April Hubbard sits on the theatre stage where she plans to die later this year. She is not terminally ill, but the 39-year-old performance and burlesque artist has been approved for assisted dying under Canada's increasingly liberal laws. Warning: This article contains details and descriptions some readers may find disturbing She is speaking to BBC News from the Bus Stop Theatre, an intimate auditorium with a little under 100 seats, in the eastern city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Illuminated by a single spotlight on a stage she has performed on many times before, she tells me she plans to die here "within months" of her imminent 40th birthday. She'll be joined by a small group of her family and friends. April plans to be in a "big comfy bed" for what she calls a "celebratory" moment when a medical professional will inject a lethal dose into her bloodstream. "I want to be surrounded by the people I love and just have everybody hold me in a giant cuddle puddle and get to take my last breath, surrounded by love and support," she says. April was born with spina bifida and was later diagnosed with tumours at the base of her spine which she says have left her in constant, debilitating pain. She's been taking strong opioid painkillers for more than 20 years and applied for Medical Assistance in Dying (Maid) in March 2023. While she could yet live for decades with her condition, she qualified to end her life early seven months after applying. For those who are terminally ill it is possible to get approval within 24 hours. "My suffering and pain are increasing and I don't have the quality of life anymore that makes me happy and fulfilled," April says. Every time she moves or breathes, she says it feels like the tissues from the base of her spine "are being pulled like a rubber band that stretches too far", and that her lower limbs leave her in agony. We meet April as, almost 3,000 miles away, MPs are scrutinising proposals to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales. They voted in principle in support of those plans in November 2024, but months of detailed scrutiny have followed - and further votes in the Commons and Lords are required before the bill could possibly become law. Critics say Canada is an example of the "slippery slope", meaning that once you pass an assisted dying law it will inevitably widen its scope and have fewer safeguards. Canada now has one of the most liberal systems of assisted dying in the world, similar to that operating in the Netherlands and Belgium. It introduced Maid in 2016, initially for terminally ill adults with a serious and incurable physical illness, which causes intolerable suffering. In 2021, the need to be terminally ill was removed, and in two years' time, the Canadian government plans to open Maid to adults solely with a mental illness and no physical ailment. Opponents of Maid tell us that death is coming to be seen as a standard treatment option for those with disabilities and complex medical problems. "It is easier in Canada to get medical assistance in dying than it is to get government support to live," says Andrew Gurza, a disability awareness consultant and friend of April's. Andrew, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, says he respects April's decision, but tells us: "If my disability declines and my care needs got higher, I'd still want to be here. To know there's a law that's saying you could easily end your life - it's just really scary." Before she was approved for Maid, April was assessed by two independent physicians who were required to inform her of ways to alleviate her suffering and offer alternative treatments. "The safeguards are there," she says, when we press her about disabled people who feel threatened by assisted dying, or whether Maid is being used as a shortcut to better quality care. "If it's not right for you and you're not leading the charge and choosing Maid, you're not going to be able to access it unless it's for the right reasons," she adds. There were 15,343 Maid deaths in 2023, representing around one in 20 of all deaths in Canada - a proportion that has increased dramatically since 2016 and is one of the highest in the world. The average age of recipients was 77. In all but a handful of cases, the lethal dose was delivered by a doctor or nurse, which is also known as voluntary euthanasia. One doctor we spoke to, Eric Thomas, said he had helped 577 patients to die. Dr Konia Trouton, president of the Canadian Association of Maid Assessors and Providers, has also helped hundreds of patients to die since the law was introduced. The procedure is the same each time - she arrives at the home of the person who has been given approval for Maid and asks if they wish to go ahead with it that day. She says the patients always direct the process and then give her the "heads up and ready to go". "That gives me an honour and a duty and a privilege to be able to help them in those last moments with their family around them, with those who love them around them and to know that they've made that decision thoughtfully, carefully and thoroughly," she adds. If the answer is yes, she opens her medical bag. Demonstrating to the BBC what happens next, Dr Trouton briefly puts a tourniquet on my arm. She shows me where the needle would be inserted into a vein in the back of my hand to allow an intravenous infusion of lethal drugs. In her medical bag she also has a stethoscope. "Strangely, these days I use it more to determine if someone has no heartbeat rather than if they do," she tells me.

