Top Stories; Justin Trudeau tells CNBC that international organizations may no longer be fit for purpose
Top Stories — Thursday, April 23, 2026
What is trending in the USA today? Here is Breaking News:
- Justin Trudeau tells CNBC that international organizations may no longer be fit for purpose — CNBC
- European stocks to open in negative territory as oil prices gain — CNBC
- Anti-Trumpism Unites Europe — nyt News
Justin Trudeau tells CNBC that international organizations may no longer be fit for purpose
Source: CNBC • Published: 4/23/2026, 12:01:25 PM
Canada's former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at CNBC's CONVERGE LIVE that international institutions were "spectacularly ill-adjusted" to respond to modern-day issues, while advocating that middle powers form new alliances as they face pressure from large powers.
"You can look to different places around the world to realize that those institutions, whether it was the WTO or the IMF or what have you, aren't necessarily fit for purpose in our decades now," Trudeau told CNBC's Mandy Drury in Singapore on Thursday.
Trudeau called out "great powers," naming the U.S., China, Russia, and India, saying they had decided they can "opt in or opt out of pieces of the rules-based order."
"The question of what do the rest of us do if we don't have them on board, driving a renewed world-based order is, I think, at the heart of the conversations people are having now," he said.
Canada has sought to recalibrate its diplomatic relationships amid the geopolitical shifts triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump's trade and foreign policies, with Prime Minister Mark Carney declaring a "rupture" in the American-led world order, calling on middle powers to band together and chart their own course.
Trudeau reiterated Ottawa's call for world leaders to unite and adopt "microlateralism" where a small group of countries identify shared interests as opposed to multilateralism evident in large organization such as the United Nations, WTO and IMF.
His comments come against the backdrop of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, and the American operation in January that captured Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, with Washington seizing control of the country's oil industry.
Responding to the Middle East conflict for the first time, Trudeau cautioned that the warring powers remained far apart on terms for ending the war. "I think the parties involved all want to see a path through this. I don't think they're yet at the place where they can share a path through this. I think, unfortunately, this instability is going to last a while."
Carney had issued a statement at the start of the war that appeared largely supportive of U.S. military action in Iran, before adding more nuances to that stance in March, saying that Canada's backing came "with regret," calling the current conflict another example of the failure of the international order.
In a widely watched speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, Carney urged middle powers to forge new alliances and build collective resilience against coercion by larger powers. "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu," he said.
Canada has faced mounting pressure to reassess its economic and security dependence on Washington, accelerate its efforts to diversify its trade and diplomatic ties with countries such as China and India, as the Trump administration pushes an increasingly transactional approach to trade and foreign policy.
Trudeau put it bluntly, saying that "we're now having to look at working with China because the American industry doesn't want to work with us anymore." Canada has sought to reset its ties with China after eight years of a frosty relationship.
"That uncertainty of 'are you going to throw tariffs on us again?' means that we found better partners ... and that's a way of getting around some of that economic coercion," Trudeau said.
Canada was among the first countries to be targeted by Trump's tariffs, prompting retaliatory duties by Ottawa on U.S. steel, aluminum, auto imports. Trump also warned of 100% duties on Canada if Ottawa struck a deal with China.
Trump has kept in place a 50% duty on commodity imports, including aluminum and steel from Canada, causing U.S. aluminum imports from Canada to drop 27% since tariffs doubled from 25% last year, according to S&P Global, with Ottawa diversifying shipments to Europe.
"We'd much prefer to sell our aluminum a few hundred kilometers away rather than a few thousand kilometers across the ocean — but that's not a big enough impediment for us to sit back and not act to diversify," Trudeau said, stressing that "building reliable relationships is the way to stay safe."
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement, under which Canada has averted a raft of Trump's global tariffs, is due for a formal review by July 1. Concerns have mounted over the slow pace of negotiations between Washington and Ottawa, with Canada's chief trade negotiator Janice Carette saying Tuesday that it was unlikely to address all issues by that deadline.
