President Donald Trump said the US is ending trade talks with Canada, effective immediately, over a tax on digital services that will impact American tech companies. He also pledged to announce further tariffs on Canada within the next week, adding in a that “they will be paying to do business with the United States of America.”
Canada’s digital services tax (DST) is set to take effect on June 30, though it will be applied retroactively. According to , US companies are preparing to pay around $2.7 billion to the Canadian government to cover a three percent tax on revenue they generated from users in the country. Companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb are subject to the levy, as things stand.
In his post on Friday, Trump called the DST “a direct and blatant attack on our country.” Amid trade talks with the US, Canada’s finance minister, François-Philippe Champagne, said this month that the country had . Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney previously they aimed to reach a trade deal by around July 20.
Since taking office in January, Trump has been using tariffs as a negotiating tactic with other nations. The US with China over rare earth minerals this week, and it is soon set to reimpose some of the levies that were .
The DST has been a bone of contention between the US and Canada for years. The Biden administration the levy last year under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Other jurisdictions have considered or enacted a similar tax. It was reported in May that Germany is on platforms such as Google and Facebook.
Welcome to episode 59 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, we talk all about Google’s latest Chromebook updates, Lenovo’s new $650 Chromebook Plus 14, and what the future holds as rumors swirl around ChromeOS’s potential pivot to Android. Plus, Abner and Damien are joined by an all-new host.
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An 84-game season is coming to the NHL as part of an extension of the collective bargaining agreement that has been tentatively agreed to by the league and the Players’ Association.
They announced a memorandum of understanding Friday in Los Angeles before the first round of the draft. It still needs to be ratified by the Board of Governors and the full NHLPA membership.
Two games are being added to to the regular season, the maximum length of contracts players can sign is being shortened and a salary cap will be implemented in the playoffs for the first time, two people told The Associated Press on Thursday.
“There’s been tremendous growth, and what’s ahead is spectacular on many fronts,” said Toronto’s John Tavares, who’s going into his 17th season. “The predictability of things goes a long way, I think, for everyone in the sport. It’s great to have that partnership and how collaborative it’s been, which has been very different from 2012. It’s great to see and happy that the growth of the game and the sport and the business side of it is all kind of in sync and in synergy and we’re able to kind of continue to build off the many great things over the last few years.”
The extension through 2030 provides the sport extended labor peace since the last lockout in 2012-13, which shortened that season to 48 games. Here is what is changing:
Longer season
Going from 82 to 84 games beginning in 2026-27 — making the season 1,344 total games — is also expected to include a reduction in exhibition play, to four games apiece for the 32 teams.
The additions would be played within divisions, evening out the schedule to ensure four showdowns each season between rivals like Toronto and Boston, Dallas and Colorado and Washington and Pittsburgh. Currently, there is a rotation that has some division opponents facing off only three times a season.
That imbalance is coming to an end, and this is not the first time the NHL has had an 84-game season. The league experimented with that in 1992-93 and ’93-94, when each team added a pair of neutral site games.
Shorter contracts
Since 2013, players have been able to re-sign with their own team for up to eight years and sign with another for up to seven years. Under the new CBA, each would be reduced by a year, to seven for re-signing and six for changing teams.
Top players, given the injury risks in the sport, have preferred the longest contracts possible. The same goes for general managers, eager to keep talent in the fold as long as possible. Nathan MacKinnon, Sebastian Aho, Leon Draisaitl, Juuse Saros, Travis Konecny, Mathew Barzal and, as recently as March, Mikko Rantanen are all among the top players who have signed lucrative eight-year deals.
“I guess that could be a rarity now,” said Trent Frederic, who on Friday signed an eight-year contract to remain with the Oilers. “Eight years is better than seven. It’s good to lock in before that changes.”
But with the salary cap getting its biggest increases season by season over the next three years, the thinking had already begun to change. Auston Matthews re-signed for only four years with Toronto last summer, and Connor McDavid could also opt for a short-term contract extension with Edmonton.
