Donald Trump

The White House calls the decision ‘hostile’ as the e-commerce company denies any proposal is under consideration.

Amazon may soon show how much tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump will cost consumers who shop on the company’s platform, according to new reporting from the outlet Punchbowl News, citing a person familiar with the plan.

In response to the report on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she had discussed the Amazon plan with the president, and his message about it was: “This is a hostile and political act by Amazon.”

The White House also attempted to deflect the blame.

“Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level of 40 years?” Leavitt asked reporters at a White House briefing.

Inflation hit a 40-year high of more than 9.1 percent in mid-2022 under then-US President Joe Biden. Peaking during the COVID-19 pandemic, the high inflation rate steadily declined over Biden’s final two years in office, reaching 3 percent in January 2025.

The Seattle, Washington-based e-commerce giant Amazon said that it never considered listing tariffs on its main site, but had considered that for Amazon Haul, its ultra-low-cost platform. “The team that runs our ultra-low-cost Amazon Haul store has considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products,” a company spokesperson told the news agency Reuters.

The spokesperson added that the idea “was never approved and not going to happen”.

Trump has imposed a swath of tariffs on US trading partners – including a 145 percent tariff on China, although there are some exceptions for products including smartphones. There is also a 10 percent blanket tariff on other countries.

On Wall Street, Amazon began the day down 2.2 percent in pre-market trading on the heels of the report. As of 11:30am ET (15:30 GMT), the stock was still 0.7 percent below yesterday’s market close.

In his first 100 days in office, United States President Donald Trump invoked archaic immigration laws, questioned judges’ power to rule against his decisions and attempted to end several legal immigration pathways.

Trump began laying the groundwork for his immigration plans long before his January 20 inauguration.

For years, Trump and his allies have said falsely or without evidence that the US is being invaded by immigrants who are driving up crime rates and that foreign countries are sending their prisoners and mentally ill people to the US.

Several Trump administration officials also said courts cannot and should not rule on Trump’s immigration actions because they deal with national security and foreign policy issues. In doing so, Trump “is seeking a lack of accountability to do things that the law otherwise prohibits”, said Matthew Lindsay, a University of Baltimore law professor.

The Trump administration’s use of national security or foreign policy as a shield against judicial overview is a stark difference from other administrations, Lindsay said.

We talked to lawyers, historians and criminologists to examine the false narratives and spin propelling Trump’s immigration policies in the first 100 days.

Trump’s case for an ‘invasion’ leads to mass deportation efforts

In 2018, during his first term, Trump described a caravan of thousands of immigrants walking towards the US southern border as an invasion. Many of them were expected to request asylum in the US. Constitutional law experts say that what legally counts as an invasion is an armed attack by militaries or paramilitaries.

Many Gang Members and some very bad people are mixed into the Caravan heading to our Southern Border. Please go back, you will not be admitted into the United States unless you go through the legal process. This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2018

During the 2024 presidential campaign, as immigration reached historic highs during Joe Biden’s presidency, Trump began tying the invasion narrative to one of his signature policy promises: Mass deportations.

“I will stop the migrant invasion, and we will begin the largest deportation operation in the history of our country,” he said at an October rally.

Ten days later, at another rally, he said: “We will not be occupied. We will not be conquered. That’s what they’re doing. This is an invasion into our country of a foreign military.”

So Trump upon taking office issued an executive order declaring a national emergency at the southern border. In two other directives, he described immigration as an invasion.

One of the laws he eventually invoked – the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 – lets the president detain and deport people from a “hostile nation or government” without a hearing when the US is either at war with that country or the country has “perpetrated, attempted, or threatened” an invasion against the US.

“This is a time of war because Biden allowed millions of people, many of them criminals, many of them at the highest level,” Trump told reporters on March 16. “That’s an invasion. They invaded our country.”

The Alien Enemies Act has been used only three times in US history, each during wartime.

In February, the State Department designated Tren de Aragua – a gang that formed between 2013 and 2015 in a Venezuelan prison – as a foreign “terrorist” organisation.

In March, Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport hundreds of Venezuelans whom he said were Tren de Aragua gang members who had “infiltrated” cities across the country. They were sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.

They were deported without due process; the government didn’t present evidence of their gang membership before a judge and the migrants weren’t given the opportunity to defend themselves. CECOT is the largest prison in Latin America and has been decried for human rights abuses, such as torture and lack of medical care.

Trump broadly portrays immigrants as criminals, but the data says otherwise

Trump has repeatedly said that countries – namely the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Venezuela – send people from prisons and mental hospitals to the US. He has not cited evidence.

“We were elected to clean up the mess of this country, and we had millions and millions of people come in who were criminals, who were murderers, who were everything you can imagine,” Trump said on April 21. “Drug lords, drug dealers, they came in from prisons and from mental institutions. And I was elected to move them out.”

The immigrant crime narrative drove his successful presidential campaign. Vice President JD Vance pointed to Haitian immigration in Springfield, Ohio, cherry-picking from limited statistics to say immigrants raised the number of murders. In addition to targeting Springfield, Trump said Tren de Aragua took over Aurora, Colorado.

To support its deportation efforts, the White House said Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant who the US government said it mistakenly deported to CECOT, is an MS-13 gang member. The administration has exaggerated findings from earlier judges on his case and highlighted tattoos that don’t correspond with MS-13.

Criminologists who study potential links between migration and crime say despite some high-profile crimes committed by immigrants, they commit crimes at lower rates than native-born US citizens.

The Marshall Project found no link between crime and migrant arrivals from April 2022 to May 2023 in New York, Chicago, Washington, DC and Denver, after Texas Governor Greg Abbott began busing immigrants into those cities. The Marshall Project’s 2024 report looked at policing data in cases involving crimes such as robbery, murders and shootings.

A 2018 national study by University of Wisconsin and Purdue University sociologists found that increases in the immigrant population in the US are associated with significant decreases in violence. The study analysed violent crime from 1990 to 2014, examining the association between changes in undocumented migration and violent crime at the state level in all 50 states and Washington, DC.

A National Institute of Justice study of Texas Department of Public Safety data from 2012 to 2018 showed undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born US citizens for violent and drug crimes. Researchers separated arrest data for crimes committed by undocumented immigrants from data for crimes committed by documented immigrants and native-born US citizens.

Trump said in an April 25 Time magazine interview, “We have crime rates under Biden that went through the roof, and we have to bring those rates down. And unfortunately, those rates have been added to by the illegal immigrants that he allowed into the country.”

Contrary to Trump’s statement, FBI data shows that violent crime dropped during Biden’s presidency.

“People are like, ‘Crime is out of control.’ Well, actually, crime is not out of control right now, but the perception is that it’s out of control,” said Charis Kubrin, a criminology, law and society professor at the University of California, Irvine.

