Canada's PM Justin Trudeau Resigns; Trump Calls For 🇺🇸🇨🇦 Merger
Plus, driverless cars could soon be coming to a rideshare app near you
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Good morning,
Scientists have uncovered 200 dinosaur footprints from around 166 million years ago in southern England. They’re calling the region where they were unearthed: “dinosaur highway.”
The new tracks were uncovered thanks to a quarry worker in Oxfordshire, who spotted unusual bumps on the ground.
Four sets of the tracks — about three feet long and one and a half feet deep — belonged to long-necked herbivore dinosaurs called "sauropods," most likely a 60-foot-long species called a "Cetiosaurus."
Another set likely came from a massive 30-foot-tall, 1.5-ton Megalosaurus.
The area known as “dinosaur highway” was first excavated in 1997. Recent discoveries make it one of the largest dinosaur track sites in the world.
Back then, Jurassic Oxfordshire looked very different from today’s grassy landscapes — more closely resembling the “muddy lagoon environment” of the Florida Keys, making it the perfect conditions to capture and preserve footprints.
Have a good one!
Mosheh, Jill, Sari, & Lauren
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📌 CANADA’S PM STEPS ASIDE AS UPCOMING ELECTIONS SPELL DOOM FOR LIBERAL PARTY
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation as leader of the Liberal Party on Monday after more than a decade. He will remain the country’s leader until a successor is chosen — a process that could take weeks.
This decision follows months of internal turmoil within his party and ongoing gridlock in Canada’s Parliament.
BEHIND HIS DECISION
In his resignation announcement, Trudeau said, “This country deserves a real choice in the next election, and it has become clear to me that if I’m having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election.”
Amid post-Covid inflation, including rising food and housing costs, as well as criticism of his open immigration policy, Trudeau’s approval rating plummeted to 22%.
He also faces a series of crises — including Donald Trump’s tariff threats and internal party turmoil.
Trudeau’s resignation became increasingly likely after the surprise departure of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland late last year.
In a scathing resignation letter, Freeland criticized Trudeau’s “political gimmicks,” likely referring to a two-month sales tax holiday and rebates for many workers – seen as a last-second ploy to win back voters.
After Freeland resigned, Liberal Party members began calling for Trudeau to step aside and let someone else lead in upcoming elections. Freeland’s name is being tossed as a possible replacement.
Trudeau plans to stay in office until a replacement is chosen, meaning he will likely lead the country through the early months of Donald Trump’s presidency.
On Monday, Trump doubled down on his assertion that Canada should become the U.S.’s 51st state. Many Canadians say they find the consistent trolling offensive.
🇨🇦 CANADA 101
In Canada, the party with the most seats in the House of Commons forms the government. Currently, that is the Liberal Party, which will now choose a new leader to serve until the next national election.
Mo News spoke with Amanda Alvaro and Rachael Segal, hosts of the Canadian female-focused politics podcast Beyond a Ballot, to break down how their government functions and the current political chaos unfolding.
🎧 Catch the full conversation on Mo News’s “The Interview” podcast on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.
WHAT’S NEXT
Trudeau stated that his successor will be selected through a “nationwide” process, meaning the Liberal Party will opt for a grassroots leadership race. The process that could take several weeks, as it requires contenders to campaign across the country.
By law, a general election must be held by Oct. 20, but it could come sooner.
Trudeau’s resignation is widely seen as a strategic move to step down before an anticipated election defeat later this year. Polls indicate that the Liberal Party is poised to suffer a major loss to the Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
LARGER GLOBAL TREND
Incumbent governments around the world have faced a tough year, as voters were upset with rising costs due to inflation. 2025 isn’t looking easier for those still holding onto power.
Among the G7 nations, political shakeups have been widespread:
United Kingdom: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party suffered a major defeat in the general election.
United States: Democrats lost control of both chambers of Congress and the White House.
Japan: The long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party lost its parliamentary majority.
Canada, France, and Germany are set to hold elections this year, following periods of political turmoil. The German Chancellor and the Canadian PM are both on their way out, while the French President lost a snap election and is deeply unpopular.
📌 MORE DRIVERLESS CARS ARE HEADED OUT TO STREETS ACROSS THE U.S.
Could 2025 be the year we start to get comfortable with self-driving cars? Uber and Lyft are leaning into the technology, with both companies set to integrate driverless cars — also known as autonomous vehicles (AVs) — into their apps this year.