Playoff cap
Currently, teams with players on long-term injured reserve can exceed the salary cap by roughly the amount of the players’ salaries until the playoffs begin.
Several times over the past decade, Stanley Cup contenders have used LTIR to activate players at the start of or early in the playoffs after they missed some or all of the regular season.
Florida did so with Matthew Tkachuk before winning the second of back-to-back titles, Vegas has done it with Mark Stone on multiple occasions, Tampa Bay with Nikita Kucherov and Chicago with Patrick Kane.
The rule has been criticized as an unfair loophole, a way to stockpile talent and then add even more for the postseason. After he and Carolina were eliminated by the Lightning in 2021, Dougie Hamilton quipped that the Hurricanes “lost to a team that’s $18 million over the cap.” Tampa Bay went back to back, and players wore T-shirts with that saying on it during their Cup celebration.
That will no longer be possible, though it’s not exactly clear how it will work.
What else?
There are some other changes in store, too: The league will standardize draft pick rights until players turn 22, clear the way for full-time emergency traveling goaltenders and will stop teams to instituting a dress code for players, according to a person familiar with the CBA who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Friday because details of the agreement were not being released.
Teams have been able to hold the rights to juniors players for two or three years, depending on their age, and for college players for four years; now those rights will be held until a player is 22. The change comes at a time when the NHL developmental pipeline is in flux after the NCAA decided that juniors players can be eligible to play U.S. college hockey.
“That would make a little more sense for development,” Washington Capitals assistant general manager Ross Mahoney said. “An example would be you would take a player out of the CHL, maybe he plays as an 18-, 19-year-old and now you want to sign him, but maybe he’s not quite ready for the (minors). So is it better to have him in (the American Hockey League) and have him healthy-scratched for a third of the games, or is it better for him to go play at North Dakota for two years and then sign?”
Emergency backup goalies, the beloved “EBUGs,” will soon be a thing of the past, years after the likes of David Ayres and Scott Foster went into games and won after a team’s two roster netminders were injured. Each team will be able to keep an extra goaltender around to practice with and enter a game, rather than having a beer league replacement on standby.
The fashion walk — most are familiar with videos and photos of well-dressed players walking into arenas before games — will also change as one of hockey’s older traditions goes by the wayside. Some teams have done away with requiring suits for players, instead going to warmup jackets and sweatpants, but now players can choose their own looks.
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here.
Before this newsletter takes a break for the Fourth of July next week, here are the startup stories and funding rounds that caught our eye over the last few days, which have been quite busy.
This week brought us lawsuit updates, M&As, and a combination of both.
AI agents: Data cybersecurity company Rubrik acquired Predibase to accelerate the adoption of AI agents by its users. The startup, which helps companies fine-tune AI models, had raised some $28 million in venture capital. Deal amount wasn’t disclosed but was reportedly sizable.
Sailing: German startup Kadmos, which had raised $38 million in external capital for its salary payment platform for seafaring workers, got acquired by NYK Line as part of the Japanese shipping firm’s efforts to expand its fintech services.
Red herring? Embattled AI music startup Suno announced the acquisition of WavTool, a browser-based AI digital audio workstation, in a deal that actually happened a few months ago but that it chose to disclose on the heels of yet another copyright lawsuit.
Unstable ground: Getty Images dropped its primary lawsuit against Stability AI, the startup behind AI image generator Stable Diffusion, but other lawsuits continue, both in the U.S. and in the U.K.
Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour at StrictlyVC 2025.Image Credits:TechCrunch
Another week, another $300 million round — sometimes at wildly different valuations, even for the same company. Meanwhile, the small deals keep things interesting, too.
Same amount, new valuation: Harvey AI raised a $300 million Series E co-led by Kleiner Perkins and Coatue. This comes only four months after Sequoia led a $300 million Series D at a $3 billion valuation into the AI-enabled legal tech startup, which is now valued at $5 billion.
AI scribe: Abridge, an AI startup automating medical notes, secured a $300 million Series E led by a16z at a $5.3 billion valuation.