“It’s very easy to turn and blame immigrants, because those stereotypes have long existed and because it’s sort of this natural ‘in group, out group’ approach that people take.”

Kubrin said Trump’s misleading claims about immigrants and crime have led to policies based on faulty assumptions that don’t exclusively target people with criminal convictions.

The New York Times reported most of the 238 men deported to El Salvador have neither criminal records in the US nor documented links to Tren de Aragua.

Kubrin said misleading perceptions of immigrant crime can harm immigrants.

“Other consequences include increased hate and hate crimes against immigrants and against racial and ethnic minorities who may resemble immigrants, like Asians and Hispanics, but are not immigrants themselves,” Kubrin said.

Trump officials ignore separation of powers when saying courts have no authority on immigration policies

Like previous administrations, many of Trump’s immigration policies have been challenged by lawsuits and halted with temporary restraining orders.

Trump and his officials have dismissed the constitutional division of powers among the legislative, executive and judicial government branches. At times, they’ve said the courts have no role to play and that judges who don’t agree with Trump should be impeached.

After a federal judge ruled the Trump administration could not deport Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act, White House adviser Stephen Miller said, “A district court judge has no authority to direct the national security operations of the executive branch.”

Trump’s “border tsar” Tom Homan said, “I don’t care what the judges think.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described the judge’s order as having “no lawful basis”, saying “federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over the President’s conduct of foreign affairs.”

Legal experts say federal courts have the power to review and rule on the constitutionality of the president’s immigration actions.

“There is absolutely nothing about an immigration policy that, by virtue of the fact that it is an immigration policy, insulates it from judicial review,” Michael Gerhardt, a University of North Carolina professor of jurisprudence, said.

The executive branch has broad discretion over foreign policy matters, but that doesn’t mean that cases that deal with foreign policy, including immigration cases, are off-limits for the courts, Mary Ellen O’Connell, University of Notre Dame law professor, agreed.

Rick Su, a University of North Carolina immigration law professor, said, “The Trump administration appears to be arguing that just because foreign affairs is involved, the administration does not have to follow the law at all, that whatever they do is the law, and that the courts cannot exercise any jurisdiction over what they do.”

But courts haven’t ruled “that the law or judicial review does not apply to an immigration decision … just because foreign affairs is involved”, Su said.

Labelling immigrants who entered the US via legal immigration programs as ‘illegal’

The Trump administration has said Biden abused his executive powers when he created certain programmes that let people temporarily enter or stay in the US legally. Vance also framed it this way during the campaign, falsely saying the beneficiaries of the programmes were “illegal immigrants” because the programmes were illegal, in his view.

Leavitt said people who entered the US via humanitarian parole programmes and eventually received Temporary Protected Status “came here for economic reasons, and they illegally entered our country”.

Humanitarian parole and Temporary Protected Status give people temporary legal authority to live and work in the US, immigration lawyers said. When those protections expire or are terminated, people’s immigration status reverts to what they had before these protections. Neither parole nor Temporary Protected Status directly leads to US citizenship.

The Trump administration has tried to end these protections before their expiration.

Kristi Noem, Trump’s homeland security secretary, tried ending Temporary Protected Status for certain Venezuelans. Courts have temporarily halted the termination. The department is not extending the programme for Afghans and Cameroonians and cut it short for Haitians. TPS for Haitians is now set to expire on August 3, six months before the original deadline.

The department also tried ending the protection of people with humanitarian parole under the programme for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. But a federal judge temporarily halted the move on April 14.

Judge Indira Talwani said the humanitarian parole programme beneficiaries complied with the available immigration processes.

“As lawful parolees, they did not have to fear arrest for being in the United States, were permitted to legally work if they received work authorisation, and could apply for adjustment of status or other benefits while paroled into this country,” Talwani wrote. “The immediate impact of the shortening of their grant of parole is to cause their lawful status in the United States to lapse early – in less than two weeks.”

Maria Cristina Garcia, a Cornell University history professor and migration expert, said some immigration changes are happening “quietly at the bureaucratic level”, such as the denial of visas, while others were “announced with great fanfare”, such as the suspension of refugee admissions.

“I don’t think we have a full understanding yet of the many ways the Trump administration is changing our immigration system,” Garcia said.

United States President Donald Trump is marking his first 100 days back in office with a rally in Macomb County, Michigan, just north of Detroit, a city renowned for its automotive industry.

In the space of just more than three months, he has signed more executive orders than any other president, sent markets spiralling with tariffs and for the most part stuck to his America First policy, except when it comes to Israel.

Al Jazeera looks at some of his biggest decisions in numbers:

How did he use his executive powers?

Trump has signed at least 142 executive orders so far, which, according to the American Presidency Project, is more than any other US president in their first 100 days in office.

An executive order is a directive issued by the president to federal agencies that has the force of law but does not require congressional approval.

On January 20, his first day in office, Trump signed 26 orders, which included pardoning more than 1,500 people convicted on January 6, 2021, Capitol riot charges; withdrawing from the World Health Organization; and renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

The majority of Trump’s executive orders have focused on immigration and border security as well as energy and trade.

How many people were pardoned?

Since returning to office, Trump has pardoned more than 1,500 people, including his supporters convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot after he lost the 2020 presidential election. Other notable pardons include Ross Ulbricht, founder of the Silk Road dark web marketplace, who was serving a sentence for drug trafficking and money laundering.

DOGE cuts and layoffs

Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was created by Trump through an executive order on January 20, in which he gave DOGE a mandate to slash government spending.

According to figures published on DOGE’s website, the organisation is estimating that it has cut $160bn from the federal budget, representing about 8 percent of the $2 trillion Musk had initially pledged to save.

DOGE said the biggest cuts have been made to the Department of Health and Human Services ($47.4bn), Agency for International Development ($45.2bn) and Department of State ($2.6bn). These figures have, however, been criticised for lacking sufficient evidence to back them up.

According to data collated by CNN, at least 121,000 workers have been fired from federal agencies with about 10,000 employees fired from the Agency for International Development (USAID), where 100 percent of the jobs were culled. USAID was the first agency Trump went after, and it has now been almost dissolved.

Tariffs and the economy

Trump’s administration has implemented a flurry of tariffs to, in his words, reduce the US trade deficit, remedy unfair trade policies against the US, bring manufacturing jobs back to the country and generate income for the US government.

Starting on February 1, Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods, including a 10 percent levy on Canadian energy, and hit Chinese goods with a 10 percent tariff.

In the weeks that followed, Trump targeted steel and aluminium as well as auto imports with tariffs of 25 percent. By April, Trump had placed a baseline 10 percent tariff on goods imported from the rest of the world.

