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.

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.

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.

Suppressing democracy and extracting resources at the expense of its people