Chaiman! Please Negotiate a Contract With Ketchim. Tenks!

Canada is seeking an exemption to new U.S. trade restrictions on aluminum and steel, and is vowing to retaliate if it's slapped with any new tariffs.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the proposal "absolutely unacceptable," echoing the phrase used by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday.

A government official, speaking on background, said Canada believes any new tariffs should not apply to this country due to the highly integrated nature of the North American steel market, and because of the close co-operation between the two countries on defence issues.

A final decision from U.S. President Donald Trump is expected next week. Meanwhile, the Canadian government is discussing what its next steps will be if Washington doesn't order an exemption. For now, officials continue to make Canada's case at every possible level, the official said.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has launched a withering attack on cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin Friday and urged regulators around the world to monitor them in the same way as other financial assets.

In a speech to the Scottish Economics conference in Edinburgh, Carney laid into the "global speculative mania" that has fueled the ascent of cryptocurrencies and said they should be held to the "same standards" as the rest of the financial system.

"Being part of the financial system brings enormous privileges, but with them great responsibilities," Carney said.

Bitcoin, whose birth nearly a decade ago is clouded in mystery, is the world's most popular virtual currency. Like others, it can be converted to cash when deposited into accounts at prices set in online trading

no way

Sheriff's deputies in California were conducting an area check Wednesday when they came upon a large, rectangular box made of plywood -- and found three children living near mounds of trash and human feces.
The box was on a property that had neither running water nor electricity and was surrounded by large holes, police said. There were also 30 to 40 cats inside a travel trailer and roaming freely, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said.
Police said deputies found that three children -- age 11, 13 and 14 -- had been living in the large plywood box for about four years. The box measured about 20 feet long, 4 feet high and 10 feet wide. The children, police said, were found with "an inadequate amount of food and were living in an unsuitable and unsafe environment." Children and Family Service responded and took custody of the children.

A new New Yorker profile of Trump-Russia dossier author Christopher Steele reports on a lesser-known memo the former MI-6 spy allegedly discussed with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators. According to the report, in late November 2016, Steele relayed information from his Russian sources that senior Kremlin officials had intervened to block Mitt Romney as President-elect Trump’s choice for secretary of State. Reporter Jane Mayer writes that Moscow had asked Trump to appoint someone who would be willing to lift sanctions related to Ukraine and cooperate with Russia’s involvement in Syria. Romney, long a vocal hawk on Russia, declined to comment for the report. The White House said the former GOP presidential nominee was never a first choice for the job, and declined to comment on “any communications that the Trump team may have had with Russia on the subject.”

Reddit admitted it has “found and removed a few hundred accounts” associated with Russian propaganda, one week after The Daily Beast confirmed the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency, or Troll Farm, used the platform during the 2016 presidential campaign. Reddit’s CEO Steve Huffman, writing under the username Spez, outlined both direct propaganda, such as troll accounts using the platform, and indirect propaganda, like subreddits such as r/The_Donald repeatedly linking to Russian Twitter troll account @TEN_GOP. “Given the recent news, we’d like to share some of what we’ve learned,” he wrote. Reddit did not respond to repeated requests for comment after The Daily Beast's investigation last week.

North Korea is willing to begin negotiations on abandoning its nuclear weapons and will suspend all nuclear and missile tests while talks are ongoing, South Korean officials said in a statement Tuesday, following two days of unprecedented meetings between senior South Korean officials and the North’s ruler, Kim Jong Un. “The North Korean side clearly stated its willingness to denuclearize,” the statement said. “It made it clear that it would have no reason to keep nuclear weapons if the military threat to the North was eliminated and its security guaranteed.” South Korea’s intelligence chief, Suh Hoon, and the country’s top national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, last night attended a four-hour long dinner with Kim, which, according to the North, “proceeded in a warm atmosphere overflowing with compatriotic feelings.” The thaw in relations between the two Koreas was accelerated by the North’s participation in the Winter Olympics in South Korea last month.

The Government of Guyana yesterday announced that it has received an ‘Oil and Gas Master Plan’ for Guyana, which was developed and submitted by Mitsubishi Corporation and Chiyoda Corporation in collaboration with the Government of Japan.

In a statement issued last evening, the Ministry of the Presidency said the plan has as key objectives the development of Guyana’s domestic oil industry, the creation of a balance in the domestic usage and exportation of products from indigenous oil and gas, the harmonisation of the industry in keeping with Guyana’s ‘green’ development agenda and the quantifying of the economic feasibility of the plans.