Trump threatens EU with tariffs over membership offer to Canada | First Thing

Good morning.Donald Trump has threatened the EU with “serious tariffs” after the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, invited Canada to become the EU’s first “associate member”.The US president ...

September 17, 2026

Good morning.

Donald Trump has threatened the EU with “serious tariffs” after the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, invited Canada to become the EU’s first “associate member”.

The US president called the idea of Canada joining the EU “laughable” and said that, should the EU move forward with the plan, Washington could impose “very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe”. “If it’s a good intention, that’s fine. If it’s a bad intention, we’ll put very heavy tariffs on Europe,” he said.

Why does the EU want closer ties with Canada? Von der Leyen told the European parliament that, as democracies faced a “fracture in the international rules-based system”, Brussels and Ottawa needed to pull closer together. “This is a partnership not against anyone else, but for our common strength,” she said.
How has the EU responded to Trump’s comments? France’s Europe minister, Benjamin Haddad, said on Thursday that Washington had no power to veto EU decisions. “It is not up to the United States, or ‌anyone else, to choose the political and geopolitical direction of the Europeans,” Haddad ‌told the Public Sénat TV channel.
What’s next? Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, has been addressing the European parliament on Thursday. Follow our live coverage here.

US Federal Reserve raises interest rates for the first time since 2023

Warsh stands at a podium, with two American flags behind him — The Federal Reserve chair, Kevin Warsh, holds a press conference on Wednesday. Photograph: Evan Vucci/Reuters

The US Federal Reserve voted on Wednesday to raise interest rates for the first time since 2023, from 3.75% to 4%, as the central bank continues to fight to tamp down inflation. “The plain fact is that inflation is too high and has been for too long,” said Kevin Warsh, the Fed chair.

Did Warsh identify what is driving inflation? Warsh acknowledged changing geopolitics, but avoided calling out the US-Israel war with Iran by name.
How did Trump respond? Shortly after the announcement, Trump said in a Truth Social post that interest rates should be 1% or less and criticized the US trade deficit.

House speaker calls early recess, sidestepping AI regulation frenzy and a vote to impeach Pete Hegseth

Johnson stands in front of an open door into his office, facing the camera but looking slightly to the side — Mike Johnson speaks to the media outside his office on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/Reuters

The Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, announced Wednesday that he would be sending lawmakers home one day early ahead of the midterm election recess – a decision that lets House members avoid voting on Republican Thomas Massie’s resolution to impeach the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and a frenzied attempt to propose legislation on artificial intelligence.

What has the response been to Johnson’s decision? “I think it shows the cowardice of the Republican party. They are canceling votes to do business for the American people because they are afraid that that impeachment resolution of Pete Hegseth would pass on a bipartisan basis,” the Democratic representative Pramila Jayapal told MediasTouch.
What’s going on with AI? More than 100 House Democrats had urged Johnson to cancel the upcoming recess to allow them to craft legislation on AI safeguards. But Johnson told reporters on Tuesday that “we cannot have a moratorium on the development of AI”.

In other news …

AI chiefs have called for a slowdown in AI’s development amid safety concerns. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

OpenAI has disclosed six more examples of “unexpected or concerning” behavior by its technology, including an unreleased research model inserting “jailbreak-like instructions” into its own notes and telling itself to be “freed from the roles and identities that bind other chatbots”.
The family of a pregnant woman who died is suing Ken Paxton for wrongful death, saying that the denial of abortion led to her death.
Fiji has declared a national HIV emergency as the Pacific nation grapples with a surge in cases fueled by escalating use of methamphetamine.
The exiled Nicaraguan journalist Luis Galeano has been detained by ICE in Florida with his asylum application still pending.
LA homelessness non-profit workers have been arrested over alleged corruption and bribes as Trump officials target alleged fraud in blue states.
Texas killed a man by lethal injection in the state’s fifth execution this year, while a scheduled execution in Georgia was halted by a judge.

