunderstood” in 2025, he headlines New Year’s Eve at the two-year-old Stand Up Comedy Club. He’s already working on new material for the occasion. “That club has my culture all around it,” he says of the Bellflower venue. “Mexicans walk there; they don’t even drive. It’s by houses, apartments, by downtown, and every time I go there, it sells out. And I don’t even do Friday and Saturday. I do Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and I love that club. I love the crowd. It’s dark and comics like to hang out.” In Orange, Perez adored Cheech and Chong and was joking for his family by age 13. Later, he kept his construction co-workers cracking up. A girlfriend dragged him to an underground Wednesday comedy show at a Fullerton club called Rio. He recalls the warm-up comedians on the show being pretty corny. Toward the end when a headliner put his roasting skills against anyone in the crowd, Perez took the challenge. “I went up there, I beat him, and I got the itch that day,” he recalls. “Then the next day, I quit construction.” The show was hosted by Edwin San Juan (“SlantEd Comedy”), who mistook Perez for a ringer. The two remain close to this day. Perez recently bought a swap meet bootleg DVD of the 2001 evening labeled, “George Perez’s first time doing comedy.” Within eight months, he made his television debut on “LATV Live,” the primetime flagship series of L.A.’s first bilingual station. Early grinding involved “the craziest s—,” including shows for 30 people at tweaker houses where his cousin sold meth and a spot called the Wild Coyote, “the Mexican Apollo” where Felipe Esparza, Gabriel Iglesias and Ralphie May hung out. He started setting up chairs and doing bringer shows at Casa Latina in Rosemead. A year later, he was hosting to 300 people every Tuesday as well as doing spots at the Hollywood Improv. Whatever the venue, Perez knew tickets had sold well when venue managers laughed, “The Coronas are done! You did your job!” Audiences and industry reacted with surprise. “You thought [I] was going to talk about drive-bys, tortillas and lowriders and [I’m] up there talking about Shakespeare,” Perez says. He subverted stereotypes about growing up in the streets, got deep about being a young dad and discussed politics as a lifelong local. Perez appeared on MTV, Showtime and Comedy Central before a previous version of his life caught up to him. Before comedy, he had been a gang member since seventh grade. There was vandalism, carjacking, gun charges and a steadfast refusal to walk from fights. Perez was a felon at 18, the same year his son was born. Nearly two years later, he recalls, “The guy that I beat up sees me on MTV’s ‘Yo Mama,’ and he’s like, ‘That’s the guy that beat me up!’ ” Then the gang unit raided the strip club he was DJing at. “I fight it, I lose, and I’m in prison. There’s no more freedom of speech. So the comedian is completely gone. I’m now in survival mode.” He did three years. Guards remembered seeing him perform at the Ontario Improv. Everyone knew he was on TV. He did perform inside sometimes, including for the warden and 500 inmates. Most tattoos he sports today, he got as an inmate . He hid tobacco up his ass in a latex glove so he could sell it. He also saw riots, an OD, murder and fights, during one of which he lost a tooth. He continues experiencing nightmares and PTSD. When he got out in 2009, he met iPhones and his new baby daughter. “Prison was the best thing for me; it humbled me,” he says. “There’s no more fighting. There is only using your words. It showed me discipline and being sober in there, I got to look outside myself and realize all the people that I hurt, that love me. I learned in prison when you make a mistake, you confess to it, you fix it and you grow.” Fifteen years later, Perez’s credits include Netflix, HBO and the film “Taco Shop” with Carlos Alazraqui, Esparza and Brian Huskey. He records his first-hand “George Perez Stories” podcast and YouTube videos in a studio wallpapered with every vinyl comedy album he can find. His own January 2024 vinyl album “This Cholo Is Crazy” even featured sketch and music. Something else had happened that he didn’t address for years. “I dig deep,” he says of the impetus for “Misunderstood.” “I had a son that passed away because the babysitter left him in the tub.” He wasn’t allowed to attend services. Following three years out on parole, he tangled with cocaine. “Drugs would numb me and I wouldn’t think about my son and the bad things that have happened to me in my life, friends that I’ve lost.” Today he continues to be more honest about past tragedies and new growth than ever. At most, there’s a little tequila now and then to celebrate. His time in prison, journeys with addiction and struggles with mental health; all of it part of Perez’s artistic expression. “I just started writing. I’m no longer up there going, ‘Latinos make some noise!’ It’s, ‘This hurts, and I have to find a way out.’ It’s personal.” “I mean, you can’t cancel me. I went to prison for three years when my comedy was in its prime, came out and I’m doing better than I was before. I’m not looking to be on a sitcom. I want to be an artistic comedian. When someone sees me onstage, like, ‘This guy looks like me. He’s gone through the same thing I’ve gone through.’ That’s what I want to accomplish.”
