Morning Briefing — May 14, 2026

World News

Trump and Xi meet in Beijing for high-stakes summit overshadowed by Iran war — As U.S. President Donald Trump heads to Beijing for a highly anticipated summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, expectations around the visit between the leaders of the world's two largest economies are largely tempered, with the U.S. war on Iran indirectly opening the door for China to help reshape the world order as the ceasefire deadline looms. The summit is expected to cover trade, Taiwan and the Iran conflict. CBC

Hantavirus cruise ship outbreak grows as more passengers test positive — Passengers from a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak were being flown home and quarantined in more than 20 countries, including a Spaniard, a French woman and an American who tested positive. Three cruise ship passengers have died, and the WHO said there were seven confirmed cases of the Andes strain of hantavirus, plus two suspected cases. CBC

Taiwan weighs resubmitting defence budget items cut by parliament — Taiwan's government said on Thursday it was considering resubmitting to parliament a request for items cut by lawmakers from a special defence budget given how crucial they are to the island's security. Taiwan's opposition-controlled parliament approved only two-thirds of a $40 billion special defence budget that President Lai Ching-te had requested. Reuters

Russia announces 'full partnership' with Afghan Taliban — Russia is establishing a 'full-fledged partnership' with Afghanistan's ruling Taliban and is encouraging other countries in the region to expand cooperation with Kabul, a senior Russian security official said. Russia last year became the first country to formally recognise the Taliban government that seized power in August 2021. Reuters

Alberta judge throws out separation referendum petition — A judge ruled the decision to approve the Alberta separation petition was 'unreasonable,' quashing the petition in favour of First Nations. The ruling halts a contentious push toward an Alberta separation vote. CBC

Russia test-fires new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile — Russia test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile as part of efforts to modernize its nuclear forces. The nuclear-armed Sarmat missile would enter combat service at the end of the year. NPR/Reuters

Kuwait accuses Iran of failed attack on Chinese-built port — Kuwait accused Iran of launching a failed attack earlier this month on an island where China is helping build a port, and a U.S. ambassador revealed Israel sent its Iron Dome air-defense to the United Arab Emirates. NPR

Mexican president denies CIA involvement in Mexico City car bombing — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday that media reports claiming the CIA was involved in a recent targeted car bombing outside Mexico City were 'fictions the size of the universe.' CBC

Business

Global stocks hover near records as Trump-Xi summit fails to deliver fresh catalyst — Global stocks hovered near their record highs as traders awaited further news from the China-US summit, which has so far failed to produce any fresh catalysts to extend the rally. MSCI's All Country World Index was little changed after closing at a record high Wednesday. While Trump said the talks with China were 'great,' markets barely budged, and shares in mainland China dropped about 1% while the offshore yuan edged up. Bloomberg

Kevin Warsh confirmed as next Federal Reserve chair — Senate lawmakers voted to confirm Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve on Wednesday. Jerome Powell's term as the head of the US central bank is set to expire this Friday, May 15, with plans to stay on the Fed's Board of Governors. Yahoo Finance/Reuters

Canada loses 18,000 jobs in April as unemployment hits six-month high — Canada's unemployment rate rose to a six-month high of 6.9 per cent in April as the economy lost 18,000 jobs, meaning Canada has shed jobs in three of four months so far this year, making for 112,000 jobs lost since January. The Statistics Canada data indicates continued weakness from U.S. tariffs and trade uncertainty. CBC

More Canadians filing for insolvency as costs squeeze households — More Canadians are filing for insolvency according to the latest data from the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy, as rising costs stretch consumers to their limits. Bankruptcies made up 20 per cent of first-quarter filings while consumer proposals made up the other 80 per cent, but in provinces including Ontario and Alberta, bankruptcies grew faster than proposals — which experts say is worrying. CBC

Wholesale inflation jumps 1.4% in April, biggest since 2022 — The producer price index jumped 1.4% in April, marking the biggest increase on a monthly basis since March 2022 and much more than the 0.5% rise economists expected. Wholesale inflation gained 6% on an annual basis — the largest increase since December 2022, above the 4.9% consensus estimate. CNBC

Apple shares touch $300 per share for the first time — Apple shares touched the $300 per share level for the first time on Wednesday. The technology giant's shares hit a new intraday high of $300.49 in the session. The stock is on track to finish the day up 1.8%. CNBC

Mortgage rates jump to highest level since March on hotter inflation — Mortgage rates jumped to highest level since March on hotter inflation reports, with markets repricing Fed cut expectations after the producer price index surprise. The move pressures U.S. home affordability as the spring buying season peaks. CNBC

