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America may be a nation at war, but President Donald Trump’s activities over the past few days have been a mix of diplomacy and diversions – with the occasional swing towards the surreal.

On Friday, he said the US war against Iran was “winding down”. By Saturday night, he had given Iran a 48-hour deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face withering new American airstrikes.

The next day, he golfed and spent the afternoon at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

There’s a resentment I sense in reporting from nations like Great Britain and Canada, an underlying current of dismay at the realization they live in declining states and are no longer relevant.

Many Canadians want supply management in dairy abolished — full stop. And on the surface, it’s not difficult to understand why. Canada prides itself on being a market-driven economy, yet supply management sits uncomfortably within that narrative. The system is rooted less in classical free-market economics than in institutional and interventionist policy traditions — more John Maynard Keynes than Adam Smith.

Young Canadians, the country’s future workforce, are suffering most from a prolonged economic slowdown caused largely by the U.S. trade assaults on Canada.

Statistics Canada reported last week that Canada lost 84,000 jobs in February, one of the worst monthly job losses since the pandemic.

Young people aged 15 to 24 and men aged 25 to 54 suffered the worst job loss.

Yea blame it on Trump rather than on our insane mass immigration scam

Canada is letting rural employers hire more temporary foreign workers. Economists say it’s a misstep

Note that the misstep according to the Star’s “experts” is not increasing the immigration of more 3rd World Migrants

An alleged senior member of the Iranian regime who has been living in Canada has lost his attempt to ban the public from his deportation hearing.

In a ruling handed down in Toronto on Tuesday, the Immigration and Refugee Board denied Abbas Omidi’s request for closed-door proceedings.

Video footage that began to circulate online Sunday shows what appears to be a U.S. Tomahawk missile striking in the vicinity of an elementary school next to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval complex, according to eight munitions experts. The video, which was verified by The Washington Post, is the latest indication of likely U.S. involvement in the attack on Feb. 28 that killed dozens of children in the southern Iranian city of Minab.

Video of US Tomahawk hitting naval base near the school in the town of Minab, seemingly confirms that US is responsible for the strike that killed over 150, mostly children— NYT pic.twitter.com/KXVvuRncbo

— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) March 9, 2026

Tariq Ramadan, a former Oxford professor and Islamic scholar, will be tried in his absence in Paris next week on charges of raping three women after the court rejected his claim to be too ill to attend in person.

Corinne Goetzmann, the presiding judge, issued an immediate arrest warrant and ordered the trial to go ahead after medical experts reported to the court that Ramadan, 63, who is based in Switzerland, was fit enough to sit through the four-week trial. The proceedings will be held in camera, without attendance by the public or media.

BRITISH COLUMBIA – In early 2020, almost four years before unilateral US Treasury sanctions named Vancouver businessman Bobby Shah and his company Valerian Labs Inc. as the only Western Hemisphere node of an alleged Chinese fentanyl trafficking syndicate, the RCMP’s chemical diversion unit had already visited Shah’s Port Coquitlam laboratory.

h/t handy n handsome

A 47-year war comes to a head — and a wary nation waits.

Initially, there was polling which indicated that more Americans were for the airstrike campaign, which took out Iranian tyrant Ali Khamenei and several of his top lieutenants, not to mention a host of key political, military, and intelligence facilities, and continues in a clear effort to facilitate regime change in that beleaguered country.

But polling since indicates that isn’t the consensus. More respondents indicate they’re opposed to President Trump’s decision to unleash the whirlwind on the Iranian regime than for it.

This is so powerful pic.twitter.com/I55OG1YSKX

— Jwhitty (@Jwhitty16) March 2, 2026

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Canada should not have an election before it reviews the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) this year, and is instead calling for the Carney government to set up an all-party committee on the matter.

“I think that being united will be a real force going forward. We have disagreements, but I think all parties agree that we want tariff-free access to the United States,” Poilievre said in an interview on The Bridge that airs Monday.

MUMBAI, INDIA AND OTTAWA — As the United States and Israel launched a major assault on Iran, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Saturday that Canada supports the attempt to stop Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon and urged Canadians in the country to shelter in place.

“Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security, and the Canadian government urges the protection of all civilians in this conflict,” said Carney, before a scheduled speech on Saturday in Mumbai, India.

Hey Grok – What is the size of the Iranian diaspora in Canada and how many of those are Shia Muslims?

The size of the Iranian diaspora in Canada (often referred to as Iranian Canadians or people of Iranian origin/ethnicity) is approximately 280,805 according to the 2021 Canadian Census data cited in sources like Wikipedia’s Iranian Canadians page and cross-referenced in Iranian diaspora overviews. This figure represents those reporting Iranian ethnic origin (including single and multiple responses).

