ambassador

Aug. 12 (UPI) — Thousands of Canadians have signed a petition demanding the government kick the U.S. ambassador to Canada out of the country.

The petition, which had almost 60,000 signatures as of Wednesday morning, will be presented to the House of Commons this fall by Green Party leader Elizabeth May. It says that Ambassador Pete Hoekstra should be declared persona non grata and the Canadian government should request his removal from the country.

The petition accuses Hoekstra of repeatedly making public statements that undermine Canada-U.S. diplomatic relations, including characterizing the 2025 Canadian federal election as “anti-American;” normalizing the Trump administration’s threats to annex Canada as the “51st state;” and accusing Canada of interfering in U.S. domestic politics while making repeated interventions in Canadian political discourse. The petition also said Hoekstra was linked to a Michigan-based voter identification app used by the Alberta separatist Centurion Project, while claiming no knowledge of its use, and that The Alberta Prosperity Project [a separatist organization] met with U.S. State Department officials three times between April 2025 and January 2026, with Hoekstra claiming to have no knowledge of those meetings.

The petition was created by a woman from Calgary.

A representative for the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa declined to comment on the petition except to say the embassy is aware of it, the CBC reported.

In June, Hoekstra said that Canada’s annexation by the United States would be a great topic of discussion for Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Hoekstra was a member of the House of Representatives representing western Michigan from 1993 to 2011. He was the ambassador to The Netherlands, his country of birth, during Trump’s first term. He was named ambassador to Canada in April 2025.

In 2023, the Canadian government declared Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei persona non grata after he was accused of gathering information in Hong Kong about the family of Conservative Member of Parliament Michael Chong.

The following year, six diplomats and consular officials from India were expelled after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police alleged that the agents were targeting Canadian citizens. They linked the tracking to the murder of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijar in Surrey, British Columbia, in 2023.

The police linked the campaign to the June 2023 murder of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C.

Carney and the Canadian government have worked to improve relations with China and India.

The administration of President Donald Trump has cancelled the visa for Brazil’s ambassador in the United States, the latest sign of a deepening diplomatic rift between the two countries.

An anonymous US State Department official briefed reporters on Tuesday that Ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti’s visa had been temporarily revoked.

But Ribeiro Viotti was not being expelled from the country, the official added.

“The action was that the visa of a senior diplomat here was revoked or cancelled. That is not the same thing as kicking the person out of the country,” the official said.

The decision to revoke the visa was framed as backlash to Brazil’s decision to withhold approval for Trump’s ambassador to the South American country.

Should that approval be granted, the US official explained, Ribeiro Viotti’s visa would be returned. Until then, the official suggested she could remain in the US.

“It means that they are here but without a visa, and would have their visa restored if the balance is restored by giving agreement to our chosen ambassadorial nominee,” the official said.

The move comes after Washington expressed anger over Brazil’s failure to approve Trump’s choice for ambassador to Brazil, Danny Perez.

Perez is a Florida state representative and a Republican ally of Trump’s hawkish Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. He was nominated to the ambassadorship in June, but has yet to be confirmed by the full US Senate.

Media reports indicate that Trump publicly nominated Perez before reaching out to Brazil.

Sources inside the Brazilian government said this was considered a breach of protocol, and they intend to probe Perez’s nomination before issuing formal approval.

Without such approval, though, Perez will be unable to take up his post in the capital, Brasilia.

The tit-for-tat over the ambassadors is likely to ratchet up long-simmering tensions between Washington and Brazil, the US’s largest South American trading partner.

Last month, Brazil denied visas to officials from the US State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, after voicing concerns that the delegation intended to undermine the country’s election system. Brazil is set to elect its president in October.

Trump is considered a close ally of the Bolsonaro family, a powerful political dynasty on Brazil’s far right.

The US president’s first term overlapped with the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, who was nicknamed the “Trump of the Tropics”.

His son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, is on the ballot this election season.

Both Trump and the elder Bolsonaro have used false claims of election fraud to dispute unfavourable election results.

Trump has also sought to boost the prospects of right-wing candidates across Latin America since the start of his second term, even threatening to withhold US funds depending on election outcomes.

With Latin America experiencing a shift rightwards, Brazil remains the largest country to be governed by a left-wing leader: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He has emerged as a vocal critic of Trump’s attempts to increase US influence in Latin America.

