ICYMI

Canada’s Justin Trudeau Uses Farewell Speech to Hit Trump

USES THE DIMINUTIVE; 'DONALD'

Julia Ornedo
Sun, March 9, 2025 

Blair Gable / REUTERS


Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took parting shots at President Donald Trump on his way out of office.

Trudeau is expected to step down this week once Mark Carney is sworn in as prime minister after winning the Liberal Party’s race for a new leader. Trudeau announced his resignation in January in the face of deep unpopularity.

Speaking to members of the Liberal Party on Sunday, Trudeau took swipes at Trump’s trade war, annexation talk, and his administration’s policies to dismantle the promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

“As Canadians face from our neighbor an existential challenge, an economic crisis, Canadians are showing exactly what we are made of,” Trudeau said. “Canadians are showing what it is that makes us Canadians—not by defining ourselves by who we’re not but by proudly embracing who we are.”


“We’re a country that celebrates the right of each and every person to be who they want to be, to pray as they pray, and love who they love,” he added. “We’re a country that will always defend a woman’s right to choose. We’re a country that will be diplomatic when we can but fight when we must elbows up.”

Tensions between Canada and the U.S. have heated up since Trump took office and imposed sweeping tariffs on Canadian goods, prompting Trudeau to clap back with tariffs on products made in the U.S.

Trump has also repeatedly expressed a desire to annex Canada as the 51st U.S. state, which Trudeau shut down by asking a trade of American states for Canadian territory.

It’s not just politicos who are in a standoff. American and Canadian sports fans have also been booing each other’s national anthems before games as the relationship between the two nations continues to get icy.


Newly Elected Canadian PM Mark Carney Immediately Vows He Won’t ‘Let Trump Succeed’ in Trade War

Stephanie Kaloi
Sun, March 9, 2025 



Mark Carney, Justin Trudeau’s successor in Canada’s Liberal Party, vowed the country “will not” let Donald Trump “succeed” with his attacks against “Canadian families, workers, and businesses” in his victory speech Sunday night.

Carney was voted into office as Prime Minister Sunday. In a clip being shared on social media, Carney referenced “someone who is trying to weaken our economy” before making it clear he meant Trump.

“Donald Trump, as we know, has put, as the Prime Minister just said, unjustified tariffs on what we build, on what we sell, on how we make a living,” Carney said. “He’s attacking Canadian families, workers and businesses, and we cannot let him succeed. And we won’t.”

Carney defeated three other candidates in the party’s election. Carney, who stepped down from Harvard’s second-highest governing body, the Board of Overseers, upon being elected, will be sworn into office this week.

Carney was the favorite to win the race and did so soundly, earning 85.9% of his party’s vote.

The Harvard Crimson reported Carney said elsewhere in his speech, “My government will keep the tariffs on until the Americans show us respect. In the meantime, we will make sure all the proceeds — all the proceeds from our tariffs— will be used to protect our workers.”

“Canada will never ever be part of America, in any way, shape, or form,” he also said.

If Carney’s coalition is successful, Canada will hold a general election by October 2025. Carney can also choose to call for an election at any time.

The party election marks the end of an era that began when Justin Trudeau, the oldest son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, was elected in 2015.

“I leave as leader of the Liberal Party with the same belief in hope and hard work as when I started,” the younger Trudeau wrote on X on Sunday. “Hope for this party and for this country, because of the millions of Canadians who prove every day that better is always possible.”

Trudeau announced his resignation on January 6, 2025, “I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust, nationwide, competitive process,” he said at a press conference at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa. “Last night, I asked the president of the Liberal Party to begin that process. This country deserves a real choice in the next election, and it has become clear to me that if I am having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election.”

“My friends, as you all know, I’m a fighter. Every bone in my body has always told me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians. I care deeply about this country, and I will always be motivated by what is in the best interest of Canadians,” Trudeau noted. “And the fact is, despite best efforts to work through it, Parliament has been paralyzed for months after what has been the longest session of a minority Parliament in Canadian history.”

“That’s why this morning, I advised the Governor General that we need a new session of parliament. She has granted this request, and the House will now be prorogued until March 24 over the holidays,” he continued. “I’ve also had a chance to reflect and have had long talks with my family about our future. Throughout the course of my career, any success I have personally achieved has been because of their support and with their encouragement.”

Trump adviser hopes Canada fentanyl dispute will be solved by end of March

DRUG WAR IS BS EXCUSE FOR TARIFFS

Reuters
Sun, March 9, 2025 


FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on Sunday he was hopeful a dispute with Canada over accusations of the deadly fentanyl opioid entering the U.S. across its northern border could be resolved by the end of March.

His comments on ABC News's "This Week" raise the possibility that tariffs due to be reimposed by U.S. President Donald Trump at the end of the month could be stayed further.

Hassett said the on-again, off-again tariffs that Trump was imposing on Canada were a reflection of the president's concerns over drug smuggling.

"We launched a drug war, not a trade war," he said. "We've got the drug war, which we're hopefully going to solve by the end of the month."

In reality, Canada is responsible for a minuscule proportion of drug smuggling into the United States and it wasn't immediately clear what progress Hassett was referring to.

Hassett, who directs the White House's National Economic Council, further muddied the waters over the administration's intentions when he referred later in the interview to America's "trade war."

Democratic U.S. Senator Adam Schiff from California, who appeared after Hassett on ABC, called the adviser's comments "incomprehensible."

(Reporting by Raphael SatterEditing by Bill Berkrot)



Trump admin. says tariffs meant for 'drug war, not trade war'

ANOTHER TRUMP-KNOW NOTHING

Mark Moran
Sun, March 9, 2025
UPI

U.S. President Donald Trump listens as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick speaks after announcing a $100 billion U.S. investment by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. File Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI


March 9 (UPI) -- Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that the Trump administration's threatened 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports will start Wednesday and tariffs on Canadian dairy and lumber products will go into effect on April 2.

National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett said in an interview with ABC News' "This Week" that the tariffs are not meant to start a trade war.