China received the highest tariff rate at 145 percent. However, some exemptions have been applied to technology-related items, such as smartphones.

Canada and Mexico are facing tariffs of 25 percent on goods that are noncompliant with the trilateral USMCA trade deal they have with the US, affecting $63.8bn worth of trade, according to Bloomberg News.

The European Union is facing what is for now a suspended 20 percent tariff rate.

How have the markets reacted?

Since coming into office, Trump has sent shockwaves through the markets, largely due to his flip-flopping tariff announcements, which have caused uncertainty and volatility.

Since the November election, despite an initial spike, all major indices have fallen:

• S&P 500 – down about 3.3 percent
• Nasdaq – down about 4.5 percent
• Dow Jones – down 5.3 percent

Since inauguration day, the markets have fallen even further:

• S&P 500 – down about 7.9 percent
• Nasdaq – down about 12.1 percent
• Dow Jones – down 8.9 percent

Which world leaders have visited Trump?

In his first 100 days in office, Trump has hosted at least 11 world leaders.

Unsurprisingly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the first leader to arrive at the White House on February 4. It was during this visit that Trump said he would turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

World leaders who have visited Trump include:

• Netanyahu on February 4
• Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on February 7
• Jordanian King Abdullah II on February 11
• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 13
• French President Emmanuel Macron on February 24
• British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on February 27
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on February 28. This meeting was notable for its war of words between Trump and US Vice President JD Vance on one side and Zelenskyy on the other, which led to the US withdrawing military aid from Ukraine
• Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin on March 12
• Netanyahu for the second time on April 7
• Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on April 14
• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on April 17
• Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store on April 24

Foreign policy: Stance on Ukraine, Gaza and Yemen

Since entering office, Trump has said he maintains an America First policy.

On Ukraine, Trump has criticised the scale of US spending under former President Joe Biden, arguing that European countries should shoulder a greater share of the burden. On March 3, Trump ceased all military aid to Ukraine, a move that drew sharp criticism from European allies. The Trump administration has held several meetings with Ukrainian and Russian officials to try to end the fighting.

In the Middle East, Trump has brandished proposals to take control of Gaza and redevelop it, an idea widely condemned for implying the ethnic cleansing of 2.3 million Palestinians. At the same time, his administration has continued sending US bombs to Israel, including 900kg (2,000lb) bombs, reinforcing unwavering US support for Israel.

Since Trump’s inauguration on January 20, Israeli forces have killed at least 2,392 people in Gaza and 105 in the occupied West Bank. Additionally, about 3,000 people have either died from wounds sustained in Israeli attacks or were pulled dead from beneath the rubble.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, the US has significantly increased its military actions in Yemen with attacks on Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Operation Rough Rider began on March 15, whose stated aim is stemming Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping.

From March 15 to April 18, at least 207 US attacks were recorded in Yemen, resulting in at least 209 deaths, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED).

Has Trump kept his promises?

During his 2024 election campaign, Trump made at least 75 promises, which included everything from mass deportations to releasing the 2021 Capitol Hill rioters.

PolitiFact, an American nonprofit project operated by the Poynter Institute that fact-checks news statements, has been tracking Trump’s promises with its MAGA-Meter. According to its scorecard, Trump has kept six of his promises, broken one, stalled on four and is working on fulfilling 23. The remaining 41 promises have not yet been rated.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney declares election victory, warning Canadians that US President Donald Trump “is trying to break us.” Trump has targeted the Canadian economy in his trade war and threatened to make Canada the 51st state of the USA.

April 29 (UPI) — President Donald Trump will mark the first 100 days of his second term in office Tuesday night with a public speech at a community college in Michigan.

Trump is set to speak at Macomb Community College, located in Warren, Mich., on the outskirts of Detroit, at 6 p.m. EDT.

Trump’s campaign said in a news release that the rally is meant to serve as a “celebration of the most successful and monumental first 100 days of any administration in history” highlighting his actions through executive orders.

“President Trump has taken more executive actions than any other president in history during the monumental ‘First 100 Days’ — and hundreds of his promises have already been kept,” the campaign said. “Most significantly, President Trump has delivered on his two most important signature campaign promises: the border is secure and inflation is ending.”

Some of Trump’s aggressive actions, including invoking the wartime Allies Enemies Act to deport alleged gang members to Venezuela, have faced legal hurdles, although the Supreme Court in early April allowed the deportations to continue, while ordering the administration to give people facing deportation “reasonable time” to challenge their removal.

Trump signed three more executive orders on Monday targeting so-called “sanctuary cities,” increasing English proficiency requirements for truck drivers and ordering the Justice Department to craft a mechanism to provide legal resources to law enforcement officers accused of wrongdoing.

Other items he could discuss include the creation of DOGE and its cuts to government agencies, the efforts to deport migrants in large numbers, the movement to erase DEI policies wherever they may exist, defund universities that his administration holds are guilty of purported anti-Semitism and his tariffs against several international trading partners, especially China.

In posts to his Truth Social account, Trump claimed Monday that “the Presidential Personnel Office has surpassed 80% of all political hires across our largest departments, including the United States Department of Justice, State, Defense, Treasury, Veterans Affairs, and Commerce,” which is alleges has “beaten all records set by previous administrations.” The post appears twice on his account.

April 29 (UPI) — Mexico has agreed to immediately transfer water to the United States and increase the U.S. share of water flow from their shared rivers, after the Trump administration threatened its southern neighbor with tariffs if it did not fulfill its end of a water-sharing agreement.

The United States and Mexico announced the agreement in separate statements on Monday.

The 1944 Water Treaty between the two countries states that the United States is obligated to deliver 1.5 million acre-feet of water annually to Mexico from the Colorado River, and in return Mexico will deliver to the United States a minimum of 350,000 acre-feet of water each year, totaling 1.75 million acre-feet of water over a five-year cycle.

However, Mexico has only delivered less than 500,000 acre-feet of water since October 2020, attracting the anger of President Donald Trump, who earlier this month threatened to impose tariffs and potentially sanctions against Mexico until it fulfilled its treaty obligations.

President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo of Mexico had responded to Trump by blaming the water deficit on a three-year drought.

In a statement Monday, her foreign ministry said, “With a strong desire to continue fulfilling the commitments outlined in the 1944 Treaty … Mexico has agreed with the United States to implement a series of measures aimed at mitigating a potential shortfall in Mexico’s water deliveries by the end of the cycle.”

“These measures include immediate water transfers as well as transfers during the upcoming rainy season,” the foreign ministry said.

Mexico will also increase the U.S. share of flow in six of Mexico’s Rio Grande tributaries, according to the U.S. State Department, which said these measures will help American farmers, ranchers and municipalities in Texas’ Rio Grande valley “get much-needed water and reduce shortfalls in deliveries.”

