The one purpose behind Trump's misdirection on the Epstein files | Opinion

by Joe Conason
• ALTERNET
Dec. 23, 2025



Jeffrey Epstein is seen in this image released by the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., U.S., on December 19, 2025. (Source: U.S. Justice Department)© provided by AlterNet

When the legal deadline arrived for the Justice Department to release all its files on the late sexual predator and shady financier Jeffrey Epstein, the country awaited new and significant information about his crimes. Instead, we saw a blizzard of blacked-out documents -- and a strenuous campaign to smear former President Bill Clinton.

The "evidence" Attorney General Pam Bondi chose to distribute only served to underline the basic and exculpatory facts regarding Clinton. Releasing a set of old photographs of Clinton in various scenes with Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, altered and stripped of any pertinent information about dates and locations, Bondi exposed her own rather obvious scheme to protect President Donald Trump.

The attorney general and Trump's other flunkies may well be aware that several of those photographs were published years ago, in full context. But they're playing three-card monte games with the public. Like every other actual fact about Clinton's connections with Epstein, they confirm the former president's previous statements -- and explode Trump's slanders and libels on those topics.

In 2002 and 2003, years before Clinton knew or could have known about the shadowy financier's abuse of underage girls, he flew more than two dozen trips on aircraft owned by Epstein. (Many similar donations of jet time have been made by wealthy individuals, including Google mogul Sergey Brin and others.) The sole purpose of those trips was to advance the Clinton Foundation's efforts to curtail the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Related video: “There were cameras everywhere” - What Epstein was actually used for (Moon)

Some of the trips included Epstein, his enabling paramour Maxwell and an entourage of Clinton Foundation staff, Secret Service agents and other foundation donors. The destinations included multiple stops in Africa, as well as Russia, China, Norway, the United Kingdom and Singapore.

It is worth mentioning here that independent experts credit the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative with saving well upward of 11 million lives since its founding. Much of that was achieved in cooperation with the President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief, founded by then-President George W. Bush with Clinton's help, which Trump and Elon Musk have sought to destroy. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS estimates that a permanent discontinuation of PEPFAR-supported programs could result in an additional 6.6 million new HIV infections and 4.2 million AIDS-related deaths globally between 2025 and 2029.

Now the selective drip of Epstein files material is not just than an act of bad faith but an avoidance of releasing the full files as required under the law. Let's consider a few of the photos they released. By redacting the faces of people next to Clinton, they sought to tie him to Epstein's victims, including underage girls.

One such picture shows Clinton with a blonde woman perched on the armrest of an airplane seat, her face blacked out. From previous coverage in tabloids, we know that she is Chauntae Davies, who served as a flight attendant on Epstein's plane during one of Clinton's Africa trips. While she later lodged accusations of abuse against her former employer, Davies has only described Clinton as a "perfect gentleman."

Other misleading images showed Clinton with the late performer Michael Jackson and singer Diana Ross, with small children whose faces are blacked out. A White House press aide implied that the redactions meant those kids were victims of sex crimes, when in fact they were offspring of Jackson and Ross. Those photographs are available from Getty Images -- with accurate captions -- as the DOJ could easily have learned.

Providing accurate information to the public was not Bondi's purpose here. An abject and lawless official, she was serving up and endorsing her master's mendacious narrative about Clinton, regurgitated by Trump in person and on social media countless times over the past decade.

Trump has claimed, for example, that Clinton repeatedly visited Epstein's private Caribbean island, where many young women were reportedly violated. Trump's false accusations are belied not only by flight manifests and Secret Service records but by Epstein's emails, Maxwell's statement to the deputy attorney general, and Trump's own chief of staff Susie Wiles in her recent Vanity Fair interviews.

Having directed the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to investigate Clinton's ties with Epstein yet again, Trump should brace himself to hear that he has been lying for years. But he already knows that.

On social media, Clinton spokesman Angel Urena succinctly expressed what is really at stake for Trump in this distraction ploy. The former president, he said, wants Trump to order Bondi to release any remaining files, photos or grand jury minutes pertaining to Clinton, because he has nothing to hide.

"Refusal to do so," he continued, "will confirm the widespread suspicion the Department of Justice's actions to date are not about transparency but insinuation -- using selective releases to imply wrongdoing about individuals who have already been repeatedly cleared by the very same Department of Justice, over many years, under Presidents and Attorneys General of both parties."

There can only be one purpose behind that misdirection -- to protect Trump, the man known as "Epstein's best friend," from the reckoning he has sought to forestall for years.

Trump to announce new fleet of battleships bearing his name

WILL THEY BE PAINTED GOLD?!

Story by Carl Gibson
ALTERNET

Dec. 22, 2025


U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 26, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst© provided by AlterNet

President Donald Trump's ongoing efforts to cement his legacy by adding his name to U.S. government property has now spread to the Navy, according to a new report.

According to a Monday article in the Wall Street Journal, the president is now planning to announce a new fleet of "Trump-class" battleships for the Navy's "golden fleet." Trump's plan comes on the heels of the Navy's recent announcement that it will be building a series of frigates, with the first — dubbed the "U.S.S. Defiant" — scheduled to be on the open water by 2028.

"The self-aggrandizement spree continues," observed New York Times Chief White House Correspondent Peter Baker on X.

The company HII Ingalls Shipbuilding is in charge of construction of the "golden fleet," with the first of the new ships being built in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The Pascagoula shipyard is the current home of the U.S. Coast Guard's Legend-class Legend-class National Security Cutter (a ship roughly the same size as a frigate).

As the Journal reported, the U.S. Navy currently has 287 ships in its inventory, which include aircraft carriers, destroyers, cruisers, amphibious ships and submarines. The new battleships would replace the current fleet of Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, which Trump has frequently (and unfavorably) compared to ships in other countries' naval fleets.

Former Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery — who is now the senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies — told the Journal that the "golden fleet" was "exactly what we don't need" and estimated the cost of each ship to be roughly $5 billion. He noted that the new ships would have "zero tactical use" as they lack a vertical launch system and would not be equipped with the Aegis ballistic defense system.

Related video: Trump announces new US Navy 'Golden Fleet' battleships (Daily Mail)

"We do not need ships that are not optimized to provide lethality against the Chinese threat," Montgomery said. "... That is not what these are focused on — they are focused on the president’s visual that a battleship is a cool-looking ship."

Trump's pending announcement of the new fleet of battleships named for him comes after last week's news that the president's hand-picked board of the Kennedy Center voted to add his name to the facility (even though officially changing the name requires an act of Congress). Rep. April McClain Delaney (D-Md.) recently introduced legislation aiming to stop Trump from adding his name to federal property, though its passage is unlikely given that Republicans control both chambers of Congress.

Click here to read the Journal's full report (subscription required).

Heritage staffers quit amid latest strife at conservative institution

Story by Jacob Bogage, Isaac Arnsdorf

ALTERNET

Dec. 22, 2025


Heritage staffers quit amid latest strife at conservative institution© Tom Brenner/For The Washington Post

More than a dozen employees of the Heritage Foundation walked away from their jobs over the weekend as the right-wing think tank struggles with allegations of antisemitism and as the conservative movement grapples with its post-Trump future.

“This weekend, most of our staff, from our legal and economic centers, are departing immediately,” Heritage President Kevin Roberts wrote in a Sunday night email to staff obtained by The Washington Post. “We wish them well, though the manner of their departures speaks volumes.”

