Welcome to a new week. As always, find our very latest at CSMonitor.com, including reports of renewed clashes in Syria and news that Mark Carney is set to become Canada’s next prime minister.   

The tariffs story is often cast as an outbound one, about punitive steps imposed to gain advantage. What’s the effect of tariffs on the countries at the receiving end? Depends on their cultures, political systems, and administrations.

Canada and Mexico appeared to get a few weeks’ reprieve from the United States last week. New threats followed. Ann Scott Tyson reports today on China. Social unrest there has been growing, driven by economic grievances, which the impact of tariffs could further fuel.

The reaction to unrest has added rigidity – including intensified police surveillance – in an already authoritarian system. That in turn appears set to drive more social unrest. Still to be seen: what effect several newly announced economic stimulus measures might have.