Canada launches 50% retaliatory tariffs on hundreds of US imports
Canada has said it will implement 50% retaliatory tariffs on $20bn worth of US goods, following through on prime minister Mark Carney’s vow to match Donald Trump’s duties “dollar for dollar”.
The new tariffs will take effect from 8 September and will impose duties of 15%, 25% and 50% across 700 products, the Canadian government said in a statement.
Key events
On Monday, we reported that the supreme court lifted one of the injunctions blocking Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at curbing mail‑in voting.
As we’ve reported, the justices did not rule on the legality of the order itself – which directs the Department of Homeland Security to assemble a “state citizenship list” and instructs the US Postal Service to accept mail ballots only from people on that list.
Instead, in a 6–3 emergency decision with the liberal justices dissenting, the court said the injunction should be paused because the challengers sued prematurely. At the time, USPS had not yet detailed how it would decline to deliver ballots mailed by voters who are not on the federally approved list.
That changed last week, when USPS issued a final rule spelling out those steps – opening the door to fresh legal challenges.
“Please don’t overreact to the Roberts Court decision on the contemplated USPS ballot moves,” said Norm Eisen, co‑founder and executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, which is leading one of the challenges. “They simply held that the injunction came too early, before a final rule.”
A second nationwide block from a federal judge still blocks USPS from implementing the order, and the supreme court did not address that one on Monday.
Trump blasts Canada as ‘most difficult and unreasonable’ country he deals with
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has continued to blast Canada for “ripping off” the US “for decades”.
“They have been charging our Farmers 400% Tariffs, and more. They have driven many wonderful U.S. companies out of business. For 10 years they wouldn’t certify Gulfstream Jets, until I got involved. They wanted 100% of the market for Gulfstream’s Canadian competitor,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “I deal with many countries, and Canada is easily the most difficult and unreasonable. They feel entitled, but they are not a State, and will be entitled no longer!”
Canada prepares for retaliatory tariffs: ‘We’re not waiting by the phone’
Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s trade minister, said that Canada will likely unveil its retaliatory tariffs today on US imports after trade talks collapsed over the weekend – and 50% duties on $20bn worth of Canadian goods took effect.
“Our preference was to find a deal that benefits both countries,” LeBlanch said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. “We still believe that’s possible. But in the meantime, we’re not waiting by the phone.”
We’ll bring you the latest from Ottawa as the latest duties are announced.
Tom Perkins
A new rule proposed by the Trump administration aims to kill public notification for datacenter air pollution, public health advocates warn, and allow emission permits to be issued behind closed doors.
The datacenters are often sources of nitrogen oxide, which helps form ozone, carbon monoxide and heavy metals, among other pollutants.
The Clean Air Act requires “minor” air polluters to disclose to the public via state agencies how much pollution their proposed project will release, but the proposed new rule from Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would dismantle that protection for datacenter proposals. Instead, it would make disclosure voluntary at state and some local officials’ discretion.
Many state political establishments support datacenters, and observers say it is unlikely most would voluntarily require big tech to disclose the information. The move is likely intended to curb criticism and public oversight of datacenters, said Joe Goffman, a former assistant administrator for the EPA’s office of air and radiation.
Without this data, communities won’t know what they’re breathing once a datacenter is built, and will have less ability to fight back in court or in public relations battles. Goffman said the Clean Air Act is supposed to offer “an ironclad promise” to give the entire US public a voice on these issues.
“The administration is basically saying: ‘You all may have thought this was an ironclad promise, but it no longer is,’” Goffman added. He co-authored comments on the proposed rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Network. The EPA just closed the public comment period, and the rule could face a legal challenge if finalized.
Trump also noted claimed today that the Iranian regime is “not paying large segments of their military while at the same time killing protesters, even when they are not protesting”.
This comes after the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, announced “unprecedented” sanctions against countries that continue to do business with Iran.
“Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone,” Bessent said on Monday.
While Iran’s currency, the rial, dropped to a new low on Monday, it’s unclear how the US plans to roll out new secondary sanctions to target those trading with Iran. This week, Bessent evaded reporters’ questions about a timeline or whether China – the largest importer of Iranian oil – would be targeted.
“We are level-setting with every country to tell them our expectations. We know who they are. They know who they are,” he said.
On Truth Social, however, the president shot down assertions that the US talks with Canada collapsed in part due a proposed trade deal that would have weakened French language protections.
“I would never interfere with Canadians speaking French!” he wrote. “In fact, I have never even thought of doing such a stupid thing. This lie was made up by a weak and ineffective Prime Minister in an attempt to gain political support, which he has totally lost, from the people of Quebec.”
