Big Tech may not have any interest in complying with Canada’s recent attempts to regulate them, but the European Union is having more luck.

Driving the news: The first wave of new European Union rules governing big tech platforms, part of one of the most significant expansions of digital regulations in Western history, will come into effect next week.

British Columbia introduced travel restrictions and expanded evacuation orders over the weekend as wildfires continue to rage in the province, but officials expressed optimism yesterday that fire crews were turning the corner in the battle to contain the blazes.

Why it matters: Around 35,000 people in BC and 30,000 in the Northwest Territories (75% of the territory’s population) have been displaced in the past week amid Canada’s worst wildfire season on record.

Our picks for what to eat, read, watch, and listen to this weekend.

On this week’s episode of Free Lunch by The Peak, we sat down with Yannick Bigourdan to talk about what it’s like running one of Toronto’s top restaurants as the economy slows down.

Folks bitten by the travel bug are running into a major problem this year: Travelling is freakin’ expensive! That’s why more tourists are increasingly shifting to under-the-radar destinations. 

Driving the news: With affordable rates and beautiful beaches, Albania more than doubled airline passenger arrivals this June compared to last year and saw overnight stays by foreigners increase in the first quarter by a staggering 152% from the same time in 2019.

As England and Spain prepare to square off in the FIFA Women’s World Cup final tomorrow, they’ll top off a tournament that has continued to break viewership and attendance records.

Driving the news: This week's semifinal between England and Australia broke broadcast and streaming records in Australia, with 11.15 million viewers tuning in. On the whole, the tournament is projected to reach two billion viewers, nearly double that of the 2019 edition.

Looking to cut back on drinking? There’s an app for that. 

What happened: Swiss researchers who designed a smartphone app aimed at developing healthier drinking habits among students found that, over 12 months, students with a history of “unhealthy alcohol use” drank 10% less per week on average while using the app.  

Someone call Ramit Sethi from Netflix’s How To Get Rich, because Canadian cities need financial rescuing. 

Driving the news: Faced with $46.5 billion in budget pressures over the next decade, Toronto is asking the province to approve a new city sales tax to drum up more revenue. 

Are you a lonely heart? Do you have some serious cash burning a hole in your pocket but aren’t famous enough to get on Raya? Well, now you’re in luck.

Driving the news: Tinder is launching a premium membership tier with a potential price tag of US$500 per month, possibly including features like a “personalized concierge service.”

You’re probably already letting AI autocomplete your sentences or choose what you watch next on Netflix… but would you lean on a chatbot to give you life advice? 

Driving the news: Per The New York Times, Google is testing new tools that could turn generative AI—the technology that powers chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s own Bard—into a life coach that advises on everything from your dating life to your career. 

More Germans could soon be putting down the stein of pilsner in favour of der marihuana-zigarette as the country approaches recreational weed legalization. 

What happened: Germany’s cabinet passed a bill legalizing the recreational use and cultivation of cannabis. Once the bill passes through the German parliament, which should happen later this year, pot will become legal in the EU’s biggest economy.

We regret to inform you that it’s finally time to talk about Donald Trump’s legal troubles. 

What happened: The former US president has been indicted for a fourth time since March of this year, this time for allegedly trying to overturn 2020 election results in Georgia, a state where Joe Biden won the majority vote. 

You can now add ‘higher prices’ to the list of reasons to put off your next visit to the dentist, alongside ‘awkward small talk’ and ‘pointy tools.’ 

What happened: Provincial dental associations have increased prices by an average of 5.99% in their dental fee guides, which help dentists determine how to price their services. 

With a new mandate to cut billions in federal spending, cabinet members might have to skip the icebreakers and head straight to the whiteboard at their team retreat next week. 

What happened: Canada’s new Treasury Board President (and self-proclaimed chief operating officer of the government) Anita Anand is giving cabinet ministers just six weeks to find 15 billion extra dollars kicking around in the federal government’s 2023 budget. 

With rents hitting record highs and the school year incoming, start-ups are helping students find rooms where they can live, study, and hang posters of Quentin Tarantino movies. 

Driving the news: A new crop of companies is providing housing for students by pairing them with the growing number of Canadians with spare bedrooms, per The Globe and Mail.  

Nearly nine months after the release of ChatGPT, Canada is progressing toward increasing safety and transparency around generative AI. 

Driving the news: The federal government is currently pulling together a voluntary code of conduct that could commit firms to safety measures, testing, and disclosures, per The Logic.

It’s been about a year since a pair of US laws triggered a flood of financial incentives for investments in clean energy production and semiconductor manufacturing in the US. 

Let’s look back on the irrevocable change they’ve wrought. 

Why did inflation fall from multi-decade highs last summer to within the Bank of Canada’s target range last month? It seems like a simple question, but as with most things in economics, the answer is hotly contested. 

Catch up: The textbook Econ 101 story is that central banks reduce inflation by raising interest rates, which reduces demand in the economy through some combination of job losses, frozen or lower wages, and a pullback in consumer spending. 

Nothing quite says romance in the year 2023 like sending sweet nothings to an AI chatbot.

Driving the news: A slew of new dating apps are adopting AI-powered avatars and chatbots that simulate intimate relationships, pitching their platforms as a way to practice dating in a risk-free environment.