RG Richardson Interactive Markets eBook by R.G. Richardson - EPUB | Rakuten Kobo Singapore

RG Richardson Interactive Markets eBook by R.G. Richardson - EPUB | Rakuten Kobo Singapore

RG Richardson Interactive Markets - Chinese, English and German
R.G. Richardson City Guides. Interactive City Guides, Job Search, Interactive Notes, Shopping and Real Estate Guides.
This guide is all about 11,900 preset searches including 8 search engines! You can now avoid spelling mistakes and language difficulties making this guide simple enough for everybody to use.
These guides have extensive hotel and restaurant searches; not to mention real estate, shopping, job and employment opportunities available in the guides. Sit in the coffee shop and start searching away on their WiFi and start using our interactive city search guides and brochures with 8 search engines including one Chinese!
For PC, Mac, Pad, or iPhone or mobile phone enabled search tool with multi-search engine capability built right in.
This guide searches for food, hotels, real estate, historical sites, sports, concerts, even public toilets and water closets and everything that’s fun to do; with travel planning, maps and transportation. Good for tourists, travellers, vacationers, people who have just moved to town, and even long term residents who want to stay on top of what’s new and current in their area.
New Real Estate, Shopping and Job Employment Series.
New Interactive Notes for Economics, Financial, Markets, Money and Banking.

Millions wasted killing healthy B.C. ostriches

 ‘Millions wasted killing healthy B.C. ostriches:’ Animal Justice | Oak Bay News

‘Millions wasted killing healthy B.C. ostriches:’ Animal Justice Published 6:00 pm Thursday, January 29, 2026 By Jennifer Smith CFIA and RCMP created a wall of hay bales around the ostriches in Edgewood in 2025. (Facebook photo) Animal Justice is deeply troubled after learning that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s killing of more than 300 healthy ostriches in Edgewood last year, months after avian influenza was first detected on the farm, cost Canadian taxpayers at least $6.8 million. The massive sum was revealed this week in a response to a parliamentary inquiry from Vernon—Lake Country—Monashee MP Scott Anderson in December. The total includes $2.3 million spent on staff time, and $1.3 million on lawyers and legal fees. “The amount of money spent is absolutely outrageous,” said lawyer and Animal Justice executive director Camille Labchuk. “Millions of taxpayers’ dollars were poured down the drain, wasted to massacre these sensitive, intelligent animals who, by that point, were entirely healthy. That money could have helped support animal sanctuaries, improved welfare for animals, or funded real disease-prevention measures instead. Trending Instability extends closure of Victoria segment of Galloping Goose Oak Bay seeks input on Bowker Creek railing replacement project “Not to mention, a fraction of this money could have funded Canada’s only research centre devoted to replacing animal experimentation, which was forced to close last year after the federal government failed to fund it. This would have supported the federal government’s own goal of phasing out toxicity testing on animals.” Following last year’s slaughter, Animal Justice filed a formal complaint with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency over the method used to kill the ostriches, citing serious concerns about animal suffering and potential violations of federal and provincial animal protection laws.


Read more at: https://oakbaynews.com/2026/01/29/millions-wasted-killing-healthy-b-c-ostriches-animal-justice/

When your sailing needs more than wind

 When your sailing needs more than wind

If spending vast sums of money in sailing is what you like to do, the global charter fleet includes a small but exceptional group of sailing yachts. Since 2018, this has exceeded the 100-metre mark, with BOAT International profiling seven of the largest sailing yachts available for charter in 2026:

Black Pearl – 105-metre
Maltese Falcon – 88-metre
Aquijo – 85.9-metre
Sea Eagle – 81-metre
Vertigo – 67.2-metre
Spirit of the Cs – 64-metre
Athos – 63.2-metre

When a day of sailing requires a gym, pool, jacuzzi, sauna, and an impressive toy box, this list has your boat. If you are curious about the 200 largest sailing yachts in the world, click here.

What a K-shaped economy actually means

 

What a K-shaped economy actually means

In a K-shaped recovery, different parts of the economy move in opposite directions at the same time following a recession or downturn. One segment—the upper arm of the K—experiences an increase in wealth due to rising asset values or incomes. The lower arm faces increasing financial strain due to declining purchasing power along with stagnating or decreasing wages.

