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  • Rennie savors a ‘special win’ as the All Blacks brace for a Springboks backlash

    Rennie savors a ‘special win’ as the All Blacks brace for a Springboks backlash

    JOHANNESBURG – Just hours after securing a standout 33-16 victory over two-time world champion South Africa at Johannesburg’s iconic Ellis Park Stadium on Saturday, New Zealand All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie is already bracing for a fierce counterattack from the Springboks in next week’s second test.

    This result marks a defining early win for Rennie, who took over the All Blacks’ head coaching role earlier this year following a leadership shakeup that removed predecessor Scott Robertson over concerns about a dysfunctional team environment and misaligned preparation for next year’s Rugby World Cup. Entering Saturday’s opening test of the four-test series, the All Blacks had dropped five of their previous six encounters against South Africa, making the lopsided five-tries-to-one victory all the more impactful for the rebuilding side.

    The All Blacks faced a brutal first-half challenge, particularly at the scrum, where South Africa dominated the line of engagement. Star New Zealand loosehead prop Ethan de Groot struggled heavily against Springbok opposite Wilco Louw, a disadvantage compounded by the prop falling ill Friday that forced him to exit the team’s final captain’s run early to rest. De Groot was pulled from the match in the 38th minute, alongside lock Josh Lord, after the two forwards suffered a collision of heads. Rennie confirmed Friday that concussion protocols are unlikely to clear either player to compete in next Saturday’s second test scheduled for Cape Town.

    De Groot’s replacement, George Bower, whose selection over fan-favorite Xavier Numia had drawn debate among supporters, turned in a game-changing performance. Alongside fellow front-row replacements Fletcher Newell and backup hooker Asafo Aumua, Bower stabilized the New Zealand scrum and neutralized what had been South Africa’s biggest early weapon, turning the tide of the match. A critical penalty won against South Africa on a Springbok scrum feed inside the All Blacks’ 22-meter line around the 60-minute mark marked the turning point of the game.

    All Blacks captain Ardie Savea praised his team’s composure through the early pressure, saying, “You talk about being composed in tight moments, and you could just see the boys were really present in the moment. All you can ask for as a leader is for everyone to do their job, and everyone did that.” The side also navigated a late pre-match disruption, when reserve flanker Anton Segner was ruled out with ankle inflammation and replaced by Simon Parker. Parker is in line to feature in the mid-tour tour match against the Lions at Ellis Park on Tuesday, one of a handful of test squad members set to get additional game time in the fixture.

    Trailing by a single point at halftime, the All Blacks weathered South Africa’s early pressure to pull away for a comfortable final score, snapping the Springboks’ 12-test winning streak in the process. Rennie credited his squad’s relentless defense and clinical finishing when given opportunities, noting, “We were under the pump and the boys barred up. We defended and defended, and then we were clinical when we got our opportunities. So, yeah, I’m proud, a massive effort. It’s a great result for us, but we’re wary of the response we’ll get next week.”

    While Rennie and his coaching staff have already been credited with bringing clearer direction and improved team morale to the All Blacks since taking the reins in June, the head coach declined to accept praise following Saturday’s win, emphasizing the rebuilding project remains in early days. “We’re still in our infancy,” he said, “still getting our heads around how we want to play.” Taking a 1-0 series lead does not guarantee anything moving forward, Rennie added, saying “Next week is going to be just as tough. We’ll enjoy the moment.”

  • Israeli forces reportedly use phosphorus shells in attacks on southern Lebanon

    Israeli forces reportedly use phosphorus shells in attacks on southern Lebanon

    A new wave of intensive Israeli military strikes has swept through multiple regions of southern Lebanon overnight into Saturday, leaving widespread damage to civilian infrastructure and raising renewed international alarms over the reported use of controversial white phosphorus munitions, Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) has confirmed.

    Early Saturday morning, heavy Israeli artillery barrages targeted three key locations: the coastal town of Mansouri, the territory surrounding Bayt al-Sayyad, and the outer outskirts of Majdal Zoun. These strikes followed hours of sustained large-scale assaults across the same three areas overnight, NNA reported.

    In Bayt al-Sayyad, the destruction has been catastrophic. The state-run news outlet confirmed that every residential structure in the town sustained damage, with many reduced to rubble. Additional blasts were recorded in the southern Lebanese towns of Hadatha, Beit Yahoun and Aita al-Jabal, while Israeli troops also deployed sustained machine gun fire toward nearby agricultural and residential valleys, according to the report.