Trudeau said that the rapid development of artificial intelligence could create enormous wealth but warned that if it benefits a narrow elite while leaving ordinary workers behind, then it will sow disaffection among people.
"If we have 1,000 trillionaires, something will be fundamentally wrong with the world — and everyone will be right in saying this system doesn't work."
The resistance to trade sweeping democracies, he argued, was a preview of what awaited if AI's gains were not more broadly shared.
"The anti-trade backlash we're experiencing politically is actually an anti-prosperity backlash," he said. The stakes this time, Trudeau cautioned, were far higher, suggesting if AI leads to concentration of wealth in a few hands it would make the inequalities of the trade-led globalization era look modest by comparison.
European stocks to open in negative territory as oil prices gain
Source: CNBC • Published: 4/23/2026, 10:53:05 AM
LONDON — European stocks are expected to open in negative territory on Thursday as regional market sentiment remains downbeat and oil prices tick higher.
The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index is seen opening 0.7% lower, with Germany's DAX down 1.3%, France's CAC 40 down 0.77% and Italy's FTSE MIB 0.9% lower, according to data from IG.
International benchmark Brent crude rose almost 1.3% to $103.19 per barrel by 1:19 a.m. ET on Thursday, following media reports that the U.S. has intercepted at least three Iranian oil tankers in Asian waters, heightening uncertainty that the Middle East conflict may drag on.
European bourses missed out on gains enjoyed by U.S. peers on Wednesday, closing lower as investors weighed an extension of the Iran war ceasefire with the continued blockage of the Strait of Hormuz.
Sentiment was also kept in check after Germany halved its economic growth forecasts for 2026, with officials saying they now expect Europe's largest economy to grow just 0.5% this year. For 2027, the GDP forecast was trimmed from 1.3% to 0.9%.
Germany's Economics Ministry cited the Iran war and closure of the Strait of Hormuz as reasons for the downgrades, and said the country had seen costs for households and businesses rise. Officials projected that inflation would rise to 2.7% this year and 2.8% next year.
Japan and South Korea stocks hit record highs overnight, before Asia-Pacific markets retreated into negative territory, following the reports of Iran tanker interceptions. S&P 500 futures were little changed Wednesday night.
It's another busy day for earnings in Europe with Roche, Nestle, SAP, Sanofi, Vinci, LSEG, Orange, Nokia, Heineken, STMicroelectronics, Dassault Systemes and Renault among the companies reporting Thursday.
Data releases include flash services and manufacturing PMIs for the euro zone and U.K., and EU new car registrations.
Anti-Trumpism Unites Europe
Source: nyt News • Published: 4/23/2026, 10:21:34 AM
Europe’s nationalist right rejoiced when Donald Trump was first elected in 2016. It celebrated again when he returned to the White House last year. His triumph was seen as a vindication of the anti-immigrant, anti-woke platforms that have been gaining momentum on their side of the Atlantic, too.
But over the past year, Trump’s aggressive tariffs, his threats to invade Greenland, his war on Iran — and the energy crisis it has spawned — not to mention his attacks on the pope, have changed that.
Today my colleague Jason Horowitz, our Madrid bureau chief, writes about how Trump’s brand is now so toxic in Europe that left-wingers and conservatives are both opposing him.
Why so many leaders in Europe want to stand up to Trump
By Jason Horowitz
He’s the newly anointed leader of the global left.
She’s a pioneer of Europe’s new nationalist right.
Even though Pedro Sánchez of Spain and Giorgia Meloni of Italy are two European prime ministers on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum, last week they both found themselves walking the same path to political survival: standing up to President Trump.
It’s a sign of just how low Trump’s standing in Europe has fallen.
In Spain, Sánchez has emerged as the darling of the international left for his early-and-often opposition to Trump, whether it be the American president’s tariff threats, his demands for increased military spending, his Greenland ambitions or, most critically, his war in Iran.
