Good evening, readers.

We start tonight’s newsletter with an update between Ottawa and Alberta’s deal on methane.

Ottawa is letting Alberta take the reins on methane as long as the province achieves a 75 per cent reduction of 2014 levels by 2035.

The federal government released an ‘agreement in principle’ for an equivalency process on Wednesday, about a week before the deadline set out as part of last fall’s Ottawa-Alberta pipeline deal.

Both governments agree to publish a more detailed draft agreement later this year.

The deal represents somewhat of a concession for Ottawa, as Canada is committed to reducing methane emissions by 72 per cent by 2030 (compared to 2012 levels). The feds hope to achieve an additional three per cent reduction through technological innovation.

With Alberta—a heavyweight in methane emissions—officially receiving a five-year extension, it will be significantly harder for the federal government to meet its own national targets.

In the agreement in principle, Ottawa agrees to step down its regulations in Alberta, handing the province the lead on this issue.

Aya Dufour has more. 

Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Gregor Robertson rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
Markham is reneging on a deal with the federal government to institute city-wide upzoning, risking millions in funding and delivering another blow to Ottawa’s oft-criticized housing accelerator fund.

Frank Scarpitti, the city’s mayor, announced earlier this month that he would use his strong-mayor powers to cancel a planned move to permit four-units-as-a-right zoning, a key condition in its deal with the federal government to access nearly $59 million in funding.

Toronto made a similar walk down from promised housing reforms last year. The city had pledged to institute six-units-as-a-right zoning across its borders, but Mayor Olivia Chow opted for a compromise bylaw that limited its application to wards in central Toronto and Scarborough.

Initially, Federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson gave Toronto six months to change course. But when that deadline passed without any progress, he docked $10 million from the city’s $471 million HAF allotment.

That’s less than the $30 million former housing minister Nathaniel Erskine-Smith threatened to withhold from the city back in early 2025.

At the time, critics suggested the Liberals were wavering on the HAF program, and Robertson would be far less demanding in ensuring enforcement of the agreements.

Marco Vigliotti has this one. 

Also, Nav Canada said Wednesday Canada is short an estimated 200 air traffic controllers and is working on building its capacity.

The privately run, non-profit corporation is responsible for training and employing the specialized workers who play a critical role in the safety of Canada’s air travel system.

The role of air traffic controllers in the U.S. has been highlighted in discussions following the crash of an Air Canada jet on a runway at the LaGuardia airport in New York on Sunday.

The National Transportation Safety Board in the U.S. has warned that no conclusions can be drawn yet about the causes of the crash.

John Gradek, a faculty lecturer with McGill University’s aviation management program, said Tuesday he believed Canada to be short about 1,500 air traffic controllers.

Nav Canada declined repeated requests for an interview but followed up after The Canadian Press published a story Wednesday citing Gradek’s estimate.

A Nav Canada spokesman initially disputed the figure without disclosing their data on the shortfall, saying the corporation does not disclose vacancy rates. When pressed again, he relented.

Read this one from CP here.

In Other Headlines

Internationally

Elsewhere in Los Angeles Superior Court, social media company Meta and the video streaming service YouTube are found negligent in landmark social media addiction case.

Meta and YouTube must pay $3 million in compensatory damages for pain and suffering and other financial burdens. Meta is responsible for 70 percent of that cost and YouTube for the remainder. The jury also ordered Meta to pay $2.1 million and YouTube to pay $900,000 in punitive damages.

The bellwether case, which was brought by a now 20-year-old woman identified as K.G.M., had accused social media companies of creating products as addictive as cigarettes or digital casinos. Citing features like infinite scroll and algorithmic recommendations, K.G.M. sued Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, and Google’s YouTube, claiming they led to anxiety and depression.

The verdict in K.G.M.’s case — one of thousands of lawsuits filed by teenagers, school districts and state attorneys general against Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap, which owns Snapchat — was a major win for the plaintiffs. The finding validates a novel legal theory that social media sites or apps can cause personal injury. It is likely to factor into similar cases expected to go to trial this year, which could expose the internet giants to further financial damages and force changes to their products.

The New York Times has more.

Meanwhile, Iranians are trying to maintain a semblance of ordinary life against the constant backdrop of explosions, airstrikes – and a conflict many fear may drag on for weeks or months.

“More and more, people are starting to normalise this war,” said Farhad, a photography editor in Tehran. “It’s difficult, but we’re adapting and trying to return to our daily lives as much as possible. There’s no alternative. We’re tired. We just want peace.”

Explosions lit up the city’s skyline overnight on Wednesday as Israel launched fresh airstrikes, but by the morning, joggers were exercising again in the sprawling Pardisan Park. Schools and universities remain closed since the start of the war, but shops, restaurants and cafes are slowly reopening.

Aylar, a 39-year-old human rights worker who spent the first weeks of the war sheltering in her apartment with her cats, said that she had paid for an expensive VPN to try to circumvent the internet blackout imposed by Iranian authorities so she can talk to relatives abroad. “On the same day, I also went for coffee and chocolate cake with friends on what felt like a sunny spring day. These conflicting realities are bizarre,” she said.

The Guardian has more. 

In Other International Headlines

The Kicker

Today, U.S. First Lady Melania Trump brought a robot to talk about AI in education, which feels like the natural evolution of show-and-tell, but with a much bigger budget.

The human-shaped robot introduced itself as “Figure 03,” joined a dozen first spouses around the world to talk about the future of education, which looks to integrate more artificial intelligence.

It’s also the first robot to ever grace the White House. This is either a sign of progress or the start of something we’re not entirely ready for.

Find out more about it on Reuters. 

Have a great night!