Doechii announced plans for an NPR Tiny Desk performance less than 24 hours before it aired. The TDE breakout had high expectations after her standout appearance at Tyler, The Creator 's Camp Flog Gnaw festival. She crushed it, as was to be expected. If anything, Doechii raised her game, and gave fans one of the best Tiny Desk performances in ages. She ran through most of the standout cuts on her new tape, Alligator Bites Never Heal , but the live setting gave them new life and a new sound. Doechii brought a talented assortment of musicians to back her up. She enlisted an all female, all Black band comprised of DJ Miss Milan, two background vocalists, guitars and horns. The musical breakdowns throughout the Tiny Desk performance was nothing short of astounding. The way in which Doechii was able to flow atop these intricate instrumentals was thoroughly impressive. It helps, of course, that the songs themselves are excellent. Doechii ran through breakout viral hits like "Nissan Altima," as well as "Boom Bap" and "Catfish." Read More: Doechii Thanks MF DOOM & Solange For Inspiring Her Stephen Colbert Performance It was the performance of "Black Girl Diaries," however, that touched the hearts of most viewers. The rapper gave an impassioned backstory for the song prior to her performance, emphasizing its crucial place within the mixtape. "I wrote this song specifically for Black women," Doechii noted. "As a dark-skinned woman, there’s a very unique experience I’m trying to internalize. This is dedicated to all the beautiful Black women in the room." Social media exploded following the NPR performance. Many fans praised her aesthetic choices. The rapper, as well as her backing band, wore braids, while the choreography and musical flexibility of the band were note perfect. "This Doechii tiny desk was a life altering experience," one user tweeted. "And I hate that I can experience this for the first time only once." Another user praised Doechii's presence and ability to alternate between mellow and intense at a moment's notice. "The way she can rap like that and be animated is crazy, Doechii is a STAR & a true visionary all around," they tweeted. The rapper has been posed by TDE as the next big thing, and this performance certainly bolsters the vision.
Minutes of an Executive meeting from June of that year state further action would be considered “as appropriate” if the DUP went ahead with a threat to rotate its ministers. The minutes are within files which have been declassified at the Public Record Office in Belfast. Devolved powersharing had been restored to Northern Ireland in May 2000 when Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble had received the backing of his party to go back into the Assembly, despite there having been no decommissioning of IRA arms at that point. Then DUP deputy leader Mr Robinson and Mr Dodds took up the offices as ministers for regional development and social development, but refused to attend Executive meetings due to the presence of Sinn Fein ministers. The party also said it would rotate its ministerial posts to prevent other parties from taking them. A minute of an Executive meeting on June 8 said Mr Robinson and Mr Dodds had refused a request from First Minister Mr Trimble and deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon to meet with them “to discuss recent public comments by the DUP concerning their positions as ministers”. The minute records that the Executive endorsed a proposal from the First and deputy First Ministers to write again to the two DUP ministers setting out sanctions against them. It says: “The First Minister and and Deputy First Minister would assume responsibility for representing the Executive Committee on transport matters at the British-Irish Council in place of the Minister for Regional Development. “The Minister for Social Development and the Minister for Regional Development would not be nominated to attend meetings of the Joint Ministerial Committee. “Pending the receipt of satisfactory assurances from DUP Ministers regarding the confidentiality and integrity of Executive Committee business, the Minister for Social Development and Minister for Regional Development would not receive Executive Committee papers as of right. “The First Minister and Deputy First Minister would seek briefing, as appropriate, from officials in the Department for Regional Development and Department for Social Development.” The minute continues: “If the DUP carried out their threat to change the holders of the two Ministerial offices on a frequent basis, the Executive Committee would consider other action as appropriate.” Mr Robinson and Mr Dodds resigned as ministers on June 27 and were replaced by party colleagues Gregory Campbell and Maurice Morrow. A minute from an Executive meeting that day says: “The Executive Committee noted that the Minister for Social Development and Minister for Regional Development would be resigning their posts that afternoon, and expressed concern at the proposed rotation of the ministries held by their Party Members.”
