How much are FIFA World Cup games costing Canadian taxpayers? Take our business and investing news quiz for the week ending May 22

b. Taxpayers are shelling out about $82-million in funding per game in Canada, according to an analysis released this week by the Parliamentary Budget Officer. What remains unclear is exactly what benefits Canada is getting in return for subsidizing FIFA, the governing body of international football and one of the world’s richest sports organizations. The cities that are most affected have gone out of their way to keep the key documents secret.

a, b, d. Yep, SpaceX has an audacious list of goals, but even its ambitions don’t stretch to developing brain-chip implants. That’s the key objective for Neuralink, yet another company in Mr. Musk’s sprawling business empire, dubbed the “Muskonomy.”

d. A U.S. federal court dismissed Mr. Musk’s claim that OpenAI’s top executives betrayed a shared vision to remain a non-profit dedicated to developing artificial intelligence for the good of humanity. But the court didn’t come to any grand conclusions. The nine-person jury found that Mr. Musk, who invested millions in OpenAI during its early years, waited too long to file his lawsuit and missed a statutory deadline.

d. Long-term Canadian government bond yields touched their highest levels in more than 16 years. Bond yields have been surging around the world because of concerns about rising inflation and uncertainty created by the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran. A sustained move higher in yields could threaten stock prices and push mortgage rates higher.

c. Mr. Carney said this week Ottawa will “adjust to what people want” in regards to a proposed pipeline from Alberta’s oil sands to B.C.’s North Coast, which has rankled environmentalists and some Indigenous leaders. But he said his government doesn’t “want to hear what people are against, we want to hear what they’re for.” And he added a warning: “If things get stalled [in B.C.], we’re going to be spending more time elsewhere in the country because we need to move forward.”

d. Ever wonder why big projects take so long to build in Canada? This might serve as a good example. Mr. Wakeham, a Conservative, says his government rejects the memorandum of understanding on energy co-operation with Quebec that was signed by his Liberal predecessor in December, 2024. Mind you, he says he doesn’t want to start renegotiating from scratch, but would like to use the existing agreement as the basis for more dialogue.

a. Mr. Jaber owns multiple accounting and tax preparation businesses in Edmonton, and financial statements obtained by The Globe show that he has variously identified himself as a “CPA,” “certified public accountant” and member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. But both Albertan and American professional organizations say he has never been a member.

b. AI backlash is real and it’s growing. Mr. Schmidt is one of several commencement speakers at recent university graduations to be greeted with jeers and boos when they spoke of artificial intelligence.

c. Mr. Winters is now trying to reassure his employees that his remark was taken out of context. Still, he did say that the bank will cut thousands of jobs over the next four years as it ‌moves to replace “lower-value human capital” with AI and other technology.

b. Toronto-based Sherritt says it has signed a non-binding share purchase warrant agreement with Gillon Capital LLC that could give Gillon a 55-per-cent ownership stake in the company. Gillon Capital is the investment vehicle of the Washburne family, which includes Ray Washburne, a real estate investor and former Trump administration official.

a. If you wonder why Mr. Trump’s approval ratings are sagging, consider this a case in point. He sued his own government, then arranged a settlement that creates a nearly US$1.8-billion fund to pay off any of his allies who believe they have been unjustly investigated and prosecuted. On top of that, he extracted an agreement that the U.S. government will permanently drop all tax claims against him and his family. In effect, he’s pre-emptively pardoning himself. How, um, Trumpian.

c. Spain’s High Court acquitted Colombian pop star Shakira of tax fraud and overturned a €55-million fine imposed in 2021 by the Spanish tax agency. The judge ruled that authorities had failed to prove that Shakira spent more than 183 days in Spain in 2011, as required by Spanish law to be considered a tax resident in the country.