Good morning from the Financial Times.
Today is Monday, March 10th, and this is your FT News Briefing.
Canada's ruling Liberal Party has elected a new leader, and therefore a new Prime Minister.
And a tough antitrust enforcer is likely headed to the U .S.
Justice Department.
Plus, illegal gold mining is devastating cocoa farming in Ghana.
I'm Kasia Broussalyan, and here's the news you need to start your day.
In first place, the next Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, representing 85 .9 % of the vote.
Mark Carney will replace Justin Trudeau as Canada's Prime Minister.
The country's Liberal Party made the announcement yesterday after a leadership vote.
We're all being called to stand up for each other and for the Canadian way of life.
So let me ask you, who's ready?
Who's ready to stand up for Canada with me?
The two -time central bank governor defeated former finance minister Christia Freeland for the top job.
But he might not be leading Canada for long.
By law, Carney will have to call a general election no later than October, and it will probably happen much sooner.
Polling says the race between Carney and Conservative Party leader Pierre Polyev will be close.
Whoever wins will have one big challenge, how to manage growing tensions with the U .S.
Cabinet confirmations for U .S.
President Donald Trump have been, well, pretty partisan affairs for the most part.
But that might change with his pick to run the Justice Department's antitrust division.
Gail Slater stands out because she's united both progressives and conservatives who are skeptical of big business.
The FT, Stefania Palma, has been tracking Slater's career.
And she joins me now.
Hey, Stefania. Hi there.
So who is Gayle Slater?
What's on her resume?
So basically, Gayle Slater started her legal career in the UK before moving to the U .S.
And she spent a decade working for the Federal Trade Commission, which is the antitrust regulator in America.
But then also moved on to work at the White House, at the National Economic Council during Trump's first administration, and ultimately also helped Trump's transition team after he won the presidential election in 2024 when it came to antitrust matters.
And now I mentioned that she's an unusual pick for a Trump nominee.
Why does she have supporters on both sides of the aisle?
I think she embodies a particular moment in time that the U .S.
is living in when it comes to the antitrust world.
We're living at a time where you have both progressives, but also this sort of new generation of populist conservatives who are both very keen on tough antitrust enforcement in order to curb sort of excessive corporate power.
I think it's important, though, to stress kind of the drivers behind these two groups are quite different.
I would say the progressives were very keen to start, you know, a process of rethinking how antitrust laws that had been written, you know, a hundred years ago actually apply to today's sort of complex markets and business structures.
Whereas I would say that sort of this new MAGA wing in the Republican Party is also very interested in how they can use antitrust to clamp down on online platforms that they think have been censoring conservative voices.
All right, so maybe similar goals, but a little bit of a different path on how to get there.
Now, how does Wall Street feel about Slater?
I think a lot of Wall Street's executives during the presidential campaign saw sort of a potential second Trump administration as a moment where perhaps antitrust scrutiny they faced during the Biden years might actually be walked back a bit.
And to be fair, other nominees picked by Trump, you could describe them as more kind of traditionally conservative free market individuals who may step away from the tough enforcement we saw perhaps in other regulators during the Biden years.
But I think they really are quite disappointed.
Yeah, I can imagine.
Looking ahead then, what might be some of the challenges that Slater will face in her new role as head of the antitrust division?
I think generally speaking, several individuals, be it Democratic senators, honestly, even some people on Wall Street or other antitrust watchers, all tend to point to the fact that she is seen as very, very competent.
She's very well respected in the antitrust community.
But they also point to the fact that ultimately she will be working under President Trump, who is seen as sometimes quite impulsive and may, as one of the sources I spoke to put it, paint her into a corner.
at times when, obviously, sort of antitrust enforcement should remain independent.
Now, Slater responded, you know, that she did not anticipate this would happen at all and that she would ensure that all of her work and antitrust reviews would not be affected by sort of undue influence.
Stefania Palma is the U .S.
legal and enforcement correspondent for the FT.
Thanks, Stefania. Thank you.
U .S. startups are flush with cash these days.
In fact, they're raising more money right now than at any point since 2021.
That's because venture capital firms are really excited about artificial intelligence.
They've already invested $30 billion so far this quarter, and according to PitchBook, there might be another $50 billion on the way.
But most of those funds are headed towards big -name startups.
Think fintech company Stripe, the AI powerhouse OpenAI, and the defense tech darling Andrel.
And that makes this VC boom different from previous ones.
