I’m melting

Good morning. Call it Bed Bath & Beyond the Grave. 

After closing all Canadian locations in early 2023 before going bankrupt, the big box retailer is returning next year courtesy of Sleep Country Canada, which bought the brand name for Canada and the U.K. It will begin as an online operation before opening physical stores. 

Given the current retail landscape, we’re skeptical this will work, but let’s see if it can at least last longer than Rooms + Spaces. Remember Rooms + Spaces? You don’t? Well, guess that makes sense.

Today’s reading time is 5½ minutes.

Markets: Stocks slid as investors held their breath for the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision this week. While a cut this week is almost certain, traders are still anxious about the path rates will take next year. 

The classic chant “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream” may no longer be a totally accurate observation.

What happened: The Magnum Ice Cream Company made its market debut yesterday on Amsterdam’s Euronext index, completing a spinoff from Unilever and becoming the world’s biggest ice cream company. However, the new home of Ben & Jerry’s and Cornetto saw shares open lower than expected, before slowly rising to close a modest 1.33% in the black.

Why it matters: While continued tension with Ben & Jerry’s surely didn’t help, the main factor for Magnum’s muted debut is likely broader uncertainty facing the ice cream biz. While it’s currently a moneymaker, some investors predict a rocky road ahead. 

Plus: There’s the matter of a hotter climate. While rising thermometers are typically a boon for ice cream sales, extreme temps might make more consumers reach for a refreshing cold drink rather than lugging around a belly full of cream on a sweltering summer afternoon.

Our take: It’s not like the consumer desire for sweets has disappeared (just look at the endless array of teeth-rotting lattes at your local coffee shop). And ice cream is still beloved, not just as a food product, but as a concept and familial ritual. Its future growth will depend on innovation to create flavours and serving sizes that better appeal to shifting tastes.—QH

Paramount makes hostile bid for Warner Bros. Just days after Warner Bros. Discovery agreed to sell to Netflix, Paramount has swooped in with a richer offer it’s taking directly to shareholders of the entertainment giant. Paramount is offering US$108 billion — financed by tech giant Oracle as well as Gulf state sovereign wealth funds — for all of Warner, including CNN and TBS.

Defence contractor signs deal with Cohere. Thales Canada, a subsidiary of the French defence company Thales, will use Toronto-based Cohere’s AI tech for its naval support services.

U.S. will allow China to buy powerful Nvidia chips. The White House will let Nvidia sell its H200 chips to China, reversing a ban on its export intended to slow China’s progress on cutting edge AI. The move is a boon for U.S. chipmakers, and shares of Nvidia and AMD both rose on the news.

HBC returned Rubi Liu’s $9.4-million deposit paid as part of her effort to buy 25 of the defunct retailer’s leases. It was never really clear what plans for an HBC revival Liu was cooking up, and we’re sad we’ll never be able to find out.

Metro signed on to the grocery industry code of conduct. The code mostly addresses issues between grocery chains and suppliers, so if you’re wondering if this means lower food prices for you, the answer is almost certainly no.

IBM is buying Confluent, a company that makes software to manage real-time data for AI models, in an US$11-billion deal.

Toronto’s new transit line is slower than jogging. CBC found that it took 55 minutes to cross the entire 10.3-kilometre line, a pace that was bested by 400 entrants in this year’s Toronto Marathon.

Canada is asking “what’s up doc?” to foreign-trained physicians looking to plant roots.

What happened: Ottawa is adding a new express entry category for permanent residency aimed at foreign-trained doctors. To be eligible, physicians must currently have a job offer and at least one year of Canadian work experience as either a general practitioner, a family physician, a specialist in surgery, or a specialist in clinical and laboratory medicine.

Why it matters: A new study found that 5.9 million Canadians are without a family doctor. That’s a high number to be sure, but it’s actually 700,000 fewer than in 2022, suggesting that recent measures meant to increase the supply of doctors have actually worked. 

Yes, but: Since the new program is only applicable to physicians who have practised in Canada for one year, this means a large swath of foreign-trained docs aren’t covered: those who live here but aren’t yet licensed due to notoriously long certification processes. 

By the numbers: The CEO of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada told the federal government in October there “may be” as many as 13,000 foreign-trained health professionals living in Canada that are unable to work in health care.—QH

What they’re saying: “This letter is to inform you that the Office of Defects Investigation of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a Preliminary Evaluation to investigate the performance of the Waymo ADS around stopped school buses and the system’s ability to follow traffic safety laws concerning school buses.” That’s how the U.S. traffic safety regulator began a letter to self-driving vehicle company Waymo that documented 19 instances of Waymo vehicles “illegally and dangerously” passing stopped school buses in Austin, Texas.

Why it matters: Waymo has recalled its robotaxis in response to the investigation and said a software update should fix the behaviour. Waymo vehicles are much safer on average than human drivers (though they have recently been *), but when they do get in accidents (or run over beloved pets), they draw heavy criticism.

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🤑 2,919. Number of billionaires in the world, according to the 2025 UBS Billionaire Ambitions Report. 287 new billionaires were minted this year, and their combined wealth rose 13% to a record US$15.8 trillion, which is around seven times the size of Canada’s entire GDP.

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It’s the perfect time to take a swing at today’s mini-crossword. 

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