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When Shale Tobe heard President Donald Trump planned to impose tariffs on Canadian steel, a product that has supported his family for decades, he was in New York on holiday, “spending money down in the US.””I’ll have second thoughts about that” now, he told AFP on the warehouse floor of North York Iron, a family-owned steel distribution business in Toronto started by his great-uncle more than 60 years ago. Trump’s latest tariff order has sparked fresh anger among Canadians, including business owners like Tobe who deal with US counterparts on a near-daily basis. “They’re like brothers to us,” he said of US steel firms. “Things have been running smoothly, going back and forth across the borders for decades… We’re being stabbed in the back a bit, I feel.”Trump’s pronouncements on US-Canada trade have veered in several directions.He has promised a blanket 25 percent tariff on all Canadian imports — measures the president says are necessary to force action on migrant crossings and the drug fentanyl, even if neither is a significant issue at the northern border — but also complained about trade deficits.  His separate 25 percent tariffs on worldwide steel and aluminum imports are due to take effect next month. If the metal duties come into force, Canada will be hit harder than any other nation, said Fraser Johnson, a supply-chain expert at Western University’s Ivey Business School. “It’s going to be very disruptive,” he told AFP, noting that about 90 percent of Canada’s steel and aluminum exports go to the United States.Beyond damage to Canadian steel and aluminum manufacturers, US customers will also suffer a swift and enduring hit, Johnson said. “The burden will be felt almost immediately because the US does not have the domestic capacity to be able to support its entire needs,” he added, suggesting it could take “decades” for US suppliers to fully adjust to a loss of sourcing from Canada. – Waiting on retaliation -Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has condemned any US tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum as “entirely unjustified” and promised a “firm” response, but Ottawa has not yet announced retaliatory measures. “We’re not looking to go ahead of the United States,” Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Wednesday during a visit to Washington.Canada is “certainly not going to do anything before the Americans make their ultimate decision, and what the Americans have said to us privately and what they’ve said publicly is that we have a number of weeks to work together.”Trudeau, who leaves office next month, has stressed Canadian trade policy in the volatile Trump era must prioritize averting US tariffs while positioning Canada for a fundamentally altered relationship with its southern neighbor over the long term.Canadian business leaders and politicians have urged the removal of restrictions preventing trade between provinces, to boost domestic economic activity, while expanding trade with foreign markets. Johnson, the supply-chain expert, agreed that encouraging Canadian businesses to sell more to each other was essential, regardless of what happens in the United States.But he stressed that when it comes to metal exports, pivoting to foreign markets is “easy to say from an armchair perspective, but difficult to be able to implement.”- ‘Sickening’ -For Tobe, it’s too early to assess the impacts of a metals trade war on his business.One of his top sellers is a steel beam, which he buys from a supplier in Georgia. The beams aren’t available in Canada, so he would expect Ottawa to include an exemption for the product in any retaliation package, as they did during Trump’s first term. His company no longer exports directly to the US but his customers do, so the ripple effects of a tariff battle across the industry could eventually sting.Beyond the family business, the softly spoken 61-year-old told AFP he has been particularly impacted by threats from Trump and his allies suggesting the United States should annex Canada. “It was almost sickening to me, hearing that,” Tobe said. “We have to fight fire with fire… We have to get away from our dependence on the US. It’s not safe anymore.”

