Canada Prime Minister Carney defended the French influence of Canada on Monday while American negotiators saw the French language in Canada as an “irritant”, days after receiving widespread praise from political leaders for rejecting a US trade proposal that many perceived as weakening the country’s Francophone culture.

The prime minister’s remarks came hours after US president Trump showed little interest in retreating from the spat, posting on social media that Canada had been “ripping off the United States of America for years” and threatening a swath of new, economically devastating tariffs on cars and trucks.

Quebec, Canada’s predominantly French-speaking province, has long sought to protect its distinct identity, at times with laws that clashed with the federal government and the Canadian charter of rights and freedoms. In recent years those rules have also frustrated US negotiators, who have framed them as trade irritants. Bill 96, for example, requires products sold in Quebec to have a French description and for trademarks using generic terms to be translated into French, while Bill 109 compels media services such as Netflix, Spotify and Apple to promote and prioritize French content for Quebec users.

Quebec’s premier, Christine Fréchette, said Carney had made the right decision in walking away from talks that looked to cross a “red line” for Francophones.

Carney’s decision to abandon trade talks with the US spurred declarations from political leaders and pundits in Canada that the country is now fully locked into an economic war with its longtime ally.

Australian officials say they are dismayed by the Trump administration’s ongoing assault on the International Criminal Court (ICC), despite federal government ministers remaining silent on the move.

The government has also been quietly maintaining contact with Australians working at the ICC who might be targeted by future US sanctions, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed to ramp up his campaign to “dismantle” the court.

The Trump administration has already sanctioned several ICC lawyers, and last week Rubio announced fresh sanctions on ICC president Tomoko Akane, a Japanese national, and senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye, who is Senegalese. Rubio’s reason is they have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction.

The United States has never joined the ICC, and the Trump administration has long been openly hostile to the court, calling it an “unelected, unaccountable, global bureaucracy” that undermines US sovereignty. Last year Trump also announced sanctions on several ICC officials after it issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told the ABC that Australia “does not support sanctioning the ICC or its officials”, although it did not mention the United States or the Trump administration. Many US allies have also given a muted response to the sanctions, although the European Union said last week it “deeply regrets” the decision, and expressed “unwavering support” for the ICC.

The Spanish government has U-turned and said it will allow 500 migrant children in Ceuta to relocate to the mainland.

The majority of the estimated 70,000 people who crossed into Ceuta – a Spanish territory on the coast of north Africa – on 30 July have returned to Morocco. However, under Spanish law, the state has a duty of care to young, unaccompanied migrants until they reach the age of 18.

The transfer of the children to the Spanish mainland is a sensitive political topic as several regions governed jointly by the conservative People’s party and the far-right Vox are reluctant or opposed to receiving their quota. To minimise conflict, the youth ministry, in coordination with the Ceuta government, is devising an urgent plan under which NGOs and child protection agencies take charge of the most vulnerable children, girls in particular, without transferring their guardianship to Spain’s regional governments.

News of the government’s plan came only hours after the European Commission said that under EU law all of the migrants should be returned to Morocco. Asked to clarify, the commission’s spokesperson on internal affairs, Markus Lammert, said that by law all irregular migrants remaining in Ceuta should be sent back, “including unaccompanied minors”. But The People’s party has rejected the government plan, saying the best place for the children is with their families.

The mixed messages partly derive from the fact the latest European pact on immigration has not yet been incorporated into Spanish law and therefore Spain’s own legislation on the treatment of unaccompanied minors remains in force.