Heritage has been wrapped in controversy for more than a month after Roberts defended former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s interview with Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist who routinely espouses antisemitic views.

Roberts has explained that he was trying to appeal to Fuentes’s followers, who might be open to adopting Heritage’s worldview. After several apologies last month, he said the foundation would cut ties with Carlson, though he said the podcaster remains a personal friend.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the departures.

In a statement, Heritage Foundation chief advancement officer Andy Olivastro said the departing staff members were disloyal. He said two of the departing employees had been terminated for “conduct inconsistent with Heritage’s mission and standards.”

“Their departures clear the way for a stronger, more focused team,” Olivastro said.

Three board members, including two last week, have also resigned in protest over what they saw as an insufficient response to combating antisemitism concerns at Heritage.

It’s unclear how many staffers left the organization over the weekend. Thirteen former employees, including three in leadership posts, were hired at Advancing American Freedom, a competing policy and advocacy group founded by former vice president Mike Pence. The group said it raised more than $10 million to fund the hires.

Pence’s group defines its ideological tenets as free markets, limited government and the rule of law — staking out a claim to ground that the Heritage Foundation once occupied.

Historically, institutions such as Heritage and the American Conservative Union served to guard the party’s flank against extremists and fringe figures who could undermine electoral appeals to middle-of-the-road Americans.

But in the Trump era, those groups have transformed to more closely match the nationalism, isolationism and economic populism of the MAGA movement, sparking new controversies over which views that banner should or should not tolerate.

John Malcolm was Heritage’s vice president at its Institute for Constitutional Government and led the think tank’s Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. Former attorney general Edwin Meese III said in a news release that his eponymous center would relocate to Pence’s Advancing American Freedom.

Charles “Cully” Stimson and Hans von Spakovsky, the two staffers Roberts had tapped to run the Meese Center on an interim basis, also quit Monday afternoon.

“We regret leaving what has long been the premier conservative institution where we have spent so much of our legal careers, but feel we can no longer carry out that mission,” the pair wrote in a joint resignation letter.

Richard Stern ran Heritage’s economic policy group, and Kevin Dayaratna was Heritage’s chief statistician; both also departed for Pence’s group.

Advancing American Freedom announced that 10 additional policy associates had joined the organization from Heritage.

Pence, in a statement, called the newcomers “principled” and said they bring “a love of country, and a deep commitment to the Constitution and Conservative Movement.” But Roberts, in his all-staff email, emphasized obedience.

“Heritage has always been home to voices within the conservative movement, but alignment on mission and loyalty to senior leadership are nonnegotiable,” he wrote.

Josh Blackman, who edited the Heritage Guide to the Constitution, also resigned Sunday. In his resignation letter published by the libertarian magazine Reason, Blackman said Roberts made the think tank’s brand “toxic” and caused judges to say they would no longer speak at Heritage events or recommend their clerks to its programs.

Trump administration suspends 5 wind projects off the East Coast, cites national security concerns

Story by Matthew Daly



Wind turbine bases, generators and blades are positioned at The Portsmouth Marine terminal that is the staging area for Dominion Energy's wind turbine project Monday Dec. 22, 2025, in Portsmouth, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)© The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday suspended leases for five large-scale offshore wind projects under construction along the East Coast due to what it said were national security risks identified by the Pentagon.

The suspension, effective immediately, is the latest step by the administration to hobble offshore wind in its push against renewable energy sources. It comes two weeks after a federal judge struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order blocking wind energy projects, calling it unlawful.

The administration said the pause will give the Interior Department, which oversees offshore wind, time to work with the Defense Department and other agencies to assess the possible ways to mitigate any security risks posed by the projects. The statement did not detail the national security risks. It called the move a pause, but did not specify an end date.


Wind turbine bases, generators and blades are positioned at The Portsmouth Marine terminal that is the staging area for Dominion Energy's wind turbine project Monday Dec. 22, 2025, in Portsmouth, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)© The Associated Press

“The prime duty of the United States government is to protect the American people,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement. “Today’s action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our east coast population centers.”




FILE - A generator and it's blades are prepared to head to the open ocean for the South Fork Wind farm from State Pier in New London, CT., Dec. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)© The Associated Press

Wind proponents slammed the move, saying it was another blow in an ongoing attack by the administration against clean energy. The administration’s decision to cite potential national security risks could complicate legal challenges to the move, although wind supporters say those arguments are overstated.

Projects paused over national security concerns

The administration said leases are paused for the Vineyard Wind project under construction in Massachusetts, Revolution Wind in Rhode Island and Connecticut, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, and two projects in New York: Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind.

The Interior Department said unclassified reports from the U.S. government have long found that the movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers create radar interference called “clutter.” The clutter caused by offshore wind projects can obscure legitimate moving targets and generate false targets in the vicinity of wind projects, the Interior Department said.

National security expert and former Commander of the USS Cole Kirk Lippold disputed the administration’s national security argument. The offshore projects were awarded permits “following years of review by state and federal agencies,” including the Coast Guard, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, the Air Force and more, he said.

“The record of decisions all show that the Department of Defense was consulted at every stage of the permitting process,” Lippold said, arguing that the projects would benefit national security because they would diversify the country's energy supply.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I, said Revolution Wind was thoroughly vetted and fully permitted by the federal government, “and that review included any potential national security questions.” Burgum's action "looks more like the kind of vindictive harassment we have come to expect from the Trump administration than anything legitimate,'' he said.

A judge ruled blocking wind projects was unlawful

The administration's action comes two weeks after a federal judge struck down Trump’s executive order blocking wind energy projects, saying the effort to halt virtually all leasing of wind farms on federal lands and waters was “arbitrary and capricious” and violates U.S. law.

Judge Patti Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts vacated Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order blocking wind energy projects and declared it unlawful.

Saris ruled in favor of a coalition of state attorneys general from 17 states and Washington, D.C., led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, that challenged Trump’s Day One order that paused leasing and permitting for wind energy projects.

Trump has been hostile to renewable energy, particularly offshore wind, and prioritizes fossil fuels to produce electricity. Trump has said wind turbines are ugly, expensive and pose a threat to birds and other wildlife.

Wind proponents slam the move

Wind supporters called the administration's actions illegal and said offshore wind provides some of the most affordable, reliable electric power to the grid.

“For nearly a year, the Trump administration has recklessly obstructed the build-out of clean, affordable power for millions of Americans, just as the country’s need for electricity is surging,” said Ted Kelly of the Environmental Defense Fund.


“Now the administration is again illegally blocking clean, affordable energy," Kelly said. “We should not be kneecapping America’s largest source of renewable power, especially when we need more cheap, homegrown electricity.''

The administration's actions are especially egregious because, at the same time, it is propping up aging, expensive coal plants "that barely work and pollute our air,” Kelly said.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong called the lease suspension a “lawless and erratic stop-work order” that revives an earlier, failed attempt to halt construction of Revolution Wind.

“Every day this project is stalled is another day of lost work, another day of unaffordable energy costs and burning fossil fuels when American-made clean energy is within reach," Tong said. “We are evaluating all legal options, and this will be stopped just like last time.”

Suspension is praised by anti-wind group

A New Jersey group that opposes offshore wind hailed the administration's actions.

