Tuesday briefing: Why every candidate in Canada’s snap election is running against Donald Trump

In today’s newsletter: With elbows up on both sides, two very different political operators – Mark Carney and the Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre – attempt to fend off threats from the south

Good morning. When Justin Trudeau announced he would be resigning as Canada’s prime minister in January, he did so amid surging support for the Conservative opposition and a sense that its Trump-adjacent leader, Pierre Poilievre, might be the right candidate for a new political era. The Liberals’ near-decade in power appeared to be close to an end.

Now, Trudeau’s successor, the former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, has called a snap general election against a dramatically different political backdrop. With Donald Trump’s tariff war and musings about Canada’s future as a 51st state the inescapable mood music, many voters who had given up on the Liberals appear ready to give them another hearing – and Poilievre is trying to distance himself from the president whose methods he was once so happy to adopt.

Trump administration | A catastrophic security leak triggered outrage in US politics after senior Trump administration officials accidentally broadcast highly sensitive military plans through a Signal group chat with a journalist reading along. The stunning breach implicates key figures in the Trump administration including the vice-president, JD Vance.

Domestic violence | Domestic abusers are driving their victims to suicide, police have warned, as they admitted to past mistakes and pledged to investigate more “hidden” cases of violence against women. The concession came as deaths by suicide among victims of domestic abuse surpassed the number of people killed by an intimate partner for a second year in a row.

UK economy | Rachel Reeves will put £2bn into affordable housing in a bid to “sweeten the pill” of the spending cuts being announced at this week’s spring statement. The chancellor will set out one of the tightest budget buffers on record, with the Office for Budget Responsibility expected to put the government about £5bn in the red.

Turkey | Turkish authorities have arrested more than 1,100 people including journalists, while bombarding the social media platform X with requests to block hundreds of accounts after tens of thousands took to the streets in the largest anti-government demonstrations in years.

Archaeology | One of the biggest and most important iron age hoards ever found in the UK has been revealed, potentially altering our understanding of life in Britain 2,000 years ago. More than 800 objects were unearthed in a field near the village of Melsonby, North Yorkshire dating back to the first century.

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South Sudan opposition decries strike as US warns of rise in violence – Digital Journal

  1. South Sudan opposition decries strike as US warns of rise in violence  Digital Journal
  2. South Sudan on brink of renewed civil war, UN warns  Al Jazeera English
  3. Fears of clashes grow west of Juba  Radio Tamazuj
  4. South Sudan is 'on the brink,' U.N. warns amid renewed violence  NPR
  5. Could the Sudan crisis tip South Sudan into civil war?  GZERO Media
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Exonerated prisoner awarded $1.4m after 46 years spent on death row in Japan

Iwao Hakamada, the world’s longest serving death row prisoner, had been wrongly convicted of a quadruple murder

A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded $1.4m in compensation, an official has said.

The payout represents 12,500 yen ($83) for each day of the 46 years that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last.

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Germany: CDU, SPD present first results of coalition talks – DW (English)

  1. Germany: CDU, SPD present first results of coalition talks  DW (English)
  2. Merz's spending splurge risks blowback among German conservatives  Reuters
  3. Germany’s Merz loses leverage as coalition talks sputter  POLITICO Europe
  4. Olaf Scholz and his government ministers are officially resigning  MAMUL.am - Նորություններ Հայաստանից և Արցախից
  5. "The atmosphere is poisoned" — coalition talks in Germany threaten to turn into a failure  Eurasia Daily
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Four Russian Helicopters Landed Near The Front Line. A Ukrainian Drone Was Watching—And HIMARS Was Ready. – Forbes

  1. Four Russian Helicopters Landed Near The Front Line. A Ukrainian Drone Was Watching—And HIMARS Was Ready.  Forbes
  2. Ukraine war briefing: Strike into Belgorod ‘destroys four Russian helicopters’  The Guardian
  3. Ukraine war latest: US and Russia to issue joint statement while Saudi talks continue  The Independent
  4. Ukraine Launched HIMARS Attack On Russian Helicopters In Belgorod  The War Zone
  5. Ukraine's special operators say they scored a HIMARS hit on Russia's helicopters, including its fearsome Ka-52 attack helos  Yahoo
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