Stack of US dollar bills with ascending line

Paige Fusco, with image by DonkeyHotey

The debt ceiling – dubbed by Ian Bremmer as the dumbest recurring character in US politics – is rearing its ugly head with no end in sight.

Republicans and Democrats have been sparring for weeks, and while House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden made meaningful progress in recent days, a deal remains elusive. The US government, meanwhile, will breach the so-called “X-date,” when it runs out of money to pay its bills, by late next week. Yet, legislators are fleeing Capitol Hill ahead of the holiday weekend in spite of the threat of the X-date arriving before a deal.

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Paige Fusco

In the coming decades, Arctic sea ice is expected to melt so much that the region will become traversable much of the year. While environmentally devastating, this will also mean more shipping access, resource extraction, and risk of conflict in the region.

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A "For Sale" sign at a house in Calgary, Alberta.

REUTERS/Todd Korol

107: Canadian households are more in debt than any other G7 country, according to a new government report. Household debt is now larger than the value of the entire Canadian economy, standing at 107% of GDP. This is worrying for Canada’s central bank because if homeowners can’t make mortgage payments, defaults pose a great risk to the national economy.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis joins the 2024 race to the White House.

Reuters

We all knew he was going to join the 2024 US presidential race — it was just a matter of how and when. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis answered those questions on Wednesday night, officially throwing his hat in the ring on a Twitter Space hosted by Elon Musk.

But despite months of anticipation and preparation, things did not go smoothly. The social media app repeatedly crashed as listeners tuned in to hear the Florida governor, leaving DeSantis unable to speak for 30 minutes.

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Farmers in Mexicali

REUTERS
After 20 years of drought, the Colorado River, whose water built the Western US, is in serious trouble. Its flows have dropped by one-third, forcing lawmakers in California, Arizona, and Nevada to agree to a collective 13% reduction in river water use on Monday.
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TikTok app in front of an American flag

REUTERS
Republican Governor Greg Gianforte made history on Wednesday when he signed a bill to outlaw TikTok in his state. The first-of-its-kind law makes Montana the only US state to ban the video-hosting app (so far!), a move Gianforte said was inspired by the need to protect Montanans’ data from the prying eyes of the Chinese government.
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives at Hiroshima Airport in Japan.

Kohei Choji/The Yomiuri Shimbun via Reuters Connect

Trudeau landed in Hiroshima on Thursday to discuss global security, economic resilience, climate change, and energy with the other G-7 leaders. As in South Korea, Canada’s top business priority is likely to be seeking markets for critical minerals.

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Luisa Vieira

There’s a new “cold” war playing out through inaction on climate change, and it’s melting ice in the Arctic. The casualties? Polar bears. Nanuit – as they’re called in Inuktitut (the language of the Inuit) – roam across the Arctic, and can be found in the US, Canada, Russia, Greenland, and Norway. They rely on sea ice to hunt, mate, and raise their young, making them particularly vulnerable to climate change.

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