Crypto predictions: Blockchain-based prediction market platform Kalshi raised a $185 million round at a $2 billion post-money valuation, while rival Polymarket is reportedly working on closing a $200 million round at a pre-money valuation around $1 billion.
Money in the bank: Finom, a challenger bank that targets SMBs across Europe, raised some $133 million in a Series C round of funding that comes in addition to the $105 million in growth funding it secured from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund a few weeks ago.
Flying high: Indian drone startup Raphe mPhibr raised $100 million in an all-equity Series B round led by General Catalyst. Its customers include the Indian Army, Navy, and Air Force, as well as armed police forces.
Upcycled: Novoloop, a startup that upcycles waste plastic, raised a $21 million Series B to finalize the design and begin the construction of its first commercial-scale plant.
AI voices: Synthflow AI, a Berlin-based no-code platform that lets enterprises build and deploy customized white-label voice AI customer service agents, raised a $20 million Series A led by Accel.
As the name suggests: Better Auth, the third Ethiopian startup to graduate from YC, raised $5 million in seed funding. Its open source framework promises to simplify how developers manage user authentication and has quickly become popular.
Eternal light: Space startup Lux Aeterna came out of stealth with $4 million in pre-seed funding and the ambition to launch a reusable satellite in 2027.
Last but not least
Image Credits:Dani Padgett / StrictlyVC
After a two-year break from public life, seasoned early-stage investor, entrepreneur, and author Brad Feld is back with his ninth book, “Give First.” TechCrunch interviewed him about it and more.
After surviving many close calls as a war correspondent, Norland was diagnosed with a lethal brain tumor in 2019. He died June 22. In this 2024 interview, he reflected on facing mortality.
Prime Day will be here before we know it, but you can already save on some of our favorite tech in the lead-up to the shopping event. A practical piece of tech that’s down to a great price right now is the TP-Link Deco AXE5400 Wi-Fi mesh router system. The three-pack is 29 percent off and down to $250 right now, which is an all-time-low price.
The TP-Link Deco AXE5400 is our choice for best mesh Wi-Fi system for most people. It debuted in 2023 and scored an 87 in our review thanks to features like its incredible speed — arguably the most important measure of a good Wi-Fi system. It’s also very reliable.
TP-Link
The Wi-Fi system is very user-friendly and works well even in a large home. Plus, its basic security and parental control features come at no extra cost. Our only qualms were minimal like the app is a little rough and the power cables are a bit short.
Google Photos is now rolling out an updated version of its “Ask Photos” search experience, but also a way to disable it altogether. Here’s how to turn off AI search in Google Photos.
“Ask Photos” first launched in late 2024 as an AI-powered way to navigate the depths of your Google Photos library. It had some great ideas, such as being able to search for specific events using the names of people that Photos can recognize, but it was also notoriously slow. Google ended up pausing the rollout for a while to rework the system, and that’s not available.
The updated “Ask Photos” experience in Google Photos is cleaner and faster. It shows results almost immediately, much like the legacy search, while then generating its AI results after the fact to expand on the search. It’s a good compromise on Google’s part, but it’s also still technically optional.
In an increasingly rare move for tech in general, Google Photos will just let you turn off AI search altogether. That is, the Gemini-integrated search. Photos has always used AI in search to some extent, but updated options let you turn off the newer stuff.
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How to disable AI search features in Google Photos
First things first, you’ll need the latest Google Photos update. Google is rolling out these options via a server-side update, meaning you just need to be on the latest Google Photos version for Android or iOS and then just wait your turn. On Android, you might be able to get the feature faster by force-closing the app.
If you have the update, you’ll want to tap on your profile picture and look for “Photos settings.” On that page, tap “Preferences” and then “Gemini features in Photos.”
This updated section has several options within, but the one we’re specifically looking for is the toggle for “Search with Ask Photos.” Turning this setting off makes it possible to quickly and fully disable “Ask Photos.” Once flipped, the “Ask” button on the Photos bottom bar converts to “Search” and you’ll get the classic UI.
