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Nov. 1 (UPI) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Saturday said he apologized to U.S. President Donald Trump for a TV ad by the Ontario Province’s government against U.S. tariffs.

The 60-second ran during the World Series on Fox TV in the United States and on Sportsnet in Canada.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced the ad would be paused starting last Monday “so that trade talks can resume.”

“I did apologize to the president,” Carney told reporters Saturday in South Korea. “I told Ford I did not want to go forward with the ad.”

Carney said he spoke to Trump at a dinner hosted by South Korea’s president on Wednesday.

Trump told reporters that the Canadian prime minister had expressed his remorse.

“I have a very good relationship,” Trump said. “I like him a lot, but what they did was wrong. He was very nice. He apologized for what they did with the commercial.”

Trump has said he had a “very nice” conversation with Carney.

The ad first ran during Game 1 of the World Series on Oct. 24 between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers. It featured remarks in 1987 by former President Ronald Reagan that were critical of tariffs, but they were edited.

“You know why President Trump is so upset right now? Because it was effective,” Ford said of the ad. “It was working, it woke up the whole country.”

Trump called it “FAKE,” although Reagan’s words were not changed in the commercial.

In response to the ad, he ended trade talks and later raised the tariffs another 10% from 25% on most Canadian imports that do not comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

There also is a 50% tariff on most steel, aluminum, copper products as have been put in place for other nations.

The ad included a clip of Reagan during a radio address in his second term saying that “when someone says, ‘Let’s impose tariffs on foreign imports,’ it looks like they’re doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes for a short while, it works, but only for a short time.”

The White House objected, noting that the ad omitted another part of Reagan’s address.

“As I’ve often said, our commitment to free trade is also a commitment to fair trade,” the former president also said in the remarks.

In a post on X on Oct. 23, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute said the ad “misrepresents” the late president’s radio address.

The next morning, Trump posted on Truth Social that Canada “fraudulently” used a “FAKE” advertisement.

“TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A.” Trump wrote. “Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”

After the ad ran again on Friday, Oct. 24, Trump posted on Truth Social while en route to Asia that “Reagan LOVED Tariffs for purposes of National Security and the Economy, but Canada said he didn’t!”

“Their Advertisement was to be taken down, IMMEDIATELY, but they let it run last night during the World Series, knowing that it was a FRAUD. Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, and hostile act, I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now,” he continued in the post.

On Oct. 23, Carney appeared with Ford at an announcement for a $3 billion investment in a new nuclear facility next to the Darlington power plant.

Ford said the two leaders were the “same page” and he supports the prime minister “1,000 percent.”

“It might be a little easier for me to sit here, and say what I say, but it’s a little tougher when someone is sitting across from Donald Trump, and he has a big hammer in his hand,” Ford said.

Aug. 27 (UPI) — A summer offensive by Russian forces has succeeded in penetrating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s home region of Dnipropetrovsk for the first time, with troops capturing two villages in the southeastern corner of the province.

The Russians occupied Zaporizke and Novohryhorivka, the BBC and The New York Times said, after breaking through from neighboring Donestsk following months of heavy fighting for control of cities in the west of the province and were now battling to establish a foothold in Dnipropetrovsk.

The Russian gains by infantry backed by drones and other fire support were confirmed Tuesday by “DeepState,” a real-time mapping project with links to the Ukrainian military, and the Russian Defense Ministry.

DeepState said that having entered the province, Russian forces were “now entrenching themselves, and accumulating infantry for further advances.”

Officially, Ukraine categorically denied it had lost more territory to Russia, which has been attempting to push westwards from Donetsk all summer.

“This is the first attack of such a large scale in Dnipropetrovsk region,” Viktor Trehubov, of the Dnipro Operational-Strategic Group of Troops, told the BBC, but insisted Ukrainian forces had halted the Russian advance.

The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in a statement that its military “continues to control” Zaporizke and that “active hostilities are also ongoing in the area of the village of Novohryhorivka.”

The province is not one of the three, in addition to Donetsk, that Russia has partially occupied and claims as its own, including Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, but it has been pushing hard to capture more territory for much of the year, likely as leverage in peace negotiations being brokered by the United States.

However, while neither of the villages in question is strategically significant — the population of each is around 100 or fewer — losing them will be a further shock to the morale of Ukrainian forces already struggling against their more numerous and better-armed Russian adversaries.

Dnipropetrovsk, in Ukraine’s industrial heartland and the second most industrialized region after the Donbas, before most of it fell into Russian hands, holds a strategically key position, but analysts do not believe the Russians aim to take the whole province.

The Russian advance came as a flurry of diplomatic activity to capitalize on the Aug. 15 Alaska peace summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to be fizzling.

