Morning Brew Daily - Canada Says “We’re at War” Over Tariffs & IndyCar Race Rips Through Washington DC

Episode Date: August 24, 2026

#917: The US and Canada are spiraling towards another trade war as tariff negotiations break down. ChatGPT can now read and respond to your iMessages. The Trump administration hosts the IndyCar race in Washington DC for his birthday. The world’s busiest airport is no longer in the Middle East, but now in Seoul, South Korea. Finally, what you need to know in the week ahead.  Learn more at https://go.amex/morningbrew  Grab tickets to our Performance Revue show! https://www.morningbrew.com/events/brew-performance-revue-2026?utm_campaign=performance_revue_2026&utm_source=mbd Subscribe to Morning Brew Daily for more of the news you need to start your day. Share the show with a friend, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast app. Listen to Morning Brew Daily Here:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.swap.fm/l/mbd-note⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you sucking wind from trying to keep up with AI and its impact? Take a breather and tune in to the Intelligence Shift. Morning Brew's new podcast with PWC. It bridges the gap between big picture AI concepts and what it actually means in practice. Host Dan Priest is joined by expert guests to discuss AI's role in sports, music, HR, and more. Listen to the intelligence shift wherever you get your podcasts. Good morning brew daily show. I'm Neil Fryman. And I'm Toby Howell.

Today, Canada says it's at war with the U.S. this latest tariff barrage. Then start your engines. There was an IndyCar race in Washington, D.C. this weekend. It's Monday, August 24th. Let's ride. Good morning and welcome back to the week. Heads up, your office might be a little emptier than usual

because today, August 24th has been deemed the sickest day in America. It is the single most common day for employees to call out of work, according to an analysis from Flamingo. Not that you're actually fooling anyone with that manufactured cough, given the mild weather. It's almost certainly not true that more people get sick on a random day in late August for a more believable reason. It might be the final opportunity to take the kids for a day trip before school starts or check off that hike you've been putting off all summer. Toby, proud of us for clocking into work today. I thought you meant sickest as in like cool. August 24 is one of the coolest days out there.

I'm not 16 anymore. I get the weather argument because it is great weather, but isn't this pretty late to be going back to school? I was always early August because I lived in Florida, but when did you go back to school? After Labor Day. I know. That's in the Northeast. That's when we went back to school. It's crazy.

It was crazy to learn that in the South, Texas, Florida. They're already back in school in August. I'm like, where's your summer? I find it hard to believe, though, that August 24th is actually the sickest day, though, because the second sickest is February 13th, which is the day after the Super Bowl. and that is always famously, you know, the Super Bowl hangover. So I need to look a little bit further into this data. Well, I think that is why it's not the sickest day,

because if this is the first one, that's the second one. Perhaps there's other factors going on than the flu. And now a word from our sponsor, American Express. Neil, where's the most memorable place you've ever made a business purchase? Business happens everywhere these days, like planes, trains, or even during a friend's really long wedding ceremony. Well, you should know the American Express Business Platinum card can reward your business journey.

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Canada's prime minister, Mark Carney, said the U.S. and his country were effectively at war after America slapped 50% tariffs on a wide range of goods on Saturday. You're at war when you're attacked, and we got attacked, Carney said, discussing trade negotiations that broke down in the last hour, leading to the tariffs being imposed. He added, we've recognized from the start that America has changed. changed, we recognize that sometimes its signature is written in pencil. It's a stunning breakdown in relations between the two longtime neighbors, whose friendship has deteriorated since Trump took

office for his second term and began bullying Canada around as the 51st state. Earlier this summer, Trump announced a fresh round of tariffs on Canada, 50% on $20 billion worth of goods, and retaliation for unfair treatment of American products, particularly alcohol, by Canadian provinces. It looked like an agreement was about to be reached on Friday, but discussions fell apart, with both sides blaming each other on last second curveballs thrown into the deal. Now, it looks like this trade war is heating way back up with implications for both the Canadian and American economies. In response to Trump's tariffs, Carney said that he would target American goods dollar

for dollar beginning on September 8th, the Tuesday after Labor Day. Trump is not backing down either, writing on social media. Canada wants the benefits of being a state without being one. They've also charged our great farmers for many years, massive amounts of tariffs, no more. Toby, are you ready to take up arms against Canada? No. I like my syrup, but too much.

