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A high-stakes diplomatic meeting is set to unfold on United States soil, as former President Donald Trump welcomes King Charles III for a formal visit that unfolds against a backdrop of growing friction between Washington and London. The long-awaited royal trip arrives at a moment of deep division between the two long-standing allies, with the simmering crisis over Iran emerging as the core flashpoint that threatens to complicate discussions between the two leaders. For decades, the United States and the United Kingdom have maintained a so-called special relationship, built on shared security goals, economic ties and cultural alignment. But in recent weeks, disagreements over how to address escalating tensions around Iran have opened a rare and noticeable rift between the two governments, casting a shadow over this symbolic royal engagement. Analysts note that while the visit carries heavy ceremonial weight, behind the formal handshakes and state dinners, both sides will be navigating significant differences on Iran policy. Whether the meeting will ease the current strain or further highlight the divide between the two allies remains to be seen as the visit gets underway.

The 2026 White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner, a staple gathering for Washington’s political and media elite held at the Washington Hilton hotel, descended into chaos Saturday night when gunshots rang out, leaving attendees and the public shaken by a brazen attempted attack targeting former U.S. President Donald Trump. In the aftermath of the incident, the performer on stage at the time of the shooting has shared a gripping first-hand account of the split-second terror that unfolded just feet from the former president.

Oz Pearlman, a well-known mentalist who was mid-act when the shots erupted, told the BBC that he was interacting directly with Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt when the attack began. At that exact moment, Pearlman was in the middle of a signature mind-reading trick: he had just written his guess for the name of Leavitt’s upcoming baby on a slip of paper, preparing to reveal it to the audience. In an instant, the festive atmosphere shattered at the sound of gunfire.

“I went down very quickly. And then the Secret Service brought President Trump down: I would say very effectively – but quite violently,” Pearlman recalled. The performer, who ended up mere centimeters from Trump on the venue floor, described the surreal, terrifying moment the pair locked eyes as shots continued to ring out. “We were about half-a-metre apart… face-to-face looking at each other on the ground, when I’m hearing shots and thinking to myself, ‘We’re about to die,’” he said.

Pearlman added that the initial rush of Secret Service agents initially led him to believe an explosive device was set to detonate, rather than an active shooter situation. “It didn’t feel like they were looking for a shooter. It felt like they were looking to stop something from happening,” he explained. Within just two seconds of taking cover, agents evacuated Trump from the venue, while Pearlman and other nearby attendees crawled to safety on their own.

In a post-incident interview with CBS’s *60 Minutes* Sunday, Trump downplayed the danger he faced, saying he “wasn’t worried” during the ordeal. “I understand life. We live in a crazy world,” the former president commented. He confirmed that both he and the First Lady followed security instructions to take cover on the floor before being evacuated.

Law enforcement officials have identified the suspect as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, a California resident who was arrested immediately after the shooting. According to two sources familiar with the investigation who spoke to CBS, the BBC’s U.S. news partner, Allen told authorities after his detention that he specifically intended to target current and former officials from the Trump administration. The shooting exchange occurred on a floor directly above the dinner ballroom, where Trump and hundreds of other attendees were gathered. Allen is scheduled to be arraigned at a Washington, D.C. court hearing Monday, where formal charges will be filed against him.

On the evening of April 26, 2026, a chaotic shooting incident unfolded at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner held at Washington Hilton, leaving the United States confronting another stark reminder of its growing crisis of politically motivated violence. The 31-year-old suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, a resident of Torrance, California, was taken into custody by law enforcement before he could reach the ballroom where former and current President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and multiple senior cabinet members were gathered.

According to statements from senior US law enforcement and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, early investigations into the suspect’s electronic devices and interviews with his acquaintances confirm that Allen planned to target senior members of the Trump administration, with President Trump as his primary target. “It does appear that he did in fact have set out to target folks that work in the administration, likely including the president,” Blanche told reporters.