    Israeli military drones maintained continuous patrols over population centers across both the western and central sectors of southern Lebanon through the early morning hours, NNA added. In a separate targeted operation, Israeli warplanes carried out two separate air raids on Ali al-Taher hill, located on the northern edge of Nabatieh al-Fawqa.

    The most contentious element of the latest assaults is the confirmed use of phosphorus shells during overnight and early morning shelling of three additional areas: the outskirts of Dawhat Kfar Remman, the territory surrounding Dabsha hill, and the wooded zone of Ali al-Taher.

    This reported deployment of white phosphorus comes after repeated public warnings from international human rights organizations over Israel’s ongoing use of the incendiary weapon in southern Lebanon. International law explicitly bans the use of airburst white phosphorus in or near dense civilian populations, due to its indiscriminate nature that causes irreversible, often fatal harm to civilian bystanders.

    White phosphorus is a pyrophoric incendiary chemical that ignites immediately on contact with oxygen. When it touches human skin or structures, it causes deep, third-degree burns that often penetrate to the bone, and can burn through tissue all the way to bone. Inhalation of its toxic fumes causes severe respiratory damage, chemical burns to the airway, and can lead to fatal asphyxiation.

    This is not the first documented use of the weapon by Israeli forces in the region. In 2023, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report confirming that Israeli troops had deployed white phosphorus in the densely populated Gaza Strip, as well as in two rural border zones along the Israel-Lebanon frontier. In 2024, visual evidence collected and shared by HRW including geolocated photos and video footage showed white phosphorus munitions striking residential buildings in multiple southern Lebanese border villages, including Kafr Kila, Mays al-Jabal, Boustane, Markaba, and Aita al-Chaab.

  • Erasmus vows Springboks can still win series after Ellis Park rout by All Blacks

    Erasmus vows Springboks can still win series after Ellis Park rout by All Blacks

    JOHANNESBURG – A historic opening test match between two of rugby union’s most dominant global powers has left the four-year world champion South African Springboks facing an uphill battle for series victory, after New Zealand’s All Blacks delivered a stunning 33-16 win at Ellis Park over the weekend.

    The result marked the All Blacks’ largest ever victory on the iconic Ellis Park pitch, snapping South Africa’s 12-match unbeaten test streak – the longest winning run for the Springboks under head coach Rassie Erasmus – and stripping the double world champions of their coveted number one world test ranking.

    With the first full bilateral test series between the two sides in three decades still in play, three matches remain on the schedule, with the second test set to kick off next Saturday in Cape Town. Speaking to reporters after the defeat, Erasmus struck a confident tone, reminding supporters that the Springboks have rallied from opening match losses to claim major titles twice in recent years.

    “We have been in many difficult, high-stakes situations before,” Erasmus said, pointing to the 2021 test series against the British and Irish Lions, where South Africa dropped the opening match but rallied to win the three-match series. He also cited the 2019 Rugby World Cup, where an opening pool stage loss to New Zealand did not prevent the Springboks from lifting the world trophy.

    “The path forward is clear: we have to win three consecutive matches to take the series,” Erasmus said. “There’s no question this result puts New Zealand in a fantastic position, and they fully deserve that standing. They outplayed us completely, and they are the new number one team in the world – honestly, it will be nice to go into the next game as the underdogs.”

    Erasmus refused to soften the blunt assessment of his side’s performance, rejecting the common cliché that a heavy defeat acts as a necessary wake-up call for improvement. The Springboks held a narrow 13-12 halftime lead after a physically dominant opening 40 minutes in the scrum, but failed to convert a string of clear scoring chances, allowing the All Blacks to seize control after the break. New Zealand finished the match with five tries to South Africa’s one, pulling away comfortably in the final minutes.

    The defining turning point came with just over an hour played, when the Springboks held a 19-16 deficit and won a scrum just in front of the All Blacks’ goal line. Instead of capitalizing on the prime attacking opportunity, South Africa conceded a penalty from their own scrum feed, ceding momentum to the visitors.

    “I’m not going to sugarcoat this with generic lines about learning from defeat and getting better,” Erasmus said. “We didn’t need this loss to know what we had to do today – we knew exactly what we needed to do, we just failed to execute it. Even if we had scraped a one-point win out of this match, there would still be dozens of adjustments we need to make. We didn’t play well, we missed too many chances, and New Zealand forced those mistakes by playing with incredible intensity and sharpness.”

