United States

The Trump administration on Sunday warned that Canada would be “foolish” to think it could win a trade war with the United States, predicting a “devastating” impact on its northern neighbour. Negotiations between Washington and Ottawa broke down late Friday, putting into force new 50 per cent US tariffs impacting about US$20 billion worth of Canadian goods, or 5.5 per cent of Canadian exports to the US. Canada in retaliation said it would match US tariffs, with new levies notably targeting the...

Chinese archaeologists will carry out their first joint field project in South America by exploring sites dating back thousands of years in Peru as Beijing steps up its efforts to deepen cultural ties with the region. The Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said it had signed a cooperation agreement with the Caral Archaeological Zone of the Peruvian Ministry of Culture and the Professional School of Archaeology at the National University of San Marcos to explore...

Abbas Araghchi says country is unbowed but president Masoud Pezeshkian admits its people face ‘many problems’ Iran’s foreign minister has dismissed the threat of a fresh round of US economic sanctions as a “desperate” ploy, even as its president acknowledged that the Iranian people are facing “many problems” amid Washington’s efforts to isolate and debilitate the country’s economy. Last week, Donald Trump announced a new campaign to increase the pressure on the Iranian economy, calling it “the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country”. The US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, is expected to announce further punitive economic measures on Iran – which he has described as “the toughest sanctions in history” – on Monday. Continue reading...

Defense files motion to dismiss state case after federal guilty plea but prosecutors say they are prepared to litigate After Luigi Mangione admitted in Manhattan federal court that he killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, most experts believe that the state murder case against is highly unlikely to proceed – though some still see a slim possibility that it may yet happen. Mangione, who pleaded guilty on 14 August to two federal stalking counts, was scheduled for a New York state trial on 8 September for murder and weapons charges in the December 2024 killing. In the wake of Mangione’s surprise plea, legal experts said New York’s state-level double jeopardy law – which means someone cannot be tried twice for the same crime – could derail his local prosecution. Continue reading...

The United States may want the world to choose sides in the AI race with China, but in Africa, many businesses are pursuing a more pragmatic strategy: using Chinese models where they offer better value or flexibility, while keeping their options open. For example, when African insurtech platform Curacel expanded the range of artificial intelligence (AI) models powering its internal infrastructure, it did not look only to Silicon Valley. Instead, the Nigeria-based firm – which provides AI-powered...

PM Mark Carney says ‘we got attacked’ as tariffs come into force on items from hockey sticks to tongue depressors Donald Trump has hit back at Canada after a breakdown in negotiations plunged the two countries into a trade war. In his first public comments since negotiations collapsed on Friday in Washington, the US president wrote on social media: “Canada wants the benefits of being a State, without being one!!!” Continue reading...

The latest US artificial intelligence (AI) and supply chain initiatives are doomed to fail, according to a prominent political scientist who also argued that efforts to restrict US companies’ access to low-cost Chinese models would backfire. Instead, he argued, the United States and China should collaborate on driving global economic development to generate the external demand needed to sustain long-term growth. “US frameworks such as Pax Silica, the chip alliance and the rare earth alliance...

Since Hurricane Sandy in 2012, a growing labor movement has addressed the climate crisis and economic inequality Ryan McElroen had spent years repairing the New York City subway underground when he got the opportunity to work in the middle of the ocean. “I had no views other than the darkness at work,” he said. “Then I went polar opposite.” Continue reading...

Canada and the US were closing in on a trade deal earlier this week until the negotiations fell apart. Both sides blame each other for last-minute changes to the terms. Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced retaliatory tariffs on the United States after Washington imposed a 50 percent levy on 20-billion-dollars worth of Canadian goods. On Saturday, he addressed the nation for the first time since the talks collapsed, as Charlotte Lam explains.

At a recent Apec digital technology and AI forum in Chengdu, ministers across the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum issued a statement in support of open-source artificial intelligence models – a rare point of agreement in a debate often framed as a zero-sum US-China contest. It pointed towards an AI order that cuts against the assumption of a contest with a single winner, an assumption that still shapes Washington’s alarm over every Chinese AI breakthrough. Across Asia, governments are...