“The United States and Mexico also committed to develop a long-term plan to reliably meet treaty requirements while addressing outstanding water debts,” it said in a statement.

April 28 (UPI) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Liberal Party were poised to lead a fourth consecutive government late Monday, as voters of the Great White North had their say in a federal election that was dominated by U.S. President Donald Trump, his trade war and threats of annexation.

According to early Tuesday election results from Elections Canada, the center-left Liberal Party had secured 167 of the 343 seats in Parliament, but it was still too early to tell whether it would form a minority or majority government, the latter requiring a minimum of 172 seats.

“Who’s ready to stand up for Canada with me?” Carney asked his cheering supporters in Ottawa in what was essentially a victory speech. “And who’s ready to build Canada strong?”

Carney spoke of the Canadian values of humility, ambition and unity that he will work to uphold every day as prime minister.

His victory marks a dramatic about-face from late last year, when it appeared the Liberals were headed for a Conservative defeat. What changed was the resignation in January of increasingly unpopular Prime Minister and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau — and the return of Trump to the White House. Since late January, Trump has upended the once-strong U.S.-Canada relationship with threats of annexation and the imposition of 25% tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, cars and auto parts.

The Liberal Party has since ridden a wave of anti-American sentiment that has taken over Canada and Carney, the former governor of the Bank of Canada, has repeatedly described Trump’s actions as a “betrayal” and a fundamental shift in the U.S.-Canada relationship.

In his speech early Tuesday, Carney said Trump’s threats were designed “to break us so that America can own us.”

“That will never, ever happen,” he said.

“When I sit down with President Trump, it will be to discuss the future economic and security relationship between two sovereign nations and it will be with our full knowledge that we have many, many other options than the United States to build prosperity for all Canadians.”

“We will chart a new path forward because this is Canada and we decide what will happen here.”

Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the right-leaning Conservative Party, spoke to his supports — also in the capital Ottawa — and conceded defeat, stating, “We didn’t quite get over the finish line.”

“We know that change is needed but change is hard to come by. It takes time, work, and that’s why we have to learn the lessons of tonight.”

The Conservative Party won 145 seats.

He also congratulated Carney on his “razor-thin” government victory, generating boos from the crowd, which he quieted by stating “there will be plenty of opportunity to debate and disagree, but tonight we come together as Canadians.”

However, it was not clear early Tuesday whether Poilievre would be able to hold onto his seat in the Ottawa-area riding of Carleton, where he was in a tight race against Liberal challenger Bruce Fanjoy.

Left-leaning New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh also stepped down after conceding his Burnaby Central riding. In an emotional speech, Singh said “It’s been the honor of my life to represent the people of Burnaby Central.”

“We may lose sometimes and those losses hurt. You know, it’s tough. But we are only defeated if we stop fighting,” he said. “We’re only defeated when we believe that those that tell us that we can never dream of a better Canada, a fairer Canada, a more compassionate Canada.”

The defeat to the NDP also sets it up to lose its official party status. The NDP’s seven seats falls below the 12-seat threshold.

The Bloc Quebecois won 23 seats.

Poilievre, often viewed as a populist politician in the Trump mold, ran on a platform focused on cuts to government funding, the loosening environmental regulations to allow for deeper exploitation of natural resources and reducing bureaucracy.

The election had seen around 7.3 million Canadians cast early ballots, up from the 5.8 million who voted early in 2021 federal election.

In-person voting began at 7 a.m. EDT in Canada’s easternmost province, Newfoundland and Labrador.

While final results in Canada’s federal election were expected Monday night, the process will be a bit slower than in the United States. Canada uses paper ballots, which are counted by hand in front of representatives for each candidate. Each polling station’s results are then reported to Elections Canada before being released online.

April 29 (UPI) — President Donald Trump signed a trio of executive orders on Monday that target sanctuary cities, increase English proficiency requirements for truck drivers and a third to protect police from consequences of wrongdoing.

Since returning to office nearly 100 days ago, Trump has ruled via executive orders, signing more than 140 of them in that time span. Some have been challenged in court.

Sanctuary cities

As part of his crackdown on immigration, Trump on Monday signed an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to compile a list of so-called sanctuary states, cities and jurisdictions for punishment.

Sanctuary cities are those that limit or outright deny cooperation with federal immigration law enforcement.

Under the executive order, jurisdictions found to be violating immigration federal law may lose federal funding. Bondi and Noem are instructed to develop mechanisms to ensure “proper eligibility verification in sanctuary jurisdictions to prevent illegal aliens from receiving federal public benefits,” according to a White House fact sheet on the order.

“It’s quite simple,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press conference on Monday. “Obey the law, respect the law and don’t obstruct federal immigration officials and law enforcement officials when they are simply trying to remove public safety threats from our nation’s communities.”

The move is expected to attract lawsuits.

The New York Immigration Coalition described the executive order as being designed to “punish” local governments for establishing their one public safety policies and standing up to the Trump administration’s mass deportation plan.

“This executive order is nothing more than an intimidation tactic designed to undermine the ability of local governments to enact policies they believe best safeguard their communities, while strong-arming localities into becoming complicit with Trump’s attacks on immigrants,” NYIC President and CEO Murad Awawdeh said in a statement.

“New York must reject this threat to its constitutional right to pass local laws that serve our communities best.”

The Trump administration is seeking to deport millions of undocumented migrants and has led a campaign that has seen many arrested, including more than 200 who were shipped to El Salvador and are being held in a mega-prison, raising concerns over due process rights.

Amid its immigration crackdown, the Trump administration has attacked those who have stood in defiance, suing the city of Rochester over its sanctuary city policy and arresting a Milwaukee judge on accusations of assisting an undocumented migrant in evading capture by federal agents.

Policing

Trump also signed an executive order to “empower state and local law enforcement to relentlessly pursue criminals and protect American communities,” according to a White House fact sheet.

The executive order directs Bondi to create a mechanism to provide officers accused of wrongdoing with legal resources, including pro bono assistance.

It also calls for a review of federal consent decrees, out-of-court agreements and post-judgment orders involving state or local law enforcement agencies and to either modify or rescind any that “impede the performance of law enforcement functions, the White House said.

It will also increase the provision of surplus military assets to support local law enforcement, among other directives.

The American Civil Liberties Union described the executive order in a statement as one that “seeks to prevent accountability for law enforcement misconduct and encourages police brutality.”

Truck drivers

The third executive order Trump signed Monday directs Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to issue new guidance increasing English-proficiency requirements for truck drivers.

“President Trump believes that English is a non-negotiable safety requirement for professional drivers, as they should be able to read and understand traffic signs; communicate with traffic safety officers, border patrol, agricultural checkpoints and cargo weight-limit station personnel; and provide and receive feedback and directions in English,” the White House fact sheet said.

