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Canada's leadership change, Trump's recession shrug and ICE's protest raid

 
Today's INTERNATIOnAL story

Mark Carney selected next Canadian prime minister

What happened
Canada's Liberal Party yesterday chose Mark Carney, a former central bank chief in Canada and the U.K., as its party leader and the nation's 24th prime minister. Carney, a political novice, won 85.9% of the vote from party members, beating former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and two other candidates to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Who said what
In choosing Carney, the Liberals tapped an "unelected technocrat" who "steered the Bank of Canada through the 2008 global financial crisis and the Bank of England through Brexit," The New York Times said. His "first and most pressing challenge will be to manage the threat" President Donald Trump poses to Canada's "economy and sovereignty."

Trump's "trade war and his talk of making Canada the 51st U.S. state have infuriated Canadians" and the resulting "surge in Canadian nationalism has bolstered the Liberal Party's chances in a parliamentary election expected within days or weeks," The Associated Press said. The election "suddenly seems winnable," just weeks after the opposition Conservative Party "seemed on the cusp of a landslide," The Wall Street Journal said. After trailing the Conservatives and their populist leader Pierre Poilievre by more than 20 percentage points in January, the Liberals are now nearly tied in recent polls.

"This is a nation-defining moment," Trudeau said at the Liberal leadership conference. "Democracy is not a given. Freedom is not a given. Even Canada is not a given." Trump is "attacking Canadian families, workers and businesses," and while "we didn't ask for this fight," it is a challenge Canadians accept, Carney said in his acceptance speech. And "in trade, as in hockey, Canada will win." He said his government will keep retaliatory tariffs on U.S goods "until the Americans show us respect," and regardless of Trump's plans, "Canada will never, ever will be a part of America in any way, shape or form."

What next?
Carney, 59, will be sworn in as prime minister this week and is expected to face voters soon, either by calling a snap election or losing a vote of confidence in Parliament, where he is not a member. He "could legally serve as prime minister without a seat," Reuters said, "but tradition dictates that he should seek to win one as soon as possible."

 
 
Today's Global Trade story

Trump doesn't rule out recession as tariffs bite

What happened
President Donald Trump said yesterday he did not want to predict if the U.S. will fall into recession this year, as some economists and investment banks now forecast. But on a flight back from Mar-a-Lago and in an interview that aired on Fox News, he argued that any short-term economic turbulence from his economic policies would be worth his forecast longer-term gains.

Who said what
"I hate to predict things like that," Trump said when Fox News host Maria Bartiromo (pictured above) asked him if he expected a recession this year, in a "Sunday Morning Futures" interview recorded Thursday. "There is a period of transition, because what we're doing is very big." Stocks tumbled last week after Trump imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, then pared some of them back, but "you can't really watch the stock market," he told Bartiromo. "If you look at China, they have a 100-year perspective," but "we go by quarters, and you can't go by that. You have to do what's right."

It's "notable" that Trump is "now telling voters to look the other way" on the stock market, inflation and the overall economy, after he hammered former President Joe Biden on those metrics, The Washington Post said. Trump's "dizzying approach to tariffs" has "fueled considerable uncertainty and hamstrung businesses considering new investments and hiring," The New York Times said. Trump told Bartiromo that businesses were seeking "clarity" as "almost a sound bite," though if they wanted direction, "we may go up with some tariffs" but "I don't think we'll go down."

What next?
Trump is set to levy a 25% tariff on all foreign steel and aluminum on Wednesday and said to expect more import taxes on April 2, including global "reciprocal" tariffs and a resumption of tariffs on Canada and Mexico.

 
 
Today's NATIONAL Story

ICE arrests pro-Palestinian protester with green card

What happened
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested a Palestinian activist and recent Columbia University graduate student, Mahmoud Khalil (pictured above), at his New York apartment Saturday night, his lawyer said yesterday. The ICE agents said they were revoking Khalil's student visa, his lawyer Amy Greer said, and when told Khalil was a legal permanent resident with a green card, "the agent said they revoked that too."