    Beyond on-field performance, Erasmus flagged injury concerns for two starting wingers heading into the second test: Cheslin Kolbe and Kurt-Lee Arendse. Arendse failed a mandatory head injury assessment in the first half after his mouthguard triggered a concussion alert, and under league protocol, the mandatory concussion stand-down rules put his availability for Cape Town in serious doubt. Kolbe, who stepped into the starting side as the team’s primary goalkicker ahead of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu for his proven accuracy, left the pitch in the second half with suspected cramping. Kolbe delivered a perfect performance from the tee, converting all four of his attempt on goal.

    As the series shifts to Cape Town, all eyes will be on whether Erasmus can refit his side and pull off another historic comeback against the sport’s new top-ranked team.

  • The hotel booking mix-up that could free mushroom murderer

    The hotel booking mix-up that could free mushroom murderer

    One year after Erin Patterson was convicted of poisoning three people and gravely injuring a fourth with toxic mushrooms at a 2023 lunch in rural Australia, her legal team is fighting to overturn her guilty verdicts in a high-profile appeal that hinges on an extraordinary, unplanned overlap between a sequestered jury, a national table tennis championship, and key prosecution personnel.

    Patterson’s crime, which killed her estranged husband’s parents and another relative, turned the normally quiet Gippsland region of Victoria into a global media hub in July 2024, when her high-stakes murder trial kicked off. Local towns from Korumburra, where the victims were well-known community members, to Morwell, the trial’s host, were flooded with journalists, legal teams, and curious onlookers, leaving local accommodation stretched thin.

    Trial judge Justice Christopher Beale made the rare decision to sequester the 12-person jury once deliberations began, a step designed to shield jurors from the pervasive public and media frenzy surrounding the case. Under Australian law, jurors are strictly prohibited from discussing the trial with outside parties or accessing external information, and sequestration was intended to eliminate the risk of improper influence on the verdict.

    But a catastrophic logistical collision turned an already challenging accommodation shortage into a full-blown crisis: the same week the jury retired to deliberate, hundreds of table tennis players, coaches, and spectators descended on Gippsland for the national championships, leaving almost no vacant hotel rooms in the area. In an email to legal teams on July 7, 2024, the judge’s chambers revealed a shocking truth: the sequestered jury was staying on a separate floor of the same hotel that housed lead investigating detective Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall, two prosecution solicitors, and multiple journalists covering the trial.

    Court documents confirm that all parties took steps to avoid interaction: jurors ate meals in a private conference room, and the detective and solicitors altered their routines to steer clear of common areas where they might encounter jury members. The supervising jury keeper reported no recorded contact between jurors and prosecution personnel. But even so, the overlap was immediately flagged as deeply problematic, and within hours of the email being sent, the jury delivered its guilty verdict on all murder charges.

    Now, before Victoria’s Court of Appeal, Patterson’s lead barrister Richard Edney has argued that the accommodation mix-up is a fundamental, irreversible error that fatally undermined the fairness of the trial. Edney called the incident “catastrophic” and an “inexplicable failure” of trial procedure, noting that critical gaps remain in the official record of what happened at the hotel. There is no CCTV footage of the property, no sworn statements from the journalists and other guests who shared the hotel with the jury, and only two brief emails documenting the situation. Unverified media reports from the time, which Edney cited this week, even claimed the overlap led to guests hiding in doorways and skipping meals to avoid contact, claims prosecution has dismissed as inaccurate.

    Edney acknowledged that there is no concrete evidence of improper communication between jurors and outside parties, but argued that even incidental, unintended contact could have created subconscious bias against Patterson. He pointed to prior Australian legal precedents where retrials were ordered for far smaller procedural missteps, including one case where a juror accepted a throat lozenge from a defendant’s relative, and another where jurors took an unescorted taxi ride.

    Most notably, Edney emphasized that the integrity of the justice system relies not just on fairness in practice, but on the public perception of fairness. “Justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done,” he told the court, repeating the standard the trial judge himself cited when selecting the jury.

    Prosecution, led by Director of Public Prosecutions Brendan Kissane KC, has pushed back sharply on the appeal arguments, contending that the trial system functioned exactly as intended. Kissane noted that all parties acted immediately to mitigate any risk once the overlap was discovered, and all involved—including the jury keeper, the lead detective, and the prosecution team—have confirmed no interaction occurred. Unlike the prior cases cited by the defense, where there was confirmed contact between jurors and outside parties, Kissane said there is no proof of any improper interaction in Patterson’s trial.

    The hotel sequestration error is the highest-profile of seven grounds for appeal Patterson has filed; the others challenge trial rulings on evidence and allege other instances of prosecution unfairness. The three appeal judges are currently deliberating on both Patterson’s appeal and a separate prosecution request to eliminate her eligibility for parole. They will release their ruling at a future, unspecified date.