“No to war,” Sánchez bellowed at a conference in Barcelona that I attended over the weekend. He spoke to a rapturous crowd consisting of his Spanish base, but also liberal leaders from Europe, South America, Africa and the United States. “Shame on those who defend the privileges of the elites,” he said, “who support war.”
But as many Spanish analysts have pointed out, Sánchez’s standing up to Trump, and Trump’s repeated put-downs of Sánchez, have served not only to elevate the prime minister’s stature abroad, but to distract from his troubles at home. Sánchez’s former political associates are facing embarrassing corruption scandals and trials in the Spanish Supreme Court this month. (They say that they are innocent, and Sánchez himself is not implicated.)
Sánchez had been sinking in polls since the summer. But Trump has become a life preserver. The more Sánchez seeks to distance Spain from the U.S., the better his poll numbers look. Since taking on Trump, he is stirring enthusiasm among a base he desperately needs to mobilize. His popularity is swelling.
Something not dissimilar is playing out across the Mediterranean Sea, in Italy.
Sánchez and Meloni don’t have much in common politically. She’s the standard-bearer of a hard-right European ideology that had long embraced Trump for his nationalism, opposition to immigration and disdain for liberal identity politics. For years, Meloni had sought leverage in Europe as a sort of right-wing bridge to Trump.
And yet last week, she found herself traveling the same Trump-divergent road.
Meloni recently lost a referendum that many analysts attributed to her close association with Trump. His popularity in Italy has plummeted since he threatened tariffs, including on pasta, and launched the war in Iran.
In Catholic Italy, where the Vatican matters, a choice between taking the side of a popular pope standing up for peace in a war that most Italians oppose and an American president digging popularity ditches isn’t much of a choice at all. Meloni, who has governed more as a pragmatist than an ideologue, took the pope’s side.
“I find President Trump’s remarks about the Holy Father unacceptable,” Meloni said.
Trump did the hard work for Meloni in response, attacking her as disloyal, not the person he thought he knew. For Meloni, who, like Sánchez, is expected to face elections next year, the breakup message was essentially a political gift.
A toxic American president
That distance from Trump is a political imperative for such diametrically ideological opposites as Sánchez and Meloni demonstrates how toxic the American president has become across the continent.
On the left, Trump has been a boogeyman from Day 1, and Sánchez has clearly made the calculation that the political benefits of running hard against the American president are worth whatever blowback may come. His advisers say the country, which has a growing economy, a trade surplus with the United States and the protection of the European Union when it comes to trade agreements, is well equipped for any reprisals. Trump is so unpopular that he is more useful to Sánchez as a foil than a friend.
On the other hand, European conservatives for years saw Trump as an energizing figure, someone who broke with taboos against the far-right, who created momentum as they sought to dismantle the European Union and carry out more nationalist agendas back home.
But the distance sought by Meloni suggests that may be changing.
In Britain, Nigel Farage, a onetime Trump fan, is increasingly critical of him. A leading figure in Germany’s far-right AfD party called him a “millstone.” In France, leaders of the National Rally have explicitly called for distance. Now it seems that Meloni, too, has decided he is a bridge too far.
And if she wanted more evidence that Trump’s embrace could be electorally unhelpful, she would need to look no further than Hungary, where, despite good tidings from Trump and a personal visit from Vice President JD Vance, Meloni’s ally, Viktor Orban, recently lost in a landslide.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said it had seized two cargo ships yesterday near the Strait of Hormuz, a day after Trump extended a cease-fire with Iran but kept in place a blockade on the country’s ports.
The White House played down the seizures, arguing that the action was not a deal breaker for potential peace negotiations.
The seizures underscore how the U.S. and Iran have been turning to their navies to try to exert pressure on each other as the future of diplomatic talks remain unclear. Pakistani officials were optimistic that they could bring the two sides back to the negotiating table, but there appeared to be an impasse over the conditions that need to be met before a new round of peace talks..
