Did you know: In Japan, there’s a waiter whose job is to dry your tears.

🚘 Carney cozies up with auto execs

On Wednesday, PM Carney met with CEOs of Ford Canada, GM Canada, Stellantis (Chrysler, Dodge brands) as well as the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association to talk about the fallout of President Trump’s 25% tariffs, the effect on the Canadian auto industry, job losses and ways to cushion the sector from further hits. Diversifying trade partners was also on the table, as has been a point for Mark Carney throughout his tenure as PM thus far.

One of the points brought up by the group of CEOs was contention around the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate set to come into play in Canada in 2026, which aims for 20% of vehicle sales to be zero-emission sales. The vehicle manufacturers argue that the 20% target is unrealistic and cost-prohibitive. EV sales have dropped from 16.5% to a shade over 7% this spring, giving automakers more guns in their holster to press the government to delay or repeal the 20% mandate until tariffs are pulled back and EV rebates stabilize.

💡What is the ZEV mandate?

Under its climate strategy, Canada’s federal government requires that 20% of all new vehicles sold by 2026 must be zero-emission vehicles. This number ramps up to 60% by 2030 and 100% by 2035.

The mandate is in limbo for a variety of reasons. While a large part of it ties back to President Trump’s trade wars, putting a squeeze on supply chains in Canada and ushering American auto manufacturers to build more vehicles in America, EV sales are sliding, from 16.5% earlier this year to a bit over 7% in the spring due to the federal government pausing their EV rebate program.

Bottom line: Canada’s auto sector has not weathered the storm of tariffs as well as their North American counterpart, Mexico has. Canada has seen steady declines and has seen manufacturers pause operations entirely and shed thousands of jobs. Due to cheaper costs of labour and a much larger investment from International corporations, Mexico is expected to sit tight and steady for at least a bit longer, whereas PM Mark Carney has to figure out a way to talk Canada’s auto sector - all held tight by three American corporations - to continue to invest in Canada and Canadian workers.

🇨🇦 Canadian Headlines

✂️Worst cuts in modern history? A report predicts Carney’s cost-savings may trigger one of the deepest job cuts in the public service ever. To achieve his promises and balance the spending on infrastructure projects to stimulate Canada’s economy, the federal government may see job losses over of 20% to meet the mark.

🏥Ontario makes more private healthcare investments. In another bit of investment, Ford’s government is moving to increase publicly-funded, privately-operated healthcare centres within the Ontario system. This time, the door is open for private surgery centres. Days after the announcement of more MRI, CT scan and endoscopy clinics, the Ford government will spend $125-million in public dollars and is targeting 20,000 additional surgeries over two years to cut wait times.

• Fear not: one of the caveats is these private clinics that receive a license are not allowed to refuse to treat someone for an OHIP-covered service if they don’t buy an upgrade, and they’re not allowed to charge fees to receive insured services faster.

🛜Big Internet is worried customers will get more choice. Canada’s big internet providers are on their toes as a CRTC ruling forces them to share their fibre networks with smaller providers. They warn the federal government that the ruling will affect investment in the tech upgrades as they’ll have fewer people to slap $5 bill increases on every three months.

✈️Bomb threats at airports cause delays. NAV Canada made a statement on Thursday morning saying they were made aware of bomb threats affecting airports in Ottawa, Montreal, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver. Flights were delayed for safety resumes, but a couple of hours later, the all-clear was given. No actual bombs were found at any airport.

🚔RCMP buys American. The RCMP renewed contracts for Black Hawk helicopters to patrol the Canada-U.S. border despite the industry association saying the contracts are opposite of the government’s approach during the ongoing trade war with the United States. The choppers that Canada received going back to 2022 don’t meet certification, as the second-hand choppers came without “typer certificates,” which let new owners know details about the aircraft and how they should be maintained. The RCMP renewed the lease for at least the next three months.

🔥RCMP equipment causes fire. On Thursday, the RCMP confirmed a malfunctioning piece of equipment sparked and ignited the Izman Creek wildfire near Lytton, British Columbia. The fire has now grown to 155 hectares. The community was still rebuilding after forest fires destroyed the area four years ago.

🪖Canadian army scandal. The Canadian Armed Forces are investigating a private Facebook group called the “Blue Hackle Mafia” that includes serving members. In a statement, it was confirmed that the group features racist, homophobic, misogynistic and antisemitic content. It’s another stain on the CAF after ongoing investigations over the past five years have exposed white nationalism, racism and discrimination run rampant.

🎤 The Diddy Trial

Sean “Diddy” Combs was found guilty on two counts of violating the Mann Act: transporting individuals for prostitution across state lines. But, for his more serious charges, which included racketeering conspiracy and two counts of sex trafficking, Diddy was acquitted after a seven-week trial.

The prosecution presented explosive testimony that touched on the infamous “freak-offs” and recounted a viral 2016 assault video. Despite that, the defence was successful in arguing that due to his ex, Cassie Ventura, texting him saying she was “always ready” which undermined the prosecution’s coercion argument.

🚨Diddy still faces jail time. He faces up to 20 years under the Mann Act (each count carries a decade) but expects a lighter sentence now. Diddy was denied bail and will remain in custody until his sentencing, which is likely to come in the fall. He’s already served 10 months and may also get that time credited to whatever sentence he ends up getting.