Carney to unveil plan to double Canada's electricity grid — Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to deliver his vision to transform Canada's electricity sector with the ambitious goal of doubling the nation's electricity grid, sources tell CBC News. CBC

Technology

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang joins Trump on China trip — Trump landed in China for the Xi summit with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in tow, after Huang was called for the China trip at the last minute, signaling chip exports may be a key topic. The unusual inclusion has drawn scrutiny about sales of Nvidia chips to China. Reuters/Guardian

Google in talks with SpaceX to launch data centers into orbit — Google is in advanced discussions with SpaceX to launch data centers into orbit. SpaceX is positioning orbital infrastructure as the lowest-cost option for AI compute, ahead of its planned $1.75 trillion IPO later in 2026. The talks build on SpaceX's deal with Anthropic and Google's Project Suncatcher, which aims to deploy prototype satellites by 2027. Financial Times/WSJ

Meta workers protest new mouse-tracking AI surveillance software — Meta workers distributed flyers across U.S. offices urging colleagues to sign a petition against new mouse-tracking software installed on company computers. The tech captures mouse movements and keystrokes to train AI models for agentic tasks, which employees see as invasive surveillance. The action precedes planned layoffs of about 10% of the workforce. Financial Times

Samsung union talks collapse, 18-day chip strike looms — Samsung Electronics and its South Korean labor union failed to reach a pay deal, heightening the risk of a massive strike. Samsung's critical union negotiations broke down eight days before a planned 18-day chip factory strike that's projected to cost $700 million per day. Reuters

Apple settles $250M Siri 'personalized' false advertising suit — Apple reaches a $250M settlement in a California federal court in a false advertising class action lawsuit over its 2024 announcement of a 'personalized' Siri — iPhone buyers sued the tech giant for touting features that have yet to launch. BBC/Reuters

Palo Alto warns AI-driven cyberattacks will be the 'new norm' — AI-driven cyberattacks will be the 'new norm' in months, Palo Alto warns, citing rapid adoption of generative AI by threat actors to find software vulnerabilities and automate intrusions. CNBC

Alibaba reports profit squeeze amid AI and quick-commerce push — Alibaba's AI revenue logged triple-digit growth for the 11th quarter amid a strategic reshuffle, but profit fell sharply as AI spending surged and Q4 2026 earnings showed profit near zero. Reuters

Anduril valued at $61B in $5B funding round amid defence-tech boom — Anduril's valuation soared to $61B in a $5B round from Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz amid a defence boom, with CEO Brian Schimpf announcing the Series H raise. Reuters/Bloomberg

Daemon Tools backdoored in month-long supply-chain attack — Popular DAEMON Tools software was infected in a supply chain attack ongoing since April 8, 2026, with the widely used disk app backdoored in a monthlong supply-chain attack. Ars Technica

Renewable Energy

Wind and solar beat fossil fuels in Great Britain for record 15 months running — Wind and solar have now beaten fossil fuels in Great Britain for a record 15 months in a row. Just a decade ago, fossil fuels were generating four times more than wind and solar; now that's flipped, and since the Iran war wind and solar generated twice as much as fossil fuels. Carbon Brief

UK government doubles down on clean power in response to Iran war energy crisis — The UK government has announced a series of measures to 'double down on clean power' in response to the energy crisis sparked by the Iran war. Carbon Brief

China's 'new three' clean-energy exports surge 70% year-on-year — China's exports of the 'new three' clean-energy technologies surged by 70% year-on-year in March 2026, reaching $21.6bn. Exports of solar cells and panels, electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries were also up 37% from February, the month before the Iran war. The conflict is one explanation for the surge, as it has caused several countries to emphasise the need to increase non-fossil energy supplies. Carbon Brief

Santa Marta summit: 57 countries chart practical path away from fossil fuels — The first conference on 'transitioning away' from fossil fuels held in Santa Marta, Colombia, from 24-29 April saw 57 countries — representing one-third of the world's economy — debate practical ways to move away from coal, oil and gas. The new format devised by co-hosts Colombia and the Netherlands was described as 'refreshing', 'highly successful' and 'groundbreaking'. Carbon Brief

IRENA: 24/7 renewables now outcompete fossil fuels on firm costs — Solar and wind energy paired with battery storage are reliable and already today deliver cost-effective, round-the-clock electricity, according to a new report by IRENA. Firm costs have fallen from above USD 100 per MWh in 2020 to around USD 54-82 per MWh by 2025 at high-irradiance solar regions, with further cost reductions of roughly 30% by 2030 projected. IRENA

EIA: 80 GW of new solar, wind and storage coming to US grid — Utility-scale solar, wind, and battery storage will add more than 80 gigawatts of new generating capacity in the US by February 28, 2027, while total fossil fuel and nuclear capacity will fall by almost 5 GW. Renewable energy's share of total US utility-scale generating capacity was 33.4% as of March 1, 2026, projected to grow to 36.6% by February 28, 2027. Electrek/EIA

