monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Canada has filed an expansive complaint with the World Trade Organization accusing the US of breaking international trade rules.

The complaint challenges the ways that the US investigates products for subsidies and below-cost sales.

The US called the claims "unfounded".

The action comes amid disputes between the two countries over areas such as dairy, aircraft sales and lumber as well as efforts to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Canada's 32-page complaint cites US investigations of products from countries around the world, with decisions that date back to 1996.

Among other charges, Canada says the US improperly calculates rates and restricts parties from presenting evidence to defend themselves, with a cut-off for supplying information that comes too early in the process.

It also accuses the US International Trade Commission of being biased since disputes over which the body's six commissioners are evenly divided automatically result in a finding for the US.

Eric Miller, president of the Rideau Potomac Strategy Group, which consults on North American trade issues, said the scope of the filing is "unprecedented".

"It is global, it is over many years, it is systematic and so this is something that certainly, in the realm of WTO cases, is outside the norm in terms of its reach and its ambition," he said.

Canada's complaint targets a process that the US has deployed frequently under President Donald Trump, who has embraced a protectionist stance on trade.

The US Commerce Department launched more than 80 anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations last year - a 46% increase from 2016.

The investigations, which are typically triggered by complaints from private companies, can lead to steep tariffs.

This week, the Commerce Department announced results in additional investigations - including one against Canadian newsprint producers.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, the top US negotiator in the talks, called Canada's WTO filing "a broad and ill-advised attack on the US trade remedies system".

He said: "Canada's claims are unfounded and could only lower US confidence that Canada is committed to mutually beneficial trade."

The petition, filed with the WTO on 20 December and shared with members on Wednesday, kicks off 60 days of "consultation".

If it is not resolved in that time, it is subject to adjudication by a WTO panel.

US Commerce Department Secretary Wilbur Ross said the US has "every confidence" it will win in adjudication.

"These cases were conducted in an open and transparent manner in accordance with the applicable laws, regulations, and administrative practices to ensure a full and fair review of the facts," he said.

Canada's ministry of global affairs said the petition is part of broader litigation aimed at preserving forestry jobs.

In November, it filed a complaint with the WTO contesting US duties on Canadian softwood lumber producers.

"We continue to engage our American counterparts to encourage them to come to a durable negotiated agreement on softwood lumber," Chrystia Freeland, Canada's minister of foreign affairs, said.

Mr Miller said Canada may hope the filing will apply pressure on the US in its disputes, while allowing the country to make a broader statement about the importance of international organisations and rules.

He added that it is a sign that the negotiations over NAFTA are not going well.

President Trump has threatened to pull the US from the agreement, while Canada is trying to galvanise support for the existing deal.

A part of the agreement that creates a process for NAFTA partners to appeal tariff decisions is one of the thorniest issues in the talks.

"Certainly if the parties felt that they were on a trajectory to get a NAFTA deal and were close to a deal, doing something like this would be unhelpful, to put it mildly," Mr Miller said.

Washington DC has renamed the street the Russian embassy sits on after a murdered Russian opposition politician.

The city council voted to rename the street outside Russia's embassy complex after Boris Nemtsov, who was shot outside the Kremlin in 2015.

A statement from the council said the decision to honour the "slain democracy activist" passed unanimously.

Russian politicians criticised the move, with one MP labelling it a "dirty trick".

The decision was specifically targeted at "the portion of Wisconsin Avenue in front of the Russian Embassy", according to the Washington council's statement.

Russia's Interfax news agency quoted the leader of the nationalist LDPR party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, as saying US authorities "specifically want to play dirty tricks in front of the Russian Embassy".

Another politician from the Communist Party, Dmitry Novikov, told the agency: "The US authorities have long been absorbed in their own game of interfering in Russian internal affairs."

Mr Nemtsov, a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was shot in February 2015 while walking home from a restaurant in Moscow.

A small memorial near where he was killed has frequently been vandalised, or cleared away by street cleaners late at night.

His daughter, Zhanna, travelled to Washington DC in early December to advocate for the name change.

"The current Russian political regime wants to eradicate the memory of my father, since it believes - correctly - that symbols are important and that they can potentially facilitate and inspire change," she told the council.

