Politics
U.S. human rights reports criticize NATO allies, minimize some abuses – National TenX News
The Trump administration on Tuesday released human rights reports for countries worldwide that eliminate mentions of discrimination faced by LGBTQ2 people, reduce a previous focus on reproductive rights and criticize restrictions on political speech by U.S. allies in Europe that American officials believe target right-wing politicians.
The reports, which cover 2024 before President Donald Trump took office, reflect his administration’s focus on free speech and restricting access to abortion.
However, the reports also offer a glimpse into the administration’s view of dire human rights conditions in some countries that have agreed to accept migrants deported from the United States under Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“This year’s reports were streamlined for better utility and accessibility in the field and by partners,” the U.S. State Department said.
The congressionally mandated reports in the past have been frequently used for reference and cited by lawmakers, policymakers, academic researchers and others investigating potential asylum claims or looking into conditions in specific countries.
The reports had been due to be released in March.
The State Department said in an overview that the delay occurred because the Trump administration decided in March to “adjust” the reports, which had been compiled during the Biden administration.
Among other deletions, the reports do not include accounts from individual abuse survivors or witnesses.
“Frequently, eyewitnesses are intimidated or prevented from reporting what they know,” the overview said.
“On the other hand, individuals and groups opposed to a government may have incentive to exaggerate or fabricate abuses. In similar fashion, some governments may distort or exaggerate abuses attributed to opposition groups.”
Human rights groups decried the changes in focus and omissions of certain categories of discrimination and potential abuse.
“With the release of the U.S. State Department’s human rights report, it is clear that the Trump Administration has engaged in a very selective documentation of human rights abuses in certain countries,” Amnesty International said in a statement.
“In addition to eliminating entire sections for certain countries – for example discrimination against LGBTQ+ people – there are also arbitrary omissions within existing sections of the report based on the country,” it said.
The reports do follow previous practices in criticizing widespread human rights abuses in China, Iran, North Korea and Russia.
The report on Russia, as well as a separate one on Russia-occupied areas of Ukraine, go much further in documenting its abuses in Ukraine — including acknowledging accusations of war crimes — than Trump or U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio have done in public.
It says Moscow “did not take credible steps or action to identify and punish most officials who committed human rights abuses.”
The Ukraine report admonishes the Ukrainian government of curtailing freedoms of the press and expression, though it notes many of the measures are due to martial law imposed during wartime.
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The report’s section on Israel was much shorter than last year’s edition and contained no mention of the severe humanitarian crisis or death toll in Gaza.
What does it say about NATO allies?
The reports take issue with what the Trump administration believes are restrictions on free speech imposed against generally right-wing voices in the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
The reports use identical language to say that human rights conditions in each of the three NATO allies “worsened during the year.”
The executive summaries for each of the three reports say “significant human rights issues included credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression, including enforcement of or threat of criminal or civil laws in order to limit expression; and crimes, violence, or threats of violence motivated by antisemitism.”
These governments have rejected such assertions that have been made by senior U.S. officials, including Trump, Rubio and Vice President JD Vance.
The report on Canada is less critical and acknowledges no change in U.S. assessments of its human rights conditions. However, it repeats language alleging “credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression” and accuses the federal government of limiting press freedom.
A mention of ongoing trials related to the 2022 “Freedom Convoy” protests says they protested against “draconian lockdown measures that substantially damaged the communities and economic livelihoods of many Canadians.”
Last year’s report, the final one issued by the Biden administration, said the Canadian government “did not restrict or disrupt access to the internet or censor online content” and allowed independent media to “express a wide variety of views without restriction.”
Past reports have taken particular issue with violence and threats against minority groups, including Indigenous and LGBTQ2 people.
Although such deportations did not begin until after Trump took office, the reports, with one notable exception, detail general poor human rights conditions in many of the countries that have agreed to accept migrants, even if they are not citizens of that nation.
The exception is El Salvador, which was the first of several countries in Latin America and Africa to agree to accept non-citizen migrant deportees from the U.S.
Despite claims from rights advocates to the contrary, the report about the country says “there were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses” in El Salvador in 2024 and that “the government took credible steps to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses.”
Human rights groups have accused authorities of abuses, including at a notorious prison where many migrants are sent.
However, for Eswatini — a small country in Africa formerly known as Swaziland — South Sudan and Rwanda, the reports paint a grimmer picture. All have agreed to accept third-country deportees from the United States.
In all three countries, the reports noted “significant human rights issues included credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings, torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment … serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, prohibiting independent trade unions or significant or systematic restrictions on workers’ freedom of association.”
Those governments “did not take credible steps or action to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses,” the reports said.
Singling out the treatment of white South Africans
South Africa was also singled out for its human rights situation “significantly worsening.”
The report pointed to unfair treatment of white Afrikaners following the signing of major land reforms that the Trump administration has said discriminate against that minority, which ran the country’s apartheid government.
That system brutally enforced racial segregation, which oppressed the Black majority, for 50 years before ending in 1994.
