United States

A few days ago Jeanne Shaheen, a Democratic Senator from New Hampshire, introduced a piece of legislation that would give the Department of Justice "new authority" to investigate potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act by the 'Russian Times'.  Among other things, Shaheen said the legislation was necessary to determine whether "RT News is coordinating with the Russian government to spread misinformation and undermine our democratic process."  We won't even bother to touch on the inherent hypocrisy of such a statement, but here is the press release from Sh

A couple of days ago we noted that Mexican immigrants were suddenly flooding into Canada to avoid deportation from the U.S.  The increase in northern border crossings came, at least in part, courtesy of Canada's decision to lift visa requirements for Mexican 'tourists' as of December 1st.  Per the new rules, rather than a visa, under Trudeau's administration, Mexicans are now only required to have a so-called Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) which can be purchased online for CAD $7.

Via Stratfor,

After delays and hours of discussions amid tensions over 'trade' comments between the United States and the rest of The G-20, it appears President Trump has 'won'. While China was "adamantly against" protectionism, the finance ministers end talks without renewing their long-standing commitment to free trade and rejection of protectionism after US opposition.

One day after yesterday's at times painfully uncomfortable first official meeting between Angela Merkel and Donald Trump, it will hardly come as a surprise that during today's G-20 meeting in Baden Baden, Germany- the first for the Trump administration, whose delegation is led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin - where the dominant topic is trade, and specifically globalization vs protectionism, that a row would break out over how the post-Trump world will deal with trade.