  • All Blacks stun South Africa 33-16 at Ellis Park and snap Springboks’ 12-test win streak

    All Blacks stun South Africa 33-16 at Ellis Park and snap Springboks’ 12-test win streak

    The opening clash of a historic four-test rugby series between two of the sport’s most dominant global powers delivered a shocking result on Saturday, as New Zealand’s All Blacks pulled off a 33-16 upset over the world champion Springboks at Johannesburg’s iconic Ellis Park Stadium, claiming the first critical win of the first full bilateral test series between the sides in three decades. What began as a tightly contested, physically brutal first half ended with South Africa holding a narrow 13-12 lead, but a second-half tactical and physical turnaround from Dave Rennie’s revitalized All Blacks turned a tense matchup into a decisive rout, with the visitors crossing for five tries to South Africa’s one.

    South Africa entered the match riding a 12-test winning streak that began 11 months prior in Wellington, where the Springboks handed New Zealand their most lopsided defeat in modern history, 43-10. That momentum appeared to hold early on: the Springbok scrum, their traditional set-piece strength, outperformed pre-match expectations in the opening 40 minutes, pushing the All Blacks pack around the field. Overconfidence in that dominance ultimately proved fatal for the hosts, however. Rather than taking easy kickable penalty points at the high-altitude Ellis Park venue, South Africa opted repeatedly to kick for touch and chase tries to put the All Blacks away early. The plan backfired spectacularly: South Africa’s backline struggled to string together consistent attacking sequences, and was quickly shut down by New Zealand’s defensive line, forcing the bulk of the creative workload onto forward players including Jasper Wiese, Malcolm Marx and Paul de Villiers.

    The match’s turning point came just before the 60-minute mark. After Cheslin Kolbe converted a scrum penalty to extend South Africa’s lead to 16-12, New Zealand responded immediately off the restart. All Blacks lock Fabian Holland charged down a box kick from Springbok scrumhalf Grant Williams to score a converted try, putting New Zealand ahead 19-16 for the first time all afternoon.

    A key shift came when South Africa substituted starting props Ox Nché and Wilco Louw off the pitch. New Zealand’s replacement front row, consisting of George Bower, Asafo Aumua and Fletcher Newell, stabilized an All Blacks scrum that had been dominated in the first half, turning the set-piece into a platform for late attacking success. Not long after the substitution, South Africa was awarded a five-meter attacking scrum, but for the first time all match, the Springboks were penalized for wheeling, handing momentum straight back to the visitors.

    “The reserve front row that came on, I think we probably owe them a beer,” All Blacks scrumhalf Cam Roigard told reporters after the match. “We got a lot of energy from that.”

    A devastating break from fullback Damian McKenzie from his own half put more pressure on South Africa, resulting in an injury to Kolbe that forced the Springboks to reshuffle their backline, exposing gaps created by their 6-2 bench split that left them short of backline cover. New Zealand capitalized on the disorganization: awarded a five-meter attacking scrum of their own, flanker Luke Jacobson powered through Springbok captain Pieter-Steph du Toit to score, extending the All Blacks lead to 28-16 with 15 minutes left to play.

    Controversy around referee decisions followed as the match neared its close. English referee Matthew Carley, who had overseen three South African wins in previous All Blacks-Springboks matchups, overruled Television Match Official Mike Adamson on multiple key calls. One of the most impactful was a yellow card for Springbok forward Marco van Staden for cynical play on the try line, overturning an initial ruling that did not sanction the South African side. Just 60 seconds later, Cobus Reinach was also sent to the sin bin for a deliberate knock-on, leaving South Africa down to 13 men for the final minutes.

    With a numerical advantage, New Zealand extended their lead. Playing from the advantage, an unmarked Will Jordan latched onto a miss-out pass from Ardie Savea to score his second try of the match, putting the result beyond doubt. As the final 10 minutes ticked down, the energy of the packed Ellis Park crowd deflated, as supporters realized a comeback was out of reach.

    After the final whistle, du Toit acknowledged that unforced errors had sunk the Springboks’ chances. “We shot ourselves in the foot,” the captain said. “Unfortunately, in a game like this, small errors count.”

    The series will shift to sea-level Cape Town next Saturday for the second test, with New Zealand holding a surprising 1-0 series lead as both sides compete for the first full bilateral series win between the two nations in 30 years.