Authorities have recovered a 1,000-word manifesto reportedly written by Allen, which was sent to the suspect’s family members minutes before he launched his attack. The document outlines a premeditated mass shooting plan that prioritized targets from the highest-ranking administration officials down to lower-ranking staff. Allen wrote, “I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary,” while adding that he “really hope it doesn’t come to that”. The manifesto also explicitly rails against Trump administration policies, and Allen refers to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin” in the writings, confirming the attack was politically motivated. Investigators have also uncovered dozens of anti-Trump social media posts linked to Allen, and the manifesto includes critical commentary on political oppression that frames inaction against perceived injustice as complicity.

Interim Washington Police Chief Jeffery Carroll confirmed that when Allen was apprehended in the hotel outside the WHCA dinner venue, he was carrying a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple bladed weapons. Investigators have secured a hotel room booked under Allen’s name and are conducting a forensic search to recover additional evidence. Allen is scheduled to appear at a federal court hearing in Washington, DC on Monday, and faces two severe federal charges: weapons possession during a violent felony, and assault of a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.

One Secret Service agent was wounded in the incident after being struck by gunfire, but the agent survived thanks to the protection of a ballistic vest. Footage of the incident released to the public shows Allen opening fire as he advanced toward a security checkpoint, before being taken into custody by law enforcement out of public view, well before he could access the main ballroom.

In comments made the day after the incident, President Trump stated that the suspect’s manifesto held anti-Christian beliefs and that the suspect “had a lot of hatred in his heart.” Trump, who had previously boycotted the WHCA media gala, noted after the attack that even amid the violence, the dinner had fulfilled its core purpose: “This was an event dedicated to freedom of speech that was supposed to bring together members of both parties with members of the press. And in a certain way, it did, because the fact that they just unified, I saw a room that was just totally unified.” Trump has also called for the event to be rescheduled amid the ongoing investigation, with the WHCA set to make a final decision on next steps. The incident has also bolstered Trump’s ongoing push to build a new dedicated event ballroom at the White House, as he criticized the Washington Hilton – located roughly a 10-minute drive from the White House and the site of the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan – for lacking adequate security. “It’s not particularly a secure building,” Trump said of the venue.

This incident marks at least the third apparent plot against Trump in less than two years: he survived an assassination attempt at a 2024 campaign rally in Pennsylvania, and just months after that, another man was arrested for pointing a rifle at Trump during a golf trip in Florida.

Saturday’s attack has also thrown a harsh spotlight on the systemic security gaps at the high-profile event. While all 2,600 dinner attendees were required to pass through metal detectors to access the basement ballroom, the hotel itself remained open to the general public, and anyone holding a ticket could enter the building without additional screening. Despite deploying hundreds of Secret Service agents to secure the event, Allen was still able to bring multiple firearms onto the same floor as the ballroom, where hundreds of senior lawmakers, cabinet officials, and public figures were gathered.

Multiple commentators and news outlets have framed the incident as the latest proof of the accelerating trend of political violence across the United States. Just months before this attack, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at a public rally, and before that, Democratic Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband were murdered, with a state senator also wounded in the attack. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted after Kirk’s killing found that a large majority of US voters agree that increasingly inflammatory partisan political rhetoric is directly fueling the rise in violent attacks across the country.

Four days of high-stakes diplomatic pageantry are set to kick off Monday in Washington D.C., as King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive for their first state visit to the United States under the second Trump administration. The trip remains on track almost entirely in its original form, despite heightened security jitters following a weekend security breach at a Trump event that left a Secret Service agent with minor injuries.