"What happened was that we launched a drug war, not a trade war, and it was part of the negotiation to get Canada and Mexico to stop shipping fentanyl across our borders," Hassett said.

"As we've watched them make progress on the drug war, then we've relaxed some of the tariffs that we put on them because they're making progress."

Lutnick, in an interview with NBC News' "Meet the Press," said the tariffs would go into effect and remain until both countries are satisfied with how the flow of fentanyl into the United States is being handled.

US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC in February. Elon Musk's demand that more than two million federal employees defend their work is facing pushback from other powerful figures in the Trump administration, in a sign that the billionaire's brash approach to overhauling the government is creating division. Photo by Al Drago/UPIMore

Hassett claimed Canada is a "major source" of fentanyl imports, despite the fact that the country is only responsible for 0.2% of illegal imports of the drug into the United States, according to CNN.

President Donald Trump on Sunday responded to concerns that tariffs could cause a recession in the United States.

"I hate to predict things like that," Trump told Mara Bartiromo on her Fox News show. "There is a period of transition because what we are doing is very big."

Trump predicted that his approach to reshaping the economy will take time but ultimately benefit U.S. farmers. He also said Sunday that the tariffs "could go up." He added that he plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on countries that put them on U.S. goods.

Economists have said Trump's approach is unusual and unprecedented, and making American consumers and businesses nervous.

Trump's Canada, Mexico tariffs try to 'stop the bleeding' in US economy: UAW chief

DAVID BRENNAN
Sun, March 9, 2025 

President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canada and Mexico are an "attempt to stop the bleeding" in the American economy, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain told "This Week" on Sunday in defense of the controversial measures.

"We're in a crisis mode in this country," Fain said, suggesting America's trade system is "broken" and in need of drastic reform. "We're in a triage situation," he added.

Tariffs "aren't the end solution," Fain explained, "but they are a huge factor in fixing this problem."

"Tariffs are an attempt to stop the bleeding from the hemorrhaging of jobs in America for the last 33 years," Fain said, suggesting the U.S. had lost "millions of jobs" since the inception of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994.

"NAFTA sucks," Fain said.

"The United States is the market everyone wants to sell in and we should have reciprocal trade laws where people have the same standard of living," Fain continued.

"Our neighbors to the south -- Mexican workers -- aren't the enemy. They're being exploited and it's because of corporate greed, and that's what's got to stop," he said.

PHOTO: This aerial view shows new Subaru cars in a storage lot at Auto Warehouse Co. on March 4, 2025 in Richmond, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The Trump administration said last week it would enact 25% tariffs on auto-related goods from Mexico and Canada, then reversed course, announcing a one-month delay to the measures following talks between Trump and executives of Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. The tariffs are now due to come into affect in April.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president notified the companies to "start investing, start moving, shift production here."

The UAW -- which has around 1 million members -- has long backed a return of jobs and manufacturing by U.S. automakers. The organization has also praised Trump's decision to impose tariffs.

"Tariffs are a powerful tool in the toolbox for undoing the injustice of anti-worker trade deals," the union said in a statement posted to its website on Tuesday. "We are glad to see an American president take aggressive action on ending the free trade disaster that has dropped like a bomb on the working class."

The UAW has said that higher prices for consumers will be the fault of companies rather than the president.

"There's been a lot of talk of these tariffs 'disrupting' the economy," the UAW said in its statement last week. "But if corporate America chooses to price-gouge the American consumer or attack the American worker because they don't want to pay their fair share, corporate America bears the blame for that decision."

The UAW endorsed Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Fain had previously described Trump as a "scab."

The union's approach has softened since Trump was reelected. Last week, the UAW said it was in "active negotiations with the Trump administration about their plans to end the free trade disaster."

"We look forward to working with the White House to shape the auto tariffs in April to benefit the working class," the union added.

PHOTO: In this Nov. 5, 2024, file photo, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain speaks at an election night campaign party in Detroit. (Carlos Osorio/AP, FILE)

Fain has been critical of aspects of the Trump administration, most notably the influence of billionaire Elon Musk.

Speaking at a "fighting oligarchy" event in Warren, Michigan, last week, Fain pushed back on Musk's attacks on Social Security.

"It's not our grandparents, and it's not a public school teacher," Fain said. "It's Elon Musk and the billionaire class. And you want to talk about a Ponzi scheme? I'll tell you about a Ponzi scheme. The only Ponzi scheme we've seen in the last 40 years is the rich getting richer while the working class and everyone else gets left behind."

\On "This Week," Fain said, "The election is over. Donald Trump is the president, and we want to get to work to fix the problems that are wrong with this country, with our economy. And the American people expect that. They expect leaders to stand up and lead. They don't expect us to sit back."

Trump's Latest Repost On Truth Social, Called "Shut Up About Egg Prices," Is Going Viral, And It NEEDS To Be Hung At Grocery Stores Nationwide

Michaela Bramwell
Sun, March 9, 2025 a

If you're on Truth Social, then you know Donald Trump is constantly posting AND reposting bizarre things.

A person in a suit is speaking in an office setting with a flag visible in the background

Like this face mashup of him and Elvis Presley...

Hybrid face image combining features of Elvis Presley on the left and another man on the right

Or this weird golden statue of himself that was featured in his AI video of Gaza:

A large golden statue of a man in a suit stands on a busy city street, surrounded by cars and palm trees

Well, it's been approximately six weeks since Trump took office, and he's most recently gone to Truth Social to seemingly tell Americans to stop complaining about the price of eggs.


Trump reposted an article on his Truth Social account called "Shut Up About Egg Prices — Trump Is Saving Consumers Millions."

Tweet from Donald J. Trump shares a link and screen-capture of article on egg prices by Charlie Kirk; caption notes Democrats are happy about egg costs

The article, written by conservative activist Charlie Kirk, puts the blame for high egg prices on the Biden administration and the bird flu outbreak, promising that Trump's team is actively working to fix the problem, but "raising more chickens to lay more eggs takes time."

"Reversing four years of economic malpractice will take time to reverse, but the building blocks of America’s next great low-inflation, high-wage growth boom have already been laid — and soon enough, so too will the eggs," Kirk wrote.

