Canadian News
Alberta’s sovereignty debate and Quebec’s provincial election dominated Canadian political coverage this week, alongside a narrowing Toronto mayoral race.
- Alberta’s push toward a separatist referendum continues. On a Line podcast episode, Jen Gerson and Liberal MP Corey Hogan discussed whether the movement will outlast the current standoff with Ottawa, while a Toronto Star column by Gillian Steward said Premier Danielle Smith is learning that “playing both sides of the fence is a losing strategy” (The Line, Toronto Star).
- Prime Minister Mark Carney said a strong, sovereign Canada is what Quebecers and Canadians need, after the Parti Quebecois won the Quebec election. The federal government said it remains confident in the Alto high speed rail project despite the result (Toronto Star).
- Toronto’s mayoral race narrowed to two main contenders, Olivia Chow and Brad Bradford, after former immigration minister Chris Alexander dropped out of the race just before early voting opened (Toronto Star).
- A newly revised edition of Alex Himelfarb’s book on neoliberalism argues that Canada’s decision to walk away from trade talks with the Trump administration was correct despite its costs, and that the country still needs to decide what kind of economy it wants to build next (David Moscrop’s newsletter).
US News
Midterm positioning intensified in Washington, with a costly Senate race in Maine and an expensive Republican redistricting push both drawing attention.
- Senator Susan Collins and Democratic challenger Troy Jackson held the first of four debates in their closely watched Maine Senate race. Jackson pressed Collins on her vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh and on a report examining her 2020 campaign donations, which she denies (The Washington Post, Punchbowl News).
- Republicans have spent close to 100 million dollars on advertising in nine newly redrawn House districts that remain competitive despite a mid-decade redistricting effort meant to protect their majority (Punchbowl News).
- Senator Maggie Hassan is preparing an aggressive oversight agenda for the Senate Homeland Security Committee, including planned inquiries into ICE hiring standards and President Trump’s financial disclosures (Punchbowl News).
- Reporting from Idaho examined a widening rift between traditional Republicans, MAGA loyalists and newer hard-right politicians, a struggle also examined in a separate piece on the future of the conservative movement (The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker).
Finance and Markets
Markets kept setting records even as a handful of large deals and a major media merger drew most of the attention.
- Paramount’s deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery officially closed, creating David Ellison’s renamed Skydance media empire. Shares fell about 2.5 percent on their first day of trading after Fitch downgraded the new company’s credit rating over its debt load (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Status).
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has taken on an unusually broad role in the Trump administration, but reporting found that his hard-charging style has led to high staff turnover. “Scott cannot fail,” one administration official said (The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times).
- Anduril Industries committed 3.7 billion dollars to a new Maryland shipyard and won a 2.9 billion dollar Navy contract to help build components for Virginia-class submarines (The Daily Upside, The New York Times).
- Two health-focused restaurant chains, True Food Kitchen and Salad and Go, both filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas within the past two months, part of a wider pattern of restaurant bankruptcies tied to rapid overexpansion (Petition).
- The S&P 500 hit another record high, powered mainly by a small group of technology companies benefiting from AI spending, even as bond yields and oil prices continued to climb (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist).
International News
France’s political and fiscal strain, a plague scare in Russia, and the third anniversary of the October 7 attacks were the week’s dominant international stories.
- France faced a cascade of strikes and protests, with more than 40 demonstrations nationwide over school conditions and austerity. The country’s debt, close to 4 trillion dollars, and the rising prospects of a Marine Le Pen presidency have unsettled bond markets ahead of next spring’s election (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal).
- The World Health Organization sought information from Russia after a second suspected case of pneumonic plague was reported in Irkutsk, following the death of a researcher at a plague research institute. The United States has pressed Moscow over its disclosure of the episode (The Economist, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Toronto Star).
- Israel marked the third anniversary of the Hamas attacks that killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage, three weeks before a national election in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces criticism over intelligence failures. A newsletter from Israel reflected on how the country and the world have changed since that day (The Economist, The New York Times, It’s Noon in Israel).
- Kenya recorded its first case of Ebola, in a man who had recently arrived from Congo, where a severe outbreak is under way (The New York Times).
Media News
The newly combined Skydance media company and a legal fight between Disney and federal regulators led media coverage this week.
- On his first day running the combined Skydance, formed from Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, David Ellison faced pointed questions about the company’s relationship with the Trump administration and about editorial independence at CNN, without directly describing his past conversations with the president about the network (Status).
- Disney asked a federal court to block an FCC review of eight ABC station licenses, arguing the review amounts to political retaliation over the network’s coverage decisions (Status).
- Casey Newton announced he will resume posting on Elon Musk’s X after a three-year boycott, saying that avoiding the platform had left him “fighting with both hands tied behind my back” in debates over AI policy (Platformer, Status).
Sports News
International soccer dominated sports coverage, with Lionel Messi’s international retirement and a very public dispute involving Cristiano Ronaldo both making headlines.
- Lionel Messi played his final match for Argentina’s national team, scoring a penalty and adding two assists in a 3-0 win over Benin in Buenos Aires, closing out a career as Argentina’s most-capped player and record goalscorer (The Athletic, The New York Times).
- Cristiano Ronaldo issued a 1,740-word statement accusing Portugal’s coach, Jorge Jesus, of breaking his word about playing time, after Ronaldo walked out of the national team’s camp (The Athletic).
- The United States men’s national team beat Canada 1-0 in Minnesota to complete a perfect four-game international window under coach Mauricio Pochettino, while Canada’s Jesse Marsch said his team lacked quality in front of goal (The Athletic).
Health and Wellness
Coverage touched on the coming flu season and a less conventional way some Americans are coping with rising health costs.
- This year’s flu season is expected to start earlier than usual, though early indications suggest the available vaccine could be a good match for circulating strains (Toronto Star).
- Amid rising healthcare costs, growing numbers of social media influencers are advising followers not to pay high medical bills, or sharing tips for negotiating them down (The Wall Street Journal).
Other
Questions about how far to let artificial intelligence advance, and a landmark office tower changing hands, rounded out the week’s notable stories.
- At an AI conference called The Curve in Berkeley, multiple industry speakers discussed whether to place a hard limit on how intelligent future AI systems should be allowed to become, following disclosures from OpenAI and Anthropic about progress toward systems that can help train their own successors (Platformer).
- Minerva Humanoids raised 10 million dollars to build robots for hazardous jobs such as oil rig maintenance and bomb disposal (Core Memory).
- The Chrysler Building, the Art Deco skyscraper that has defined the Manhattan skyline since 1930, is changing hands again. Tishman Speyer is buying the building for 235 million dollars and plans a significant renovation (The New York Times).