On a Saturday night in Washington D.C., a brazen shooting attack at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner has sent shockwaves across the nation’s capital, reopening long-simmering debates about gaps in U.S. security protocols amid a documented surge in political violence. The incident left one Secret Service agent injured, and remarkably, former and current U.S. President Donald Trump escaped without harm, though the attack has underscored just how vulnerable even the most heavily protected senior political figures remain.\n\nThe attack unfolded when an armed suspect stormed the lobby of the Washington Hilton, the venue hosting the high-profile gathering, before opening fire. Armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives, the suspect managed to advance to a floor directly above the basement ballroom where Trump and dozens of the nation’s most senior government leaders were dining. This was Trump’s first appearance at the annual dinner since returning to the presidency, and hundreds of law enforcement officers from multiple federal and local agencies had been assigned to secure the event.\n\nIn addition to the president, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and a roster of top congressional leaders, cabinet officials, and A-list celebrities were all in attendance at the event, which draws roughly 2,600 attendees annually.\n\nAuthorities have since identified the suspect as 31-year-old Cole Allen, a resident of Torrance, California. Washington’s police chief confirmed Allen was a registered guest at the Hilton hotel where the dinner was held, a venue with a fraught history: it was the site of the 1981 assassination attempt on former President Ronald Reagan, just a 10-minute drive from the White House.\n\nShortly after the incident, Trump shared an image of the subdued suspect, bound and lying on the ground, on his Truth Social platform. During a late-night White House press briefing, Trump confirmed law enforcement had raided Allen’s California apartment, and said preliminary investigations indicate the attacker acted as a lone wolf. When pressed on whether the attack could be tied to ongoing tensions related to the U.S.’s war with Iran, Trump noted, “I don’t think so. But you never know.”\n\nThe security breakdown that allowed an armed suspect to reach the upper floors of the venue has already raised urgent questions about protocol failures. While all dinner attendees were required to pass through metal detectors to access the basement ballroom, the hotel itself remained open to the general public, with anyone holding an event ticket allowed entry without additional screening. On the night of the attack, large crowds of protesters gathered outside the venue’s entrance demonstrating against the Trump administration’s Iran war, contributing to rushed entry screenings for guests, sources confirmed.\n\nFootage from inside the ballroom captured chaos as gunshots were reported, with attendees scrambling under tables and taking cover as security agents rushed Trump and other senior officials to secure evacuation routes. In a joint press conference following the attack, Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser confirmed all attendees had been accounted for and were unharmed beyond the injured Secret Service agent. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced the suspect faces multiple felony charges, including use of a firearm during a violent crime and assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon. Trump later confirmed Allen is in official custody.\n\nInternational leaders have already spoken out to condemn the act of political violence. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote on X, “Political violence has no place in any democracy and my thoughts are with all those who have been shaken by this disturbing event.”\n\nThis incident comes less than two years after two separate assassination attempts targeting Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign, the most high-profile of which was the July 2024 attack in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Trump narrowly escaped injury. Political violence has become increasingly frequent across the United States in recent years, and Saturday’s attack has confirmed what many security analysts have warned for months: even the nation’s most robust, well-funded protective detail for the president and senior leadership is not immune to critical vulnerabilities. Reuters notes it remains too early to draw definitive conclusions about whether law enforcement failures or communication gaps contributed to the security lapse, but the incident has already spurred renewed calls for sweeping reviews of security protocols for high-level political events.

For nearly his entire adult life, King Charles III has maintained a steady thread of official and unofficial visits to the United States, building connections with U.S. presidents, cultural icons, and communities across the country across more than five decades. Now, he is set to make his most high-profile U.S. trip yet: his first official state visit to the nation since ascending to the British throne following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

The newly crowned monarch will touch down in the U.S. on Monday, kicking off a multi-stop itinerary that will take him to Washington D.C., Virginia, and New York, before he departs for the British overseas territory of Bermuda. This trip marks a major milestone: it is the first official state visit to the U.S. by a reigning British monarch in nearly 20 years, the last being Queen Elizabeth II’s 2007 visit hosted by then-President George W. Bush.

To contextualize the significance of this upcoming historic visit, it is worth tracing the long arc of Charles’s connections to the U.S., dating back to his first official trip as a 21-year-old prince in 1970. During that debut visit, Charles took a seat in the White House Oval Office for a formal meeting with President Richard Nixon. That same trip, he and his sister Princess Anne enjoyed a distinctly American leisure activity: a baseball game at Washington D.C.’s iconic RFK Stadium, where they joined the children of the U.S. president and vice-president in the stands. In a 1974 stop during a naval deployment to San Diego, Charles traveled to Palm Springs to meet then-California Governor Ronald Reagan — a meeting that came six years before Reagan would be elected to the Oval Office. That same year, during a trip to Los Angeles, Charles visited the Warner Bros. set of *Funny Lady* where he met legendary American entertainer Barbra Streisand, sparking a decades-long personal friendship between the two.