Of course, back on the campaign trail, Trump said: "When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on day one."

Person speaking at a podium with text "TRUMP VANCE" and "TEXT TRUMP TO 88022," surrounded by flag imagery and displayed products

And after he became the president-elect, he said: "When you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time, and I won an election based on that. We’re going to bring those prices way down."

A person in a suit and tie speaks during a "Meet the Press" interview. American flags are in the background

But as we all know, that promise has not come to fruition.

Egg cartons are stacked with three different prices visible: $19.99, $16.99, and $17.69. A wet floor caution sign is on the right

Here's what people are saying about Trump's latest "Shut up about egg prices" repost:



"From 'I'm going to make eggs cheaper' to 'Shut up about egg prices' in six goddamn weeks," this person said.

Tweet by Noah Smith: "From 'I'm going to make eggs cheaper' to 'Shut up about egg prices' in six goddamn weeks."



"Dude is telling Americans to shut up about food prices while spending another weekend playing golf. Amazing."

Tweet criticizing someone for telling Americans to stop complaining about food prices while they play golf on weekends

"If Biden had retweeted something that said 'shut up about egg prices', every Twitter server would melt within minutes." this person said.

Tweet joking that if Biden retweeted, "shut up about egg prices," Twitter servers would overload

I'm never shutting up about egg prices, and neither should you!

Trump Is Nero While Washington Burns

Claude Malhuret

FRENCH SENATOR
Sat, March 8, 2025 



Editor’s Note: On Tuesday, the French senator Claude Malhuret gave a powerful speech about the implications for Europe of the reversal of American policy toward Ukraine. Malhuret is the former mayor of the town of Vichy as well as a doctor and an epidemiologist, and the former head of Doctors Without Borders. He is a member of the center-right Horizons party representing the district of Allier. The speech, whose dark urgency and stark rhetorical force made it a social-media sensation, follows, translated and adapted by The Atlantic.


Europe is at a crucial juncture of its history. The American shield is slipping away, Ukraine risks being abandoned, and Russia is being strengthened. Washington has become the court of Nero: an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers, and a buffoon on ketamine tasked with purging the civil service.

This is a tragedy for the free world, but it’s first and foremost a tragedy for the United States. [President Donald] Trump’s message is that being his ally serves no purpose, because he will not defend you, he will impose more tariffs on you than on his enemies, and he will threaten to seize your territories, while supporting the dictators who invade you.


The king of the deal is showing that the art of the deal is lying prostrate. He thinks he will intimidate China by capitulating to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but China’s President Xi Jinping, faced with such wreckage, is undoubtedly accelerating his plans to invade Taiwan.

Never in history has a president of the United States surrendered to the enemy. Never has one supported an aggressor against an ally, issued so many illegal decrees, and sacked so many military leaders in one go. Never has one trampled on the American Constitution, while threatening to disregard judges who stand in his way, weaken countervailing powers, and take control of social media.

This is not a drift to illiberalism; this is the beginning of the seizure of democracy. Let us remember that it only took one month, three weeks, and two days to bring down the Weimar Republic and its constitution.

[Read: How Hitler dismantled democracy in 53 days]

I have confidence in the solidity of American democracy, and the country is already protesting. But in one month, Trump has done more harm to America than in the four years of his last presidency. We were at war with a dictator; now we are fighting against a dictator supported by a traitor.

Eight days ago, at the very moment when Trump was patting French President Emmanuel Macron on the back at the White House, the United States voted at the United Nations with Russia and North Korea against the Europeans demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops.

Two days later, in the Oval Office, the draft-dodger was giving moral and strategic lessons to the Ukrainian president and war hero, Volodymyr Zelensky, before dismissing him like a stable boy, ordering him to submit or resign.

That night, he took another step into disgrace by halting the delivery of promised weapons. What should we do in the face of such betrayal? The answer is simple: Stand firm.




And above all: make no mistake. The defeat of Ukraine would be the defeat of Europe. The Baltic states, Georgia, and Moldova are already on the list. Putin’s goal is to return to the Yalta Agreement, where half the continent was ceded to Stalin.

The countries of the global South are waiting for the outcome of the conflict to decide whether they should continue to respect Europe, or whether they are now free to trample it.

What Putin wants is the end of the world order the United States and its allies established 80 years ago, in which the first principle was the prohibition of acquiring territory by force.

This idea is at the very foundation of the UN, where today Americans vote in favor of the aggressor and against the aggressed, because the Trumpian vision coincides with Putin’s: a return to spheres of influence, where great powers dictate the fate of small nations.

Greenland, Panama, and Canada are mine. Ukraine, the Baltics, and Eastern Europe are yours. Taiwan and the South China Sea are his.

At the Mar-a-Lago dinner parties of golf-playing oligarchs, this is called “diplomatic realism.”

We are therefore alone. But the narrative that Putin cannot be resisted is false. Contrary to Kremlin propaganda, Russia is doing poorly. In three years, the so-called second army in the world has managed to grab only crumbs from a country with about a quarter its population.

[Read: Russia is not winning]

With interest rates at 21 percent, the collapse of foreign currency and gold reserves, and a demographic crisis, Russia is on the brink. The American lifeline to Putin is the biggest strategic mistake ever made during a war

The shock is violent, but it has one virtue. The Europeans are coming out of denial. They understood in a single day in Munich that the survival of Ukraine and the future of Europe are in their hands, and that they have three imperatives.

Accelerate military aid to Ukraine to compensate for the American abandonment, so that Ukraine can hang on, and of course to secure its and Europe’s place at the negotiating table.

This will be costly. It will require ending the taboo on using Russia’s frozen assets. It will require bypassing Moscow’s accomplices within Europe itself through a coalition that includes only willing countries, and the United Kingdom of course.

Second, demand that any agreement include the return of kidnapped children and prisoners, as well as absolute security guarantees. After Budapest, Georgia, and Minsk, we know what Putin’s agreements are worth. These guarantees require sufficient military force to prevent a new invasion.

