Three Bulgarian nationals accused of spying for Russia have been found guilty of espionage charges in a trial that heard how they were involved in a string of plots around Europe directed by a fugitive based in Moscow.

. . .

The three were convicted for being junior members of a spy ring that was ultimately directed by Jan Marsalek, an Austrian businessman who had fled to Russia in 2020 after a company he helped to run collapsed amid a €1.9bn (£1.6bn) fraud.

Marsalek directed the hostile surveillance of Christo Grozev – an investigative journalist who had helped implicate Russian spies in the poisoning of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny – in Bulgaria, Austria and Spain. All three defendants were involved in the operation.

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Marco Rubio was incensed. Here he was in the Cabinet Room of the White House, the secretary of state, seated beside the president and listening to a litany of attacks from the richest man in the world.

Seated diagonally opposite, across the elliptical mahogany table, Elon Musk was letting Mr. Rubio have it, accusing him of failing to slash his staff.

. . .

Mr. Rubio had been privately furious with Mr. Musk for weeks, ever since his DOGE team effectively shuttered an entire agency that was supposedly under Mr. Rubio’s control: the United States Agency for International Development. But, in the extraordinary cabinet meeting in front of the president and around 20 others — details of which have not been reported before — Mr. Rubio got his grievances off his chest.

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The details of the conversations between the two leaders, and subsequent discussions among top U.S. and Canadian officials, have not been previously fully reported, and were shared with The New York Times on condition of anonymity by four people with firsthand knowledge of their content. They did not want to be publicly identified discussing a sensitive topic.

On those calls, President Trump laid out a long list of grievances he had with the trade relationship between the two countries, including Canada’s protected dairy sector, the difficulty American banks face in doing business in Canada and Canadian consumption taxes that Mr. Trump deems unfair because they make American goods more expensive.

He also brought up something much more fundamental.

He told Mr. Trudeau that he did not believe that the treaty that demarcates the border between the two countries was valid and that he wants to revise the boundary. He offered no further explanation.

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The details of the conversations between the two leaders, and subsequent discussions among top U.S. and Canadian officials, have not been previously fully reported, and were shared with The New York Times on condition of anonymity by four people with firsthand knowledge of their content. They did not want to be publicly identified discussing a sensitive topic.

On those calls, President Trump laid out a long list of grievances he had with the trade relationship between the two countries, including Canada’s protected dairy sector, the difficulty American banks face in doing business in Canada and Canadian consumption taxes that Mr. Trump deems unfair because they make American goods more expensive.

He also brought up something much more fundamental.

He told Mr. Trudeau that he did not believe that the treaty that demarcates the border between the two countries was valid and that he wants to revise the boundary. He offered no further explanation.

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The federal government is pushing back its second and larger round of retaliatory measures against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs — but just by one week — in response to his latest move to delay levies on most Canadian and Mexican goods by one month.

“As a result, Canada will not proceed with the second wave of tariffs on $125B of U.S. products until April 2nd, while we continue to work for the removal of all tariffs,” Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said in a post on X.

Canada has already imposed a 25 per cent tariff on $30 billion in U.S. goods — which remains in place — with another round of tariffs on a wider list of American products, valued at $125 billion, originally expected to come into effect later this month. Those tariffs have now been pushed back until April 2.

The death of a New Mexico adult comes eight days after a 6-year-old child succumbed to the disease in Texas last week.

An unvaccinated New Mexico adult who tested positive for measles has died, the second death in a growing measles outbreak centered along the West Texas-New Mexico border, officials said Thursday.

The individual did not seek medical care before death, New Mexico health department officials said. The official cause of death is still under investigation by New Mexico’s Office of the Medical Investigator. However, the state health department scientific laboratory has confirmed the presence of the measles virus in the person, the state health department said.

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President Donald Trump on Thursday signed executive actions that delay for nearly one month tariffs on all products from Mexico and Canada that are covered by the USMCA free trade treaty, a significant walkback of the administration’s signature economic plan that has rattled markets, businesses and consumers.

The executive actions follow a discussion Trump held Thursday with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and negotiations between Canadian and Trump administration officials.

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed executive actions that delay for nearly one month tariffs on all products from Mexico and Canada that are covered by the USMCA free trade treaty, a significant walkback of the administration’s signature economic plan that has rattled markets, businesses and consumers.

The executive actions follow a discussion Trump held Thursday with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and negotiations between Canadian and Trump administration officials.

Stocks fell Thursday afternoon as President Donald Trump's pledge to temporarily exempt many Mexican imports from his 25% tariffs failed to deter a wider sell-off.

The S&P 500 was down as much as 2.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 2.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell approximately 500 points, or 1.4%.

The major averages have each lost more than 3% this week, with the broader S&P 500 having now erased the gains it accrued since Trump won November's election. That index is off 6% from its all-time high in January, the month he took office.

Thursday's action marks a reversal of a short-lived rally Wednesday following the Trump administration's announcement that autos from America's largest manufacturers would be exempted from the 25% tariffs he unveiled on Canada and Mexico.

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Fired federal workers who are worried about losing their homes ask not to be quoted by name. University presidents fearing that millions of dollars in federal funding could disappear are holding their fire. Chief executives alarmed by tariffs that could hurt their businesses are on mute.

Even longtime Republican hawks on Capitol Hill, stunned by President Trump’s revisionist history that Ukraine is to blame for its invasion by Russia, and his Oval Office blowup at President Volodymyr Zelensky, have either muzzled themselves, tiptoed up to criticism without naming Mr. Trump or completely reversed their positions.

More than six weeks into the second Trump administration, there is a chill spreading over political debate in Washington and beyond.

People on both sides of the aisle who would normally be part of the public dialogue about the big issues of the day say they are intimidated by the prospect of online attacks from Mr. Trump and Elon Musk, concerned about harm to their companies and frightened for the safety of their families. Politicians fear banishment by a party remade in Mr. Trump’s image and the prospect of primary opponents financed by Mr. Musk, the president’s all-powerful partner and the world’s richest man.

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As far as Laken Pavan's family knew, he was backpacking around Europe, soaking up the sights.

But the 17-year-old had a different plan when he left Vancouver in April 2024. First he flew to Turkey. Then to Moscow, and on to Russian-occupied Donetsk in Ukraine.

And it was there that he was recruited as a spy.

. . .

In early May, Laken told her he was in Denmark, working on a farm with some friends. A couple of weeks later, he asked for some money in order to buy a plane ticket to Warsaw. The last time they messaged was on May 22, shortly after he landed in Poland. A few hours later, he was in jail.

Summary

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province will permanently cancel its $100 million contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink, even if U.S. tariffs are lifted.

The decision follows Trump’s 25% tariffs on Canadian imports, which prompted Ontario to ban U.S. firms from contracts.

Ford cited Musk’s ties to Trump as a factor and said he is willing to fight potential legal fallout.

Musk previously responded to cancellation threats with a dismissive “Oh well.”