While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Aug 23, 2026
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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaking at a press conference in Ottawa on Aug 22, after trade talks with the US collapsed.
PHOTO: AFP
Canada to impose retaliatory tariffs against US
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Aug 22 that Canada would impose tariffs starting Sept 8 on imports from the United States across a raft of sectors in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s new 50 per cent tariffs that took effect at midnight.
After days of intense negotiations, the two countries failed to reach a trade deal late on Aug 21, worsening a delicate relationship between the long-term trade partners and allies and complicating the future of the continental free trade pact called the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Trump’s new tariffs hit a slew of sectors, including wine, furniture, dairy products, cement, clothing, fishing rods and hockey equipment, and cover some US$20 billion (S$25 billion) of Canadian exports to the US.
These duties do not exempt Canadian products under the USMCA, which has shielded most Canadian exports to the US in the last 18 months.
Iran warns countries against joining US sanctions
PHOTO: EPA
Iran on Aug 22 warned countries against participating in the United States’ “economic war” against the Islamic republic, saying they would be considered enemies.
Washington has pushed its allies to jump aboard Donald Trump’s new campaign to isolate the Iranian economy, as the US President’s unpopular war drags towards the six-month mark.
“We declare to all countries... do not join the economic war waged by the United States,” said Mohsen Rezai, the head of Iran’s supreme national security council, on state television.
US envoy condemns academic’s suspension in Arday case
PHOTO: REUTERS
The US ambassador to Belgium has denounced the suspension of a US academic who led plagiarism accusations against Jason Arday, the black ex-Cambridge professor found dead on Aug 14 after resigning over the scandal.
Bill White, posting on X on Aug 21, denounced the decision by the University of Ghent as an attempt to silence Nathan Cofnas, a self-defined “race realist” who was himself sacked from his Cambridge post two years ago.
On Aug 20, Cofnas announced on X that Ghent had suspended him, adding: “They will almost certainly fire me.”
France to accelerate air defence delivery to Ukraine
French President Emmanuel Macron has promised to accelerate the delivery of new French equipment to Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Aug 22, following a call in which they discussed Kyiv’s shortage of air defences.
Zelensky said he had spoken for almost two hours with Macron, who expressed his willingness to intercede on Ukraine’s behalf with allies who had stocks of US-made Patriot interceptors.
In a statement on X, Macron said he had conveyed to Zelensky his “horror and deep emotion” over a Russian drone strike on a crowded shopping centre in the town of Kryvyi Rih on Aug 21, which killed at least 16 people and wounded 130.
Shambolic Tottenham battered by Brentford
PHOTO: AFP
Big-spending Tottenham found money can’t buy instant success as they slumped to a woeful 3-0 defeat at Brentford in their first game of the Premier League season on Aug 22.
Tottenham have splashed out over £200 million (S$346 million) in a bid to improve a squad that narrowly avoided relegation to the Championship on the final day of last season.
Roberto De Zerbi gave debuts to four of his new recruits as Sandro Tonali, Andrew Robertson, Marcos Senesi and Jan Paul van Hecke all started, while Mateus Fernandes came off the bench in the second half.