During the Monday press conference, Leavitt described the English-proficiency of truck drivers as being “a big problem.”

“Unless you’re in that community you might not know but there’s a lot of communication problems between truckers on the road with federal officials and local officials as well, which, obviously, is a public safety risk, so we’re going to ensure that our truckers, who are the backbone of our economy, are all able to speak English.

“That’s a very common-sense policy,” she said.

CANADA’S anti-Trump, Brexit-bashing new Prime Minister Mark Carney has won the slap election in a stunning reversal of fortune.

Canadians have decided who will respond to Donald Trump‘s tariff threats and the President’s desire to make Canada the 51st US state.

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Carney’s Liberals quickly won dozens of seats after polls closed in vote-heavy Ontario and Quebec with forecasters calling the victory soon after.

It is not yet clear whether that will be a majority or minority – with the Liberals needing 172 seats to rule outright.

Victorious Carney took over from former leader Justin Trudeau when the Liberals had been tanking in polls.

Carney’s election as leader and Trump’s threats reversed that polling decline and the Liberals’ support skyrocketed.

The former central banker called a snap election and managed to keep that support during the campaign as he has consistently vowed to resist Trump’s threats to make Canada the 51st state of America.

And, having been a governor of the Bank of England, in many voters eyes, Carney understands what it takes to remain diplomatic which could come in handy in future crunch talks with the US President.

His seven-year term at the Bank became known however for his failed attempts to stop Britain from voting leave in the European Union in the 2016 referendum.

Carney’s main opponent in the race has been Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.

At the start of the year, Poilievre was seen as the candidate that will end 10 years of Liberal rule with his relatable and snappy Trump-approach to public speaking.

Voters were also desperate to boot out Trudeau following a tenure marred by scandal and public outcry.

But when Trump slapped brutal aluminium and steel tariffs on the nation, the voting focus shifted for many Canadians.

Conservative strategist Dan Roberts told The Telegraph: “Donald Trump was like a nuclear bomb going off on the Canadian political landscape.

“It just levelled everything.”

Now, the Liberals are set to win a fourth term in government – a rare achievement and last done between 1993 and 2006, also by the Liberals.

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Earlier, as Canadians went to polling stations, the Don wished Canadians “good luck” – while painting a picture for voters of what their country could look like as the “cherished 51st state of the United States of America”.

Trump posted to Truth Social: “Elect the man who has the strength and wisdom to cut your taxes in half, increase your military power, for free, to the highest level in the World, have your Car, Steel, Aluminum, Lumber, Energy, and all other businesses, QUADRUPLE in size, WITH ZERO TARIFFS OR TAXES, if Canada becomes the cherished 51st. State of the United States of America.

“No more artificially drawn line from many years ago. Look how beautiful this land mass would be. Free access with NO BORDER. ALL POSITIVES WITH NO NEGATIVES. IT WAS MEANT TO BE!

“America can no longer subsidize Canada with the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year that we have been spending in the past. It makes no sense unless Canada is a State!”

Last month, when Canada’s Parliament was dissolved after the bombshell election call, Liberals had 152 seats and the Conservatives 120.

The remaining seats were held by the Bloc Quebecois with 33, the New Democrat Party with 24, and two with the Green Party.

At a rally at Toronto airport on Saturday, Carney kept his message clear and concise for his followers – warning of the threat from Trump.

He said: “President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us.

“And well, that will never happen.”

Rival Poilievre tended to communicate a message of change – attracting many younger Canadian voters who are facing issues at the hands of the country’s economy, like getting on the housing ladder.

His rallies, that often attract thousands, had many voting experts questioning whether initial polls could have been underestimating his popularity across the country.

Poilievre told supporters in British Columbia over the weekend: “We can’t afford four more years of the Liberals.”

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The final days of campaigning for leaders was overshadowed by harrowing tragedy when 11 people were killed after a man drove a car into a crowd at a Filipino street festival in Vancouver on the weekend.

Kai-Ji Adam Lo, 30, is charged with eight counts of second degree murder, although cops say “further charges are anticipated”.

The force insisted that the incident was not being treated as a terrorist attack.

The Lapu Lapu Festival commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century.

Canada‘s New Democracy Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh – who was at the event before the horror incident unfolded – said he was “horrified to learn” of “innocent people” being killed and hurt.

He added: “As we wait to learn more, our thoughts are with the victims and their families – and Vancouver’s Filipino community, who were coming together today to celebrate resilience.”

The NDP had made a campaign stop at the Lapu Lapu Day block party.

Carney said on Saturday night: “I am devastated to hear about the horrific events at the Lapu Lapu festival in Vancouver earlier this evening.”

Conservative Poilievre described being shocked by the “horrific news“.

He said: “My thoughts are with the Filipino community and all the victims targeted by this senseless attack.”

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April 28 (UPI) — The Trump administration on Monday placed roughly 100 mugshots of arrested unauthorized immigrants along the White House driveway as its border czar warned undocumented migrants “cannot hide.”

Faces of men appeared with the words “illegal alien” outside the White House. No names were given but alleged crimes listed were “first-degree murder,” “murder,” “sexual abuse of a child,” “kidnapping and rape,” “rape of a child,” “sexual contact with child,” “child molestation,” and “distribution of fentanyl.”

The posters show “some of the worst illegal immigrants and criminals the Trump administration has arrested since taking office,” an official told Axios.

They were placed along the area dubbed “Pebble Beach,” where TV news crews conduct live shots.

The White House has distributed 100 violent criminals’ names arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in recent months.

Also Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order involving sanctuary cities.

The Department of Justice and Homeland Security were ordered to come up with a list of state and local jurisdictions that obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws” within 30 days. They will be at risk of losing certain federal funds and face legal action unless they comply with enforcement, the order states.

One will “unleash America’s law enforcement” and another to publish “

These actions come as Trump nears his 100th day in office on Wednesday.

“Get your affairs in order. If you’re in the country illegally, work with ICE, go to CBP One Home app, and leave on your own,” Tom Homan, the border czar said in the White House press briefing room Monday morning.

In February, the Trump administration launched a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign warning undocumented migrants that they will be deported if they are in the United States. Both ads, titled “Warning,” consist of dramatic music with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem speaking directly to non-U.S. citizens.

“Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime,” Homan told reporters. “Every sick person we take off the streets, especially child rapists, makes this country safer.”

Arrests at border, deportations

Illegal crossings at the southern border are down and deportations are up.

Illegal crossings dropped 95% in March to less than 7,200 migrant encounters from more than 137,000 ones the same month a year ago during the Biden administration, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

And Homan said 139,000 migrants have been deported since Trump became president.