April Hubbard sits on the theatre stage where she plans to die later this year. She is not terminally ill, but the 39-year-old performance and burlesque artist has been approved for assisted dying under Canada's increasingly liberal laws. Warning: This article contains details and descriptions some readers may find disturbing She is speaking to BBC News from the Bus Stop Theatre, an intimate auditorium with a little under 100 seats, in the eastern city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Illuminated by a single spotlight on a stage she has performed on many times before, she tells me she plans to die here "within months" of her imminent 40th birthday. She'll be joined by a small group of her family and friends. April plans to be in a "big comfy bed" for what she calls a "celebratory" moment when a medical professional will inject a lethal dose into her bloodstream. "I want to be surrounded by the people I love and just have everybody hold me in a giant cuddle puddle and get to take my last breath, surrounded by love and support," she says. April was born with spina bifida and was later diagnosed with tumours at the base of her spine which she says have left her in constant, debilitating pain. She's been taking strong opioid painkillers for more than 20 years and applied for Medical Assistance in Dying (Maid) in March 2023. While she could yet live for decades with her condition, she qualified to end her life early seven months after applying. For those who are terminally ill it is possible to get approval within 24 hours. "My suffering and pain are increasing and I don't have the quality of life anymore that makes me happy and fulfilled," April says. Every time she moves or breathes, she says it feels like the tissues from the base of her spine "are being pulled like a rubber band that stretches too far", and that her lower limbs leave her in agony. We meet April as, almost 3,000 miles away, MPs are scrutinising proposals to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales. They voted in principle in support of those plans in November 2024, but months of detailed scrutiny have followed - and further votes in the Commons and Lords are required before the bill could possibly become law. Critics say Canada is an example of the "slippery slope", meaning that once you pass an assisted dying law it will inevitably widen its scope and have fewer safeguards. Canada now has one of the most liberal systems of assisted dying in the world, similar to that operating in the Netherlands and Belgium. It introduced Maid in 2016, initially for terminally ill adults with a serious and incurable physical illness, which causes intolerable suffering. In 2021, the need to be terminally ill was removed, and in two years' time, the Canadian government plans to open Maid to adults solely with a mental illness and no physical ailment. Opponents of Maid tell us that death is coming to be seen as a standard treatment option for those with disabilities and complex medical problems. "It is easier in Canada to get medical assistance in dying than it is to get government support to live," says Andrew Gurza, a disability awareness consultant and friend of April's. Andrew, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, says he respects April's decision, but tells us: "If my disability declines and my care needs got higher, I'd still want to be here. To know there's a law that's saying you could easily end your life - it's just really scary." Before she was approved for Maid, April was assessed by two independent physicians who were required to inform her of ways to alleviate her suffering and offer alternative treatments. "The safeguards are there," she says, when we press her about disabled people who feel threatened by assisted dying, or whether Maid is being used as a shortcut to better quality care. "If it's not right for you and you're not leading the charge and choosing Maid, you're not going to be able to access it unless it's for the right reasons," she adds. There were 15,343 Maid deaths in 2023, representing around one in 20 of all deaths in Canada - a proportion that has increased dramatically since 2016 and is one of the highest in the world. The average age of recipients was 77. In all but a handful of cases, the lethal dose was delivered by a doctor or nurse, which is also known as voluntary euthanasia. One doctor we spoke to, Eric Thomas, said he had helped 577 patients to die. Dr Konia Trouton, president of the Canadian Association of Maid Assessors and Providers, has also helped hundreds of patients to die since the law was introduced. The procedure is the same each time - she arrives at the home of the person who has been given approval for Maid and asks if they wish to go ahead with it that day. She says the patients always direct the process and then give her the "heads up and ready to go". "That gives me an honour and a duty and a privilege to be able to help them in those last moments with their family around them, with those who love them around them and to know that they've made that decision thoughtfully, carefully and thoroughly," she adds. If the answer is yes, she opens her medical bag. Demonstrating to the BBC what happens next, Dr Trouton briefly puts a tourniquet on my arm. She shows me where the needle would be inserted into a vein in the back of my hand to allow an intravenous infusion of lethal drugs. In her medical bag she also has a stethoscope. "Strangely, these days I use it more to determine if someone has no heartbeat rather than if they do," she tells me.