As my colleague Leyland Cecco reports, Quebec – Canada’s predominantly French-speaking province – has long sought to protect its distinct identity, at times with laws that clashed with the federal government and the Canadian charter of rights and freedoms.
In recent years those rules have also frustrated US negotiators, who have framed them as trade irritants. Bill 96, for example, requires products sold in Quebec to have a French description and for trademarks using generic terms to be translated into French, while Bill 109 compels media services such as Netflix, Spotify and Apple to promote and prioritize French content for Quebec users.
Donald Trump is in Washington today. As of now, he doesn’t have any public events, but we will let you know if anything changes and opportunities arise for him to speak with the press.
If Ralph Norman becomes the nominee in South Carolina and goes on to win the November election, he has a reputation in the House of Representatives of putting up resistance, at least temporarily, to some Republican leadership demands, which could preview how he would operate as a senator.
Norman, 73, a longtime real estate developer, has spent nearly a decade in the US House. He mounted an unsuccessful bid for governor, finishing third in a June primary.
He has been a leading member of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, but endorsed the more moderate Nikki Haley in her 2024 failed presidential bid.
Nonetheless, Norman supports many of Trump’s initiatives, including a nationwide tightening of requirements for casting votes throughout the US, which Democrats say would make it more difficult for eligible citizens to participate in elections. Norman has also backed Trump in opposing congressional constraints on the US war against Iran.
For her part, Darline Graham used a Myrtle Beach rally alongside Trump to try to recover from what has been cast as a debate misstep when she said she was not knowledgeable about national security issues, on which her late brother had expertise.
“Guilty as charged,” Graham proclaimed at the rally. Instead, she focused her remarks on her stances on domestic issues, including Trump’s immigration clampdown and anti-abortion advocacy – matters that likely are higher on South Carolina voters’ list of concerns than foreign policy.
She had never held public office until her appointment to the Senate, having previously held positions advocating for people with physical disabilities.
South Carolina, a deep red state, has overwhelmingly embraced Trump in all three of his runs for president and is not likely to play a role in the Republican-Democratic battle for the control of Congress.
Darline Graham and Ralph Norman head to South Carolina’s Senate runoff
Voters in South Carolina will decide whether they want to establish a Graham family dynasty as they go to the polls today in a Republican primary pitting Darline Graham against US Representative Ralph Norman.
Graham, 62, is the sister of Lindsey Graham, who died at the age of 71 on 11 July, having served in Congress for 31 years – 23 of those in the US Senate. She was appointed to finish his Senate term that expires at the beginning of January.
The primary will decide whether the current Senator Graham or Norman will be the Republican nominee in the 3 November election, facing Democrat Annie Andrews, a pediatrician, for a six-year Senate term.
Donald Trump has endorsed Graham and held a rally for her on Friday in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, The primary election will be another in a series of tests of Trump’s sway with voters in this year’s midterm elections.
MAGA INC, a super PAC that supports Trump, has spent $827,711 (£607,000) in support of Graham, according to its filing on Monday with the Federal Election Commission.
Trump claims US could rename Lake Ontario as Lake America amid Canada trade war
Donald Trump has claimed he is considering renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America” as the trade war with Canada escalates.
Lake Ontario lies on the border between the two countries, with New York state on one side and Toronto, the capital of Canada’s Ontario province, on the other.
“The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to doing much business with Ontario any longer,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
This is not the first time Trump has attempted a nationalistic renaming of a geographical feature. In January 2025 Trump issued an executive order to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America”.
Mexico argued the US cannot legally change the Gulf’s name because the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea dictates that an individual country’s sovereign territory only extends up to 12 nautical miles out from the coastline.
US military transport plane lands in Moscow
The Kremlin said it had no information on a US military transport plane landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport earlier today.
Reuters reported that data from the flight tracking service Flightradar24 showed that the large Boeing Globemaster had flown direct from Riga, in Latvia, and landed in Moscow at around 7am GMT. The news agency was unable to verify whether it carried any cargo or passengers.
The aircraft had arrived in Riga on 23 August from the US Camp Springs airbase near Washington DC, data from Flightradar24 showed.
The last direct flight of a US registered jet to Russia from Europe took place in January this year, carrying special envoys Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner for peace talks with Vladimir Putin on Ukraine.
The Kremlin said last week that there was no information yet on another visit to Moscow by Kushner and Witkoff, as talks between the US and Russia on Ukraine have largely stalled amid the war in Iran.
USS Abraham Lincoln to dock in Thailand after record deployment
Despite reports over poor conditions on board the US Navy aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln, which will dock in Thailand next week following a period of more than 200 consecutive days of deployment, Donald Trump claimed the ship was “beautifully maintained”.