The U.S. has halted shipments of dollars to Iraq in an effort to force the Baghdad government to distance itself from Iran.
Wealthy countries are scrambling to secure stocks of oil, threatening shortages in vulnerable countries.
After months of stonewalling by Hungary, the European Union took a critical step yesterday to extend a lifeline to Ukraine as the war with Russia drags on.
The 90 billion euro loan had been held up since February by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who had accused Kyiv of not moving fast enough to repair an oil pipeline that was damaged in an attack. He was ousted in an election this month.
At a national independence day ceremony, the Israeli government honored a rabbi who has called to “flatten” the Gaza Strip.
Pope Leo, visiting a prison in Equatorial Guinea, told inmates to find hope amid despair, as “life is not defined solely by one’s mistakes.”
South Korea said a 2021 midair fighter jet crash was caused by crew members taking photos and videos on their phones.
A 7.4-magnitude earthquake jolted Japan this week. Experts warn that a “megaquake” may follow.
Lufthansa plans to cut 20,000 flights over the next six months to conserve jet fuel.
Anthropic’s new A.I. model, Mythos, has been deemed too dangerous to release widely. Some companies and governments have early access — and they’re all American or British.
Moscow is threatening residents with eviction from the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol if they do not obtain Russian title deeds.
A Toronto parking lot was transformed into a monolithic ice palace to promote the rapper Drake’s upcoming album, “Iceman.” It quickly became a headache for the city.
Nathalie Baye, one of the most familiar faces in French cinema over four decades, has died. She was 77.
The most clicked link in your newsletter yesterday was about the war’s shock waves hitting Asia.
Football: Liam Rosenior was sacked by Chelsea after less than four months as the club’s head coach.
World Cup: With just 50 days to go until the tournament, catch up on where things stand for top-ranked teams like France, Spain and England.
How do I snub thee? Some British researchers are counting the ways. They’re asking people to send them swear words and insults that might be little known to outsiders. Take our quiz to find out if you can spot a genuine British insult.
These images show Antelope Reef, a large artificial island that China has been quietly and quickly building in disputed waters off the coast of Vietnam. A stretch of reef that was under water just four months ago now has buildings, a helipad and several jetties.
The island could help Beijing continue to dominate the South China Sea, a key waterway for global shipping. Analysts say it is likely to become one of Beijing’s largest military outposts in the region. Take a look.
The main studio of the École des Sables, a dance school in Senegal, has no sprung floor and no mirrored walls. Actually, there are no walls at all.
The dancers work outdoors, under a large canopy, and the floor is unusually treacherous: It’s sand.
The sand studio is part of the nature-oriented vision of Germaine Acogny, who founded the school in 1998 in Toubab Dialao, a fishing village about an hour’s drive from Dakar. Over the years, the École des Sables has established itself as the highest-profile dance training hub in Africa. But money is a persistent concern, and there are plans to build a new port in the green space nearby. Read more about the École des Sables as it prepares to host the African Dance Biennial this month.
Day 3 of the Poetry Challenge: The third stanza of “The More Loving One” is a miniature showcase of W.H. Auden’s skill. Learn more about this star poet.
Watch: In “This Is a Gardening Show,” the comedian Zach Galifianakis digs into one of his greatest passions.
Listen: The voice of the Finnish singer Vilma Jää is unlike anything in opera.
This Hawaii-style garlic shrimp recipe uses mochiko (sweet rice flour) for extra crispness. It calls for one head of garlic, but feel free to adjust according to your taste.
Where is this art museum?
That’s it for today. See you tomorrow! — Katrin
Jason Horowitz was our guest writer today.
We welcome your feedback. Send us your suggestions at theworld@nytimes.com.
Katrin Bennhold is the host of The World, the flagship global newsletter of The New York Times.
Read the full story at nyt News.
For complete details, visit the original sources linked above.
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