Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry spark buzz after dinner in Montreal
The dinner fueled online speculation after photos of the pair surfaced on TMZ.
According to Samantha Jin, a communications consultant for Le Violon, the two shared a quiet two-hour meal and appeared relaxed throughout the evening.
'They kept to themselves. No one approached them for photos, and they gave off a very chill vibe,' Jin said.
Despite rumors of a potential romance, Jin said that there were no visible signs of intimacy. 'No PDA or anything like that,' she said.
During the dinner, security reportedly kept a discreet watch from the bar while Trudeau and Perry enjoyed a menu that featured dishes like tuna, beef tartare, lobster, and lamb. Chef Danny Smiles stopped by their table, and the two later visited the kitchen to personally thank the team.
Neither Perry nor Trudeau has commented publicly on the dinner.
Perry, who recently split from longtime partner Orlando Bloom, is currently on tour in Canada, with performances lined up in Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, and Toronto.
Trudeau, meanwhile, announced his resignation earlier this year after serving nearly 10 years as Canada's prime minister. He and his wife Sophie Grégoire separated in 2023.
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Middle East Eye
an hour ago
- Middle East Eye
Does Trump care about the issue of Palestinian statehood?
The US president's sentiments on Palestinian statehood have shifted significantly over the past week, as three of his G7 allies proclaimed they would recognise the State of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in September. French President Emmanuel Macron's somewhat sudden announcement on X came first, to which Donald Trump - prompted by a reporter - said nonchalantly, "That's fine if he does that. It's up to him. I'm with the United States, I'm not with France". On Monday, just hours after a sit-down with Trump in Scotland, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that he too would recognise a Palestinian state in September. "I'm not in that camp... if you do that, you really are rewarding Hamas," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. By Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had joined the UK and France, as all three parties argued that this was the only pathway to ending the 77-year-old Israel-Palestine conflict and the war on Gaza. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters "Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine. That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh' [sic] Canada!" Trump wrote on his TruthSocial account. He then raised tariffs on Canadian products from 25 percent to 35 percent. Is Trump just feeling the isolation of now having nearly 150 countries - many of them US allies - recognise that Palestinians are entitled to a state, or are others in his close circle driving his policy for him? Why Trump has little interest in delivering a ceasefire in Gaza Read More » "I think that Trump was caught flat-footed initially, and so he was just dismissive, and anything that's not an initiative that he would take, or any action or comment that doesn't turn the attention to him and give him the impression that he is the master of whatever issue is under discussion, he will viscerally reject or oppose," Glenn Carle, a national security expert who spent 25 years in the CIA's clandestine services, told Middle East Eye. "Once matters had evolved a little, he started to think, well, this could create some headaches for me," he added. "The bureaucracies weighed in to the extent they remain capable and relevant. That would be the State Department largely saying, 'Well, this is fraught'." Indeed, US Secretary of State and national security adviser Marco Rubio has been leading the administration's official messaging on the matter. Rubio had been a staunch pro-Israel voice during his years in the Senate. "Irrelevant. It's irrelevant," he said of the recognition of Palestinian statehood on Fox Radio on Thursday. "The UK is like, well, if Israel doesn't agree to a ceasefire by September, we're going to recognise a Palestinian state. So if I'm Hamas, I say, you know what, let's not allow there to be a ceasefire. If Hamas refuses to agree to a ceasefire, it guarantees a Palestinian state will be recognised by all these countries in September," Rubio said in the radio appearance. 'Trump's not in control' A ceasefire that was in effect for six weeks in January - brokered by the Biden administration and enforced by the Trump administration - was broken by Israel on 1 March. Since then, Hamas has insisted that a full restoration of UN aid distribution and a permanent end to the war are the only two conditions it would accept for another deal with Israel. 'Trump's not in control. I think we need to take a look at the first three months of Trump's presidency, and then we need to compare that to the last four or five months,' Abdelhalim Abdelrahman, a political analyst and host of the podcast Uncharted Territory, told MEE. Abdelrahman says that in the first three months, Trump managed to negotiate a successful ceasefire with the Houthi rebels, diplomacy with the Iranians, and his envoy Steve Witkoff managed to twist Netanyahu's arm into accepting a ceasefire. 