We have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for Eurasia Group and its affiliates, including GZERO Media, to clarify the types of data we collect, how we collect it, how we use data and with whom we share data. By using our website you consent to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, including the transfer of your personal data to the United States from your country of residence, and our use of cookies described in our Cookie Policy.
What We're Watching
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Judge Amy Coney Barrett after she was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, U.S. October 26, 2020.
Should a former president be held accountable for crimes committed while in office? That was the basic, yet incredibly weighty, question before the Supreme Court on Thursday when it began hearing oral arguments in a case related to former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Trump, who doesn’t want to face trial in the federal Jan. 6 case against him before his expected rematch with President Joe Biden on Election Day, has declared that presidents should have absolute immunity. He’s effectively argued that presidents should be above the law.
What happened? Some of the conservative justices (three of whom were appointed by Trump) expressed concern that allowing former presidents to be criminally prosecuted could present a burden to future commanders-in-chief. They seemed skeptical of Trump’s sweeping claims but appeared open to the idea that presidents should have immunity for some actions. There was a great deal of focus on whether a distinction should be established between official acts and private behavior.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, emphasized that the court was “writing a rule for the ages.” But Justice Amy Coney Barrett, another Trump appointee, agreed with the notion that the ex-president’s legal team was pushing a “radical” idea on presidential immunity.
Meanwhile, liberal justices worried that if the court ruled in Trump’s favor, it could open the door for future presidents to commit crimes. “If there’s no threat of criminal prosecution, what prevents the president from just doing whatever he wants?” asked Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
TLDR: The court might rule that presidents should be granted some, but not absolute, immunity from criminal prosecution. This means the case could be kicked back down to the lower courts.
What’s next? Trump’s Jan. 6 trial was postponed to await the court’s ruling, which could come anytime between now and the end of June. Whether that trial occurs before voters go to the polls in November will depend on the timing and nature of the court’s final ruling.
A Palestinian woman inspects a house that was destroyed after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, April 24, 2024.
As the World Food Programme warns that Gaza is getting closer to famine by the day, US troops are set to begin constructing a floating pier off the northern coast of the enclave to increase the flow of desperately needed aid. The project is expected to be done by early May.
Meanwhile, Israel continues to lay the groundwork for an invasion of Rafah, the southern Gaza city where over a million Palestinians are sheltering. Israel has pummeled Rafah with airstrikes in recent days, and the Israeli military is gathering tanks and armored vehicles near the southern Gaza border ahead of the expected operation.
The Israeli government, which says Rafah is the last Hamas stronghold in Gaza, has rebuffed international opposition to a ground offensive. Israel also says it’s taking steps to help evacuate civilians before invading, and satellite images suggest
Months of unsuccessful efforts to secure a new truce in the war have kept the door open for a Rafah operation. On Wednesday, a top Hamas official said the militant group would lay down its arms if Israel accepted an independent Palestinian state with pre-1967 borders — but there’s virtually no chance of that happening, particularly given the current Israeli government firmly opposes Palestinian statehood.
For now, all eyes are on Rafah. “We are afraid of what will happen in Rafah. The level of alert is very high,” Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, said Thursday.
Haiti's new interim Prime Minister Michel Patrick Boisvert holds a glass with a drink after a transitional council took power with the aim of returning stability to the country, where gang violence has caused chaos and misery, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti April 25, 2024.
Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry formally resigned on Thursday to be replaced by Finance Minister Michel Patrick Boisvert, who will work with a newly sworn in transitional council. Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has been ravaged by gang violence and effectively without a prime minister since March 12.
Get up to speed: Henry agreed to step down last month after gangs blocked his reentry to the country from Kenya, where he was trying to secure a multinational security force to assist him in restoring law and order to the country.
Many of the gangs are led by a man named Jimmy Chérizier, aka Barbecue. They have taken advantage of the power vacuum left by Henry’s absence and are now in control of about 80% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and large swaths of the country. Barbecue said last month he would consider laying down weapons if armed groups were allowed to take part in talks to establish the new government.
Boisvert and thenine-member council, of which seven have voting powers, have a steep climb to tackle the gang violence. The council will appoint a provisional electoral commission, a requirement before elections can take place, and establish a national security council.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives at the Beijing Capital International Airport, in Beijing, China, April 25, 2024.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought up concerns over China's support for Russia with his counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing on Friday, before meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Blinken’s visit is largely meant to advance the mutual goal of stabilizing the relationship, and Xi said he wants to be "partners, not rivals" with the United States.
As Blinken landed in Shanghai for the first leg of his trip earlier this week, the Biden administration signed bills providing Taiwan with $8 billion in military aid and starting a process that could result in a ban of the popular video app TikTok in the US unless its Chinese owner, ByteDance, sells. The day before, the State Department released its annual human rights review, which criticized Chinese treatment of Muslim minorities.
Once he landed, Blinken pressed Shanghai Communist Party Secretary Chen Jining on treating US companies fairly. Meanwhile, he told students at NYU’s Shanghai campus that the cultural ties being built between both countries are of utmost importance.
