Image of the week: ‘Dear Canada, we’re sorry’
This sign, seen at Tuesday’s protest in Boston, suggests there might be an exhausting future ahead for Americans appalled by their president and his administration. How many more apologies will they feel necessary to issue by the end of this?
In the dizzying White House-dictated news cycle, Donald Trump’s love of tariffs surged to the top of the agenda for a spell this week, as he went ahead with his 25 per tariff on most imports from Mexico and Canada, only to pause some of them two days later.
Canada had promptly announced retaliatory tariffs, but its response was most notable for the scathing speech by outgoing prime minister Justin Trudeau, who seemed unbound by any long-term requirement to be personally diplomatic.
His tone went well beyond “not angry, just disappointed” to full contempt as he contrasted the US’s apparent bid to trigger the economic collapse of Canada with its appeasement of murderous dictator Vladimir Putin. “Make that make sense,” he despaired, before adding that Canadians, though “reasonable” and “polite”, would not be backing down from the fight. He then spoke directly to Americans: “Your government has chosen to do this to you.”
After Canadian foreign affairs minister Mélanie Joly described the to-and-fro on tariffs as a “psychodrama”, public broadcaster CBC asked Trudeau how he would characterise it.
His answer? “Thursday.”
In numbers: Vowel surgery
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Years since life assurance and investment company Standard Life Aberdeen became Abrdn under a much-mocked rebrand that its then chief executive claimed was “modern, dynamic and, most importantly, engaging”.
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Year since Abrdn’s chief investment officer Peter Branner accused the press of “corporate bullying” for making “childish jokes” about its vowelless state, thereby sparking a new round of “irritable vowel syndrome” jokes.
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Vowels that the UK company will now regain. Its main trading name will become Aberdeen in a reversal of its prior “disemvowelling” after new chief executive Jason Windsor said the vowelless brand had become a “distraction”.
Getting to know: ExpectAI
ExpectAI is a climate-focused artificial intelligence start-up founded and led by Dr Anand Verma and now chaired by Bernard Looney, the Irish former chief executive of BP. Whereas BP last week announced that it would be pivoting away from the renewable energy investment targets set under Looney’s reign, going back to its climate-harming oil and gas mainstays, Looney is – in this role, anyway – concentrating on encouraging smaller companies to reduce their carbon emissions while also boosting profitability. That, at least, is what ExpectAI’s AI-driven climate action platform, known as Una, claims it can help businesses do. In 2023, after a 32-year career at BP, the Kerry man was obliged to resign from the oil giant for failing to disclose past relationships with colleagues, but last year he said he was “thinking about the next 32 years”. Let’s hope the planet is still functioning then.
The list: Protest time
The Trump-Vance attack on Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the Oval Office, combined with Trump’s big address to Congress on Tuesday and his various machinations to date, have inspired a wave of demonstrations across the US with the protest signs to match. Apologies to Canada were the least of it. Here are five others spotted by photographers.
1. Putin love: “Trump chooses Putin over democracy and our allies. This is cowardly and treasonous,” stated one matter-of-fact sign seen at a rally in Boston.
2. Feline excrement: Another demonstrator in Boston struck a slightly different tone, with the blunt assessment “My cat s**ts better ideas than JD Vance”.
3. Anti-monarchist feeling: “We don’t kiss the rings of wannabe kings” was seen at a pro-LGBTQ demonstration in Atlanta, Georgia. “No king” was also held up during Trump’s speech by congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.
4. Acronym time: “Epic Loser Obvious Nazi” declared a sign in New York City. It was illustrated with an image from a recent occasion in which Elon Musk performed what looked extremely like a Hitler salute.
5. Style choices: “Vance skis in jeans” was the assertion of one placard in Vermont last weekend as the holidaying vice-president fled hundreds of pro-Ukraine protesters. This, apparently, is an insult meted out to arrogant, clueless people who simply can’t be told.