Lula defeated the elder Bolsonaro in the 2022 presidential elections, and he is seeking a fourth, non-consecutive term this October. Flavio Bolsonaro is his top rival.

Since being voted out of office, Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison for his role in an alleged plot to overthrow the 2022 election results.

Trump vocally rejected Jair Bolsonaro’s prosecution, which was recommended by Brazil’s Federal Police. Last year, the US president placed steep tariffs on Brazil, demanding that prosecutors end their case.

Though the tariffs were lifted, the US announced in July that it would impose 25 percent tariffs, this time accusing Brazil of unfair trade practices.

Brazilian authorities remain wary that the US might seek to influence the outcome of October’s presidential election in favour of Flavio Bolsonaro.

Lula formally launched his campaign bid on Sunday, framing the race as a question of national sovereignty – and the “future of Latin America”.

Michelle Park Steel, the new U.S. ambassador to South Korea, met with Foreign Minister Cho Hyun on Tuesday, as she began her official duties by submitting a copy of her credentials.

Steel visited Seoul’s foreign ministry to hand the copy to the ministry’s chief of protocol before paying a courtesy call on Minister Cho, according to officials.

Under diplomatic protocol, newly arrived ambassadors assume their posts upon submitting a copy of their letters of credence to the foreign ministry, which serves as a preliminary step before the formal presentation ceremony with the head of state.

Accompanied by her husband, Shawn Steel, she did not respond to reporters’ questions before entering the ministry building.

The foreign ministry said Cho and Steel would discuss measures to strengthen bilateral relations.

Steel landed in South Korea on Thursday, becoming the second Korean American ambassador to serve as U.S. ambassador to the country.

Her arrival ended an 18-month vacancy in the post, following the departure of former Ambassador Philip Goldberg, who served from July 2022 to January 2025.

The new U.S. ambassador took up the role at a pivotal moment for Seoul-Washington relations, with several issues pending, including tensions over South Korea’s regulatory action against U.S.-listed Coupang over a massive data breach, Seoul’s investment pledges in the U.S. and the South’s push to build nuclear-powered submarines.

“The ambassador is expected to draw on her understanding of the South Korea-U.S. alliance and bilateral relations to help strengthen ties and friendship between the two countries,” Park Doo-soon, the ministry’s spokesperson, said in a regular briefing.

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Warsaw asserts missile recently made, illustrating Russia’s nightly barrage against Ukraine is draining arsenal.

Poland has summoned the Russian ambassador in protest over a missile incursion into one of its eastern regions.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Friday that the ambassador had been summoned after Warsaw confirmed that the projectile, which landed in the village of Tarnawa Kolonia in the Lublin region on Thursday, was a Russian Kh-101 missile. No casualties or injuries have been reported.

An investigation into the incident suggested that Russia’s weapon stockpiles may be running low as it continues to launch nightly barrages of drones and missiles at Ukraine while its more than four-year war drags on.

“The ambassador was informed of our unequivocal condemnation of hostile actions directed against the security of a sovereign state and its citizens,” Maciej Wewior, spokesman for Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told journalists.

“We emphasised that any escalation at the border of the European Union and the North Atlantic alliance [NATO] is unacceptable,” he added, underlining that the root of the incident was “the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation”.

The incident marked the latest in a series of incursions on NATO’s eastern flank. Drones and missiles intruding on the territory and airspace of Poland, Romania and the Baltic states have fuelled fears that the war in Ukraine may spill over the alliance’s borders.

NATO and European leaders have been swift to support Poland and condemn Russia for the missile.

Depleted stockpiles

Poland has identified the missile as part of an attack that killed at least eight civilians in Ukraine and injured more than 50.

Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz reported that Warsaw had established that the missile was produced near Moscow in the second quarter of this year.

“This means that Russia is using newly produced missiles to strike Ukraine,” he wrote on social media. “It confirms reports that Russian wartime stockpiles have been depleted.”

An expert from Ukraine who arrived at the scene “did not have the slightest doubt” about the origins or model of the missile, Marcin Kozak, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in Lublin, said.

“I will point out that this type of missile is used exclusively by Russian strategic aviation,” Wewior noted.