“Today, the president and his administration put America first,'' said Robin Shaffer, president of Protect Our Coast New Jersey, a nonprofit advocacy group.

“Placing largely foreign-owned wind turbines along our coastlines was never acceptable," he said, arguing that Empire Wind, in particular, poses a threat because of its close proximity to major airports, including Newark Liberty, LaGuardia and JFK.

Offshore wind projects also pose a threat to commercial and recreational fishing industries, Shaffer and other critics say.

Developers of U.S. offshore projects include Denmark-based Orsted, Norway-based Equinor and a subsidiary of Spanish energy giant Iberdrola. Orsted, which owns two of the projects affected, saw stock prices decline by more than 11% Monday.

Richmond-based Dominion Energy, which is developing Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, said its project is essential for national security and meeting Virginia’s dramatically growing energy needs, driven by dozens of new data centers.

“Stopping CVOW for any length of time will threaten grid reliability ... lead to energy inflation and threaten thousands of jobs,” the company said in a statement.

Pausing the Virginia project, which is nearly 70% complete, creates a “perfect storm” to harm customer affordability and grid reliability, said David Shepheard, an energy expert at Baringa, a global consulting firm.

East Coast residents are familiar with winter storms that can devastate local economies, Shepheard said, adding: “This is a new one for the area: a Washington-borne nor'easter where the political winds are going to stop the blades from spinning."

___

Associated Press writer Jennifer McDermott in Providence, R.I., contributed to this report.

Matthew Daly, The Associated Press

Takeaways from AP's report on a beef plant closure that threatens to unravel a small Nebraska town

Meatpacking Town

Story by Jesse Bedayn
THE INDPENDENT, UK

Dec. 22, 2025

A small town in rural Nebraska is losing its biggest employer, a Tyson Foods' beef plant, which will be laying off 3,200 workers next month in a town of around 11,000 people.

Lexington, Nebraska, is expected to lose hundreds of families who will be forced to move away in search of other work. The exodus will likely cause spinoff layoffs in the town's shops, restaurants and schools.

The impact on the town and workers will be “close to the poster child for hard times,” said Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Indiana’s Ball State University.

All told, the job losses are expected to reach 7,000, largely in Lexington and surrounding counties, according to estimates from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and shared with The Associated Press. Tyson employees alone will lose an estimated $241 million in pay and benefits annually

It threatens to unravel a town where the American Dream was still attainable, where immigrants who didn’t speak English and never graduated high school bought homes, raised children in a safe community and sent them to college.

Tyson says it’s closing the plant to “right-size” its beef business after a historically low cattle herd in the U.S. and the company’s expected loss of $600 million on beef production next fiscal year.

Related video: Dread, tears as Tyson plans to lay off 3,200 workers in small Nebraska town (The Canadian Press)  

They'll be closing their facility as of January 20th, impacting Tyson workers, business owners and town leaders spoke to The Associated Press for a report on the plant’s closure.

Here are some takeaways.

Tyson’s plant is central to the town’s economy and community

Lexington sits near the dead center of the United States, surrounded by fields of corn, grain silos and cattle.

The plant opened in 1990 and was bought by Tyson a decade later, attracting thousands of workers who labor on cleaning crews and forklifts, on the slaughter floor and trimming cuts of meat.

The town nearly doubled in population and flourished with leafy neighborhoods, recreation centers, a one-screen movie theater and a good school system. Nearly half the students in Lexington have a parent who works at the Tyson plant, school officials estimated.

Many Tyson workers have lived in Lexington for decades, building community at the plant and in the town's many churches, including Francisco Antonio.

The 52-year-old father of four said he’ll stay a few months in Lexington and look for work, though “now there’s no future.” He took off his glasses, paused, apologized and tried to explain his emotions.

“It’s home mostly, not the job,” he said, replacing his glasses with an embarrassed smile.

Tyson workers, devastated by the closure, have no clear plan

Thousands of Tyson workers have mortgages, car and insurance payments, property taxes or tuition costs that they won’t have an income to pay.

For many, finding another job isn't easy, particularly older workers who don’t speak English, haven’t graduated high school and aren’t computer savvy. The last application some filled out was decades ago.

“We know only working in meat for Tyson, we don’t have any other experience,” said Arab Adan. The Kenyan immigrant sat in his car with his two energetic sons, who asked him a question he has no answer to: “Which state are we gonna go, daddy?”

“They only want young people now,” said Juventino Castro, who’s worked at Tyson for a quarter-century. “I don’t know what’s going to happen in the time I have left.”

Lupe Ceja has saved a little money, but it won’t last long. Luz Alvidrez has a cleaning gig that will sustain her for awhile. Others might return to Mexico for a time. Nobody has a clear plan.

“It won’t be easy,” said Fernando Sanchez, a Tyson worker for 35 years who sat with his wife. “We started here from scratch and it’s time to start from scratch again.”

Tears rolled down his wife’s cheeks and he squeezed her hand.

The plant’s closure will ripple through local businesses

The domino effect could go something like this: If 1,000 families leave town, said economist Hicks — who wouldn’t be surprised if it were double that — seats would be left empty in schools, leading to teacher layoffs; there would be far fewer customers in restaurants, shops and other businesses.


Most of the customers at Los Jalapenos, a Mexican restaurant down the street from the plant, are Tyson workers. They fill booths after work and are greeted by owner Armando Martinez’s mustachioed grin and bellow of “Hola, amigo!”

If he can’t keep up with bills, the restaurant will close, said Martinez, who undergoes dialysis for diabetes and has an amputated foot.

“There’s just nowhere we can go,” he said.

Many, including City Manager Joe Pepplitsch, are hoping Tyson puts the plant up for sale and a new company comes in bringing new jobs. That isn’t a quick fix, requiring time, negotiations, renovations and no guarantee of comparable jobs.

Pepplitsch, who noted that Tyson hasn't had to pay city taxes due to a deal negotiated years ago, said that “Tyson owes this community a debt. I think they have a responsibility here to help ease some of the impact."

Asked by the AP for comment about plans for the site, Tyson said in a statement that it “is currently assessing how we can repurpose the facility within our own production network.” It did not provide details or say whether it plans to offer support to the community through the plant closure.

The Independent has always had a global perspective. Built on a firm foundation of superb international reporting and analysis, The Independent now enjoys a reach that was inconceivable when it was launched as an upstart player in the British news industry. For the first time since the end of the Second World War, and across the world, pluralism, reason, a progressive and humanitarian agenda, and internationalism – Independent values – are under threat. Yet we, The Independent, continue to grow.

Even Trump's backers don't believe him | Opinion

by Terry H. Schwadron

ALTERNET
Dec. 22, 2025


U.S. President Donald Trump and lady Melania Trump depart for travel to Texas to tour areas affected by deadly flash flooding, from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 11, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst© provided by AlterNet

It turns out that few believe Donald Trump’s insistence that the economy is doing well for most people – any more than those same voters turned on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris a year ago.

Trump’s shouted, rat-a-tat presentation of defense economy storytelling in a presidential address this week fell flat, despite his exhortation of favored, cherry-picked economic numbers that he insisted tell a better record than what you and I experience in the supermarket, looking for jobs or housing, or clearly face in rising utility and health costs.

But then so are his claims about why Venezuela deserves to be punished, or whether millions will lost Obamacare coverage, or that everyone being picked up randomly by border agents is a criminal in hiding.