But thousands with non-criminal immigration violations have been sent from the Untied States. And 46% of the of 48,000 ICE detainees in mid-April had no criminal record.

“Am I happy with the numbers?” Human said. “The numbers are good, especially if you look at the ICE numbers. The ICE arrests and removals are far beyond Biden, But I read the media, ‘Oh, deportations are behind the Biden administration.’ Well, why? Because they counted border removals.”

Homan said crossings from Mexico are down because more segments to the border wall have been added and there is a more aggressive policy of forcing those seeking asylum to wait in Mexico.

“The success is unprecedented,” Homan said. “Border numbers are at a historic low.”

The White House is attempting to boost deportations but it needs additional funding from Congress. Also, immigration courts are backlogged.

Homan and Leavitt at the briefing were asked about two issues in the past few days: the arrest of a Wisconsin judge accused of helping a man evade immigration authorities, and U.S. citizen children removed alongside their mother earlier this month.

The press secretary said federal law enforcement will arrest anyone who prevents officers “from doing their jobs” in federal law enforcement.

The border czar defended the children’s removal as a “parental decision.” Lawyers for the mother say she wasn’t allowed to leave them in the United States.

“We’re keeping families together,” Homan said. “So when a parent says, ‘I want my 2-year-old baby to go with me,’ we made that happen. They weren’t deported. We don’t deport U.S. citizens. The parents made that decision, not the United States government.”

Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of crime gangs Tren de Aragua and MS-13 as foreign terrorists.

The Supreme Court has temporarily paused those removals, including to a notorious prison in El Salvador. The justices say they need due process in courts.

“The Trump administration is working 24/7 to successfully arrest and deport these foreign criminals and terrorists from our country,” Leavitt said. “We are in the beginning stages of carrying out the largest deportation campaign in American history.”

‘Operation Tidal Wave’ in Florida

In Florida, ICE and law enforcement from the state arrested 780 undocumented migrants in the United States over four days starting last Monday.

“Operation Tidal Wave” allows for state and local law enforcement agencies to be deputized. Also ICE is allowed to be inside jails and on task forces, according to the agency.

ICE Miami described on Saturday the arrests in a post on X along with photos from the operation.

“I think the main reason why this operation is significant is because it’s the first of its kind,” Todd Lyons, the acting ICE director, told ABC News. “It’s one that not only we’ve been doing what we have, but we have surged all our federal partners together along with Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement [and] Removal Operations.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis praised the partnership.

“Florida is leading the nation in active cooperation with the Trump administration for immigration enforcement and deportation operations!” DeSantis wrote in a post on X on Saturday.

Sanctuary cities

Homan said he plans to go Tuesday to Rochester, N.Y., which the Trump administration is suing for refusing to assist the federal government as a sanctuary city.

The Trump administration said the city is violating the U.S. Constitution by impeding immigration enforcement. Mayor Malik Evans and Police Chief David Smith said Rochester police officers are also accused of violating city policy prohibiting their involvement in immigration activities.

Officers assisted federal agents during a traffic stop on March 24 and helped handcuff the vehicle’s occupants.

Rochester established itself as a sanctuary city in 1986.

Designated sanctuary areas limit or refuse to cooperate with the federal government’s enforcement of immigration law. They protect immigrants from deportation and allow them to engage with law enforcement without fear of reprisal.

There are 13 sanctuary states, including New York and Illinois. In addition, there are sanctuary cities outside them, including Atlanta; Louisville, Ky.; Baltimore; and New Orleans, as well as several designated counties.

Other Trump executive orders

Trump ordered his administration to provide legal resources to police officers who incur liabilities on the job. “My Administration will work to ensure that law enforcement officers across America focus on ending crime, not pursuing harmful, illegal race- and sex-based ‘equity’ policies,” the order reads.

Also, “military and national security assets” will be used to assist law enforcement.

In another order, existing rules requiring professional truck drivers to be proficient in English will be enforced. Transportation Department will place any driver who cannot speak and read English “out of service.”

April 28 (UPI) — DHL Express said Monday it will resume shipments worth over $800 to U.S. destinations after a pause in reaction to President Donald Trump‘s tariff policies.

“This decision follows constructive dialogue between DHL and the U.S. government, who demonstrated a strong willingness to understand our operational and technical challenges, and who agreed that it was imperative to act quickly in the interest of U.S. consumers,” the global shipping company wrote in a release.

Last week, DHL announced a suspension on business-to-customer deliveries of more than $800 “until further notice” in response to the Trump administration’s new 10% tariff plan.

It lowered the threshold for tariffs which targeted the so-called “de-minimis” rule. Hong Kong’s postal authority, meanwhile, said on April 16 it will stop incoming and outgoing U.S. packages in response.

Previously, shipments of up to $2,500 were allowed to enter the United States with little issue.

DHL officials said Trump’s policies “caused a surge in formal customs clearances” in an issue company officials said were working “around the clock” to address.

It likewise affected Chinese companies like Temu and Shein that also ship inexpensive items to U.S. shores.

Meanwhile, both companies say that tariffs will spike their U.S. prices and have already increased them on many items on the e-commerce sites popular with many American consumers.

However, DHL Express added on Monday that “positive developments” will now enable them to “resume normal operations” and its shipments valued $800 to $2,500 via its “expedited informal entry process.”

“Your shipments to the U.S. may still experience transit delays as we navigate the reintroduction of the service and while we clear the current backlog as soon as possible,” they warned.

DHL officials say the company will continue to “actively monitor the regulatory environment” and will “work closely” with customers and the U.S. government to facilitate international trade needs.

April 28 (UPI) — IBM announced Monday it plans to invest at least $150 billion over the next five years in American manufacturing to advance IBM’s mainframe and quantum computer systems.

“We have been focused on American jobs and manufacturing since our founding 114 years ago,” Arvind Krishna, chairman and CEO of International Business Machines Corp., said in a release. “And with this investment and manufacturing commitment, we are ensuring that IBM remains at the epicenter of the world’s most advanced computing and AI capabilities.”

The Poughkeepsie-based company said Monday its investment in the United States will help fuel the economy and accelerate the country’s role as a global computing leader.

IBM reported $14.54 billion last week in better-than-expected revenue in its first quarter above its projected $14.4 billion versus the same quarter last year which saw IBM’s net income narrow to a little more than $1.5 billion.

IBM officials said the company operates the “world’s largest fleet of quantum computer systems,” and will continue to build and assemble on American shores.

Meanwhile, its infrastructure division, which includes IBM’s mainframe computers, managed to to post nearly $2.90 billion in first quarter earnings beating its $2.76 billion mark.

The announcement arrived weeks after President Donald Trump unleashed sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs in a strategy the administration believes will boost U.S. manufacturing.