Fear and anxiety are running high in Windsor, Ontario, after carmaker Stellantis announced it will temporarily shut down its assembly plant in the Canadian border city next week as a result of US President Donald Trump's car tariffs. Derek Gungle, who is among the 4,500 people employed at the plant, says the temporary pause in operations was "kind of expected". Still, he tells the BBC he worries about what's to come. It is a feeling that is echoed across Windsor, the heart of Canada's automobile sector and just a bridge away from the US state of Michigan. For decades, the two regions worked together across the shared US-Canada border to build some of North America's most popular cars, like the Ford F-150. Those working in Windsor's auto sector who spoke to the BBC on Thursday say they are worried about the days ahead now that the US has implemented a 25% tariff on all "foreign-made" vehicles. For Canada, that tariff will be reduced by half for cars that are made with 50% US-made components or more. "It's absolutely terrifying," says Christina, who has worked at the Ford plant in Windsor for 25 years. She says she fears her plant will also shut down like Stellantis. She has four children – one of whom is in university. Her youngest is 12. "I would like them to have a good life too," Christina says as tears well up in her eyes. Responding to this building anxiety among Canadians, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada will hit back with its own tariffs. Like the US, Canada will slap a 25% tariff on American-made cars sold in Canada. Vehicles that were produced in compliance with the existing North American free trade agreement between Canada, the US and Mexico, will face lower taxes, with the tariff applying only to the non-Canadian components of the car. Unlike the US, Canada will not be applying its tariffs on automotive parts. "The government will be responding by matching the US approach," the prime minister told reporters on Thursday. The Canadian government will also work to exempt auto producers from these tariffs if they choose to maintain their production and investment in Canada, Carney said. On the campaign trail, federal leaders of Canada's major parties proposed their own solutions. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre called for the removal of federal tax on new Canadian-made cars, which he argued would increase demand for them, while New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh proposed the idea of selling "Victory Bonds" to Canadians to build up Canada's economy amid the ongoing trade dispute with the US. North America's car manufacturing sector is highly integrated, with a car crossing the US-Canada-Mexico borders multiple times before it is assembled and ready to be sold. For example, some Ford F-150s have engines that are built in Canada with electronic parts manufactured in Mexico, and are then assembled in either Michigan or Missouri. Stellantis' shutdown announcement on Thursday affects workers in all three countries. Not only did the company halt operations at its long-standing Windsor plant (what used to be the Chrysler plant) for two weeks, it also paused production at its Toluca, Mexico, plant for one month and laid off 900 workers in the US. For Canada, the price is steep. The country sells almost all of its produced cars - 93% - to the US market, amounting to around 1.6 million vehicles. The car parts it manufactures for vehicles assembled south of the border are also now subject to a 25% US tariff. Car prices going up for consumers is a likely outcome, says Mahmood Nanji, the Lawrence Centre Policy Fellow at Western University's Ivey Business School and a former associate deputy minister at the Ontario Ministry of Finance. Even with a lower 12.5% tariff applied on Canadian-made cars with US parts, Mr Nanji predicts that it would add about $8,000 (£6,110) to the price of a Chevrolet Silverado. "Dealers are going to have a hard time selling those vehicles, and consequently, demand may very well slow down," he says, adding that this would have significant impacts on both sides of the US-Canada border. The tariffs will also be an "administrative nightmare", says Mr Nanji, as companies and border security officials try to work out how these tariffs will be applied in North America's enmeshed auto sector. Auto workers in Windsor, like Chad Lawton, say they hope these levies are temporary and that Canada and the US could negotiate a deal, "so we don't end up in a situation that's going to lead to mass layoffs". But Mr Lawton says he also believes that Canada must stand up for itself, and that it "cannot just concede and roll over and allow it to happen".

