55,000: Santa’s sleigh may struggle to go north this year. A strike by some 55,000 Canada Post employees has led the US Postal Service to alert customers that it will not be able to deliver to Canadian addresses for the foreseeable future. Just ahead of the holiday season, the service stoppage is likely to cause headaches to cross-border families trying to exchange gifts.
700: The US border patrol said its agents on the Canadian border had apprehended about 700 migrants crossing illegally into the US in November, down from 1,300 in October. Crossings are down on the southern border too, with 47,000 apprehensions in November, the lowest figure since July 2020.
766,000: Some 766,000 foreigners in Canada hold student permits that are set to expire by the end of 2025. While some permits will be renewed, many of the foreign students will likely have to leave Canada amid the country’s rising economic and housing concerns. The most affected country? India, whose young people make up the majority of foreign pupils in the Great White North.
3: Three climbers, two Americans and one Canadian, went missing on Monday while attempting to scale New Zealand’s highest peak, Mount Cook (also known as Aoraki). Bad weather has stymied search efforts, and New Zealand authorities say they have “grave concerns.”The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively shut, global energy markets are under mounting pressure, and President Trump appears to be backing away from some of his original demands on Tehran. Ian Bremmer argues that Iran increasingly believes it has more leverage than the United States, and that perception alone is reshaping the negotiations.
Carl Bildt answers two major political questions shaping Europe’s future: Could Canada ever join the European Union? And is UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer politically finished after Labour’s disastrous local election results?
The world is a wild place. Happy 100th Sir David Attenborough
The Pentagon has poured billions into AI warfare, from drone footage analysis to autonomous targeting. Katrina Manson, author of Project Maven and Bloomberg reporter, joins Ian Bremmer to trace how AI went from a computer experiment to key technology for the Pentagon, and why some risks and moral stakes remain unresolved.