Statistic of the day

133: The number of Catholic cardinals who will vote in the conclave to elect the next pope starting today. Hailing from 70 different countries, they will gather in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel and be sequestered from the outside world until a new pontiff is chosen, which could take up to several days.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Carney, Trump come face to face as bilateral tensions mount

With relations between the U.S. and Canada at an all-time low and President Donald Trump's agenda of sweeping tariffs wreaking acute damage on global finances, yesterday's meeting between him and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney offered both leaders an opportunity to feel one another out as they each asserted their shifting national priorities. The leaders emerged from the sit-down with diverging views on what they each achieved and where they go from here.

'Decidedly different tone'
Carney's "mixture of flattery and firmness" during his first meeting with Trump resulted in a "respectful repartee" between the two leaders, said The Washington Post. At one point, Trump insisted that annexing Canada as an American state would be a "wonderful marriage." Carney responded: "As you know from real estate, there are some places that are never for sale." It was an attempt to "charm" the president while also signaling that he was "up for the job of standing up to Trump."

Trump took on a "decidedly different tone" than before, particularly after framing Canadians as a "bunch of freeloaders" in a post on Truth Social shared just as Carney arrived at the White House, said The New York Times. While Carney may have "appeared to be walking into a lion's den," it was a "house cat he found there" instead. Carney "never quite dropped his guard" even as Trump appeared to be "coming face to face with the consequences of his own actions and not quite wanting to deal with them."

'Test for US allies'
Even though Trump "refused to back off" from his threats of sweeping tariffs and the annexation of Canada, he was "largely friendlier toward" Carney than he had been toward former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said The Hill. The result was a "more serious engagement," said The Toronto Star. Behind closed doors, Trump "sought Carney's views" on a "range" of issues, including those with "China, Russia, Ukraine, Iran and the Middle East."

Ultimately, Carney's largely hiccup-free meeting presented a "test for U.S. allies more generally" as they have "struggled to manage the president's upending of relationships around the world," said the Post. "Being too unyielding," like the contentious sit-down with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy, "risks getting kicked out of the White House," while "too soft an approach can be ineffective or prompt blowback from constituents."

Poll watch

Over 90% of Americans rely on data based on federal science on a weekly basis, including weather forecasts, job market reports and food safety warnings, according to a survey from the Association of Science and Technology Centers. However, the poll of 1,000 adults found that only 10% are concerned about cuts to federal science support.

the explainer

Visa wants to let AI make credit card purchases for you

With artificial intelligence already making its way into every aspect of modern life, Visa will now allow it to assist with a huge area of personal finance: credit card purchases. The company has been experimenting with AI usage for a while, but letting the technology make direct purchases represents a significant ramp-up.

What's Visa doing?
Visa Intelligent Commerce will enable AI agents to "find, shop and buy for consumers based on their preselected preferences," Visa Chief Product and Strategy Officer Jack Forestell said in a press release. Visa cardholders can "rely on AI to find the perfect sweater, research a new vacation spot or fulfill their grocery list," said the company. Visa will partner with several AI brands to accomplish this, including Microsoft, OpenAI and Perplexity.

Consumers can "share basic Visa spend and purchase insights with their consent to improve agent performance and personalize shopping recommendations," said the company. However, cardholders will still have control over spending limits, so the AI cannot make purchases without the user's approval.

Why is Visa doing this?
It's "betting that what seems futuristic now could become a convenient alternative to our most mundane shopping tasks in the near future," said The Associated Press. This could be "transformational, on the order of magnitude of the advent of e-commerce itself," Forestell said to the AP.

The AI implementation is also part of an effort to "shorten the time between consumers selecting a product and making a payment to prevent them from abandoning their purchases midway," said Reuters. Shorter checkout times have "become even more crucial since the Covid-19 pandemic, when many users shifted to online shopping."

Visa cardholders should "proceed with caution," Ben Winters, the director of AI and data privacy at the Consumer Federation of America, said to NewsNation. It's "not just Visa and Mastercard where you are spending your money; it's not just the grocery store or the Nordstrom that knows they are spending your money — it's that AI company." Employing this service means there will be "multiple entities using that data for their own benefit in ways that you might not even know."