President Trump has claimed that the escalating trade war — which he intensified Tuesday with broad tariffs against America’s major trade partners that have sent the stock market plummeting — will spur companies to forgo foreign goods and return manufacturing to American shores. But data suggests that the U.S. economy is not ready for a wholesale shift to manufacturing and that it would take years to ramp up production capabilities. Data shows a fraction of people in the United States are employed by farms and factories compared with decades past, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with most now in service jobs such as software, finance and health care. And experts say focusing on domestic goods production could cost consumers while undermining America’s growing advantage in the knowledge economy. Sector shrink In the 1970s, 1 in 5 U.S. workers worked in manufacturing. Today, it’s closer to 1 in 12. Even with unlimited funding and political will, it takes years to reskill a labor force and rebuild infrastructure. Formal trade apprenticeships typically require four years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And Intel estimates building semiconductor fabrication plants takes three to four years to complete. Policy uncertainty is another major barrier. Companies hesitate to make long-term investments when trade policies could change within months or less. Companies “won’t even start trying to hire and train people until they are convinced that there are permanent tariffs,” said Richard Mansfield, an economist at the University of Colorado Boulder. Instead of boosting domestic production, he said, it is likelier that companies will raise prices, find alternative suppliers — Vietnam, Chile — or both. That played out during Trump’s first term when, under the threat of tariffs, companies moved production from China to Mexico. Dennis Hoffman, an economist at Arizona State University, framed the tariff impact more bluntly: “You end up hurting consumers across the entire United States.” Service strength Meanwhile, a focus on producing goods overlooks another reality: America holds a global advantage in exports of services driven by business, travel and intellectual property. The United States’ $25.2 billion services surplus is often hidden by its $156.7 billion goods deficit. Tariffs ignore that economic reality, leaving consumers with higher prices for basic goods and less to spend in the areas in which our economy excels, Hoffman said: Cheap goods mean “more money to save, to invest, to allocate elsewhere — we’re far better off because of access to international trade.” Deficits are not necessarily negative. “If you run a trade deficit, you’re not a loser,” Hoffman said. “We run trade deficits because we consume — our appetite for consumption is greater than our capacity to produce.” Path of progress As countries progress and grow wealthier, manufacturing tends to represent less of their economies, Hoffman said. Data from Our World in Data shows that while the manufacturing output of lower-income nations around the world increased from 2004 to 2020, higher-income countries went in the opposite direction.

Suggesting the findings would be “predetermined,” without providing any evidence, the Israeli prime minister said a court-led probe would be biased. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu railed against his critics and accused the media of working with the “deep state” as he rejected the establishment of a court-appointed inquiry into the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks. In a speech at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, Netanyahu, without providing any evidence, suggested the findings would be “predetermined” and told lawmakers it was “important and crucial to investigate in depth the events of Oct. 7 and what led up to it,” but thought a court-led probe would be biased. “What do you think? That we’re children?” he shouted into a microphone as some his fellow politicians jeered and shouted at him during Monday night's debate. Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled in December that Netanyahu’s government should hold a Cabinet hearing on whether to form a state commission of inquiry to investigate the circumstances surrounding the Hamas-led attacks, looking at why the country’s military was unable to prevent the deadly assault. But it has since agreed to requests from the government to delay updates to the court about its stance on the creation of such an inquiry. Lawmakers, including former war Cabinet minister Benny Gantz, have long called for a state commission to be set up. Banging on the podium in the Knesset, Netanyahu acknowledged that the “public demands the truth” about the Hamas attacks and he called for the formation of a commission that would “investigate everything,” including alleged leaks from Cabinet meetings and confidential parliamentary sessions. He went on to blast the media, accusing news outlets of “full cooperation with the deep state” and of creating “scandals.” “The cooperation between the bureaucracy in the deep state and the media didn’t work in the United States, and it won’t work here,” he said, aping the rhetoric of President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly referred to the idea that clandestine networks operate within governments, acting to manipulate or control policy. Netanyahu’s rivals were quick to condemn his comments. Opposition leader Yair Lapid said the events of Oct. 7 would “always belong” to the Israeli prime minister, adding that “there was never a government here that had so many reasons to ask for forgiveness.” Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the debate reflected a “total disconnect” by a “disastrous government.” After conducting its own investigation into the deadly attacks, Israel’s military acknowledged last month that it had misjudged Hamas’ intentions and underestimated the militant group’s capabilities and was wholly unprepared for the surprise attack, in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli officials. More than 48,000 people have been killed in Israel's assault on Gaza since then, according to health officials in the enclave. However, many Israelis believe the failures surrounding the attacks extend beyond the military and Netanyahu has faced calls to take responsibility for his country’s apparent lack of preparedness. At least 65% of Israelis said they believed the most appropriate method to investigate the attacks was a State Commission of Inquiry, according to a recent poll conducted by the Jerusalem-based Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research. Surveyed between from Jan. 28 to Feb. 2, just 17% of the 604 Jewish and 151 Arab respondents said they supported the idea of a government-appointed commission of inquiry. Netanyahu has nonetheless maintained that he will answer difficult questions, but only after the war that has consumed the Middle East for almost a-year-and-a-half comes to an end. His outburst came amid growing fears over the future of the fragile ceasefire between his government and Hamas, and as Israel faces mounting criticism for halting the entry of aid and goods into the Gaza Strip. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar doubled down on that decision Tuesday, blaming Hamas for the pause — which came as families across Gaza marked the month of Ramadan — after the militant group refused to accept a proposal to extend the first phase of the ceasefire. The Trump administration has sought to expedite the delivery of $4 billion in military aid to Israel and reverse a partial arms embargo introduced by the Biden administration.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has vowed to retaliate to tariffs issued by US President Donald Trump soon, "with purpose and with force". Carney paused his federal election campaign for the second time in as many weeks to respond to the latest import taxes unveiled by Trump on Wednesday. A new universal 10% tariff on US imports will apply globally but Canada was exempted because it has already been targeted by Trump with other measures. But there was no confirmation of any reprieve from a new 25% tax that Trump will charge on Americans importing foreign-made cars, which could hit Canada hard. Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Carney said the existing tariffs on Canada would "directly affect millions". He added that Canada's reaction would be hammered out once he meets with province and territory premiers on Thursday. In his announcement on Wednesday, Trump said the blanket rate of 10% tax would apply to all goods imported by Americans from other countries. He also unveiled a list of 60 nations facing higher rates - which he described as a "reciprocal" move - though Canada notably was not on that list. So, after days of anticipation about what Trump's "Liberation Day" would mean for Canada, the answer seems to be that little has changed. That has not brought relief to America's northern neighbour. Much of the American tariff scheme on Canada will stay the same: a blanket 25% on all goods, except those under the existing North American free trade agreement. Energy and potash is tariffed at a lower 10%, while a 25% levy on Canadian steel and aluminium remains in place. Trump has tied those previously-announced tariffs to the flow of fentanyl and migrants into the US from both Canada and Mexico. Officials signalled that some may be lowered if an "emergency" declaration by Trump is cancelled. Speaking at the White House on Wednesday, Trump also confirmed that his new 25% tariff "on all-foreign made automobiles" would come into effect at midnight on Thursday. He did not say whether Canada, whose car industry is heavily intertwined with that of the US, would be exempt. Carney's response to the tariffs so far has been a political win for Carney and his Liberal party - now ahead in national polls - as the Conservative Party and its leader Pierre Poilievre trail slightly behind. As the incumbent, Carney has the advantage of playing the role of prime minister while simultaneously auditioning for it, and national polls show Canadians trust him more with handling Trump and the Canada-US relationship. This success - at least so far - has forced Poilievre to pivot his messaging. On Wednesday, the Conservative leader held an event in Toronto hours ahead of Trump's announcement to outline his party's response. He pushed for immediate, "targeted" retaliation, and said his party would introduce a temporary loan program to support businesses directly hit. Poilievre urged Canada to renegotiate the existing North American trade agreement with Canada, the US and Mexico as soon as possible. The agreement, known as CUSMA, is up for review in 2026. "Why wait? Why not get it done now?" Poilievre asked. The rest of Canada's federal leaders laid out their own responses Wednesday - a sign of how much these tariffs have overshadowed Canada's federal election, scheduled for 28 April. New Democratic Leader Jagmeet Singh said during an early afternoon campaign stop in Winnipeg that his party would put measures in place to help workers impacted by the tariffs. He also called Trump an "arsonist", saying that the US president is "setting fire to the economy — his own economy, and ours as well." Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet, whose party only runs candidates in French-speaking Quebec, said counter-tariffs should be "surgically chosen" to preserve the country's "fragile" economy. Meanwhile in the US Senate, an effort to block Trump from imposing tariffs on Canada passed, 51-48, on Wednesday, with four Republican senators aligning with all Democratic senators. But it is not expected to be taken up by the House of Representatives, which holds a narrow Republican majority. While Canada has been spared from additional tariffs, this reprieve has not changed the overall tone in the country. Candace Laing, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said that Wednesday's announcement means "the world is waking up to a reality that Canada has been living with for months." "Businesses around the world have had their uncertainty expanded, the effects of which will undoubtedly boomerang to Canada as well," she said in a statement. "This chain reaction of tariffs and counter-tariffs will have a real and distressing economic impact on Americans, Canadians and the global economy." Carney echoed those comments Wednesday, telling reporters the tariffs will "fundamentally change the international trading system." The focus for now, he said, is how Canada can protect its workers and build what he vowed will be "the strongest economy in the G7."