  • US military newspaper editor voices censorship fears after being fired

    US military newspaper editor voices censorship fears after being fired

    The ousted top editor of *Stars and Stripes*, the iconic independent newspaper for U.S. military service members worldwide, has publicly raised alarms about growing censorship within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) just one day after the Pentagon fired him for alleged insubordination. In an exclusive interview with the BBC, 21-year veteran editor Erik Slavin revealed he has no right to appeal his sudden dismissal, adding that senior Pentagon officials have grown increasingly unwilling to go on record with reporters at a time when transparent public information about military operations is more critical than ever.

    Slavin says his termination stems from a comment he made during a public interview, where he framed potential official censorship of the publication as an unacceptable “red line” for an independent press. He is not alone in being ousted: the newspaper’s Middle East correspondent Lara Korte and publisher Max Lederer have also been removed from their roles. All three dismissals are tied to an interview the editorial team gave to CBS Sunday Morning last month, according to CBS News, the BBC’s U.S. news partner.

    Lederer, who had previously announced his retirement earlier this week, noted that his core understanding of the paper’s mission and public value clashed in “fundamental ways” with the Pentagon’s vision for the publication. When reached for comment by the BBC, the Pentagon declined to issue any statement on the sackings.

    Founded to serve deployed U.S. troops, *Stars and Stripes* operates with a unique structure: while it receives partial funding from the DoD, longstanding congressional legislation and DoD regulations explicitly guarantee its full editorial independence. The publication reaches an average of 1.4 million readers daily, most accessing its content online, and continues to print print editions for service members stationed in regions with unreliable internet connectivity.

    Slavin says he has not received any formal written explanation for his firing, and he remains uncertain whether his dismissal is also connected to his outlet’s groundbreaking independent reporting on the prolonged deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln. The aircraft carrier has spent a historic 240 consecutive days at sea supporting U.S. operations amid ongoing U.S.-Israeli tensions with Iran, and *Stars and Stripes* reporting revealed that family members of deployed sailors have raised urgent concerns about crew mental health, with multiple incidents of sailors reportedly attempting to jump overboard.

    In a post on the social platform X, Korte emphasized the harm of the dismissals to the military community. “It’s a shame for the institution and service members, who swore to defend the Constitution and deserve the right to a free and independent press,” she wrote.

    The firings come amid a steady escalation of tensions between the Trump administration and independent U.S. media, with multiple high-profile clashes over press access and editorial freedom in recent months. Slavin pointed out that the Pentagon has not held a single on-the-record press briefing since May, even as reporters have repeatedly pushed back against attempts by officials to interfere with their independent reporting.

    Industry leaders have quickly condemned the dismissals. Mark Schoeff Jr., president of the National Press Club, called Slavin’s firing “another brazen attempt by the Pentagon to dictate coverage of the military and should be immediately reversed.”

    This latest conflict follows a string of other disputes over press freedom dating back to 2025. In October of this year, dozens of leading U.S. news outlets including the *New York Times*, *Washington Post*, CNN and the BBC rejected a new DoD policy that would have barred reporters from entering Pentagon facilities unless they agreed to only publish information officially authorized by the department. The Trump administration defended the proposed policy as a necessary measure to protect national security.

    Earlier in 2025, a U.S. federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore the Associated Press’ press access to presidential events after the White House blocked the outlet over its refusal to use the administration’s preferred term “Gulf of America” for the body of water historically known as the Gulf of Mexico. Just months before that ruling, the White House broke with decades of bipartisan tradition by seizing direct control of the independent press pool that provides coordinated on-the-ground coverage of the U.S. presidency.

  • Chinese humanoid robots smash human records in 100m sprint and high jump at Beijing robot games

    Chinese humanoid robots smash human records in 100m sprint and high jump at Beijing robot games

    BEIJING – On a landmark Saturday opening day of the second annual World Humanoid Robot Games, an Olympics-style competition for humanoid robotic platforms held at Beijing’s iconic National Speed Skating Oval, Chinese-engineered humanoid robots have broken long-standing world records set by elite human athletes – including outperforming Usain Bolt’s legendary 100-meter sprint mark.

    Hosted alongside the 2026 World Robot Conference, the five-day event draws more than 2,000 competing humanoid robots from 16 countries including Germany, Japan, and the United States. Across 51 event categories and more than 1,000 individual matchups, robots compete in sports ranging from running, table tennis and soccer to weightlifting and tug of war, offering a high-profile showcase of how far humanoid robotics technology has advanced globally.