Together, these diverging paths form the image of a letter K on an economic chart, with one pointing upward, and the other slanting downward.

The defining feature of a K-shaped economy is simultaneous growth and decline, split across different segments of society. It is distinct from a V-shaped recovery, which is marked by a sharp and broad rebound, and a U-shaped recovery, defined by a slower but widespread climb to growth.

In short, a K-shaped economy embodies the saying: “The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.”

 

Prime number: Not budging

Getty Images

Like the guy who snagged the window table at your favorite coffee shop and immediately opened up a blank doc called “screenplay,” homeowners are staying put. They’re keeping their homes for the longest time since at least the turn of the millennium, according to Axios: At the end of 2025, US homesellers had been in their abodes for 8.6 years on average, the longest time in data dating back to 2000 (back when it was 4.2 years). The time homeowners are keeping their houses has increased in nearly every major metro area over that period, industry data provider ATTOM said. That can make it hard for buyers, but the change may be coming to the housing market: Realtor.com found that homeowners with mortgage rates of 6+% recently surpassed the share with rates below 3% for the first time since 2020, giving fewer owners a reason not to move. And the Wall Street Journal reports that a Redfin analysis showed that ~62% of last year’s buyers snagged a home for below the original listing price—the highest proportion since 2019.

 

The UCP is a separatist party. There, we said it.

The premier of Alberta has cleared her throat and made it known that she hasn’t (yet) penned her name to any petition calling for separating from Canada. Whew, that’s good, no?

Except, wait. Just the fact that this was a CBC headline yesterday demonstrates how long it has remained weirdly unclear whether Smith is okay with the federation going to hell.

She continues to claim she’s for a “sovereign” Alberta in a “unified” Canada, whatever that means. Writing in The Tyee, David Climenhaga gives the hook to all the tap dancing: “If you don’t understand by now that the United Conservative Party led by Danielle Smith is a separatist party, then you haven’t been paying attention.”

Climenhaga quotes well-connected Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid who wrote: “At the top level of the UCP they’re pondering whether to hold a vote on the party turning separatist.” Says Climenhaga: “Fair enough. They should.”

Because, well… “As is by now well known, party members and officials who are also Alberta Prosperity Project separatists are making regular visits to Washington to plot Canada’s destruction with unnamed members of the Donald Trump administration.” This as 19 UCP MLAs reportedly support the separatist petition and Smith has let it be known that’s fine with her.

I’m Tyee editor-in-chief David Beers, glad to be here on The Edge of all things Alberta politics.

Speaking of the business of manufacturing populist revolts, also in The Tyee this week Mitchell Anderson traces how Britain’s Brexit boosters drew inspiration from Preston Manning’s rebellious Reform Party. Today, if an election were held, Reform UK might just win.

Meanwhile, Canada’s News Forum TV broadcaster is expanding, including opening a bureau in Calgary. Christopher Holcroft reveals its role as megaphone for the U.S. dark money-backed libertarian Atlas Network and how federal regulators helped expand its reach.

We also shared a news report from Pincher Creek’s Shootin’ the Breeze saying that country music star Corb Lund’s efforts to launch his own citizen initiative petition drive has been approved. It’s against UCP-backed coal mining in the previously protected eastern slopes of the Rockies.

This week’s lesson seems to be that petitions have consequences. Choose wisely. Please, don’t drink and sign.

Trump officially revoked the US’ ability to regulate pollution

 Trump officially revoked the US’ ability to regulate pollution. Yesterday, President Trump’s EPA repealed the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human health and the environment, which served as the legal underpinning for all climate regulation. The repeal of the Obama-era “endangerment finding” means that the federal government will no longer have the ability to control pollution—if it survives legal challenges. Environmental activists are certain to launch a legal fight that observers believe will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.

We need more meaningful citizen involvement - Victoria Times Colonist

We need more meaningful citizen involvement - Victoria Times Colonist

Gene Miller: We need more meaningful citizen involvement, not just complaint

Civic conversation about matters larger than construction congestion and more credible than forged political accomplishment is sorely needed.

