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Canada-US Tariff War: August 25, 2026

Canada on Tuesday laid out a dollar-for-dollar counterstrike in its trade fight with the United States, announcing tariffs of up to 50 percent on billions of dollars of American goods after talks collapsed last week.

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, joined by other cabinet ministers in Ottawa, said the measures would cover about C$28 billion worth of U.S. imports, or roughly $20 billion, and take effect September 8. Officials described the list as matching, product by product, the duties Washington imposed after Friday night’s breakdown. Steel and aluminum tariffs already in place will rise from 25 to 50 percent. Other U.S. goods, including furniture, clothing, honey, makeup, paper and smartphones, face 50 percent. Appliances, seafood and cheese are among items at 25 percent. A shorter list, including air conditioners and some machinery, is at 15 percent. Energy and potash were left off. Ottawa also announced a C$7.5 billion package of supports for workers and firms, including temporary employment-insurance changes.

The U.S. tariffs, imposed under a Depression-era statute after negotiators failed to close a deal, hit a range of Canadian exports at 50 percent. Prime Minister Mark Carney had already promised a reciprocal response. Champagne said the American terms were “uneconomic, unfair, and ultimately unacceptable,” and that they would have “real consequences for Canadian workers, businesses and communities.” “Canada must respond,” he said.

The White House said the United States had been prepared to offer Canada “the most preferential market access of any country on Earth,” and accused Ottawa of unreasonable demands. Trump, posting on Truth Social, called Canada “the most difficult and unreasonable” country he deals with and floated renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America.” He has also threatened to raise U.S. tariffs on Canadian automobiles to 50 percent as of January 1. Carney has accused Trump of trying to destroy Canadian auto, steel and aluminum industries.

The fight puts more strain on the North American trade pact among Canada, the United States and Mexico. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum sent her economy secretary to Washington after the Canada talks fell apart. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who called Trump a “loser” on Monday, told CNN on Tuesday that things “got a little heated” but that he still wants a deal. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre asked Carney to recall Parliament and release the rejected draft. Business groups warned that both the tariffs and the support programs will be messy for companies to navigate.

Syria Off the US Terrorism List: August 25, 2026

The United States has taken Syria off its list of state sponsors of terrorism after 47 years, a step Washington billed as clearing the last major barrier to private investment and Damascus treated, into Tuesday, as a historic break with isolation.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday’s decision recognized “positive actions” and further commitments by President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government to distance Syria from international terrorism. Rubio said it “eliminates the final major barriers for private sector investment in Syria” and gives Syrians “a path to prosperity.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the move would help foster investment and political and economic stability, in line with President Donald Trump’s promise of sanctions relief. The designation, in place since 1979, carried restrictions on U.S. aid, defense sales, dual-use goods and financial transactions. It had remained a deterrent for banks even after Washington dismantled much of its broader Syria sanctions program.

Washington also revoked the remaining U.S. terrorist designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist group formerly known as the al-Nusra Front. HTS, once al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, broke with that network in 2016 and led the late-2024 offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad. Sharaa, its former leader, now heads the transitional government. He once carried an American bounty. The Trump administration has embraced him, including a White House visit last year, as part of an effort to pull Syria away from Russia and Iran. Cuba, North Korea and Iran are now the only countries left on the state sponsors list.

The delisting took effect after a 45-day congressional review that began when Trump notified Congress on July 8. Syrian officials spent Tuesday talking as if a door had opened. Sharaa said Syria was shaking off “a dark stain” and tearing away “a painful chapter of its past.” Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani called it a historic step and said the old designation was “associated with the policies and practices of the former regime.” Turkey and Saudi Arabia both welcomed the decision, with Ankara calling it one of the biggest obstacles to reconstruction.

The risks are still obvious. Syria is far from secure, lacks a representative government, and sits in the middle of growing tension between Israel and Turkey. The Treasury stressed that lifting the listing does not change its posture on countering terrorism or holding bad actors in Syria accountable. Whether banks and investors actually come back will depend on what happens next, not just on a line disappearing from a U.S. list.