BeforeAfter
As mentioned, this is a server-side rollout that’s still ongoing, so you might not see these options just yet.
Richard Hurst, the actor best known for playing Deputy Cletus Hogg in “The Dukes of Hazzard,” has died. He was 79.
Hurst died Thursday, June 26, according to a post from “The Dukes of Hazzard” Instagram. Candace Kaniecki, Hurst’s first wife, also confirmed his death to TMZ.
Hurst’s death came just after the actor canceled a July 3-7 gig at Cooter’s Place museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“Rick passed away today, leaving behind a legacy that stretches far beyond Hazzard County,” the Instagram post read.
“To fans, he was more than a character — he was family. His gentle smile, impeccable comedic timing, and kind-hearted spirit made every scene brighter,“ it continued. ”Off-screen, Rick was known for his generosity, humility, and love for connecting with fans at events across the country. Whether it was a reunion special or a meet-and-greet at Cooter’s, he never stopped sharing his joy with the people who adored him.”
Hurst was born on Jan. 1, 1946 in Houston, Texas, the late actor’s IMDb biography states. He appeared in 55 episodes of “The Dukes of Hazzard” and made further appearances in “The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!“ in 1997 and ”The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood“ in 2000.
Hurst’s film credits include “W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings” (1975), “Tunnel Vision” (1976), “The Cat From Outer Space” (1978), “Earth Girls Are Easy” (1988), “In the Line of Fire” (1993), “Steel Magnolias” (1989) and “The Karate Kid Part III” (1989).
“Rick’s passing is a profound loss, but his memory will forever ride shotgun in the hearts of those who grew up watching him, laughing with him, and loving him,” the Instagram post read. “Rest easy, Rick. You made the world a little lighter.”
Tucked between two massive buildings in the hills of the Nevada desert, 805 retired EV batteries lie in neat formation, each one wrapped in nondescript white tarps — and hiding in plain sight.
A passerby might not realize this unassuming array is the largest microgrid in North America, that it’s powering a 2,000 GPU modular data center for AI infrastructure company Crusoe, or that it represents the next big act of JB Straubel, the co-founder and CEO of Redwood Materials.
Redwood Materials announced Thursday during an event at its Sparks, Nevada facility that it was launching an energy storage business that will leverage the thousands of EV batteries it has collected as part of its battery recycling business to provide power to companies. And they’re starting with AI data centers.
The new business, called Redwood Energy, is kicking off with partner Crusoe, a startup Straubel invested in 2021. The old EVs, which are not yet ready for recycling, store energy generated from an adjacent solar array. The system, which generates 12 MW of power and has 63 MWh of capacity, sends power to a modular data center built by Crusoe, a company best known for its large-scale data center campus in Abilene, Texas — the initial site of the Stargate project.
image credits: redwood materials
The scale of Redwood’s battery collection operation is staggering — and an opportunity. Redwood said it recovers more than 70% of all used or discarded battery packs in North America. Today, it processes more than 20 GWh of batteries annually — the equivalent of 250,000 EVs.
It has apparently been stockpiling batteries that aren’t ready for recycling, with more than 1 gigawatt-hour worth in its inventory already. In the coming months, it expects to receive another 4 gigawatt-hours.
By 2028, the company said it plans to deploy 20 gigawatt-hours of grid-scale storage, placing it on track to become the largest repurposer of used EV battery packs.
Straubel’s confidence in the endeavor was apparent in every detail of the launch event. To illustrate the commitment of Redwood — and by extension, Straubel — everything at the event from the music and projection on the big screen to a laser light show that included giant Pac-Man ghosts navigating the rows of EV batteries were powered by the microgrid.
image credits: kirsten korosec
“We wanted to go all in,” Straubel said, breaking into a wide, toothy smile. Splashy effects for the event aside, the microgrid setup with Crusoe is not a demonstration project. Straubel said this is a revenue-generating operation, which was constructed in four months, and one that is profitable. He added that even more of these will be deployed with other customers this year.