She said her father was "an open-minded patriot of Russia" who deserved to be commemorated.

"For now, we cannot do it in Russia because of unprecedented resistance on the part of the Russian authorities. But we have a chance to do it here - and here, it will be very difficult to dismantle," she said.

Five Chechen men were convicted over Boris Nemtsov's killing in mid-2017, but family and supporters of the slain politician believe the person who ordered the murder remains at large.

The Washington DC decision comes a day after Turkey similarly renamed the street the UAE embassy sits upon in Ankara, naming it after a military commander at the centre of a diplomatic spat.

when I wrote about contemplating one's naval, I wasn't infering you do this

The C.D.C. Wants to Get People Prepared for Nuclear War

This week's extraordinary session in the Cabinet Room with a bicameral, bipartisan group of lawmakers, and an impulsive decision by Trump to let journalists film 55 minutes of his meeting, gave the world a glimpse of Trump's agree-with-the-last-speaker tendency we've heard described.

Clearly, Trump is merely echoing, not embracing, the words he hears. No mind could possibly assimilate as many diametrically opposed ideas as Trump's appeared to in those 55 minutes.

Watching that session was as exciting as watching China's Olympic ping-pong team — and the president was the ball. Trump — remarkably unideological and also undisciplined — pinged from one lawmaker's argument to another's, agreeing heartily with virtually all, no matter how at odds they were with each other.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told Trump that DACA legislation to protect immigrant "dreamers" had to be done "in a matter of days — literally of days," referring to a Jan. 19 budget deadline.

Replied Trump: "I agree with that, Dick. I very much agree with that."

A few minutes later, Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) took exactly the opposite view, suggesting that DACA action could wait until March and that instead there had to be an immediate Pentagon budget increase: "Those who need us right now before the January 19 deadline is our military."

Replied Trump: "I think a lot of people would agree with that. We need our military."

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), paddled Trump back the other way, saying more military spending would have to be accompanied by similar hikes for domestic programs such as infrastructure.

Replied Trump: "I think we can do a great infrastructure bill."

This was fun!

Minutes after Hoyer invoked the phrase "comprehensive immigration reform" — a phrase hard-liners see as code for "amnesty" — Trump was using the phrase, too.

"When you talk about comprehensive immigration reform," Trump said (after Sen. Lindsey Graham, a GOP maverick, had also floated the idea), "which is where I would like to get to eventually — if we do the right bill here, we are not very far way."
Anybody can play this game.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) both said border security and a solution to "chain migration" — a conservative priority — must be included in the DACA bill. Trump readily agreed.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) proposed the opposite, a "clean DACA bill" — that is, without border security and chain migration — before taking up a comprehensive overhaul, and Trump said, "I would like to do that."

McCarthy, alarmed, swatted Trump back in the other direction. He reiterated that the DACA bill should include border security and chain migration.

Trump agreed with this, too. "And the lottery," he added, tossing in another conservative priority about making immigration merit-based.

Back and forth Trump bounced.

One moment he appeared to agree with Perdue that the DACA bill would include the conservatives' chain-migration plan. The next moment he appeared to confirm to Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) that the DACA legislation would not be paired with that provision.

One moment he was saying "without the wall, we cannot have border security." The next he was assuring Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) that "there are large areas where you don't need a wall."

Trump called it a success. "We're all very much on a similar page," he concluded.

Perhaps he didn't care that, in his reflexive echoing of each speaker, he had contradicted himself repeatedly. More likely he didn't even notice.

NYT editorial asks... Is Mr. Trump Nuts?

The best solution is the simplest: Vote, and organize others to register and to vote. If you believe Donald Trump represents a danger to the country and the world, you can take action to rein in his power. In November, you can help elect members of Congress who will fight Mr. Trump’s most dangerous behaviors. If that fails, there’s always 2020.

Donald Trump has said the US would be open to talks with North Korea, in a major breakthrough for relations between the two countries.

The US president was speaking to South Korean President Moon Jae-in after landmark talks between the two Koreas on Tuesdsay, during which it was agreed that the North would participate in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang County, South Korea, next month.