AUGUST 27, 2026
Taming the Algorithm
Relief may finally be on the horizon for parents and grandparents who have lost touch with teenaged family members who hole up in their bedrooms, ignore screen-time rules and waste hours mindlessly scrolling through social media, or worse, expose themselves to bullying, shaming and other online dangers. Meta, the tech giant founded by Mark Zuckerberg that includes Facebook and Instagram, has agreed to a landmark settlement worth US$18 billion that will force its social media platforms to introduce sweeping new restrictions for users aged 13 to 18. Going forward, teens will face a two-hour daily limit on the apps, a ban on like counts and cosmetic filters, and restricted access between midnight and 6 a.m. The company will also introduce new hurdles designed to prevent young users from accessing age-restricted content, and is urging competitors such as YouTube and TikTok to adopt similar safeguards. For now, the rules apply only in the U.S., and it remains to be seen how they will mesh with Parliament’s proposed Safe Social Media Act, which aims to restrict access to certain popular apps for children under 16. Meta says the changes are meant to give teens “safe, protected experiences,” a happy development that will no doubt send millions of parents and grandparents rushing to click “like”. | Unsplash
AUGUST 26, 2026
Dammit Janet, He’s Gone
British actor Tim Curry, who died Aug. 26 at age 80, was asked in 1988 if he was worried he was going to be remembered solely for his role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter – “a sweet transvestite, from Transsexual, Transylvania,” in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Curry first premiered the role onstage in 1973, before bringing it to the big screen in 1975. Well, he wasn’t: “What’s really nice about The Rocky Horror Picture Show going on as it has is that every year it introduces a bunch of people to my work and if they want to see me do anything else … they are able to. I’m extremely proud of it.” Certainly anyone who saw his campy perfection, opposite Susan Sarandon, when the film came out – or at a New Year’s midnight screening in the last five decades – will never forget him. But neither will those lucky enough to have seen him perform on Broadway in his three Tony-nominated roles: Mozart in Amadeus, Alan Swann in My Favorite Year and King Arthur in Monty Python’s Spamalot. And he’ll be with us every Halloween when kids don Pennywise masks from Stephen King’s It – that was Curry behind the clown makeup. Just last year, the actor penned a moving memoir, called Vagabond, a description he’d come to embrace. “A vagabond looks upon the world as a field of potential and possibility, where beauty can be not just found but created,” he writes, “and adventure awaits any and all who are willing to seek it out.”
AUGUST 25, 2026
Troubled Waters
Today, the trade war between Canada and the U.S. escalated to another level as Ottawa announced $27.6 billion in counter-tariffs on American imports, including metals, seafood, clothing, home appliances and electronic devices. This comes a day after leaders in the two countries traded nasty shots: Ontario Premier Doug Ford told Donald Trump to “kiss his ass” – and threatened to cut off electrical power to the U.S. – while the president posted on social media that he wants to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America. While not lowering themselves to such playground rhetoric, politicians from several U.S. states that border Canada harshly criticized the tariffs, watching in dismay as this once harmonious and prosperous economic partnership is undone by a trade war neither side can afford. “These tariffs will drive up energy prices, increase the costs of everyday goods that Maine people rely on, roil markets and destabilize our economy,” said Maine’s Governor Janet Mills. “Michiganders literally cannot afford to keep paying these Republican tariff taxes,” echoed Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Perhaps California Governor Gavin Newsom summed up the situation best when he posted on X: “Our closest ally. Our critical trade partner. And Trump is hitting Canada with 50 per cent tariffs. What the actual f— are we doing?” | Unsplash
AUGUST 24, 2026
The Gloves are Off
“Our goal has always been to get the best deal for Canadians, never a deal at any price or on any time frame,” Prime Minister Mark Carney told the nation Saturday, conceding that talks to head off 50 per cent U.S. tariffs on plastic products, electrical machinery, furniture and wood products had collapsed. In the end, U.S. President Donald Trump was always going to find a justification to punish Canada economically, cycling through an ever-changing list of grievances – fentanyl, border security, smoke from wildfires, the Gordie Howe Bridge, French-language product labels, alcohol – that no amount of kowtowing or concessions was ever going to overcome. Trump’s latest salvo announced today – a 50 percent tariff increase on Canadian car exports starting Jan. 1 – leaves the prime minister with few options but to fire back with our own retaliatory measures and seek out new economic partnerships, specifically with the European Union. Despite warnings by economists that the latest U.S. tariffs could shave 0.4 percent off our GDP, potentially tipping us into recession, Carney’s message on Saturday was that we can survive this war: “We’ve got the reserves. We’ve got resilience. We’ve got the plan. We’ve got the focus.” It’s a fight Canada never wanted — but, unfortunately, one we can no longer avoid.