The Republican-controlled US Senate confirmed Tulsi Gabbard on Wednesday as Donald Trump’s choice to lead the country’s intelligence services, despite criticism over her lack of experience and past support for Russia and Syria.Gabbard — appointed to be director of national intelligence — has faced questions over her 2017 meeting with now-deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and her peddling of Kremlin propaganda, particularly false conspiracy theories about the Ukraine war.She is also regarded with suspicion over her views on US government surveillance and her backing for National Security Agency (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden, seen on both sides of Congress as having imperiled Americans’ safety.Gabbard scraped through a 52-48 floor vote — with former Senate leader Mitch McConnell as the sole Republican “no” — as Democrats warned that she had no business being anywhere near the country’s most sensitive classified secrets.”On the night that Russia invaded Ukraine and launched the first full-scale invasion of a sovereign nation in Europe since World War II, what was Ms. Gabbard doing?” Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, said ahead of the vote.”She was spending her energy blaming NATO and the US for what Putin did… That alone should be disqualifying for anyone seeking to become the top intelligence advisor to the president.”Schumer said Gabbard, 43, had blown her chance to reassure senators over her judgment at her confirmation hearing and accused Republicans of ignoring her “troubling history of pushing conspiracies and spreading propaganda.”Gabbard’s success was seen as another powerful demonstration of Trump’s iron grip on his party, after he pushed through a slate of some of the most contentious cabinet nominees in modern history.- Controversial picks -The president proposed a defense secretary accused of sexual assault, an attorney general suspected of trafficking a minor for sex, a health secretary who spent years spreading vaccine misinformation and an FBI chief alleged to be motivated by political revenge.Only the suspected sex trafficker — former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz — has so far been rejected by the Senate.Gabbard — who ran for president as a Democrat in 2020 — had looked vulnerable but three Republican holdouts all ended up lining up behind the Hawaiian US Army Reserve officer.Maine Republican Susan Collins said the one-time lawmaker had addressed concerns over her past support for pardoning Snowden, who was indicted for espionage after revealing the existence of global surveillance programs.Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana released a terse, lukewarm endorsement of the nominee.”President Trump chose Tulsi Gabbard to be his point person on foreign intelligence,” he said. “I will trust President Trump on this decision and vote for her confirmation.”Gabbard’s confirmation came as Democrats accused Trump’s FBI nominee Kash Patel of directing a purge of bureau officials in secret, a day after testifying under oath that he was unaware of any such plan.”If these allegations are true, Mr. Patel may have perjured himself before the Senate Judiciary Committee,” Dick Durbin, the panel’s top Democrat, said in a letter to the Justice Department Inspector General.Durbin wrote that whistleblowers had told him Patel passed orders for the firings to acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller acting as a middleman. “Although Mr. Patel is President Trump’s nominee to be FBI Director, he is still a private citizen with no role in government,” he added.

The family of a Black woman shot dead in her home by a police officer in the US state of Illinois has reached a $10 million settlement with the local sheriff’s department and county board.Sonya Massey, 36, a mother of two, was killed by a sheriff’s deputy last July in a case that drew national attention and prompted then-president Joe Biden to say she “should be alive today.”Massey, who had received treatment in the past for mental health issues, called the 911 emergency line to report a possible intruder in her home and two Sangamon County sheriff’s deputies arrived shortly after midnight.Police body camera footage showed Massey talking to the officers and searching through her purse after they asked her for identification.Sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson then asked her to check on a pot of boiling water on the stove, saying “we don’t need a fire while we’re here.”When Grayson stepped back into the living room, Massey asked why, and he responded with a laugh: “Away from your hot steaming water.”Holding the pot, Massey calmly responded “Oh, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus” — prompting the deputy to draw his weapon and say: “You better fucking not. I swear to God I’ll fucking shoot you in your fucking face.”Apologizing, Massey crouched behind a counter as the officer screamed “drop the fucking pot” and fired three shots, killing Massey with a bullet to the face.The Sangamon County Board approved a $10 million settlement with Massey’s estate at a meeting on Tuesday.Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has represented the families of other African American victims of police violence, welcomed the agreement at a Zoom press conference on Wednesday, calling it a “first step in getting full justice for Sonya Massey.””It is very bittersweet that on what would have been her 37th birthday, we announce this historic settlement, which is only the first step in the journey for justice,” Crump said.Antonio Romanucci, another family attorney, said “Sonya reached out to law enforcement for help and instead received brutal, horrific treatment.”When Sonya called 911 she didn’t know it but that was her death sentence,” Romanucci said. “She called in her own death when she called for help.”Grayson, who is white, faces murder charges and has pleaded not guilty.The United States was rocked by protests in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in Minnesota.Floyd’s death revived scrutiny of race relations and sparked calls for police reform.

