Good morning and happy Friday. It felt like that week was simultaneously the longest of the summer and still flew by all at the same time. If you weren’t on camera at a Coldplay concert in Boston this week, odds are you’ll get to relax this weekend.

Let’s get the brain juices flowing as we head into the weekend.

Did you know Canada shares a land border with two countries? Can you guess what the second country is?

CANADA

🇨🇦 No deal for $47-billion

After almost a year of trying to secure a deal with Japanese company, Seven &i Holdings, the parent company of 7-Eleven, to expand its convenience store empire, Couche-Tard withdrew its offer which represented a 47.6% premium per share price. The acquisition would have increased Couche-Tard’s portfolio, which notably includes Circle K and Ingo.

Couche-Tard executives accused the founding Ito family and management of a “persistent lack of good faith engagement” and alleged they kept data vague or entirely omitted during conversations and exchanges. They also pointed to 7&I misleading the public when they said there was good progress in talks, as Couche-Tard claims that was never the case. Some antics that irked the Canadian corporation included scripted readouts, meetings going half as long as scheduled and a lack of answers to basic questions.

How we got here. This has been going on for at least a year, as it first became public in August 2024 that Couche-Tard had made an offer of $38.6-billion to the holding company. In October, a revised offer was made, valued at $47-billion. At another point through negotiations, Couche-Tard made an offer that would see them buy only 40% of business in Japan while buying 100% outside of the country. In July, Seven&i countered with a proposal that would see them “contribute” the 7-Eleven brand to Couche-Tard for a stake of ownership in the Canadian company. Couche-Tard representatives did not like that.

Couche-Tard is probably better off not making a huge acquisition. The stock closed 8% higher on Thursday coming off the news, as regulatory hurdles and different business environments between Canada and Japan would have made the deal a headache to push through, whether through the friendly route or the hostile route, which Couche-Tard went with the latter.

It’s believed Couche-Tard executives will shift focus and look to acquire smaller companies that will allow them to grow their Western European footprint, get a foothold in the Asian market and continue to be on the prowl for takeover opportunities south of the border.

CANADA

🇨🇦 Canadian Stories

🇺🇸How is trade going? For the United States, it’s going well, as they have a lot of leverage over other trading partners. For Canada, well… who knows? Mark Carney has faced some calls to let people into the negotiating room and give us a temperature check, but transparency around the talks will come once a deal is complete.

• There are some key areas of interest for Canada and protections: steel and softwood lumber are top priorities for Canada.

• PM Carney promised to crack down on cheap, foreign made steel that’s entering Canada by the end of this month, which saw a 30% drop in production in May. PM Carney also announced 50% tariffs on imports that surpass 2024 volumes, but will honour the Canada-US-Mexico agreement. An additional 25% tariff will be applied on steel melted and poured in China.

• A deal around softwood lumber is something Carney wants as part of a ‘global agreement’ with the US, as Canada’s lumber industry has caught the ire of Trump’s administration due to what they call “unfair” rules and low costs.

• BC Premier David Eby suggested export limits could help soothe trade tension around lumber. BC exports around 40% of all Canadian lumber to the US.

🛒Tariffs shift grocery shopping habits. If you’ve walked through grocery stores in 2025, your eyes do not deceive you. “Product of USA” items are sitting on shelves longer. Loblaw CEO Per Bank says some American product sales are down as much as 50%, and tariffs have accounted for 30% of price increases in the grocery stores.

✂️Suggest your own cuts. While blanket targets of up to 15% savings over three years have been put in across the federal government, Ottawa has asked crown corporations such as CBC and Via Rail to come up with proposals on how they’ll find savings over the next three years. The Bank of Canada confirmed it would align with the Liberals’ target.

⚰️Death to the long ballot. Pierre Poilievre isn’t only battling separatists in his new Conservative stronghold riding, he’s also battling long ballots again, and this time he’s calling for the death of them. Poilievre is calling for new rules to discourage long ballots, including increased signature requirements. Pierre Poilievre’s riding had 91 candidates in it during the March election, and the protest group is aiming to have 200 candidates on the ballot for the by-election. The protest group, called the “Longest Ballot Committee,” claims their goal is to have electoral reform.

More stories:

• A former commercial pilot was charged with hijacking and terrorism after stealing a small plane in Victoria and flying it to Vancouver International Airport.

• Pierre Poilievre’s campaign manager, Jenni Byrne, is staying on despite calls for change from his party.

• After Novo Nordisk failed to pay its annual fee, generic Ozempic will be entering the Canadian market, bringing lower prices to users.

• Despite housing sales creeping up for May and June following declines from late 2024 through April, economists believe the real estate market is still “stagnant” and not out of the woods yet.

• Brampton man arrested after threatening Brampton mayor, Patrick Brown, with death or bodily harm.

• Canadians will be getting access to more breadsticks as new ownership plans to expand Olive Garden’s presence in Canada.

