INTERNACIONAL
Leading Canadian conservative says Ottawa should remove all tariffs as ‘Liberation Day’ arrives
OTTAWA – As Canadians brace themselves for President Donald Trump’s «Liberation Day» of reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday, one political leader in Canada believes it could spark the start of a new era of Canada-U.S. relations free of cross-border taxes.
Maxime Bernier, who served as foreign affairs minister in former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government and now heads the right-wing People’s Party of Canada (PPC), told Fox News Digital in an interview from Halifax that it is «absolutely» the time for Canada to remove all tariffs against the U.S.
He said the 25% duties the Canadian government, under then-Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, imposed on the U.S. in early February to counter Trump’s 25% tariffs against Canada «won’t hurt the Americans – it is hurting Canadians.»
New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement following his March 28 call with the president – the first contact between both leaders since Carney was elected Liberal leader by his party nearly three weeks before – that Canada would implement retaliatory tariffs in response to Wednesday’s U.S. «trade actions.»
TRUMP’S 11TH WEEK IN OFFICE SET TO FOCUS ON TARIFFS AS PRESIDENT TOUTS ‘LIBERATION DAY’
President Donald Trump, left, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. (Getty Images)
The PPC leader said that Trump should be told that «the real reciprocal response» to tariffs is «zero on our side, zero on your side.»
Bernier said that instead, Carney and his main rival, Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre, are being «fake patriots using a dollar-for-dollar trade war against Trump» and telling Canadians: «That’s the best thing to do.»
«We cannot impose counter-tariffs,» said Bernier, who also served as industry minister in the Harper government.
«The Americans are 10 times bigger than us. We won’t win a trade war,» he said, underscoring that retaliation will lead to a recession in Canada.
Former Canadian Conservative politician Tony Clement, who served alongside Bernier in Harper’s Cabinet, told Fox News Digital that «from an economic point of view,» removing Canadian tariffs «makes a lot of sense» and «may come to that at some point, but the public isn’t there right now.»
«From a point of view of the emotional wounds of Canadians created by Trump and his annexation talk and tariffs, I’m not sure that a political voice would survive if it went down that public-policy route,» said Clement, a former Canadian industry minister in the Harper government.
Maxime Bernier, leader of the People’s Party of Canada, meets with his supporters at an election rally in Borden Park on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
«The mood of the people is outrage. I’ve never seen people in Canada this incandescently mad at the United States,» he said, who is campaigning in the Toronto area for Poilievre’s Conservative Party ahead of the April 28 general election. «There is complete distrust of whatever Trump says because it can change within 24 hours.»
He said that both Poilievre and Carney have highlighted the importance of removing «the specter of tariffs for a long period of time – if you can trust Trump to be a bona fide negotiator.»
Eliminating Canadian tariffs, without a quid pro quo from Trump, could «show weakness to a bully,» added Clement, who, prior to entering federal politics in 2006, served as a Cabinet minister in former Ontario Premier Mike Harris’ Progressive Conservative government.
MARK CARNEY WINS LIBERAL PARTY NOMINATION TO REPLACE TRUDEAU AS CANADA’S NEXT PM
Canadians hold an «Elbows Up» protest against U.S. tariffs and other policies by U.S. President Donald Trump, at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto on March 22, 2025. (REUTERS/Carlos Osorio)
In the statement released following his recent conversation with Trump, Carney said that both leaders «agreed to begin comprehensive negotiations about a new economic and security relationship immediately following the election.»
Conservative strategist Yaroslav Baran, who served as communications chief for Harper’s successful Conservative 2004 leadership campaign, and director of war room communications for the Harper-led Tories during the 2004, 2006 and 2008 federal election campaigns, told Fox News Digital that under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), «trade in goods and services ought to be tariff-free» between Canada and the U.S., excluding carveouts on the Canadian side for dairy, eggs, poultry and softwood lumber.
