As Canada waits to see whether Prime Minister Mark Carney can strike a trade deal with Donald Trump — or whether the U.S. president will slap 50 per cent tariffs on $20 billion worth of our goods Wednesday — another deadline is looming: When will the Conservative party figure out a path back to power? 

Because right now, it is going nowhere. 

Over the weekend, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi marked his country’s Independence Day by announcing the creation of a “massive” volunteer civil defense force. Calling India’s existing civil defense capacity “outdated,” Modi said the country of 1.4 billion people must protect the new targets of modern warfare, including refineries, the banking sector, or data centers – reflecting a growing view that infrastructure and the internet have become the new front lines of war.

Taiwan is preparing for the same reality. Last week, its government deliberately slowed mobile internet during its annual military exercises, simulating what civilians could face if China attacked communications systems. It marked the first time Taiwan involved civilians in such a drill, taking a page from Ukraine, where Russia has repeatedly targeted communications infrastructure since the full-scale invasion in 2022.

Tick, tick, tick. That’s the sound of the timer counting down to Aug. 19, the date on which U.S. President Donald Trump’s 50 per cent tariffs on Canada will kick in. Or not. Already one former Trump advisor is predicting that Trump will TACO (Trump always chickens out), but in the unpredictable world we live in, there’s no guarantee.

Faced with this deadline, the pressure is on Prime Minister Mark Carney to get a deal with the Americans. Businesses and investors are worried. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is demanding action. Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade, and Janice Charette, our chief trade negotiator, are spending their summer in Washington boardrooms, but there’s still no sense of progress.

In 2019, GZERO reported on a brewing backlash against AI’s facial recognition and surveillance capabilities. Seven years later, opposition to the technology, which has advanced dramatically since then, is intensifying. A survey of more than 18,000 people in 15 countries found that over one-third ranked AI development among their top concerns over the next five years, ahead of immigration, energy security, and geopolitical rivalry.

But attitudes toward AI vary sharply around the world. Ipsos polling found that people in Asia and Latin America are more likely to believe AI’s benefits outweigh its risks and to express enthusiasm for AI-powered products and services. By contrast, North Americans are far more likely to say AI makes them nervous and are less convinced that its benefits justify its costs.

L’atteinte d’une majorité libérale via les élections partielles et les défections conservatrices soulèvent de nouvelles questions quant au leadership de Pierre Poilievre, quelques mois à peine après avoir obtenu plus de 87% d’appui lors de sa révision de leadership. Avant d'entrer à leur réunion, des députés conservateurs ont toutefois rejeté les inquiétudes concernant la performance du parti et l'unité au sein du caucus. Tasha Kheiriddin, analyste conservatrice, et Dimitri Soudas, ancien directeur des communications de Stephen Harper se penchent avec Marc-André Cossette sur la situation difficile de M. Poilievre

La première ministre de l’Alberta, Danielle Smith, pourrait être en train de tracer sa propre « troisième voie » pour l’Alberta, en insistant pour qu’Ottawa inscrive un deuxième oléoduc vers le Pacifique sur sa liste de « grands projets » d’intérêt national. C’est un pari qui pourrait conduire la province à se détacher du pays – voire à rejoindre les États-Unis.

« Nous devons vérifier s’il s’agit d’un cancer. » S’il y a des mots que l’on ne veut jamais entendre de la bouche de notre médecin, ceux-là figurent en tête de liste. Je les ai entendus le 3 juillet. J’étais abasourdie. On m’avait diagnostiqué deux gros fibromes utérins, une affection assez courante : de 70 à 80 % des femmes âgées de plus de 50 ans en souffrent. Ce sont des tumeurs bénignes qui peuvent causer des menstruations abondantes, des douleurs abdominales, des ballonnements et des troubles digestifs si elles exercent une pression sur les intestins.