With the signing of that law in December, the report said that “South Africa took a substantially worrying step towards land expropriation of Afrikaners and further abuses against racial minorities in the country.”
It also said the government “did not take credible steps to investigate, prosecute and punish officials who committed human rights abuses, including inflammatory racial rhetoric against Afrikaners and other racial minorities, or violence against racial minorities.”
This year, the administration admitted as refugees some groups of white Afrikaners.
The South African government on Wednesday dismissed the report as “inaccurate and deeply flawed.”
What the report says about Brazil
Freedom-of-speech issues were also raised in Brazil, which has more recently provoked Trump’s ire by prosecuting his ally — former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro — and led to the imposition of massive U.S. tariffs and sanctions against Brazil’s Supreme Court chief justice.
“The human rights situation in Brazil declined during the year,” the report said. “The courts took broad and disproportionate action to undermine freedom of speech and internet freedom by blocking millions of users’ access to information on a major social media platform in response to a case of harassment.”
It added that the government “undermined democratic debate by restricting access to online content deemed to undermine democracy” and specifically mentioned suppressing the speech of Bolsonaro and his supporters.
—With additional files from Global News and Reuters
Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived in Doha on Saturday as part of a push to attract foreign investment and deepen Canada’s economic partnerships beyond its traditional allies.
Carney’s visit comes on the heels of his visit to China and follows the recent presentation of a new federal investment budget aimed at positioning Canada as a stable, attractive destination for global capital.
In a news conference on Saturday, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Canada is working to broaden its economic relationships as global trade patterns shift.
Qatar is viewed by Ottawa as a strategic partner, with officials pointing to the country’s significant investment capacity and growing influence on the global stage.
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“We need to reduce our dependence and increase our self-reliance to find a strategic path forward,” Champagne said.
“Engaging with the Middle East and China is necessary for Canada, just like our European partners have done,” Champagne added. “We buy more from the U.S.A. than anywhere else, but the trading climate right now is different.”
The conference highlighted Canada’s industrial capacity and trade advantages as key selling points for potential investors.
Champagne also said international engagement is critical as Canada works to raise its profile among global investors.
“We are one of the G7s with very big industries. We build cars, planes, ships, we have an abundance of energy, and we are the only one with free trade with all G7,” Champagne said. “With the way the world is changing, you better diversify, supply chain is changing and we need to adapt.”
Prime Minister Carney is expected to meet with senior Qatari officials, including Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, as well as representatives of the Qatar Investment Authority.
His office says the talks will focus on expanding trade access and forging partnerships in artificial intelligence, infrastructure, energy and defence.
The visit comes amid heightened geopolitical tensions in the region, though officials say the schedule remains unchanged.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
The possibility of a forceful U.S. takeover of Greenland is raising many unprecedented questions — including how Canada, the European Union and NATO could respond or even retaliate against an ostensible ally.
A high-level meeting between Greenlandic, Danish and U.S. officials this week did not resolve the “fundamental disagreement” over the territory’s sovereignty but did set the stage for more talks. The White House made clear Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s desire to control Greenland has not changed after the meeting.
“He wants the United States to acquire Greenland. He thinks it’s in our best national security to do that,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Denmark and European allies are sending more troops to the territory in a show of force and to display a commitment to Arctic security.
Experts say there are other, non-military measures available in the event of a U.S. annexation or invasion of Greenland, or which could at least be threatened to try and get Trump to back down.
Whether those economic measures are actually used is another matter, those experts say.
“I think it remains highly unlikely that we’ll get to that point where we have to seriously discuss consequences for a U.S. move on Greenland,” said Otto Svendsen, an associate fellow with the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“So it remains contingency planning for a highly unlikely event. That being said … Denmark would certainly do everything in its power to rally a very robust European response.”
Here’s what that could entail.
EU trade, tech disruptions?
Experts agree the biggest pressure points that can be used in the U.S. surround trade and technology.
The European Parliament’s trade committee is currently debating whether to postpone implementing the trade deal signed between Trump and the EU last summer to protest the threats against Greenland, Reuters reported Wednesday.
Many lawmakers have complained that the deal is lopsided, with the EU required to cut most import duties while the U.S. sticks to a broad 15 per cent tariff for European goods.
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An even bolder move would be triggering the EU’s anti-coercion instrument — known as the “trade bazooka” — that would allow the bloc to hit non-member nations with tariffs, trade restrictions, foreign investment bans, and other penalties if that country is found to be using coercive economic measures.
Although the regulation defines coercion as “measures affecting trade and investment,” Svendsen said it could feasibly be used in a diplomatic or territorial dispute as well.
“EU lawyers have proven themselves to be very creative in recent years,” he said.
However, David Perry, president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said in an email that economic measures against the U.S. are unlikely “given the massive asymmetry in the defence and economic relationship between the U.S.” and other western nations.
“Any kind of sanction against the U.S. doesn’t make sense for the same reason they can impose tariffs on others: they have the power,” Perry added.
Target U.S. tech companies?
