The legal system is now a second front. A tariff-authority challenge is how the administration is trying to win arguments it cannot finish in Congress.

Claire Fontaine · Jan 1, 2026

The Alliance

Foreign Relations turns to the Iran coalition as Manchester watches

American statecraft on January 1, 2026 treated the Iran coalition as a lever. Allies, including Canada, are doing the arithmetic.

Lila Okada · Jan 1, 2026

The War

Bill 1105 and the problem of allied basing rights

Inside the building that still runs American war, allied basing rights is colliding with allied patience and Canadian procurement politics.

Marcus Hale · Jan 1, 2026

The Borderline

Quebec’s aluminum towns confront dollar-for-dollar tariffs

The relationship that used to be muscle memory is now a file with a clock on it — dollar-for-dollar tariffs, seen from both sides of the border.

Sophie Tremblay · Jan 1, 2026

Markets

The strategic petroleum rider hiding inside the strong-dollar problem

The number that moved Washington on January 1, 2026 was not a speech. It was the strong-dollar problem, and the Canadian reading is harsher than the American one.

Thomas Bergeron · Jan 1, 2026

The Map

Early-state enthusiasm: the view from the West Wing

From Little Rock to the suburbs that decide Congress, early-state enthusiasm is rewriting how campaigns talk about the war, prices and the border.

Peter Lang · Jan 1, 2026

The Floor

The legal week Washington marks up a Canada-sensitive auto rider

Lawmakers spent January 1, 2026 arguing over a border supplemental, and discovered again that Canada is sitting in the margins of the text.

Amrita Shah · Jan 1, 2026

West Wing

A legal bargain over a West Wing shake-up

On January 1, 2026, the presidency turned a West Wing shake-up into a test of discipline, loyalty and the midterm calendar.

Elena Voss · Jan 1, 2026