'If you look at who Trump has surrounded himself with, there's no doubt who's guiding his Middle East policy' - Abdelhalim Abdelrahman, host of Uncharted Territory "I know that Senator Lindsey Graham has been in the president's ear, pushing back against this. Mark Levin, who's a host at Fox [News], who was really pushing Trump to bomb Iran, has also been pushing back on this." There's also the Heritage Foundation, a highly influential right-wing, Evangelical Christian think tank in Washington that was key to formulating Trump's playbook for both his terms in office. The organisation celebrated this achievement back in 2018, and has undoubtedly seen more of its recommendations go into action now with the doxxing, firing, and deportation of students and faculty who took part in pro-Palestine protests last year. At a Thursday event in the US capital hosted by Heritage, speakers included the US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and the chairman of the scandal-plagued Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, Johnnie Moore. Organisers pledged to help Israel annex Judea and Samaria, otherwise known as the occupied West Bank, and never once mentioned the word Palestine or Palestinians during the 90-minute discussion. Moore in particular referred to them as the "Arabs of Gaza". "The Heritage Foundation has very much been peddling this idea that A, Palestinians are not indigenous to the land, and B, that the Trump administration should take just about every pro-Israel avenue that they possibly can," Abdelrahman said. "There is no such thing as a Palestinian people," to the Evangelical Christian community to which officials like Huckabee and groups like Heritage belong, Carle said. Is the two-state policy dead in the US? Washington adopted the policy of two states, Israel and Palestine, at the signing of the 1978 Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel. It became official at the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords in the White House Rose Garden. No administration has officially, on paper, overturned that policy since, but now more than ever, no government action even remotely suggests that it remains in effect. "The two-state policy is undoubtedly dead," Abdelrahman said. Carle said that US policy now effectively only serves the objectives of the Israeli right-wing, its current government run by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party. US calls Saudi and French-led conference on two-state solution a 'publicity stunt' Read More » "It used to be a pretty clear majority of Israelis who favoured a two-state solution and opposed the colonisation of the West Bank," Carle said, but the numbers have dwindled. Just one week ago, the Knesset voted 71-13 on a non-binding motion to annex the occupied West Bank. "The Trump administration has never taken any steps towards a two-state solution. The Biden administration was quite a classic American one, in that it did want a two-state solution, but was feeling caught between the contradiction of supporting Israel's existential existence, which then meant that the US never pushed Israel," Carle said. In a move that the State Department insisted is unrelated to the momentum building around Palestinian statehood, the Trump administration on Thursday placed sanctions on officials in the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) over their work taking Israel to international courts. The unnamed officials were "not complying with their commitments and undermining the prospects for peace", the State Department said. "Ironically enough, the PLO de-armed about 40 years ago, and has recognised Israel's right to exist, has abided by the Oslo security apparatus, and has just done about everything to appease the United States," Abdelrahman noted. Efforts by US lawmakers Also on Thursday, Jewish Insider revealed that California Congressman Ro Khanna, a progressive Democrat, had begun circulating a draft letter among colleagues, calling on Trump to recognise Palestinian statehood. The US must " recognise the need to meaningfully address the decades-long conflict and injustice underlying these 22 months of horrific war", the letter read. "With such an outcome opposed by the current Israeli government and actively undermined by its accelerating annexation campaign in the West Bank - as well as open calls by Israeli ministers to annex much if not all of Gaza - meaningful action is necessary to bolster the legitimacy of Palestinian statehood," the letter concluded. At the time when it was obtained, there were no signatures added to the letter yet. Khanna quickly shared the article on his X account and insisted that its revelation hampers discussions with the White House. "Someone leaked our effort to try to sabotage it. Sad. It won't work," he wrote. "Recognising a Palestinian state is an idea whose time has come. The response of my colleagues has been overwhelming. We will build support and release prior to the UN convening," he added. Abdelrahman told MEE it's likely "going to be nipped in the bud", at least until Republicans gauge where public sentiment is after the 2026 midterm elections for lawmakers. More and more young America Firsters have questioned US loyalty to Israel's objectives over the past several weeks, highlighting a split among Trump's most ardent supporters. And even if all the other G7 countries recognise Palestinian statehood, there won't be much of an effect anyway, Carle argues. "I think the reality is that there are only two countries that can really affect Israel's foreign policy. One is Israel, and the other is the United States".
