Trending Now
We have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for Eurasia Group and its affiliates, including GZERO Media, to clarify the types of data we collect, how we collect it, how we use data and with whom we share data. By using our website you consent to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, including the transfer of your personal data to the United States from your country of residence, and our use of cookies described in our Cookie Policy.
{{ subpage.title }}
Gavin Newsom speaks at the Vogue World: Hollywood Announcement at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood, CA on March 26, 2025.
California launches Canadian charm offensive
California governor Gavin Newsom kicked off a campaign to promote Canadian tourism in his state, pitching its sunny beaches, lush vineyards, and world-class restaurants.
Why now? California tourism operators are feeling the pinch as relations between the US and Canada sour under Trump. Newsom reports that Canadian tourism to his state has fallen 12% compared to last year.
But his charm offensive may fall flat for reasons beyond his control. A US travel association says three times as many Canadians are staying away from the US as the industry first predicted, and southbound car trips were down by a third in March, according to Statistics Canada.
The lost business from their northern neighbors could cost Americans $6 billion this year. Canadian anger at Trump’s annexation threats are part of the problem, but so is the fear of mistreatment: The widely reported story of a Canadian actor who was held in custody for 11 days after a visa problem isn’t helping, nor are stories of people of other nationalities being turned away, detained, or having their personal devices examined. A Canadian satirical site joked that Canadian visitors could look forward to an unexpected side trip to El Salvador.
Until there is a thaw in Canada-US relations, many Canadians aren’t interested in spending their vacation dollars in Gavin Newsom’s Golden State, or anywhere else in the US for that matter.
U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) speaks to the media during a visit to El Salvador to advocate for the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man deported without due process by the Trump administration and sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), in San Salvador, El Salvador, on April 16, 2025.
HARD NUMBERS: Maryland senator flies to El Salvador, Russian journalists jailed, California sues Trump admin over tariffs, EU tilts right on asylum, Peru’s ex-president guilty of money laundering
1: On Wednesday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) flew to El Salvador to advocate for the release of Kilmar Abgrego Garcia, a Maryland resident wrongfully deported to a brutal high-security prison there. Van Hollen, who met with the Salvadoran vice president, is the only US lawmaker to make the trip. The Supreme Court ruled last week that the Trump administration should “facilitate” Garcia’s return to the United States, but US President Donald Trump has shown no willingness to do so. (Does that mean the United States is facing a constitutional crisis? Here’s what Ian Bremmer has to say).
4: Four Russian journalists were convicted of extremism and jailed in a closed-door trial in Moscow for associating with the Anti-Corruption Fund — a group founded by the late opposition leader and political activist Alexei Navalny. The individuals pleaded not guilty, arguing they were merely doing their jobs as independent journalists.
-0.2: Before Washington unveiled sweeping tariffs that rocked the global economy, the World Trade Organization forecasted global goods trade to grow by 2.7% in 2025. The updated forecast shows a decrease of 0.2%, a swing of 2.9 percentage points. WTO director general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala also warned that trade between the US and China could plunge by 81-91%, due to the superpowers’ trade war.
5th: California, the fifth-largest economy in the world, sued the Trump administration over the “emergency” rule that allowed the executive branch to impose tariffs — a power constitutionally reserved for Congress, the Golden State alleges.
7: The European Union has designated seven countries—Kosovo, Colombia, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Bangladesh, and India — as“safe” places for migrants to return, a decision that will result in the denial of asylum applications for citizens from those countries. The move comes amid growing anti-immigrant pressure from far-right parties across the continent.
15: Peru’s former president Ollanta Humala and his wife Nadine Heredia have been found guilty of money laundering and each sentenced to 15 years in prison. The couple was convicted of accepting nearly $3 million in illegal campaign funds from construction giant Odebrecht and hundreds of thousands of dollars from the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez. Humala was taken into custody, whereas Heredia sought asylum at the Brazilian embassy in Lima and was granted safe passage to Brazil.A drone view of buildings destroyed during the Palisades Fire in Malibu, California, U.S., January 15, 2025.