Charles’s 1977 U.S. trip brought both protests and lighthearted moments. During a campus visit in Cleveland, Ohio, mounted police were deployed to manage demonstrations against British involvement in Northern Ireland. Later that year, a visit to a Los Angeles department store brought a playful encounter: Charles shared a laugh with actors posing as the King’s Guard during the event. In 1980, a polo match at Florida’s Palm Beach Polo Club ended with an unexpected health scare, when Charles was hospitalized and treated for heat exhaustion and dehydration after the game.

As Charles’s public role evolved, so did the nature of his U.S. visits. In 1985, he and his first wife, the late Princess Diana, made a stop at a Springfield, Virginia, department store, where Diana browsed jewelry selections while Charles chatted with a sales clerk. The following year, during a trip to Austin, Texas, the mayor of the city presented Charles with a traditional cowboy hat, which he gamely wore for photographers.

It would be 20 years before Charles made another landmark official U.S. trip, after his divorce from Diana and his remarriage to Queen Camilla (then Camilla Parker Bowles). In 2005, he returned to the White House for an official dinner with President George W. Bush. That same New York trip, Charles met future president Donald Trump and his wife Melania at a reception held at the Museum of Modern Art, and also took time to greet students at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. A decade later, in 2015, Charles returned to the Oval Office once again for a meeting with President Barack Obama during another U.S. trip.

Across more than 50 years of visits, Charles has built a long history of engagement with American political, cultural, and civic life, making his first state visit as monarch a highly anticipated event that carries both historical weight and new diplomatic meaning for the special relationship between the U.K. and the United States.

Nearly 20 years after Queen Elizabeth II’s final state visit to the United States, Britain’s current monarch King Charles III and his wife Queen Camilla have arrived for the first British state visit to the US in nearly two decades, set to run from April 27 to 30. Coming as the US prepares to mark the 250th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence from British rule, the four-day trip is framed as a celebration of the longstanding, close diplomatic alliance between the two nations. Unlike official working visits conducted by British prime ministers, state visits are formal, head-of-state-level engagements hosted by the invited nation’s head of state, placing this visit on the highest tier of diplomatic exchange.

The royal couple’s itinerary weaves together formal diplomacy, cultural exchange, and commemorative events across three jurisdictions: Washington DC, New York, and Virginia. Their first engagement on opening day will be an intimate afternoon tea with President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump at the White House, followed by a guided tour of the recently expanded White House Beehive on the South Lawn. Later that day, a garden party will welcome British and American guests at the official residence of the British ambassador to the US. This marks the first time a British royal garden party has been held on American soil in decades; the last such event was hosted by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at the Washington embassy back in 1939.

Day two of the visit will be centered on full formal diplomatic ceremonies at the White House. The Trumps will lead an official welcome featuring a full ceremonial military review, a tradition stretching back to the 1700s that will include the US Marine Band performing the national anthems of both countries and a 21-gun salute from the Presidential Salute Battery. Thousands of guests spanning cabinet members, congressional representatives, the British official delegation, military families, and students from the British International School of Washington will gather on the South Lawn to hear remarks from President Trump. After the welcome ceremony, the two heads of state will hold a bilateral meeting following a gift exchange and a formal receiving line for both national delegations. Parallel to this, Queen Camilla and First Lady Melania Trump will join American students for a cross-cultural education event that uses cutting-edge virtual reality headsets and AI-powered glasses to walk attendees through the shared history of the US and UK. In the evening, the Trumps will host a formal state dinner in the White House East Room in honor of the royal couple, where both President Trump and King Charles will deliver additional addresses. A key diplomatic highlight of the day will be King Charles’ address to a joint session of the US Congress, making him only the second British monarch ever to address the full legislative branch, following Queen Elizabeth II’s 1991 address during her state visit.