Trump, however, later exempted chips, computers, smartphone and other tech parts as a coalition of 12 states sued the Trump administration over its “illegal tariffs.”

In 2020, a team of Chinese scientists achieved what was described as “quantum supremacy” when a new type of quantum system was able to best the performance of a supercomputer at one task.

IBM says quantum computing signals “one of the biggest technology platform shifts and economic opportunities in decades,” and that it will “solve problems that today’s conventional computers cannot solve.”

Chipmaker company Nvidia, an IBM competitor, announced this month it would manufacture its new Nvidia AI supercomputer entirely in the United States in a similar push.

Former President Joe Biden in 2022 issued federal directives to “lay the groundwork for continued American leadership” regarding quantum computing.

On Monday, IBM’s CEO wrote that technology “doesn’t just build the future, it defines it.”

After United States President Donald Trump suspended his “reciprocal tariffs” on major US trading partners on April 9, he ramped them up on China’s goods. US trade levies on most imports from China have climbed to 145 percent. Beijing retaliated with duties of its own, at 125 percent on US goods.

Trump has long accused China of exploiting the US on trade, casting his tariffs as necessary to revive domestic manufacturing and reshore jobs back to the US. He also wants to use tariffs to finance tax cuts. Most economists remain sceptical Trump will achieve his aims.

For now, the US and China are locked in a high-stakes game of chicken. The world is waiting to see which country will yield and which will stay the course. As Trump nears his first 100 days in office for the second time, here’s where the tariff war with China stands:

What’s happening with negotiations?

Trump recently played up the possibility of securing a trade deal with China. Last week, the US president said his tariffs on China will “come down substantially” in the near future.

“We’re going to have a fair deal with China,” Trump told reporters on April 23, stirring hopes of a de-escalation. He also said his administration was “actively” negotiating with the Chinese side without elaborating.

On April 24, however, China’s Ministry of Commerce rebuffed president Trump’s remarks, saying there were no talks taking place between the two countries.

“Any claims about the progress of China-US economic and trade negotiations are groundless and have no factual basis,” ministry spokesman He Yadong said.

While he insisted that Beijing won’t duck any economic blows from Washington, he also said the door was “wide open” for talks.

Last week, the Reuters news agency reported that China was evaluating exemptions for select US imports – a list of up to 131 products.

Beijing has not made any public statement on the issue.

Has the tariff war impacted US exports?

Trump introduced his sweeping tariffs on China less than three weeks ago. The fallout for US businesses won’t be fully felt until later this year. Still, the warning signals are already flashing red.

Data from the US Department of Agriculture shows that exports of soya beans – the biggest US farm export – fell dramatically for the period April 11-17, the first full week of reporting since Trump’s China tariff announcement.

By April 17, net sales of US soya beans dropped by 50 percent compared with the previous week. That was driven by a 67 percent fall in weekly soya bean exports to China, which, until recently, was America’s biggest export destination for the legume.

According to Piergiuseppe Fortunato, an adjunct professor of economics at the University of Neuchatel in Switzerland, “China’s retaliatory tariffs will hit US farmers hard. Some may go out of business.” He added that all sectors with exposure to China would come under strain.

In 2023, the US exported roughly $15bn of oil, gas and coal to China. Losing that market would hit US energy firms.

Are imports to the US going to take a hit?

Since the start of Trump’s tariff war, cargo shipments have plummeted. According to Linerlytica, a shipping data provider, Chinese freight bookings bound for the US fell by 30 to 60 percent in April.

The drastic reduction in shipping from America’s third largest trading partner – after Canada and Mexico – has not yet been felt. In May, however, thousands of companies will need to restock their inventories.

According to Bloomberg News, retail giants Walmart and Target told Trump in a meeting last week that shoppers are likely to see empty shelves and higher prices from next month. They also warned that supply shocks could roll out to Christmas.

Electronic appliances, such as TV sets and washing machines, made up 46.4 percent of US imports from China in 2022. The US also imports a lot of its clothing and pharmaceutical product ingredients from China. The price of these goods will begin to rise from next month.

On April 22, the International Monetary Fund raised its US inflation forecast to 3 percent in 2025, owing to tariffs – a full 1 percentage point higher than in January. The lender also lowered its US economic growth forecast and raised its expectation that the US will tip into recession this year.

How will China’s economy be affected?

Despite growing tensions between the US and China, Washington and Beijing remain major trading partners.

According to the Office of the US Trade Representative, the US imported $438.9bn in Chinese goods last year.

That amounts to roughly 3 percent of China’s total economic output, which remains heavily reliant on exports.

In a report shared with its clients this month, Goldman Sachs said it expects Trump’s tariffs to drag down China’s gross domestic product (GDP) by as much as 2.4 percentage points.

For their part, China’s top officials said the country can do without American farm and energy imports and promised to achieve a 5 percent GDP growth target for this year.

Zhao Chenxin, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that together with non-US imports, domestic farm and energy production would be enough to satisfy demand.

“Even if we do not purchase feed grains and oilseeds from the United States, it will not have much impact on our country’s grain supply,” Zhao said on Monday.

He also noted there would be limited impact on China’s energy supplies if companies stopped importing US fossil fuels.

In some ways, experts said, China has been preparing for this crisis.

Fortunato told Al Jazeera: “The US is one of China’s biggest export markets, so tariffs will slow GDP growth. But Beijing has played this smartly as it began diversifying its imports away from the US during the first Trump trade war” in 2018.

He also pointed out that “the US depends on China for up to 60 percent of its critical mineral imports, used in everything from clean energy to military technology. The opposite flow simply isn’t there, so the US is more vulnerable.”

Could the US lose its geopolitical standing?

Trump has made little secret of his wish to conscript US allies into a trade war. The administration said it aims to strike free trade deals with the European Union, Great Britain and Japan.

More generally, reports suggest that Washington is asking trade partners to loosen their economic ties with China as a pre-condition for securing relief from Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs.

Nevertheless, US allies seem largely opposed to any economic showdown with China. Last week, the European Commission said it has no intention of “decoupling” from China.

Elsewhere, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves recently told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: “China is the second biggest economy in the world, and it would be, I think, very foolish to not engage.”

Many countries are not in a position to abandon their trade ties with Beijing. The EU, in particular, has a huge trade deficit with China. Cutting off access to Chinese goods – both consumer products and inputs for industry – would bruise its already sluggish economy.

Across the developing world, China’s trade role is equally as crucial. Roughly a quarter of Bangladesh’s and Cambodia’s imports come from China. Nigeria and Saudi Arabia are similarly dependent on Beijing for their goods imports.

“It’s hard to see why countries would want to undermine their own business interests to try and reduce America’s trade deficit with China,” Fortunato said. “On this point, I think Trump has been short-sighted and may be forced to blink first on lowering tariffs with China.”

