Canada leaders agree to unite against Trump tariff threat amid reports of retaliatory measures

Deputy PM says ‘we need to be smart, strong and united’ after meeting on threat by US president-elect of a blanket 25% tax on imports from Canada

Canada’s federal government and the premiers of the 10 provinces have agreed to work together against a threat by US president-elect Donald Trump to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian imports, with one official saying the country was already examining possible retaliatory measures.

“We agreed that we need to be smart, strong and united in meeting this challenge,” deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters on Wednesday after a virtual meeting with the premiers called by the prime minister, Justin Trudeau.

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Democrats win California House seat from Republican incumbent – as it happened

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Leavitt wrote that the threats transpired Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, and included bomb threats and swatting, which refers to false reports of a crime to prompt police raids on a person’s home.

Law enforcement “acted quickly,” wrote Leavitt, adding that “President Trump and the entire Transition team are grateful for their swift action.”

Leavitt did not say who specifically was targeted.

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Democrat Derek Tran ousts Republican rival in key California House seat

Son of Vietnamese refugees beats Michelle Steel in seat drawn to give Asian Americans stronger voice in capital

Democrat Derek Tran ousted Republican Michelle Steel in a southern California House district Wednesday that was specifically drawn to give Asian Americans a stronger voice on Capitol Hill.

Steel said in a statement: “Like all journeys, this one is ending for a new one to begin.” When she captured the seat in 2020, Steel joined Washington state Democrat Marilyn Strickland and California Republican Young Kim as the first Korean American women elected to Congress.

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Republican senator introduces bill to abolish US Department of Education

Mike Rounds submitted bill that needs supermajority to pass, unlikely even in GOP-controlled Senate next year

A bill that would accomplish Donald Trump’s goal of abolishing the federal Department of Education has been introduced into the US Senate.

The Republican senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota introduced the bill, called the Returning Education to Our States Act, on Thursday. If passed, the bill would see $200bn in funding and the work of the education department redistributed to other federal agencies and states.

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Trump picks Keith Kellogg to serve as special envoy to Ukraine and Russia

Retired US army general and former Pence aide tapped for newly conceived role to negotiate amid ongoing war

Donald Trump has picked Keith Kellogg to serve as a special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, a newly conceived role given the ongoing war between the two countries.

Kellogg, an 80-year-old retired US army lieutenant general, would start in the role as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues into its third year.

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Democrats criticize Harris for ‘self-congratulatory’ review of election loss

Top campaign staff also under fire for saying party has to ‘dominate the moderate’ in Pod Save America appearance

Some Democratic figures have accused Kamala Harris’s campaign of being self-congratulatory after a series of recent public appearances from the candidate and her senior staff in which they declined to admit making any errors that could have contributed to her defeat.

Some of the criticism was aimed at Harris herself, following a video call to thank campaign donors in which the vice-president expressed pride in her failed race for the White House.

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Trump pick for US health agency proposed ‘herd immunity’ during Covid

Picking Jay Bhattacharya to lead NIH signals return to controversial and scientifically questionable health policies

Jay Bhattacharya, an unofficial Covid adviser in Trump’s first administration, has been selected as the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), one of the leading biomedical research institutions in the world.

The choice of Bhattacharya, a Stanford economist whose proposal for widespread Covid-19 infection was backed by the White House, signals a return to controversial and scientifically questionable health policies in the second Trump administration, experts say.

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Trump announces more picks including US trade chief and health deputy

Attorney Jamieson Greer to play key role in trade team and investor Jim O’Neill picked to be RFK Jr’s health deputy

Donald Trump announced his selections for a series of positions in his administration Tuesday evening. The posts include the president-elect’s picks for deputy secretary of health and human services, US trade representative and head of the national economic council, among others.

Jamieson Greer, an attorney who served under Trump’s previous trade representative Robert Lighthizer, will serve as US trade representative. In his announcement, Trump said: “Jamieson played a key role during my First Term in imposing Tariffs on China and others to combat unfair Trade practices, and replacing the failed NAFTA deal with USMCA, therefore making it much better for American Workers.”

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Mexico president vows to retaliate with own tariffs against Trump’s tax threat

Claudia Sheinbaum rebukes Trump and says his plan would do nothing to stem flow of migrants or drugs bound for US

Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum has rebuked Donald Trump’s threat to impose steep tariffs on Mexico, arguing the plan would do nothing to halt the flow of migrants or drugs bound for the US border, and vowing that Mexico would hit back with tariffs of its own.

“One tariff would be followed by another in response, and so on until we put at risk common businesses,” Sheinbaum said, warning that tariffs would cause inflation and job losses in both countries. “What sense is there?”

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Trump’s incoming ‘border czar’ promises secure southern US border – as it happened

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Donald Trump has used the fentanyl crisis gripping the US to support his ambition to impose trade tariffs on China. It gives the incoming US president an opportunity to both appear to be addressing the narcotics emergency, while also reinforcing one of his key aims in terms of US trade.

China is the dominant source of chemical precursors used by Mexican cartels to produce fentanyl, while Chinese money launderers have also become key players in the international drug trade, US authorities say.

Trump has said that, as soon as he gets into office, he will impose a 25% tariff on “ALL products coming into the United States” from Mexico and Canada.

He says the tariffs will remain in place until both countries clamp down on migrants and drugs crossing the border into the US.

Trump also says he will impose a further 10% tariff “above any additional tariffs” on all products coming into the US from China.