Gene MillerJan 26, 2026 5:15 AM

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday talked about a new and enlarged role for Canada on the world stage, a role that all of us should be proud to embody, while not blind to risks when you pop your head up, writes Gene Miller. Sean Kilpatrick, The Canadian Press

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00:05:28

It’s Tuesday evening, and I have just finished listening to our prime minister deliver an extraordinarily courageous and cautionary speech at the World Economic Forum, held annually in Davos, Switzerland.

It was breathtakingly courageous because it was utterly truthful about the rapidly emerging new world order and what that implies

It was also courageous because it represented, and in some ways defined, a new and enlarged role for Canada on the world stage — a role, in my view, that all of us should be proud to embody, to make our own, while not blind to risks when you pop your head up.

It was — and I use words not often associated with Canada — powerful, persuasive, riveting, profound.

One for the history books.

It will be consequential.

U.S. President Donald Trump, whose name Carney never mentioned, will, in the privacy of his White House office, curse our prime minister and our country and nurse revenge.

We will move to the front of that insane president’s retribution list.

While Carney’s speech was filled with a shockingly honest description of current geopolitical realities and prospects, he pointed unerringly and scarily to where all of this was headed: rupture and the end of global rules-based order — to a near-future more filled with basic appetite and aggression than modern.

To his credit, then, Carney, virtually stating that the world was headed toward an economic and, it appears, territorial war with the U.S., smoothed over nothing in his portrait of humanity’s next chapter.

Let’s leave the terrors of Davos and shift to a local frame.

I’ve lived in Victoria since 1970, when the Empress Hotel, that breathtaking architectural confection, was the crown of the capital, imperious and self-important.

Now, in its full embrace of modern times, Victoria has become a thriving and dynamic metropolis whose greatest cultural export is complaint, in bike lane, pothole and road-closure flavours.

I joke only to point out that citizen involvement has been reduced to complaint.

As many significant political and social thinkers are stating, “normal,” with its basket of traditions, shared assumptions and understandings, bows and curtsies, is going or gone, finished, exhausted.

While some new normal hasn’t coalesced yet, there are hints bathed, worryingly, in a sick yellow glow.

Consider the possibility that cellphone culture and Trumpism might be the new normal. A nightmare, but one we may wake to.

This column is constrained in its geographic and social reach, but in the face of mounting social urgencies, it asks readers, local and elsewhere, to look up, that is, to see the times for what they are.

In functional, operational terms, it calls for more civic conversation about matters larger than construction congestion and more credible than forged political accomplishment.

In the same way that physical exercise builds muscles, community conversation and project involvement build social muscle.

People — all of us — need to be better and more broadly informed about what’s happening in our communities and cities.

I’m in the habit of noting we are living in the middle of HISTORY. There’s a case to be made that threatening and tough times require a more prepared community with stronger psychological resources.

These don’t come from nowhere.

It calls for informed citizen passion and a hunger for informed viewpoint, for engagement.

In that context, shouldn’t we, in a small reflection of global realities, try to get to the root cause of local public abdication, the withdrawal of citizen energy from the civic concerns that affect quality of life here?

To do so, don’t we need to be more “here,” more present?

Turning everything over to mayor and council is a voluntary “donation” of social power by the public, and it always has “strong leader” consequences, sooner or later.

Sound familiar?

What is mysterious is not just the slow drift or transfer of social power but the failure of a community to recognize that it is taking place.

Elections, unfortunately, are the worst social tool for citywide conversation. They come too late and blunt legitimate interrogation of council aspirants and would-be returnees.

(Eight months from election time, we are starting to receive harp-string messages from multi-termers listing their accomplishments.)

What this writing calls for — as it has before — is kitchen-table and coffee-shop discussion about the appropriate distribution of social power in our local political environment, and whether accomplishment through a more direct city/citizen partnership might lead to more potent and successful outcomes.

A better next.