But this is a risk for Mark Carney and Canada, one that he thinks is a calculated one. The risk is that 72% of Canadian goods exports went to the U.S. last year. We are the Canada's biggest trading partner by far. So the fact that you're engaging in a trade war here means that you are going to take on some economic risk. The reason he feels emboldened to do so is because he's got a lot of support. He has very high approval ratings. More than 75% in one poll said he was right to walk away and nearly 90% worried about the economic costs. So basically, you're seeing people are saying that, hey, we are concerned that the economic costs are coming, but we support the fact that you are doing so.

Just 18% wanted Canada to make concessions to get a deal done. So that is why, at least in the short term, people are willing to eat some of that economic pain just to stand up to Trump in America. So what are these tariffs? What is the U.S. putting tariffs on in Canada? It is $20 billion worth of goods, which is a small fraction of what the overall trade volume between these two countries is. It's 5% of Canada's exports to the U.S., but it's some interesting categories. Some seem a little random. Alcohol is prominent. Alcohol is one of the goods that is being targeted by the U.S. and why alcohol is important is this is one of the main grievances that the U.S. has with Canada because in response to the first volley of tariffs, eight of Canada's 10 provinces

restrict U.S. wine and spirits from their government-owned liquor distribution system and stores. So if you go to 8 of 10 provinces and look for Jack Daniels or Tito's vodka, you won't see it. So alcohol is being targeted. Dairy products as well. That's been a major grievance of the United States from Canada because Canada has these quotas to protect their dairy farmers. We also have clothing and textiles. And then, And the final one is articles, a bit of a grinch here, articles for Christmas festivities, ornaments, not of glass or wood, toys, including ones for bikes, fishing rods, hockey sticks, skates, and festive carnival or other entertainment articles.

So if you're planning a Christmas party, you look at the tag, it probably won't say Made in Canada. I feel like you're actually missing some of the bigger ones. Partial wigs, false beards, and eyebrows are also underst-gris. So it just goes to show how uniquely specific there are. another one too that we haven't mentioned is the list contains 36 different types of plywood. And wood is actually a very big sticking point between the U.S. and Canada because U.S. home builders say, hey, we do not have enough domestic supply. We need to have stuff coming in from Canada.

So it's going to throw a rent in the home building as well. One other thing to look at is just how uniquely strained the relationship between the U.S. and Canada is, is that a lot of Canadians are retaliating on their own. We've talked a lot about how Canadian travel to the U.S. has fallen sharply. We are seeing that manifest in the fact that the U.S. loss around $2.5 billion in travel revenue last year. And a lot of it is tied to boycotting American alcohol as well, as you mentioned. So this is a trade war that we're seeing playing out officially, but also unofficially. We are seeing Canadians push back against America in more than one ways.

Moving on, if you hate it when someone is peeking over your shoulder, reading the message on your phone, then you will really hate OpenAI's latest product rollout. Chat ChbT can now read your iMessages. OpenAI rolled out in optional Apple messages plug-in for ChatGBT, which less users connect their entire messages inbox to the AI. The reason you might do this is to search for info buried in old messages or poke and prod your message history with questions like, who do I talk to the most, or who have I forgotten to follow up with?

You can also have Chat ChbT send messages on your behalf, which will bring a lot more MDASS to your fantasy football group chat this year. The backlash was swift, with many lamenting that this plugin could start to ruin texting, one of the last distinctly human forms of digital communication we have left as AI slop takes over the rest of the internet. Plus, many see the plugin as a massive privacy red flag. Game theorist Liv Burry called it a deranged invasion of privacy, writing that neither you or anyone in your contacts consented to years of old private messages

being fed into an AI. Many too scratch their heads on how the notoriously privacy-focused Apple let open AI into the henhouse, especially as the two tussle in federal court over stealing trade secrets. Neil, some practical use cases for sure, but a lot of question marks too. Let's start with why this might be helpful, why someone might want to let chat GPT into their eye message. And maybe one reason is that your messaging inbox has become these days as messy as your email inbox. It's almost email at this point. I've got politicians texting me. I've got brands texting

me. It would be very nice for I've got Toby texting me. Yeah, do you have any friends texting you? I would be very nice to have chat, GVT with a simple query, say go through my text messages. You'll get all, like, flag all the spam for me, get rid of all the stuff that I randomly signed up for and maybe

actually tell me if there's somebody that I've missed that send me a happy birthday message last week. And I have replied to them. So basically, the idea is that your I message inbox has become as unwieldy as your Gmail inbox might be helpful to have some AI as a filtration layer to make life easier for you. But again, a lot of people just went off against this because in the one camp, it was that people think that humanity should be still texting. Like when I'm texting Neil, I want to know that I'm texting Neil. And I'm just going to read some of the quote tweets of this rollout on X.