New U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Michelle Steel is set to arrive in Seoul on Thursday, becoming the first U.S. envoy to assume the post since President Donald Trump returned to office, sources said.

Steel is expected to arrive at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, at around 3:20 p.m. from Los Angeles, according to the sources. She was nominated by Trump in April and confirmed by the U.S. Senate last month.

The ambassadorial post has been vacant since Philip Goldberg left South Korea in January last year.

The submission of copies of her credentials is expected to take place as early as next week, as Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and the foreign ministry’s chief of protocol are currently accompanying President Lee Jae Myung on his trip to South America and are scheduled to return early next week, the sources added.

Before formally beginning their duties, newly appointed foreign ambassadors are required to present copies of their credentials to the chief of protocol at the foreign ministry. U.S. ambassadors also traditionally pay a courtesy call on the foreign minister on that occasion.

A Korean American Republican politician, Steel was born in Seoul in 1955 and immigrated to the United States in the mid-1970s. She served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives representing California from 2020 to 2024.

Steel is the second Korean American to serve as the top U.S. envoy to South Korea, following Sung Kim, who served in Seoul from 2011 to 2014.

Responding to a question from Yonhap News Agency in Washington last week, Steel described strengthening the South Korea-U.S. alliance as her “top priority.”

Her arrival comes as Seoul and Washington face a series of pending security and economic issues, including South Korean investment in the U.S., civilian nuclear cooperation, Seoul’s push to build nuclear-powered submarines and ongoing efforts to modernize the decades-old alliance.

Steel’s nomination had drawn criticism from some progressive civic groups here, which view her as a conservative figure.

South Korean government officials, however, said she has a firm understanding of the importance of the South Korea-U.S. alliance and is committed to cooperating with the Seoul government.

“South Korea and the U.S. have a wide range of issues to work on together amid the rapidly evolving security and economic landscape,” a foreign ministry official said. “We welcome Ambassador Steel’s arrival and hope it will help advance discussions on those issues.”

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President Donald Trump has paused attacks on Iran for the second night in a row to give diplomacy more time, the US ambassador to the UN said.

Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, ambassador Mike Waltz said the president was “giving talks some space, he’s giving it a little bit of room”.

An Iranian army spokesperson said on Sunday that Tehran had halted “retaliatory” attacks in the region in response.

The pause follows nearly two weeks of daily US strikes and tit-for-tat attacks, effectively unravelling the ceasefire struck in June.

Asked whether Trump had decided against escalation for now, Waltz told NBC: “I wouldn’t go that far at all. The president is keeping all options on the table.”

Waltz also rejected reports in the New York Times, external that administration officials had warned expanding hostilities could dangerously drain a diminished stockpile of air defence munitions.

“The US military… has everything that it needs to conduct this campaign as effectively as it needs to be,” he said.

As of Sunday evening, Trump had not spoken publicly on the latest developments, but earlier posted computer-generated images on his Truth Social account that depicted US military planes bombing Iranian ships and Kharg island.

Meanwhile, Iran and Oman held several rounds of technical talks in Tehran on Friday and Saturday to discuss management of the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei.

Disputes over control of the strait reignited US-Iran tensions earlier this month and it remains a major block to permanently ending the war.

Iran and the US signed a memorandum of understanding in June to halt military operations and reopen the strait, as well as to reach an agreement to end the war over the following 60 days.

But after Iranian forces attacked tankers in the Strait of Hormuz on 13 July, the US resumed airstrikes on the country and reinstated its naval blockade on Iranian ports.

Iran retaliated with attacks on US military facilities and bases across the Middle East, killing four American soldiers. The US strikes have since killed dozens of people, according to Iran’s health ministry.

In the UK, new Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said he would meet his US counterpart Pete Hegseth in the coming week to discuss the strait, which is one of the world’s key transport routes for oil, liquid natural gas and other essential commodities.

“When it comes to securing maritime freedom and free commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, that’s where we are absolutely aligned,” Streeting told the BBC.

Earlier this week, oil prices hit $100 a barrel for the first time since May, as the renewed fighting stoked fears over global energy supplies.

As the war nears its fifth month, it remains largely unpopular in the US, with a new poll from CBS/YouGov suggesting 57% of Americans are frustrated about the conflict and only 19% optimistic.

Thousands of people have been killed across the Middle East since the US-Israeli war with Iran began in February, official figures show, with the vast majority coming from Iran and Lebanon.