The visit has not proceeded without pre-event turbulence. Just two days before the royal couple’s arrival, a suspected gunman attempted to force entry into the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington DC, prompting questions about whether security arrangements would force a postponement or adjustment to the trip. UK Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones confirmed that additional security consultations would be held immediately following the incident, but stressed that appropriate security measures would be put in place to mitigate any risk. By Sunday evening, Buckingham Palace issued an official confirmation that the visit would proceed unchanged, noting that “The King and Queen are most grateful to all those who have worked at pace to ensure this remains the case and are looking forward to the Visit getting underway tomorrow.” President Trump has expressed strong optimism about the trip’s impact on US-UK relations, telling reporters that the visit will absolutely repair and strengthen bilateral ties, praising King Charles as a fantastic, brave man with whom he has maintained a longstanding personal relationship.

After wrapping up their two days of engagements in the national capital, the royal pair will travel to New York City on Wednesday. Their first stop in the city will be the 9/11 Memorial, where they will meet first responders and family members of victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani will attend the memorial event but has no plans for a private meeting with the King, per a statement from his office. While in New York, King Charles will also visit a local community organization and meet with a gathering of transatlantic business leaders, while Queen Camilla will attend a literary celebration marking 100 years since the creation of the beloved children’s character Winnie the Pooh. The day will conclude with a high-profile reception focused on supporting the creative industries, with widespread expectation that A-list celebrities will be in attendance, though no guest lists have been released to the public.

On the final day of the state visit, the King and Queen will return to Washington DC for a formal farewell ceremony with the Trumps, followed by a wreath-laying ceremony honoring fallen service members from both nations, a tribute to the longstanding US-UK military alliance. From Washington, they will travel to Virginia to visit a national park, engage with Indigenous communities and learn about the region’s Appalachian cultural heritage, before joining a public community celebration marking the 250th anniversary of American independence. After concluding the US state visit, King Charles will travel to Bermuda, a British overseas territory of which he is head of state, for his first official visit to the territory as monarch, before returning to the United Kingdom.

Several key absences and unresolved controversies have marked the lead-up to the visit. BBC sources have confirmed that the royal couple will not hold a meeting with Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and his wife Meghan, who stepped down as working royals several years ago and currently reside in California. Additionally, there have been growing public calls from US lawmakers and Epstein survivor advocates for King Charles to meet with survivors of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The calls come after King Charles’ brother, Prince Andrew, who had well-documented close ties to Epstein, was arrested in the UK in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office; Prince Andrew has repeatedly and vigorously denied all wrongdoing against him. Buckingham Palace has confirmed that King Charles will not hold a meeting with survivors during this visit, citing concerns that such a meeting could compromise ongoing police investigations and legal proceedings. Queen Camilla, however, is scheduled to meet with representatives of organizations working to end domestic abuse and violence against women during one of her public events on the trip.

In a series of informal interviews with the BBC ahead of the visit, everyday Americans shared their own suggestions for the royal couple’s downtime, with one lighthearted, widely shared recommendation: find time to try authentic American gelato during their stay across the country’s east coast.

One year into Mark Carney’s tenure as Canada’s Prime Minister, the former two-country central banker with elite academic credentials from Harvard and Oxford finds himself at an unprecedented high in public approval, capping a meteoric rise from political outsider to leader of a G7 nation that has defied all conventional political playbooks.

Carney entered the political landscape 12 months ago, replacing Justin Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party with a sterling professional resume but zero prior experience running for public office. Critics and political observers widely warned that his lack of elected experience would prove a fatal liability, but Carney defied those early expectations: he led the Liberals to a minority government in his first election, and within a year, secured a narrow parliamentary majority after five opposition Members of Parliament crossed the floor to join his caucus.

His rapid ascent has earned him international acclaim matching his domestic popularity. Last week, Time Magazine included Carney on its annual list of the world’s 100 most influential people. In a tribute written for the outlet, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde dubbed Carney a “rock-star” economist and politician, crediting him as the first global leader to clearly conceptualize the breaking point of the old geopolitical order, fractured in the wake of Donald Trump’s second presidential term in the United States. “I trust he will now reinvent cooperation among the willing for the common good of all,” Lagarde wrote.

