Latest news for 24 August 2026

CANADA

Trade talks collapse.

After a last-minute reprieve offered initial hopes of a breakthrough, US-Canada trade talks have now collapsed amid duelling claims of sudden goalpost shifts around US tariffs on trucks, plus Canada’s protections for French-language content. Canada is now insisting it’ll match dollar-for-dollar DC’s new 50% tariffs on $20B in Canadian goods (booze, dairy, hockey!), with retaliatory tariffs targeting US exports like steel, dairy, and appliances. (WSJ $)

Comment: Canada clearly has more to lose here, but it also clearly knows what it’s doing, hitting back at US sectors to maximise asymmetric pain and force a rethink. There are long-running US grievances at play (eg dairy), but this kind of hard-ball risks further a) weakening the supply chains that help keep the US competitive, b) burning whatever was left of Canadian goodwill (a quarter million have now signed a petition calling for the US ambassador’s expulsion), and c) further exposing the limits of US power while the world (already unimpressed in Iran) watches on.

UNITED STATES

Bond stunt fades.

Sceptical markets have now almost entirely erased the initial drop in US bond yields after Secretary Bessent’s surprise doubling of long-dated bond buybacks, with yields back near multi-year highs. (Bloomberg $)

Comment: It’s not every day you see a legendary macro trader like Bessent get schooled by the bonds market, but that seems to be what just happened. One trader amusingly described his manoeuvre last week as like eating 10,000 calories a day then taking Ozempic. Ie, no bond market chicanery can realistically address DC’s deeper fiscal issues.

UNITED NATIONS

Deadlock?

The latest informal Security Council straw poll to pick the next UN boss has resulted in three semi-surprises: i) Guyana’s Rodrigues is now ahead of Costa Rica’s Grynspan, but ii) both have now dipped below the nine votes needed to win, and iii) Uganda’s Otunnu showed the biggest gain (though he’s still behind). (Al Jazeera)

Comment: The tldr? There’s still more road to run, but the chances of a more drawn-out process (if not stalemate) are quietly rising. Interestingly, both the US and Russia have now also dunked on the president of the UN General Assembly (Germany’s Baerbock) for allegedly exceeding her authority in the way she’s run the more public-facing candidate townhalls. These were always meant to give the whole process a veneer of legitimacy and transparency, but realistically have no direct bearing on where the power actually sits (the UNSC) other than clearly irking some members.

THAILAND

Coordinated arson wave.

Dozens of arson and incendiary attacks have hit government offices, utility sites, and even a 7-Eleven across Thailand’s restive south, wounding at least three. No group has claimed responsibility, but the scale, targets, and coordination point to one of the Islamist-separatist groups in the Buddhist-majority nation’s south. (SCMP)

Comment: With the military now imposing a curfew, it all suggests a long-simmering conflict might now be heating up again, right as Bangkok tries to project political and economic stability.

IRAN

Economic D-day?

US Treasury Secretary Bessent has used an op-ed to warn that he’ll today (Monday) unleash the “largest single financial attack ever marshalled”, with big secondary sanctions on anyone helping Iran trade. (CNBC)

Comment: He’s now formalising what we’ve recently noticed informally as a media narrative shift away from this war’s US costs, and back on how long Iran’s regime can hold. It’s partly trying to correct for the imbalance between Iran’s state outlets projecting stability and invincibility, while America’s raucous free press offers a daily tally on the mounting US costs. As for the prospect of any economic D-day, the threat risks being empty unless it covers Iran’s biggest customer (China) — notably absent from Bessent’s op-ed, though he was urging Beijing to cooperate last week. Actually hitting China, however, would risk painful retaliation, particularly ahead of President Xi’s planned trip to the US next month.

GUINEA

Trash and tragedy.

A landslide at a huge landfill in the capital Conakry has left at least 30 dead under heavy rains. The authorities had just announced the site would be closed because of the risks. (Guardian)

NORWAY

King’s health deteriorates.

The palace has announced that King Harald V’s condition has deteriorated over the weekend, after he was hospitalised for a blood condition. He’s Europe’s oldest monarch and has always ruled out abdication. (EuroNews)

Comment: The Norwegian crown has had a bumpy ride lately amid health scares, the Crown Princess's Epstein ties, and her pre-royal son’s rape conviction. If the point of a modern monarchy is to be an apolitical figurehead who can project continuity and calm above the political noise, then European royal families have recently been struggling.