Strait of Hormuz: August 25, 2026

The Strait of Hormuz was still the hinge of a six-month war on Tuesday, even as Iran and Oman talked up a temporary shipping corridor and Washington claimed the U.S. Navy had already cleared mines from international waters. None of that, Tehran said, meant the strait was open.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Oman’s Badr al-Busaidi, meeting in Tehran, said they had discussed a phased framework that would include a joint temporary navigational corridor and a joint project to clear mines. They also said technical talks would continue toward a more permanent corridor and “future administration” of the waterway, plus traffic management and security services. Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, was blunt about the limits. He said Hormuz remains closed and under Iranian control, dismissed reports of ships passing through as “baseless,” and argued that the Oman talks do not amount to a reopening. He described a proposed temporary route about seven miles wide, with the entry and part of the exit running through Iranian territorial waters.

President Donald Trump, posting on Truth Social, said the Navy had removed or detonated all mines in international waters of the strait and warned that any vessel placing new mines would be “immediately and systematically destroyed.” Maritime authorities were less categorical. The Joint Maritime Information Center said Tuesday there was still a continued risk of drifting or uncharted mines, with mine danger areas still active, and kept its threat assessment at severe.

The scramble sat on top of a new U.S. economic campaign. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday launched what he called Operation Economic Outcast, an “economic D-Day” meant to cut off Iran’s remaining financial lifelines. The Treasury sanctioned nearly 60 people, entities and vessels and expanded the kinds of Iran-related activity that could face secondary sanctions, covering digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping. Bessent warned countries still doing business with Tehran, but he stopped short of naming targets or imposing the harshest penalties, asking why he would want to “blow up the global financial system.” Chinese banks, long suspected of handling Iranian oil trade, were not on the list.

Iran’s economy minister, Ali Madanizadeh, called the measures an “economic terrorist attack” and said Washington should “expect an attack” in return, without saying what that would look like. China, Iran’s biggest oil customer in recent years, said it opposed “illegal unilateral sanctions” and would protect its own interests. Pakistan, which has been trying to mediate, said a visiting delegation led by army chief Asim Munir made “significant progress” in talks with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian focused on de-escalation and reopening the strait.

Before the war, which began in late February after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, Hormuz carried about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas. Shipping data showed just two commodity vessels transiting on Monday, the lowest daily tally since early May. The International Maritime Organization has confirmed 68 incidents in the Gulf and nearby waters over six months. Oil prices, which had jumped through much of August, steadied on Tuesday.

New Zealand Moves to Ban Under-16s From Social Media: August 24, 2026

New Zealand’s prime minister wants under-16s off social media. Whether Parliament will let him is another question.

Christopher Luxon on Monday introduced the Online Safety (Minimum Age and Child Safety Risk Assessment) Bill, modeled on Australia’s world-first under-16 ban that took effect in December 2025. “High risk” platforms — Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, and, according to officials, YouTube and X — would have to take “reasonable steps” to check users are 16 or older, using account data, facial age estimation, digital ID, or formal ID. Companies that fail could be fined up to 10 percent of global revenue, a steeper potential hit than Australia’s maximum fine of A$99 million. Parents and children would not be penalized. Messaging apps such as WhatsApp, games like Roblox, and productivity AI tools would be excluded, as they are in Australia.

“We simply cannot accept the harm being done to a generation of New Zealand children,” Luxon said. He cited 2025 research that a third of New Zealand teenagers spend at least five hours a day on social media, and argued that platforms expose them to “harmful content, addictive technology and pressures they are not equipped to deal with.” Education Minister Erica Stanford is shepherding the bill. A new regulator would sit inside the Department of Internal Affairs.

