Everything is connected
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent commented Thursday, January 22, 2026, on the separatist movement in Alberta, saying “I think we should let them come down into the US, and Alberta’s a natural partner for the US.”
Bessent falsely claimed the federal government would not allow Alberta to build a pipeline to the Pacific coast.
Trump has backed down from his threats of tariffs on European countries to push them to agree to a US purchase of Greenland.
While the European Union wants to continue trade ties with it’s largest trading partner, it warned the bloc will stand up for its interests.
Canada and the US have exchanged military personnel for decades. Beyond joint task-forces, intelligence sharing, and organizations like NATO and NORAD, Canada’s DND also regularly sends members of the CAF on exchange programs with US military units, sometimes for years.
Canadian Brigadier-General Robert McBride is the deputy commanding general of operations for the US 11th Airborne Division in Alaska. His role in a division waiting to support US ICE is a pointed example of how Canadian military personnel are caught awkwardly between Trump’s orders, Canada’s military mandate, Canadian law, and public opinion.
Former NATO boss and former Danish Prime Minister Anders Rasmussen said on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, that Trump’s insistence that Greenland should become part of the US represented the biggest challenge to NATO since its establishment in 1949.
“It’s really the future of NATO that is at stake,” said Rasmussen, who offers a unique perspective on the crisis as a former leader of both Denmark – from 2001 to 2009 – and NATO, where he served as secretary general from 2009 to 2014.
Chinese authorities have instructed domestic companies to stop using cybersecurity software from the United States, Israel, and France due to national security concerns.
The blacklisted cybersecurity software is reportedly from Alphabet (Mandiant and Wiz), Broadcom (VMware), Cato Networks, Check Point Software Technologies, Claroty, CrowdStrike, CyberArk, Fortinet, Imperva, McAfee, Orca Security, Palo Alto Networks, Rapid7, Recorded Future, SentinelOne, and VMware.
Sources:
Reuters: Beijing tells Chinese firms to stop using US and Israeli cybersecurity software, sources say https://www.reuters.com/world/china/beijing-tells-chinese-firms-stop-using-us-israeli-cybersecurity-software-sources-2026-01-14/
Rithula Nisha Ebrahim, Cyber Magazine: Why has China Banned a Host of Major Cybersecurity Firms? https://cybermagazine.com/news/inside-chinas-ban-of-major-us-and-israeli-cyber-firms
According to a survey by public opinion pollster Research Co., released Monday January 19, 2026, few Americans share Trump’s expansionist aspirations.
Two thirds of Americans (66%) want Canada to remain an independent nation, while 10% would “prefer” Canada become a US territory and 7% would declare it the 51st State.
The results are similar when Americans ponder Mexico, with just over two thirds (67%) maintaining the status quo of Mexico as an independent nation and fewer opting for the country to become a US territory (10%) or an American state (5%).
Trump posted a doctored image on social media early Tuesday morning showing the president surrounded by European leaders in the Oval Office with a map displaying Canada, Greenland and Venezuela covered in the US flag. The photo was one in a string of posts from the president overnight.
Screenshot-2026-01-20-Trump-posts-doctored-image-of-U.S.-flag-over-Canada.png
Source:
Mark Colley, Toronto Star: Trump posts doctored image of U.S. flag over Canada, Greenland https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/trump-posts-doctored-image-of-u-s-flag-over-canada-greenland/article_61baa2ca-210a-4526-941c-fa2f54026a10.html
EU officials and leaders are getting behind the idea, while lawmakers are drafting legal options.
“We lack a proper united leadership platform to discuss the most important European defense issues,” EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said last week. “It’s now an urgent task to turn this idea into reality.”
Sergey Lagodinsky, a German European Parliament lawmaker and vice president of the Greens group, is proposing a council gathering the leaders of Europe’s big six — Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland and the U.K. — alongside two rotating seats for smaller countries and the European Parliament president.
Two senior government officials, not authorized to discuss this matter publicly, told the Globe and Mail that Canadian Armed Forces planners modelling a US invasion from the south, expect US forces to overcome Canada’s strategic positions on land and at sea within a week, and possibly as quickly as two days.
Canada does not have the number of military personnel or the sophisticated equipment needed to fend off a conventional American attack.
NBC News is reporting that Trump is increasingly complaining to aides about Canada’s vulnerability to adversaries in the Arctic.
As Trump works toward annexing Greenland, he has intensified his criticism of what he sees as Canada’s similar inability to defend its borders against any encroachment from Russia or China.
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