Gene Miller is the founder of Open Space, founding publisher of Monday Magazine, originator of the Gaining Ground urban sustainability conferences, founder/developer of ASH houseplexes, and currently writing “Nothing To Do: Life in a Workless World.” He’d be pleased to receive and respond to your thoughts. genekmiller@gmail.com

For Today’s Conservatives, Misinformation Is the Norm | The Tyee

 For Today’s Conservatives, Misinformation Is the Norm | The Tyee

For Today’s Conservatives, Misinformation Is the Norm
Pierre Poilievre’s post about my client was false. It reached half a million people.

Michael Spratt TodayThe Tyee

Michael Spratt is a certified criminal law specialist and partner at the Ottawa criminal law firm AGP LLP. This piece was originally published by Canadian Lawyer.Our journalism is supported by readers like you. Click here to support The Tyee.






17

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, says the author, deliberately misrepresented how the justice system works to score points. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick, the Canadian Press.


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Canadian politics has always had its share of spin. What feels newer, and far more corrosive, is the growing comfort some politicians now have with simply abandoning the facts altogether, particularly when courts or public institutions are involved. Misrepresentation is no longer an occasional lapse or rhetorical flourish. It has become a strategy that trades accuracy for outrage and treats public trust as collateral damage.

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Two social media posts earlier this month offered clear examples of how that strategy operates in practice. Different facts, different venues, but entirely the same modus operandi. In both cases, senior Conservative politicians took complex, legally constrained realities and recast them as scandal, grievance and institutional failure. The aim was not to clarify or persuade but to inflame, reinforcing a narrative that casts courts, universities and institutions as enemies rather than essential parts of a functioning democracy.

The first example is one I know well because I was there. I represented a man who splashed red paint on Ottawa’s National Holocaust Monument in protest of the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Gaza. It was a serious crime, and he pleaded guilty. The sentencing process was lengthy and exacting, involving extensive submissions, detailed community and victim impact statements, and a careful examination of motive and case law. The sentencing judge ultimately delivered one of the most careful and principled decisions I have read in years.

The result was not some caricature of Liberal soft-on-crime leniency. The offender was sentenced to five months in jail and two years of probation. By the time the sentence was imposed, this first-time offender had already spent more than 150 days in actual prison and months under extraordinarily restrictive bail conditions, including house arrest, GPS monitoring and effective exile from his children.


The judge emphasized denunciation, deterrence and the profound harm done to the Jewish community, while also explaining why the Crown had not met the very high burden of proving hate motivation beyond a reasonable doubt. The whole process was the rule of law doing precisely what it is designed to do.

Enter Pierre Poilievre. On X, he declared: “A man defaces Canada’s Holocaust Monument with blood-red paint and faces no real jail time. Under the Liberals, antisemitism is tolerated, excused, and waved away for political convenience.” More than half a million people saw the post. It was also false.

Poilievre did not attend the sentencing. He did not read the decision. He appears not to have read any reporting beyond what fit neatly into a prewritten script. The offender faced real jail time and served it. He was detained at bail. He spent months in custody at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre. He was released only after pleading guilty and while subject to strict bail terms, which he complied with.


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Disagree with the sentence if you like; many do. But inventing facts to fuel grievance is something else entirely. For Poilievre, the newly reaffirmed leader of Canada’s Opposition party, everything becomes evidence of Liberal rot, everything is softness, and any inconvenient facts are ignored.



How Big Tech Spearheads the US Threat to Canadaread more

It is entirely legitimate to criticize court decisions. I do it all the time. It is more than legitimate to criticize the Liberal government; I do that all the time, too. What is unacceptable is for political leaders, who should be held to a higher standard than the rest of us, to deliberately misrepresent how the justice system works to score political points. That kind of misinformation corrodes trust in judges and courts and conditions the public to see every decision as partisan rather than principled. We do not need to look far south to see where that road leads.

If this pattern sounds familiar, it is because the same routine played out again, this time repackaged as a free-speech crisis. Conservative MP Garnett Genuis took to social media to announce that the student union had cancelled his event at York University in a “further attack on free speech.” The implication was obvious: politically motivated students were silencing conservative ideas. Genuis’s social media post travelled fast, as grievance narratives usually do.

