Good morning and happy Friday! If you’re wondering why you may be hearing about South Park more than you have in the last 20 years, they decided to stick it to Paramount and Donald Trump by insulting the pair throughout their season premier on Wednesday night. This comes after Paramount gave them a $1.5-billion, 50-episode deal over 5 years. Will they live to see the full 5 years after that episode? 😅 

The White House ended up responding by saying the show is “irrelevant,” but how irrelevant can it be when you have the White House feeling the need to respond?

What else has happened this week and what’s to come?

• While May retail sales dropped 1.1%, there are estimates of a 1.6% rebound to come for June.

• Businesses feel like the “worst-case scenario” for the trade war has been reduced, but confidence is still low.

• Leaders are now calming assumptions of a trade deal with the United States being agreed to before the August 1st deadline.

CANADA

Buying Canadian with an exception

Since President Trump started a trade war with Canada, Canadians have been more than happy to trade their Florida beach vacations for a trip to Banff, their American bourbon for Canadian rye and swap American products for Canadian products in grocery stores. Still, there’s one area where Canadians have not adopted a “buy Canadian” attitude: the stock market.

What’s going on? Despite backlash and an “elbows up” attitude towards American products, Canadians have been buying American stocks at a record pace since President Trump’s second term began.

• When the trade war started in February with 25% tariffs placed on Canadian goods, Canadians poured a record $29.8-billion into U.S. securities.

• In May, Canadians bought $14.2-billion in U.S. shares, which is up 377% from the same time last year.

Big picture: The trade war has done exactly what Trump set out to do - shake confidence in non-American markets. Canadian investors have been fleeing the Canadian market and pumping a total of $59.9-billion into U.S. securities in the first five months of 2025. In the same time period, Canada saw a net outflow of $83.9-billion.

So, the TSX is doing poorly then? You’d be surprised. Despite shaky confidence in Canada’s economy and net outflow numbers, the TSX is outperforming the S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq this year.

CANADA

🇨🇦 Canadian Stories

• All 5 former World Junior players were found not guilty in a sexual assault trial that went back to 2018.

• A new report by the Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives says the federal government could cut almost 60,000 jobs, a dramatic increase from other, more conservative estimates that have the number at around 15,000-25,000.

• TD Bank is joining the club, bringing employees back into the office at least 4 days a week beginning in November.

• Loblaw reports products affected by tariffs (marked with a “T” in their stores) have declined in sales by 15% and the rate of decline is accelerating.

• The Canadian Federation of Independent Business expects to see declining growth in Canada’s economy, with the second and third quarters of 2025 showing contraction.

• Algoma Steel Group is seeking close to $600-million from the Federal government in financial support, as increased tariffs have shut them out of the American market. One Algoma shareholder says the terms the federal government are requesting in return for the loan are akin to a loan shark, as Ottawa commands high interest rates and the ability to buy Algoma shares at low prices.

• 7-Eleven’s holding company, Seven & i Holdings, responded to claims made by Couche-Tard after a failed agreement, saying they were serious about going the distance, but Couche-Tard didn’t seem to take antitrust matters into account and lacked knowledge of the Japanese market.

• Rescue operations began for three workers trapped in a mine in British Columbia. The three workers are in refuge chambers with food, water and supplies as rescuers work through 30 metres of debris.

• Premiers called for increased trade co-operation with China during the trade war with the United States. Premiers also called for more power over immigration, threatening to issue their own work permits as they call for an increase in economic immigration.

AI

Moving too quick

In the race for innovation, researchers are now ringing the alarm bells over the fact that AI reasoning is becoming more blurred, and they’re losing sight of why some models are making the decisions or exercising the thought processes that it does.

What’s happening? AI researchers, including those from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta, jointly called for developers to prioritize chain-of-thought (CoT) research processes that give developers an understanding of why and how AI models make decisions.

There’s a stark warning here: the quicker AI technology is advancing, and it’s advancing quickly, this window of opportunity is vanishing, and the chance to research how AI models make decisions will vanish. This means there will be fewer assurances of safety and accountability.

It won’t get easier. As the “AI race” intensifies, President Trump wants less red tape and regulation in favour of more innovation - even if it sacrifices safety.

