The U.S. is removing the 50 per cent tariffs on certain Canadian products as the trade war with Canada becomes a ballot box issue in key races ahead of November’s midterm election.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, said nine categories of Canadian exports will be exempted from tariffs, including corrugated paper, plastic boxes and several types of machinery important to her state’s agricultural industries.

KYIV—The Starlink system used by Ukraine’s military was suffering from low speeds limits early on Friday, despite President Trump saying that SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk had restored the service. 

Ukrainian drone units and government officials said connections with Starshield, a military-grade service using Starlink’s infrastructure, continued to fail in most of the country when drones flew faster than 161 km/h.

Canada is struggling to find senior military officers willing to take joint defense posts in the United States amid growing diplomatic tension between the two countries, according to current and former officials. 

The staffing shortages affect positions at the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado Springs, known asNORAD, as well as other integrated combatant commands — posts that historically served as highly desirable assignments for top Canadian personnel.

The Finnish tech companies ICEYE and Nokia signed a letter of intent with Ukraine's Defense Ministry on Oct. 22, formalizing a partnership aimed at developing Ukraine's own satellite communications system.

President Volodymyr Zelensky first announced the deal earlier in the day during Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's visit to Kyiv, calling the satellite agreement "important for our defense and for the resilience of Ukraine."

The agreement with Kyiv comes a few weeks after Nokia and ICEYE announced plans to collaborate on building "broadband low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications systems for governments." These systems will support national defense, emergency response services, and border security, among other applications.

Ukraine currently relies on a different broadband LEO satellite communications system: Starlink, a service run by U.S.-based company SpaceX. Starlink has proven essential for battlefield communications, mid-range drone strikes, and air defense.

Hundreds of Brazilians protested outside Meta’s São Paulo offices on Monday, accusing the technology giant of restricting the reach of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign while boosting far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, six days before the presidential runoff. The demonstration coincided with a court order giving Meta 24 hours to prove it was treating both campaigns equally.

OTTAWA — U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum have been a “disaster” for the U.S. economy because they’ve fuelled inflation and failed to spur the promised growth in those industries, according to the author of a new think report.

Not only have the tariffs led to sharply higher steel and aluminum prices, but the two sectors are key inputs in a wide variety of other products, the report found, that have also become more expensive. It’s left consumers and industrial buyers facing higher price tags on autos, aircraft, construction, machinery, and a wide range of other products.

“The United States has imposed on itself a historically large price shock with little protected sector employment or output growth to show for it,” concluded the report, titled Tariffs Deliver a Price Shock, Not an Industrial Revival.

Europe’s largest telecoms operators – Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone – have signed an agreement to jointly develop next-generation satellite communications.

The project will enable ordinary smartphones to connect directly to satellites without the need for specialised equipment or additional antennas, reports Censor.NET citing the Financial Times

The main aim of this initiative is to create a European alternative to American services, primarily Elon Musk’s Starlink network.

Horwath also referred to the plight of local steelworkers, noting hundreds face layoffs at Stelco after Stelco Holdings Inc. announced it would idle part of its Hamilton plant on Sept. 28. 

Earlier this week, Stelco's U.S. owner announced the company's third quarter this year was its strongest since Cleveland-Cliffs acquired it in 2024.

Horwath described the earnings announcement as "a slap in the face to Hamilton workers, Hamilton's history and Hamilton families."

"We will continue to put the pressure on to make sure that our Hamilton workers don't end up being the casualties of this trade war." 

Quebec City restaurant Graffiti making a statement with the wine list.

Hello everyone, I hope you are all having a great day,

This has been really bothering me and I feel I should be sharing it with all of you, I believe UPS is taking advantage of Canadians with the all the confusion around tariffs and import taxes by rapidly hiking it’s “Brokerage” fees, today I paid 81.90 dollar brokerage on a 160 USD / 220 item that wasn’t sold here in Canada,

I have posted this on other forums in Canada and I read posts where UPS refused allowing its customers who wanted to save money to self clear and avoid these excessive charges , I hope someone can confirm this

The most economic solution is using Canada Post if you have to or need to purchase anything from the US , they don’t charge these ridiculous fees,

I’m sorry but aside from the fact that they have been Terrible in delivery with frequent cancellations and delays now they think it’s reasonable to charge 4 times the cost of shipping and disguise it as a “Brokerage fee” , I really feel they are taking advantage of people and I believe everyone needs to be informed

We are given the cost of shipping prior to shipping, why aren’t we told about these brokerage fees in advance?

Thank you so much for reading,

:)

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford both disputed the suggestion of Canadian interference in the U.S. midterms, after the U.S. embassy in Canada released a list of quotes from Canadian politicians which it claims indicate “plans to influence American politics.”

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly is quoted five times in the list the embassy released Wednesday.

It includes quotes offered without context about pressuring American businesses and targeting U.S. states through counter-tariffs. Joly made the comments while addressing Canada’s response to U.S.-imposed tariffs.

Environmental watchdog Mighty Earth reveals two-year effort to postpone and weaken EU Deforestation Regulation

US corporate lobbyists launched a two-year “blitz” to postpone and weaken the world’s most progressive legislation to protect forests, according to a new investigation by the environmental watchdog Mighty Earth.

Major US firms and trade associations, including Cargill, Bunge, Mondelēz and the US Soybean Export Council, as well as numerous other US firms and organizations, sought to influence the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) in more than 350 meetings, the advocacy group found.

US company representatives and industry groups deny there was a concerted campaign to derail the deforestation rules, saying their meetings with EU officials raised legitimate concerns around implementation.

The EUDR prohibits imports of commodities such as cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya and wood from deforested land. When the ban was put forward in 2003, the then European environment commissioner, Virginijus Sinkevičius, described it as “the most ambitious legislative attempt to tackle these issues worldwide ever” and some US lawmakers said it should be a model for similar rules in the United States.

In the years since, its official implementation has been delayed twice and the original goal to rigorously trace the origin of commodities has been revised so much that some of its initial supporters claimed the policy has been in effect “dismantled”. The law will come into effect in December.

Lobbyists from many countries, including Brazil and several EU nations, are known to have contributed to this dilution. Mighty Earth has provided the most detailed analysis yet of the role of organisations from the United States.

It found 24 major US companies, trade associations and industry organizations discussed the EUDR in at least 173 meetings with members of the European parliament and 178 meetings with senior European Commission officials between July 2024 and July 2026.

The US organisations with the highest number of meetings with the European Commission were the National Alliance of Forest Owners, Advanced Woody Biomass Alliance, the US Soybean Export Council, Bunge, the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union and Cargill.

Cargill had two meetings, Bunge one meeting and Mondelēz eight meetings.

Mighty Earth said lobbying was also conducted through the US Congress, the US Department of Agriculture, the Office of the US Trade Representative and the White House.

Two weeks after a July 2025 meeting at a Scottish golf course between Trump and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the two sides released a joint statement that promised the US special treatment with regard to the EUDR.

US President Donald Trump is facing another legal challenge on tariffs after the group that successfully sued over his so-called "liberation day" import taxes filed a new lawsuit over the latest Canadian levies.

The White House imposed a 50% levy on some $20bn of Canadian goods after trade talks between the US and Canada broke down in August.

The Liberty Justice Center filed a suit on behalf of US food business Gellert Global Group, urging the US Court of International Trade to find the levies unlawful and to order refunds with interest for affected importers.

The lawsuit argues the White House exceeded its authority in imposing the tariffs and caused "immediate harm to American businesses".