HellsBelle

The Abacus Data-GZERO poll surveyed 1,500 Americans on politically radioactive issues like tariffs, fentanyl, and immigration. On the big one, tariffs, 47% of Trump voters support a 25% tariff on Canadian goods, while 67% of Democrats oppose it. Why the split? Republicans see it as a pain-free exercise. Only 19% of Trump voters believe tariffs on Canada will have a negative impact on them, as opposed to 65% of Democrat voters. “It’s striking how many Trump supporters appear unfazed by the impact of tariffs or Canadian retaliation,” says David Coletto, CEO of Abacus. “They may see it as cost-free now, but that blind spot could become a real liability if people start feeling the economic hit.”

Clearly this has not landed with Trump voters, who not only see tariffs as a net benefit to Americans but also believe that Canadians are taking advantage of them. That’s right, even though the free trade deal was negotiated by Ronald Reagan and Trump, somehow crafty ol’ Canada pulled a fast one on both of them. According to the poll, 67% of Trump voters believe the free trade pact benefits Canada “way more” than it does the US. Overall, 50% of Americans believe there is a huge trade deficit between the US and Canada, which means that Americans are basically “subsidizing” their northern neighbor.

That’s not true, by the way. The trade deficit between the US and Canada is not $250 billion, as Trump repeats, but less than $100 billion, mainly because Canada supplies the US with 24% of its energy, at a discounted price.

Donald Trump’s antics over the past week have put paid to the refrain, often heard in Europe, that the president should be taken “seriously but not literally”. It turns out that Trump literally wants Greenland. He doubled down on his aggressive rhetoric in a raging 45-minute call with the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, a few days ago, threatening crippling tariffs unless she agreed to sell the autonomous territory to the US. In response to Denmark’s sharp increase in military spending for the Arctic, including ships and drones, he derided Copenhagen’s “dog-sled” defences for Greenland, the world’s largest non-continental island, which pale in comparison with the strength of the US military base there.

The threat to take over the territory of a European country by force is something that Europeans now know all too well. Russia has repeatedly threatened east European countries, making good on those threats by invading Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine since 2014. Yet many Europeans are gobsmacked that such a threat is now coming from its greatest ally.

That said, the reaction has been muted. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the European Council president, António Costa, have said nothing, while the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, while speaking out initially, have joined in the collective silence. What’s going on?

A jury watched video Wednesday of a police investigator telling the man who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery that he wasn’t being arrested soon after he, along with his father and a neighbor, chased and killed the Black man after spotting him running in their neighborhood.

“You’re going home today,” Glynn County police investigator Roderic Nohilly told Travis McMichael roughly two hours after the shooting on Feb. 23, 2020.

Nohilly testified Wednesday as the first prosecution witness in the criminal misconduct trial of former District Attorney Jackie Johnson, coastal Glynn County’s top prosecutor when Arbery was killed nearly five years ago.

Phyllis Fong, a 22-year veteran of the department, had earlier told colleagues that she intended to stay after the White House terminated her on Friday, saying that she didn’t believe the administration had followed proper protocols, the sources said.

In an email to colleagues on Saturday, reviewed by Reuters, she said the independent council of the inspectors general on integrity and efficiency “has taken the position that these termination notices do not comply with the requirements set out in law and therefore are not effective at this time”.

Kennedy identified as “pro-choice” during his presidential campaign as a Democrat, but said repeatedly in Wednesday’s hearing for secretary of health and human services (HHS) that he agreed with Trump that “every abortion is a tragedy”.

“I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions a year. I agree with him that the states should control abortion,” Kennedy said in response to questions from Senator James Lankford, a Republican from Oklahoma, where abortion is banned.

“I serve at the pleasure of the president. I’m going to implement his policies,” he continued.