The United States is releasing Russian cryptocurrency kingpin Alexander Vinnik as part of an exchange deal that saw Moscow free US teacher Marc Fogel a day earlier, a White House official said Wednesday.The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, replied “yes” when asked if US authorities had released or would be releasing Vinnik in exchange for Fogel.Earlier on Wednesday, the Kremlin confirmed the two sides had agreed to the “release of Fogel and one Russian citizen, who is held in detention in the United States,” but did not identify him.Vinnik pled guilty in May 2024 to “conspiracy to commit money laundering related to his role in operating the cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e from 2011 to 2017,” according to the US Justice Department.US President Donald Trump’s government has hailed the prisoner exchange as a positive sign for diplomacy between the two countries and for possible negotiations over an end to the Ukraine war.”President Trump, Steve Witkoff and the President’s advisors negotiated an exchange that serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine,” US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said in a statement.On Wednesday, US Middle East envoy Witkoff hailed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s (MBS) “instrumental” role in securing Fogel’s release.”He has a very strong friendship with President Trump,” he said of the 39-year-old de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia. “Behind the scenes he was encouraging and pushing and looking for the right result.”On the Russian side, Witkoff said a man he named only as Kirill also played an “important” role.”There’s a gentleman from Russia, his name is Kirill, and he had a lot to do with this. He was important, he was an important interlocutor bridging the two sides,” said the US envoy, offering no further details on the man’s identity.Vinnik was extradited to the United States from Greece in August 2022, hours after he had been released from a French jail.He was the operator of BTC-e, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges that processed more than $9 billion in transactions, according to US court documents.US authorities say the exchange was “one of the primary ways by which cyber criminals around the world transferred, laundered, and stored the criminal proceeds of their illegal activities.”

Republicans vowed Wednesday to tackle the “stunning” US national debt, as lawmakers began work on President Donald Trump’s plan for the most radical downsizing of the federal government in decades. The House Delivering on Government Efficiency subcommittee will be the legislative arm of tech billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts as Trump’s right-hand man to slash $1 trillion in wasteful spending.Its first hearing — “The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud” — was set to feature testimony from a former FBI agent and the head of a welfare fraud watchdog.”This committee will be laser-focused on bringing full transparency to waste, fraud and abuse within the federal government, and presenting the plans to fix the tremendous problems we expose,” chair Marjorie Taylor Greene said in her opening statement.”We, as a country, are $36 trillion in debt. That is such a stunning amount of money. It’s absolutely staggering to even comprehend how we as a people, we as a country, found ourselves here.”The hearing was convened with government workers staging demonstrations against deep staffing cuts ordered by Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).Critics say the world’s richest man has enormous conflicts of interest as a major government contractor, although Trump claims that his “efficiency czar” has already uncovered tens of billions of dollars in fraud.Republicans have largely backed the DOGE agenda, although funding cuts at the National Institutes of Health have been met with mild dissent.A prominent voice on the party’s hard right with a history of bigoted comments, Greene has been brought from the fringes into the center of Republican politics as Trump’s influence has grown.- ‘Maximally transparent’ -The Georgia lawmaker, who was barred from serving on committees in her first two years in office, posted on X ahead of the hearing that “God is washing away bad things and our country is beginning to heal.”Democrats were initially open to the concept of DOGE but have soured on Musk over his efforts to dismantle federal agencies, which they say are shrouded in secrecy.”All of our actions are maximally transparent,” Musk told reporters Tuesday at the White House, newly emboldened by a Trump executive order giving him a veto over government hiring and firing.”I don’t know of a case where an organization has been more transparent than the DOGE organization.”Trump and Musk are facing multiple legal challenges however as they try to lift emergency orders blocking the dismantling of federal agencies, holds on grants and the firing of government watchdogs.The White House lost an appeal in Boston on Tuesday upholding a decision to block Trump’s freeze in federal grants and loans.On the same day, Trump fired an inspector general overseeing USAID, after he filed a report warning that the foreign aid freeze could leave the humanitarian agency at risk of misusing funds.As with all his firings of inspectors general, the move looks on its face to be illegal as Congress is supposed to be given 30 days’ notice. Meanwhile the Homeland Security Department fired the Federal Emergency Management Agency chief financial officer and three other FEMA employees for approving payments for migrant housing in hotels.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is in charge of a budget of almost $900 billion, told Axios he plans to welcome Musk and “the keen eye of DOGE” to scrutinize its spending “very soon.” 