HONG KONG — China said Thursday it would take all “necessary measures” to protect its legitimate interests after it was hit particularly hard by President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on U.S. trading partners around the world. Starting April 9, imports from the world’s second-biggest economy will be subject to an additional U.S. tariff of 34%, Trump said Wednesday at the White House, as he unveiled a long list of what he called reciprocal tariffs. That is on top of 20% in tariffs that he has imposed on China since taking office in January, bringing the total to 54% — the highest U.S. tariff on any country. The president said the new tariffs — which he described as the biggest reorganization of the global economy since World War II — are aimed at reviving domestic manufacturing and rebalancing trade relations with a wide range of countries. China said Thursday that it firmly opposed the tariffs and would take “necessary measures” to protect its interests. “The U.S., under the guise of ‘reciprocity,’ has imposed tariffs on products from multiple countries, including China, which seriously violates WTO rules and undermines the rules-based multilateral trading system,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a briefing in Beijing. Unlike with past tariffs when smartphones and other electronics were exempt, the latest levies appear to affect them, said Tianchen Xu, a senior China economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit, a financial forecasting service. “No product made in China is safe,” Tianchen said. The tariffs will be a “big blow” to China’s low-cost manufacturers, particularly at a time when Chinese President Xi Jinping is struggling to boost domestic demand, he added. In addition to the tariffs, Trump has ordered the closing of the “de minimis” trade loophole that has fueled the explosive growth of Chinese retailers such as Temu and Shein. Xu said the tariff increase could push China to negotiate, including on issues such as the sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations by its Chinese owner to keep the short-video app from being banned, the deadline for which is Saturday. China “has been very reluctant to engage with the U.S., but I think its calculus might be changing,” he added. The 54% total is close to the 60% or more in tariffs that Trump threatened to impose on China during his 2024 presidential campaign, and by some calculations it is actually more than the 70% for some products when tariffs imposed during Trump’s first term are taken into account. “At this level, many Chinese products are no longer price competitive,” said Xin Sun, a political economist and China specialist at King’s College London.

A 50% reciprocal trade tariff on Lesotho, the highest levy on U.S. President Donald Trump’s long list of target economies, will kill the tiny Southern African kingdom that Trump ridiculed last month, an economic analyst there said on Thursday. Lesotho, which Trump described in March as a country “nobody has ever heard of,” is one of the world’s poorest nations with a gross domestic product of just over $2 billion. It has a large trade surplus with the United States, mostly made up of diamonds and textiles, including Levi’s jeans. Its exports to the United States, which in 2024 totalled $237 million, account for more than 10% of its GDP. Oxford Economics said the textile sector, with some 40,000 workers, was Lesotho’s biggest private employer and accounted for roughly 90% of manufacturing employment and exports. “Then you are having retailers who are selling food. And then you have residential property owners who are renting houses for the workers. So this means if the closure of factories were to happen, the industry is going to die and there will be multiplier effects,” Lesotho Private Sector Foundation CEO Thabo Qhesi said. Ridiculed for imposing trade tariffs on frozen islands largely inhabited by penguins, Donald Trump’s formula for calculating those levies has a serious side: it is also hitting some of the world’s poorest nations hardest.The math is simple: take the U.S. goods trade deficit with a country, divide it by that country’s exports to the U.S. and turn it into a percentage figure; then cut that figure in half to produce the U.S. “reciprocal” tariff, with a floor of 10%. That’s how the volcanic Australian territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands in the Antarctic ended up with a 10% tariff. The penguins got off lightly, you might say.