Except that was not what happened. As CBC later reported, the event was not cancelled by the student union at all. The York University Student Centre declined it due to booking rules for the proposed open-area town-hall format. Genuis was told he could book a closed space for that kind of event. He chose not to. In other words, no one silenced him. He cancelled himself.



Why Poilievre and Carney Are Silent on Grok’s Child Sexual Abuseread more

That clarification arrived after the outrage had already done its work. Even fellow Conservatives swallowed the grievance whole. Michelle Rempel Garner publicly called for York University to be defunded. This is how political misinformation spreads: quickly, confidently and with just enough plausibility to avoid immediate correction. Free speech was not under attack. Student unions were not censoring debate. But the narrative was politically useful, so accuracy became expendable.

Taken together, these incidents are not accidents or isolated missteps. They are features of a broader strategy. Modern Conservative messaging increasingly relies on manufacturing grievance through selective facts, exaggeration and outright errors, confident that the truth will never travel as far or as fast as the original lie.

The justice system is imperfect. Universities are imperfect. Democracy, like any other system, is imperfect, but it depends on a shared commitment to reality. When politicians with power and privilege knowingly distort court decisions and invent free-speech panics to stoke resentment, they are not engaging in democratic debate. They are poisoning it.

Grievance-first politics may generate outrage, donations and viral posts. Still, it does so by eroding trust in the very institutions that allow a pluralistic society to function at all. At some point, we should stop pretending this is accidental. It is a strategy that prioritizes short-term political gain over the long-term health of Canadian democracy.

Quebec will now assert cultural sovereignty online with new legislation

 Quebec will now assert cultural sovereignty online with new legislation

Sherbrooke Record · 13 days ago
by Matthew Mccully · Civic Literacy

By Greg Duncan

While you were enjoying the holiday season this past December, the Quebec government passed a law that could dictate what you watch or stream online.

Bill 109 was adopted by the national assembly on Dec. 12, 2025. Formally titled An Act respecting the discoverability of French-language cultural content in the digital environment, the legislation empowers the provincial government to impose minimum French-language content quotas on streaming platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, Spotify, and Amazon Music. This is now officially An Act to affirm the cultural sovereignty of Québec and to enact the Act respecting the discoverability of French-language cultural content in the digital environment.

The government maintains that the new law is essential to protect Quebec’s cultural identity, claiming that only 8.5 per cent of the most listened-to songs in Quebec in 2023 were in French. The law introduces a new “right to discoverability” into Quebec’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, ensuring francophone content is not only available, but also prominently featured online.
So, what does this mean close to home? What is the local impact?

The new law could significantly reshape digital content access, raising serious concerns about a reduction of choice on streaming platforms. For anglophone residents, the bill raises questions about access to English-language content. While the legislation does not explicitly restrict English programming, critics warn that algorithmic prioritization of French-language material could push anglophone content further down in visibility, making it harder to find. There is concern that the law could limit cultural diversity in a region where bilingualism is a defining characteristic. Some worry that anglophone youth may feel increasingly disconnected from global media trends if English-language shows, films, and music become less accessible. For example, some key requirements, obligations, and features of the Act include that qualifying platforms will now be required to register with the Ministry of Culture and Communications, which will have broad powers to demand information and enforce compliance. As well, the interfaces of digital platforms or devices will be required to set the default language to French, ensuring that users encounter French first when navigating digital services.

There is industry pushback however with major streaming platforms and industry associations having already voiced strong opposition. The Digital Media Association (DiMA) for example, representing Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music, has warned that the legislation could negatively impact consumer experience, artist revenues, and platform operations. A DiMA sponsored Léger survey released in late November 2025 found that 66 per cent of Quebecers oppose government intervention in streaming content, and that 76 per cent would reject the bill if it led to higher subscription costs. Meanwhile, many Québec cultural organizations and industry representatives have pushed back against claims that Bill 109 would limit consumer choice, instead framing the proposed legislation as a necessary tool to support French-language culture in an increasingly globalized digital environment.
In the Eastern Townships, where anglophone and francophone communities coexist closely, the law could intensify debates over cultural identity and access to media. While francophone advocates see the law as a necessary safeguard for Quebec’s heritage, anglophone residents fear it may erode a historical bilingual balance and reduce our ability to freely choose digital content.