The biggest potential growth industry right now may be fact-checking.

Our legacy-come-to-fruition is that too many people don’t want to believe anything beyond their personal experience – whether in economics, vaccine safety, perceived dangers from transgender care and distaste for undocumented immigration or “weaponization” of justice against preferred candidates. Even more want news coverage that matches their pre-conceived notions about their ideological side, particularly on prices, jobs and consumer confidence.

At end of year, Trump seems to be flailing to persuade voters that he even understands the complaints, never mind coming up with useful solutions. So he turns ugly about culture issues that are easier to digest and one-off schemes to send out checks to troops from the taxes we already paid.

It’s useful to note that even when there are “facts,” – inflation and jobless numbers emerged this week – the government’s manipulation of how to count, when to count, and delayed or hidden information makes any assertion these days hard to accept at face value.

The long-promised release of the Jeffrey Epstein files seems to have backfired on the Trump administration, which sought to hold them until a congressional revolt forced their hand, and now are responding with a broad blackout pen that makes even the illegally delayed releases less than useful. Though we know Trump is mentioned repeatedly, we almost nothing of his presence in the released documents.

On prices, polling and public reaction are showing that Trump has lost trust and credibility.

Trump’s decision to offer rapid-fire presentation of his favored facts have trouble lining with lived experience. Gas prices dropped precipitously over a year ago though no one can find under $2 a gallon gas at any gas station and heating oil is up 9 percent, egg prices declined after passage of a bird flu and government infusion of a billion dollars in eggs imports, and “housing” costs will decline shortly because borrowing costs may be forced downward without reference to availability or the cost of rent and home ownership while jobs are falling.


Politics, Sure, But Worse

The result is being described mostly in partisan political terms. Trump’s chosen blindness to “affordability” is seen as a fatal political blow that will result in a change in congressional majority next November, for example, or eating away now at his influence to dictate strategies foreign and domestic.

Fox News presented the Trump speech as if it were indisputable, though there were televised critics; Breitbart praised checks to military troops as a wonderful idea despite its predictable inflationary result and misuse of funds meant for military housing. Most mainstream outlets pointed out the gaps between what Trump says and what the various official and unofficial market surveys and voter polls say about the economy.

What we need, of course, is not more political cheerleading and more political spin. What we need are consistent measures of various economic trends that arrive on time and are useful for comparisons of the same measures over time. The Trump administration’s consistent strategy in economics and tariffs, immigration and crime, justice prosecutions and Homeland Security operations is to undercut, cancel and hide facts to make it more difficult to make useful comparisons – whether month to month or against previous presidential terms.

So, Trump simply asserts as true whatever he wants, whether it is about miracle cures for asthma and communicable disease, airline traffic, guns or environment. The same government that cannot count how many deportees actually had criminal records is now telling us what to believe about inflation and high prices that is not observable.

If he is only handed briefings pre-screened for spin, perhaps it’s no wonder he airs what comports with his autocratic choices.

That Trump lacks the wherewithal to question what he is handed and only has voice to insist is a bad quality for a leader.

END BOOK BANS

The Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to a Texas county’s decision to remove 17 books from its public libraries

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 BY: Knewz (CA)

Dec. 22, 2025

The Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to a Texas county’s decision to remove 17 books from its public libraries, allowing a lower court ruling to stand and clearing the way for the books to remain off shelves.

Knewz.com  has learned that by leaving the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision intact, the justices ensured that the policy now applies across Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
The dispute regarding banned books at a glance


The dispute began in Llano County, northwest of Austin, Texas, in 2021, when residents asked a county library commissioner to remove 17 books they found objectionable. BY: Unsplash© Knewz (CA)

The dispute began in Llano County, northwest of Austin, Texas, in 2021 when residents asked a county library commissioner to remove 17 books they found objectionable.

The commissioner agreed and instructed librarians to pull the titles, prompting a lawsuit from other residents who argued the removals violated their First Amendment right to receive information.

A federal district judge initially sided with the challengers.

However, in May, the Fifth Circuit reversed that ruling, finding that the Constitution does not guarantee access to specific books in a public library.

The appeals court concluded that decisions about which books to include are a form of government speech, not censorship.

Recently, it was reported that the Supreme Court declined to review that decision, leaving it in place

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What the Fifth Circuit Court’s ruling says



The Fifth Circuit’s ruling holds that library curation is a discretionary act by local governments. BY: MEGA© Knewz (CA)

The Fifth Circuit’s ruling stated that library curation is a discretionary act by local governments.

“All Llano County has done here is what libraries have been doing for two centuries: decide which books they want in their collections,” Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan wrote.

The court also rejected the argument that removing books violates patrons’ rights, noting that readers can still obtain the materials elsewhere.

“If a disappointed patron can’t find a book in the library, he can order it online, buy it from a bookstore or borrow it from a friend,” Judge Duncan wrote.

Since the Supreme Court declined the review, the ruling now governs federal courts across three states, potentially shaping how similar challenges are resolved throughout the region.

The books that were banned


A full list of the 17 books has not been publicly released because complete court filings remain unavailable. BY: Unsplash© Knewz (CA)

While a full list of the 17 books has not been publicly released because complete court filings remain unavailable, reports have identified several categories. They include juvenile humor titles such as I Broke My B **! and Larry the Farting Leprechaun, young adult novels addressing coming-of-age issues like Gabi, a Girl in Pieces, books centered on gender identity like Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen and Freakboy, works examining racism including Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents and They Called Themselves the K.K.K., the picture book In the Night Kitchen, and the s * education guide It’s Perfectly Normal

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Advocates for free expression raise concerns



Advocates for free expression warned the decision could accelerate book bans nationwide. BY: Unsplash© Knewz (CA)

Advocates for free expression warned that the Supreme Court’s decision could accelerate book bans nationwide.

“Leaving the Fifth Circuit’s ruling in place erodes the most elemental principles of free speech and allows state and local governments to exert ideological control over the people with impunity,” Elly Brinkley of PEN America said.

Supporters of the ruling argued that it affirms local control. On the other hand, critics countered that it narrows access to ideas — particularly those addressing race, coming-of-age issues and gender identity — at a time when book removals are spreading rapidly across the country.

Snowy owls return to Prairies for winter with new status as threatened species

Story by CBC/Radio-Canada

Dec. 20, 2025.

Every year, snowy owls spread their wings and migrate down to the Prairies, where they enjoy access to plenty of rodent prey in vast open spaces.

But this year's migration is the first of its kind, marked by the recent classification of snowy owls as a threatened species.

That designation was announced in May by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), which assesses the at-risk status of native species and provides recommendations to the federal government.

Louise Blight, an adjunct associate professor at the University of Victoria's School of Environmental Studies and co-chair of the COSEWIC birds specialist sub-committee, said the decision to designate snowy owls as a threatened species was not made lightly. But, she said, their population has declined about 40 per cent in the past 24 years.

Snowy owls face many challenges, including habitat loss in their Arctic nesting grounds due to climate change, Blight said. Warming temperatures are melting sea ice, reducing platforms for the owls to sit on when hunting.