Stat of the day: The world’s rivers had one of their driest years in more than three decades in 2025

Boats sit on dry, cracked ground by the Danube River in Petrovaradin, Serbia. — Only about a third of rivers were in the normal flow range in 2025, according to a study. Photograph: Darko Vojinović/AP

Last year was among the driest years on record for rivers across the world, with 36% of the global river basin area documenting river flows below or well below normal, according to an assessment of the global water cycle by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Overall, the amount of freshwater held on or under the ground was 42% below normal across the world last year.

The Filter recommends: 14 easy upgrades to keep your home safe and secure

A closeup image of a male electrician’s two hands holding a white smoke detector . — The US Fire Administration recommends installing smoke alarms inside every bedroom, outside each separate sleeping area and on every level of the home. Photograph: Andriy Popov/Alamy

The Guardian’s Filter US team looks into the best home upgrades worth considering to keep your home safe and secure.

Don’t miss this: How the attention economy overwhelmed children’s TV

Old-fashioned televisions are stacked against a red-orange backdrop. Upon each screen are images from various children televisions shows: Teletubbies, Sesame Street, Bluey, Prehistoric Planet, Cocomelon and Mr Rogers — Does your child’s favorite show give them a chance to reflect, or does it move too quickly for its lessons to sink in? Photograph: Guardian Design/Getty Images/Netflix/Fantorangen/Ludo Studio/Zach Hyman/ ZUMA Press, Inc./Apple TV

Pacing is everything when it comes to children’s entertainment, writes Natalia Kucirkova, a senior lecturer in early years and childhood studies at Manchester Metropolitan University – something that should be especially concerning in an attention economy that overwhelms and overshouts. When media moves too quickly, it risks losing the time needed for a child to make meaning. A child watching a character comfort a friend may not be able to recognize the repair or imagine doing the same thing with his or her own peers if the scene moves too quickly. A child must notice that another person feels something different in order for the child to develop empathy, Kucirkova writes – something that takes time.

… or this: 125,000 people displaced as war reignites in Yemen

Asma Taleb, wearing a yellow patterned hijab and a red patterned dress, poses unsmiling, looking at the camera — ‘We fled a large, comfortable home, and here we are struggling to find a plastic sheet and wooden poles,’ said Asma Taleb in al-Safia camp in Taiz, Yemen. Photograph: Nasser Al-Sakkaf/The Guardian

Renewed fighting in Yemen has displaced at least 125,000 people since the start of September 2026, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha). “This war doesn’t differentiate between people. Rich or poor, high class or low class, we all fled our homes on the same day,” said Asma Taleb, a woman in her 50s who left her home last week with her two sons and five grandchildren.

Climate check: Global heating was a destabilizing factor in the glacier collapse that caused the Nepal-Tibet floods

An aerial view of a town destroyed after a catastrophic glacial flood in Devighat Bazaar, Nuwakot, Nepal — ‘Communities in Nepal are paying with their lives for a crisis driven by fossil fuel emissions thousands of miles away,’ said Dr Friederike Otto. Photograph: Suryams Upreti/AAP

Researchers found that the climate breakdown likely weakened the glacier that collapsed last month, causing catastrophic floods that killed hundreds of people in Nepal and Tibet. In the region where the collapse happened, July and August 2026 were the warmest on record locally, reaching 5C above the 30-year average in the days before the collapse. In this region, the climate breakdown has caused about 2C of warming since preindustrial times.

Last Thing: The three wild dog brothers who made Africa’s longest journey

African wild dogs look directly at a remote camera in South Luangwa national park in Zambia — Scientists tracked three wild dog brothers who went on a perilous 2,500-mile odyssey to find their own territory Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy

Three endangered African wild dog brothers in Zambia dodged cars and hunters while making a perilous, 2,500-mile odyssey in search of a new life. Scientists believe this to be the longest-ever recorded single journey of any mammal from the continent, made over the course of eight months.

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