BIRD FLU

RFK Jr. wants to save the ostriches

An ostrich farm in B.C. is waiting patiently as the Federal Court of Appeals promised to make their decision ‘quickly’ on the fate of 400 ostriches on the farm after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) ordered the ostriches be culled due to an outbreak of bird flu that killed 69 ostriches.

The CFIA argued that the cull order was necessary and part of a “stamping out” policy used to prevent further spread of the bird flu that could risk Canada’s food security. The lawyer representing the farm says the cull order was made after just two of the deceased ostriches were positive for influenza and none of the other ostriches showed any symptoms months later. The CFIA argues that the two tested were the only ones that weren’t scavenged on or decomposed.

RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz weighed in. The pair have written letters of support to the farmers. In May, RFK Jr. asked Canadian officials to gather knowledge about their immune response, which would be a “significant value” to the scientific community. Dr. Oz offered to relocate all 400 ostriches on his ranch in Florida.

The ostriches and farm will be waiting until the Court of Appeals comes down with their decision on the fate of the flock, and ultimately, the farm.

WORLD

🚨 More Headlines

🏦Trump floats firing Fed chair. Markets went into turmoil when Trump showed Republican lawmakers a termination letter he planned to deliver to Jerome Powell. A White House official later confirmed Trump would likely fire him soon, but the President ended up denying that he would do such a thing, despite saying most of the Republican lawmakers are alright with it.

💪Trump calls his supporters “weaklings.” In a bizarre rant, Trump slammed his supporters, calling them ‘weaklings’ for falling for the Epstein ‘hoax.’ All this despite campaigning on releasing the list in 2024.

🗳️UK lowers voting age. The UK is getting more people involved in the democratic process, allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to be able to vote. The warning, however, is clear: proper education is important to protect the youth voters from misinformation on social media.

✈️Investigation turns to senior pilot. Evidence captured by the black box indicates it was the senior captain who manually flipped off the fuel switches on the Air India plane that crashed last month. When questioned by his co-pilot, he denied doing it before the plane went down.

🤖AI is either taking your job, or you’re working with it. NVIDIA’s CEO says his plan is for jobs to be affected by AI. Not just some jobs, though… but “everyone’s” job.

📉AI bubble 🤝 Dot-com bubble? Top economists warn that AI valuations have detached from reality, similar to the dot-com bubble in 2000. This comes following Anthropic being valued at $100-billion by investors.

STAT

💰 Tariffs are bringing in a haul

In some regard, the trade war has been good to President Trump, as the President has brought in almost $50-billion more in customs revenue through his penchant for tariffs.

It didn’t have to be like this. Many countries had to walk a tightrope as they navigated American tariffs, trying to stay on Trump’s good side in hopes of striking a deal while ensuring their most important sectors could survive.

The President, recently taunted for “chickening out” when it came to trade, had many trade partners on the ropes with tariffs, upcoming trade deadlines and negotiations ongoing, where tariffs will be part of any agreement.

Since Trump escalated trade tension with allies, only Canada and China have decided to retaliate with tariffs of their own, hitting the United States with tariffs ranging anywhere from 10%-50%.

Impact of counter tariffs? Canada hasn’t released their numbers yet, and China has not fared the same way the US has: China reported only 1.9% more customs revenue compared to the same time last year.

Other allies, such as the EU, have been threatened with 30% tariffs come August 1st and have explored slapping Trump back with tariffs of their own if an agreement isn’t made by the deadline.

NEWS

💭 ICYMI

• 70mm IMAX showtimes were sold for Christopher Nolan’s latest film, “The Odyssey.” The kicker? The showtimes are a year from now. The movie releases July 17, 2026.

• If you weren’t scrolling through your feed on Thursday, you would have missed Coldplay outing an affair between the CEO and CPO at software company, Astronomer. Their reactions didn’t help…

• Actual astronomers, on the other hand, detected the biggest black hole collision ever.

• A story that may strike some with a sense of deja vu, Target is facing troubles in the States as sales have dropped. The stock price fell, and they’ll be on the search for a new CEO.

• New studies say large AI companies have terrible risk management and lack commitment to safety.

• Scientists used DNA from three people to help birth healthy babies and avoid genetic disease.

• Robo-umps made their debut in the MLB this week, despite criticism from Wimbledon.

• The Department of Homeland Security has been collecting DNA from over 100,000 children in custody as part of ICE raids.

• Alaska has faced a surge of earthquakes that are raising worries for the area.

• CBS is cancelling Stephen Colbert’s Late Show, citing “financial reasons.” This comes just days after Stephen Colbert called Paramount’s $16-million settlement with the Trump administration a “big fat bribe.”

RECOMMENDATIONS

✅ Weekend to-do

☑️ Weekend reading:

• Aging isn’t always a bad thing. Read how we improve as we age.

• One man is trying to figure out why millions of resumes never make it past the bots.

• Read about the ancient technique to remember (almost) anything.

Answer:

Denmark shares a land border with Canada.

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