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Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers a speech during the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos on January 20, 2026. | Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here. Canada’s prime minister delivered a blistering and remarkable speech at the World Economic Forum this week, essentially declaring the end of the world as you and I have known it.  Since World War II, Mark Carney told the crowd in Davos, Switzerland, global politics have largely adhered to a system of norms that prioritized shared prosperity and cooperation. But as President Donald Trump lays waste to those norms, long-time US allies — Canada included — are taking steps to counter America’s influence, even after Trump’s current term. It’s hard to overstate just how new and strange that is: America’s nearest neighbor, and closest ally, calling for the development of a new world order that sidelines the US. “When historians look back at this era, this speech by Mark Carney will be seen as an inflection point,” wrote Lulu Garcia-Navarro, a New York Times journalist. The address is worth reading or watching in full, which is something I have said of… maybe three speeches in my career. But because that would be a lot to put in your inbox, I’ve instead asked four of my colleagues from Vox’s policy and politics team to explain the big highlights here. In today’s edition, they answer the question: What does Canada — and the rest of the world — want from the new world order? Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Canada’s prime minister declared that the system of international rules and norms that’ve been in place since World War II aren’t working anymore — and that “middle powers” like Canada should stop pretending that they are. Tension between the US and its European and Canadian allies has been ratcheting up for months. What’s special about this? What’s different?  Benjy Sarlin (senior editor): One thing that Trump’s second term has changed, and that Carney’s speech reflects, is that the West’s tensions with America are no longer just about Trump’s personal behavior. You could look at this current Greenland standoff, for example, as a personal obsession of Trump’s that has no real connection to any faction of either party, that polls about as terribly in the US as it does in Europe, and that will go away as soon as he goes away or faces enough pressure from US voters or the stock market. But that’s not how it’s being treated by Carney: Canada now has to consider the possibility that the US — whether in the next election, or 20 years, or 40 years — is capable of empowering another Trump-like figure who tears up existing agreements and fundamentally does not believe in the post-World War II project of shared security and democratic values. Carney starts out by critiquing the “rules-based international order,” which is an interesting choice. He says, in particular, that “we knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false, that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient.” Is he saying that the old world order was a lie? Or that American dominance was universally bad?  Seth Maxon (senior editor): There has been quite a bit of left-wing commentary about the line “we knew that international law applied with varying rigor,” with some people expressing shock to hear that articulated by a major Western leader. I think this is key to why this speech resonated so much — Carney’s tendency to say a quiet part out loud. Zack Beauchamp (senior correspondent): But Carney is not, as some on the radical left have suggested, admitting that the international order was “always” a total lie. He is saying that there were gaps and hypocrisies in it, but that these were outweighed (at least from the Canadian perspective) by the…

President Donald Trump disembarks Air Force One as he arrives at Zurich Airport before attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 21, 2026. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: Donald Trump is once again moving markets — and being moved by them in turn.  What happened? On Wednesday afternoon, the president said in a social media post that he was backing away from new tariffs on Europe after reaching a “framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland,” potentially involving US sovereignty over new US military bases there. The Dow and other US stock indices jumped in response, after suffering a bad day on Tuesday because of Trump’s continuing threats. It’s the latest example of one of the more reliable patterns to emerge from Trump’s first year back in office: TACO, or “Trump always chickens out.” Why TACO? The term comes from a Financial Times column in May breaking down the market response to Trump backing down on his “Liberation Day” tariffs. As my colleague Andrew Prokop explained at the time, the short-lived tariffs pushed the market to the verge of crisis, and Trump blinked. TACO postulates Trump always handles market dips the same way: Once the damage gets bad enough, he will relent. What’s the context? Until Wednesday, Trump had been all-in on acquiring Greenland, logic and decades-old US alliances be damned. Over the weekend, he announced escalating tariffs on eight European countries over their opposition to the plan, and threatened Norway’s prime minister. What’s the big picture? TACO is, in some ways, good news — a built-in circuit breaker for some of Trump’s more damaging impulses. But as Arin Dube, a University of Massachusetts economics professor, points out, it’s not a permanent solution. As markets grow accustomed to Trump backing down, they’re less likely to get jittery in the first place; if they don’t fall, Trump also doesn’t get the signal to stop touching the stove. The result could be an ever-elongating TACO cycle where Trump tiptoes closer to the brink of a seriously damaging decision — and maybe over it — before the markets send a signal he should reconsider. And with that, it’s time to log off… Last month, my colleague Benji Jones traveled to Australia to report on “the largest effort ever mounted to keep the Great Barrier Reef alive.” The Australian government’s nearly $300 million Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program is planned as a multi-decade effort to bolster the dying reefs, including by spawning new corals in a lab. You can read his excellent reporting here, along with some wonderful photos of the reefs. Enjoy, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