If I find out that AI has been texting me on your behalf, I will never speak to you again. One called it an open book, Are You an Idiot Test? And then another said, if anyone AI emails or text me, I hope you know you're effectively dead to me. So that, it's again, it's about that trust factor that we've talked about before, about how you want to know there's a human on the other side of communications, especially something as personal as texting. So that's the one camp. But there's also the other privacy focus camp that is very wary about giving chats to be. full disk access to their computers, which they feel like is a step too far when it comes to letting AI into your personal business.

And Open AI has emphasized the privacy aspect of this. They've talked about how many loopholes or hurdles you have to go through to actually get into this particular integration. Like, it's not going to be opt out. It's opt in. So you have to check off many different steps to say, yes, I want this. Yes, I want this. Yes, I want this.

It's going to, you actually have to go into. the Mac system settings app itself and grant full disk access. So there are many steps you have to take to go through for chat GPT to be integrated into your iMessage, very dissimilar to what we saw with meta AI, just happening on your Instagram without you asking. But it is an interesting calculation by Apple because chat chitpT may not have open AI probably did not coordinate with Apple about this. And previously, they've gone after third parties that have accessed iMessage.

Remember, there was that one app, mini B. or Beeper Mini that went into your I message and allowed it to run on Android. People love that, but then Apple decided to crack down because they don't want third parties messing in their walled garden. So there's a lot of back, you know, a lot of history between OpenAI and Apple. They don't really like each other right now. So it will be interesting to watch how Apple responds. It's winners of the weekend time, the segment where Neil and I picked two stories that

had a better weekend than Neil who partied with his aunt Sue for his birthday. I won the pre-show game of Who Can Name More Sports Teams located in California, so I'm up first. And my one in the weekend is people who drive above the speed limit in Washington, D.C. Indy car took to the streets of the nation's capital yesterday for a 250-mile race in honor of America's 250th birthday. You've probably caught the Indy 500 on TV at some point, but just to refresh your memory, Indy cars have a similar open-wheel look to Formula One as opposed to the more traditional-looking stock cars driven in NASCAR. The race followed a similar route to your eighth grade class field trip, completing 147 laps around the National Mall, starting in front of the Lincoln Memorial before racing past the Washington Monument,

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, and Down Pennsylvania Ave. There to wave the green flag was President Trump, who has made it a priority in his final term to party hard, adding motorsports to summer celebrations that have also included a UFC fight on the White House lawn. And fans are turning out. Organizers say they received more than 288,000 ticket requests in just over nine days, while DC Mayor Muriel Bowser estimated 140,000 people showed up to watch. A big reason for the big turnout, tickets were free, thanks in large part to the transportation conglomerate Penske, who alongside some sponsors, footed the roughly $20 million price tag for the race.

Also, fear not DC commuters. Penske agreed to cover any damage to the roads caused by the cars ripping around at 190 miles per hour. Neil, it feels like every other week there's a sporting event descending upon D.C. It was quite surreal to see the Washington Monument and then boom, race cars. Not sure this is what Pierre Linfant had in mind when he designed Washington, D.C. originally. If you live there, this must be a bit of a headache and there were some grumblings about all

the setup and infrastructure that was required to put on an indie car race, really in downtown DC around the mall. Restaurants were complaining that were if they were in the security zone, that they had a bunch disruptions to their business. And I thought this was interesting. You saw concerns by preservationists about the vibrations of the cars potentially affecting artifacts and paintings in these museums because where these cars were going around, I mean, they go by the National Archives Building, the National Gallery of Art and three different

Smithsonian museums, Air and Space, American Indian, and American History. They are traveling upwards of 200 miles per hour. So you heard preservations. I didn't realize that the vibrations might affect the art at least 24, less than 24 hours. We haven't heard of any George Washington paintings falling to the ground. How did the racers enjoy the race? They didn't love the track. The runner-up who finished behind American Kyle Kirkwood said the layout wasn't really the most entertaining

and that the bumpy street course doesn't make it much easier physically. I did say some clips of when you do street racing in Indy car, it is bumpy as heck. These cars are almost catching air as they're going through streets because, again, this is not a perfectly, you know, smoothed out oval racetrack. It is the streets of Washington, D.C. But then he did say every time you're driving past the main street, the capital is on your right. It's the best scene in the house. So at least the views were good. Fans also, too, seemed to love it.