Snowy owls are also impacted by avian influenza — both contracting it and losing winter prey to the virus, said Blight. There have been 15 cases of avian influenza found in snowy owls in Canada since 2021, according to data compiled by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Snowy owls face even more challenges when they embark on their lengthy migrations south. In their wintering grounds, they can be hit by vehicles, electrocuted by power lines, tangled in human structures, and become poisoned after eating prey that has been exposed to rodenticide.

Colin Weir, managing director of the Alberta Birds of Prey Foundation wildlife rehabilitation centre in Coaldale, has dealt with raptors affected by all of those.

"A lot of times when snowy owls come down from the Arctic ... they're coming into new areas with lots of man-made hazards around," Weir said.


Alberta Birds of Prey Foundation managing director Colin Weir holds a flightless snowy owl, which is one of two that became permanent residents of the facility after being hit by cars. (Amir Said/CBC)

The centre cares for injured birds from across Canada, and is currently home to two snowy owls that ended up unable to be released after being hit by cars.

"The thing to remember about roadways is they have ditches, which collect a lot of moisture and attract a lot of ground rodents," Weir said. "So, that's why birds get hit by cars. The roadside ditches are basically like buffet restaurants to them."

Weir said the busiest time for bird collisions in Alberta is May to September, as most migratory birds of prey are back from overwintering farther south at that time, but that's not the case for snowy owls.

"Just watching for wildlife in general is probably the number one thing," Weir said. "Not only for the safety of the creatures themselves, but just for people's own personal safety as well."

Snowy owls can be found in every Canadian province following their winter migration. NatureCounts, a biodiversity data platform operated by Birds Canada, estimates there are 15,000 snowy owls in the country — more than half of the estimated global population of 29,000.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature classifies the worldwide population of snowy owls as vulnerable.
Tracking snowy owl numbers is tricky, scientist says

Snowy owls are particularly difficult to survey because of their nomadic nature, said Lisa Takats Priestley.

"They don't have sort of direct corridors," said Priestley, a wildlife biologist who has been studying owl populations and movement patterns for more than 20 years. "They're very hard to work with as far as trapping and banding."


Researchers Lisa Takats Priestley, left, and Hardy Pletz pictured banding snowy owls in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta. Owl banding involves capturing the birds and putting bands on them to track populations and movement patterns for scientific purposes. One snowy owl banded by Pletz was first captured in 1994 and then recaptured in 2013, making it one of the oldest known wild snowy owls. (Submitted by Lisa Takats Priestley)

She said attaching transmitters to snowy owls has offered more insight into their movement patterns, but that does little to confirm population changes.

Much of the data on snowy owl numbers comes from Christmas Bird Counts, an annual citizen science initiative in which thousands of volunteers across Canada count all the birds they see in a specific area.

Because snowy owl movement patterns tend to be unpredictable, trying to track population trends based on visual counts may not be enough, Priestley said.



A snowy owl in southern Alberta, where the birds can be found looking for prey in open fields following their annual migration. Snowy owls travel from the Arctic to locations throughout Canada and the U.S. every year. (Amir Said/CBC)

Because of their recent designation as a threatened species in Canada, there might be an increased interest — and effort — from researchers to better understand snowy owl numbers.

"Now that snowy owl is listed, there will be a push to use more of the data collected from a variety of sources to help us understand where there may be more concerns in certain parts of the owl's range," Priestley said.

BC construction firm owner fined in 'landmark case' for safety violations


An official from WorkSafeBC photographs the scene after a female stunt driver working on the movie "Deadpool 2" died after a crash on set, in Vancouver, B.C., on Monday August 14, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck© The Canadian Press

RICHMOND, B.C. — WorkSafeBC says the owner of a homebuilding company has been fined more than $80,000 for workplace safety violations in a "landmark case."

The worker safety agency says the fine stems from an investigation for violations of workplace safety laws involving Phoenix Homes Ltd. and its owner Nirmal Singh Takhar.

It says an investigation in 2023 found Takhar had directed workers to pour concrete at a site in Abbotsford without an engineer's approval, and later disregarded a stop-work order after a portion of a ramp collapsed by ordering workers to clean up the hazardous area.

The agency says the workers were exposed to risk of "serious injury or death" and the investigation found "numerous violations" of occupational safety regulations, leading to charges against Takhar in January under the Workers Compensation Act.

WorkSafeBC says Takhar pleaded guilty in March, and a provincial court judge fined him $80,500 this month, gave him two-years' probation, ordered him to retain a safety consultant and prohibited him from acting as a safety officer at any construction site.

Todd McDonald, WorkSafeBC's head of prevention services, says Takhar's sentence is a "clear message" to employers that workplace safety is a legal obligation.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 22, 2025.

The Canadian Press

Canada Post, union finalize tentative deals on new contracts

Story by Sean Boynton
GLOBAL NEWS

Dec. 22, 2025


A Canada Post mailbox is pictured in Richmond B.C. on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns© EC

Canada Post and the union representing its postal workers said Monday they have finalized tentative agreements on new contracts, potentially bringing an end to the long-running labour dispute.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) said in a statement that ratification votes on the deals for its urban and rural units will take place early in the new year.

Union leadership is urging members to approve the agreements, national president Jan Simpson said.

“The tentative agreements deliver wages increases, with protections against inflation, improved benefits, and job security,” Simpson said in a statement.

“These five-year agreements provide much needed stability to postal workers and the communities across the country that we are proud to serve.”

The tentative agreements come more than two years after negotiations began, a period that saw two national strikes and growing financial instability for the Crown corporation.

The two sides reached "agreements in principle" a month ago that they said would form the basis of new tentative agreements. Negotiations since then had been focused on hammering out the contractual language.

Video: Canada Post reached tentative deal with union after reporting record Q3 losses

In a statement, Canada Post said the new five-year contracts will raise employees' wages by 6.5 per cent in the first year and another three per cent in the second year.

The remaining three years will see annual wage increases that match the annual inflation rate as measured by the consumer price index.

The company said all workers will also get an "enhanced health benefits plan," while rural and suburban employees will get enhanced job security provisions. Urban employees will see their existing job security measures maintained under their new contract.

Canada Post said the deals also create a "new operating model to support weekend parcel delivery," resolving one of the major disputes between the two sides in negotiations. No further details on that operating model were provided Monday.

As well, the deals will adjust the number of corporate post offices protected from closure to 393, Canada Post said.

CUPW said it "successfully blocked major concessions demanded by Canada Post," including by preserving the existing pension plan for current and future employees and stopping "major changes to work schedules and processes that would negatively impact workers and their families."

The union noted negotiations have been "difficult" since they began in November 2023.

Canada Post had long argued it could not meet the union's demands as it struggled financially due to declining letter mail and the rise of private parcel delivery competitors.

The Crown corporation says it lost over a billion dollars last year and is on track to lose even more this year.

Business Matters: Canada Post losses top $1B in 2025  View on Watch

A weeks-long strike that coincided with last year's winter holiday shopping season cost both Canada Post and small businesses that rely on the national mail carrier hundreds of millions of dollars.

Postal workers went on strike again this fall after the federal government announced new measures to save the company, including reducing letter delivery standards and shifting entirely to community mailboxes.


Canada Post will also be allowed to close some post offices in areas once considered rural but have since grown to become suburban or urban, the government says. Both Ottawa and Canada Post have vowed that mail service will be maintained in rural, remote and Indigenous communities despite the closures.

The company's action plan on how to implement the changes is currently being reviewed by the federal government.