US consumer inflation unexpectedly accelerated last month, data showed Wednesday, in a moment of potential political peril for President Donald Trump, who quickly blamed the uptick on his predecessor Joe Biden.The consumer price index (CPI) edged up to 3.0 percent in January from a year ago, the Labor Department said in a statement — slightly above economists’ estimates. “Overall, this is not a great read,” EY chief economist Gregory Daco told AFP. “The jump in consumer prices in January supports our view that the Fed will hold rates steady at least through (the third quarter) of this year,” Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic wrote in a note to clients, referring to the Federal Reserve.- ‘Hand in hand’ -The cost of eggs surged more than 15 percent last month as farmers contended with avian flu, marking the largest increase in the index since June 2015. Gasoline prices also jumped last month, along with several other politically potent price points.  Any sustained uptick in inflation could cause a political headache for Trump who campaigned on a pledge to tackle inflation and the cost of living.”BIDEN INFLATION UP!” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social account shortly after the data was published, seeking to blame his Democratic predecessor for the CPI increase.The January CPI data is an estimate of the price level for the whole month, including the 12 days Trump was in office. In an earlier message, Trump also called for interest rates to be lowered, adding they would “go hand in hand” with his plans to impose tariffs on major US trading partners — despite many economists arguing that both measures would boost inflation. “Any administration is always going to be looking for lower interest rates, as they tend to be growth stimulative,” Daco told AFP. “The paradox is that the policies that are being promoted by the administration tend to have an inflationary lean, and therefore would favor the Fed maintaining a higher-for-longer stance, which goes very much in the opposite direction of this desire for lower rates,” he added.On Wednesday, a White House official confirmed to AFP that Trump’s planned 25-percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports would be imposed on top of 25 percent tariffs the US president has threatened to impose on Canada and Mexico.If those sweeping 25 percent tariffs are imposed in early March, as Trump has threatened, the levies on Canadian and Mexican steel and aluminum could hit 50 percent, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.That could sharply raise the cost of materials that are crucial to US construction and manufacturing. – ‘Remain on the sidelines’ -The January inflation data will likely fuel calls for the Federal Reserve — the independent US central bank — to hold its key lending rate at between 4.25 and 4.50 percent as it waits for prices to ease.The Fed has a long-term inflation target of two percent, measured against a different inflation gauge, and aims to hit it primarily by raising and lowering short-term lending rates. These actions influence the cost of borrowing for consumers and businesses alike. “The Fed will remain on the sidelines as it assesses the evolving economic, inflation, and policy landscape,” said Bostjancic from Nationwide.Another worrying data point for the Fed in the data published Wednesday was the acceleration in inflation excluding volatile food and energy costs, which rose by 3.3 percent from a year earlier. On a monthly basis, inflation increased by 0.5 percent in January, and by 0.4 percent excluding food and energy.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth laid out President Donald Trump’s red lines and demands on Ukraine and NATO to Washington’s allies on Wednesday, telling Europe it must step up on supporting Kyiv and its own defence.In a forceful introduction at NATO headquarters, the former television anchor set out the contours for a future deal that Trump has vowed to reach on ending Russia’s war on Ukraine.”Our message is clear, the bloodshed must stop and this war must end,” he told a group of Kyiv’s backers that included his Ukrainian counterpart. Hegseth said trying to return Ukraine to its pre-2014 borders was an “illusionary goal” that would extend the fighting.The US defence chief said security guarantees would be needed for Ukraine but that NATO membership was “not realistic,” and made clear the United States would not deploy troops on the ground. “Instead, any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops,” he said.Hegseth said that Trump was “unleashing US energy production” and urging other producers to do so in a bid to drive down prices — and push Moscow to negotiate.But he insisted that Europe must now start providing the “overwhelming share” of aid to Ukraine.The tough US stance had largely been expected but it will still provide a cold shower for Kyiv as its forces struggle to hold back Russia. Hegseth’s visit to NATO headquarters is part of the first flurry of high-ranking American visits to Europe since Trump took power.Those are set to culminate with Vice President JD Vance meeting Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky in Munich on Friday. – ‘Imbalanced relationship’ -On European security, Hegseth echoed Trump’s demands for NATO to more than double its defence spending target to five percent of GDP. While he said Washington remained committed to NATO, the United States will “no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship” that sees Europe underpaying. He warned that US prime interests were focused on the threat from China and that there may be “trade offs” on American involvement in Europe. “As the United States prioritises its attention to these threats, European allies must lead from the front,” he said.US allies have already stepped up their spending in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and are pledging to do more to back Kyiv. “Secretary Hegseth, we hear you,” said Britain’s defence minister John Healey in a brief response. “We hear your concerns on stepping up for Ukraine, we are and we will. On stepping up for European security. We are and we will.”Britain announced a fresh package of aid for Ukraine worth $185 million.- ‘Do a lot more’ -NATO’s European members are terrified about Ukraine being forced into a bad deal that lets Moscow claim victory and leave them facing the threat of an emboldened Russia. The United States has underpinned European security through NATO over the past seven decades.  Hegseth’s broadside is set to fire a starting pistol on negotiations for setting a new spending target for alliance members at a June summit in the Netherlands. NATO chief Mark Rutte said he expects the goal to be raised to “north of three percent”.”We need to do a lot more so we have what we need to deter and defend. And so that there is more equitable burden sharing,” he said. 