One fan traveled from Foxxon, Ohio, and told USA Today with tears in her eyes, this is America. I feel safe. I have not a worry in the world. It just doesn't get any better than this. is exactly what, you know, Trump is going for with these America 250 celebrations. There's been criticism that maybe it's a little bread in circuses. There's other things in the world to focus on why are we throwing all these big parties, but at least for the fans of IndyCar, they really enjoyed the spectacle.

We'll never see a summer like this. I mean, not only did we have the World Cup, but we also had the UFC on the South Lawn, which Dana White said cost $30 million. And he said, that was fun, but we're never doing it again. This race cost Penske, allegedly more than. $20 million. I think it's also a one-time deal. The guy's like, I'm never doing this again. Just one, one hot D.C. summer. But it's probably good for the nation's capital because we're seeing what 170,000 people come for this particular race. Who knows how many for the UFC as well.

So it's a time that a lot of Americans for the country's 250th birthday are getting acquainted with Washington, D.C. All right. We're going to take a quick break and come back with Neil's winner of the weekend right after this. Every day, shareholders, meet to discuss important matters about the companies you invest in. Now, you can easily make your voice heard too. Vanguard investor choice makes it easy to set your proxy voting preference for your eligible Vanguard index funds. In just a few clicks, you can have a say on important shareholder topics like executive pay and director elections. Visit vanguard.com slash investor choice to learn more. It's your shares. It's your voice. It's easy. Vanguard investors own shares of their

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model. Learn about turning AI investment into results at pwc.com slash US slash brew AI. That's pwc.com slash US slash brew AI. My winner is Inchon International Airport in South Korea, because for the first time ever, it just leapfrog Dubai to become the world's busiest international airport. Talk about a K-pop. Injohn, located about 30 miles west of the capital, Seoul, handled 38.39 million international passengers in the first half of this year, vaulting it ahead of London Heathrow and third place Singapore. Dubai, meanwhile, tanked in the rankings, which should give you a clue about why this

leaderboard shakeup took place. The war in Iran, located in the UAE's backyard, decimated travel to and from the Gulf airports, which had established themselves as the main point of transfer between Europe and Asia. Before the war, Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways accounted for about 16% of the world's 417 million connecting passengers. But then, the missiles started flying and the center of aviation gravity shifted east toward places like Seoul, South Korea that have emerged as key transfer nodes between Europe, North America, and Asia. Let's say you were going on a trip to Vietnam from New York or Paris. Last year, you probably would have transferred through the Gulf. Now you're much more likely to make a pit stop in Taiwan, Hong Kong, or Seoul. The number of

people flying from Europe to Incheon for connections jumped by two-thirds in the first half of 2006. Toby, seems like I'm the only one who hasn't stopped in Seoul this year. It was really well positioned for this exact moment. If you go back to 2002, it was just 10th globally. It's then slowly climbed up to 5th. And then it's been in the top 3 in 2024 and at 2025. A big reason that I was able to absorb all this extra traffic, though, is the fact that they had this big 2024 expansion that increased its annual capacity to over 100 million passengers. It serves 101 airlines, and it flies to 183 different cities. So this is a great airport to be the busiest one in the world. We're also just seeing

Asia more broadly benefiting from this Hong Kong international airport. They saw traffic up 11% in the first half. Same thing for Taiwan's international airport, up nearly 10%. So Asia is the new Middle East when it comes to connecting passengers, especially to Europe and other places. And the question is, will this last perhaps as hostilities between the U.S. and Iran and other Middle Eastern countries dies down because we saw Middle Eastern transfer traffic on routes between Europe and Western Europe and Asia collapsed by 47 percent in April year over year. Remember that there was no Emirates wasn't flying. Guitar Airways was not flying because there were missiles overhead and they have inched back up since over the course of the summer.

