Trump raises the possibility of a ‘friendly takeover of Cuba’ coming out of talks with Havana

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. is in talks with Havana and raised the possibility of a “friendly takeover of Cuba” without offering any details on what he meant.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House as he left for a trip to Texas, Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in discussions with Cuban leaders “at a very high level.”

“The Cuban government is talking with us,” the president said. “They have no money. They have no anything right now. But they’re talking to us, and maybe we’ll have a friendly takeover of Cuba.”

He added: “We could very well end up having a friendly takeover of Cuba.”

Trump plays games with Canada’s sovereignty

What in God’s name is U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent doing commenting publicly about sensitive national unity matters in Canada?

Brandon-based Cando Rail & Terminals purchases Utah-based Savage Rail, absorbs 700+ U.S. employees

In a move the company’s chief executive describes as “transformative,” Cando Rail & Terminals Ltd. has acquired a leading rail provider in the United States.

The Brandon-based company, which owns and operates first- and last-mile rail infrastructure, announced on Monday its acquisition of Utah firm Savage Rail.

Savage Rail is part of Savage Enterprises LLC, a family of companies headquartered in Salt Lake City.

Terms of the deal, which is expected to close April 30, were not disclosed.

She woke up to ‘We’re at war’ in Ukraine. Now Mariia Vainshtein is a New York City tennis champion

NEW YORK (AP) — Mariia Vainshtein never heard the noise and slept straight through that horrible night four years ago.

She didn’t have her phone near bed when she woke the next morning — it probably had been taken by her parents for some teenager's misbehavior, she suspects now with a laugh – so couldn’t scroll around for the news of the day. Instead, she just asked her mother when she could get a ride to school.

Anzhelika Kotliantseva knew they weren’t going anywhere in Ukraine that day. Not after she had been awake for hours, listening to the nearby explosions that began when Russia launched its invasion.

“My mom was like, ’What do you mean? We’re at war! There’s no school, no nothing!'" Vainshtein said.

Manitobans continue to draw line in sand, choose not to cross once-neighbourly line on land

Julie Regner loves to see Canadians tackle the slopes or après-ski at North Dakota’s Frost Fire Park, which has drawn skiers and snowboarders across the border for decades.

While there hasn’t been an official tally of visitors this season, the park’s general manager doesn’t think she’s seeing as many Manitobans amid the steep decline in Canadians venturing south.

“I would say it’s maybe decreased some from last year. They’re definitely still coming down to ski,” Regner said from the park, which is close to Walhalla, just 10 kilometres south of the border.

“We just love having them come down. They’re super nice people.”

Four years after full-scale Ukraine invasion, Canada faces tough choices on defence

OTTAWA - As the world marks four years since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Tuesday, analysts say Moscow has contributed to global instability that will force Canadians to spend more — and more quickly — to defend their territory.

"People need to understand why defence is extremely important right now, and why we're going to have to make sacrifices financially to make sure that we stay protected and safe in the long run," said Anton Sestritsyn, a lobbyist who has helped to organize civil society support for Ukraine.

"It's time for world leaders to start talking to their people and explaining to them what kind of situation we really find ourselves in."

Sestritsyn was speaking at a panel last month staged by the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a think tank funded by German governments to promote transatlantic relations.

U.S. International Trade Commission launches CUSMA rules-of-origin auto investigation

WASHINGTON - The U.S. International Trade Commission has launched an investigation into rules-of-origin regulations for automobiles under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement on trade.

A news release on the commission's website says the investigation will analyze the regulations' "impact on the U.S. economy, effect on U.S. competitiveness, and relevancy considering recent technology changes."

It's the third investigation of the rules since the trilateral trade pact, widely known as CUSMA, was adopted during the first administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. The commission is required to conduct an investigation every two years until 2031.

The report on automobiles must be delivered to Trump and the U.S. Senate by July of next year.

Trump warns of ‘bad things’ if Iran doesn’t make a deal, as second US carrier nears Mideast

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran held annual military drills with Russia on Thursday as a second American aircraft carrier drew closer to the Middle East, with both the United States and Iran signaling they are prepared for war if talks on Tehran's nuclear program fizzle out.