President Trump is set to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House on Tuesday.

July 26 (UPI) — Brazil’s foreign ministry has summoned Argentina’s ambassador after inflammatory remarks delivered by Argentinian President Javier Milei about Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva over the weekend.

Argentinian diplomat Julio Bitelli must go to Brasilia on Sunday or early Monday to meet with Brazilian leaders in wake of Milei’s harsh attacks on Lula during the national convention of Brazil’s Liberal Party, or PL, in São Paulo on Saturday, diplomatic sources told the O Globo newspaper.

Milei used his speech to denounce what he called the “tragedy of socialism” in Latin America, singling out the Lula and Minister Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Federal Court for intense criticism while praising PL presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro.

The Argentine leader hailed Bolsonaro as the only candidate who can stop Lula, saying that “there is no one else capable of stopping Lula” and his effect on the country or confronting criminal and drug trafficking organizations.

“Do not allow your future to be stolen. We are counting on you, Flavio, to stop this socialist garbage,” said Milei.

The Argentinian leader also slammed de Moraes for prohibiting him from visiting former president Jair Bolsonaro in a Brasilia prison where the ex-president is serving a 27-year prison sentence for leading a 2022 coup attempt against Lula.

“I was not allowed to visit my unjustly imprisoned friend,” said Milei, a declared ally of the Bolsonaro family.

Flavio Bolsonaro, son of the imprisoned former president, launched his formal bid challenging Lula at the PL convention, declaring, “This the beginning of the toughest battles of our life. A fight between good and evil.”

Reactions to Milei’s attacks reverberated throughout Brazil in Sunday.

Workers’ Party president Edinho Silva said the Argentine leader had crossed a line with the attacks.

“No public authority in Brazil is above criticism, as long as it is made in the appropriate manner and at the right time,” he said in a social media post. “However, it is unacceptable for a foreign head of state to come to our country and address its constitutional powers in disrespectful terms.”

It is no surprise that the current president of Argentina “behaves in this way,” he added. “After all, there are not a few recent situations in which he has shown himself not up to the office he holds.”

Brazilian Supreme Court President Luiz Edson Fachin, meanwhile, similarly pushed back, reaffirming the autonomy of the country’s judiciary.

Nightly strikes between the US and Iran have been the heaviest since the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreement was signed a month ago. A former US ambassador tells Al Jazeera’s ‘This is America’ that Tehran has miscalculated in thinking that Trump would back down.

Former UK Ambassador to Qatar Sir Graham Boyce remembers the late Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani as a compassionate and humble leader with a sharp sense of humour. Boyce shared personal anecdotes with Al Jazeera reflecting the Emir’s generosity and warmth over more than three decades of friendship.

July 9 (UPI) — Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office formally accused former U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar of violating his diplomatic duties by allegedly misleading Mexican authorities about the 2024 capture of alleged Sinaloa cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.

The accusation alleges that Salazar knowingly made false statements when he said U.S. agencies had not participated in the operation that led to Zambada’s capture and transfer in July 2024.

The complaint followed reports by Mexican media outlets Milenio and Azteca Noticias that the FBI recently displayed the aircraft used in the operation at the War Eagles Air Museum in Santa Teresa, N.M., describing it as an FBI success.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum backed the Attorney General’s Office on Thursday, saying the former ambassador misled the Mexican government by insisting that U.S. agencies had no role in the operation.

Sheinbaum said Mexico’s consulate in New Mexico directly verified that the aircraft was on display at the museum.

“On Aug. 9, 2024, then-U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said his government did not participate in this operation, that it was not a U.S. aircraft, nor its pilot, nor its agents or personnel in Mexico, but rather an operation between cartels,” Attorney General Ernestina Godoy said.

The Attorney General’s Office also said it had identified the pilot who flew the aircraft that transported Zambada. Although authorities did not identify the person, Mexican media reported the pilot may be Mauro Núñez, also known as “El Jando,” who is described as a trusted pilot for Los Chapitos, the faction of the Sinaloa cartel led by the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Mexican media reported that “El Jando” is facing proceedings in federal court in Washington.

The Attorney General’s Office also pointed to what it described as a causal link based on the close timing between judicial benefits granted in the United States to Ovidio Guzmán López, one of Guzmán’s sons, and Zambada’s alleged kidnapping on Mexican territory.