So the question is whether Asia, Seoul, Taiwan can hang on to this crown or the center of gravity will shift back as, you know, peace is restored or violence dies down in that area because they all talk about infrastructure. These Gulf carriers know exactly what they're doing and they're not going to let Asia take their leader. One thing that aviation consultants are already seeing, though, is travelers, are deciding the discounted fares are good enough that they're willing to accept the geopolitical risk to fly through the Middle East again. So part of the reason why we are seeing traffic inch

back up is because people are saying, you know what? We will take the discount, even though there might be some instability in the region. So that compared with the fact that, yes, they have established themselves over decades at this point as the central hub of the aviation industry means that Dubai probably will take the crown back at some point. Okay, so you're at trivia later this week or next week. And you get the question, which is the classic question, what is the world's busiest airport? Do not say in China.

I know you're going to want to say it because you heard us say it here, but it is the world's busiest international airport for international travelers. The world's busiest airport is still Atlanta, Hartfield, Jackson, in the United States. That has the most passengers go through it, but most of that, most of those passengers are domestic in the United States. So please, I would have messed that up. I know that's what I'm saying, Dovey.

Not this is just international traffic, not total traffic. Atlanta still cakes the cake there. All right, it's Monday. So here's what you need to know to stay ahead in the week ahead. In markets, we've got a big week with two tent pole events. First, Nvidia earnings on Wednesday, which is always a key test of demand for AI, you know, the thing propping up the stock market as well as our entire economy. Then on Friday, Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh delivers the keynote address at the Central Bank's annual symposium.

in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. After last week's bond chaos that's pitted his tight-lipped approach against Scott Besson's interventionist streak, everyone is intrigued about what Warsh is going to say. Yeah, Besson is definitely moving in on the feds turf. CNBC wrote that there is no definitive line between where Treasury's responsibilities and in the feds begin. So maybe that line will be drawn by Worse this week because he wants to create a little bit breathing room for the Fed. Closing arguments begin in a legal case that has gripped the nation. A mother, Lindsay Clancy, is on trial for killing her three children, aged five, three, and eight months. And what she says was a state of postpartum psychosis.

You cannot scroll five minutes on social media without commentary on the Lindsay Clancy trial, which the New York Times says has become a Rorschach test for Americans and how they view the forces behind mental health. Yeah, Clancy and her team do not deny that she killed her children. But as CNN writes, her attorney argues she should not be held. criminally responsible for their deaths because she was suffering from that postpartum psychosis. Finally, in the sports world, if you missed watching soccer after the World's Cup, do not fear the English Premier League has kicked off last weekend with more games being held this week and on and on until May.

It's a very long season, so certainly not too late to pick yourself a team. And elsewhere, the Little League World Series continues through Sunday, while college football's regular season kicks off on Saturday. start for Manchester United. We do not need to talk about it. So let's talk about, I guess, the Little League World Series. Neil, have you tuned in? Are there any dark horses to look out for this year or any favorites? Bay-O New Jersey. Are they good? I mean, they're right across the river here. Yeah, they took down my Massachusetts teams. So, I mean, you got to root for the, at least I always root for the Northeast teams to do well. And they do fine until they have to face like

California or Texas or Florida. And then, you know, they're like a foot taller than we are. So, So, yeah, not, you know, historically, the Little League World Series hasn't favored our North these teams, but I also see myself in them, too, because I was a Little League player in Massachusetts, and I'm like, yeah, I probably couldn't beat these guys thrown 80 either. I was at the gym, Bragg, and saw Australia on the TV, and I was a root and hard, I don't even know if they won, but it is so, watching Little League is so funny because they do just copy the professionals so hardcore, more than any other sport, and just seeing these little, like, Aussie kids just, Being Paul Skeens up there was very funny to me. So I got a soft spot in my heart for the Aussies. All right, that is all the time we have. Thanks so much for starting your morning with us. Have a wonderful start to the week.

To share your thoughts on the episode or anything else, send an email to Morning Brew Daily at morningbrew.com or DM us on Instagram at MB Daily Show. Let's roll the credits. Emily Milliron is our supervising producer. Raymond Lute is our senior producer. Our producer is Olivia Graham and our associate producer is Olivia Lake. Technical direction by Nina Miller.

Not a surprise. Hair and makeup called out sick today. Today, Devin Emery is our president and our shows are production of Morning Brew. Great show today, Neil. Let's run it back tomorrow. Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research.

Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world world. free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcf walk.ca.ca.