Carney Declares Trade War as Beijing Buys Around Washington

Canada's Mark Carney told the FT overnight his country is now "at war" with the US over trade, hours after Washington's 50 percent levy on Canadian goods took effect and Ottawa promised to match it dollar for dollar starting September 8. That fight will dominate wires today, but the more durable move sits in Rachel Lam's column: Beijing granted mainland insurers same-day settlement through Stock Connect, the cross-border channel letting mainland and Hong Kong investors trade each other's listed shares, and didn't need to pass a law to pull capital away from Singapore's tax-incentive push. Washington escalates with tariffs that require enforcement. Beijing escalates with plumbing that requires nothing. Elsewhere, Microsoft patched a maximum-severity Entra ID flaw without disclosure, leaving bank security teams with no way to confirm they weren't already compromised before the fix landed, the fourth identity-platform vulnerability this year where the vendor's all-clear substitutes for evidence. Iran called Washington's new sanctions round proof the US failed militarily, not proof it's winning economically. A Russian strike killed 14 at a shopping centre in Zelensky's hometown overnight. Watch whether Ottawa's September 8 retaliation date holds or slips under fresh talks.