Renewables put cash in pockets of struggling US farmers — The latest research from RMI finds revenue from rural solar and wind energy has become significant in some states, approaching the scale of major agricultural commodities. Revenues are concentrated in a relatively small number of states, many also among the country's biggest agricultural producers. In 2024, nine states had wind and solar revenue that exceeded $1 billion. Guardian/CleanTechnica

Federal-Alberta deal nears on industrial carbon pricing — The federal government and the Alberta government are nailing down a deal on industrial carbon pricing, largely considered Canada's most important policy for driving down harmful greenhouse gas pollution. CBC

Soil Science

Tiny molecules unlock big gains in soil health, Chinese Academy of Sciences finds — Soil organic matter plays a foundational role in agricultural productivity, climate mitigation, and ecosystem balance. Straw return — a widely used strategy to enrich soil organic matter — suffers from low conversion efficiency, especially in sodic soils where high sodium suppresses microbial activity, and attempts to boost the process with microbial inoculants have often failed. The findings could help reimagine how we manage straw residues and rehabilitate degraded soils using tools already present in nature, with humus-derived small molecules added to straw-return systems enhancing soil organic matter formation, increasing microbial biodiversity, and mitigating sodic stress. Newswise/Pedosphere

Soil science reimagined: from farmland to the final frontier — A newly published perspective in Pedosphere by Prof. Gan-Lin Zhang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences offers a call to reimagine the future of soil science. The article outlines a framework for 'nontraditional soil science,' encompassing diverse fields from urban engineering to forensic soil analysis and planetary exploration, charting a roadmap for expanding the discipline into areas long overlooked. Newswise/Pedosphere

Agroseismology: new technique probes how farming alters soil hydrodynamics — The impacts of farming practices on soil hydrodynamics are central to understanding agricultural landscapes covering almost half of the world's habitable land. Combining distributed acoustic sensing with physics-based hydromechanical modeling, researchers tracked minute-resolution and meter-scale seismic and hydrological changes across agricultural fields with controlled tillage and compaction histories, showing that dynamic capillary effects govern transient stiffness and moisture redistribution. Science

Global soil pollution by toxic metals threatens 14-17% of cropland — Researchers estimate that 14 to 17% of cropland exceeds agricultural thresholds for at least one toxic metal. Climate and topography, along with mining activity and irrigation, predicted which soils would exceed metal thresholds. Soil metal pollution is a global issue that will likely increase with growing demand for toxic metals in new technologies. Science

Steering plant-soil feedback for sustainable agriculture — The challenge of producing food at low monetary cost comes with high environmental impacts as yield maximization by excessive fertilization and chemical pest control drives farmers away from soils' natural multifunctional potential. The study shows how plant-soil feedback can restore the capacity of agricultural soils to provide nutrients, suppress pathogens, and enhance crop resilience, emphasizing rhizosphere microbiome engineering and soil restoration strategies. Science

FAO: smarter land, soil and water management key to feeding 10 billion — Feeding a projected 10 billion people by 2050 will require bold and smarter choices in how the world manages its land, soil and water, the FAO warns in its SOLAW 2025 report. The report underscores that these essential resources are finite and safeguarding them is critical to securing global food security. Rainfed agriculture offers key opportunities, with productivity rising significantly by scaling up conservation agriculture, drought-tolerant crops, and practices such as soil moisture conservation, crop diversification, and organic composting. FAO

USDA's regenerative agriculture program called 'greenwashing' by critics — USDA announced a $700 million Regenerative Pilot Program to help farmers adopt practices that improve soil health, enhance water quality, and boost long-term productivity, tying the program to Make America Healthy Again and diverting resources that could be used to support organic transition. The program diverts $400 million from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and $300 million from the Conservation Stewardship Program, while NRCS has lost almost 25 percent of its staff since January 2025. Beyond Pesticides

Kansas wheat harvests crash from 40 bushels per acre to less than 2 — The Guardian reports that wheat farmers in Kansas are struggling because wild temperature extremes this spring have ruined their crop of winter wheat. Where once they harvested 40 to 50 bushels per acre, this year the yield is less than 2 bushels per acre. Guardian

Cover crops gain traction as way to rebuild soil biology — Regenerative agriculture is about mimicking nature's principles, designs and patterns. 'It is not more difficult than that, put more ecology into your conventional system, more cover crops and stop disturbing the soil so much,' said Ray Archuleta, soil health specialist and founder of Understanding Ag LLC and the Soil Health Academy. AgriNews