Enforcement and Penalties

The law allows Quebec to set quotas on content within 18 months, with fines of up to $15,000 per day for non-compliance. A new “Discoverability Office” within the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications will oversee monitoring, investigations, and enforcement, publish reports every three years, and negotiate “alternative measures” with platforms unable to meet quotas.
The new law may strengthen Quebec’s cultural sovereignty, but it also risks narrowing anglophone access to global digital content, an issue that will be felt acutely in bilingual regions like the Eastern Townships. As one Townships resident put it, “We value French culture deeply, but we also want our kids to have the same access to English-language shows and music as anyone else in Canada.”

Resources and references:

• An Act to affirm the cultural sovereignty of Québec and to enact the Act respecting the discoverability of French-language cultural content in the digital environment: https://www.publicationsduquebec.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/Fichiers_client/lois_et_reglements/LoisAnnuelles/en/2025/2025C38A.PDFy of French-language cultural content in the digital environment
• Découvrabilité des contenus culturels francophones – Le gouvernement du Québec se dote d’un important levier pour protéger durablement sa spécificité linguistique et culturelle: https://www.quebec.ca/nouvelles/actualites/details/decouvrabilite-des-contenus-culturels-francophones-le-gouvernement-du-quebec-se-dote-dun-important-levier-pour-proteger-durablement-sa-specificite-linguistique-et-culturelle-67656
• Quebec targets streaming giants with new bill on French-language content: https://www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/article/quebec-adopts-bill-109-on-french-language-content/

L’article Quebec will now assert cultural sovereignty online with new legislation est apparu en premier sur Sherbrooke Record.

The challenge of managing parents

 The challenge of managing parents

by Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt Sailing News
I wrote the report, The Soccerization of Sailing, in 2009 which noted how the organization of youth sailing had been modeled after other sporting options (baseball, soccer, etc.). This trend began in the 1990s, and it was an observation of the improvement, but also of the unintended consequence.

There isn’t much that parents aren’t trying to improve, and that always heightens competition. Eventually, some parents lose the plot. In an ESPN report, they detail how youth-sport coaches are feeling burned out and fed up with verbal harassment and abuse, mainly from parents of athletes.

According to U.S. Center for SafeSport, the challenge of managing parents ranks among the top reasons coaches have considered leaving or decided to quit, with one coach saying of parents: “They created tension. They instilled distrust. They were worse than children.” – Full report

Response to My Letter to Jeff Bezos

Response to My Letter to Jeff Bezos

BEN MEISELAS AND MEIDASTOUCH NETWORK

FEB 5


 







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By Ben Meiselas

Yesterday, I wrote a letter to Jeff Bezos and the leadership of The Washington Post after they announced they were firing more than one-third of their newsroom.

Some of the best journalists in America. Investigative reporters. Writers who dedicated their lives to holding power accountable. Reporters who worked in war zones, some of whom learned they were fired not from an editor or a phone call, but from a form email sent by Human Resources. In some cases, while they were still stranded overseas.

That is corporate cruelty and journalistic malpractice along with obedience and complicity in fascism.

I sent my letter to Jeff Bezos and The Washington Post leadership to make sure they understood the magnitude of their betrayal and to plant a clear flag for independent journalism at a moment when too many legacy institutions are openly capitulating to fascism.

Let’s stop dancing around the truth.

Donald Trump is a fascist. His movement is authoritarian. And his goal is to turn American media into state-aligned regime media, something closer to Putin’s Russia than a democracy. What we are watching now is compliance with a fascist regime.

We’ve seen this surrender at The Washington Post. We’ve seen it at CBS. We’ve seen it across corporate media. These institutions believe silence and complicity will protect them. That obedience will spare them. That if they stop challenging power, power will protect and favor them.

That belief is pathetic and dangerous.

And it’s failing.

Because independent media is not retreating. It’s growing. And the MeidasTouch Network is leading that growth.

We are powered by one of the strongest pro-democracy communities anywhere.

