| Trump suggested that his tariffs will help him cut income taxes for people making less than $200,000 a year, as public anxiety rises over the impact of his economic agenda. Voter discontent with his stewardship is hurting his popularity as he approaches this week’s symbolic 100-day mark of his second term, with a CNN poll published yesterday showing that just 39% of Americans approve of how he has steered the world’s biggest economy, the lowest of his two presidencies. China dialed up scrutiny of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s planned Panama ports sale to a BlackRock-backed group, while Trump sought preferential treatment for US ships in the waterway, adding to uncertainty over whether the blockbuster deal will go ahead. The US and China have been embroiled in an escalating war of words over the canal, which handles roughly 3% of global seaborne trade. North Korea acknowledged for the first time that it deployed troops to support Russia’s war on Ukraine, claiming it had helped Moscow retake control of the Kursk border region. Russia hasn’t received a US proposal to give up control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant it occupies in southeast Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told CBS’s Face the Nation in an interview broadcast yesterday. Israel carried out an airstrike in a Beirut suburb targeting a Hezbollah missile storage facility it said posed a “significant threat,” as the Jewish state continued to attack sites linked to the militant group despite a ceasefire agreement. The Israeli Air Force fired three missiles at the target, damaging buildings and cars in the area, Lebanon’s state-run NNA news agency reported.  Emergency services at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut yesterday. Source: AFP/Getty Images Iran held a day of national mourning today following an explosion at a key commercial port in the country’s south that state media said killed 40 people and injured more than 1,200. Authorities are investigating the cause of Saturday’s blast that ripped through the Shahid Rajaee port, sending shockwaves across nearby towns and cities. The Conservative Party has chipped away at the lead held by Mark Carney’s Liberals in the final days of Canada’s election campaign, though surveys still point to a probable Liberal victory in today’s vote. Hungary’s economy minister said the government won’t scale back ties with China, rejecting calls by Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., during a visit to Budapest last week to choose the US instead as its main economic partner. China has asserted sovereignty over an uninhabited reef in the South China Sea by planting a flag, according to state media, setting the stage for an escalation of tensions with the Philippines over the disputed area. Germany’s Christian Democratic Union named two executives as cabinet ministers to serve under conservative Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz, filling in key personnel with business experience as the new government faces pressure to revive growth. A global race to recruit US scientists is heating up as Trump’s sweeping cuts to funding and federal agencies trigger an exodus from the country’s research institutions. | 