“I think this has the potential to grow faster than the core recycling business,” he said.
Redwood Materials has been on an expansion tear in recent years. The company, which has raised $2 billion in private funds, was founded in 2017 by Straubel, the former Tesla CTO and current board member, to create a circular supply chain.
The company started by recycling scrap from battery cell production as well as consumer electronics like cell phone batteries and laptop computers. After processing these discarded goods and extracting materials like cobalt, nickel and lithium that are typically mined, Redwood supplies those back to Panasonic and other customers. Over time, the company has expanded beyond recycling and into cathode production. Redwood generated $200 million in revenue in 2024, much of which comes from the sale of battery materials like cathodes.
The company’s footprint has grown too, and well beyond its Carson City, Nevada headquarters. It has locked up deals with Toyota, Panasonic, and GM, started construction on a South Carolina factory, and made an acquisition in Europe.
Redwood Energy is the next step — and one that isn’t tied to setting up its systems to be off-grid. The retired EV batteries can be powered by wind and solar, or they can be tied to the grid. In the case of the Crusoe project, the system is powered by solar.
“There’s no green intent required here,” CTO Colin Campbell said during a tour of the microgrid. “It’s a good economic choice that also happens to be carbon-free.”
The business model addresses a longstanding challenge in the energy storage sector. For over a decade, companies have been promising to build grid-scale storage from used EV batteries, but they’ve only materialized in small amounts. Redwood, which got its start as a battery materials and recycling company, is creating a new line that promises to deliver gigawatts of much needed energy storage in just a few years.
“This really demonstrates how economical the waste hierarchy actually is,” Jessica Dunn, a battery expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told TechCrunch. That a large recycler like Redwood recognized the profit potential in repurposed EV batteries shows “where this end-of-life market will go,” she added.
Repurposing batteries is a clear business opportunity for Redwood, but it might also be a business imperative. Redwood was founded to build a supply chain that could handle the predicted wave of used EV batteries that will hit the market. But that wave hasn’t materialized quite as quickly as some predicted.
“If Redwood didn’t enter the repurposing market, then they wouldn’t get a share from the repurposed battery. They’d have to wait the five, 10, 15 years until they retired,” she said. In the meantime, other companies would be able to sell the batteries for grid-scale storage, cutting Redwood out of years of revenue.
Straubel acknowledged this, noting in an interview that in many ways Redwood Materials started a bit early.
“We started really early, and in a way we started Redwood almost too early,” he said, noting the company initially was collecting consumer batteries and production scrap ahead of the coming wave of EVs.
The current state of the recycling market underscores the challenge. “Right now, the recycling market is mostly manufacturing scrap, consumer electronics, and EV batteries that have failed under warranty,” Dunn said. That has been enough for Redwood to process over 20 gigawatt-hours annually. But it pales in comparison to the 350 gigawatt-hours in EVs today and the 150 gigawatt-hours expected to hit the road every year.
Redwood currently has a recycling facility at its 175-acre campus in Sparks, Nevada, and it’s developing a 600-acre facility in Charleston, South Carolina. The latter will remanufacture cathode and anode copper foil, both of which contain critical minerals that the U.S. would prefer stayed within its borders.
The company previously said that it will be capable of making 100 gigawatt-hours annually of cathode active material and anode foil by the end of this year. By the end of the decade, it expects production to hit 500 gigawatt-hours.
<img src='https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2826×3910+0+0/resize/2826×3910!/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F22%2Fff%2Faecbf0f04d7a922d448dfa5109e7%2Fgettyimages-950513052-2.jpg' alt='Musician Lalo Schifrin poses during the opening night of the 2018 COLCOA (City of Lights, City of Angels) French Film Festival. ‘/>
Argentine pianist and composer Lalo Schifrin, best known for his scores for Mission: Impossible and more than 200 other films and TV shows, including Bullitt, Mannix and Cool Hand Luke, has died.