Regarding Shia Muslims among them:There is no precise official census breakdown specifically for Shia Muslims within the Iranian Canadian community, as Canada’s census reports religion broadly (e.g., “Muslim”) rather than sects like Shia or Sunni.Among all Iranian Canadians (per 2021 data), about 43.8–49% identified as Muslim overall (around 103,560–123,045 people reporting as Muslim).

The community is described as predominantly Shia Islam (where religious affiliation exists), alongside a large portion of irreligion (around 42–43%, or 120,250 people reporting no religion). Minorities include Baha’i, Christian, Zoroastrian, Jewish, and others.

Oh my god.

The regime’s Chief Justice—who executed thousands of protesters by hanging during the Woman Life Freedom uprisings and recent protests—has been eliminated.

I swear on everything, his elimination is the greatest justice of all.

I cannot believe this is real. https://t.co/WIs8obU2ax

— Elica Le Bon الیکا‌ ل بن (@elicalebon) February 28, 2026

Donald Trump may yet survive – but he is currently losing

There will be no Ceausescu moment, no “at long last sir have you no decency” turning point, no dramatic climax in which the tyrant’s power suddenly evaporates: That instantaneous, simultaneous crystallizing of long-inchoate doubts, wherein those who feared him lose their fear, and those who believed in him lose their faith. Life rarely supplies the needs of narrative, and if it did America is no longer a society capable of coming to that kind of collective moral awakening.

Well played Canada.

Andy, here’s 4.5 minutes of your 2026 TDS posts, not including any replies to other posts.

It’s only February. 🤦🏻‍♂️🙄 pic.twitter.com/ZMbLxSlmHo

— Kevin Pacitti 🇨🇦🇮🇹🇬🇧 (@kpac_15) February 28, 2026

h/t Mauser

This is the moment a pro-Palestine activist is filmed defacing Sir Winston Churchill’s statue outside the Houses of Parliament in the early hours of Friday morning.

The monument was defaced shortly after 4am with slogans including ‘Zionist war criminal’, ‘Stop the Genocide’, ‘Never again is Now’ and ‘Globalise the Intifada’.

The Dutch phrase ‘groetjes uit den haag’, which translates to ‘Greetings from the Hague’, was also spray-painted on.

This is the man that defaced the Winston Churchill Statue in Parliament Square with “Free Palestine” “Globalise the Intifada 🔻” and “Zionist War Criminal” pic.twitter.com/OKp1n7BU04

— HJB News (@HJB_News__) February 27, 2026

Mexican security forces reportedly kill drug cartel boss ‘El Mencho’

One of the world’s most wanted drug traffickers – the Mexican cartel boss known as “El Mencho” – has reportedly been killed by his country’s security forces.

The drug lord, whose real name is Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, was killed on Sunday in the western state of Jalisco, Mexican newspapers reported, citing government sources.

The 59-year-old gangster was the leader of a group that in recent years has become Mexico’s most powerful and notorious criminal organisation: the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Vehicles burn after being set fire by members of the CJNG Cartel in the streets of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. pic.twitter.com/cYKbcOjQpZ

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) February 22, 2026

Cartel war in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico pic.twitter.com/oXEga02ebf

— Christo🇧🇬🇪🇺🇺🇦 (@theGreyKardinaL) February 22, 2026

Having coordinated car fires across the Puerto Vallarta area and being told to stay in my Airbnb was not on my bingo card for trying to get home today.

All while trying to watch the Canada game we just lost. 😑

H/T: Mitch W, my friend in the hotel a block away. pic.twitter.com/QifBMbbt9E

— Ryan Voutilainen 🇨🇦🇫🇮 (@RyanVoutilainen) February 22, 2026

h/t Mauser

A ghost story falls in the category of fantasy. And former ABC reporter Tara Palmeri’s Halloween-in-February hot take in Vanity Fair on Thursday, “Epstein’s Ghost Is Calling All the Shots in Trump’s White House,” certainly falls within the realm of fantasy. She updates Banquo’s ghost to the 21st century and engages in the fantasy that Epstein’s ghost is somehow haunting Trump’s every move.

Former prime minister Stephen Harper urged the Liberal and Conservative parties to take on the challenges of our time together as the country stares down two potentially existential threats to its sovereignty: an imperialist president to the south and separatist movements in Alberta and Quebec.

Speaking at an event Tuesday where his official prime ministerial portrait was unveiled on Parliament Hill, Harper said while the two major parties may differ on some matters of policy, those issues should be secondary to keeping the country together.

There is the Canada I grew up in and the Canada of today.

I have very little connection to the latter and believe the situation beyond fixable.

I don’t think I’m alone.