President Donald Trump said Thursday he believes 10 to 15 days is “enough time” for Iran to reach a deal. But the talks have been deadlocked for years, and Iran has refused to discuss wider U.S. and Israeli demands that it scale back its missile program and sever ties to armed groups. Indirect talks held in recent weeks made little visible progress, and one or both sides could be buying time for final war preparations.

Iran’s theocracy is more vulnerable than ever following 12 days of Israeli and U.S. strikes on its nuclear sites and military last year, as well as mass protests in January that were violently suppressed.

In a letter to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, Amir Saeid Iravani, the Iranian ambassador to the U.N., said that while Iran does not seek “tension or war and will not initiate a war,” any U.S. aggression will be responded to “decisively and proportionately.”

Food inflation spiked 7.3% in January. Here’s what’s driving the increase

OTTAWA - Statistics Canada reported an easing in the headline inflation rate Tuesday but a jump in the pace of food inflation amid tax changes and lingering pressures at the grocery store continue to put the squeeze on consumers.

StatCan said Tuesday that the annual rate of inflation edged down to 2.3 per cent in January. Economists had expected inflation to hold steady at 2.4 per cent.

The agency said gas prices were 16.7 per cent lower year-over-year in January, largely thanks to the end of the consumer carbon price in April. Shelter inflation — long a pain for households in Canada — also fell to its lowest level in nearly five years as rent pressures abate.

Those declines helped offset food inflation, which accelerated to 7.3 per cent annually in January from 6.2 per cent a month earlier.

Cuban drivers face monthslong wait for gasoline in a government app designed to reduce lines

HAVANA, Cuba (AP) — Drivers in Cuba are facing the prospects of waiting several months to refuel their cars, as fuel shortages caused by a U.S. oil siege intensify.

To avoid chaos outside gas stations, Cuba’s government last week made it obligatory for drivers to use an app known as Ticket to get refueling appointments.

But drivers in Havana told The Associated Press on Monday that the app is only awarding them appointments several weeks or months from now.

“I have (appointment) number seven thousand and something,” said Jorge Reyes, a 65-year-old who downloaded the app on Monday.

Modern, historic letters showcase love in dangerous times

Love is in the air at Oseredok.

The Ukrainian cultural and educational centre’s current exhibition, Love Letters: A Timeless Experience, bears witness to the fraught and emotional journeys of past and present Ukrainian-Canadian couples through historical love letters, digital declarations and personal artifacts as they navigated courtship, separation and reunion.

Spanning the 20th and 21st centuries, the exhibition draws on a combination of archival material, including the cultural centre’s collection of rare wedding photographs and studio portraits, and visual installations to trace the love lives of Ukrainian-Canadians across the decades.

A letter-writing manual penned in 1913 by linguist and author F. Dojacek forms the backbone of the immersive show.

Canada’s university funding system is broken

For decades, Canadian universities have delivered a world-class education at a remarkably accessible cost. Nationally, Manitoba has among the lowest tuition fees in the country. However, like many universities across Canada, the University of Manitoba is facing a new reality that can no longer be ignored.

Kraft Heinz pauses plans to split into 2 companies, says its problems are ‘fixable’

Kraft Heinz said Wednesday it's pausing its plans to split into two companies.

Steve Cahillane, a former Kellogg Co. chief who became CEO of Kraft Heinz on Jan. 1, said he wants to ensure that all of the company's resources are focused on profitable growth.

“I have seen that the opportunity is larger than expected and that many of our challenges are fixable and within our control,” Cahillane said in a statement.

The company's shares were flat in morning trading Wednesday as Kraft Heinz reported lower quarterly and annual results. Investors are likely concerned that Kraft Heinz believes its businesses aren't strong enough to stand on their own, said Robert Moskow, an analyst with TD Cowen, in a research note.

U.S.-Canada bridge brouhaha deepens as White House says Trump could amend a permit for the project

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Donald Trump has the right to amend a permit for a new bridge between Canada and Michigan, prolonging the latest dispute between the U.S. and its northern neighbor hours after its prime minister signaled there could be a detente.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge, which would connect Ontario and Michigan and would be a vital economic artery between the two countries, is scheduled to open in early 2026. But Trump has now threatened to block the bridge from being opened, calling for Canada to agree to a litany of unspecified demands as the two nations prepare to renegotiate a sprawling trade pact later this year.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said earlier Tuesday that he spoke with Trump and expressed confidence that the spat would be resolved. But a White House official later Tuesday said the ownership structure of the bridge remains unacceptable for the U.S. president.

