WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney would visit Washington in the coming week, hailing him as “very nice” despite tensions over Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats.
“He’s a very nice gentleman and he’s going to come to the White House very shortly, within the next week or less,” Trump said after the leader of Canada’s Liberal Party secured election victory in part by vowing to stand up to the US president.
“I spoke to him yesterday, couldn’t have been nicer and I congratulated him,” Trump told reporters in a cabinet meeting.
Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party had been on track to win the vote but Trump’s attacks, combined with the departure of unpopular former premier Justin Trudeau, transformed the race.
Carney, who replaced Trudeau as prime minister just last month, convinced voters that his experience managing economic crises made him the ideal candidate to defy Trump.
Trump however downplayed any possible tensions with the Canadian — despite repeatedly calling for Carney’s country to become the 51st US state.
“I think we’re going to have a great relationship. He called me up yesterday, he said ‘Let’s make a deal’,” Trump said.
“They both hated Trump, and it was the one that hated Trump, I think, the least that won. I actually think the Conservative hated me much more than the so-called Liberal.”
Trump says Canada’s Carney to visit ‘in next week’
https://arab.news/4rjch
Trump says Canada’s Carney to visit ‘in next week’
- “I spoke to him yesterday, couldn’t have been nicer and I congratulated him,” Trump told reporters
- “I think we’re going to have a great relationship”
Philippines struggles to evacuate nationals from Middle East as attacks escalate across region
- Over 1,400 Philippine nationals in Middle East have requested for repatriation
- Filipinos are told to shelter in place, follow host government’s advice on situation
MANILA: The Philippines is in talks to evacuate its nationals from across the Middle East, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Tuesday, as an increasing number of Filipinos are seeking to leave amid growing destruction from US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s counterstrikes against US bases in Gulf countries.
More than 2.4 million Filipinos live and work in the Middle East, where tensions have been high since Saturday, after coordinated US-Israel strikes killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and senior Iranian officials.
Tehran responded by targeting US military bases in Gulf countries, and violence has been widening across the region.
Evacuating Philippine nationals across the region is not yet possible, Marcos said, as countries closed their airspace, leading to airport shutdowns and the cancellation of thousands of flights throughout the Middle East.
“For now, we are depending on the advice that will be given to us by the local authorities in the place where our nationals — where our people — are,” Marcos told reporters in Manila on Tuesday.
The Philippine government has received requests for repatriation from more than 1,400 Filipino nationals in various Middle Eastern countries, including 872 from the UAE and almost 300 from Israel. Similar requests have also been made by Filipinos in Iran, Bahrain and Jordan.
“Right now, the most dangerous area for our people right now would be Israel as attacks there are continuous,” Marcos said.
“The problem now is that no planes are flying and airports are being hit. That’s why the situation is very fluid, our assessment is that it may be too dangerous to mount flights.
“Even if we could charter an aircraft, we cannot do anything because number one, the airports are closed. They are all no-fly zones.”
As the Philippine government prepares for multiple scenarios, officials have secured buses and other vehicles for possible evacuation by land.
Filipinos in “danger areas” have been moved to a safer place, Marcos said, citing the targeting of Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura oil refinery by Iranian drones on Monday morning.
“But essentially our advice to them is shelter in place and follow the host government’s advice … For now it’s extremely difficult to enter or exit the region because the only aircraft flying are fighter jets and drones, and missiles.
“That’s why it is not a place that you would want to put in a civilian aircraft to take out our nationals,” he said.
“But again, as I said, the situation is changing by the minute, by the hour. We just have to be in very good and close contact with the local authorities.”
