The United States Trade Representative held media availability in Iowa today, so we’re starting with that update in tonight’s newsletter.

USTR Jamieson Greer says talks with Canada are ongoing, but Ottawa needs to drop its retaliatory tariffs as the two countries race to reach an agreement before another round of U.S. tariffs takes effect next week.

“The Canadians have come in and they want to have a conversation about it, and we’re having those conversations. I mean, again, this is a global trade policy,” Greer said in Des Moines Friday, where he was touring tire manufacturers.

“We have been suffering in the United States for decades under a trade policy that incentivizes offshoring to China, to Mexico, to Vietnam, but in some cases to Canada even, and we can’t allow that to happen anymore,” Greer said on Friday.

Canadian and U.S. officials have been engaged in intensive negotiations this week, with Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and chief trade negotiator Janice Charette were in Washington D.C. on Thursday for discussions with their American counterparts.

Greer noted the three gripes the U.S. had, which included Canada’s ban on American wine and spirits, what he described as “uneven” dairy treatment, and procurement rules.

Barbara Patrocinio, Marco Vigliotti and Sydney Ko report. 

Also, the federal government still can’t locate 111 Indigenous artworks missing from its collection — nearly two years after an internal audit found it couldn’t account for 132.

The Indigenous Art Centre’s collection — established by the federal government in 1965 to protect, preserve and promote Indigenous art — consists of more than 5,000 works from First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists.

The collection, which is valued at roughly $14.4 million, includes works by such renowned artists as Christi Belcourt, Elisapee Ishulutaq, Kent Monkman and Norval Morrisseau.

An internal audit of the collection, dated November 2024, was posted last October on the Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada website. It tracked the operations of the department’s Indigenous Art Centre from April 2019 to August 2024 and said the centre could not account for 132 items in the collection.

The audit does not say how much the mislaid artworks are worth.

The Canadian Press has more. 

Conservative MP Mike Dawson is fighting to forego the annual pay raise given to members of Parliament, though the House of Commons argues he is legally required to accept the money.

The MP for Miramichi-Grand Lake, N.B., who first spoke out against the pay raise in February, filed an application for judicial review in Federal Court in June in a bid to reject the pay hike of nearly $8,000.

In his affidavit, Dawson said he made his request because he believes elected officials should demonstrate “fiscal restraint and solidarity with ordinary Canadians” facing unsustainable spikes in the cost of living.

“I continue to hold that belief,” he said.

Dawson said he has received more than 20,000 messages from Canadians expressing their support since February. Several of those letters were included in the affidavit’s appendix.

CP’s got this one too. 

In Other Headlines

Internationally

Elsewhere, Luigi Mangione, the 28-year-old accused of killing a health care executive on a Manhattan street, pleaded guilty to stalking charges in federal court Friday.

Mangione faced those charges in connection with the December 2024 shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

“I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan and he died,” Mangione said in court Friday. “I knew what I was doing.”

Thompson’s family was in the courtroom sitting in the front row watching as Mangione entered his plea. Mangione voiced no remorse and repeatedly referenced his concerns with the U.S. health care system.

Mangione, who arrived in court wearing what appeared to be tan-colored prison fatigues rather than the business suit he’s worn to previous hearings, said he stalked Mr. Thompson, posing as an investor to gain information about the conference where Thompson was scheduled to appear.

Read more from NPR.

Almost 500 people have been arrested on suspicion of starting wildfires in France since the start of the summer, authorities have said, as firefighters in half a dozen European countries tackle ferocious blazes amid a record-breaking heatwave.

A fire engulfed ⁠homes in a Croatian holiday resort on Friday, killing one person, injuring 40 and forcing 1,200 to evacuate, officials said, as the EU warned that pockets of “very extreme” wildfire conditions stretched across the continent.

Hundreds more people were evacuated from villages in western Germany and south-west France, while stranded holidaymakers were picked up from beaches threatened by flames in Greece, and the army rescued historic relics in Spain.

With three in five Europeans facing temperatures of at least 30C on Friday and about 150 million enduring 35C or more, France’s interior ministry said 474 people, including 183 minors, had been detained over wildfires in the country since 1 July.

The Guardian has more. 

In Other International Headlines

The Kicker

And finally, for anyone nostalgic for the days when sending a message required a little more patience —well, potentially a lot more — there’s now an app for that.

A new messenger app is bringing snail mail into the digital age by sending texts via virtual carrier pigeon. Messages can take hours, or even days to arrive.

Committed to historical accuracy, there’s also a change it never makes it.

Have a great weekend!