World
As U.S. Tariffs Become Reality, Canadians Prepare for Economic Pain
The trucks that carry about $300 million worth of auto parts each day over the bridge from Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit are still rolling as usual. But in the aftermath of President Trump’s decision to impose 25 percent tariffs on most categories of Canadian exports, the mood in Windsor, like all of Canada, was transformed.
Mr. Trump’s move has ignited a sense of economic anxiety and anger among Canadians about how they are being treated by their neighbor, ally and best customer. Most are still puzzling over Mr. Trump’s motivations and objectives for the tariffs, as well as his comments about annexing Canada as the 51st state.
And as they turned their attention to getting the potentially crippling tariffs, and a 10 percent levy on Canadian oil and gas and some minerals, lifted, politicians, business people and ordinary Canadians say that the relationship between the two countries will never return to what it once was.
Flavio Volpe, the head of a Canadian auto-parts maker trade group, said that his members could start shutting down factories in days, and that he feels betrayed by the United States.
“We’ve built two societies on the same values,” said Mr. Volpe, who is also a member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Council on Canada-U.S. Relations. “The man in the White House did a U-turn and drove right over us.”
Mr. Trudeau and anxious business leaders throughout Canada said that their country’s focus must be on ending the tariffs as quickly as possible.
Most forecasts project that Canada’s export-dependent economy will be sent into a recession, although they differ on timing and its initial severity.
“We have a limited experience for this magnitude of a trade shock,” the Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest financial institution, said this week. Some Canadians reached back for comparison to the Smoot-Hawley tariffs of 1930, which raised the average U.S. import duty to a staggering 59.1 percent. Many economists believe that they worsened the Great Depression, but the two countries’ economies were far less integrated at that time.
Aside from oil and gas, Canada’s largest export sector is the auto industry. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump suggested that the only way out of tariffs for the sector is to move all of its production to the United States. Aside from abandoning a skilled work force, that would require billions of dollars in new investments.
Historically, automotive trade has been largely balanced between the United States and Canada. Parts often swirl around between Canada, the United States and Mexico, sometimes crossing borders repeatedly before winding up in vehicles in a dealer’s showroom.
Mr. Volpe, of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association in Canada, said that, aside from the tariffs, trade remained unchanged on Tuesday, an assessment backed up by the usual migration of trucks to the Ambassador Bridge.
The 25 percent tariffs are being paid by the importers, either other parts makers or automakers. Most contracts allow an automaker to deduct tariffs it pays when settling a parts company’s bill.
Mr. Volpe said that those deductions will make parts suppliers, which have generally have single-digit profit margins, instantly and deeply unprofitable.
He expects that most of his members can cover those losses from their cash reserves for about a week. After that, they will be forced to stop shipments.
“No one is going to burn up their cash reserve for the president of the United States,” he said.
For more parts, automakers usually have no alternative suppliers, let alone ones in the United States. Setting up new suppliers would take time and substantial investment. The result, experts say, will be a parts shortage that rapidly cascades into assembly-line shutdowns. Thousands of workers in Canada, the United States and Mexico would be left idle.
Some industries began idling small numbers of workers before the tariffs came into effect.
Bill Slater, the president of a United Steelworkers local in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, said that Algoma Steel laid off about 20 of his members who are salaried employees, citing the tariffs. He said that a number of probationary hourly workers were also let go by the mill.
Truck drivers had a mixed experience. Stephen Laskowski, the president of the Ontario Trucking Association, said that some had a surge in business as companies moved to get products into the United States before the tariffs came into effect, while others were laying off drivers because customers were canceling shipments.
Canada’s forestry industry knows tariffs all too well. Special U.S. duties on softwood lumber go back decades and were a factor in Canada seeking the 1989 free trade agreement with the United States, which was later expanded to include Mexico. (Canada has repeatedly failed to get an exemption from the U.S. trade complaints system that imposes the softwood lumber tariffs.)
But Kurt Niquidet, the president of the British Columbia Council of Forest Industries, said that adding the 25 percent tariff “really puts us into unprecedented territory.”