Who said what
The arrest was the "first publicly known deportation effort" under President Donald Trump's "promised crackdown on students who joined protests against the war in Gaza" last spring, The Associated Press said. Khalil was a negotiator between pro-Palestinian student protesters at Columbia and school administrators.

Homeland Security Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the arrest was "in support of President Trump's executive orders prohibiting antisemitism," alleging that Khalil "led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization." Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X last night, above a news article on Khalil's arrest, "We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported."

The State Department "can rescind visas" in certain circumstances, The Washington Post said, but "it was unclear what legal authority the Trump administration would use to revoke green cards," which are "one step below" U.S. citizenship. Khalil's detention is a "frightening escalation of Trump's crackdown on pro-Palestine speech and an aggressive abuse of immigration law," New York Civil Liberties Union director Donna Lieberman said. It "reeks of McCarthyism." 

What next?
Greer said she and Khalil's wife, an American citizen who is eight months pregnant, do not know where he is being held or the charges against him. "We will vigorously be pursuing Mahmoud's rights in court," she said.

 
 

It's not all bad

For nearly 20 years, a llama named Whitetop has been comforting kids at Victory Junction, a free camp in Randleman, North Carolina, for children with serious health issues like cancer, cerebral palsy and heart disease. The "sweet" llama came to Victory Junction in 2006 and "really gets to help campers come out of their shell," director Billie Davis said to The Associated Press. When he's not letting kids pet him, Whitetop enjoys posing for selfies and rolling in fresh wood chips.

 
 
Under the radar

U.S. gourmets are scrambling to stock up on their favorite imported foodstuffs before President Donald Trump's costly tariffs inflate prices on the shelves. Tariffs are a "disastrously bad idea," said James Surowiecki at Fast Company. They lead to "higher prices on everything," from coffee and tea to bananas and strawberries. So some consumers are stockpiling comestibles in their larders while they can. 

"I call it my strategic coffee reserve," a java lover, who bought 16 pounds of Colombian coffee at Costco the day after Colombia was threatened with tariffs, said to The New York Times. "I like looking at it. It makes me feel safe." Others have built up a surplus of Canadian maple syrup, Mexican avocados ("rock hard and in bulk") and EU olive oil. 

Perhaps most importantly, and beyond all the high-end-food fears, Trump's trade war with his country's closest neighbors will "hit Americans where it hurts: in the French fries," said Canada's Globe and Mail. The U.S. imports $4.8 billion in canola oil and $1.7 billion in frozen French fries from Canada every year. 

Surely, the "thought of replacing 'do you want fries with that?' with 'can you afford fries with that?' is a threat to the American way of life," The Globe and Mail said. It could also prove "too much to bear" for the American "who matters most" — Trump has "long expressed a love" for a Big Mac and fries.

 
 
On this day

March 10, 1997

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" premiered on The WB. The show, which followed a series of young women chosen to battle vampires, was highly acclaimed and has achieved a cult following, mostly among millennials. The show was in the headlines again after one of its stars, Michelle Trachtenberg, died on Feb. 26.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

"Deepening peril of disease as Trump cuts foreign aid," with "safeguards eroding" and rising risk of "outbreaks that may reach U.S.," The New York Times says on Monday's front page. "Potential Medicaid cuts could sever lifeline provided by rural hospitals," The Washington Post says. "Veterans, doctors brace for VA cuts," The Boston Globe says, and "federal workers fret: Is shutdown the next blow?" Social Security workers "fear looming Trump job cuts," while "more federal workers offered job cuts," The Kansas City Star says. "GOP pushes to unite on funding-cut plan supported by Trump," The Wall Street Journal says.

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

Time is money

A lawyer in Bangalore, India, has successfully sued the PVR INOX theater chain, receiving $230 in damages after complaining about the number of advertisements shown before a movie. The man said he was "forced to cancel work calls" because the film "overran the scheduled finish time" and the 25 minutes of commercials caused "mental agony," said CNN. Bangalore's District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission ruled in his favor, saying 25 minutes is a "considerable amount of time to sit idle" for "unnecessary ads."

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Chas Newkey-Burden, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Artur Widak / NurPhoto via Getty Images; Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images; Selcuk Acar / Anadolu via Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images