Finally, and most urgently because it will take the longest, we must build that neglected European defense, which has relied on the American security umbrella since 1945 and which was shut down after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The task is Herculean, but history books will judge the leaders of today’s democratic Europe by its success or failure.

Friedrich Merz has just declared that Europe needs its own military alliance. This is a recognition that France has been right for decades in advocating for strategic autonomy.

Now it must be built. This will require massive investment to replenish the European Defense Fund beyond the Maastricht debt criteria, harmonize weapons and munitions systems, accelerate European Union membership for Ukraine, which now has the leading army in Europe, rethink the role and conditions of nuclear deterrence based on French and British capabilities, and relaunch missile-shield and satellite programs.

Europe can become a military power again only by becoming an industrial power again. But the real rearmament of Europe is its moral rearmament.

We must convince public opinion in the face of war weariness and fear, and above all in the face of Putin’s collaborators on the far right and far left.

They say they want peace. What neither they nor Trump says is that their peace is capitulation, the peace of defeat, the replacement of a de Gaullian Zelensky by a Ukrainian Pétain under Putin’s thumb.The peace of collaborators who, for three years, have refused to support the Ukrainians in any way.

[Read: What Europe fears]

Is this the end of the Atlantic alliance? The risk is great. But in recent days, Zelensky’s public humiliation and all the crazy decisions taken over the past month have finally stirred Americans into action. Poll numbers are plummeting. Republican elected officials are greeted by hostile crowds in their constituencies. Even Fox News is becoming critical.

The Trumpists are no longer at the height of glory. They control the executive branch, Congress, the Supreme Court, and social media. But in American history, the supporters of freedom have always won. They are starting to raise their heads.

The fate of Ukraine will be decided in the trenches, but it also depends on those who defend democracy in the United States, and here, on our ability to unite Europeans and find the means for our common defense, to make Europe the power it once was and hesitates to become again.

Our parents defeated fascism and communism at the cost of great sacrifice. The task of our generation is to defeat the totalitarianisms of the 21st century. Long live free Ukraine, long live democratic Europe.

Article originally published at The Atlantic

Spain targets men's 'deafening silence' in gender violence battle

Wafaa ESSALHI
Fri, March 7, 2025 

Spain has made strides in fighting gender-based violence but the government says there is more to do (OSCAR DEL POZO)OSCAR DEL POZO/AFP/AFPMore

Feminist activists in Spain say inaction and men's silence are hindering the eradication of abuse, as the country celebrates 20 years of a pioneering law against gender-based violence.

The murder of Ana Orantes, a 60-year-old woman who had reported violence against her to the authorities and on television before being burned alive by her ex-husband in 1997, shocked the nation into action.

Parliament ended up adopting a law that entered into force in 2005 and recognised gender-based violence as a human rights violation for the first time, inspiring other countries.

The legislation laid the ground for a range of new support measures for women, including specialised courts, free legal assistance, emergency housing, prosecution even if the victim did not submit a complaint and tags keeping abusers away from the victim.

It was the first law in Spain to be conceived with an explicit gender-based perspective, punishing abuse perpetrated by males against their partners or ex-partners.

For lawyer and activist Altamira Gonzalo, the law stood out by aiming to "undermine the patriarchal structure of society, which is what allows and perpetuates inequality and therefore violence".

It was the first European law which sought to change different areas including the health system, media, advertising and "all those aspects of life in which inequality between men and women is reflected", Gonzalo added.

The measures helped bring down the number of femicides, which in 2024 dropped to a low of 48 since such records began in 2008, when 76 women were killed by their partner or ex-partner.

But "there is still lots of work to do with men, and especially with young males" and "macho attitudes", said Manuela Carmena, a former judge and mayor of Madrid from 2015 to 2019.

Equality Minister Ana Redondo said the scale of the problem was "enormous" and "inoculated like a virus in society" that spread on social networks.

- 'Deafening silence' -

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez recently called out fellow men for their inaction, speaking of "a silence that covers macho culture's most subtle manifestations, but also the most extreme ones".

"Everywhere, this silence must end, because today it remains a deafening silence," he said at an event marking the 20th anniversary of Spain's gender-violence law.

This week, the Spanish bar awarded an equality prize to Gonzalo and French lawyers Stephane Babonneau and Antoine Camus, who represented Gisele Pelicot in her notorious mass rape trial that generated much soul-searching in Spain.

Pelicot was raped for years by her husband and dozens of men recruited by him online while sedated, and her insistence that the trial in France be made public made her a global feminist icon.

"Under how much silence was the continual rape of Gisele Pelicot maintained for years? How many men knew and kept quiet?" said Sanchez.

Sexual violence is "under-reported in Spain", agreed Gonzalo, a member of the national observatory against gender-based violence.

Nonetheless, the ground-breaking 2005 law has allowed more than three million women to report their suffering and escape from their ordeal, the lawyer added.

Spanish authorities are now widening the law's scope to include newer offences such as online and economic violence as well as "vicarious violence" -- abuse meted out to children with the aim of making the mother suffer.


People march in cities around the world to mark International Women's Day

Lucy Davalou
Sat, March 8, 2025 


People march in cities around the world to mark International Women's Day


Hundreds of thousands of people marched in cities around the world on March 8th to mark International Women's Day.

Tens of thousands of people gathered on the streets of Madrid, rallying in defence of women’s rights and advocating for an anti-racist, feminist agenda.

The march, organised by the feminist network 8M Commission, saw participants braving the rain whilst chanting against gender inequality and racism.

The Spanish government reported 25,000 participants against 20,000 in 2024, although organisers claimed the number was closer to 80,000.

Rome marches against gender violence

People take part in a Transfeminist strike on International Women's Day, outside the Colosseum, in Rome, Saturday, March 8, 2025 - Valentina Stefanelli/Valentina Stefanelli/LaPresse

In Rome, the demonstration focused on fighting gender violence and closing the gender gap. The city hosted the largest demonstration in Italy, however Italians were marching in 60 cities across the country to raise awareness about violence against women. The slogan of the demonstration, “Not One Less,” echoed the ongoing fight against femicide and gender-based violence.