Good day ☕

… for java junkies. Habitual coffee consumption of four to six cups or more per day has been associated with a reduced risk of frailty, according to a new study published in the European Journal of Nutrition. Drinking coffee has previously been linked to reducing the risk of other symptoms of aging, such as improving cognitive function.

Bad day 🔇

… for an R&B singer-songwriter. The nonprofit group behind Central Park's SummerStage concerts in Manhattan has canceled a scheduled Pride Month performance by musical artist Kehlani under "pressure from the administration of Mayor Eric Adams," said The New York Times. She recently had another performance canceled by Cornell University "amid a furor over the singer's pro-Palestinian stance."

Puzzles

Daily crossword

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The Week recommends

'I Dream of Dinner' paves the way to a painless meal

Every cookbook aims to inspire. But let's give a hearty cheer to the cookbooks that embolden us when we have zero interest in cooking, despite knowing we already have the ingredients on hand. Ali Slagle's "I Dream of Dinner (so you don't have to)" is a paragon of this genre.

Starting from the end
Each tier of information in the text strives to reverse-engineer how cooking a delicious meal works. Take the Skillet Broccoli Spaghetti. In bold in a column to the left of the directions is a streamlined list of core ingredients: garlic, broccoli, butter, anchovies, spaghetti and Parmesan — no amounts or details about how to prep these items.

Then Slagle runs through the directions, with those ingredients bolded and the amounts of each included. Her imperatives are clear and replicable. "Roughly chop the florets so even the biggest pieces fit on a soup spoon." The resulting pasta is rich, green and satisfying. You have just learned how to make a simple, congenial meal. This is kitchen empowerment.

8 entry points to endless possibilities
The same shrewd approach binds the book's eight chapters. They are eggs, beans, pasta, grains, vegetables, chicken, beef, pork and lamb, and sea creatures. Rather than vaulting into recipes straightaway, the chapters are divided into subchapters according to technique. So the eggs chapter, for example, comprises "beat," "soft boil" and "fry hot."

Every chapter in "I Dream of Dinner" operates the same. It's like 400 pages of Mom holding your hand on the first day of school. Everything is going to be OK.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

'After almost 100 years on the planet, I now understand the most important place on Earth is not on land but at sea.'

British naturalist Sir David Attenborough reassessing his priorities in the trailer for his new film, "Ocean," adding that "if we save the sea, we save our world." The documentary premiered yesterday at London's Royal Festival Hall before it hits cinemas tomorrow on his 99th birthday.

INSTANT OPINION

Today's best commentary

'There is no better alternative to the World Health Organization'
Sam Halabi and Lawrence O. Gostin at The Hill
Trump supporters have "doubled down on the idea that we can find an alternative to the WHO," say Sam Halabi and Lawrence O. Gostin. But we "can't and we won't." The "only thing that will happen as the U.S. pulls out of the WHO" is that we will "become weaker and more isolated." No other organization, "public or private," has the "legitimacy, infrastructure and trust of governments worldwide to share information, collaborate with partners to save vulnerable populations, and pool resources."

'The Democrats could learn a lot from Mexico's Claudia Sheinbaum'
Kate Aronoff at The New Republic
As Democrats "search for their own answers for how to beat Trump," Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum's "domestic agenda deserves as much attention as her diplomacy," says Kate Aronoff. Her government is "rolling out an industrial policy that shares many of the same goals as those championed" by the Biden administration. Amid "endless postmortems about where Democrats went wrong, it might be worth looking beyond our borders for inspiration." What can we "learn from Sheinbaum's approach"?

'The New York Knicks should be America's team'
Will Leitch at The Washington Post
The "truly incandescent sports stories are the ones that draw you away from the miseries of the real world," says Will Leitch. The New York Knicks are that "rarest of American sports birds, a team with a massive global fan base that also has a history of failure." This "combination — huge reach and underdog status — is nearly unprecedented. And it would make a theoretical title feel like a seismic event." The Knicks "should be America's team."

WORD OF THE DAY

womanosphere

A crop of conservative media personalities, such as Brett Cooper and Candace Owens, and right-wing lifestyle outlets like Evie, are "convincing young women of a gender-essentialist worldview," said The Guardian. Like their contemporaries in the so-called manosphere, they are part of an "organized effort to create a similar alternative right-wing media ecosystem targeting young female U.S. audiences."

What will be Warren Buffett's legacy?