However, Baran added that he «can’t see the removal of all Canadian tariffs on U.S. products as long as the U.S. has tariffs on Canadian products.»
Vehicles in line to cross into the United States at the Canada-U.S. border in St-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Quebec, Canada, on Thursday, March 6, 2025. President Donald Trump exempted Canadian goods covered by the USMCA from his 25% tariffs, offering major reprieves to the U.S.’ two largest trading partners. (Graham Hughes/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Bernier acknowledged that while Trump’s tariffs will hurt Canadian exporters to the U.S., «the solution is to have a more productive economy with real free-market reforms» in Canada through such measures as lowering corporate taxes, promoting internal trade and fostering growth in the country’s oil and gas industry, all of which are featured in the PPC’s election platform that includes the establishment of a «Department of Government Downsizing» to abolish «ideologically motivated programs that promote wokeism,» not unlike the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.
The PPC leader also said that Canada should be willing to «put everything on the table» under the USMCA «right now» and before the trilateral trade deal is scheduled for a joint review next year.
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According to Bernier, that should include ending the «cartel» of supply management that sets quotas and prices, and protects Canada’s dairy, poultry and eggs sectors from foreign competition, which he described as «a communist system» that finds Canadians paying twice the price of those agricultural products than Americans do in the U.S., and which also imposes duties – ranging from 150% to 300% — on U.S. imports of the same products beyond limits agreed to but yet to be reached under the USMCA.
During the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 2018 that led to the USMCA, the first Trump administration sought to have Canada’s supply management system eliminated.
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A fire tore through a nightclub in Arpora, in the Indian coastal state of Goa on Sunday, killing 25 people and injuring six others.
Goa’s Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on X that he’s ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and that all six injured are in stable condition.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the incident «deeply saddening.»
«My thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones. May the injured recover at the earliest. Spoke to Goa CM Dr. Pramod Sawant Ji about the situation. The State Government is providing all possible assistance to those affected,» said Modi.
FIRE TEARS THROUGH HONG KONG HOUSING COMPLEX, KILLING AT LEAST 36 WITH HUNDREDS MISSING
The charred interior of a nightclub, which caught fire early Sunday, is seen in Arpora, in Goa, India, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo)
The Press Trust of India (PTI), the country’s largest independent news agency, reported that police initially pointed to a cylinder blast as the possible cause, but a surviving tourist told the agency that firecrackers set off during a dance routine likely ignited the blaze.
A woman identified as Riya, a tourist from New Delhi, told PTI that firecrackers were going off when the dancers were performing.
«The fire must have been caused due to this. There was a stampede-like situation,» she said.
SEVERAL FEARED DEAD IN A STAMPEDE OUTSIDE A CRICKET STADIUM IN INDIA
People stand outside the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub, which has been sealed for investigation following a fire that killed multiple people, in Goa, India, Dec. 7, 2025. (Ali Monis Naqvi/Reuters)
Another tourist, Fatima Shaikh, told PTI that more than 100 people had been on the dance floor at the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub when the fire broke out, and some fled toward the kitchen, where they became trapped along with staff members.
«There was a sudden commotion as the flames started erupting. We rushed out of the club only to see that the entire structure was up in flames,» she said.
The nightclub, which caught fire early Sunday, is seen across an expanse of water in Arpora, in Goa, India, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo)
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A preliminary inquiry, according to PTI, indicated the fire began on the first floor, where congestion and narrow exits kept people from escaping.
«Some of them rushed to the ground floor and got trapped there,» said Sawant. «We will take action against the club management and also against the officials who allowed it to operate despite flouting safety norms. This is an unfortunate incident during the peak tourist season.»
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
india,world,fires disasters
INTERNACIONAL
Japón denunció maniobras peligrosas de cazas chinos cerca de Okinawa y alertó sobre el aumento de la hostilidad de Beijing
El gobierno de Japón denunció este domingo una nueva provocación militar del régimen de Xi Jinping luego de que aviones de combate chinos encendieran sus radares contra aeronaves japonesas cerca de las islas Okinawa, en el sur del país.