It comes as Waymo’s Co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov shared a video on X, showing one of the company’s autonomous vehicles successfully avoiding a collision with a woman who fell off a scooter in Austin. Some research points to AVs being safer than human drivers.
THE AV BUSINESS
In the coming months, Uber users in Austin and Atlanta will have the option to hail Waymo's driverless taxis (owned by Google parent company, Alphabet) through the app; while Lyft plans to introduce May Mobility's autonomous vehicles in Atlanta. Driverless taxis are already in San Francisco, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and more!
Uber and Lyft had invested billions of dollars in developing their own self-driving cars, but abandoned the costly endeavor during the pandemic. General Motors recently followed suit and retreated from developing its Cruise fleet after spending billions of dollars.
At the same time, Tesla plans to begin production of its Cybercab before 2027, and Amazon is currently testing its Zoox AVs on the road.
People are warming up to the phenomenon: in August alone, Waymos picked up close to 500,000 passengers in California.
SAFETY STANDARDS
According to a recent study analyzing 25.3 million miles driven across various cities by Waymo's AVs, researchers found a significant reduction in accident-related claims. They found an 88% drop in property damage claims and a 92% decrease in bodily injury claims, as compared to human drivers. The study was conducted by Waymo and an insurance company.
Studies on self-driving technology suggest that autonomous vehicles may be safer than human drivers in routine situations.
Last year, around 40,000 people in the U.S. died from traffic incidents — many of which could have been prevented.
Unlike human drivers, AVs do not exceed the speed limit and always come to a full stop at stop signs.
However, research also highlights challenges with self-driving cars, particularly their performance in low-light conditions and during turns.
Plus, there remain fears of technology hacks, along with other simple annoyances.
Recently, a man in Scottsdale, AZ got trapped in a self-driving car on the way to the airport, when the vehicle wouldn’t stop making circles around a parking lot.
Just a couple of years ago in San Francisco, self-driving cars were confused by fog and created frustrating traffic jams.
⏳ SPEED READ
🚨NATION
📌 America’s first bird flu death reported in Louisiana (CNN)
📌 Kamala Harris certifies her election loss before Congress (NBC)
📌 Biden bans new offshore drilling in most federal waters in last-minute effort to block possible action by Trump administration (PBS)
📌 Major winter storm slams mid-Atlantic, closing schools and canceling flights (ABC)
📌 Trump says he's still open to two-bill track on GOP legislative priorities (POLITICO)
🌎 AROUND THE WORLD
📌 US to ease curbs on supplies to Syria but keep sanctions in place (TIMES OF ISRAEL)
📌 Pope Francis has named the first woman to head a major Vatican office (AP)
📌 Venezuela’s dissidents plot comeback after months in hiding, exile or jail ahead of Maduro’s inauguration (WSJ)
📌 Far-right leader gets his chance to form government in Austria (POLITICO)
📌 Indonesia launches free meals program to fight stunting (NPR)
📱BUSINESS, SCIENCE & TECH
📌 U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel sue Biden administration for blocking their $15 billion deal (CBS)
📌 McDonald’s is the latest company to roll back diversity goals (AP)
📌 Dana White, UFC CEO and Trump ally, to join Meta's board of directors (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER)
📌 Sugary drinks linked to millions of new diabetes and heart disease cases (GUARDIAN)
🎬 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT
📌 Nikki Glaser says she was paid less than a former male host for 2025 Golden Globes but vows, 'I'll get more next year' (PEOPLE)
📌 Former Fox Sports host Skip Bayless harassed hairstylist and offered her $1.5 million for sex, lawsuit alleges (CBS)
📌 Zendaya sparks engagement speculation at Golden Globes with a sparkling ring (AP)
📌 “Wicked” director Jon M. Chu set to direct the Britney Spears biopic, shares that “she’s going to be very involved” (DEADLINE)
🗓 ON THIS DAY: JANUARY 7
1610: Astronomer Galileo Galilei observed four of Jupiter’s moons for the first time.
1955: Marian Anderson broke barriers as the first Black American to perform with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, starring in Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera.”
1996: A major winter storm battered the East Coast of the U.S., killing 154 and causing over $1 billion in damage.
2003: 50 Cent released ‘In Da Club,’ later becoming the rapper’s first number-one single.