September 22, 2026: From My Inbox

Canadian News

A gunman opened fire on a police officer stationed outside a synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, just before a Yom Kippur service Sunday night. Investigators say the attack appears to have targeted the Jewish community, and Prime Minister Mark Carney called it deeply disturbing. (Toronto Star)
The federal government tabled the Building Canada Strong Act, legislation that eases environmental and labour rules. Unions say it will make strikes in federally regulated sectors nearly impossible, and Parliament’s new fall sitting began in Ottawa this week. (Toronto Star)
The Star’s “Grand Theft Toronto” investigation found that vehicle theft in the Greater Toronto Area has shifted from high tech relay attacks back to low tech home break ins, feeding a black market that moves stolen cars as far as Moscow. (Toronto Star)
Road resurfacing on Abinojii Mikanah and River Road in south Winnipeg began this week and runs until October 9, and a Hepatitis A case was confirmed at Shaughnessy Park School, prompting a public immunization clinic. The newsletter also lists fall events including Nuit Blanche and pumpkin picking, and notes Winnipeg’s first professional women’s soccer team is opening season ticket deposits. (The Winnipeg Digest)

Trump barred CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House. The three outlets sued on First Amendment grounds, and ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox News suspended pool coverage of Trump in solidarity. (The New York Times, The Washington Post, Status News)
Republicans including Rick Scott, Ted Cruz, and John Kennedy are positioning to challenge JD Vance for the 2028 nomination, and Iowa Republicans are breaking with Trump over high diesel and fertilizer prices tied to the Iran war. (The Washington Post)
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned Trump against loosening AI chip export controls to China ahead of the Trump Xi summit, urging passage of three bipartisan bills folded into the annual defense bill. (Punchbowl News)
New polling shows Democrats ahead by eight to eleven points heading into the midterms. One newsletter examined long shot Senate races in Kansas, Nebraska, Florida, Mississippi, and South Carolina; another cited a poll putting Democrats ahead 51 to 43 percent among likely voters for Congress, comparable to the 2018 wave. (Prof G Media, The New York Times)

Paramount settled a multistate antitrust suit led by California, clearing its roughly 111 billion dollar acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount committed to more than 1.5 billion dollars in additional domestic production spending and a new editorial oversight board for CNN and CBS News; critics including Senator Elizabeth Warren call the board toothless, since its members are appointed by Paramount’s own board. (The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Upside, The Economist, The New York Times, El Cronista, Status News)
Meta’s new AI shopping agent, Muse, became the top downloaded app in the US and added roughly 170 billion dollars to Meta’s market value since its September 8 launch, while Amazon blocked the agent from its marketplace, alleging it lacked authorization. Muse reportedly beat Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini in an informal test of completing a restaurant booking. (The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Upside, Prof G Markets)
The Nasdaq hit a record close as markets watched Trump’s UN speech and the coming Trump Xi meeting for signals on tariffs and AI policy. (The Wall Street Journal)
AMD topped a one trillion dollar valuation for the first time, and Argentina’s peso hit a new high ahead of an IMF program review. (El Cronista)
Warren Buffett stepped down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, becoming chairman emeritus at 96, with his son Howard Buffett taking over as chair. (The Daily Upside)

The Trump Xi summit is set for this week in Washington, alongside continued fighting between Russia and Ukraine and Houthi advances in Yemen that threaten Saudi oil exports. (The Economist, The New York Times)
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is polling closer to a majority than at any point since October 7, largely because rival opposition figures remain divided. A separate newsletter covers a push to disqualify a Balad party leader from Israel’s election and the killing of an Israeli father of six in the West Bank before Yom Kippur. (Nadav Eyal, Amit Segal)
New genetic evidence shows Thomas Jefferson had children with Sally Hemings, and a report examines the state of rebuilding in Gaza nearly a year after the ceasefire. (The New Yorker)

Toledo’s 191 year old daily newspaper, The Blade, will close on December 31 after its owner cited unsustainable losses, following nearly a decade of stalled union contract talks. (Columbia Journalism Review)
The Trump administration’s press restrictions drew sustained coverage: an exiled Nicaraguan journalist was detained by ICE in Orlando and faces an October deportation hearing, and CNN, MS NOW, and Politico are suing over their White House ban. Commentators argue the new CNN editorial oversight board created by the Paramount settlement will leave David Ellison effectively in control of the network. (Columbia Journalism Review, Nieman Lab, Status News)

Kylian Mbappe revealed in an exclusive interview that he nearly signed with Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp at age 18, and called winning the Ballon d’Or an obsession. (The Athletic)
The Los Angeles Rams routed the New York Giants 28 to 6 on Monday Night Football, with Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart leaving with a possible sprained MCL, and the NHL season opens in a week amid trade drama involving Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck. (The Athletic)

A newsletter contrasts an intuitive approach to movement, which it calls the “Somatic Siren” archetype, with performative diet culture fitness, listing habits such as prioritizing rest, sensation, and functional capability over calorie counting and aesthetics. (Helen Phelan Studio)

A newsletter examines longstanding problems with utilitarianism, including the “problem of other minds,” prompted by the recent debate over AI safety. (Noahpinion)
Another newsletter argues that institutions such as journalism, education, and courts decay over time through outdated practices and capture by insiders, even as people continue to assume they serve their original purpose. (ClearerThinking)
A third argues the AI extinction risk debate this year has been “grounded in nothing” and calls for Congress to subpoena Anthropic and OpenAI leadership for evidence behind their public risk estimates. (Prof G Markets)