Mark Carney will return to the Canadian parliament with a strengthened mandate, after his Liberal Party triumphed in a snap election that he called soon after becoming prime minister. Although one of his most pressing tasks is to deal with his US counterpart President Donald Trump - who has targeted Canada with trade tariffs and even vowed to make the country the 51st state of America - Carney has also promised action on a range of domestic issues. 1. Double home-building rates In his victory speech in the early hours of Tuesday, Carney pledged to "build, baby, build" - an apparent nod to Trump's pledges on oil drilling. "It's time to build twice as many homes every year with an entirely new housing industry using Canadian technology, Canadian skilled workers, Canadian lumber," Carney told supporters. Housing prices have skyrocketed across the country in the last decade. By doubling the rate of building, Carney hopes to have a supply of 500,000 new homes a year. The Liberals want to create a standalone federal entity that would act as a developer for affordable housing. They plan to use this body to supply tens of billions of Canadian dollars in debt-financing for prefabricated home builders. In his first news conference on Friday, Carney said his government "will address failures in the housing market head on", including by developing a modular and prefabricated housing industry. 2. Ease cost of living Like people in other countries, Canadians have been grappling with higher prices for everyday goods while wages have failed to keep up - an issue over which Carney's party was criticised while under the stewardship of his predecessor Justin Trudeau. The Liberals have proposed a slight tax cut for those in the lowest bracket, who are due to see their rate reduce from 15% to 14%. Carney's party has also vowed to scrap sales taxes on homes under C$1m ($720,000; £540,000) for first-time buyers. It also wants to make dental care available to lower-income Canadians by extending a national insurance programme to 4.5 million people aged 18 to 64. The plan currently covers children, the elderly and some disabled Canadians. The Liberals will also cap the number of temporary workers and international students allowed into the country to less than 5% of the population to the end of 2027 to ease pressure on housing and government services. 3. Build a national electricity grid The Liberals have vowed to maintain the push on reducing emissions - as part of the fight against climate change - while ensuring Canadian companies are still competitive. Carney has promised to build a national "east to west" electricity grid to reduce energy dependence on the US. One of his first moves as PM, before the election, was to repeal Trudeau's unpopular carbon pricing programme, which was designed to give financial incentives for people and firms to turn away from fossil fuels. But Carney maintained a similar tax on large carbon emitters. In his victory speech, he said: "It's time to build Canada into an energy superpower in both clean and conventional energy." 4. A massive hike in defence spending Carney has vowed to raise defence spending to 2% of Canada's GDP, which is the target for all countries in the Nato military alliance. Last year, it spent less than 1.4%. Trump has been critical of countries not meeting the 2% benchmark, and says Canada relies too much militarily on the US. And Trump's pursuit of Canada as a "51st state" of the US has focused minds north of the border on their own security independence. The Liberals say they will spend C$18bn on defence over the next four years, which will go to purchasing new equipment like submarines and heavy icebreakers that can be used in Canada's north. 5. Boost domestic trade and car-making Carney has pledged to find new ways to trade in light of the impediments placed on cross-border commerce by Trump's tariffs regime. In his speech on Tuesday, Carney vowed new "trade and energy corridors working in partnership with the provinces, territories, and Indigenous peoples". On Friday, Carney pledged to remove federal barriers to trade between provinces by 1 July. Among his plans are an "all-in-Canada" network for vehicle parts, under which more manufacturing will happen domestically - meaning less reliance on imports from the US. The Liberals also want to invest C$5bn in national ports, railways, roads and other infrastructure that would help the country further diversify its trading partners.