While in Istanbul, Turkey, thousands more took to the streets to also protest against gender violence and the growing pressure on women in society. The rally in Istanbul's Kadikoy district was marked by speeches, music, and dance, celebrating women’s strengths whilst also highlighting the urgent need for societal change. However, a heavy police presence, including officers in riot gear and water cannon trucks, tightly controlled the demonstration.

Turkish women fight a patriarchal society

The Turkish government declared 2025 the "Year of the Family," a move that many protesters criticised, seeing it as an attempt to further confine women to traditional roles of marriage and motherhood. The government's decision to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention in 2021, which was designed to protect women from domestic violence, has also been a source of anger among activists. The We Will Stop Femicides Platform reported that 394 women were killed by men in Turkey in 2024.

Women chant slogans during a protest marking International Women's Day in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, March 8, 2025. - Emrah Gurel/Copyright 2025 The AP. All rights reserved

Yaz Gulgun, a 52-year-old pensioner, spoke out against the rising rates of femicide in the country, calling for better legal protections and a more supportive police force. She said

“There is bullying at work, pressure from husbands and fathers at home and pressure from patriarchal society. We demand that this pressure be reduced even further.”

While Selvi Alkancelik, a 58-year-old demonstrator, pushed on the desire for women to be free from the restrictions imposed by a patriarchal society, saying “Let women be free. I want them to go somewhere without asking permission from her husband, to go anywhere without fear when she returns home at night, to go anywhere freely without fear. I want freedom for all women in the world."

A one-day strike at 13 German airports, including the main hubs, brings most flights to a halt

Associated Press
Mon, March 10, 2025 

Police patrol along the deserted security checkpoint at Hamburg Airport, Germany Monday, March 10, 2025. (Christian Charisius/dpa/dpa via AP)ASSOCIATED PRESS

A woman sleeps on a bench in the check-in area of Terminal 2 at Munich Airport, Germany Monday, March 10, 2025. (Peter Kneffel/dpa via AP)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Crew members of an international airline walk through the almost deserted Terminal 1 at Hamburg Airport, Germany Monday, March 10, 2025. (Christian Charisius/dpa via AP)ASSOCIATED PRESS

BERLIN (AP) — A one-day strike by workers at 13 German airports, including the Frankfurt and Munich hubs and all the country's other main destinations, caused the cancelation of most flights on Monday.

The 24-hour walkout, which started at midnight, involves public-sector employees at the airports as well as ground and security staff.

At Frankfurt Airport, 1,054 of the day's 1,116 scheduled takeoffs and landings had been canceled, German news agency dpa reported, citing airport traffic management.

All of Berlin Airport's regular departures and arrivals were canceled, while Hamburg Airport said no departures would be possible. Cologne/Bonn Airport said there was no regular passenger service and Munich Airport advised travelers to expect a “greatly reduced flight schedule.”

The ver.di service workers union’s strike also targeted the Hamburg, Bremen, Hannover, Berlin, Duesseldorf, Dortmund, Cologne/Bonn, Leipzig/Halle, Stuttgart and Munich airports. At the smaller Weeze and Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden airports, only security workers were called out.

The union announced the strike on Friday. But at Hamburg Airport, it added a short-notice walkout on Sunday to the strike on Monday, arguing that it must ensure the measure was effective.

The so-called “warning strike,” a common tactic in German wage negotiations, relates to two separate pay disputes: negotiations on a new pay and conditions contract for airport security workers, and a wider dispute over pay for employees of federal and municipal governments.

Strikes at 11 key airports to cause major disruption across Germany

DPA
Mon, March 10, 2025 

A security checkpoint in the terminal at Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) remains closed. The Verdi union has called for a 24-hour warning strike by public sector and ground handling employees at 13 airports on Monday. Christophe Gateau/dpaMore


Strikes began at 11 major German airports just after midnight on Monday (2300 GMT Sunday), with public service workers, ground staff and aviation security called out for 24 hours by the verdi trade union in two different wage disputes.

Further strikes in facilities operated by the federal government and the local authorities are also to go ahead this week, a verdi spokesman said. The next round of pay talks, the third, has been scheduled for Potsdam near Berlin on Friday.

The pay strike aims to paralyze air transport across much of Germany, with the ADV airport association predicting that more than 3,400 flights will be cancelled and 510,000 passengers unable to board as scheduled.

The public sector strike, which has been planned since Friday, will be joined by employees in the aviation security sector. These are people who work in passenger control, personnel, goods and freight control as well as in service areas.

A new collective labour agreement is currently being negotiated for them. The next round of negotiations is scheduled for March 26 and 27.

According to German air traffic control, around 6,000 flight movements take place daily at German airports, with a further 3,000 passing through German airspace.

Verdi has called out public service workers and the ground staff who clean, load and refuel the aircraft at the main hub at Frankfurt, along with the airports at Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne/Bonn, Dusseldorf, Dortmund, Hanover, Bremen, Hamburg, Berlin-Brandenburg and Leipzig-Halle.

At the airports of Weeze and Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden, only employees in the aviation security sector have been called to strike.

No passengers will be able to board at Frankfurt, Germany's busiest airport, and transit flights are almost certain to be affected according to airport operator Fraport. Workers at Frankfurt are to hold a rally during the day.

On Monday, 1,170 take-offs with a total of around 150,000 passengers were scheduled.

Airport operators have urged passengers not to travel to terminals. A Lufthansa spokesman said the airline was working on a replacement schedule.

Verdi is demanding 8% more pay, with at least €350 ($380) per month more, as well as an additional three days of leave for a total 2.5 million workers. Employers have yet to make an offer.

Strike action has already hit airports at Cologne/Bonn, Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Munich, resulting in numerous cancellations and affecting 800,000 passengers.

Joachim Lang, head of the BDL air transport association described the strikes as disproportionate.

"An entire transport section is being shut down comprehensively, and that, while airports and airlines, as well as restaurants, retail and hotels are not parties to the agreement. A collective bargaining conflict is being conducted on the backs of passengers, even before the next round of negotiations starts," Lang said.

He called for new rules governing strikes in critical infrastructure.