Winds pick up, then die down, but LA fire risk remains
Fires raging across Los Angeles have killed more than two dozen people and burned over 60 square miles, with more than 82,000 residents under evacuation orders in the county. Over 12,000 structures have been badly damaged or lost, sending rent costs skyrocketing and exacerbating LA’s preexisting housing crisis.
The fires are already among the worst in California’s history. On Wednesday, authorities issued a less severe wind warning, lowering the risk of fire in the coming days as winds later died down. But winds could threaten to pick up Monday, and with no rain in the forecast, fire conditions could worsen once again.
Toxic smoke is also a threat. On Tuesday, LA County issued a dust and ash warning as air quality drops and particulate matter circulates, raising the threat of health risks including asthma and premature death.
Firefighters from the US and around the world are working to get the blazes under control as criticism of LA Fire Department funding grows. Critics say the LAFD has been structurally underfunded, even as experts contend that no amount of funding or water would have been sufficient to quell the fires — the product of a “perfect storm” of dry conditions, stronger-than-usual Santa Ana winds, and the ongoing effects of climate change.LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 07: A wind-driven fire burns on January 7, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. Santa Ana wind is fueling wildfires in Los Angeles that have destroyed homes and forced the evacuation of thousands of people.
Politics inflamed amid California wildfires
As California’s most destructive wildfires continue to blaze across Los Angeles County, having killed 16 and displaced more than 166,000 residents, emergency response effortshave become politicized, both at home and abroad.
Actor James Woods, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and right-wing political commentators have accused Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley of prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives over firefighting essentials. In response, Crowley citeda $17.4 million budget reduction to the LAFD in 2025, affecting overtime staffing and essential programs. Los Angeles Fire Commission President Genethia Hudley-Hayes defended Crowley, arguing that the scale of the fires, high winds, and an empty reservoir that was under repair would have overwhelmed even a fully funded department. Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has called for an independent investigation into water supply failures.
While domestic politics is bitterly divided, on the international front the story is one of unity. Mexico and Canadahave sent firefighting equipment, including water bombers and personnel, despite President-elect Donald Trump’s promises of punitive tariffs against both countries.
Will the goodwill effort change hearts and minds in the Trump administration? Alberta Premier Danielle Smithposted to X that “Good neighbours are always there for each other in times of need, and we will assist our American friends in any way they need during this crisis.” She laterposted photos of herself meeting with Trump at Mar-A-Lago at the weekend, along with Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary.
A house burns as powerful winds fueling devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area force people to evacuate, in Altadena, California, on Jan. 8, 2025.
Wildfires are raging in Los Angeles. So is their politicization.
As wildfires scorched Los Angeles for a second day on Wednesday, hurricane-strength winds and limited water supplies complicated efforts to contain the flames. The three main fires – in the Pacific Palisades, the Pasadena area, and the rural San Fernando Valley – have burned thousands of acres, decimated hundreds of buildings, killed two people, and placed tens of thousands of people under evacuation orders.
Overnight, all the fire hydrants in the affluent Pacific Palisades neighborhood went dry, and officials are raising alarm bells that the city’s water system is outdated and ill-equipped to keep up with climate change, which is not only making fires more frequent in LA but also spreading them faster.
President Joe Biden is sending money to the region, thanks to the $100 billion in disaster aid passed by Congress before Christmas, $29 billion of which went to FEMA. Incoming President Donald Trump, meanwhile, accused Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday of blocking water to the region “to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water.” Trump appears to be referring to rules adjusting water allocations for cities and farms to protect areas where populations in Northern California where fish populations are depleting. But most of LA’s water is not imported from that region; it comes from groundwater and the aqueduct that runs east of the Sierra Nevada.
In the past, Trump has hesitated to give aid to Democratic-leaning states, and he has been critical of FEMA – falsely accusing the agency of misusing funds for illegal immigrants after Hurricane Helene. While he has not yet announced his pick to run the agency, its fate, and the fate of disaster-prone blue-states, could be fraught for the next four years.