We have on-the-ground reporters in Minneapolis, in Washington, D.C., and across the country. We have sent reporters to Greenland. We have sent reporters to Ukraine. We operate internationally. We run a sprawling network of shows, podcasts, and platforms covering breaking news, legal analysis, and accountability journalism, including a dedicated channel in Canada, with more countries coming next.

While legacy media cuts and collapses, we expand. We hire more reporters. We add more writers and editors and staff. We reach roughly a billion views a month across our digital platforms, and we’re still growing.

So yes, the death of The Washington Post as a serious independent institution is devastating for democracy. But their collapse is not the end of journalism. It’s proof that the old model is finished.

Since publishing my letter, I’ve received thousands of messages from readers, journalists, veterans, teachers, parents, and people more energized than ever to fight back against this fascist project and the media ecosystem enabling it.

Independent journalism is under attack precisely because it works. And because the MeidasTouch Network has become the largest pro-democracy media outlet in the country, we are a target as well.

But understand this clearly.

We are not intimidated.

We are not slowing down.

And we are not backing down.

Jeff Bezos’s silence is not neutrality. It’s complicity. History will remember who stood up when fascism demanded obedience and who surrendered.

If you believe the press should challenge power instead of serving it, now is the moment to act.

Become a paid subscriber now to this Substack. Not as a gesture, but as a declaration that independent journalism will not be surrendered to authoritarianism. Let’s send a message to Jeff Bezos.

This fight is real. And together, we are winning it.

—Ben

Dates confirmed for 38th America’s Cup

 Dates confirmed for 38th America’s Cup

The dates of the 38th America’s Cup Match in Naples have been confirmed with the Match to start with two opening races on July 10 and run to a conclusion by the weekend of July 17-18, 2027. Additional updates include:

• Emirates has renewed its more than two-decade-long partnership as naming sponsor of the Defender of the America’s Cup, Emirates Team New Zealand. This is the fifth renewal of the naming sponsorship. Also back is Louis Vuitton as the event's headline sponsor.

• British Challenger has unveiled GB1 as the new identity of Athena Racing, the team founded by Sir Ben Ainslie in 2014 which has competed in the last three America’s Cups. Also confirmed is Dylan Fletcher at helm for his second America’s Cup. With Ainslie off the boat in 2027, no details were provided on who will co-helm with Fletcher.

 

Stadium food prices are getting easier to stomach

Rob Tringali/Getty Images

Good news to anyone who has shoved a turkey sandwich down their pants before walking into a football game: Some stadiums are easing up on notoriously high concession prices. So, ponying up for a hot dog and beer will be a little easier to swallow, even if your team is choking. Clear eyes, full stomachs The Atlanta Falcons kicked off the trend in 2017 with a “fan first” menu that slashed food and beverage prices nearly in half. Beers that cost $8 were repriced at $5. Hot dogs went from $8 to $2. The result? The team actually made more money because fans spent more time in the stadium and used their food savings to buy higher-priced items. According to Front Office Sports, from 2016 to 2024: Total transactions at the Falcons’ stadium jumped 30%. Merchandise sales rose 20%. The average number of items per transaction increased 20%. Beyond Atlanta: Like trap music, Atlanta’s idea has spread to other cities. In 2024, Ryan Smith, the owner of the Utah Jazz (NBA) and the Utah Mammoth (NHL), announced several popular concession items would be priced between $2 and $3. The Phoenix Suns (NBA) and Baltimore Ravens (NFL) later announced similar value meals. Not everything is cheap. According to AmericanCraftBeer.com, if you wanted to buy a 16-ounce beer at a Washington Commanders game this past season, it would have set you back you back $16.49–an NFL high.

Nexus applications have plummeted in another sign Canadians are avoiding Trump's America

Nexus applications have plummeted in another sign Canadians are avoiding Trump's America
Trusted-traveller applications have halved since Trump returned to the White House


Darren Major · CBC News · Posted: Jan 27, 2026 1:00 AM PST | Last Updated: January 27


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A motorist scans a Nexus card at a border crossing in Surrey, B.C. Applications for the program halved during the first year of U.S. President Donald Trump's second term. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

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The number of Canadian applications for the Nexus trusted-traveller program has fallen off a cliff since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year.