by Anonymous The president is the Anti-Midas, that is, everything he touches turns to shit. However, we didn't get here by making one mistake, there are a host of issues we haven't faced up to, and resolved. The immediate future is going to be filled with chaotic destruction. My feeling is that we need to apply at least part of our energy to thinking about what we want things to look like when this mess is done with and cleaned up. There is tremendous potential for a future we can all be happy with, it's going to take foresight, persistence, and courage to get us there.

by Courtney Vaughn If you’re reading this, you probably know the value of the Mercury’s news reporting, arts and culture coverage, event calendar, and the bevy of events we host throughout the year. The work we do helps our city shine, but we can’t do it without your support. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support! Good morning, Portland! It’s Wednesday, January 21. We’re in for another sunny day, but don’t let the sunshine fool you. It’s still pretty cold out there, especially when you’re not basking in the mid-day rays, and overnight temperatures will hit freezing lows. We can expect a high of 45 degrees and a low of 32. IN LOCAL NEWS: • A man who shot and injured two Portland Police officers Monday evening is still at large, after an overnight search for the suspect ended early Tuesday morning. One officer was released from the hospital Tuesday and the other remains hospitalized in stable condition. Portland Police Bureau (PPB) declined to disclose the extent of their injuries, but noted one of the officers has been with the Bureau for seven years and the other has been at the Bureau for 17 years. Both are currently assigned to the bureau’s north precinct. To recap: Police say north precinct officers responded to a report of a threat with a weapon at 8:21 pm Monday, after a man called 911 to report he’d been threatened by a man with a knife. The incident occurred near NE 21st Avenue and NE Clackamas Street in the Sullivan's Gulch neighborhood. According to PPB, the suspect fired a gun, hitting two of the officers. Both were transported by ambulance for emergency care. The Bureau indicated the officers didn’t fire back at the suspect. On Tuesday, police released images and a description of the suspect. The officers are recovering, but the Police Bureau is shaken up by the violence.[image or embed] — The Oregonian (@oregonian.com) January 20, 2026 at 2:00 PM • To mark Trump’s first year in office, a nationwide walkout took place Tuesday, including in Portland. Check out some video footage captured by the Mercury’s Andrew Harlan. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury) • If you thought Portlanders went hard on anti-ICE protests and ICE watch networks, meet Woodburn. The suburban city south of Portland recently saw a group of residents swarm ICE agents who had locked themselves out of their vehicle. During that time a group got one of the agents to admit he’s not super keen on his job. It gets weirder: while the feds waited for a tow truck to help them, the group of observers successfully got not one, but TWO tow truck drivers to decline to help the ICE agents (one of which was with a company called “Camel Towing”). According to KATU, the group paid one of the drivers for his missed income. IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS: • Southern California residents have been rocked by a series of earthquakes over the past week. A magnitude 4.9 quake hit the Coachella Valley on Monday, about 12 miles outside of Indio. Another sizable 4.2 magnitude earthquake hit just after 12:30 am Wednesday, also near Indio. Earthquakes are typically followed by a series of smaller “aftershocks”, throughout the following day. While no damage or injuries were reported after Monday’s quake, the series of quakes has left residents in the Coachella Valley frightened. The latest earthquakes around the Southern California desert follow a series of quakes throughout the state over the past week. • If you didn’t already feel sorry for Usha Vance, you probably will now. The second lady is pregnant with her fourth child. (Side bar: Why do conservative families need so many damn children?! Is it the tax break, or the deranged, draconian pro-natalist propaganda??) She and husband/VP JD Vance are expecting a baby in late July (no word yet on when the couch is due), which means they…

Bibi Club est de retour avec une pièce qui se retrouvera sur Amaro. La pièce de rock électronique commence avec une phrase assez marquante : « where do we go… L’article Washing Machine est apparu en premier sur Le Canal Auditif.