Canadian among fired workers from Grand Theft Auto studio says they just want their jobs back

Story by CBC/Radio-Canada •

Dec. 22, 2025

Protesters and union members hold a picket outside the offices of video game studio Rockstar Toronto in Oakville, Ont., on Dec. 12. (Jonathan Ore/CBC)

The firing of several employees at the makers of the Grand Theft Auto video games came as a complete surprise, according to one of the Canadian workers who was let go this past fall.

"I had no idea what was going on. I was shell-shocked," said one of three game developers fired from Rockstar Toronto (actually in Oakville, Ont.). CBC News is not naming the developer out of fear of retaliation, including being blacklisted from future employment in the games industry.

Thirty-one Rockstar employees working in the U.K. were fired the same day. Rockstar Games, which has multiple studios, primarily in the U.S., and U.K., alleges they were fired for "gross misconduct," and leaking company secrets.

Alex Marshall, president of the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB), called the firings "one of the most blatant and ruthless acts of union busting in the history of the games industry."

It's the latest lightning rod for discussion about unionization in a hugely profitable, international industry that has historically been very resistant to it — even amidst reports of employees being burned out by unpaid overtime, and thousands of layoffs in recent years.

The employee told CBC News that on Oct. 30, three workers at Rockstar Toronto were each "brought into a room with an HR person" and told they were being terminated for breaking a non-disclosure agreement, which every employee must sign before working there.

"They ended up just giving us our essentials and ... we were immediately escorted out of the building by security."

CBC News reached out to Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar's parent company, for comment on the fired Canadian developers but received no response.
Firings have 'a chilling effect' on the industry: union rep

Nasr Ahmed, staff organizer at Communications Workers of America (CWA) Canada, was part of a small solidarity march outside Rockstar Toronto's offices earlier in December. He called Rockstar's claims of the fired workers leaking confidential information "patently false."

"They have not provided any proof for those claims, either for the Canadian workers or the U.K. workers," he said.

He corroborated an account from the IWGB that all 34 workers were part of an online discussion group on the app Discord, where industry workers interested in unionizing or learning about unions in the U.K. could talk about working conditions.

The fired employee told CBC News that the workers were from different departments and had different seniorities across the company, both in Canada and the U.K., and that "the only common link among us" was they were all part of the Discord group. CBC News has not viewed chat messages from the Discord group and could not verify their contents.

"At the end of the day ... discussing your working conditions is not against the law, as far as I know, in either Canada or the U.K., which is what exactly these workers were doing," Ahmed said.

Ahmed characterized Rockstar management's actions as "shameful." He says it creates "a chilling effect" that will discourage employees in the wider games industry from discussing working conditions and joining or forming a union.

Union talk taboo in video games

The games industry has been historically resistant to unionization, and Aurelia Augusta of the CWA's United Videogame Workers union says it's "incredibly scary" to even talk about it, as it might effectively blacklist them from future employment, or lead to their removal from the credits of games they're already working on.

"People are scared, especially in Canada where ... a handful of major studios have control of a huge amount of the game development jobs pipeline," Augusta said.

Ahmed said that when video game workers organize, their intention isn't "to burn the studio down," but rather "to make the studio better."


Grand Theft Auto VI follows the previous instalment released in 2013 and a long-running online version of the game, which has made parent company Take-Two Interactive billions of dollars in revenue. (Rockstar Games/Take-Two Interactive)

In a statement to CBC News, Ontario's Minister of Labour David Piccini said: "I want all workers in Ontario to know they have the right to raise concerns about their workplace, and Ontario's labour laws exist to ensure those concerns are addressed through fair and established processes."

Earlier this month, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the Rockstar firings "deeply concerning" and said he would look into the situation.

This past month, other studios have seen significant steps toward organizing.

U.S.-based Id Software, makers of the Doom games, and Ubisoft Halifax voted for wall-to-wall unionization with the CWA in the U.S. and Canada, respectively.

The former Rockstar employee told CBC News they were hopeful that more video game studios — including Rockstar — could be unionized in the future. "The company has shown a willingness to do right by their employees in the past when push comes to shove," they said.

Culture of overtime 'crunch' in video games

Rockstar came under scrutiny ahead of the release of Red Dead Redemption in 2018. According to some reports, many employees worked extra-long hours in what is known in the industry as "crunch."

Co-founder Dan Houser said in one interview that he and a small group of writers clocked 100-hour work weeks close to launch. Houser left the company in 2020; his brother Sam Houser is currently its president.

Jim Munroe, a writer and artist who also works in the independent games space, attended the protest outside Rockstar Toronto. He says he doesn't know anyone who currently works there, but does know some developers who formerly worked there and burned out.




Union members and protesters join a solidarity picket nearby the video game studio Rockstar Toronto's offices in Oakville. (Jonathan Ore/CBC)

"I'm a big fan of Rockstar and just want them to treat their workers better," he said.

"In some ways I feel like the GTA games are the modern world's equivalent of the pyramids: incredible feats of art and technical engineering, but built at an enormous human cost."

Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that Rockstar's crunch culture had mostly been eliminated. But it was also reported that employees were disappointed after being asked to return to work full time in the office, pulling back from pandemic-era work-from-home policies.

The former Rockstar Toronto employee said that, ultimately, the fired workers both in Canada and the U.K. just want their jobs back.

"We poured our heart and soul into our work. Everyone who was there is a talented individual in some way. We wouldn't have been hired by Rockstar or worked there for as long as we have if we weren't," the developer said.

"All we wanted to do is make the best game possible. We're all passionate folk."

What if Canada stopped selling its natural resources to the US.?

Story by Diana Tablan

Dec. 22, 2025

Canada and the United States share one of the world’s most interconnected economic relationships, built on decades of trade agreements and cross-border partnerships. At the heart of this bond lies Canada’s vast supply of natural resources that flow south to fuel American homes, businesses, and industries every single day.

The scenario of Canada suddenly cutting off these exports might seem unlikely, but it raises important questions worth exploring. What would happen to gas prices, electricity grids, and factory operations if this supply line disappeared? The consequences would be severe and far-reaching, affecting everything from winter heating bills to grocery store prices.

Gas prices would skyrocket across America




Image Credit: Ali Mkumbwa/Unsplash

Roughly 4 million barrels of Canadian crude oil cross the border into the United States every single day. American refineries would scramble to find replacement sources from overseas markets where prices are typically higher, and shipping costs add even more expenses. The price at the pump would shoot up almost immediately, hitting drivers in the Midwest and Northeast especially hard.

Trucking companies would face crushing costs that would get passed directly to consumers through higher prices on everything from groceries to online deliveries. Families already struggling with tight budgets would face tough choices about cutting back on driving. The transportation sector would feel the pressure first, but every industry would eventually see its costs rise.
Winter heating bills would become unaffordable

Almost one-tenth of the natural gas consumed in the U.S. comes from Canadian pipelines, and that percentage climbs even higher during the winter months. Northern states where winters are brutal would feel the impact first as supplies tightened and prices increased. The U.S. would need to quickly ramp up domestic production, or import liquefied natural gas from distant countries at significantly higher costs.