La primera ministra Sanae Takaichi calificó el incidente como “extremadamente lamentable” y subrayó que los movimientos hostiles de Beijing fueron “un acto peligroso que va más allá de lo necesario para la seguridad de vuelo”.
Tokio presentó una queja formal al régimen comunista, señalando que se sigue intensificando una conducta que atenta directamente contra la paz en la región.
Los hechos se produjeron cuando el portaaviones chino Liaoning y tres destructores realizaban maniobras cerca del territorio japonés. Aviones J-15 lanzados desde el buque activaron los sistemas de radar sobre aeronaves japonesas F-15. Este tipo de acción —iluminar con radar— es considerado globalmente una amenaza táctica y puede obligar a los pilotos a realizar maniobras para evitar un ataque.
La respuesta del régimen chino no tardó en llegar. A través del portavoz militar Wang Xuemeng, Beijing acusó falsamente a Japón de aproximarse a sus ejercicios y “difamar” las operaciones chinas. Además, amenazó con “medidas necesarias” para proteger lo que llama sus intereses legítimos. El régimen chino insiste en su política expansionista y su rechazo a las normas internacionales en los espacios aéreos y marítimos de la región.
El episodio ocurre en pleno deterioro de las relaciones bilaterales, en un contexto marcado por la presión autoritaria de China sobre Taiwán, isla democrática a tan solo 110 kilómetros de Yonaguni, Japón.
El régimen de Xi Jinping amenaza abiertamente con la anexión forzosa de Taiwán, intensifica patrullajes navales agresivos y, según analistas, busca debilitar la posición japonesa en el Indo-Pacífico. La propia Takaichi reafirmó recientemente que Japón podría responder a cualquier agresión china en Taiwán que comprometa la seguridad nacional nipona.
La comunidad internacional ha mostrado su preocupación por la escalada del régimen chino. El ministro de Defensa australiano, Richard Marles, lo dejó claro en Tokio: “Estamos profundamente preocupados por las acciones de China en las últimas 24 horas. Australia se mantendrá unida a Japón para defender el orden regional basado en normas”.
A su vez, Estados Unidos sigue de cerca la situación, con su mayor contingente militar fuera del país desplegado en Okinawa. Aunque el presidente Donald Trump evitó declaraciones públicas, la administración estadounidense reafirma en documentos estratégicos que la acumulación de poder militar es esencial para disuadir una agresión autoritaria en Asia Oriental.
Taiwán también ha sido blanco de la presión de Beijing, que utiliza regularmente ejercicios militares, patrullajes y manipulación informativa para hostigar y desgastar a la isla. El gobierno taiwanés sostuvo que la retórica y las acciones de China constituyen acoso y “guerra psicológica”, además de exponer a toda la región a un mayor riesgo de conflicto.
El uso de radares para intimidar y poner en peligro a aeronaves japonesas no es una novedad. Incidentes previos han sido denunciados por Tokio ante organismos internacionales, pero el régimen chino ha reiterado su desafío a las reglas del derecho internacional, reclamando su supremacía sobre rutas que otros países.
La actitud de Beijing mantiene en vilo el futuro de la estabilidad en Asia Oriental, mientras Japón, Estados Unidos, Australia y Taiwán refuerzan la cooperación para contener la amenaza creciente de un régimen que no oculta su desprecio por el equilibrio internacional y las normas del sistema multilateral.
(Con información de Reuters)
INTERNACIONAL
Democrats escalate war-crime accusations as White House calls ‘innocent fisherman’ the new ‘Maryland Man’ hoax
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Democrat lawmakers are increasingly turning up the heat on the Trump administration over its series of military strikes on suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean since September, most recently focusing on alleged drug runners who survived an initial strike and were killed by a follow-up.