A display board in the departure area of Duesseldorf Airport warns of delays. The trade union Verdi has called for a 24-hour warning strike by public service and ground handling employees at eleven airports on Monday. Christoph Reichwein/dpaMore

Lufthansa aircraft stand at Terminal 2 at Munich Airport in the morning. The Verdi union has called for a 24-hour warning strike by public sector and ground handling employees at 13 airports on Monday. Peter Kneffel/dpa

Some 3,400 flights expected to be scrapped in Germany due to strikes

DPA
Fri, March 7, 2025 

Public service employees take part in a warning strike at Munich Airport. The trade union Verdi is planning a two-day warning strike at Munich Airport to increase the pressure in the public sector wage negotiations. Sven Hoppe/dpa

More than 3,400 flights will have to be cancelled due to strikes expected at 11 German airports on Monday, according to an initial estimate by airport association ADV, predicting some 510,000 travellers will be affected.

"Striking at 11 locations at the same time is a new dimension," asid ADV managing director Ralph Beisel on Friday, hours after the trade union announced the industrial action at major transport hubs including Germany's Frankfurt and Munich airports.

Beisel said the strikes were a nightmare for affected passengers, citing "far-reaching consequences for individual mobility and economic processes."

The strikes come amid an ongoing wage dispute for public sector workers which already to led to cancellations at major German airports last month.

Some 800,000 passengers have faced disruptions due to collective bargaining negotiations so far, according to ADV.

Joachim Lang, managing director at German aviation association BDL called Monday's strikes disproportionate.

"An entire industry is being shut down across the board, even though airports and airlines, as well as restaurants, retailers and hotels, are not parties to the collective agreement," he said.

Lang called for new strike regulations in the critical infrastructure sector.

Trump Threatens 250% Canadian Dairy Tax in Latest Tariff Saga Twist

Liam Archacki
Sat, March 8, 2025 

DAILY BEAST


Alex Wong / Getty Images


President Donald Trump has threatened to impose yet another set of tariffs on Canada—the latest twist in a saga that has seen the president repeatedly institute and then delay sweeping taxes on close allies.

A day after offering a partial one-month reprieve on the 25 percent tariff on all goods from Canada and Mexico, Trump declared Friday, “Canada has been ripping us off for years on lumber and on dairy products.”

He added that the U.S. would be matching Canada’s existing 250 percent tariff on dairy, although he equivocated on when the tax would go into place.

“We may do it as early as today, or we’ll wait until Monday or Tuesday,” the president said. “We’re going to charge the same thing. It’s not fair. It never has been fair, and they’ve treated our farmers badly.”


Trump has made trade wars with Canada, Mexico, and China a central part of his early-term agenda.

Donald Trump listens to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a meeting at the White House on Oct. 11, 2017. / AFP Contributor / AFP via Getty Images

However, a White House official seemed to undercut Trump’s latest threat.

“Discussions with Canada continue,” an unnamed official told NBC News. ”While we don’t have any specific actions to preview at the moment, the president is always ready to take action to save American lives from the scourge of illicit drugs flowing over our borders and shore up our border security.”

Trump has cited fentanyl trafficking as the reason for levying steep tariffs against America’s neighbors, although less than 1 percent of fentanyl seized entering the U.S. comes through the northern border; 98 percent comes from Mexico.

Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fired back at Trump’s tariffs as they were introduced this week, before the president rolled them back for another month.

“Now, it’s not in my habit to agree with The Wall Street Journal, but Donald, they point out that even though you’re a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do,” Trudeau said on Tuesday. “We two friends fighting is exactly what our opponents around the world want to see.”

He added that Canada, which had already retaliated with new tariffs against America, would also challenge the legitimacy of the taxes at the World Trade Organization. Canada and the U.S. have a free trade agreement.

The threat appeared to work, as the tariff roll-back that soon followed reverts the taxes on products protected by the three-way agreement between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

Noem aware Mexican, Canadian leaders have own ‘political environments,’ but Trump ‘means business’ on tariffs

SHE SHOT THE FAMILY DOG, AND BRAGS ABOUT IT

Tara Suter
Sun, March 9, 2025 


Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Sunday that she knows Mexican and Canadian leaders have their own “political environments” but that President Trump “means business” on tariffs.

“We all recognize that each one of these leaders has political environments in their home countries as well, but President Trump means business, and he meant it when he ran to be president of the United States again, and since he’s taken office, that he will put America first,” Noem told CBS News’s Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation.”

Last week, the president imposed 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico alongside an extra 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods. Trump cited irritation over the stream of fentanyl into his country, but experts have noted not much of the drug comes into the U.S. via its border with Canada.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went after the Trump tariffs aimed at Canada on Tuesday, noting a Wall Street Journal editorial calling them “dumb.”

“Now, I want to speak directly to one specific American,” Trudeau said at the time. “Donald, in the over eight years you and I have worked together, we’ve done big things. We signed a historic deal that has created record jobs and growth in both of our countries.”

“We’ve done big things together on the world stage, as Canada and the U.S. have done together for decades, for generations. And now, we should be working together to ensure even greater prosperity for North Americans in a very uncertain and challenging world.”

Later in the week, Trump went forward with tariff exemptions for imports from Canada and Mexico in line with a 2020 North American trade agreement.


On Sunday, Noem said that the president is “taking action to make sure that we’re cleaning up the mess that Joe Biden left behind and that we have a much safer country where Americans can look forward to the future.”

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Trump’s Threat to Take Over Canada Is a Scandal

Asawin Suebsaeng
Sat, March 8, 2025 

As an American teenager who grew into a semblance of political consciousness during the height of George W. Bush’s War on Terror, it was easy to notice how the post-9/11 period corroded our political culture and our grasp of decency in ways from which we have never truly recovered. One thing I’ll never forget is how so many people in the United States lost their minds over Iranians who once chanted a “Death To America” jingle.

To this day, too many members of the U.S. media and political elite still believe bombing Iran is a rational policy. Imagine, if you will, that in 2002, Iranian leaders had gone a step further and, with grins on their faces, had repeatedly and openly propagandized about annexing large swaths of American territory, thus putting millions of our citizens under their rulers’ authority.

