US President Donald Trump said he spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and that the two would meet after Canada’s election, amid an intensifying tariff war between the neighboring allies and major trading partners.
“It was an extremely productive call, we agree on many things, and will be meeting immediately after Canada’s upcoming Election to work on elements of Politics, Business, and all other factors, that will end up being great for both the United States of America and Canada,” Trump said in a post to his social media platform on Friday.
Trump’s post called the Canadian leader “Prime Minister Carney” — a break from his practice of the past few months, when he repeatedly mocked Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, as “Governor Trudeau.”
Photo: AFP
Carney released a statement saying the two men agreed to start “comprehensive negotiations about a new economic and security relationship” after Canada’s national election on April 28.
However, the Canadian leader also reiterated that his government plans to put retaliatory tariffs in place after the US administration unveils its new import taxes on Wednesday, which Trump has billed “Liberation Day.”
In the meantime, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Canadian Minister of International Trade Dominic LeBlanc would “intensify” their talks to “address immediate concerns,” the prime minister’s office said.
The call between the two leaders was their first since Carney assumed Canada’s top political office on March 14. It came days after Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on imported cars and auto parts, which Carney called a “direct attack” on Canadian auto workers and a violation of the US-Mexico-Canada trade accord known as USMCA, which Trump negotiated during his first term in the White House.
Trump’s trade war against Canada and Mexico, along with repeated suggestions that Canada should become the 51st US state, have cratered ties between the two North American neighbors. The Canadian election campaign has turned into a contest in which US threats against Canada’s economy and sovereignty have become the dominant issue.
Carney told reporters that Trump respected Canada’s sovereignty during the call, which he characterized as “constructive” and “cordial.”
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although