Earlier this month, the president berated Kristen Holmes, a CNN reporter, insisting that she “be quiet” and describing the reporting of poor conditions on board as fake news.
“The Lincoln has been out there for a period of time – a good period of time – but over the years, we’ve had them out there much longer,” Trump said, describing an exchange with a veteran, whom he did not name.
“He happened to be an admiral, retired. He said, ‘I’ve been on ships that are out there much longer than that, sir. And I know people on the Lincoln, they say it’s beautifully maintained and beautifully taken care of.’ And other people went out and they found out that to be true,” said Trump.
USS Abraham Lincoln to dock in Thailand next week
The US Navy aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln will dock in Thailand next week, following a prolonged deployment in the Middle East during the Iran war, a Thai official said on Tuesday.
The Lincoln, which left the Middle East on Saturday, has not make a port call in more than 200 days, setting a modern-day record for consecutive days at sea, according to Democrats, amid reports of concerns about mental health and deteriorating conditions aboard.
The ship, which has roughly 5,000 sailors and marines aboard, will be in Thailand for “rest and recreation after their long sea journey,” the official said, asking not to be named. A Thai Navy spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In an interview last week, the wife of a sailor onboard the USS Lincoln told the Guardian as the deployment has stretched on and on, she has noticed a change in her husband’s messages. “There’s less hope in the way he talks and less positive things that he has to say,” she said.
“He’s just exhausted,” she added. “It’s a long, long deployment and it takes a toll.”
Reports from families of crew members published in the Navy Times and Stars and Stripes military newspapers described food and water shortages, disrupted mail services, plumbing problems, low morale and worsening mental health, prompting Democratic lawmakers to demand answers from the Pentagon.
Republican and Democratic politicians have called on the Trump administration to bar American citizens and businesses from supporting Chinese and Russian civilian intelligence and security agencies, Reuters reports.
Congress approved a law in 2018 banning Americans from providing support to foreign military intelligence agencies but leaving the door open to such aid for similar civilian-led organisations. In 2019, Reuters revealed the United Arab Emirates had hired over a dozen former US intelligence operatives to hack dissidents, journalists, and Americans.
Rules implementing a 2022 congressional measure to bolster controls have not yet been finalised, leaving “glaring loopholes that harm US national security and foreign policy interests,” Democratic Senator Ron Wyden and Republican John Cornyn wrote in a letter addressed to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Opening summary
Canada said it will announce its response to Donald Trump’s new tariffs, as the neighbours that used to be close allies spiral into a trade war.
Canadian PM Mark Carney said on Monday that while American negotiators saw the French language in Canada as an “irritant … in Quebec, these are rights,” days after receiving widespread praise from political leaders for rejecting a US trade proposal that many perceived as weakening the country’s Francophone culture.
The prime minister’s remarks came hours after Trump showed little interest in retreating from the spat, posting on social media that Canada had been “ripping off the United States of America for years” and threatening a swath of new, economically devastating tariffs on cars and trucks.
Carney instructed his negotiators to walk away from trade talks last week. Tariffs on an array of Canadian products took effect over the weekend, affecting around 5% of Canada’s exports to the US, and Canada said it will retaliate in early September.
Quebec’s premier, Christine Fréchette, said Carney had made the right decision in walking away from talks that looked to cross a “red line” for Francophones. On Monday, Trump’s top trade representative, Jamieson Greer, called reports that French language protections were up for debate a “a funny fake story”.
“That is not true,” Greer told CNBC. “I like the Quebecois and I like that they speak French.”
Also in US news today:
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Darline Graham and Ralph Norman face South Carolina voters yet again in a special Republican primary runoff to replace the late Lindsey Graham in the Senate, one month after his sudden death. Darline Graham is a political newcomer now serving as interim replacement for her brother. She has struggled to define herself to voters who routinely backed her brother. Norman has stressed his experience servicing in state and federal office.
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Tulsa businessman Mike Mazzei is hoping to win a hotly contested Republican primary runoff for Oklahoma governor against state Attorney General Gentner Drummond. Trump has endorsed Mazzei and sharply attacked Drummond. The winner will face Oklahoma House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson in a vote to be governor of the deeply conservative state.
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The Supreme Court is siding with the Trump administration in a case over Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting, though it remains unclear how much can be implemented before the fast-approaching midterm elections. The US Postal Service laid out its plan for implementing the order last week, but time is running short to impose major changes.
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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Trump had congratulated Ukraine on its independence day. The message that Zelenskyy shared on X read: “Let us seize this moment to end the conflict and build a durable, lasting peace that unleashes the tremendous potential of Ukraine for generations to come.” Zelenskyy said on Sunday that his country is receiving substantially fewer Patriot defence systems, even as Russian ballistic attacks are increasing.
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