Middle East Eye
6 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Israel's meltdown over western recognition of Palestinian statehood reveals its deepest fears
Now that France and Britain, both members of the United Nations Security Council and the G7, have indicated they are prepared to recognise the State of Palestine, the dam has burst. On Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney indicated his government also intends to recognise Palestine during the upcoming session of the UN General Assembly in New York, and an increasing number of western states are adopting or preparing similar positions. It is far from certain whether any of these governments will actually follow through on their statements of intent. By attaching various conditions to their plans, they have already given themselves an escape clause should they need to use it. Given that a two-state settlement has been the official position of these western governments for decades, the question arises as to why they have waited so long to recognise the state without which their proclaimed strategic objective is impossible, particularly since a majority of countries recognised Palestine long ago. One reason lies in their domestic politics and the profound transformation of western public opinion. The shift has been building over many years, and is the harvest of continuous, persistent efforts by countless individuals and organisations to bring about changes in official policy. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters In large part, thanks to their campaigns, the impact of the Gaza genocide on public opinion manifested itself much more rapidly and broadly than would otherwise have been the case. It is safe to conclude this change is now irreversible, similar to that experienced by South Africa after the 1960 Sharpeville massacre. Public pressure Faced with a deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and mounting public pressure, western governments were compelled to act. Most have chosen the symbolic and comparatively cost-free approach of recognition. They have done so in large part to avoid adopting concrete measures, such as an arms embargo, trade sanctions, or diplomatic isolation. Yet their response has also demonstrated that the pressures generated by protracted public campaigns can and do produce results, and can indeed force governments to change course. Western governments are now acting on recognition because Israel's own words and actions have backed them into a corner and left them with no other choice The continuation and intensification of these campaigns is therefore more justified and necessary than ever. They must now focus on compelling these governments to take active measures to end their complicity in Israeli crimes, bring these crimes to a halt, and replace the shield of impunity that governments continue to provide to Israel with policies that impose actual accountability. A second reason western governments are now acting on recognition is that Israel's own words and actions have backed them into a corner and left them with no other choice. For decades, these states have treated "two-state settlement" and "Palestinian state" not as policies requiring concrete actions in order to bring them about, but rather as political slogans, under the cover of which Israel was permitted to turbocharge its efforts to annex Palestinian territory and dispossess its inhabitants with the express purpose of making a two-state settlement impossible. As long as Israel was willing to pretend it sought peace with the Palestinians and make occasional statements that it, too, supported a two-state settlement, western states could deflect pressure to confront its annexationist activities on the pretext that doing so would undermine Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and thus the consummation of a two-state settlement. The peace process had to be kept alive at all costs. In this Kafkaesque world, "two-state settlement" served as a fig leaf for its elimination. Cornered by Israel As Israel shifted ever further to the extreme right, the pretence of negotiations became increasingly untenable. With the Gaza genocide, it has become simply impossible to sustain. Israeli leaders - all of them - now openly speak of their intention to collectively expel the Palestinians they have not killed from the Gaza Strip, to annex the West Bank, and to ensure a Palestinian state is never established. It is official Israeli government policy. In explaining Canada's new position, Carney explicitly referenced Israel's actions, not only in the Gaza Strip but particularly in the West Bank, as justifications. These include "accelerated settlement building across the West Bank and East Jerusalem", the "E1 Settlement Plan", and this month's vote by the Knesset calling for the annexation of the West Bank, as well as soaring settler terrorism. Like its predecessors, Canada recognised that its continued embrace of a two-state settlement and Palestinian statehood, while supporting