Meta on Wednesday warned internet users to be wary of online acquaintances promising romance but seeking cash as scammers use deep fakes to prey on those looking for love.”This is a new tool in the toolkit of scammers,” Meta global threat disruption policy director David Agranovich told journalists during a briefing.”These scammers evolve consistently; we have to evolve to keep things right.”Detection systems in Meta’s family of apps including Instagram and WhatsApp rely heavily on behavior patterns and technical signals rather than on imagery, meaning it spies scammer activity despite the AI trickery, according to Agranovich.”It makes our detection and enforcement somewhat more resilient to generative AI,” Agranovich said.He gave the example of a recently disrupted scheme that apparently originated in Cambodia and targeted people in Chinese and Japanese languages.Researchers at OpenAI determined that the “scam compound” seemed to be using the San Francisco artificial intelligence company’s tools to generate and translate content, according to Meta.Generative AI technology has been around for more than a year, but in recent months its use by scammers has grown strong, “ethical hacker” and SocialProof Security chief executive Rachel Tobac said during the briefing.GenAI tools available for free from major companies allow scammers to change their faces and voices on video calls as they pretend to be someone they are not.”They can also use these deep fake bots that allow you to build a persona or place phone calls using a voice clone and a human actually doesn’t even need to be involved,” Tobac said.”They call them agents, but they’re not being used for customer support work. They’re being used for scams in an automated fashion.”Tobac urged people to be “politely paranoid” when an online acquaintance encourages a romantic connection, particularly when it leads to a request for money to deal with a supposed emergency or business opportunity.- Winter blues -The isolation and glum spirits that can come with winter weather along with the Valentine’s Day holiday is seen as a time of opportunity for scammers.”We definitely see an influx of scammers preying on that loneliness in the heart of winter,” Tobac said.The scammer’s main goal is money, with the tactic of building trust quickly and then contriving a reason for needing cash or personal data that could be used to access financial accounts, according to Tobac.”Being politely paranoid goes a long way, and verifying people are who they say they are,” Tobac said.Scammers operate across the gamut of social apps, with Meta seeing only a portion of the activity, according to Agranovich.Last year, Meta took down more than 408,000 accounts from West African countries being used by scammers to pose as military personnel or businessmen to romance people in Australia, Britain, Europe, the United States and elsewhere, according to the tech titan.Along with taking down nefarious networks, Meta is testing facial recognition technology to check potential online imposters detected by its systems or reported by users.

Two American astronauts who have been trapped on the International Space Station since June could return to Earth earlier in March than expected, NASA said Tuesday.Veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were due to spend eight days on the International Space Station (ISS), but have been there for more than eight months after their Boeing Starliner spacecraft suffered propulsion problems. The US space agency decided the Starliner would return home without its crew after carrying out weeks of intensive testing and announced in August that it was tasking Elon Musk’s SpaceX with bringing the crew home.Musk, one of President Donald Trump’s closest advisors, committed to bringing them back to Earth “as soon as possible” at the end of January, with Republicans blaming Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden for the delay.A SpaceX mission called Crew-9 saw two astronauts arrive at the ISS in September aboard a Dragon spacecraft, with two empty seats for Wilmore and Williams.But their return was postponed when NASA announced that Crew-10 who was due to relieve them would not be blasting off until the end of March at the earliest.The mission is now scheduled to launch on March 12 “pending mission readiness”, NASA announced Tuesday, explaining that the change was agreed with SpaceX after adjustments were made to the original plan.   Instead of using a brand new Dragon spacecraft that requires extra processing time, the Crew-10 mission will now use a previously flown one called Endurance.The astronauts will return to Earth following a handover period of several days, the agency added.In January, Wilmore and Williams said their spirits were still high, adding that they had plenty of food and were enjoying their time on the space station.While their protracted stay is notable, it has not yet surpassed Frank Rubio’s record-breaking 371 days aboard the ISS, which he completed in 2023 after the Russian spacecraft designated for his return developed a coolant leak.