Canadian leaders condemn new Trump tariffs
A few minutes ago, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called Trump’s new car rate a “direct attack” on Canadian autoworkers who spoke that day in Windsor, Ontario, next to the Detroit Ambassador’s bridge.
Kearney called the bridge “a symbol of close ties between our two countries and reality, kinship, business ties, bonds in the broken process.”
“We will defend our workers, protect our company, protect our country, and we will protect it together,” Carney said.
Carney, the leader of Canadian liberals, who campaigns primarily for elections in opposition to Trump’s threat to Canada, has pledged to the auto union, which will boost the Canadian auto sector and establish a $2 billion “strategic response fund” to protect manufacturing jobs.
“President Trump is working on that again,” Ontario’s conservative Prime Minister Doug Ford wrote about X. Retaliatory tariffs to show that we will never retreat. ”
“It was not on my bingo card today, putting the jobs of hundreds of thousands of auto workers at risk to save the Secretary of Defense’s job,” said Flavio Volpe, president of the Canadian Association of Auto Parts Manufacturers.
“In my life I’ve never heard anything that’s actually not very clear or based on. China just dreamed of causing so quickly and decisive damage to the American automotive industry as much as Trump is threatening here again,” he added.
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Updated with 18.56 EDT
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Trump suggests he may give China a “slight cut in tariffs” to sell Tiktok
In response to a reporter’s question about the potential transaction status to keep Tiktok open in the US, Trump said that if an agreement over a social media app is not reached, it could extend the deadline for the transaction and reduce tariffs to ensure Chinese approval of the company’s U.S. military sale.
“In regards to Tiktok, China needs to play a role in it, perhaps in the form of recognition, and I think they will do that.
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Updated with 18.28 EDT
Trump says he has not been described about our soldiers who went missing in Lithuania
When asked by a reporter, “We’re explaining about the missing Lithuanian soldiers,” the president replied: “No, I haven’t.
Earlier on Wednesday, the U.S. Army said in a statement that “the M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle was run by four missing US troops operating during the training exercise.”
“The vehicle has been found to be submerged in the waters of the training area,” the statement added. “Efforts to search for soldiers continue.”
Soldiers went missing during military training during training at Pablad’s training ground, a town less than 10 km (6 miles) from the border with Belarus.
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Updated with 18.10 EDT
Trump rejects the call for a signal survey as a “witch hunt,” and claims that Heggs “has nothing to do with it.”
We asked the reporter how he would respond to Republican lawmakers who called on his administration to take more accountability than he would today and not to underestimate the signalling messages revealed today. “I don’t know to underestimate it.
A moment later, when another reporter asked if Defense Secretary Pete Hegses, who texted the detailed attack plan in an unsecured group chat, was needed to consider resigning, aroused Trump replied:
As a huge explosion of signal chat messages displayed at the house on Wednesday, Hegses had a lot to do with it, as the precise sequence of planned attacks and weapons systems deployed via the messaging app two hours before the strike at Yemen.
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Updated with 18.09 EDT
Trump says car rates are “permanent”
When asked by reporters if tariffs could be lifted before the end of his term, Trump said the new 25% rate for foreign-made cars was “permanent, 100%.”
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Updated with 17.42 EDT
Trump signs an executive order to impose a 25% tariff on cars made outside of us
The president has just signed an executive order to put 25% tariffs on cars imported into the US, and says it will come into effect on April 2.
Asked by reporters how they would guarantee that vehicles made largely abroad in the US to avoid tariffs will not be completed, Trump claims there is “strong police” to prevent car manufacturers from dodging tariffs.
The president called the current system of cars being made in multiple countries “silly.”
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Updated with 17.37 EDT
Trump announces 25% tariffs on all cars not made by us
“This is the beginning of America’s liberation day,” Donald Trump told reporters who were now gathered in the oval office for his comments on new tariffs on cars made outside the United States. At the start of the remarks that will be streamed live on the White House YouTube channel, the president said there will be a 25% tariff on all imported cars.