«If the reports are true, [Secretary of War] Pete Hegseth likely committed a war crime when he gave an illegal order that led to the killing of incapacitated survivors of the U.S. strike in the Caribbean,» Nevada Democrat Sen. Sen. Jacky Rosen said in a statement earlier in December of strikes that killed suspected traffickers.
The White House told Fox News Digital on Friday that the Democrat criticism echoes the «Maryland Man» hoax, referring to the arrest of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an accused MS-13 gang member who was illegally residing in Maryland.
Abrego Garcia received an outpouring of support from Democrat lawmakers in March over his deportation to El Salvador, with lawmakers traveling to El Salvador to meet with him, and media outlets describing him as a «Maryland man.»
EXPERT REVEALS WHAT IT WOULD TAKE FOR TRUMP TO DEPLOY TROOPS TO VENEZUELA: ‘POSSIBILITY OF ESCALATION’
President Donald Trump is greeted by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth before speaking to a gathering of top U.S. military commanders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in Quantico, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
«’Innocent fisherman’ is the new ‘Maryland Man’ hoax – just like the media tried to paint MS-13 human smuggler Kilmar Abrego Garcia as ‘father of the year,’ they are now running cover for foreign terrorists smuggling deadly narcotics intended to murder Americans. President Trump is using every element of American power to take on the cartels and stop deadly drugs from flooding into our country – just like he promised on the campaign trail,» White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Fox Digital.
Trump has long vowed to take on the ongoing opioid epidemic and stop foreign drugs and precursor chemicals from flowing into the U.S. The administration has defended the at least 22 strikes, which have killed dozens of suspected drug criminals, on suspected narco-boats as protecting the U.S. from cartels looking to «poison Americans.»
Kilmar Abrego Garcia (R) and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura (L) attend a prayer vigil before he enters a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office on August 25, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. ( Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
«These narco-terrorists are bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans at home — and they will not succeed,» Hegseth wrote in a post on X in November. «The Department will treat them EXACTLY how we treated Al-Qaeda. We will continue to track them, map them, hunt them, and kill them.»
Democrats have increasingly taken issue with a pair of strikes on Sept. 2 against an alleged drug boat from Venezuela. The White House confirmed the military carried out an initial strike on the boat before firing off a second that killed two suspected traffickers, sparking Democrats to claim the administration committed potential war crimes.
«You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, who were killed by the United States,» Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters earlier in December of the strikes.
While Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly shot back, «Going after survivors in the water, that is clearly not lawful.»
Fox News Digital reached out to Kelly’s and Himes’ respective offices for comment on the White House statement and the opioid epidemic in the U.S., but did not immediately receive replies.
Rosen’s office told Fox News Digital on Friday in response: «If Donald Trump is serious about fighting drug smuggling, why did he pardon the former President of Honduras who was convicted for smuggling hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States? And why did the Trump Administration threaten to cut millions of dollars in funding to address the opioid epidemic? The American people deserve to know.»
Republicans such as Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, remarked that video of the survivors allegedly showed individuals who wanted to «stay in the fight.»
«I saw two survivors trying to flip a boat, loaded with drugs bound for the United States, back over so they could stay in the fight,» Cotton said.
Alabama Republican Senate candidate Capt. Morgan Murphy told Fox News Digital that he’s seeing «utter hypocrisy from a party of theater kids who just don’t care about the lives being lost to the drug trade» when asked about Democrats sounding off about the strikes.
«For nearly a decade, Democrats lauded President Obama as the ‘Prince of Peace,’ even though his bomb strikes Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia killed hundreds of civilians. None of those countries were at war with the United States or targeted American civilians,» Murphy said, referring how former President Barack Obama faced war-crimes accusations from critics over his administration’s drone strikes and civilian casualties in countries like Pakistan, Yemen, and Afghanistan.