It was not entirely clear what this would mean for China as Trump has previously pledged to end China’s most-favoured-nation trading status and slap tariffs on Chinese imports in excess of 60% - much higher than those imposed during his first term.

The reasons for the China tariff, Trump said, was their failure to curb the supply of drugs into the US. China is a major producer of the chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl.

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Trump’s tariff threat sets stage for bitter global trade war

Trade experts hail ‘new era of protectionism’ with targeted countries retaliating with their own tariffs

Donald Trump’s threat to impose steep tariffs on goods imported into the US has set the stage for a bitter global trade war, according to trade experts and economists, with consumers and companies warned to brace for steep costs.

The president-elect announced on Monday night that he intends to hit Canada, Mexico and China with tariffs on all their exports to the US – until they reduce migration and the flow of drugs into the country.

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Biden proposes Medicare and Medicaid cover weight-loss drugs for 7.4m people

Move aims to tackle US’s chronic obesity problem, but poses a challenge to Trump’s incoming administration

The Biden administration is proposing to make “miracle” weight loss drugs free for low-income people and retirees, in a move aimed at tackling America’s chronic obesity problem but which throws down a gauntlet to the incoming president, Donald Trump.

The proposal, unveiled on Tuesday, would see expensive drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound covered by Medicaid and Medicare, the federal government programs for the poor and the elderly.

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China and Canada respond to Trump’s tariff threats and border comments – as it happened

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Corey Lewandowski, an adviser to Donald Trump, has said that he and the president-elect have “no concerns at all” regarding Pete Hegseth’s confirmation by the Senate as the next US secretary of defense.

During an appearance on NewsMax, Lewandowski was asked if Trump had any concerns about Hegseth and his nomination, to which Lewandowski responded: “We have no concerns at all.”

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Biden will attend Trump’s inauguration in January, says White House

US president and Jill Biden to attend swearing-in of Trump, who did not attend Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will attend Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, a White House spokesperson said on Monday.

“The president promised that he would attend the inauguration of whomever won the election,” said Andrew Bates, senior deputy press secretary at the White House, Reuters reported.

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Ex-official exits running for Trump team over Sebastian Gorka appointment

Michael Anton, national security official in first Trump term, reportedly removed name from contention over feud

A frontrunner to be deputy national security adviser in Donald Trump’s administration reportedly withdrew from the running after learning that he would have to work with Sebastian Gorka, the president-elect’s choice as counter-terrorism adviser.

Michael Anton, a conservative speech writer and national security official in Trump’s first presidency, removed his name from contention over Gorka’s appointment against a backdrop of acrimonious past relations between the pair, the Washington Post reported.

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Ireland prices corporation tax loss from Trump policies at €10bn

Figure costed for three multinationals repatriating to US after nomination for commerce secretary hits out at Ireland’s tax regime

Ireland’s prime minister has said the country could lose €10bn (£8.35bn) in corporate tax if just three US multinationals were repatriated to America under a hostile Donald Trump administration.

His remarks come just days after Trump nominated the Wall Street investor Howard Lutnick to lead the Department of Commerce with direct responsibility for trade.

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Trump Pentagon pick attacks UN and Nato and urges US to ignore Geneva conventions

Revealed: Pete Hegseth writes scathingly of key institutions and says ‘If you love America, you should love Israel’

Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, has attacked several key US alliances such as Nato, allied countries such as Turkey and international institutions such as the United Nations in two recent books, as well as saying US troops should not be bound by the Geneva conventions.

At the same time, the man who would head America’s gigantic military has tied US foreign policy almost entirely to the priority of Israel, a country of which he says: “If you love America, you should love Israel.”

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RFK Jr will cut prescription drugs and increase weed and psychedelics access

Trump’s health department pick has expressed distrust of pharmaceuticals and attacked ‘suppression of psychedelics’

Public health experts are concerned that, if confirmed, Donald Trump’s choice for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – Robert F Kennedy Jr – could upend access to pharmaceutical drugs in favor of more experimental treatments.

Kennedy, who the president-elect picked earlier this month, has repeatedly expressed distrust for pharmaceuticals, and criticized the FDA for its “aggressive suppression of psychedelics”. On his podcast, he called the US “the sickest country in the world”, blaming its healthcare system for devoting billions to “the pills and the potions and the powders rather than on actually getting people healthy, building their immune systems”.

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Republican senator: ‘We’ll have lots of questions’ for Trump’s controversial picks

Democrat Tammy Duckworth says Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard are unqualified for roles Trump wants them to fill

A prominent Republican US senator pledged on Sunday that Congress would not give blanket approval to Donald Trump’s controversial cabinet picks ahead of the congressional confirmation process, as a leading Democrat challenged the qualifications of some of them to serve.

Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma predicted lawmakers in the upper chamber will have tough questions in particular for the former Democratic congresswoman, Tulsi Gabbard, who was chosen by the president-elect as director of national security for his second administration.

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Hegseth’s views on women in combat ‘flat-out wrong’, Senator Duckworth says

Democratic combat veteran says Trump’s pick for defense secretary is ‘inordinately unqualified’ for the job

Democratic US Senator Tammy Duckworth, who lost both her legs after the army Black Hawk attack helicopter she was piloting was shot down during the US war in Iraq, on Sunday ramped up criticism of Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary who argues women shouldn’t be on the front line.

Pete Hegseth is the former Fox News host and soldier tapped by the president-elect to lead the Pentagon and oversee the largest military force in the world, but he is steeped in controversy.

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