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HARD NUMBERS: Border strike averted, Canadian publishers want clarity on Google cash, Arizona man charged for seeking “race war,” Voters mostly ignore Hunter Biden’s conviction

Officers from the Canada Border Services Agency.
Officers from the Canada Border Services Agency.
REUTERS/Emily Elconin

2: After two years without a contract, the unions representing Canada’s border workers on Tuesday reached a tentative agreement with the government, averting a massive strike that could have crippled both tourism and commerce across the US-Canada frontier just as the summer travel season picks up. Details of the deal were set to be released on Thursday.

100 million: Canadian news publishers are demanding more clarity about the disbursement terms for the $100 million annual fund that Google has set aside for investing in online news in the country. The tech giant created the fund last month to win an exemption from Canada’s Online News Act, which requires tech companies to directly compensate media organizations whose content they use on their sites and search engines.

4: Amid rising concerns about civil conflict in both the US and Canada, an Arizona man has been indicted on four counts of gun trafficking in an FBI sting operation that revealed he intended to massacre Blacks, Jews, and Muslims to “incite a race war.” The 58-year-old man allegedly planned to attack concerts in Atlanta in mid-May, when he was arrested while driving along a New Mexico highway.

80: The criminal conviction of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter on gun charges this week is unlikely to have a huge impact on voters. A Reuters poll showed that 80% of those surveyed said the first-ever criminal conviction of a sitting president’s child would have no bearing on their ballot decision this November. By contrast, only about 60% of voters said the conviction last month of former President Donald Trump on 34 felony charges would not affect their choice this fall.

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French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and businessman Jared Kushner, along with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and otherEuropean leaders, pose for a group photo at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, December 15, 2025.
Kay Nietfeld/Pool via REUTERS

The European Union just pulled off something that, a year ago, seemed politically impossible: it froze $247 billion in Russian central bank assets indefinitely, stripping the Kremlin of one of its most reliable pressure points.