Putin was understood to have offered a deal that would involve Ukraine ceding additional parts of Donbas that Russia does not already control in exchange for ending the war, but efforts by Trump to organize a follow-up meeting between Putin and Zelensky have thus far been unsuccessful.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week poured cold water on prospects for a Putin-Zelensky summit, saying no meeting was planned and that Moscow would not accept security guarantees for Ukraine provided by the West, saying any such discussion that excluded Russia was a “road to nowhere.”

However, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who has visited Moscow five times this year in pursuit of a deal, suggested Tuesday that peace efforts were still alive, announcing a meeting with Ukrainian officials in New York later this week and that “we talk to the Russians every day.”

President Xi Jinping orders ‘all-out’ rescue operations to save the missing people, CCTV says.

At least 10 people have been killed and 33 are missing in flash floods in northwestern China’s Gansu province, according to state media.

“From August 7, continuous heavy rain … has triggered flash floods. As of 3:30pm (07:30 GMT) on August 8, 10 people have died and 33 are missing,” state broadcaster CCTV reported on Friday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered “all-out” rescue operations with “utmost effort” to save the missing people, CCTV said.

Due to the “frequent occurrence of extreme weather”, Xi ordered all regions to “resolutely overcome complacency” and strengthen efforts to identify risks, the broadcaster added.

Footage shared by Chinese fire authorities on the social media platform Weibo showed rescuers guiding people through rushing grey water in a village.

Photos posted by Gansu’s government showed roads covered in silt and large stones.

Record rainfall has lashed China’s north and south in recent weeks in what meteorologists describe as extreme weather linked to climate change.

Heavy rains and flooding have killed at least 60 people across northern China, including Beijing, since late July.

The Syrian Democratic Forces allege that Damascus-linked factions attacked four of its positions early on Monday.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have said that armed factions associated with the country’s security forces have attacked some of its positions in the northern province of Aleppo, as efforts by Syria’s fledgling government to unify the nation have been hit on several fronts.

In a post on X, the group, which controls much of northeastern Syria, claimed the incident took place early on Monday morning in the Deir Hafer area.

The allegation comes just months after the SDF and the Syrian interim government signed a landmark integration agreement in March.

Government-linked factions launched an assault on four of the SDF’s positions in the village of Al-Imam at 3am on Monday morning, the SDF said, noting that the ensuing clashes lasted for 20 minutes.

“We hold the Damascus government fully responsible for this behaviour, and reaffirm that our forces are now more prepared than ever to exercise their legitimate right to respond with full force and determination,” the SDF added.

The latest incident came after the Syrian government accused the SDF of injuring four soldiers and three civilians in the northern city of Manbij on Saturday.

The Defence Ministry called the attack “irresponsible”, saying it had been carried out for “unknown reasons”, according to Syria’s state news agency SANA.

Meanwhile, the SDF, which allied with the United States to help defeat ISIL (ISIS) in the region, blamed the Syrian government, saying it had responded to an unprovoked artillery assault against civilians.

Such skirmishes have cast a shadow over the integration pact the SDF made with Damascus in March, following the fall of longtime President Bashar al-Assad in December.

As part of efforts to reunify the country after almost 14 years of ruinous war, which killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions, the agreement seeks to merge Kurdish-led military and civilian institutions with the state.

As well as its clashes with the SDF, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s new government is grappling with the fallout from sectarian violence that broke out on July 13 in the southern province of Suwayda between Bedouin and Druze groups, during which government troops were deployed to quell the fighting. The bloodshed worsened and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops, and also bombed the heart of the capital Damascus, under the pretext of protecting the Druze.

Despite the ongoing ceasefire there, four deaths were reported in the province over the weekend, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying that three of the victims were government soldiers and one was a local fighter. Syria’s state media reported on deaths among security forces.

The Syrian government said in a statement that gangs in the area had “resorted to violating the ceasefire agreement by launching treacherous attacks against internal security forces on several fronts”.

Health Ministry says four killed, 116 others wounded after explosion in Maarat Misrin in the northern Idlib countryside.

At least four people have been killed and more than 100 others were wounded in an explosion in Idlib province, northwestern Syria, state news agency SANA reported.

In a statement on Thursday, carried by SANA, Syria’s Ministry of Health said that the explosion occurred in the town of Maarat Misrin in the northern Idlib countryside.

It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion.

The ministry said that “four people were killed and 116 others were wounded,” according to a preliminary death toll.

The Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, said at least six people were killed in the blast.

“This is the death toll only of those recovered by Syria Civil Defence teams, who continue to search for those trapped under the rubble,” the White Helmets said in a statement.