WORLD

🚨 More Headlines

💼Trump is on Epstein’s list. The WSJ learned President Trump was informed in May that his name appeared multiple times in a “truckload of documents” relating to Jeffrey Epstein, including the infamous Jeffrey Epstein’s list. On Wednesday night, a Florida judge declined to release Epstein’s grand jury documents.

✅Trump gets fact-checked in real time. President Trump and Fed Chair Jerome Powell toured the Fed headquarters, currently undergoing renovations. When Trump said costs were going over budget and up to $3.1-billion, Powell checked him in real-time, telling him he was adding in the costs of work done 5 years ago. After the awkward exchange, Trump said he was stepping back from the idea of firing Powell and believed he’d do the “right thing” and lower rates.

🇯🇵”Massive” trade deal announced. Donald Trump announced a “massive” trade agreement between the United States and Japan, which includes 15% tariffs on Japanese imports and Japan’s commitment to invest $550-billion in the United States, with the United States seeing 90% of the profits. Japan gets an advantage against the rest of the world with its tariff rate being 15%, including on cars and car parts, against 25% blanket tariffs.

🏫Another settlement win for Trump. Columbia University reached a settlement agreement with the Trump administration worth $200-million. The settlement will be paid over three years and comes with Columbia agreeing to change policies, including their DEI policies.

Business & Finance

• Spotify was caught uploading AI-slop music to pages of artists that had been dead for some time, without permission from the estate or label.

• Sydney Sweeney is the face of meme stocks for now after Wall Street Bets sent American Eagle’s stock soaring 12% after a new campaign from the company featured the actress.

• Elon Musk warns investors of a “rough” ride ahead after Tesla’s revenue saw its sharpest decline in 10 years. Musk puts the blame on changing laws and reduced incentives for consumers to pick an electric vehicle.

• Regulators finally approved the $8-billion Skydance-Paramount merger, after Skydance pledged to the FCC that it would eliminate “DEI” and strip away “bias” at CBS News.

• Uber is rolling out an in-app feature that allows a passenger to request a female driver. It goes both ways, as women drivers will be able to prioritize picking up female passengers.

STAT

The magic number: 15%

It’s becoming clearer that if you’re a world leader looking to make a deal with the United States, there’s a minimum number that comes attached to it: a 15% tariff.

• Previously, the minimum tariff on most countries that trade with the U.S. was 10%.

• Recent trade deals, including the “massive agreement” with Japan, include a 15% minimum tariff.

• The European Union is closing in on an agreement with the United States that includes a 15% tariff.

• At an AI summit on Wednesday night, President Trump said there will be a “simple” tariff rate baked into any trade agreement, ranging from 15% to 50%.

What about Canada? Well, Canada can kiss free trade goodbye as even PM Carney has conceded that tariffs will be part of any trade deal with the United States. While Canada very likely won’t fall into the 50% category, it may not fall into the 15% bucket either, due to Trump’s very public disdain for Canada’s supply management that protects domestic dairy farmers.

NEWS

💭 What else is happening?

• Scientists found the world’s smallest snake species hanging out under a rock. They thought the snake had gone extinct a decade ago.

• A scientist raised the alarm about a new comet that has entered our solar system. What makes it different from other comets? It’s not an ordinary comet. In fact, it might be a hostile alien probe.

• Chipotle’s shares sank 9% due to weak dine-out demand. This, despite more stores popping up in Canada.

• Following the trend of climate change messing with food products and prices, Hershey announced it would be raising the cost of its chocolate due to high cocoa prices.

• LeBron James’ legal team sent a cease-and-desist letter to AI companies that are using his image and making him pregnant. Yes. Pregnant.

• Hulk Hogan, of pro wrestling fame, passed away at 71 years old from a severe cardiac arrest.

RECOMMENDATIONS

✅ Weekend to-do

☑️ Weekend reading:

• Is Apple TV+ filling the void that HBO has left? Read here.

• Can you guess what country is the only one that is able to produce all of its own food?

• We’re talking about this one: fascist fight clubs are on the rise in Canada.

• Who killed Hudson’s Bay? Private equity, of course.

• Looking for a new podcast? TIME has put together a list of the top 100 podcasts of all time.

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