How do you think our nation would have responded, collectively, to that unrealistic threat? Would we have a shred of patience for anyone telling us not to worry about it?

Our many millions of neighbors to the north are hearing similar threats today from our new president, Donald Trump. They are not laughing it off.

Of course, Iran is on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, and is a markedly less powerful nation than the United States. The Canadians share a border with the U.S. and are currently being menaced by a profanely imperialistic leader who not only keeps trying to destroy the Canadian economy with large tariffs for nonsensical reasons, but who also controls the mightiest military on the planet — and he keeps talking about taking over their country and referring to Canada as “the 51st state.”

“The excuse that he’s giving for these tariffs today of fentanyl is completely bogus, completely unjustified, completely false,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday, responding to Trump’s latest salvo in his buffoonish trade war on Mexico and Canada. “What he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that’ll make it easier to annex us.”

Whenever I press senior Trump advisers, other administration officials, and Republican sources close to the White House about the president’s threats against Canada, I am typically told that it’s just Trump being Trump, and that I’m being a hysterical leftist. Or, I’m told that the president is once again doing his Art Of The Deal-style diplomacy, and that there’s a method to the reality-TV-grade madness. Other times, I get an earful about how Canada’s prime minister is the real problem, and that finding offense in Trump’s words is a whiny waste of time.

On occasion, I’ll get a moment of candor that gives away a larger game, even if the comment is to be taken with some grain of irony.

“Donald Trump should not accept Canada as the 51st state; it should obviously be a territory,” says one Trump administration official, who notes that making Canada a state would likely add “so many liberal voters” that it would risk tipping the Electoral College in the Democratic Party’s direction. (U.S. territories, like Puerto Rico, are not allowed electoral votes for the presidency.)

There are numerous reasons why Trump and his government’s pervasive blathering about turning Canada into the “51st state” shouldn’t be dismissed as a “Madman Theory”-negotiating tactic, or as performative MAGA trolling. During a private phone call last month, according to a Friday New York Times report, Trump “told Mr. Trudeau that he did not believe that the treaty that demarcates the border between the two countries was valid and that he wants to revise the boundary. He offered no further explanation.”

Lately, Trump — a man who would never try to do anything world-historically rash like ending democracy in America — has told every news camera that would listen and broadcast his message to the world that he would like to rule Canada, one of the U.S.’s most vital allies. It’s not just Trump blurting it out: This has become the position of the United States federal government; his White House press secretary and his Homeland Security secretary are now, too, calling Canada “the 51st state.”

“Canada could do a lot more. Canada has been taken over, Bret, by Mexican cartels,” top Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro, bizarrely, told Fox News host Bret Baier on Wednesday, attempting to justify Trump’s tariffs. (At least Trump White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt practically admitted the tariffs are about forcing Canada’s annexation.)

The president and his senior administration officials may have been talking about our partner on the northern border, but the invocation of the U.S. fentanyl crisis and violent Mexican drug kingpins as justification for reckless economic decisions potentially spells far more doom and pain for our neighbors to the south.

For years, Trump and numerous heavy hitters in the Republican Party elite — at think tanks, in Congress, and now within the highest levels of his second administration — have moved the idea of invading and bombing Mexico from the fringes of right-wing fantasy and into the GOP’s mainstream. It’s in proposed legislation. The policy papers have been written. Trump campaigned on it during his successful reelection bid.

“President Trump is committed to calling them a terrorist organization and using the full might of the United States special operations to take them out,” Trump’s “border czar” and immigration-crackdown ringleader Tom Homan said in November.

Whether or not Trump ultimately sends in a single troop or launches a drone strike on Mexican soil within the next 200 weeks, it would be criminally negligent of the Mexican government to view this talk as an empty threat. The Republican Party, not just its bloviating leader, has made it abundantly clear that they believe they can violate Mexican sovereignty in spectacularly violent ways, if and whenever they feel like it. The justifications they cite, of course, are the drug cartels and fentanyl.

How is the average Canadian supposed to process the fact that the new Trump administration is now consistently wielding those exact same justifications when discussing economic war on Canada and a desired territorial takeover of their country? The fact that the U.S. federal government is squawking in one loud, highly irritating voice — in your name and mine, and doing so on our taxpayers’ dime — that it would like to obliterate the national sovereignty of our longtime friend and ally to the north is in and of itself a scandal.

Not a troll, or a joke, or mere bluster — a scandal.

Ever since Trump’s rise in 2015 — during a decade-long political career that has only grown more fascistic and lawless with age — it has become standard practice for too many members of the elite ranks of the media and political class to describe various Trump outbursts or actions as little more than a “distraction” from the real issues. This includes but is sadly not limited to pundits and politicos insisting that the president’s recent announcement that he considers himself “THE KING” is a frivolous distraction, even as Trump and his lieutenants have been deploying everything in their arsenals to grant him the powers of one.

Indeed, it would be easier to dismiss Trump’s cartoonishly imperialistic talk of conquering Canada, a country of roughly 40 million souls, if this weren’t occurring against the backdrop of an administration working to impose its degenerate MAGA incarnation of American imperialism on a war-torn European nation.

Over the past 10 years, a hallmark of Trumpist propaganda has been that The Donald is a new kind of Republican on foreign policy: He’s no neocon, he’s not Bush or Cheney, he is “ending endless war,” he wants his own version of “peace through strength.” That propaganda has always been bullshit, and only further revealed itself to be just that during his first administration — when Trump escalated the war in Afghanistan and refused to end it, as President Joe Biden finally did.

The second presidency of “Donald The Dove” has further inflamed that contradiction, as Trump and his senior officials seek to bully the Ukrainian government into signing over access to its valuable fossil fuel and mineral resources, as the nation continues to suffer under a brutal Russian invasion. It is a uniquely depraved shakedown, and demonstrates that Trump’s primary interest in the Russia-Ukraine conflict is to join Vladimir Putin in a joint mission to divvy up the spoils of war.