these only with empty slogans, had become at best nonsensical and politically costly. Israeli extremism left Ottawa and other western capitals with exactly two options: recognise Palestine or endorse formal Israeli annexation. In addition to other factors, last year's International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion that Israeli rule in the occupied territories is illegal and must end as rapidly as possible would have complicated a move to legitimise Israeli annexation. Failed alternative A third reason for the recognition of Palestinian statehood is the failure of the alternative formulated by the first Trump administration: Arab-Israeli normalisation as a substitute for Palestinian self-determination. Rather than promote normalisation as the icing on the cake of a two-state settlement, the grandiloquently titled Abraham Accords were designed to weaken, isolate and ultimately marginalise the Palestinians. Follow Middle East Eye's live coverage of Israel's war on Gaza They essentially aimed to remove the Question of Palestine from the regional as well as international agenda with official Arab support. They enabled Israel to unilaterally resolve the Question of Palestine as it saw fit. Israel was given all the time and space it required to discard the Palestinians into the dustbin of history while the world looked the other way. These efforts, however, ended in resounding failure on 7 October 2023. While claims that Hamas specifically acted that day to thwart a purportedly impending Saudi-Israeli normalisation agreement were never convincing, by 2025, any such deal that excludes provisions for Palestinian statehood is no longer a tenable proposition. Nearly two years on, Palestine continues to dominate the headlines. Selective memory Israel and its apologists have responded to these recognition announcements with predictable rage and fury. The eruption of Mt Hasbara is almost without precedent. Among the arguments put forward by Israel and its flunkies are that recognition is a "reward for terrorism", represents "a prize for Hamas", and even that it encourages Hamas to harden its position in negotiations to end the Gaza genocide. It is, of course, true that political crises and armed conflicts typically result in modifications, changes, and even transformations of policy. This has been an observable pattern since the dawn of history. Israeli settler terrorism isn't new. It is foundational to the Zionist project Read More » If reality were any different, Ho Chi Minh City would still be an American brothel named Saigon, Algeria would still be an administrative department of France, and Zimbabwe would still be known as Rhodesia, to give but a few recent examples. In their time, those who brought these changes about were vilified as terrorists, and the achievement of their rights similarly denounced as rewards for terrorism. There is nothing new under the sun here, though the Hasbara Symphony Orchestra is admittedly more shrill than its historical counterparts by orders of magnitude. What the orchestra's musicians omit entirely is how this pattern worked to their own advantage. After Britain successfully crushed the 1936-39 Arab Revolt in Palestine, during which it empowered Zionist militias to serve as auxiliaries in its counterinsurgency campaign, the latter increasingly turned their guns on their British sponsors. Throughout the 1940s, Zionist militias conducted a growing volume of attacks against British forces, and in addition to killing British soldiers, assassinated British officials in Palestine and abroad. In 1946, they blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which housed the headquarters of the British Mandatory government in Palestine, killing nearly 100. Two future Israeli prime ministers, Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, were classified as wanted terrorists by the British authorities. The Zionist campaign against the British played an important role in London's decision to terminate the Mandate, which gave way to Israel. But that was "good" terrorism. Political blackmail In the specific case of Palestine, every country now announcing an intention to recognise its statehood has been on record supporting this position for decades. And for roughly half a century, the recognition of a Palestinian state in the occupied territories has formed a key component of the international consensus on Arab-Israeli peace. As for the Palestinian people, their right to national self-determination has been recognised as inalienable since the 1970s. For good measure, the ICJ in 2024 ruled that Israel has no right to exercise authority over even a square millimetre of Palestinian territory. The more pertinent question, therefore, is why it took the Gaza genocide and Israel speeding towards formal annexation of the West Bank for these states to finally begin the process of recognising Palestinian statehood. Why have they spent the past several decades appeasing Israel at every turn rather than confronting its crimes and