The politics are messy. Coalition partners ACT and New Zealand First have already said they will vote no. Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour said the ban would not work. NZ First leader Winston Peters called Australia’s law a “colossal failure” and warned of a “slippery slope.” Labour leader Chris Hipkins said his party has not decided. Parliament dissolves on October 1 ahead of a November election, so the bill will not get a vote this term. Luxon is pitching it as a post-election promise if National is returned.

Australia’s experience is the backdrop and the cautionary tale. Child-safety advocates have welcomed age limits. Privacy groups and digital-rights campaigners say age checks can be cheated and that forcing ID raises other problems. University of Queensland professor Nicholas Carah, quoted by the ABC, said more than eight in ten Australian teenagers were still on social media three months after that ban. Amnesty International’s Hannah Storey argued the real work is making platforms safer by design for everyone, not just fencing off children.

Colombia Orders Deportation of Irregular Migrants: August 24, 2026

Colombia’s new president has told migration officers to start deporting people without regular status, ending — at least in rhetoric — more than a decade in which Bogotá was the main host for Venezuelans fleeing crisis next door.

Abelardo de la Espriella, in office since August 7, gave the order at a Sunday security council in Barranquilla, the government’s alternate seat. A leaked video of the meeting circulated Monday. “The order to Migration is clear: first those committing crimes, second those who have not regularised their status, who in due course will have to be deported,” he said. He added: “I will not accept illegal migration. First Colombians, second Colombians and third Colombians.”

Joint operations by Migración Colombia and the police are supposed to begin this week. The president said the decision is both political and administrative, and that he will “assume” the cost. It is a sharp turn from the Temporary Protection Statute created by decree in March 2021, which offered a free permit and made Colombia an international reference point for regularization. Colombia took in almost a third of the 7.8 million people who have left Venezuela since 2015, under governments of different political stripes.

The numbers in play are large and disputed. The UN refugee agency estimated about three million Venezuelans living in Colombia in 2025. Migración Colombia data from January, cited by La Silla Vacía, put roughly 82 percent of Venezuelan migrants in regular status and close to 500,000 without it. The Venezuela Observatory at Universidad del Rosario has put the irregular figure higher, at 848,000, including 193,000 minors.

Critics moved quickly. Researcher Ronal Rodríguez said a person in irregular status is not a criminal. Congresswoman María Fernanda Carrascal of the Pacto Histórico called the measure “an affront to human rights.” Academic Andrés Sampayo has estimated Venezuelan migrants’ contribution to the Colombian economy at around $3 billion a year in consumption, taxes, and entrepreneurship. Any mass return would also require cooperation from Venezuela, which shares a 2,219-kilometer land border and is in a U.S.-backed political transition under acting president Delcy Rodríguez.

Allies Meet in Kyiv on Ukraine Independence Day: August 24, 2026

Ukraine marked 35 years of independence on Monday with European allies in Kyiv — and with a blunt request for more air defense.

The Coalition of the Willing met in the capital, co-chaired by UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who was in the city on his first foreign trip since taking office last month, and by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who joined by video. European Council President Antonio Costa attended in person. The gathering followed a Nordic and Baltic visit on Flag Day a day earlier, when Norway said it would provide another 85 billion kroner (about $9.1 billion) in 2027, matching this year’s support.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used the meeting to put numbers on a shortage Kyiv has usually kept quiet. Ukraine received 675 Patriot interceptor missiles in 2023 and 364 in 2025, he said, even as Russian strikes increased. The projection for 2026 is 264. He said Ukraine needs a package of at least 300 interceptors to get through winter, and he cited a $27 billion defense funding gap this year.

Britain announced it would share classified technical information on UK-made parts of the Franco-British SCALP / Storm Shadow cruise missile, a step toward assembling the weapon in Ukraine. France has already licensed the technology. In a co-chairs’ statement, the coalition pledged to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses “as a matter of urgent priority,” share relevant technologies, tighten sanctions, and keep preparing a multinational force to deploy after a credible ceasefire.