Closer to home, the Canadians can all watch this play out on the evening news. Will U.S. Marines be marching on Quebec next week? No, probably not.

And yet, the damage is already done. Canadians are experiencing the same politics of extortion and harassment that Trump has unleashed on Ukraine.

It is, or at least it should be, a damp stain on our national conscience, and your average outraged Canadian is responding rationally. If anything, it’s the American public that should be taking Trump’s depravity more seriously. We allowed this to happen.

FULL SPEECH: 

Former PM Jean Chrétien addresses tariff war during Liberal leadership speech

Former prime minister Jean Chrétien tells Trump to 'stop this nonsense'

OTTAWA — Moments before the new Liberal leader was announced on Sunday, former prime minister Jean Chrétien took to the stage to reprimand U.S. President Donald Trump over tariffs and threats to Canada's sovereignty.

Catherine Morrison, 

The Canadian Press


Former prime minister Jean Chretien delivers a speech at the Liberal leadership announcement event in Ottawa, Sunday, March 9, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick


OTTAWA — Moments before the new Liberal leader was announced on Sunday, former prime minister Jean Chrétien took to the stage to reprimand U.S. President Donald Trump over tariffs and threats to Canada's sovereignty.

Chrétien warned a crowd of Liberals gathered in Ottawa that Canada’s “long and fruitful” relationship with Americans was falling apart with continued hostility coming from the Trump administration.

The former prime minister applauded Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government and Canada’s premiers for their leadership in the last few weeks standing up to Trump’s threats.

He said the government is right to retaliate and said Canadian governments could go even further, hitting Americans "where it really hurts" by imposing an export tax on oil and gas, potash, steel, aluminum and electricity. The money could be used to build up infrastructure, he suggested

Chrétien said the "unjustified" duties will be a lose-lose situation for both Canadians and Americans but that, for Canada, this is about “more than money.”

He urged Canadians to stand up for the country, adding that while Canada is a good neighbour, it’s also a proud and independent country.

“From one old guy to another old guy, stop this nonsense,” Chrétien told the crowd. “Canada will never join the United States.”

Chrétien said Canada will remain “the best country in the world.” He thanked Trump for uniting Canadians "as never before" and joked that he should receive the Order of Canada.

“Historically, despite our friendship, we have had problems but we always found a way to solve them,” he said. “We have worked with and collaborated with the U.S. in the past and I’m telling you we will do so in the future.”

“We are going to be living very difficult times but I’m confident, I’m very confident that the next prime minister will work with the premiers, the leaders of all the political parties in the House of Commons and allies around the world to stand together to meet the challenges that Mr. Trump is creating for the whole world.”

Trump has threatened Canada with tariffs and "economic force" to make it the 51st state.

After imposing and then quickly pausing 25 per cent tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada that sent markets tumbling over concerns of a trade war, Trump said in a taped interview with Fox News Channel's “Sunday Morning Futures" that his plans for broader "reciprocal" tariffs will go into effect April 2.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 9, 2025.

Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press

Chretien says we should hit the U.S. ‘where it hurts’; and Canada should build a natural gas pipeline from Alberta to Quebec

By Phil Hahn
March 09, 2025

CTV

Former PM Chrétien gives U.S. President Trump a ‘history lesson’

Former prime minister Jean Chrétien gives U.S. President Trump a ‘history lesson’ and jokes about burning down the White House.


Former prime minister Jean Chrétien gives U.S. President Trump a ‘history lesson’ and jokes about burning down the White House.

Former prime minister Jean Chretien said Canada had every right to retaliate the way it did in the ongoing trade war with the United States, adding it should hit back even harder by imposing taxes on major exports and using the money to bolster our infrastructure, including a pipeline “from Alberta to Quebec.”

Chretien, 91, took to the stage Sunday evening at the Liberal Party leadership convention in Toronto where Mark Carney was elected in a landslide to become the party’s new head, and Canada’s next prime minister, replacing Justin Trudeau.

After touting the Liberal Party’s past accomplishments including medicare, the Charter of Rights, putting Indigenous rights into the Constitution, toughening gun control laws and making same-sex marriage legal, Chretien addressed the “elephant in the room” – the “long and fruitful” friendship between Canada and the U.S. that is now “falling apart before our eyes.”

He said in French that a friendship long characterized by mutual respect and trust has now given way to “wariness and more and more open hostility” by the Trump administration towards Canada.
Hitting ‘where it hurts’

He congratulated the Trudeau government as well as Canada’s premiers for the way they have reacted to the “completely unjustified” tariffs imposed on us by the U.S.

“If necessary, the governments altogether can consider going further,” he said, by hitting America “where it hurts, by imposing an export tax on oil, gas, potash, aluminum and electricity.”


He said Canada could then use the money from the export tax to build infrastructure needed in Canada, “for example, to build a pipeline for natural gas from Alberta (to) Quebec.”

Chretien called the U.S. the most powerful country in the world that has been built upon a rules-based order that has brought us peace and prosperity.
Trump has decided to ‘throw it all out the window’

“It has allowed all of us to sleep well every night, and Donald Trump has decided to throw it all out the window,” he said, calling upon the next prime minister and premiers to continue working together to stand up and meet the challenges that Trump is creating for the world.

Chretien then brought up a lesson from history that could serve as inspiration today: During the Treaty of Paris, in 1776, American negotiators, including Benjamin Franklin, spent a year in Montreal trying to convince the people of Quebec to join the American Revolution. “And he was told by the Francophones, ‘non, merci.’”

Former prime minister Jean Chrétien gives U.S. President Trump a ‘history lesson’ and jokes about burning down the White House.

In an exclusive interview with CTV Question Period in January, Chretien had appealed for the Liberal Party to go back to the “radical centre” to help its electoral fortunes. When Carney took the stage to accept his victory, he thanked Chretien for his years of service as prime minister for 10 years, between 1993 and 2003.

“You still know how to raise the Liberal party up like no one,” Carney told Chretien from the stage. “You showed us how to stand up. You inspired my family to become Liberals, including my father, to run as a Liberal candidate in Alberta in 1980.”

“Some elections are tougher than others,” said Carney.