    The most stunning results came on opening day: a humanoid robot developed by Beijing-based firm X-Humanoid clocked a 9.39-second 100-meter sprint, knocking 0.19 seconds off Bolt’s 16-year-old human world record of 9.58 seconds set in 2009. The same developer also produced a standing high jump robot that cleared 2.88 meters, far surpassing both the 2.45-meter human world record set by Javier Sotomayor in 1993 and the 0.95-meter previous robot world record from the inaugural 2024 games. Before the official competition, a robot built by Chinese smartphone brand Honor notched an even faster unofficial trial time of 9.32 seconds, hitting a peak speed of 14.5 meters per second.

    The display of technical progress comes as China solidifies its position as the world’s largest producer of humanoid robots, amid a growing global technology race with the United States that has escalated into trade restrictions in recent months. Last month, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced a ban on imports of new foreign-manufactured humanoid robots, framing the policy around unsubstantiated national security concerns that explicitly target Chinese robotics firms. The Pentagon also recently added Unitree Robotics, one of China’s leading humanoid and quadruped robot developers, to a blacklist of companies accused of having ties to the Chinese military, claims Beijing has formally rejected. Shares of Unitree, which just made its Shanghai stock exchange trading debut, have surged sharply in early trading amid growing investor interest in China’s robotics sector.

    The event opened with a dramatic procession of hundreds of humanoid robots marching in synchronized formation, demonstrating the precise coordinated motion control that Chinese developers have mastered in recent years. Alongside the competition, the parallel 2026 World Robot Conference is hosting a showcase of nearly 3,000 new robotic products from global firms, highlighting the breadth of commercial innovation in the sector.

    Even amid the breakthrough athletic performances, industry experts caution that widespread, mass deployment of humanoid robots in everyday real-world settings remains a distant goal. For the moment, most humanoid platforms are still used primarily for research, public demonstrations, and experimental performance applications, with significant technical and economic hurdles to clear before broad commercial adoption.

    Among spectators touring the Beijing venue, reactions to the rapid progress were largely enthusiastic. Li Yanfeng, a Beijing-based education worker who initially expressed skepticism about artificial intelligence’s growing role, said she attended the event to engage with what she now sees as an unstoppable technological shift. “At first, I wasn’t very accepting of AI, I was even a bit resistant to it, because of the possibility that it might replace or displace humans,” she explained. “But now that I see this development is unstoppable, I decided to come and take a look.”

    Another spectator, Yang Shangzheng, called the milestone achievements remarkable. “These sports are perfectly normal for humans, but now robots can do them. I find it amazing,” he said. Liu Tao, who attended the opening day with his son, added that he came to see “the best robots China currently has to offer,” praising the scale of innovation on display.

  • Carney calls Trump’s fresh tariffs a ‘miscalculation’ after trade talks collapse

    Carney calls Trump’s fresh tariffs a ‘miscalculation’ after trade talks collapse

    A high-stakes round of cross-border trade negotiations between Canada and the United States collapsed late Friday, leaving a fresh wave of punitive American tariffs set to take effect and triggering a swift promise of reciprocal retaliation from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

    In a nationally broadcast address to Canadian citizens Saturday morning, Carney slammed the incoming 50% tariffs on a swathe of Canadian goods as a deliberate political miscalculation aimed at sowing division and weakening Canada’s negotiating position. The prime minister confirmed he had walked away from a potential draft deal after US negotiators introduced unacceptable last-minute changes that would have forced Canada to sacrifice its national sovereignty.

    “They asked too much and they offered too little,” Carney told the nation, adding that Canada would match every dollar of new US tariffs with equivalent levies on American imports starting September 8. The counter-tariffs will target US steel, dairy products, home appliances and electronics, with full details of the retaliatory measures set to be公布 in the coming days. Carney emphasized that Canada was taking this step reluctantly, solely to defend the country’s economic interests.

    The breakdown of talks caps more than 12 months of intermittent negotiations that intensified dramatically in recent weeks, after the White House set a firm deadline for a new agreement or else Canada would face expanded trade barriers. For months, the discussions have been tied to a mandatory review of the existing United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the trilateral free trade pact that replaced the original NAFTA. Earlier this summer, both Canada and Mexico formally submitted a request to extend the current USMCA for 16 additional years, but US officials rejected the proposal, insisting on major changes to the agreement’s terms.

    Earlier in the week, both Canadian and US negotiating teams had publicly expressed optimism that a breakthrough was within reach. But those hopes dissolved Friday night, as each side blamed the other for derailing the process at the eleventh hour. While Carney accused US negotiators of pushing unfair, economically irrational last-minute changes, US representatives hit back, claiming Canada introduced unplanned new demands and walked back from provisions that had already been agreed to earlier in the week.