Canada paid for the bridge, named after a Canadian-born Detroit Red Wings hockey star. Construction has been underway since 2018.

Building new foundations in world of trade

It wasn’t so much the deals that emerged that signalled a significant shift in Canada-China relations after Prime Minister Mark Carney’s meeting with People’s Republic of China President Xi Jinping last month.

It was the fact their working lunch ran long, just like the 20-minute meeting scheduled between the two world leaders in October in South Korea ran for 43 minutes, “which is quite unusual for the Chinese,” said Chris White, Beijing-based president and CEO of the Canadian Meat Advocacy Office, during a webinar this week.

“Not every world leader who has that opportunity to meet with President Xi gets both a working lunch and then that (gets) extended.”

White has been the Canadian meat sector’s boots on the ground in China for less than a year, but his presence underscores a growing recognition among industry leaders that being present in key markets matters — even more so when the relationships are complicated.

Canada and France open consulates in Greenland following tensions over US push for control

NUUK, Greenland (AP) — Canada and France opened diplomatic consulates on Friday in the capital of Greenland, showing support for NATO ally Denmark and the Arctic island in the wake of U.S. efforts to secure control of the semiautonomous Danish territory.

Canada's maple-leaf flag went up and dozens of people sang “O Canada” as Foreign Minister Anita Anand officially opened the country's consulate in Nuuk, which is also the largest city of the icy Arctic island.

“The significance of raising this flag today and formally opening the consulate is that we will stand together with the people of Greenland and Denmark on many issues,” she said.

Anand cited deepening ties on defense, security, climate change, economic resilience and Arctic co-operation.

Greenland’s foreign minister hails new Canadian consulate as ‘historic’

NUUK - The Canadian flag was raised and dozens of people joined in a spontaneous version of O Canada on Friday as Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand officially opened the new consulate in Nuuk, Greenland.

"The significance of raising this flag today and formally opening the consulate is that we will stand together with the people of Greenland and Denmark on many issues," Anand said, citing deepening ties on defence, security, climate change, economic resilience and Arctic co-operation.

"The co-operation between Denmark, Greenland and Canada will continue, not just in the short term, not just in the medium term, but in the long term."

Canada announced plans for the new diplomatic mission in December 2024, before U.S. President Donald Trump escalated his threats to annex the Danish territory.

Trump continues to target Indigenous peoples

The Assembly of First Nations recently issued an official travel advisory to all its members considering travel to the United States.

Carney reaches ‘landmark’ tariff quota deal with China on EVs, canola

BEIJING - Prime Minister Mark Carney touted a renewed relationship with China and "enormous progress" on trade irritants as he announced a new deal with Beijing on electric vehicles and canola at the end of a high-profile trip to China on Friday.

But the agreement has received mixed reviews at home. Ontario and the auto sector warned of the dangers of giving China new access to Canada's auto market, while Prairie premiers and farm groups welcomed the drop in tariffs on some agricultural products.

The deal, made public shortly after Carney met with President Xi Jinping in Beijing, marks a de-escalation in tensions with a country the Liberal government branded as a disruptive power just three years ago.

Carney distanced himself from that description on Friday, noting he was not part of the government that used the term in Canada's 2022 Indo-Pacific strategy.

Farm sector weirdness becomes new normal

Farming has never been a wise career choice for people who thrive on predictable outcomes, but last year set a new bar for craziness in what was already a risky business.

Looking ahead, the uncertainty laced with foreboding that heralded the start of 2025 has been replaced in 2026 with the certainty that comes from knowing the chaos will continue.

Just when you think it can’t get any weirder, the government administration south of the border at the centre of it all grabs the headlines once again with something even more unimaginably outlandish.

For example, the announcement late last year that the U.S. is considering placing steep tariffs on two key fertilizers — potash and phosphorus — ostensibly to increase domestic production. Except the U.S. doesn’t have the necessary reserves to develop.