🏦 Numbers

🚒64 fires. Lightning strikes sparked new wildfires, bringing Saskatchewan’s active wildfire count up to 64. Saskatchewan has surpassed its five-year average at this point, with 327 wildfires this season as opposed to around 185 as their five-year average up to this point.

💰$16-million. Paramount settled a defamation lawsuit filed by Donald Trump over a 2024 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris. The $16-million in funds will go to Trump’s presidential library and legal fees. There’s no apology like Trump had initially asked for, but transcripts of future presidential candidate interviews will be made available. Trump was initially asking for $20-billion, so all-in-all, Paramount comes out relatively unscathed, however, critics warn of media “capitulation” and Trump continuing his war on the press.

🤯$30-billion. Oracle and OpenAI struck a massive deal that could scale up to $30-billion allowing OpenAI to rent an additional 4.5 gigawatts of data-centre capacity. To put that in layman’s terms, OpenAI can power 3-million homes. The move is required to handle AI’s huge computational demands (which is an entirely different conversation).

🚨 More Headlines

🏛️Congress passes Trump’s “big beautiful bill” after threats. After a narrow 51-50 vote through the Senate, there were questions as to whether the bill would end up passing through the House. Conservatives and centrists threatened to sink Trump’s bill heading to the July 4th deadline due to concerns surrounding Medicaid and exploding deficits ($3.4-trillion over 10 years). Despite the concerns, Republican leaders ended up convincing the holdouts to vote for the bill and pass it through the House by a vote of 218-214. Despite promising he wouldn’t touch Medicaid, it’s now estimated that 12 million people will lose health coverage because of the bill.

🍊Del Monte files for bankruptcy. After nearly 140 years of sharing canned fruit with everyone, the company filed for bankruptcy. The company plans to sell assets and leverage $912-million in financing to stay afloat until they find a buyer. Increased costs and consumer behaviour shifting to fresh foods led to sales declines the company couldn’t crawl out from.

🇺🇦U.S. blindsides Ukraine. At a time when Ukraine is facing its heaviest attacks yet, the U.S. has halted shipments of air defence systems and artillery to Ukraine, citing low Pentagon stockpiles. Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said it had not received an “official notification” regarding the pause and is left scrambling for a solution as it has to deal with constant Russian attacks. Meanwhile, Russia said the move by the U.S. would “help end the war early.”

🎬Michael Madsen passes away. Known for his roles in Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill, Donnie Brasco and much more, Madsen passed away at the age of 67 years old on Thursday morning. The death is being treated as natural causes.

⚽️Diogo Jota passes away at 28. Liverpool F.C. star Diogo Jota (28) and his brother, André Silva (25) passed away Thursday morning when their car suffered a tire blowout, lost control and erupted into flames. The deaths come just weeks after Jota’s wedding and Nations League win.

💭 ICYMI

💔Love is in the air, but not at Bumble. Bumble announced it’ll be cutting 240 roles, roughly 30% of its workforce as user engagement continues to drop. “Dating app fatigue” also plays a factor as more people are meeting others the old-fashioned way. Last month, the Match Group, which owns Tinder, Hinge and OKCupid, announced it would be cutting 13% of its workforce for similar reasons.

🇺🇸”No, thanks” to Made in America. Tariffs were meant to move manufacturing to the United States, so when one company making dog beds tried to make theirs domestically (rather than in China), they learned the hard way of the costs that come with Made in America. Retailers weren’t willing to pick up dog beds that cost nearly $500, and consumers weren’t willing to pay the price either.

🧠Microsoft cuts 9,000 jobs. After cutting 6,000 jobs in May, Microsoft cut another 9,000 jobs, largely affecting Xbox, sales and marketing positions as they shift to pouring more resources into AI.

👎Racist AI videos go viral. Google’s Veo 3 tool is under fire for generating racist videos depicting Black women as primates. These videos have gone viral on TikTok and Instagram with tens of millions of views, which also says a lot about the algorithms behind these social media apps.

🛑OpenAI slams Robinhood. Robinhood, famously known for their GameStop and AMC stock fiascos, unveiled “OpenAI tokens” which suggest equity in OpenAI. OpenAI responded to the shady behaviour, telling people they’re not involved, have nothing to do with it and for buyers to beware.

📺Neil Druckmann steps away from The Last of Us season 3. The brain behind The Last of Us video games will no longer be involved in the television show, departing after two seasons, with season two only covering half of the second game. While Neil Druckmann says it’s to focus on Naughty Dog games, the departure now leaves a creative split after criticism arose in season two on how the television show deviated away from the game.

😊 Not everything needs to be serious…

Not everything needs to be serious and dreary. We can smile at the news too, and one of my goals is to end every edition with a story that you wouldn’t ordinarily see in the news, but that will hopefully make you smile.

💊This one is a medical breakthrough. After bioengineering molecules from “Pharaoh’s curse” - a fungus found in King Tut’s tomb - the new compounds killed leukaemia cells in lab tests as effectively as FDA-approved drugs. The team also isolated four peptide variants and performed on par with conventional chemotherapy after one lipid tweak. The study opens the door to more fungal medicine research.

Read the story here.

🤓 Weekend Reads

What happens after A.I. destroys college writing?

Americans are reading less. Is that poisoning our politics?

Mind-reading AI turns paralyzed man’s brainwaves into instant speech.