Lumber mills in the western province are facing a dizzying array of tariffs. This week’s 25 percent tariff is on top of a 14.4 percent tariff that the U.S. government expects to raise this summer, to more than 27 percent. Then Mr. Trump announced last weekend that he’s opened an investigation into lumber imports that could result in even more tariffs.
While the United States supplies about 70 percent of its own lumber, Mr. Niquidet, an economist, said that American forests and mills cannot replace all the lumber from Canada, nor can it be sourced from other countries.
“There will still be imports from Canada,” he said. “Prices in the U.S. will rise.” Some Canadian lumber mills, however, may not survive the trade assault, he added.
While Mr. Trudeau speculated that Mr. Trump was seeking a “total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that’ll make it easier to annex us,” Mr. Volpe said he was not sure it’s that complicated. “If it looks like he is dismantling the structure of the postwar economy, then he is,” Mr. Volpe said. “What are you going to do about it?” Some Canadians believe that their country is simply being used as part of Mr. Trump’s plan to fund substantial U.S. tax cuts with tariffs.
Jean Simard, the president of the Aluminum Association of Canada, fought a successful battle over the 10 percent tariff on Canadian exports of the metal Mr. Trump enacted in during his first administration. Now Mr. Simard is attempting to fend off additional tariffs that Mr. Trump has promised to put on top of Tuesday’s 25 percent. He said that he believes the president is telling the world: “This is what I’m able to do to my closest allies — think about what’s awaiting you.”
Mr. Simard added: “It’s an old barbarian approach to war.”
As the tariffs were rolled out, actions against American goods quickly came into play. Government-owned liquor stores, including in Ontario, pulled U.S. beer, wine and spirits from off their shelves, and that province canceled a 100 million Canadian dollar ($69 million) contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service to provide internet in rural areas.
Some Canadians are also vowing not to travel south, a decision perhaps also informed by the decline of the Canadian dollar brought on by the tariffs.
Most winters, Lee Miller, a retired electrician from Saint John, New Brunswick, would be traveling in his motor home through sunny warm states, including Florida.
“As soon as Trump started talking tariffs, I said, ‘Nope, not going,’” Mr. Miller said. After canceling this year’s trip, he plans not to enter the United States as long as Mr. Trump is president. That will, however, mean missed visits with friends and family who live across the border.
“This is one of those things that tears families apart,” he said.
World
Some flu measures decline, but it’s not clear this severe season has peaked
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. flu infections showed signs of a slight decline last week, but health officials say it is not clear that this severe flu season has peaked.
New government data posted Friday — for flu activity through last week — showed declines in medical office visits due to flu-like illness and in the number of states reporting high flu activity.
However, some measures show this season is already surpassing the flu epidemic of last winter, one of the harshest in recent history. And experts believe there is more suffering ahead.
“This is going to be a long, hard flu season,” New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said, in a statement Friday.
One type of flu virus, called A H3N2, historically has caused the most hospitalizations and deaths in older people. So far this season, that is the type most frequently reported. Even more concerning, more than 91% of the H3N2 infections analyzed were a new version — known as the subclade K variant — that differs from the strain in this year’s flu shots.
The last flu season saw the highest overall flu hospitalization rate since the H1N1 flu pandemic 15 years ago. And child flu deaths reached 289, the worst recorded for any U.S. flu season this century — including that H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic of 2009-2010.
So far this season, there have been at least 15 million flu illnesses and 180,000 hospitalizations, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. It also estimates there have been 7,400 deaths, including the deaths of at least 17 children.
Last week, 44 states reported high flu activity, down slightly from the week before. However, flu deaths and hospitalizations rose.
Determining exactly how flu season is going can be particularly tricky around the holidays. Schools are closed, and many people are traveling. Some people may be less likely to see a doctor, deciding to just suffer at home. Others may be more likely to go.
Also, some seasons see a surge in cases, then a decline, and then a second surge.
For years, federal health officials joined doctors’ groups in recommending that everyone 6 months and older get an annual influenza vaccine. The shots may not prevent all symptoms but can prevent many infections from becoming severe, experts say.
But federal health officials on Monday announced they will no longer recommend flu vaccinations for U.S. children, saying it is a decision parents and patients should make in consultation with their doctors.
