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Aug 3 2025

The Roundup: Evening Roundup. LeBlanc's assessment. Russia recruiters.

SUN AUG 3 2025
David Akin's Roundup
Evening Roundup. LeBlanc's assessment. Russia recruiters.
Reader note: As I expected, Forillon National Park,  where I've just spent the last three nights, provided some incredible trails, beaches, wildlife spottings and beauty -- but it could not provide a decent Internet connection. As I write this, I'm in a cottage near Cocagne, NB which, in addition to providing a beatuiful seaside view also has a decent Internet connection so I thought I thought I'd toss out an evening edition of The Roundup as I catch up on my digital life and prepare tomorrow's edition. Hope you're having a great long weekend! - DA
Canada
LeBlanc says tariff talks with U.S. ‘constructive’ but deal out of reach
Dominic LeBlanc says U.S.-Canada tariff talks are 'constructive' but unresolved, urging a deal to cut costs and protect integrated industries like autos and steel. [Global]
Anand did not specify the nature of the incidents, but said she is working with security services to resolve the issue. [Globe and Mail] (🎁 link)
Aurora
Elsewhere
Inside Russia's Shadow Battalions: Coercion, Violence, And Ethnic Targeting
The Russian government, facing mounting losses in Ukraine, appears to be intensifying its coercive recruitment tactics, targeting prisoners, conscripts, and ethnic minorities from remote regions and Central Asian migrant communities to bolster its depleted forces. [Radio Free Europe]
Ukrainian Democracy Faced a Big Test and Passed.
Michael McFaul: But what happened in Ukraine this week made me worry about the strength of democracy in America. [Substack]
Media
What is AI bias? Dr Matthias Holweg, who pioneered the Artificial Intelligence programmes at Oxford’s Saïd Business School, told me that “bias is a feature, not a bug” in these tools. In other words, any model will mirror the prejudices present in the data on which it is trained. [ Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism]
Science and Technology
Secret Gmail Hack to Find All Bulk Emails in your Inbox
Use this secret Gmail search operator to find all unwanted emails that are either newsletters or promotional emails.
Issued this day ...
… in 2006. Sc 2166b souvenir sheet of 4. Duck Decoys. Design: Oliver Hill and Dennis Page.  All of these decoys can be found in the Canadian Museum of Nature.

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