    The new 50% US tariffs will be added to a suite of existing import levies that the US has already imposed on Canadian steel, aluminum, automobiles and lumber. When asked about the impact of the collapsed talks on the future of USMCA, Carney acknowledged the outcome was “certainly not good news” for the regional trade pact.

    Tariffs have long been a cornerstone of President Donald Trump’s trade agenda, with the incumbent arguing that import taxes protect American manufacturing jobs and shrink the US trade deficit. But independent economists and trade critics have repeatedly pushed back against this framework, warning that tariffs ultimately raise consumer prices across the US, disrupt cross-border supply chains, and create broad headwinds for the global economy. As of Saturday, Trump had not issued any public comment on the collapsed talks or Carney’s retaliation announcement.

  • Federal judge vacates Trump policy that suspended processing of immigration visas from 75 countries

    Federal judge vacates Trump policy that suspended processing of immigration visas from 75 countries

    A controversial Trump administration immigration policy that froze processing of immigrant visas for applicants from 75 countries — including Afghanistan, Iran, Russia and Somalia — has been struck down by a federal judge in New York, who ruled the measure exceeded executive authority and violated existing U.S. immigration law.

    U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas, appointed to the bench during the Biden presidency, ruled Friday that the policy was fundamentally unlawful and went far beyond the statutory powers granted to the executive branch. In her ruling, Vargas found that then-Secretary of State Marco Rubio abused his authority by rolling out the policy, which directly conflicted with the terms of the Immigration and Nationality Act by ordering automatic visa refusals for otherwise eligible applicants with no legal grounding.

    The judge emphasized that the policy undermined a core structural requirement set by Congress, which reserves final, exclusive authority over individual visa decisions for trained consular officers, not blanket executive orders. “Congress imbued these officers with exclusive authority and discretion to determine if an immigrant is eligible for a visa based upon review of specific and detailed criteria set forth in the statute,” Vargas wrote in her opinion. “The Policy, which categorically prohibits the issuance of immigrant visas based upon the nationality of the applicant, represents a direct abrogation of this statutory scheme.”

    The policy was first challenged in court by two nonprofit advocacy groups and 11 individual plaintiffs. Among those plaintiffs were six people whose immediate family members had already been blocked from receiving visas under the rule, while five other foreign-based plaintiffs had submitted approved employment-based immigration petitions that were put on hold.

    Anna Gallagher, executive director of the Center for Legal Inclusiveness & Immigration Counseling (CLINIC) — one of the lead plaintiff organizations that supports a national network of immigration legal service providers — celebrated the ruling in a public statement. “We welcome this ruling because, at its heart, this case is about keeping families together,” Gallagher said. She added, “Catholic social teaching calls us to uphold the dignity of every person and recognize the family as the foundation of society. This decision affirms both those values and the rule of law, allowing families to once again move forward toward reunification.”

    The now-vacated policy was part of a broader series of restrictive immigration actions rolled out by the Trump administration, which put in place a growing list of travel and visa restrictions targeting majority African, Asian, and Latin American countries. When asked for comment on the ruling Saturday, a State Department spokesperson only reiterated the administration’s original framing of the policy, saying it was designed to “protect the American people by upholding the highest standards of screening and vetting of visa applicants” and declined to comment on ongoing litigation.

    When the policy was first introduced, it was framed as an extension of a broader November executive order tightening rules for immigrants deemed at risk of becoming so-called “public charges” — a term referring to new immigrants who may access public assistance programs. At the time, the State Department cited Council of Economic Advisers data claiming more than 30 percent of immigrant households from the 75 named countries used at least one form of public benefit. The policy applied to immigrant visa processing specifically, but a separate confidential cable sent to all U.S. embassies and consulates also mandated heightened scrutiny for non-immigrant visa applicants, requiring them to prove they would not access public benefits during their U.S. stay and mandating additional financial documentation for applicants flagged as high risk.

    Friday’s ruling marks the latest in a string of court victories for immigration advocates challenging the Trump administration’s restrictive immigration agenda. Just three months prior, in June, another federal judge struck down a separate Trump-era policy that created new barriers to entry and legal status for immigrants from dozens of countries, impacting asylum claims, work permits, green card applications, and citizenship pathways. In that case, the judge ruled the policy had thrown the lives of thousands of immigrants “into indeterminate legal limbo” and found U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had deliberately ignored existing statutory law in implementing the rule.