The Kremlin was not impressed. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said London was “throwing oil on the fire” and warned Russia would destroy plants producing the missile in Ukraine. Burnham, standing with Zelenskyy, said: “We are with you in this struggle all the way, heart and soul.” Zelenskyy, in an embroidered shirt, told the country and its guests that Ukraine wants peace but “is not ready to simply surrender.”

The diplomacy played out against another weekend of strikes. Regional officials said a Russian drone hit an electric train in the Kharkiv region on Sunday, killing two women; another attack on the outskirts of Kharkiv killed three. The Élysée statement said recent Russian attacks have caused the highest civilian casualties since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.

Mass Mosque Abduction in Nigeria: August 24, 2026

A video circulating since Sunday appears to show hundreds of people — many of them women, children, and older men — sitting in a forested clearing, ringed by armed men. The footage, posted on Facebook and WhatsApp, is being linked to a Friday raid on mosques in Nigeria’s north-central Niger state.

Gunmen struck during Jumu’at prayers on August 21 in Dekara (also reported as Dekera) and nearby communities in Borgu Local Government Area, including Kpenya, Sabon-Gida, and Gidan-Zana. Residents described simultaneous attacks on several villages and mosques. The Niger State Police Command confirmed the raid and said it happened around 2 p.m. Police have not verified a headcount. Local residents and some international reports have put the number taken as high as 500 to 600; officers say they still cannot confirm how many people were abducted.

In the video, children can be heard crying. A gunman speaking Hausa told families to look for relatives. “These are all your people,” he said, according to footage quoted by Al Jazeera and Reuters. Residents, including Abdulmutallib Muqaddas Dindi, told reporters they recognized elders, wives, and children among the captives. News agencies said they could not independently verify where or when the video was filmed, though no earlier copy has turned up online.

Niger State Information Commissioner Obed Nuhu Nana said Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago has ordered a joint rescue operation to “assess the situation, track the attackers, and facilitate the rescue of the abducted worshippers.” Police spokesperson SP Wasiu Abiodun said no lives were lost in the attack itself. Some residents have since claimed later deaths and said hundreds of people have fled across the border into Benin Republic; those claims have not been independently confirmed.

Mass kidnapping for ransom has become a grinding crisis across northwestern and north-central Nigeria. Armed gangs raid villages, schools, and highways and hold people until families or communities pay. The latest attack lands as President Bola Tinubu prepares for a presidential election in January, with security already a central campaign issue. Amnesty International has urged Nigerian authorities to secure the worshippers’ release.

Supreme Court Backs Trump on Mail-In Voting: August 24, 2026

The Supreme Court Mail-In Voting Order

The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the Trump administration to start carrying out an executive order that restricts mail-in voting ahead of the November midterms.

In an unsigned opinion in Trump v. California, the Court paused an injunction from a federal judge in Boston that had blocked the order in 23 states and Washington, D.C. The majority said the states sued too early. Because the order itself had not yet been put into effect, the Court said the states had not been injured in a way that lets the lawsuit go forward.

The March executive order tells the Department of Homeland Security to compile lists of adult U.S. citizens in each state, tells the attorney general to prioritize prosecuting officials who issue federal ballots to ineligible voters, and tells the Postal Service to set rules for which mail ballots it will handle.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. Jackson wrote that the majority had missed “the Government’s actual objective: to secure our imprimatur for its effort to foment chaos ahead of the November elections.” Sotomayor stressed that today’s ruling does not decide whether the president actually has the power to do this.

A separate nationwide injunction, from the same Boston judge in a case brought by voting-rights groups, still bars the U.S. Postal Service from putting its new mail-ballot rule into effect. That order was not lifted on Monday.

The Court said that if the Postal Service’s final rule harms the states, they can challenge the rule itself. Mail-in and absentee voting in some states is expected to start within about a month.

Sources: SCOTUSblog; Supreme Court opinion in Trump v. California, 26A124.