Families in Michigan, Minnesota, and New York would see their heating bills double or even triple during the coldest months. Elderly residents on fixed incomes would face impossible decisions between staying warm and paying for food or medicine. America’s energy grid would also face increased strain during extreme cold snaps when demand peaks and supply struggles to keep up.
Manufacturing plants would face critical shutdowns

Industries ranging from steel production to chemical manufacturing depend on steady supplies of Canadian minerals, metals, and petroleum products. Production lines would slow down or stop completely without these essential raw materials. Communities that depend on manufacturing employment would see temporary layoffs turn into permanent job losses.

The automotive industry would take a hard hit since Canadian aluminum, steel, and parts are integrated into American car production. Assembly plants in Detroit and other manufacturing hubs would struggle to maintain their schedules. Supporting businesses like suppliers, restaurants, and service providers near these plants would lose revenue and might need to cut staff as the economic damage spreads outward.
Construction costs would climb dramatically

Roughly one-third of all wood used in U.S. construction comes from Canadian forests north of the border. Builders rely on this steady, affordable supply to keep housing projects on schedule and within budget. Lumber prices would immediately surge if Canada stopped exports, as American sawmills couldn’t possibly ramp up production fast enough to fill the gap.

New home construction would slow to a crawl as builders faced wood shortages and inflated material costs. First-time buyers would find homeownership slipping further out of reach as housing prices climbed even higher. The construction industry would shed jobs as renovation projects became luxury expenses and new developments got canceled or postponed indefinitely.

Electricity grids would struggle to meet demand




Image Credit: Andrey Metelev/Unsplash

Quebec’s massive hydroelectric dams supply significant portions of electricity to northeastern states like New York and Vermont. These states have built their energy infrastructure around the assumption that Canadian power will always be available at competitive prices. Utilities would be forced to fire up older, dirtier power plants or purchase expensive electricity from other regions to fill the gap.

Rolling blackouts would become a real possibility during hot summers when air conditioning demand peaks. Hospitals, data centers, and other critical facilities would need to rely more heavily on backup generators, driving up their operating costs. States would also face environmental setbacks as they turned to coal and natural gas plants, undoing years of progress toward cleaner energy sources.
The aerospace industry would face supply chain chaos

Materials like nickel, cobalt, and rare earth elements flow from Canadian mines into U.S. factories where they become essential components of aircraft and satellites. American aerospace companies would need to source these materials from countries with less stable political situations or lower environmental standards. High-tech manufacturing operations would face serious disruptions as they try to secure alternative suppliers.

Defense contractors would find themselves in a particularly difficult position since weapons systems and military aircraft require specific grades of Canadian materials. Production delays could affect national security readiness and cost the government billions in contract overruns. Commercial aircraft manufacturers like Boeing would struggle to meet delivery schedules, potentially losing orders to European competitors.
Fertilizer shortages would threaten food production

Saskatchewan and other Canadian provinces supply substantial amounts of potash and other fertilizers that American farmers need to maximize crop yields. Domestic production simply can’t meet the full demand that U.S. agriculture requires. American farmers would face difficult choices about which fields to treat and which crops to prioritize without access to Canadian agricultural inputs.

Corn, wheat, and soybean farmers would be hit especially hard as reduced fertilizer use led to smaller harvests. Food prices would climb as those higher costs eventually appeared in grocery stores, making everything from bread to meat more expensive. Rural farming communities would struggle economically as lower yields and higher input costs potentially forced some family farms out of business entirely.

Paper and packaging industries would collapse


Image Credit: vuk burgic/Unsplash

The shift toward online shopping has made Canadian pulp and paper products more important than ever for American commerce. These materials supply a huge portion of everything from newspapers to the cardboard boxes that deliver packages to doorsteps. The entire logistics chain that Americans depend on for convenient delivery would break down if these supplies vanished.

Amazon, Walmart, and countless other retailers would need to raise prices or slow delivery times as they competed for limited domestic packaging supplies. Packaging costs would explode as companies scrambled to find alternatives. While the quality of books would suffer as well.

Aluminum production would grind to a halt

Canada’s abundant hydroelectric power makes aluminum smelting economically viable, and American manufacturers depend heavily on this supply for everything from beverage cans to aircraft parts. U.S. aluminum production costs significantly more because electricity prices are higher domestically. Canadian imports have become the practical choice for most manufacturers who need to keep their costs competitive.

Beer and soda companies would face higher costs for cans, while automakers would struggle to source lightweight materials for fuel-efficient vehicles. Some manufacturers might even relocate operations overseas to access cheaper aluminum sources, taking American jobs with them and further hollowing out domestic industrial capacity.
Rail transportation systems would face fuel crises

The rail industry has optimized its supply chains around reliable deliveries of Canadian diesel fuel, particularly for routes through northern states. Freight trains transport everything from agricultural products to manufactured goods across the country using this fuel. The entire transportation network would face disruptions and increased costs if railroads suddenly needed to source all their diesel somewhere else.

Products would sit in warehouses waiting for transportation as trains struggled with fuel shortages and higher operating costs. Store shelves would empty out in certain regions as shipping delays rippled through the economy. The trucking industry would face even more pressure to handle freight that trains couldn’t move, which would further drive up transportation costs across all sectors.'

Steel mills would shut down production lines


Image Credit: yasin hemmati/Unsplash

Canadian iron ore and other steelmaking materials arrive by ship across the Great Lakes or by rail, following supply routes that have existed for generations. U.S. steel producers have built their operations around the assumption of steady Canadian supplies at predictable prices. American steel mills produce the metal framework for buildings, bridges, and infrastructure projects using these essential raw materials.

Bridge repairs, highway construction, and building projects would get delayed or canceled as steel supplies dried up and prices climbed. Infrastructure projects would stall as costs exceeded what government budgets could handle. Construction workers would lose jobs, and some companies might face bankruptcy if they couldn’t source materials at the prices they had originally bid in their contracts.
The uranium supply for nuclear plants would dry up

Nuclear power plants generate about 20% of all electricity used in the United States, and Canada produces a significant portion of the uranium that fuels these facilities. Nuclear facilities require consistent supplies of properly processed uranium to maintain safe operations and meet their generation schedules. Finding alternative sources would take time and require extensive testing to meet strict nuclear safety regulations.

Some older nuclear facilities might even face early closure if they couldn’t secure affordable fuel supplies in the short term. Power companies would need to pay premium prices for uranium from other countries, costs they would pass directly to consumers. States that depend heavily on nuclear energy would face difficult choices about building expensive new natural gas plants or accepting higher electricity rates from their existing facilities.

Economic recession would spread across both countries

Thousands of Canadian workers would lose their jobs in mining, forestry, and energy sectors that depend almost entirely on American demand. Resource exports make up a massive portion of Canada’s GDP, so the sudden end of these sales would devastate the Canadian economy. It would spread quickly through Canadian communities that were built around resource extraction and have few alternative employment options.

Unemployment would spike on the American side as businesses closed or cut staff to cope with impossible operating costs. The combination of energy shortages, manufacturing disruptions, and soaring prices would likely trigger a severe recession lasting years. Meaning, it would affect both countries’ economies over time.

Image Credit: CHUTTERSNAP/Unsplash© Image Credit: CHUTTERSNAP/Unsplash

This article appeared first on Mastermind Quotes.