Carney’s high profile grew even larger following a January keynote address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he emerged as a leading global voice pushing back against Trump’s unilateral agenda. In the speech, he openly called out the rupture of the post-WWII rules-based international order and urged middle powers to collaborate to counter the growing risks of the new era of great power rivalry. The address was widely praised for its candor, cementing Carney’s reputation both at home and abroad as a steady leader for turbulent times.

Polling data from aggregate site 338Canada puts Carney’s current support at 46% — the highest approval rating of his tenure to date. David Coletto, CEO of leading Canadian polling firm Abacus Data, explains that a large part of Carney’s popularity stems from shifting voter priorities in Canada amid heightened tensions with the United States. Trump’s deeply unpopular policies, including steep sectoral tariffs on Canadian goods and repeated public comments suggesting Canada should become the 51st U.S. state, have left Canadians viewing external threats as the most pressing risk facing the country. This has upended long-standing Canadian political norms, where voters have historically prioritized domestic issues over foreign policy, Coletto notes. “It matters to Canadians that Canada has a leader that many in other parts of the world wish they had,” Coletto told the BBC, adding that the global acclaim reinforces public perception that Carney is “right for the job” at this moment of global uncertainty.

Carney has laid out an ambitious policy agenda for Canadians: the most sweeping housing construction plan since World War II, a push to position Canada as a global energy superpower, reduced economic dependency on the United States, and a forceful pushback against Trump’s tariffs. With high approval and a solid majority in parliament, expectations for transformative change run high. But as Carney enters his second year in office, political observers warn he has reached a critical inflection point: can he maintain his status as a global standard-bearer for progressive multilateral cooperation while delivering on core domestic promises to Canadian voters?

In his first year in office, Carney spent weeks traveling abroad, courting investment and trade opportunities in key markets including China, India, and the United Arab Emirates. But that global focus has drawn criticism from opposition leaders, who argue critical domestic files have been sidelined. Conservative Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre has attacked Carney for lack of progress on renegotiating the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which is set for a mandatory review this summer. Steep U.S. tariffs on Canadian metals, automotive products, and lumber have already cost thousands of Canadian jobs, and as of yet, no formal negotiating date has been set for talks to resolve the dispute. Carney’s new U.S. Ambassador Mark Wiseman confirmed the timeline uncertainty to parliamentarians earlier this month. “What has Mark Carney really done in a year on this? He hasn’t held negotiations in five months,” Poilievre told reporters in Ottawa. “He’s done absolutely nothing on this file in the last year other than to stoke fear and distract from his catastrophic failings here at home.”

Domestic affordability is also reemerging as a top voter concern, putting pressure on Carney to deliver results. Global oil price spikes driven by the ongoing U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran have pushed up fuel costs across Canada, home prices remain out of reach for millions of first-time buyers, and youth unemployment has stayed stubbornly high. Carney has moved to address immediate pain points, recently announcing a temporary fuel tax cut and a one-time grocery rebate that will be deposited directly to eligible Canadians’ bank accounts in June. But longer-term promises have lagged: his flagship pledge to double annual home construction to cool housing prices has faced criticism from experts, who note his first budget allocated insufficient funding to the effort, and instead relies largely on tightening immigration to reduce housing demand. In a post-budget op-ed for the Toronto Star late last year, Mike Moffatt, a Canadian economist and former advisor to Justin Trudeau, wrote that Carney’s housing pledges had effectively been “watered down.”

Still, political insiders note Carney has room to deliver on his promises before the next general election, which is not scheduled until 2029 thanks to his newly secured parliamentary majority. “The country has been willing to give him a lot of rope to go out and do what he believes he needs to do in order to protect the country’s interests,” said Carlene Variyan, a veteran Ottawa-based political strategist who has worked with the Liberal Party for more than a decade, including a stint as the party’s national campaign spokesperson. The core question that will define Carney’s tenure, Variyan added, remains whether he can succeed as a global standard-bearer for a new multilateral coalition “while also taking care of his own people here at home.” Carney has acknowledged the growing pressure, releasing a 10-minute social media video last week reassuring Canadians that his administration “is acting and will continue to act” to solve the country’s most pressing challenges. But Poilievre argues that reassurances are not enough: Canadians need tangible action, not social media messaging.