Is Trump losing his grip on Republican voters?

The Chinese Communist Party doesn’t need to worry about its next election cycle. Trump’s Republican Party does, so Beijing has the political upper hand in Trump’s trade war. Simply put, it has more time on its side.

For Trump’s party, his sabre rattling already looks politically costly. A new Economist-YouGov poll shows Americans reporting Trump’s economic actions have hurt them personally more than they’ve helped by a 30-point margin.

And public approval of the president’s economic management has been low for a while: It had fallen to 37 percent in a Reuters-Ipsos poll published on March 31, his lowest score ever in that survey.

If Trump stays the course, it is likely that his approval ratings might fall still lower, jeopardising the Republican Party’s fragile grip on the US House of Representatives – and possibly the Senate, experts said.

“For these reasons”, Fortunato said, “China does not feel compelled to rush to the negotiating table to secure a trade deal. That will probably fall to Trump.”

April 28 (UPI) — Canadians will vote for their next prime minister Monday, in a decision about which leader will guide the country through its current relationship with the United States.

Interim Prime Minister Mark Carney has been in charge since fellow Liberal Party member Justin Trudeau resigned from office in March, after polls indicated a loss to the Conservative Party in the federal election was likely.

Carney arrived at a time when United States President Donald Trump had recently changed the general relationship between the two countries with threats of annexation by the United States, which was followed by the institution of 25% tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, cars and auto parts.

As Trump changed the relationship between the United States and Canada, polls in Canada also changed, in which the Liberal Party shored up support in a patriotic wave, which currently spots Carney and his party as the likely winners.

If the Conservative Party wins it would see its leader, Pierre Poilievre, step into the role of prime minister.

Poilievre ran on a platform focused on cuts to government funding, the lessening of environmental laws to allow for deeper use of natural resources and a reduction of bureaucracy.

The election has already seen around 7.3 million Canadians take part in early ballot submittals, up from the 5.8 million who voted early in 2021 federal election.

In-person voting began at 7 a.m. EDT in Canada’s easternmost province, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Speaking to reporters US President Donald Trump said Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy is ready to “give up” Crimea, contradicting Zelenskyy’s repeated vows to reclaim the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.

April 28 (UPI) — Federal authorities over the weekend arrested more than 100 people at an underground night club on accusations of being undocumented immigrants, as the Trump administration continues its crackdown on immigration.

Some 300 Drug Enforcement Administration and other law enforcement agents raided the Colorado Springs nightclub early Sunday, resulting in the arrest of 114 people, DEA Rocky Mountain Division said on X. Drugs and weapons were found at the scene. About 200 people were on the premises when the raid began, authorities said.

DEA Special Agent Jonathan Pullen told reporters that the suspects would be handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and charged with immigration-related offenses. Despite drugs being found at the scene, authorities will likely not be able to file narcotics charges against them, he said.

Two of the people arrested were also wanted on outstanding warrants, according to the DEA.

Pullen said the location had been under surveillance for a number of months and seen to have been used for both sex and drug trafficking. A number of active-duty military personnel worked as armed security guards, he said, adding that they “will be dealt with” by Army Criminal Investigation Division, which participated in the raid.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X that Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gang members frequented the night club and identified the drugs seized as cocaine, meth and pink cocaine.

The DEA posted multiple videos of the raid to its X account, including one prior to agents entering the facility showing authorities giving multiple warnings for occupants of the night club to come out with their hands up.

The first arrests were made at around 3:45 a.m. MST Sunday.

President Donald Trump also posted video of the raid to his Truth Social platform.

“A big Raid last night on some of the worst people illegally in our Country — Drug Dealers, Murderers and other Violent Criminals, of all shapes and sizes,” Trump said, though it did not appear as any of those arrested were charged with violent crimes.

The Colorado Rapid Response Network informed those arrested of their rights, including the right to remain silent and the right not to answer questions without a lawyer present.

The facts of the situation were still unclear, it said.

The arrests come as the Trump administration has been cracking down on both legal and illegal immigration.

Most controversially, he sent more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants accused of being gang members to El Salvador where they are being detained at a mega prison.

Amid his blitz to arrest and deport immigrants, he has attracted lawsuits challenging his immigration policies.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court paused — at least for now — deportations of immigrants under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which Trump used to ship the Venezuelans to El Salvador.

Trump on Sunday used the raid lash out at judges who have ruled against him and to warn that if the Supreme Court doesn’t permit his deportations, it will cause the downfall of the United States.

“If we don’t win this battle at the Supreme Court, our Country, as we know it, is FINISHED! It will be a crime ridden MESS. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” the president said.

April 27 (UPI) — On the heels of a private meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky while attending the funeral for Pope Francis in Vatican City, Moscow attacked Kyiv with 149 drones, Ukraine reported Sunday.

The Ukrainian air force claimed that its forces shot down 57 of the drones, 67 were lost in flight, and that six of the country’s regions sustained damage in the attack. This is the latest in a series of back and forth drone volleys between the neighbors. Kyiv said it recorded attempted strikes by 48 missiles and 442 drones launched by Moscow in the past week.

Trump pushed back on Moscow’s aggression and called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to stand down, questioning whether he is sincerely interested in an end to the fighting.

Trump wrote on social media that there was “no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days.”

“It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!” he continued.

Russia said it downed eight Ukrainian drones overnight into Sunday morning.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung described the Sunday meeting in Vatican City as a “very productive session” to media traveling with Trump, ABC reported.

Zelensky described the meeting as “good” in a social media post.

“We discussed a lot one on one,” Zelensky said. “Hoping for results on everything we covered. Protecting lives of our people. Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking out. Very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results.”

It was the first time the two leaders have met in person since February, when discussions devolved into threats and finger pointing in Washington after Zelensky warned Trump and Vice-President JD Vance that Russian aggression was an international problem and that the United States would feel the effects of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s tactics.

Trump and Vance fired back in what was seen by many as an apparent effort to intimidate and bully Zelensky on the international stage.

Trump said he presented a “final offer” to Moscow and Kyiv last week to end the war. It includes recognizing Crimea as part of Russia and recognition that Russia assumes control areas unoccupied since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The deal offered by the United States is an “unfortunate compromise” that should be accepted by Russia and Ukraine, argues Anatol Lieven, director of the Eurasia programme at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

Lieven tells host Steve Clemons that Ukraine’s leaders should acknowledge that the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia over the past years are lost.

He adds that Russia – by accepting a ceasefire on current battle lines – has “given up” on trying to occupy all the territory of Ukraine it had hoped for.

Meanwhile, Europe “has nothing serious to offer” to end the fighting, Lieven says.