The likeliest — and potentially least harmful — scenario for retaliation in the event of an attack on Greenland, Svendsen said, would be fines or bans against U.S. tech companies like Google, Meta and X operating in Europe.
That’s because the Trump administration has taken particular focus on preventing what they call “attacks” on American companies by foreign governments seeking to regulate their online content or tax their revenues, which has led to calls on Canada, Britain and the EU to repeal laws like digital services taxes.
“I think that would be a really smart and targeted way to get to economic interests very close to the president, while minimizing the direct impact on the on the European economy,” Svendsen said, calling such a move “low-hanging fruit.”
He also compared a future U.S. tech platform ban to how Europe moved to wean itself off Russian gas after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“If you told anyone back then that Europe would basically rid itself of its dependence on Russian gas basically within a two-year period … that would have been considered completely impossible,” he said.
“Weaning the European economy off of U.S. tech would certainly be painful in the short term, but they’ve proven that they can get off those dependencies quickly if there is political will behind it in the past.”
A U.S. hostile takeover of Greenland would mean the “end” of the NATO alliance, experts and European leaders have said.
Trump himself has acknowledged it could be a “choice” between preserving the alliance or acquiring Greenland.
There is no provision within the NATO founding treaty that addresses the possibility of a NATO member taking territory from another, and how the alliance should respond to such an act.
A NATO spokesperson told Global News it wouldn’t “speculate on hypothetical scenarios” when asked how it could potentially act.
“None of this would be actionable in a NATO sense,” Perry said. “It’s an alliance that’s organized to bind the U.S. to European security, and revolves around the U.S. So there’s no scenario of NATO doing that to the U.S.”
Denmark and other European nations could move to reduce or close U.S. military bases in their countries as a possible response, experts say.
Balkan Devlen, a a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and director of its Transatlantic Program, said in an interview that a U.S. annexation of Greenland would force Canada to focus entirely on boosting its defences in the Arctic.
That may include trying to decouple from NORAD, the joint northern defence network with the U.S., in favour of a purely domestic Arctic command, he said — although that process would take years and require Canada to increase defence spending even further.
“Never mind five per cent (of GDP) — we will probably need to go like seven, eight, nine per cent on defence spending to be able to do anything of that sort,” he said. “It’s not even clear that we’ll be able to have enough people to do that.”
Devlen added that any retaliatory action, whether military or financial, needs to be targeted and proportionate to what the U.S. does.
“The problem with nuclear options is that once you use it, it’s gone,” he said. “And if it doesn’t do the damage or make the change of behaviour on the other party, you’ve basically lost a lot of leverage and you might actually sustain a lot more loss yourself.”
A trip to the world’s most-visited museum is about to cost Canadians significantly more.
France has hiked ticket prices at the Louvre by 45 per cent for visitors from outside the European Union, a move that is fuelling debate over so-called dual pricing and the growing backlash against overtourism.
Starting this week, adult visitors from non-EU countries, including Canada, must pay €32 to enter the Paris landmark, up from €22. That’s an increase from about $35 to $52 Canadian.
Visitors from EU countries, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, will continue to pay the lower rate.
The price hike comes as the Louvre grapples with repeated labour strikes, a high-profile daylight jewel heist last October that prompted a costly security overhaul, and years of chronic overcrowding. The museum attracts roughly nine million visitors annually.
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Some Canadian tourists told Global News they feel unfairly targeted.
“We didn’t cause the robberies or some of the other issues that happened and we are paying the consequences,” said Allison Moore, visiting Paris from Newfoundland with her daughter. “[In] Canada we don’t discriminate over pricing like that.”
Others argue tourists already shoulder higher costs simply by travelling long distances.
“In general for tourists, I think things should be a little cheaper than for local people, because we have to travel to come all the way here,” said Darla Daniela Quiroz, another Canadian visitor. “It should be equal pricing, or a little bit cheaper.”
Even some Europeans question the two-tiered system. A French tourist interviewed outside the museum said there was “no reason” to charge non-Europeans more and that the fee should be the same for everyone.
Tourism experts say the Louvre’s financial pressures help explain the decision.
“The Louvre is really cash-strapped right now and needs to do something,” said Marion Joppe, a professor at the University of Guelph. “It can’t really look to the government, which is already struggling with its own budget.”
The move also reflects a broader global pushback against mass tourism. Anti-tourism protests have spread across parts of Spain, New Zealand has increased its entry tax, and the United States recently raised national park fees for foreign visitors.
“You take Paris — it gets about 50 million tourists a year,” said Julian Karaguesian, an economist at McGill University. “That’s roughly a million a week. The city simply wasn’t built for those kinds of numbers.”
Despite the higher price, many visitors say they will still line up to see the Mona Lisa and other of the museum’s famous artworks.
“It’s one of the main attractions. It’s on everybody’s list,” Moore said. “We’re still going to go, and hopefully it will be worth it in the end.”
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Canada talks trade with Qatar as Carney touches down in Doha – National TenX News
How could Canada, EU, NATO respond to a U.S. takeover of Greenland? – National TenX News
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