Canada
Trudeau expected to announce resignation before national caucus meeting Wednesday
Justin Trudeau is expected to announce as early as Monday that he will resign as Liberal Party Leader, three sources said Sunday. The sources stressed that they don’t know definitely when Mr. Trudeau will announce his plans to leave but said they expect it will happen before a key national caucus meeting on Wednesday. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the sources because they were not authorized to discuss internal party matters.
Mark Carney makes his leadership pitch to a skeptical Liberal caucus
Liberal MPs speak admiringly of the former central bank governor but many wonder if Mark Carney has the political chops to reverse their fortunes. Fruits of my labours Sunday -- with a Margaret Atwood anecdote!
How RCMP is responding to ‘unprecedented’ threats against MPs, officials
The head of the RCMP unit in charge of protecting politicians says the force is ready for a looming federal election but that threats and requests for protection are increasing.
Conservative MP Luc Berthold says he has prostate cancer but not stepping down
The longtime member of Parliament for Quebec’s Mégantic—L'Érable federal riding shared the news on social media, saying he received the diagnosis in 2024. All the best, Luc! Good luck with your treatment1
How the West Was One
David Marks Shribman reviews Tim Cook's The Good Allies: How Canada and the United States Fought Together to Defeat Fascism during the Second World War: Now that eighty-five years have passed since the beginning of the conflict, there are whole generations that need to be reminded, as Bill Clinton put it in a tribute to the Allied fighters at the fiftieth anniversary of D‑Day, that “when they were young, these men saved the world.” The Good War, yes, and — let this be said, the revisionists be damned — not for nothing did the American newsman Tom Brokaw confer the title “the Greatest Generation” on these sometimes disparaged combatants and their cohorts.
The Provinces
Pickering city council moving meetings online due to threats, mayor says
Ashe announced the change in a nearly 13-minute video on the city's YouTube page on Dec. 30, 2024. The video highlights a number of incidents involving Coun. Lisa Robinson, before showing screenshots and airing audio of some graphic threats that Ashe says councillors have received as a result.
Furey Reflects on Return of Unknown Solider, Role as Next-of-Kin
“This son deserved to have a family, this young boy of Newfoundland and Labrador deserved to have a family standing next to him when he came home, and that was … yeah it was overwhelming and it was emotional. I’m emotional now just talking about it.”
Elsewhere
The Jan. 6 Rioters, 4 Years Later
Hundreds of rioters accused of nonviolent crimes during the attack on the Capitol have wrapped up their cases. Here’s what some of their lives look like now. Interesting piece. Recommend. (🎁 link)
Media
Google Sends Promised Funds To Canadian Journalism Collective
Google has sent $100 million (U.S. $69 million) it agreed to pay Canadian news outlets in exchange for an exemption from the Online News Act to a journalism organization designed to distribute funds.
Science and tech
OpenAI is turning its attention to 'superintelligence'
Altman wrote that he thinks AI agents — AI systems that can perform certain tasks autonomously — may “join the workforce,” in a manner of speaking, and “materially change the output of companies” this year.
AI and robotic arms flex new tech muscles to boost lagging home construction in Canada
Instead of creating single-function robots and pre-programming them to do highly specific tasks, Promise Robotics bought "off-the-shelf" robotic arms, began programming its own AI on construction skills and trained the arms to make parts of houses.