Trudeau told Trump Americans would also suffer if tariffs are imposed, a Canadian minister saysBombshell Red Bull report sends shockwavesFootball photos: No. 17 Millville at No. 4 Winslow, Group 4 semifinals, Nov. 23, 2024
By ROB GILLIES, Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Donald Trump that Americans would also suffer if the president-elect follows through on a plan to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products , a Canadian minister who attended their recent dinner said Monday. Trump threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if they don’t stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders with the United States. He said on social media last week that he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders. Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose responsibilities include border security, attended a dinner with Trump and Trudeau at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club on Friday. Trudeau requested the meeting in a bid to avoid the tariffs by convincing Trump that the northern border is nothing like the U.S. southern border with Mexico . “The prime minister of course spoke about the importance of protecting the Canadian economy and Canadian workers from tariffs, but we also discussed with our American friends the negative impact that those tariffs could have on their economy, on affordability in the United States as well,” LeBlanc said in Parliament. If Trump makes good on his threat to slap 25% tariffs on everything imported from Mexico and Canada, the price increases that could follow will collide with his campaign promise to give American families a break from inflation. Economists say companies would have little choice but to pass along the added costs, dramatically raising prices for food, clothing, automobiles, alcohol and other goods. The Produce Distributors Association, a Washington trade group, said last week that tariffs will raise prices for fresh fruit and vegetables and hurt U.S. farmers when the countries retaliate. Canada is already examining possible retaliatory tariffs on certain items from the U.S. should Trump follow through on the threat. After his dinner with Trump, Trudeau returned home without assurances the president-elect will back away from threatened tariffs on all products from the major American trading partner. Trump called the talks “productive” but signaled no retreat from a pledge that Canada says unfairly lumps it in with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States. “The idea that we came back empty handed is completely false,” LeBlanc said. “We had a very productive discussion with Mr. Trump and his future Cabinet secretaries. ... The commitment from Mr. Trump to continue to work with us was far from empty handed.” Joining Trump and Trudeau at dinner were Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department, and Mike Waltz, Trump’s choice to be his national security adviser. Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, told The Associated Press on Sunday that “the message that our border is so vastly different than the Mexican border was really understood.” Hillman, who sat at an adjacent table to Trudeau and Trump, said Canada is not the problem when it comes to drugs and migrants. On Monday, Mexico’s president rejected those comments. “Mexico must be respected, especially by its trading partners,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said. She said Canada had its own problems with fentanyl consumption and “could only wish they had the cultural riches Mexico has.” Flows of migrants and seizures of drugs at the two countries’ border are vastly different. U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border during the last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border. Most of the fentanyl reaching the U.S. — where it causes about 70,000 overdose deaths annually — is made by Mexican drug cartels using precursor chemicals smuggled from Asia. On immigration, the U.S. Border Patrol reported 1.53 million encounters with migrants at the southwest border with Mexico between October 2023 and September 2024. That compares to 23,721 encounters at the Canadian border during that time. Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day. About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports as well. Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing for national security.
Trudeau told Trump Americans would also suffer if tariffs are imposed, a Canadian minister saysAP Sports SummaryBrief at 5:15 p.m. ESTFerguson names policy veteran as his budget director
Intuit Beats Fiscal Q1 Targets Buts Guides Low For Current Quarter, Full Year