This tariff applies to completed cars and trucks shipped to the United States, including those made by US auto companies with cars made overseas.
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Updated with 17.33 EDT
Waltz was in Saudi Arabia on the day he invited journalists to the signal.
While fears have been raised about the possibility of being vulnerable to hacking as President Steve Witkov was added to Moscow when he was added to the signal messaging chat about attacking Yemen (Wickov’s concerns that he dismissed the failure to use his personal devices on that trip), it looked down on the he he. I accidentally invited journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to connect with him on a messaging app.
Goldberg wrote in his first report on Atlantic events: “On Tuesday, March 11th, we received a connection request for signals from a user identified as Michael Waltz.”
Goldberg did not specify the time the invitation was sent, so it is unclear where Waltz was when he submitted the request. (Recent statements from the CIA director suggest that it may no longer be true, but it has previously been reported that it cannot be downloaded to protect open source signaling apps.)
However, Waltz spent much or all of the day in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and knows that he and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were engaged in meetings with senior Ukrainian officials about plans for a 30-day ceasefire in the Ukrainian war to fight back the full-scale Russian invasion that began in 2022.
Waltz and Rubio know that for most of the day, they were at the facility where the Saudi Arabian government was located, since speaking to reporters to announce that Ukraine had accepted the proposal that night after 9pm local time in Jeddah.
It’s not clear when the Waltz left Saudi Arabia, but he was certainly there for most, if not all, of March 11th. Waltz and Rubio met with Saudi prince Prince Mohamed bin Salman in Jeddah on March 10th, and Rubio’s itinerary on the State Department website shows that the Secretary of State did not leave Saudi Arabia until March 12th.
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Updated with 17.17 EDT
Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth has issued a statement calling for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegses.
“Pete Hegses is a liar. This is very clearly categorized information he recklessly leaked so that he can kill the pilot. He must immediately resign in disgrace,” the statement reads.
“Hegseth and all other officials included in this group chat should be subject to independent investigations. If Republicans do not join us in holding the Trump administration accountable, they are conspiring to this likely dangerous criminal violation of our national security.”
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Updated with 15.55 EDT
Pete Hegses denies text message war plan when Democrats ask for his resignation
Defense Secretary Pete Hegses denied allegations that he texted other Trump officials over group chats earlier this month, which discussed the secret warfare plan.
“Nobody texts a war plan,” he told reporters in Hawaii. “The truth is, they know it’s not a war plan, so they changed the title to an attack plan,” he said.
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Updated with 16.13 EDT
Leyland Secco
Former Canadian spy chief says the White House’s response to signal leaks threatens the security of “five eyes”
The former Canadian spy chief said the Trump administration’s attempt to downplay the leaks of a secret attack plan was a “very worried” development and would affect wider intelligence sharing among US allies.
On Wednesday, Atlantic Magazine published new detailed messages from the group chat, including target information for attack information, including bombing plans, drone launches and explanations of weather conditions. Among the recipients of the message were well-known journalists. He was accidentally added to the group.
“This is very worrying. Canada needs to think about what this means in a practical sense. Is the US ready to protect our secrets?” said Richard Faden, former head of Canadian Intelligence Reporting Agency. “In every country, there are various leaks of severity. The problem with this is that it is being produced at the highest level of the US government. They don’t accept that it is a problem.”
Canada, the United States, the UK, Australia and New Zealand have shared intelligence for decades in an agreement known as the Five Eyes. However, leaks of classified information could put an additional burden on the group, considering how seriously the current American administration takes its handling of confidential information.
“When we have intelligence leaks, we acknowledge it, we try to sort out what happened, we try to fix it. Today, we don’t get the impression that members of the US cabinet don’t acknowledge that there is a problem,” said Faden, who served as national security adviser to conservative Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. “They are just trying to clean it up from a political standpoint. That’s worrying about me.”
Despite much more detailed photos of information leaked to journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, the White House and key figures in the message thread doubled efforts to assert that the information was not classified.
Read the full story of Guardian’s Leyland Cecco:
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