illegal activities? And why have their announcements regarding recognition not been accompanied by specific, concrete and meaningful measures that promote it in practice? Palestinian UN representative Riyad Mansour attends the General Assembly's 46th plenary meeting on the Question of Palestine at UN headquarters in New York, 3 December 2024 (Kena Betancur/AFP) The indisputable reality is that it is Israel that has, year after year, been rewarded for its illegal occupation and criminal policies, and has been endlessly appeased. That it took a genocide, and two years after its onset, for western governments to reconsider this state of affairs is the true scandal. As for Hamas's negotiating position, it is unclear how a symbolic political act that may or may not be carried out in several weeks is going to harden or in any way change its calculations in ongoing negotiations about an end to Israel's genocidal military campaign, which has now also produced a famine in the Gaza Strip. Rather, we are dealing with either pure hysteria, a desperate effort at political blackmail, or a talking point designed to provide Israel's government with yet another pretext to sabotage ceasefire negotiations. It also bears mentioning that those announcing an intention to recognise Palestinian statehood have typically conditioned this on a removal of Hamas from governance in the Gaza Strip, and in a number of cases, such as that of Canada, even the exclusion of Hamas from new Palestinian Authority elections. Israel's real fear When it comes to negotiations, Israel has never acted in good faith to bring the occupation that commenced in 1967 to a definitive end. In each round of negotiations, Israel invariably insisted upon, among other things, retaining occupied territory in a manner that ensured most illegal settlements and settlers would remain in place. The territory Israel sought to annex would not only fragment a Palestinian state but, together with other demands, also leave Israel in effective control of its external borders - as though Jordan and Egypt were poised to invade Tel Aviv. As the two-state paradigm becomes a thing of the past, and recognition of Israeli annexation remains off the table, a deeper crisis awaits the genocidal apartheid regime What Israel was offering the Palestinians was a state in name only: for all intents and purposes, an Israeli protectorate lacking meaningful sovereignty. It is what former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad perceptively called a "Mickey Mouse State". Today Israel is not only rejecting any negotiations with Palestinians on an end to the occupation as a matter of principle, but these talks have also been made superfluous by the ICJ ruling. The ruling declared the occupation illegal in its entirety and requires Israel to withdraw to the 1967 boundaries as a matter of legal obligation, without Palestinian territorial concessions save mutually agreed, reciprocal, and minor border adjustments. Given this context, it is noteworthy that the final document of the recent High-Level International Conference on Palestine, organised by France and Saudi Arabia, co-chaired by 19 states, and convened at UN headquarters in New York, repeatedly speaks of implementing a two-state settlement without once referencing that tired old saw, "negotiations". Ultimately, Israel's meltdown over western recognition of Palestinian statehood is not about recognition as such. Rather, it reflects its fear - an entirely justified one - that the dam has burst. Slowly but surely, these governments are beginning to respond to the campaigns and demands of their citizens for an entirely different approach to Palestine. It won't end with symbolic political gestures, and Israel understands this better than anybody. As the two-state paradigm becomes a thing of the past, and recognition of Israeli annexation remains off the table, a more fundamental crisis awaits the genocidal apartheid regime. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Gulf Today
14 hours ago
- Gulf Today
Trump hits dozens of countries' goods with steep tariffs
US President Donald Trump slapped steep tariffs on exports from dozens of trading partners including Canada, Brazil, India and Taiwan, pressing ahead with his plans to reorder the global economy ahead of a Friday trade deal set rates including a 35% duty on many goods from Canada, 50% for Brazil, 25% for India, 20% for Taiwan and 39% for Switzerland, according to a presidential executive order. The order listed higher import duty rates of 10% to 41% starting in seven days for 69 trading partners as the 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT) deadline of them had reached tariff-reducing deals; others had no opportunity to negotiate with his administration. Trump included an exception for some goods shipped within the coming from all other countries not listed would be subject to a 10% US import tax. Trump had previously said that rate might be higher. The administration also teased that more trade deals were in