What’s coming in 2026?

Welcome to a new year. We’re easing back into things by recapping some stories you may have missed over the holidays and making some bold predictions for what the year ahead holds (this is not Polymarket advice, FYI). 

But first, we’d like to congratulate Jath P. of Toronto for making the most accurate reader prediction for 2025: “Trump will impose harsh tariffs on Canada but it's okay as the Canadian economy bounces back with optimism under new leadership by the newly formed Liberal government led by Mark Carney.”

You can quibble on some of this (optimism is a bit of a loaded word, innit?), but Jath was the only reader who predicted that Carney would take office. Good job! If you think you have clairvoyant powers, share your bold predictions for 2026 with us here. 

Today’s reading time is 3 minutes.

Markets: 2025 was a banner year for markets, but the last few days of trading was a bit of a bust. The major indexes limped into 2026 with several consecutive down days and the hoped-for “Santa Claus rally” failed to materialize.

🇻🇪 The U.S. struck mainland Venezuela. The steady escalation of U.S. pressure on Venezuela continued with Donald Trump saying the U.S. attacked a “dock area” in the country, the first strike on its mainland. Media reports said the attack was carried out by a CIA drone.

🚗 Tesla signaled that its EV business was hurting. The carmaker issued a press release compiling analyst estimates ahead of its earnings report forecasting a 14.6% drop in sales from the last quarter of 2024. Tesla’s stock price hit a record high in December, mainly because of investor optimism about the potential for its robotaxi business, but its EV business has suffered. It’s not alone in this regard: other automakers, including Ford, GM, and Hyundai, also reported weak EV sales recently.

🇮🇷 Protests in Iran grew violent. At least two people were killed in clashes between police and demonstrators protesting deteriorating economic conditions in Iran. The protests, which have intensified as the country’s currency has collapsed, are the largest since 2022.

🤖 Meta bought a Chinese-founded AI startup. Mark Zuckerberg’s AI spending spree continued apace over the holidays with a US$2 billion deal to buy Manus, a Singapore-based AI startup with Chinese founders. Manus specializes in AI agents capable of autonomously performing complex, multi-step tasks.

🇺🇦 Russia intensified attacks on Ukraine. While Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a peace deal brokered by the U.S. was “90% ready,” Russia looked to have other plans, launching a large drone strike against Ukraine and claiming the Ukrainian military tried to attack one of Vladimir Putin’s residences.

We’re getting a premium non-slop media outlet. In 2025, social media platforms pivoted to becoming slop delivery systems, and august media outlets like the New York Times tainted their legacies by letting AI-penned trash slip through the cracks. Next year, we’ll see a shift with the emergence of a buzzy media apparatus/publication, featuring big names and moneyed backers, that will charge users a steep premium for the guarantee of content 100% untouched by AI. 

— Quinn Henderson, Senior Writer

We’re going to see a buy now, pay later boom. Canadians are already turning to BNPL services to finance everything from late-night food orders to Black Friday purchases. It’s become abundantly clear to me that stretched budgets simply don’t stop people from spending money they don’t have. To that point, I expect the number of consumers using BNPL to skyrocket next year. Will it create a bubble of unpaid debt from BNPL Chipotle orders? That’s a 2027 problem. 

—Lucas Arender, Writer

EVs will start to rise from the dead. Everyone is writing off EVs as a failed experiment in Western markets. See: Ford’s headlong flight away from EVs. I think 2026 will mark a turnaround, though. Not because of the consumer market, but because Tesla and Waymo are in a bare knuckle fight to build a real robotaxi business, and all autonomous vehicles are EVs. Expect this to become a media and markets narrative sometime next year as the rollout of Waymo in New York City picks up.

—Taylor Scollon, Co-Founder

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There’s not enough news yet for a quiz, but don’t worry, the mini-crossword and daily sudoku are here to fill the gap.