Weekly Review (Mar 3–9, 2025)

Canada and the World

  • A new leader. The Liberal Party of Canada elects Mark Carney, former Governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England. Online voting started on February 26. Of the nearly 400,000 Liberals who registered to vote in these elections, 151,899 votes were eventually cast. Four candidates contested for the party’s top job and also for the post of Prime Minister of Canada. Carney finished first with a majority of 85.9% of the vote.
  • The US Presidentsigns executive orders expanding the range of goods exempt from import tariffs for Canada and Mexico. It was the second time in two days that Trump has lifted duties on imports from the US’s two biggest trading partners. On March 5 – just one day after the tariffs came into force – he announced that he would temporarily exempt auto manufacturers from 25% import duties.
  • The federal government launched a more than 6 billion dollar assistance programme for companies affected by the US President’s tariffs and eased some employmentinsurance (EI) rules to help workers. $5 billion to help Canadian exporters reach new markets.
  • Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.6% in February, Statistics Canada said on Friday, as population growth slows and tariff uncertainty roils the labour market.
  • Personal incomegrowth in Canada has slowed significantly over the past 12 months. In February, the Canadian adult population grew at half the rate of April, 2022.
  • Starting March 10, Ontariois increasing electricity prices for American customers by 25% in response to Trump’ s tariffs. The province supplies electricity to 1.5 million people in the US states of Minnesota, New York and Michigan.
  • Taking alcohol and alcohol products off Canadian shelves also hurts US companies. The Californian wine industry is concerned about the backlash from Canadian consumers. “Canada is the single most important export market for US wines, with retail sales of more than $1.1 billion a year,” said the President of the US Wine Institute in a press release.

Latvia

  • On Thursday, after a short debate criticizing the work of the government as a whole, the Saeima approved changes to the Cabinet of Ministers. All the new ministers have been parliamentary secretaries: Atis Švinka at the Ministry of Defence, Dace Melbārde at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Reinis Uzulnieks at the Ministry of Welfare.
  • On Thursday, the Saeima adopted the Artificial Intelligence Centre Law. The draft law provides for the creation of an AI ecosystem in Latvia, to be implemented by the Centre for Artificial Intelligence.
  • The Latvian government has prepared plans to increase defense spending – 4% of GDP could be spent on defense as soon as this year, said Prime Minister Siliņa (”New Unity”).
  • The Swedish companyICA Gruppen has decided to sell the Rimi store network in the Baltics. It will be acquired by the Danish Salling Group, the largest retailer in Denmark. The Danes will own 314 Rimi stores in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as well as an e-commerce platform, warehouses and distribution centres. Altogether Rimi Baltic has more than 11 000 employees. The sale price could be €1.3 billion.
  • Latvia will invest 10 million EUR in the Ukrainian drone industry this year and 20 EUR million in the Drone Coalition for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Cabinet of Ministers has decided.

Europe

  • Europe is discussing how to strengthen its security. French President Macron announced on Wednesday that he will consult European allies on the idea of using French nuclear weapons to protect the continent from the Russian threat.
  • European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented a plan to mobilize around €800 billion for European defence and military support to Ukraine.
  • A European air force of 120 fighter jets could be deployed to protect the skies of Kyiv and western Ukraine against Russian attacks without triggering further conflict with Moscow, the Guardian reports, citing a plan drawn up by military experts.
  • The authors of an analysis by the Brussels think tank Bruegel calculate that at least 1400 tanks, 2000 infantry fighting vehicles and 700 artillery weapons would be needed to prevent a rapid advance of Russian troops in the Baltics if necessary. That’s more than the combined French, German, Italian and British ground forces. Still, they say that there are options.
  • In response to the unfavourable changes in US policy towards Ukraine, in recent days there have been increasing reports from European countries on how to share intelligence without American involvement. Meanwhile, President Trump has announced that he is close to lifting the ban on intelligence sharing with Ukraine. Looking at the actual situation on the war front, the lack of intelligence is not a hindrance to the functioning of weapon systems, but to their effectiveness. Meanwhile, Russia is regularly targeting civilian targets and is expected to target energy infrastructure as it did last year.

The War in Ukraine

  • The US suspends intelligence sharing with Ukraine. The CIA Director promised, however, that this pause would be temporary and that the US would “work side by side with Ukraine” again in the future.
  • On Monday, The US President suspended military aid to Ukraine. The decision took immediate effect, ordering the suspension of all deliveries of US military equipment that have not yet reached Ukraine. This also applies to arms transported by aircraft and ships in transit zones or in Poland.
  • A Russian court sentences a British man, who fought on the Ukrainian side in Russia’s Kursk region and was captured, to 19 years in prison.
  • In its latest drone and missile attack, the Russians have targeted Ukraine’s energy and gas infrastructure. The Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 67 missiles and 194 drones in an overnight attack, adding that it shot down 34 missiles and 100 drones.
  • What is happening in Kursk? Russia carried out the biggest attack on Ukraine this year, including using warships. The aggressor fired at least 67 missiles and attacked with 194 drones. The latest Russian strikes in Ukraine have killed 25 people – 11 in the Donetsk region – and injured 40. In the absence of US intelligence, Russia has managed to break the positions held by Ukrainian defenders in the Kursk region, putting thousands of Ukrainian soldiers under siege, reports the British newspaper The Telegraph.

(!) Call for action: LNAK has set up a section on its website lnak.net/support-ukraina/where you can find links to donate to Ukraine. You can help by supporting children, buying drones, or sending letters to the government. Sample letters are available.

Jānis Lielāmers

LNAK Affairs

News sources: CBC News, www.ir.lv, www.lsm.lv