We’re starting the newsletter off with some news about the VIA rail.

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a $4.7 billion contract to build 313 new passenger cars for Via Rail on Thursday.

Carney made the announcement at the Alstom plant in Thunder Bay, Ont., where the cars will be built. The government says these will be the first Via Rail passenger cars built in Canada in 40 years.

“Our rail cars on our long-distance and remote routes are more than 70 years old. They were built when the NHL had six teams. Goalies wouldn’t wear masks. The Leafs would win the (Stanley) Cup,” Carney said in prepared remarks.

“Those old cars have served our country well, but they’re long overdue for retirement. It’s time to build new ones, to build them here at home.”

The Canadian Press has more. 

At the same news conference, Carney is also pushing back against senior members of the Trump administration who have been claiming his government tanked trade talks in the eleventh hour for political reasons.

Carney said he doesn’t think “appointed, unelected” cabinet members in the United States are experts on Canadian politics.

Carney said a deal with the United States that works to the benefit of both countries is still possible.

Tensions between the United States and Canada have escalated since the breakdown in trade talks last month.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was on multiple U.S. news stations this week claiming Canada added “crazy ideas” in the final hours of negotiations in order to terminate trade talks for domestic political reasons.

CP’s got this one too. 

Ottawa has not yet borrowed the money needed to seed the new $25 billion Canada Strong Fund announced last spring.

A spokesperson for Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne tells iPolitics the money is “booked,” but the fund’s transition team is still working to establish a board and CEO.

That process is running concurrently with a mandate review of other public investment vehicles, such as the Canada Infrastructure Bank, the Canada Growth Fund, Export Development Canada and more, in a bid to avoid duplication and competition in the federal financing ecosystem.

“Future money will be borrowed at the lowest rates,” writes spokesperson John Fragos.

Meanwhile, government bond yields — essentially the interest rate a government pays to borrow — are climbing globally and in Canada, meaning it now costs more to finance the same amount of debt.

Aya Dufour reports. 

In Other Headlines

Internationally

The EU’s ability to respond to a foreign invasion by 2030 remains in doubt due to a continuing reliance on the US and fragmented national defence systems, according to a report from its official auditor.

The European court of auditors (ECA) said the EU was much better prepared than before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine of 2022, but achieving its goal of defence readiness by the end of the decade would be difficult.

“Achieving defence preparedness in the EU by 2030 remains challenging,” said Marek Opioła, an ECA member who led the review of the EU’s defence policy published on Thursday. “There are still major difficulties such as fragmented national systems or industrial bottlenecks. We also still rely on the United States.”

Speaking to the Guardian, he stressed the EU could “still make major progress” if it sharply increased defence spending and rapidly expanded ammunition production.

Between 2020 and 2025, EU member states increased defence spending by 79%, a response to the Russian threat and a belated effort to meet Nato spending targets. In November 2024, the EU met its pledge of providing 1 million rounds of ammunition to Ukraine – eight months behind schedule.

The Guardian has more. 

Longtime Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo is out at the network.

“We thank Maria for her work over the last 12 1/2 years and wish her all the best on her next chapter,” a spokesperson said in a brief statement.

Bartiromo joined the network in 2014 after becoming a star at CNBC. At Fox Business and the Fox News Channel, she hosted “Mornings with Maria” and other shows bearing her name. The network is rebranding those shows and will have a rotating cast of anchors host them.

Bartiromo, like many other Fox News hosts, has been a staunch supporter of President Trump. Following his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, Bartiromo helped spread unfounded theories of conspiracy fraud. Her on-air comments — and those of guests she invited on her show — featured prominently in a defamation case against Fox brought by the voting technology company Dominion Voting Systems. Fox settled the case for more than $787 million just as the trial was about to begin.

Read more from NPR. 

In Other International Headlines

The Kicker

And finally, if you’re looking to squeeze in some culture before the long weekend, Ottawa’s stages have you covered.

This weekend is the last time folks can catch Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman at the Ottawa Little Theatre. It closes Sept. 5.

And if you’re feeling a bit of that roaring ’20s, The Great Gatsby musical is hitting the NAC stage. The performance runs from Sept. 8 to 13.

Have a great evening!