Pulled '60 Minutes' segment surfaces on web with Canadian broadcaster's branding

Story by Aaron Sousa and Ashley Joannou
December 23, 2025

,
Corus Entertainment Inc. has negotiated an amendment to a credit agreement with its lenders to give it some increased breathing room as it works to deal with its debt. The Corus logo at Corus Quay in Toronto is shown on Friday, June 22, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Tijana Martin© The Canadian Press

A segment of the American news program "60 Minutes," pulled by CBS News prior to its U.S. airing, began circulating online Monday with the branding of Canadian broadcaster Global TV.

Multiple media reports say the program was uploaded to StackTV, Global's streaming platform, though it was not available to watch as of late Monday.

Global TV and its parent company, Corus Entertainment, did not immediately respond to calls and emails requesting comment.

CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has said it was her decision to pull from Sunday's broadcast the segment featuring deportees who faced egregious torture at a notorious prison in El Salvador.

The journalist behind the story, Sharyn Alfonsi, has said the segment was cleared by CBS lawyers and is accusing Weiss of trying to appease the Trump administration -- a known critic of the show.

Weiss says Alfonsi's piece presented powerful testimony, but didn't “advance the ball," noting that other outlets had already done similar work.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 23, 2025.

— With files from The Associated Press

Aaron Sousa and Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press

Feds to reveal future of EV mandate in 2026, as Liberals urged to relent on 100% target

Story by Stephanie Taylor

National Post


Minister of Environment and Climate Change Julie Dabrusin rises in the House of Commons during Question Period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025.

OTTAWA — As Prime Minister Mark Carney ushers in a new era of climate policy for the Liberals, a key decision is hanging over the governing party’s approach to electric vehicles.

Namely, will the 2035 sales mandate be kept or outright repealed?

The regulation currently requires manufacturers to hit certain sales targets for zero-emission vehicles, with those targets progressively rising until all new vehicle sales are zero emissions by 2035.

Keean Nembhard, a spokesman for Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin, said in a statement that “we will have more to share in the new year,” regarding the results of the 60-day review and the future of its zero-emission vehicle policy.

That timeline is beyond what some in the industry had expected, as automakers seek clarity on the regulation they spent this year urging Carney to repeal, citing the plummeting sales of electric vehicles and the ongoing Canada-U.S. trade war, where the auto industry has found itself on the frontlines.

“We’re very disappointed that there has not been a decision communicated to the auto industry, and we’ve been urging the federal government and the prime minister to move quickly on this and make a decision,” said Brian Kingston, president and CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, which represents Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis.

Related video: What is Canada’s electric vehicle mandate? (CBC)

The Liberals’ Nov. 4 budget stated that the government would “announce next steps on electric vehicles in the coming weeks.”

The government now expects that to happen early next year, as it works through changes to the policy.

Carney launched a 60-day review of the policy back in September, pausing the requirement for 2026, which would have mandated that 20 per cent of new vehicle sales be zero-emission.

The review was launched amid concerns that hitting that target was unrealistic. Kingston, who, along with auto CEOs, met with Carney over the summer, warns that to comply, manufacturers would have to spend “billions” on purchasing credits from other electric-vehicle makers, such as Tesla, or restrict the sales of gas-powered and hybrid vehicles.

“Companies are making decisions about production and inventory for the 2027 model year. And the longer that this goes on and this uncertainty hangs out there, the more damage and cost is put on the industry,” he said.

Manufacturers can also comply by spending money to build out charging infrastructure.

While automakers say the Liberals ought to scrap the policy, other stakeholders have urged the government to maintain the rule, but with changes, such as dropping the target that all new vehicle sales must be zero-emission by 2035.

Electric Mobility Canada, a national association representing the electric transportation industry, wrote in its submission as part of the government’s review that it should “eliminate” the 100 per cent target, “to remove a political flashpoint that is not necessary to maintain momentum in the transition.”

Clean Energy Canada, a think-tank based out of Simon Fraser University, recommended the same, instead suggesting the government lower the 2035 target to between 90 to 95 per cent.

“Reducing the (100 per cent) target could enhance public support by removing the perceived ‘ban’ on gas-powered vehicles and offer options for ‘hard-to-electrify’ jurisdictions, while still achieving significant emission reductions and improving (electric vehicle) affordability and availability,” it wrote in its submission.

Both British Columbia and Quebec, two provinces with their own sales mandates, revised their own policies to remove the 100 per cent target by 2035, with Quebec lowering it to 90 per cent, and B.C. stating it wanted to align its provincial policy with whatever the federal government releases.

Quebec also relaxed requirements for what counted as a zero-emission vehicle, including on its list non-plug-in hybrid vehicles, which have smaller batteries. The federal definition only includes plug-in battery hybrids and fully electric vehicles or ones powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been one of the most vocal critics of the federal policy, arguing that it amounts to a “ban on gas vehicles” and an affront to rural living, where driving remains essential.

Nembhard said the government received “considerable input from stakeholders, provinces and territories and Indigenous organizations” during the course of its 60-day review, which he said was launched to address “changes in tariffs and trade, economic uncertainty and shifts in the automotive industry.”

“Its aim was to ensure (Electric Vehicle Availability Standard) continues to reflect market realities, remains effective for Canadians, and does not place undue burden on automakers.”

Rachel Doran, executive director of Clean Energy Canada, said she believes the most important thing is that Canada makes policy choices that guarantee “affordable (electric vehicles) are available to Canadians.”

“And I will say right now, that is not the case.”

Doran points to moves like the federal government’s decision to suspend the purchase rebates for electric vehicles earlier this year, as well as the levying of a 100 per cent tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles, which are cheaper to purchase.

The latter remains a must to maintain, say leaders in Canada’s auto industry, who say it is not only essential that Canada stay aligned with the U.S., which first took the step under former U.S. president Joe Biden, given how integrated the two auto markets are, but also to protect the domestic industry against unfair advantages of competing against these vehicles, which Beijing has heavily subsidized and produced using less rigorous labour practices.

Doran nevertheless points to examples like the European Union, where more affordable models of electric vehicles remain available, including from Japanese and South Korean automakers.

“So we really do have kind of a problem here that needs to be solved.”

Despite campaigning on plans to reintroduce a purchase incentive, Carney’s government has yet to do so.

An internal briefing note, signed by officials within Transport Canada last December as the government prepared to announce a pause on the rebate program, which was released to National Post under federal access-to-information legislation, warned that ending the program was expected to be met with “strong criticism from industry, environmental organizations, consumers and other levels of government.”

Officials stated that around $2.9 billion had been spent on the incentive program since it was launched back in 2019 and that, as of November 2024, it had helped Canadians buy or lease more than 519,000 zero-emission vehicles and grow its market share.

Automakers and environmental advocates alike have blamed the ending of the program, which the federal government announced back in January, because it had run out of its allotted money, for the dramatic drop in sales.

Rick Smith, executive director of the Canadian Climate Institute, another think-tank, said scrapping the mandate altogether would “grind to a halt decarbonization in the transportation sector.”

Next to the oil and gas sector, the transportation sector remains the second-highest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Smith said the regulation, which the institute supports, is only part of the overall policy picture he believes the federal government must fulfil to make it easier for Canadians to make the switch to electric vehicles.

“Our hope is, in the new year, that the federal government make good on its commitments to bringing back purchase subsidies,” Smith said, adding it also needs to boost the building of public charging infrastructure.

With files from The Canadian Press

National Post

Carney says U.S. tariff reprieve 'unlikely' to happen before CUSMA review talks