Meet me in the middle

Good morning. Donald Trump made a Truth Social post yesterday (sorry to open the newsletter with those cursed words), claiming the U.S. was working on a “massive deal” to buy potash from Belarus, which would allow it to reduce imports of the mineral from Canada.

But in an unheard-of situation, Trump may have been overstating things. Not long after these comments, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko told the outlet Nasha Niva that even if his country did want to boost Western exports, it didn’t have the capacity to do so. 

Today’s reading time is 5½ minutes.

Markets: Rising tech stocks lifted top Wall Street indexes and Canada’s main stock index, with the latter seeing shares of Shopify and BlackBerry rising 7.8% and 7.1%, respectively.

Canada spent day one of the UN General Assembly doing what it has all year: building relationships that don’t revolve around its southern neighbour. 

What happened: Mark Carney and a group of world leaders announced a new coalition yesterday, called Partners for Multilateralism (P4M), aimed at bringing together middle powers and developing countries to take action on everything from international law reforms to AI. 

Why it’s happening: In a Financial Times op-ed, Carney and the presidents of Brazil, Kenya, and the European Council wrote that, with the highest number of armed conflicts since 1946, international collaboration must be strengthened. They also took some not-so-subtle shots at the White House for hurting orgs like the UN. 

Why it matters: With Carney championing this middle power strategy, Canada has become the face of a global push away from Washington. The ‘strength-in-numbers’ approach outlined in the PM’s Davos speech was largely theoretical at the time, but many countries have since decided to take him up on his offer. 

Yes, but: As Canada and its allies cozy up, retaliation from the U.S. is likely. Donald Trump already described Canada and the EU’s closer ties as a “hostile act” and threatened punitive tariffs on both countries, depending on the nature of their membership pact.  

Our take: Those off-the-cuff threats from Trump prove exactly why Carney and the rest of these world leaders are seeking the path that they are.—LA

Liberals table their major projects bill. On the first day back in Parliament, the feds introduced the Building Canada Strong Act, a bill that will force federal reviews of major projects to be wrapped up within a year of an application being filed. The new legislation is also meant to streamline the process of consultations on infrastructure projects like pipelines, including with Indigenous groups, while providing more certainty to investors that shovels will actually hit the ground in a timely manner. (CBC News)

B.C. is suing OpenAI over the Tumbler Ridge shooting. B.C.'s attorney general filed a lawsuit against the AI company for its failure to notify law enforcement of the shooter’s violent conversations with ChatGPT. OpenAI is already facing seven cases filed on behalf of victims killed or injured in the shooting as well as 30 federal lawsuits in California representing others who witnessed or were hurt in the shooting. (CBC News)

Ottawa is weaving homegrown AI into its military operations. The Department of National Defence said it has partnered with domestic AI companies like Cohere to use their tech in its military operations, though they didn’t specify what it would be used for. The tie-ups are part of a broader initiative called MAIple Stack, aimed at reducing reliance on foreign tech firms and making Canada’s Armed Forces “AI enabled” by 2030. (Globe and Mail)

📡 What else is on our radar:

You don’t need to follow one path into an AI career. Northeastern University’s new Master of Professional Studies in Applied AI is coming to Toronto, with its first intake beginning this fall.

The program offers two routes designed for different starting points:

Why launch this program now, and what makes its approach different? Faculty lead Dr. John Wilder shares the thinking behind the launch, who the program is built for, and how it can prepare you for an AI-shaped economy (because waiting for the future to arrive isn’t much of a strategy).

Read Dr. Wilder’s perspective and learn more about the program.

Dreamforce, the annual San Francisco conference put on by software giant Salesforce, featured dancing robots and a surprise Gwen Stefani set. But the real show was AI's biggest names publicly disagreeing on whether their own technology might end humanity. Turns out, even the people building the AI apocalypse can't settle on whether or not it will even happen. Read Lucas Arender’s dispatch from the centre stage of the AI doomsday debate, and what the biggest names in the space —Amodei, Altman, Huang, Matthew McConaughey!— had to say.

Read the full story here.

What they’re saying: “I always say negotiations move at the speed of trust, and so if there is a lot of trust between both sides, negotiations move very fast. I think the trust has built up,” Dinesh K. Patnaik, the high commissioner of India to Canada, told The Logic last week. The two sides held their fourth round of free trade talks last week since restarting negotiations last November. 

Why it matters: A comprehensive free trade deal with India has been literally 15 years in the making, and negotiators are now hopeful talks might be complete by the end of the year. However, maintaining this “trust” will likely require trade-offs, including potentially accepting a tariff quota system for pulse imports and recognition in the deal of India’s larger GDP.

We still have our fingers crossed that Canada might get some Aldi locations one day, but for now, we’ll have to settle for Jumbo.

Driving the news: A former Toys “R” Us location in Vaughan, Ontario, will be the home of popular Greek discount retailer Jumbo’s first Canadian location. The ~47,000 square-foot store will stock a wide variety of home goods, seasonal products, and toys, à la Giant Tiger. 

Zoom out: It’s unsurprising that the newest big European chain to make its way to Canada offers a budget-friendly shopping experience. Discount stores have continued to be at the forefront of retail expansion this year, keeping up a trend sparked by inflation spikes. 

Why it matters: It’s a K-shaped sign of the times that most foreign retailers entering Canada are peddling either luxury goods or budget fare. That doesn’t bode well for the state of the average Canadian wallet, and will also expose more shoppers to low-quality products.—QH

A salary range tells people what they could earn. It doesn’t explain how their pay is decided.

Alan surveyed almost 450 Canadian employees. Nearly three in four named clear, written pay criteria among their top priorities for transparency. Only 36% said their company had documented and shared those criteria.

Get the findings and a practical guide to defining pay criteria, preparing managers, and talking to your team.

Download the free guide

🤖 US$1 trillion. What chipmaker AMD’s market valuation surpassed yesterday, the first time it’s eclipsed the trillion-dollar mark. The company’s stock has ripped over the last five days of trading, jumping 24%. Its stock is now up over 150% on the year.

Keep the good times going with today’s mini-crossword, the daily sudoku, Codebreaker, and Who’s Who.