Murphy formerly served as the head of public diplomacy for the President’s Special Envoy to Russia and Ukraine in the Trump administration before launching his Senate campaign earlier in the fall. He is a captain in the U.S. Navy Reserves, as well as a veteran of the Afghanistan war, where he was awarded the Meritorious Defense Service Medal and the Afghan campaign medal, among others.
«But when President Trump pushes his own effort to stop human smugglers and drug dealers who have done untold harm and killed millions of Americans, they want to place the President and Secretary of War on a show trial,» he said.
President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he ordered a lethal strike on a vessel linked to a designated terrorist organization operating in the U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility on Sept. 19. (@realDonaldTrump via Truth Social)
CAPITOL HILL REVOLT THREATENS TRUMP’S VENEZUELA PLAYBOOK AMID CARIBBEAN STRIKE OVERSIGHT
The Trump administration launched the strikes after the president campaigned to end the flow of narcotics into the U.S. from nations including China, Mexico and Central and South America. The Trump administration turned its attention toward Venezuela, which is led by dictatorial president Nicolás Maduro, saying the U.S. is engaged in an «armed conflict» with drug cartels after the groups evolved into transnational terror organizations.
The administration has defended the strikes as necessary to curb the flow of opioid deaths in the U.S., while experts have also said the pressure campaign on Venezuela is likely aimed to also oust Maduro as leader of the oil-rich nation.
HEGSETH DID NOT ISSUE ‘KILL THEM ALL’ ORDER DURING VENEZUELA STRIKES, ADMIRAL TELLS CONGRESS
The CDC found that an estimated 806,000 people died from an opioid overdose between 1999-2023. The opioid crisis is viewed as unfolding in three waves, beginning in the 1990s with the increase in prescriptions to opioids, the CDC reported, followed by the second wave that began in 2010, when heroin overdoses spiked, and finally the current third wave of deaths involving synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl.
The crisis has slowed from its high of 81,806 opioid-related deaths in 2022, with 2023 marking the first annual decline in deaths since 2018, according to CDC data. There were an estimated 79,358 opioid deaths in 2023, according to CDC data.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that has grown in popularity and contributed to a spike in opioid deaths in the U.S. in recent years. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
As of Thursday, an estimated 86 suspected drug traffickers have died in the strikes.
Fentanyl has long been on the medical market to treat individuals suffering with severe pain, but has since become an illegal manufactured substance by transnational criminal organizations, such as cartels.
Trump vowed in his 2022 announcement that he would run for re-election to the White House that cartels would face the U.S. wrath over overdose deaths upon his return to the Oval Office.
RAND PAUL JOINS DEMS ON ‘WAR POWERS RESOLUTION’ CLAIMING TRUMP ADMIN COULD SOON STRIKE VENEZUELAN TERRITORY
«We will wage war upon the cartels and stop the fentanyl and deadly drugs from killing 200,000 Americans per year,» he said in November of 2024, previewing his administration.
Several Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee told Fox News Digital that the Trump administration has been well within its rights to act against Maduro’s regime. They added that they’re eager for more information after several strikes against alleged Venezuelan drug boats and Trump’s heightened rhetoric targeting Maduro.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is facing increasing pressure from the U.S. as the Trump administ (Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo)
«These boats, they’re stacked up with bags of white powder, that’s mostly fentanyl and other drugs too,» Trump said in September. «Every boat kills 25,000.»
Democrats in past decades have promoted fiery rhetoric focused on taking out foreign narco-terrorist, including then-Delaware Sen. Joe Biden calling for «another D-Day» to end the war on drugs in a 1989 address criticizing Republican President George H.W. Bush’s administration for not taking strong enough action on the crack cocaine epidemic.
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«Let’s go after the drug lords where they live with an international strike force. There must be no safe haven for these narco-terrorists and they must know it,» Biden said in the 1989 speech.
Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
donald trump,drug and substance abuse,crime,joe biden
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