Raed Al-Saleh, Syria’s minister of emergency and disaster management, said in a post on X that the country’s Civil Defence teams rushed to the scene of the blast and were working in dangerous and complex conditions.

He said the teams were carrying out evacuation and rescue operations amid ongoing secondary blasts.

Saleh urged residents to avoid the site for their own safety.

The blast was the third in the region this month. Earlier in July, two explosions rocked the Kafriya and al-Fu’ah regions.

The fires were contained with help from Turkish, Jordanian, Lebanese, Qatari and Iraqi firefighting teams.

Wildfires in northwestern Syria, which have burned vast tracts of forest and farmland and forced evacuations, have been brought under control after 10 days.

In a statement posted on Facebook on Sunday, the civil defence agency said, “with the spread of the fires halted and the fire hotspots brought under control on all fronts”, teams on the ground are working to cool down the affected areas while monitoring any signs of reignition.

The blazes in the coastal province of Latakia broke out on July 3 amid an intense heatwave across the region, which also affected the Dortyol district and neighbouring Turkiye.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it destroyed about 100 square kilometres (40 square miles) of forest and farmland.

As the fires raged, Syrian emergency workers not only had to use outdated equipment but also contend with high temperatures, strong winds, rugged mountainous terrain and the danger of explosive war remnants.

This all comes in a country worn down by years of conflict and economic crisis, nearly seven months after the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad and the installation of a transitional government led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of the now-disbanded armed group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

In a post on X, Raed al-Saleh, Syria’s minister for emergencies and disaster management, said civil defence and firefighting teams “managed to halt the spread of the fire on all fronts” with help from Turkish, Jordanian, Lebanese, Qatari and Iraqi teams.

Turkiye earlier sent two firefighting aircraft to help battle the blazes. Eleven fire trucks and water support vehicles were also dispatched, according to al-Saleh.

“Firefighting teams are intensively working to extinguish remaining hotspots and cool the areas already put out. The situation is moving toward containment followed by comprehensive cooling operations,” said al-Saleh.

“There are still threats due to wind activity, but we are working to prevent any renewed fire expansion.”

Authorities have not reported any casualties, but several towns in Latakia province were evacuated as a precaution.

With human-induced climate change increasing the likelihood and intensity of droughts and wildfires worldwide, Syria has also been battered by heatwaves and low rainfall.

In June, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said Syria has “not seen such bad climate conditions in 60 years”.

Clashes with police have left at least one person dead and about 30 injured in a major banana-producing province.

Panama has declared a state of emergency in western Bocas del Toro province, where antigovernment protesters opposing a pension reform law are accused of setting fire to a baseball stadium and of looting businesses, including a provincial airport.

The protests that erupted two months ago in Bocas del Toro, a major banana-producing region, intensified this week, culminating in clashes with police that left one person dead and injured about 30 people, including several officers, police said on Friday.

Presidential Minister Juan Carlos Orillac said in a news conference on Friday that the move to suspend some constitutional rights and ban public gatherings would allow the government to reestablish order and “rescue” the province from “radical groups”, adding that the damage caused to public properties was “unacceptable and did not represent a legitimate protest”.

“In the face of the disruption of order and acts of systematic violence, the state will enforce its constitutional mandate to guarantee peace,” he said.

The measure will be in place for five days, he said.

The protesters, backed by unions and Indigenous groups across the country, have faced off with authorities over a pension reform law passed in March.

Confrontations have been particularly intense in Bocas del Toro, largely led by workers at a local Chiquita banana plantation. The multinational banana giant Chiquita called the workers’ strike an “unjustified abandonment of work” and sacked thousands of employees.

Those workers ultimately withdrew from the protests after they were able to negotiate the restoration of some benefits that had been removed under the March pension reform.

Still, the government has said roadblocks in Bocas del Toro have yet to be lifted, though it did not directly attribute them to the Chiquita workers.

The violence peaked in the city of Changuinola, Bocas del Toro’s main city, on Thursday when groups of hooded individuals looted businesses and partially set fire to a baseball stadium with police officers inside, authorities said.

Police said “vandals took over” the local airport, stole vehicles belonging to car rental companies, and looted an office and a warehouse containing supplies belonging to Chiquita. Flights at the airport were still suspended on Friday.

Panama’s right-wing President Jose Raul Mulino has been facing protests on several fronts in recent months.

Besides the pension reforms, Panamanians have also been in the streets over a deal Mulino struck with US President Donald Trump in April allowing US troops to deploy to Panamanian bases along the Panama Canal.

Mulino made the concession to Trump after the US leader repeatedly threatened to “take back” the US-built waterway.

Mulino has also angered environmentalists by threatening to reopen Cobre Panama, one of Central America’s biggest copper mines.