the pipeline as it seeks to close trade deficits and boost domestic a Friday deadline of his making, the Republican president has tapped emergency powers, pressured foreign leaders, and pressed ahead with trade policies that sparked a market sell-off when they were first announced in April. This time, markets had a more muted reaction. Stocks and equity futures fell modestly in Friday morning trading in order said that some trading partners, "despite having engaged in negotiations, have offered terms that, in my judgment, do not sufficiently address imbalances in our trading relationship or have failed to align sufficiently with the United States on economic and national-security matters. Other details are still to come, including on the "rules of origin" that will determine what products might face even higher also said "we have made a few deals today that are excellent deals for the country," and a U.S. official later told reporters that they were still to be announced. CANADA, MEXICOTrump issued a separate order for Canada that raises the rate on Canadian goods subject to fentanyl-related tariffs to 35%, from 25% previously, saying Canada had "failed to cooperate" in curbing illicit narcotics flows into the USThe higher tariffs on Canadian goods contrasted sharply with Trump's decision to grant Mexico a 90-day reprieve from higher tariffs of 30% on many goods to provide more time to negotiate a broader trade pact. Trump complained to reporters earlier that Canada had "been very poorly led."Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was disappointed by Trump's decision, and vowed to take action to protect Canadian jobs and diversify the country's export markets."While we will continue to negotiate with the United States on our trading relationship, the Canadian government is laser focused on what we can control: building Canada strong," he said in a post on X. The extension for Mexico avoids a 30% tariff on most Mexican non-automotive and non-metal goods compliant with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade and came after a Thursday morning call between Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum."We avoided the tariff increase announced for tomorrow," Sheinbaum wrote on X, adding that the Trump call was "very good." About 85% of U.S. imports from Mexico comply with the rules of origin outlined in the USMCA, shielding them from 25% tariffs related to fentanyl, according to Mexico's economy said the US would continue to levy a 50% tariff on Mexican steel, aluminum and copper and a 25% tariff on Mexican autos and on non-USMCA-compliant goods subject to tariffs related to the US fentanyl crisis." Additionally, Mexico has agreed to immediately terminate its Non Tariff Trade Barriers, of which there were many," Trump said in a Truth Social post, without providing DISCORDGoods from India appeared to be headed for a 25% tariff after talks bogged down over access to India's agriculture sector, drawing a higher-rate threat from Trump that also included an unspecified penalty for India's purchases of Russian oil. Although negotiations with India were continuing, New Delhi vowed to protect the country's labor-intensive farm sector, and the threat of higher rates from Trump triggered outrage from the opposition party and a slump in the rupee. Trump's rollout of higher import taxes on Friday comes amid more evidence they have begun driving up consumer goods Department data released Thursday showed prices for home furnishings and durable household equipment jumped 1.3% in June, the biggest gain since March 2022. Recreational goods and vehicles prices shot up 0.9%, the most since February 2024. Prices for clothing and footwear rose 0.4%.TOUGH QUESTIONS FROM JUDGESTrump hit Brazil's exports on Wednesday with a steep 50% tariff as he escalated his fight with Latin America's largest economy over its prosecution of his friend and former President Jair Bolsonaro, but softened the blow by excluding sectors such as aircraft, energy and orange juice from heavier levies. The run-up to Trump's tariff deadline was unfolding as federal appeals court judges sharply questioned Trump's use of a sweeping emergency powers law to justify his sweeping tariffs of up to 50% on nearly all trading invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to declare an emergency over the growing U.S. trade deficit and impose his "reciprocal" tariffs and a separate fentanyl emergency. The Court of International Trade ruled in May that the actions exceeded his executive authority, and questions from judges during oral arguments before the US Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit in Washington indicated further skepticism. Meanwhile, China is facing an August 12 deadline to reach a durable tariff agreement with Trump's administration, after Beijing and Washington reached preliminary deals in May and June to end escalating tit-for-tat tariffs and a cut-off of rare earth minerals.A U.S. official told reporters that they are making progress toward a deal.