Ridiculed for imposing trade tariffs on frozen islands largely inhabited by penguins, Trump’s formula for calculating levies has a serious side: It's also hitting some of the world’s poorest nations hardest. A 50% reciprocal trade tariff on Lesotho, the highest levy on U.S. President Donald Trump’s long list of target economies, will kill the tiny Southern African kingdom that Trump ridiculed last month, an economic analyst there said on Thursday. Lesotho, which Trump described in March as a country “nobody has ever heard of,” is one of the world’s poorest nations with a gross domestic product of just over $2 billion. It has a large trade surplus with the United States, mostly made up of diamonds and textiles, including Levi’s jeans. Its exports to the United States, which in 2024 totalled $237 million, account for more than 10% of its GDP. Oxford Economics said the textile sector, with some 40,000 workers, was Lesotho’s biggest private employer and accounted for roughly 90% of manufacturing employment and exports. “Then you are having retailers who are selling food. And then you have residential property owners who are renting houses for the workers. So this means if the closure of factories were to happen, the industry is going to die and there will be multiplier effects,” Lesotho Private Sector Foundation CEO Thabo Qhesi said. “So Lesotho will be dead, so to say.” Ridiculed for imposing trade tariffs on frozen islands largely inhabited by penguins, Donald Trump’s formula for calculating those levies has a serious side: it is also hitting some of the world’s poorest nations hardest.The math is simple: take the U.S. goods trade deficit with a country, divide it by that country’s exports to the U.S. and turn it into a percentage figure; then cut that figure in half to produce the U.S. “reciprocal” tariff, with a floor of 10%. That’s how the volcanic Australian territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands in the Antarctic ended up with a 10% tariff. The penguins got off lightly, you might say. But Madagascar — one of the poorest nations in the world with gross domestic product (GDP) per head of just over $500 — meanwhile faces a 47% tariff on the modest $733 million of exports of vanilla, metals and apparel that it did with the U.S. last year. “Presumably no one is buying Teslas there,” John Denton, head of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), told Reuters, an ironic reference to the improbability of Madagascar being able to placate Trump by buying upmarket U.S. products. Madagascar is not alone: the bluntness of the formula as applied to economies which cannot afford to import much from the U.S. inevitably leads to a high reciprocal tally: 50% for Lesotho in Southern Africa, 49% for Cambodia in Southeast Asia. The government of Lesotho, a mountainous nation of about 2 million people that is encircled by South Africa, had no immediate comment on the trade tariffs on Thursday. Its foreign minister told Reuters last month the country, which has one of the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates in the world, was already feeling the impact of the aid cuts as its health sector had been reliant on them.“The biggest losers are Africa and Southeast Asia,” said Denton, adding the move “risks further damaging the development prospects of countries already facing worsening terms of trade.” But the formula is also sowing confusion among rich countries. For the European Union it has produced a punitive tariff of 20% — four times the 5% which the World Trade Organization calculates as the EU’s average tariff rate. “So, at least for us, it is a colossal inaccuracy,” said Stefano Berni, general manager of the consortium representing makers of the Grana Padano specialty cheese in Italy. “It costs us three times as much today to enter the U.S. as it does for U.S. cheeses to enter our market,” he said in a statement. Asked about its methodology, White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai posted on X that “we literally calculated tariff and non-tariff barriers” and included a screenshot of a White House paper setting out the algebra behind the formula. Asked on CNBC how the Trump administration came up with the formula, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick did not directly explain it but said United States Trade Representative economists had worked for years on a metric that reflected all trade barriers set up by a given country. But economists across the world rushed to point out that the terms canceled each other out in such a way that it could be reduced to a simple quotient of goods trade deficit over goods trade exports. “There is really no methodology there,” said Mary Lovely, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute. “It is like finding you have cancer and finding the medication is based on your weight divided by your age. The word ‘reciprocal’ is deeply misleading.” Robert Kahn, managing director, global macro for Eurasia Group consultancy, agreed that it produced “a lot of these kind of nonsense numbers that aren’t material.” “It sends a signal ... that we are pulling back from our relationships and alliances with them and is a cold shower to a lot of our traditional allies,” he told Reuters. Others noted that it also raised questions over the widely held view that Trump is launching an opening gambit in what will be one-on-one discussions with individual countries that will ultimately see the new U.S. tariffs sharply reduced. “The U.S. has chosen a methodology that is essentially mechanical,” said Stephen Adams, a former European trade adviser who now works for Global Counsel consultancy. “One practical question it does raise is whether there’s any scope to negotiate this away. ... The U.S. hasn’t identified any specific measures that might be changed in order to convince the president to change his mind.”