  • Carney faces crucial test after walking away from Trump’s deal

    Carney faces crucial test after walking away from Trump’s deal

    Decades of seamless free trade between longstanding allies and economic partners the United States and Canada have given way to an escalating, unpredictable trade conflict with no clear path to de-escalation, putting Prime Minister Mark Carney’s political leadership to an unprecedented global test.

    In a late-night decision that has sent ripples through global trade circles, Carney opted to suspend negotiations with President Donald Trump and implement retaliatory tariffs rather than sign off on a last-minute tentative agreement that was widely expected to be finalized. Carney stands among the first global leaders to walk away from the bargaining table with the current White House administration, making the outcome of this standoff a closely watched benchmark for how other nations can navigate pressure from Washington.

    Both sides have traded blame for the collapsed deal, with each accusing the other of eleventh-hour changes that sank the tentative agreement. For Carney, the next critical challenge is convincing Canadian households and businesses that short-term economic pain from the deepening trade fight is a worthwhile price for securing a better, more fair long-term trade deal that aligns with Canada’s national interests, after he rejected what he described as Trump’s aggressive high-pressure negotiating tactics.

    There is no avoiding the economic damage that will ripple across both sides of the northern border. New tariffs from the U.S. and matching counter-tariffs from Canada will heap additional pressure on cross-border supply chains and businesses on both sides. Canada relies heavily on the U.S. market, with roughly 70% of its total exports destined for American consumers, while Canada is the top trading partner for multiple U.S. states, including Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio — all of which face steep exposure to further trade disruption.

    Carney campaigned for and took office on an aggressive agenda framed by the ice hockey phrase “elbows up,” vowing to defend Canadian economic interests against the Trump administration’s “America First” agenda that has prioritized U.S. economic gains at the expense of trading partners. Recent polling suggests a majority of Canadian voters already back a tough stance: an Abacus Data survey puts public support for retaliatory measures at 36%, while a separate Leger poll found 56% of Canadians want the federal government to refuse further concessions to Washington.

    This popular backlash has already translated to tangible economic losses for U.S. industries. Frustrated by U.S. tariffs, many Canadians have opted to boycott travel to the U.S., a shift that drained roughly C$3.3 billion ($2.35 billion) from U.S. travel revenue last year alone. Most Canadian provinces have also moved to pull U.S. alcohol products from retail store shelves, a move that has devastated American alcohol exports to Canada. U.S. government trade data shows U.S. wine exports to Canada plummeted 78% year-over-year, representing a $357 million loss in export value. The Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. reports similar declines, with American spirit exports dropping by more than 70% amid the provincial bans — a shift that has already become a major point of friction for the Trump administration.

    Carney is set to meet with provincial leaders on Saturday to brief them on the breakdown of talks and build consensus for his hardline approach, as he works to convince less affected provinces that the risk of walking away from the deal is justified. For a full week leading up to the collapse, negotiators and observers widely believed a final agreement was within reach, but the exact details of how negotiations unraveled in the final hours remain unclear.

    In his public comments, Carney said the last-minute terms proposed by the U.S. were “unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal” Washington could offer. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer pushed back against that narrative, blaming the collapse on “new demands and walk backs of other commitments by Canada.” In a statement Friday, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States argued that “Canadian provinces’ continued refusal to return US spirits products to store shelves has led to this outcome.” As of the collapse, the two largest Canadian provinces, Ontario and Quebec, have not committed to reversing the U.S. alcohol boycott.

    Canadian media has also reported that U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick privately expressed opposition to the tentative draft agreement. As details of the potential interim deal emerged last week, provincial leaders, industry groups and political opponents across the Canadian political spectrum raised concerns that Carney had failed to deliver on his promise of a tough fight for Canadian interests.

    Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre had previously warned that any agreement including one-sided tariffs targeting Canadian industry would be “a bad deal” for the country, but after the collapse of talks, he backed Carney’s decision to walk away, stating: “Canada cannot accept one-sided tariffs that will deindustrialise our country.”

    Ontario Premier Doug Ford, one of the most vocal Canadian critics of U.S. tariffs, had stayed silent on the tentative deal in its final days, but a letter he sent to Carney this week, later released by his office, raised alarms that an agreement reached under U.S. pressure would “embolden the United States to seek concession after concession.” Ontario, home to Canada’s large manufacturing and auto sectors, has been among the hardest hit regions by the trade dispute. After negotiations broke down, Ford publicly backed Carney, saying “the prime minister has my full support for a strong response – tariff for tariff, dollar for dollar.”

    Now, all eyes are on Washington, as Carney and Canada wait to see what the Trump administration’s next move will be in the deepening trade conflict.