FILE PHOTO: California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) reacts as he speaks to the members of the press on the day of the first presidential debate hosted by CNN in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., June 27, 2024.
Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes California’s AI safety bill
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday vetoed the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act, or SB 1047, the AI safety bill passed by the state’s legislature in August.
Newsom has signed other AI-related bills into law, such as two recent measures protecting performers from AI deepfakes of their likenesses, but vetoed this one over concerns about the focus of the would-be law.
“By focusing only on the most expensive and large-scale models, SB 1047 establishes a regulatory framework that could give the public a false sense of security about controlling this fast-moving technology,” Newsom wrote in a letter on Sept. 29. “Smaller, specialized models may emerge as equally or even more dangerous than the models targeted by SB 1047 — at the potential expense of curtailing the very innovation that fuels advancement in favor of the public good.”
Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener, who sponsored the bill, called the veto a “setback for everyone who believes in oversight of massive corporations that are making critical decisions that affect the safety and welfare of the public and the future of the planet.” Wiener hasn’t disclosed the next steps but vowed to continue pushing the envelope on AI regulation in the state. “California will continue to lead in that conversation — we are not going anywhere.”Visitors check out Alibaba Cloud's data synthesis and Embodied engine at the 2024 Apsara Conference in Hangzhou, China, on September 19, 2024.
Hard Numbers: Alibaba’s models, Palantir’s contract, Newsom’s deadline, Vietnam’s fab plan
100: Alibaba, the Chinese tech giant, launched more than 100 new open-source AI models, collectively known as Qwen 2.5. Many of the models have specific design purposes, such as for automobiles or science research. Alibaba’s models are free to use, but the company sells its cloud services and support to fellow businesses.
100 million: Palantir has won a $100 million US defense contract to give military personnel advanced visualizations of battlefields in real time across different computers. The company will use intelligence data and computer vision technology to make digital replicas of battlefields for real-time decision making.
6: California Gov. Gavin Newsom has six days left to sign SB 1047, the California AI safety bill. He hasn’t signaled whether he’s going to sign it yet, but he recently signed a pair of bills into law that protect performers from artificial intelligence recreations being made without their permission. However, he has said that he’s concerned about the “chilling effect” the bill could have on the state’s tech industry.
1: Vietnam said it’s aiming to build one semiconductor fabrication plant and 10 packaging plants in the country by 2030. To help, it’ll launch a fund to help foreign investors with taxes on the projects. The country is seeking to evolve from a manufacturing economy to include more high-tech industries such as chip making.A Cal Fire firefighter keeps watch while the Bridge Fire burns in the mountain communities to the northeast of Los Angeles, near the Mountain High ski resort in Wrightwood, California, U.S. September 11, 2024.
Fires pose challenge to insurers, insured
A heat wave has got California scrambling to control three separate wildfires, one of which injured 13 people this week, a short-term crisis but part of a long-term challenge for homeowners and those who insure them.
In the Western United States, insurers are flat out refusing to insure some homes, and there is pressure on homeowners to take steps — like removing shrubs near their homes and widening driveways — to reduce the fire risk. The situation is not as dramatic for Canadian insurers, but the cost to the industry of wildfires is rising north of the border.
The insurance industry is not the only one dealing with the fallout from increased risks from climate-associated natural events. The Canadian tourism industry is coping with an “image problem” related to wildfires. Not only is it deprived of visitors in areas, like Jasper, when a fire is nearby, but places far from the fires are also suffering.
In spite of the rising economic problems posed by climate change, the issue seems to remain a lesser one in the minds of voters, judging from the messages of politicians. During Tuesday’s presidential debate, for example, Donald Trump did not acknowledge the threat, and Kamala Harris failed to make concrete commitments.
Trump has been skeptical of climate change, dismissing it as a hoax, while Harris supports public investments in the clean energy transition.
It appears to be anything but a ballot issue in the United States, likely because cost-of-living issues are top of mind, and the partisan division around the issue is so stark that it would not help Harris with the swing-state voters she needs.