“I can’t begin to express how concerned we are about the future health of the children in this country, who already have been unnecessarily dying from the flu — a vaccine preventable disease,” said Michele Slafkosky, executive director of an advocacy organization called Families Fighting Flu.
“Now, with added confusion for parents and health care providers about childhood vaccines, I fear that flu seasons to come could be even more deadly for our youngest and most vulnerable,” she said in a statement.
Flu is just one of a group of viruses that tend to strike more often in the winter. Hospitalizations from COVID-19 and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, also have been rising in recent weeks — though were not diagnosed nearly as often as flu infections, according to other federal data.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
World
Russia fires new hypersonic missile in massive Ukraine attack, Kremlin says
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Russia said on Friday it used its new hypersonic Oreshnik missile in an attack against Ukraine, according to reports.
The Kremlin said that the strike was carried out in response to what it said was an attempted Ukrainian drone strike on one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residences, something Kyiv has denied, according to Reuters.
The outlet noted that Ukraine and the U.S. have cast doubt on Russia’s claims about the alleged attempted attack on Putin’s residence on Dec. 29, the report said. Ukraine called it “an absurd lie,” while President Donald Trump also doubted the veracity of the claim, saying he did not believe the strike occurred and that “something” unrelated happened nearby.
This is the second time Russia has used the intermediate-range Oreshnik, which Putin has said is impossible to intercept because of its velocity, Reuters reported.
RUSSIA ALLEGES ATTACK ON PUTIN RESIDENCE AS UKRAINE DENIES CLAIM AHEAD OF TRUMP TALKS
A part of the Russian nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile system at the site of the Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Lviv region, Ukraine, Jan. 9, 2026. (Security Service of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters)
The Russian Defense Ministry said that the strike targeted critical infrastructure in Ukraine, according to Reuters, which added that Russia said the attack also used attack drones and high-precision long-range land and sea-based weapons.
While Moscow did not say where the missile hit, Russian media and military bloggers said it targeted an underground natural gas storage facility in Ukraine’s western Leviv region, CBS News reported. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadoviy said the attack hit critical infrastructure but did not give details, the outlet added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the attack on social media, saying that the aftermath was “still being dealt with.”
“Twenty residential buildings alone were damaged. Recovery operations after the strikes also continue in the Lviv region and other regions of our country. Unfortunately, as of now, it is known that four people have been killed in the capital alone. Among them is an ambulance crew member. My condolences to their families and loved ones,” Zelenskyy wrote.
A resident stands on the balcony of his apartment, damaged during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Jan. 9, 2026. (Anatolii Stepanov/Reuters)
PUTIN RESIDENCE ATTACK VIDEO SLAMMED AS US OFFICIALS SAY UKRAINE DID NOT TARGET LEADER
The Ukrainian leader said the attack involved 242 drones, 13 ballistic missiles, one Oreshnik missile and 22 cruise missiles. Zelenskyy added that the ballistic missiles were aimed at energy facilities and civilian infrastructure as the people of Ukraine faced “a significant cold spell.” He said the attack was “aimed precisely against the normal life of ordinary people.” However, he assured that Ukraine was working to restore heating and electricity.
Zelenskyy claimed that in addition to the civilian infrastructure, a building of the Embassy of Qatar was damaged in the attack.
Apartment buildings hit by a Russian missile strike late yesterday, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the city of in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, on Jan. 9, 2026. (Stringer/Reuters)
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“A clear reaction from the world is needed. Above all from the United States, whose signals Russia truly pays attention to. Russia must receive signals that it is its obligation to focus on diplomacy, and must feel consequences every time it again focuses on killings and the destruction of infrastructure,” Zelenskyy added.
A spokesperson for the State Department told Fox News Digital that the U.S. remains committed to ending the war through diplomatic means, emphasizing that it is the only path toward a durable peace. The spokesperson underscored Trump’s desire to end the war that is approaching its fourth year.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
World
Mercosur: How Macron’s domestic weakness undercut his Brussels clout
The French president’s failure to assemble a blocking minority against the Mercosur deal underscores how his domestic weakness is undermining his clout in Brussels. By contrast, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Germany have secured an important victory.
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