Traditional venture capitalism usually targets new companies that haven't been tested.
Now they're sticking with established players.
Ghana is a major global producer of two things that a lot of people like, gold and cocoa.
But an illegal mining boom of the precious metal is taking over the country's cocoa farms.
It's now ruining Ghana's water supply and driving up global chocolate prices.
My colleague Anu Adeoye has been on the ground with local farmers and he joins me now.
Hey Anu. Hey Kasia.
So explain what's going on here.
How are Ghanaian cocoa farmers running up against illegal gold miners.
As you say, Ghana has an abundance of cocoa and gold, and gold prices are rallying right now due to uncertainty in, you know, global markets.
It's a safe haven. And because of this high price of gold, there's a lot of people in Ghana who are prospecting for gold, and they're coming up against cocoa farmers, destroying farmlands and ruining the water supply in Ghana.
All right. So the price of gold is really booming right now.
But how does it compare to the chocolate market?
You know, cocoa prices are also going up globally.
But in Ghana, there's a price mechanism involving the government called CocoBot.
It's a state -owned enterprise that pays Ghanaian farmers for their cocoa.
The idea of this is that it protects farmers from the worst of cocoa price swings.
But this also means that they don't typically get the high prices.
Farmers I spoke to said they are currently getting about a third of what a ton goes for on London markets.
So in part because of these price caps, gold mining is starting to maybe look more lucrative than cocoa farming in Ghana.
But you mentioned that it's also causing a lot of environmental problems.
What are some of the consequences of this illegal mining?
it's been ruining the environment in ghana frankly the gold miners when they dig they then flood the land with copious amounts of water and chemicals and then try to source out the gold using pans and their hands this means that the water in ghana is contaminated the ghana water company which is the state -owned enterprise that supplies water to ghaneans recently came out to say that water supply is going to be cut by 75 percent in some regions.
And there are experts who are warning the country that if something is not done to improve the situation rapidly, Ghana might have to start importing drinking water.
Got it. So in addition to wrecking cocoa farms and luring the farmers away from the trade, illegal gold mining is also messing up the water supply.
Is there anything being done about it?
I mean, one thing I should say is that artisanal and small -scale mining has been a thing in Ghana for quite some time now.
But the fact of the matter is nothing serious has been done.
There was a report that was commissioned by the government in 2021.
It came out and concluded that there is massive corruption on the part of well -connected political elites who are funding illegal gold miners.
You know, a lot of promises have been made, but there hasn't actually been any concrete plans laid out on how to tackle the scourge of illegal gold mining.
I guess what would potentially make it better?
I'm kind of just wondering, how can Ghana really keep up with this illegal mining?
Yeah, it's a tough one because, you know, There's also the fact that none of this is happening in a vacuum.
A lot of young men I spoke to who work in this trade are working there because they don't have jobs to go to.
So there's this socioeconomic aspect that the government needs to deal with.
So I think it shows you how interconnected the world is.
There's a lot of uncertainty and geopolitical turmoil.
And so you have people turning to gold, driving up gold prices, which is also then influencing people in small villages in Ghana prospecting for gold because they know how much gold could fetch on the open market.
So you have this interconnectedness of the whole world.
Anu Adeoye is the FT's West and Central Africa correspondent.
Thanks, Anu. Thanks for having me.
We all know the phrase, there's no need to reinvent the wheel.
Well, don't tell that to Bridgestone.
The Japanese car parts supplier is now testing advanced tires that never puncture.
That's because they're air -free.
And they could help pave the road, so to speak, for more self -driving cars.
Shuttle buses are already testing out these invincible tires in Japan.
The country wants to bring more autonomous public transit to rural communities.
That's to address driver shortages.
And you can see the appeal here.
With tires like these, you don't need anyone to change a flat.
You can read more on all of these stories for free when you click the links in our show notes.
This has been your daily FT News Briefing.
Check back tomorrow for the latest business news.
We'll see you next time.
No hard feelings, but we're moving on.
Monday .com, the first work platform you'll love to use.
Hey, folks, it's Mark Maron here, host of WTF with Mark Maron on Acast.
I've been doing this show a long time, more than 15 years.
Research shows that 74 % of listeners recall the brands they hear when listening to podcasts.
So if you're a business owner or marketer and you want your business to be top of mind, podcast advertising with Acast is the way to go.
Run podcast ads with Acast by visiting go .acast .com slash M -A -R -C.