No, this isn’t Silicon Valley in the age of Maga. It’s the tech industry of the 1990s, when observers first raised concerns about the rightwing bend of Silicon Valley and the potential for “technofascism”. Despite the industry’s (often undeserved) reputation for liberalism, its reactionary foundations were baked in almost from the beginning. As Silicon Valley enters a second Trump administration, the gendered roots of its original reactionary movement offer insight into today’s rightward turn.

At the height of the dotcom mania in the 1990s, many critics warned of a creeping reactionary fervor. “Forget digital utopia,” wrote the longtime technology journalist Michael Malone, “we could be headed for techno-fascism.” Elsewhere, the writer Paulina Borsook called the valley’s worship of male power “a little reminiscent of the early celebrants of Eurofascism from the 1930s”.

“For us Canadians, it’s a double whammy,” Cedrone said, pointing to a loonie that trades for roughly 69 American cents, on top of rising maintenance costs.

“In Canadian dollars, last week I paid $18 for 18 eggs,” Cedrone said.

“We love this place. But it came to a point now — we are in our 70s — and it’s cheaper for me to come here two months and rent.”

Canadians made up nearly one-quarter of foreign sellers in Florida between April 2023 and March 2024 versus 11 per cent in the same period a year earlier, according to a National Realtors Association report.

The 4,265-kilometre trail stretches from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon and Washington state. The vast majority of the trail is in the U.S., but a small 13-kilometre extension stretches into Canada within E.C. Manning Park, southeast of Hope in southern B.C.

Previously, hikers were able to apply in advance for a permit that would allow them to hike across the border on the trail, but the CBSA said Monday that the rules have changed.

"Hikers from the U.S. without a permit who wish to complete the Canadian portion of the trail will from now on be required to first enter Canada via a designated port of entry," the CBSA said in a release, noting that the change brings it into alignment with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which does not allow travellers to enter the U.S. from Canada on the trail.

Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House that she spoke with the president on Monday night and he indicated that Feb. 1 was "still on the books" for the introduction of damaging duties against Canada and Mexico.

Ottawa has prepared multiple options for retaliatory tariffs, depending on what Trump ultimately does. Trump initially promised 25 per cent across-the-board tariffs in response to what he called the failure of both countries to curb the illegal flow of people and drugs across the border.

Canadian officials have been cycling through Washington in recent weeks to promote Canada's $1.3-billion border security plan and make the case that tariffs would hurt both economies.

Weinstein, 72, wants the extra charge thrown out, arguing through lawyers that Manhattan prosecutors only brought it to bolster their case with a third accuser after New York’s highest court overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women.

Judge Curtis Farber is expected to rule on that and other matters, including the trial date — a task that’s been complicated by an increasingly crowded court calendar.

Weinstein’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, is representing conservative strategist Steve Bannon in a border wall fraud trial that’s set to start March 4 before a different Manhattan judge. Meanwhile, Farber has a murder trial in March.

Elizabeth Rose Struhs died on Jan. 7, 2022 at her family’s home in Toowoomba in Queensland state after six days without her prescribed insulin shots for type-1 diabetes.

Her father, Jason Richard Struhs, 53, and the leader of the family’s religious group called “The Saints,” Brendan Luke Stevens, 63, had been charged with the more serious crime of murder, but Queensland Supreme Court Justice Martin Burns found both guilty of her manslaughter.

Burns also found another 12 members of the congregation, including the victim’s mother, Kerrie Elizabeth Struhs, 49, and the victim’s bother Zachary Alan Struhs, 22, guilty of manslaughter. No one charged escaped conviction.

Prosecutors have asked a judge to give the Democrat 15 years behind bars for crimes that include acting as an agent of the Egyptian government.

Menendez’s lawyers say he deserves less than two years in prison, citing his decades of public service and a life largely well-lived after the son of Cuban immigrants rose from poverty to become “the epitome of the American Dream.”

Two New Jersey businessmen convicted of paying bribes to the senator, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, also face sentencing Wednesday. Judge Sidney H. Stein will sentence them first before dealing with Menendez in the afternoon. A third businessman pleaded guilty and testified against Menendez at a trial last year.