Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has fired Canada's ambassador to China, John McCallum. It follows controversial comments Mr McCallum made about an extradition case involving a senior executive from the Chinese telecoms giant Huawei. Mr Trudeau said in a statement he had asked John McCallum to step down, but did not offer a reason.
Canadian businessman Michael Spavor, who worked with North Korea, is being investigated on suspicion of harming China’s state security, officials said, days after a former Canadian diplomat was detained in China in an escalating diplomatic row.
Donald Trump says he could intervene in the case of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou if it helps to avoid a further decline in US relations with China. “Whatever's good for this country, I would do,” the US president said.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday indicated he favours imposing import tariffs to protect the US auto industry, which was rocked by this week's announcement of job cuts at General Motors. In two tweets, the president said that extending tariffs already in place for foreign-built small trucks to the car sector would help domestic manufacturers.
Cash-strapped Venezuela settled a US$1.2 billion arbitration claim that will prevent a creditor from stripping away its crown jewel foreign asset, the U.S.-based Citgo Petroleum Corp refining business, according to Canadian court documents.
The air forces of 14 nations including the United States are taking part this week in air combat exercises and non-conventional warfare training at a base in northern Brazil, the Brazilian Air Force said on Wednesday.
Brazil's president-elect Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday named as foreign minister a career diplomat who currently heads the ministry's United States and Canada department. Ernesto Araujo, 51, was an early supporter of the far-right leader, and courted controversy when he referred to members of the left-wing opposition as terrorists.
The United Nations FAO has raised its forecast for global cereal production in 2018 to 2.601 million tons, primarily due to higher estimates for wheat production in Canada and China. Nonetheless, the new forecast remains 2.1 percent below the record level achieved in 2017.
British and Canadian politicians have joined forces in calling on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to explain “failures of process” regarding the spread of propaganda on the social network. Leading MPs from both parliaments co-signed a letter to Mr Zuckerberg announcing an “international grand committee” on “disinformation and fake news” to be held at the end of November.
Canada has not invited the United States or China to a high-level meeting on reforming the World Trade Organization (WTO). The country will host a small group of like-minded trade ministers in Ottawa in late October to discuss the global trade body. Officials say countries like the US and China will be included at a later date in the reforms discussion process.