Criss-cross

Markets: Canada’s main stock index soared yesterday as the tech sector recovered after a spell of AI-related fears, oil prices rose amid heightened tensions in Iran and Ukraine, and gold rebounded after a down day.

Other than theatrically screaming at each other during Question Period, floor crossing has become Parliament’s new favourite pastime. 

What happened: Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux has crossed the floor to join the Liberal caucus, the third Conservative to jump ship in the last few months. Jeneroux announced in November that he would resign his Edmonton Riverbend seat but never officially stepped down. 

Why it matters: The Conservative defections put Carney’s government on the doorstep of a majority. With three seats currently vacant in the House of Commons, the Liberals’ path to a majority rides and dies with an upcoming byelection in the Quebec riding of Terrebonne (unless, of course, another opposition MP joins the government).

Zoom in: The Terrebonne race came down to one vote in last year’s election, leading the Supreme Court to annul the results and set the stage for a byelection. Polling aggregator 338Canada gives the Liberals a 40% chance of winning the race, although the party’s overall approval ratings have skyrocketed following Carney’s Davos speech. 

Bottom line: If the Liberals lose Terrebonne and can’t sway any more Conservatives to cross the floor, the chances of Carney calling an early election this spring certainly grow.—LA

Mark Zuckerberg testified at a landmark social media addiction trial. The Meta CEO defended his platforms’ safety practices, saying that the company no longer sets goals for employees to maximize user screen time. It was also revealed at the trial that Meta’s own internal study found parental supervision and time limit controls had almost no impact on teens' social media usage (shocker). Meta is one of several social media giants facing an avalanche of Big Tobacco-style lawsuits alleging their algorithms and features are intentionally designed to addict and harm children. (Reuters)

Ottawa is trying to lure international grad students. With foreign student enrolment plummeting across the country (new data showed international student enrolment fell by a third last year), the Immigration Department has launched an ad campaign to attract more graduate students to Canadian universities. The pitch to top researchers includes an easier immigration pathway for family members. (Globe and Mail)

General Motors will invest $63 million in its Oshawa plant. The automaker says the investment will go toward upgrading machinery at the facility to make its next-generation pickup trucks. Just last month, GM just laid off 700 workers at the Oshawa plant, which accounted for over 10% of Canada’s total auto production last year. (The Canadian Press)—LA

What else is on our radar: 

In a discovery that sounds ripped from the opening pages of a 2000s spy thriller, scientists from the Institute of Biology Bucharest uncovered ancient bacteria frozen in ice in a Romanian underground cave. The samples were naturally resistant to 10 modern antibiotics despite never having been exposed.

Why it matters: Researchers warn that melting ice could release these microbes and cause them to spread, which is… not great. On the bright side, the discovery of these microbes could aid scientists in developing new antibiotics that are better equipped to take on the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance.

Catch-up on yesterday: 

What’s happening today:

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ByteDance’s new AI video tool has only been available for a week, but it's already shaken the moviemaking industry to its core. 

Driving the news: Netflix, Disney, Paramount, and Warner Bros. all sent cease-and-desist letters to ByteDance over the past week concerning its new Seedance 2.0 video generator, accusing the Chinese tech giant of engaging in copyright infringement to train the tool’s AI model. ByteDance said it’s bolstering safeguards to protect IP, but that hasn’t been enough. 

Catch-up: Seedance made immediate headlines upon its release last week when an X user posted a series of hyperrealistic clips depicting Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise fighting (and, for some reason, mentioning Jeffrey Epstein) that the tool generated with just a two-line prompt.

Why it matters: Seedance isn’t the first tool of its kind, but it appears to be leaps and bounds better than earlier generators. The unified front that Hollywood’s biggest studios have put up against it implies that they are well and truly scared of the effects it might have.

Our take: We’re not going to weigh in on whether Hollywood is, as the maker of the Cruise vs. Pitt videos put it, “cooked.” But if the industry is dying, studios won’t let it go without a fight to extract every last drop of value from their precious IP. For AI firms to avoid getting sued into the Stone Age, we expect more deals like the one Disney inked with OpenAI.—QH

⚽️ US$750. Bonus that Airbnb is offering first-time hosts who list their places in FIFA World Cup host cities, including Toronto and Vancouver. A Deloitte study found that hosts could earn an average of $3,000 from renting out their place during the tournament.

Why wait for game night? Make it a game morning with the mini-crossword, the daily sudoku, and Codebreaker!