Despite the many possible pratfalls during the first leg, China’s response has been fairly milquetoast. Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, “We hope that the US side will respect the principle of fair competition, abide by WTO rules, and work with China to create favorable [trade] conditions.” Hardly “Wolf Warrior” stuff, and Wang said Friday that ties are “beginning to stabilize.”
Nashville Predators defenseman Ryan McDonagh (27) stick checks Vancouver Canucks forward Brock Boeser (6) during the third period in game two of the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Rogers Arena.
For the past 31 years of hockey folly, Canadian fans have greeted the NHL playoffs by telling anyone who will listen that “this year is different.”
It was 1993 when the Stanley Cup was last brought north of the border – that time by the Montreal Canadiens. But there are genuine grounds for optimism this year, with four Canadian teams competing in the last 16 for the first time in seven years.
The Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t won the Cup since 1967 and are already behind 2-1 in their best-of-seven series with the Boston Bruins at the time of writing.
The Winnipeg Jets are tied with the Colorado Avalanche, but hopes are high at the Whiteout street party, where fans gather wearing white Jets jerseys in downtown Winnipeg, after their team finished the season with eight straight wins.
Vancouver Canucks are tied with the Nashville Predators, but the Canadian fans are quietly confident after winning their division.
Meanwhile, the Edmonton Oilers are tied in their series against the LA Kings after game one, in which the world’s best player, Connor McDavid, proved unstoppable, providing five assists in a 7-4 win. The bookmakers have the Oilers as the third favorite, behind the Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers, both of whom are 2-0 up in their series against the New York Islanders and Tampa Bay Lightning respectively.
Despite the prospect of making history, there is no sense that the country is getting behind any one franchise as “Canada’s team.” This is for good reason: If Vancouver and Edmonton triumph, they will face off against each other in round two.
Tribal loyalties run deeper than national ones in a country like Canada, with more geography than history.
Workers assemble a vehicle as Honda announces plans to build electric vehicles and their parts in Ontario with financial support from the Canadian and provincial governments, at their automotive assembly plant in Alliston, Ontario, Canada, April 25, 2024.
Honda has announced an $11 billion plan to build electric vehicles in the Canadian province of Ontario, an investment Premier Doug Fordsays will be the largest ever for Canada.
The plan includes four separate plant as part of an electric vehicle supply chain, including Honda’s first EV assembly line at its existing Alliston, Ont., facility. The new investment will create 1,000 full-time jobs and produce 240,000 vehicles a year if all goes well.
That follows similar pledges by battery producers Northvolt, Volkswagen, and Stellantis-LGES that take Ontario’s EV investment to more than $30 billion in the past year or so.
Federal and provincial governments have injected billions in subsidies to compete with President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. But the recent cooling of enthusiasm for EVs in North America has some wondering if Canada has bought a very expensive lemon.
Deliveries in the US are flat, and in Europe, they have fallen 11% year on year. Tesla has just reported poor quarterly results and has seen its stock fall in recent months.
Others are calling for calm. “Honda does not make speculative term bets,” said Flavio Volpe, head of Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association.
Bullish analysts point out that the market witnessed a post-pandemic spending spree that will come back, particularly if manufacturers close the 40-60% price gap between gas-powered cars and EVs.
In China, electric vehicles are now cheaper options on average, and producing for the mass market is the game plan for companies like GM and Honda.
If the price differential drops, the car makers are betting “the feel of the wheel will seal the deal.”
A protester chants slogans in support of Palestinians in Gaza, outside of Columbia University in New York City, U.S., April 24, 2024.
The disruption at some of America’s most prestigious universities in recent days has been well-documented. Protesters have been arrested at New York University, Yale, and Columbia, where the administration has declared a hybrid (in-class and online) approach to the final week of classes.
Police have attempted to draw a line between free expression and maintaining safety on campuses. Jewish students claim that the intimidating chants and antisemitic incidents have crossed that line at times. Protesters at Columbia called for Hamas to blow away Tel Aviv and Israel, 19-year-old Nicholas Baumtold the Associated Press. “Jews are scared at Columbia. It’s as simple as that,” he said.
As usual, Canada has been a non-conductor of such radical currents.
Protests have occurred — there was a large anti-Israel rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa last weekend at which chants of “Long live October 7th” were heard.
But it was not specifically a student protest and Canadian campuses have not seen the formation of encampments, such as the one that has taken over Columbia’s green.
McGill University in Montreal has witnessed a hunger strike by some students protesting the university’s investment in companies supporting the Israeli military. There was a brief sit-in at the main library.
But the tradition of radical student protest seems less ingrained in Canada.
Henry David Thoreau talked of disobedience being the true fountain of American liberty — sentiments that students took to heart during the civil rights and anti-Vietnam marches of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Canadian student protests are preoccupied with less holistic concerns — in the ‘70s in Toronto, they were concerned about equal representation on the university senate; in Quebec in 2012, students reacted against increased tuition fees.
It is a circumstance that vindicates the observation that while Canada is a live country, unlike the US, it is not kicking.
Latest
Supreme Court divided over Trump’s absolute immunity claims
Rafah braces for Israeli invasion as famine looms
New chapter for Haiti as Henry steps down
Blinken meets with Xi, but no breakthroughs
Can a Canadian team end 31-year Stanley Cup drought?
Live and kicking? Campus activism in North America
