//The Wire//2300Z February 3, 2025//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: TRADE DISPUTES CONTINUE IN NORTH AMERICA. COUNTER-ICE PROTESTS BECOME MORE COMMON THROUGHOUT THE USA.//

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-International Events-

North America: Over the weekend, the two-front trade dispute between the United States, Canada, and Mexico has become more substantial as both Canada and Mexico have announced retaliatory tariffs on imported American goods. In Mexico, following diplomatic discussions, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has agreed to deploy approximately 10,000 troops to the border with the United States.

AC: If this deployment actually comes to fruition, this will be an absolutely massive effort on the part of Mexico. Right now, the United States has had around 10,000 soldiers deployed to the border region for many years. Of course, this number has fluctuated over the years, but generally speaking it's been a logistical nightmare for the U.S. military. In Mexico, committing 10,000 troops to a border security mission would be completely unheard of. Nevertheless, the agreement has been made, and time will tell if it will hold. Perhaps to sweeten the deal, this morning Mexican authorities captured El Mando Ricky, one of the leaders of the CDN Cartel in Nuevo Laredo. A significant skirmish was reported during this raid, causing the U.S. Consulate to issue a shelter-in-place warning for all Americans in the city.

Greece: Over the past few days the region has been host to substantial seismic activity, with over 200 earthquakes being reported throughout the nation. So far the damage has been minimal, as the earthquakes have been comparatively small, however the increased activity is raising concerns that a larger earthquake may be imminent. Most of the earthquakes have clustered around Santorini, a major volcano. Notably, the earthquakes that have been reported are tectonic and not volcanic in nature, but the risk of a larger event remains elevated nonetheless as the magnitude of these earthquakes has been increasing.

-HomeFront-

USA: Counter-ICE resistance movements continue to take form, with several protest actions and demonstrations taking place over the weekend. In California, protesters shut down several major highways, and have continued sporadic demonstrations throughout the day. AC: In California, the single greatest method for ensuring that the entire population hates you and your protest movement, is to block traffic. Either way, the demonstrations have continued throughout the state.

Washington D.C. - Since President Trump's inauguration (and thus the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)), many items of note have come to light regarding corruption, inefficiency, money laundering, and so on. For instance, USAID (the main agency responsible for the distribution of financial aid to foreign nations) has largely been shut down and their duties delegated to the State Department.

AC: While the exact reasons for this have not entirely been made public yet, from the outside looking in, it appears as though USAID was largely serving as mostly a money laundering platform, which was automatically issuing payments, even to known terror groups (which is not a new problem, this has been going on publicly for years).

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Analyst Comments: Purely based on very simple import/export data, there is zero chance that the trade war between the United States and Canada will turn in Canada's favor. Roughly 20% of Canada's entire GDP comes from trade with the United States...but less than 0.02% of America's GDP comes from Canadian trade. Furthermore, Canada's efforts to somehow pushback against the United States are largely grounded in something other than logic, almost entirely due to Canada's own domestic actions over the past few years. For instance, specifically and deliberately due to government pressure