Mexican authorities contended the events were not coincidental, but rather part of a coordinated strategy and an unlawful agreement between Los Chapitos and U.S. agencies, primarily the FBI.

The formal accusations further strain relations between Mexico and the United States by directly accusing a U.S. federal law enforcement agency of violating Mexico’s sovereignty and alleging that Salazar misled the Mexican government.

However, officials from the Attorney General’s Office said that while they could establish Salazar’s responsibility for withholding information, he would not face criminal consequences because he is protected by diplomatic immunity.

Salazar rejected the allegations in a statement posted on social media, reiterating the position he maintained while serving as ambassador.

“It was not our plane, not our pilot and not our operation,” Salazar wrote.

The dispute comes as excerpts from Salazar’s forthcoming memoir, The Borders: My Fight for an Inclusive United States, have begun circulating, prompting additional friction with the Mexican government.

The Senate has confirmed Michelle Steel, a former two-term Korean American congresswoman, as the United States’ ambassador to South Korea.

The upper chamber approved Steel in a 55-39 vote on Wednesday (U.S. time), clearing the way for her to take the ambassadorial post as Seoul and Washington face a series of joint tasks, including “modernizing” their alliance and implementing bilateral security and trade agreements.

In April, U.S. President Donald Trump nominated her for the ambassador post, which has been left vacant since former Ambassador Philip Goldberg left Korea in January last year.

Steel would become the second Korean American to serve as the U.S.’ top envoy to South Korea, following former Ambassador Sung Kim, who served in Seoul as ambassador from 2011-2014.

The South Korean government granted agrement on Thursday, the host country’s prior consent for the appointment of a foreign envoy, for Steel’s appointment, according to Seoul’s foreign ministry.

With administrative procedures on both sides effectively completed, observers say Steel is likely to take up her post no later than next month.

“The exact timing of her arrival will depend on remaining U.S. procedures, including the issuance of her credentials by U.S. President Donald Trump,” a ministry official said. “We expect Steel to contribute to strengthening the alliance between the two countries once she formally assumes her post.”

During her confirmation hearing last month, she vowed to ensure that American companies operating in South Korea are not discriminated against, if she is confirmed.

While in Congress, Steel was active in pushing for legislation to address the issue of Korean Americans who have been separated from their relatives in North Korea in the wake of the 1950-53 Korean War.

She was first elected to the House in 2020 and then reelected in 2022. She lost to her Democratic rival by a small margin in the 2024 general election.

She previously served as a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors and the California State Board of Equalization.

Her husband is Shawn Steel, an attorney who served as the California Republican Party chairman from 2001 to 2003. He has been the Republican national committeeman from California since 2008.

Born in Seoul in June 1955, Steel grew up and studied in South Korea, Japan and the U.S. She speaks fluent Korean.

She earned a bachelor’s degree from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, and an MBA from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

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Iran’s football team still lacks US visas and is not competing on ‘equal terms’, Tehran’s envoy to Mexico says.

Iran’s football team still lacks US visas and is not competing in the World Cup on “equal terms” because of its difficulty in training ahead of the tournament, Tehran’s ambassador to Mexico said on Thursday.

Abolfazl Pasandideh visited the northwestern Mexican border city of Tijuana, where Iranians have relocated their training camp. They were originally planned to be based in Tucson in the US state of Arizona.

The ambassador told a news conference that “the country to the north” – meaning the United States – had not followed through on its responsibility of hosting the Iranian team.

“We don’t know whether or not they’re going to give the players their visas,” he added.

Iran will play their three World Cup group games in two West Coast US cities: Los Angeles and Seattle. The head of the Iranian Football Federation has said there was hope that the players would be granted multiple entry visas.

“We aren’t participating in the World Cup on equal terms,” Pasandideh said.

“We haven’t been able to train our team like they should,” he said, because of the US-Israel war on his country that began on February 28.

On Wednesday, Iranian diplomats visited the stadium where the team is training, a source from Club Tijuana that plays there told the news agency AFP. The diplomats also met with local security officials, the source said.

Iran are due to play in Los Angeles on June 15 against New Zealand, and on June 21, against Belgium. They then play in Seattle against Egypt on June 26.