Applications had been steadily increasing following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

But the border agency said that it received half the number of applications — just under 350,000 — in 2025, compared to the previous year when nearly 700,000 travellers applied for a Nexus card.



Nexus is a jointly run program with the U.S. that allows travellers who have undergone extensive background checks to quickly pass through security at border crossings and airports.

The 2025 application numbers show a significant drop even compared to 2022 and 2023. During those two years, there was a massive backlog due to disagreements between the two countries that was only resolved in mid-2023.
More signs Canadians turning away from U.S.

While Americans also make use of the program, a majority of Nexus members are Canadian.

The new applicant numbers could be explained by an increase in the application fees in 2024, but could also point to a growing mountain of evidence that show Canadians are turning away from the U.S. during the second Trump administration.

Statistics Canada said last week that the number of Canadian vehicles that crossed the border into the U.S. and back last year fell by 30.9 per cent compared to 2024.

A U.S. Travel Association report from November forecasts a 3.2 per cent decline in international tourism spending in the country for 2025, a loss of $5.7 billion US compared to the previous year. That report attributes much of the loss to a decline in the number of Canadian visitors.
WATCH | Canadian land travel to U.S. fell more than 30% last year:




Canadian land travel to U.S. dropped 30.9% in 2025, says StatsCan
January 23|
Duration2:35Statistics Canada says 30.9 per cent fewer Canadian automobiles visited the United States in 2025 compared to 2024. That's a difference of roughly 7.6 million vehicles — which StatsCan considers a notable decline. CBC's Dalson Chen reports.

It's not just travel numbers that show a Canadians are shunning the U.S. A CBC News analysis of trade, shopping and cultural data shows Canadians are taking a big step back from their neighbours to the south.

Political tensions between Canada and the U.S. have been heightened since Trump's re-election last fall. The U.S. president consistently mocked Canada as the 51st state last winter while slapping tariffs on a number of Canadian goods.

Tensions appeared to ease slightly over the spring and summer as Washington and Ottawa worked to negotiate some tariff relief. But talks blew up in the fall when Trump called the negotiations off, blaming an Ontario government ad that used former president Ronald Reagan's arguments against tariffs.

In the past week, Trump has taken a more agonistic tone when referring to Prime Minister Mark Carney.
WATCH | Trump's tone on Canada changes in Davos:




Why Trump just threatened Canada in Davos | About That
January 21|
Duration9:54U.S. President Donald Trump shot back at Prime Minister Mark Carney's comments at the World Economic Forum about a new way forward for countries seeking distance from U.S. influence. Andrew Chang breaks down key moments from both leaders' speeches, highlighting shifts in both Canada's global strategy and the deteriorating relationship between two longtime allies. Images provided by The Canadian Press, Reuters and Getty Images


Carney gave a speech at the World Economic Forum that gained international attention and is largely being seen as a rejection of Trump's foreign policy tactics.

Since then, Trump said Canada "lives because of the United States" and rescinded an invitation for Carney to join his "Board of Peace" initiative.

Over the weekend, Trump for the first time referred to Carney as "governor" — a moniker that he had used with former prime minister Justin Trudeau — while threatening to impose a 100 per cent tariff on all Canadian goods if Ottawa "makes a deal with China."
Alternative to Nexus?

The drop-off in Nexus applications spurred Sen. Paula Simons to propose a domestic alternative for Canadians who want to quickly move through airport security.

But under the current system, the only way for a member of the general public to become a verified traveller is through the Nexus program. The Alberta senator said it makes sense for Canada to have its own verified traveller program that isn't reliant on the U.S.

"It is unusual for a country to contract out its airport security fast-pass system to a different sovereign nation. We've just sort of been piggybacking on the Nexus process using it as a proxy," Simons told CBC News.

Sen. Paula Simons introduced a motion in Parliament last fall that calls for a trusted-traveller program that is separate from Nexus. (Roger Cosman/CBC)

Simons noted that the U.S. has its own verified traveller program, called TSA PreCheck, that is separate from Nexus.

Simons argued that there is also a human rights rationale behind implementing a trusted-traveller program that's separate from the U.S.

The U.S. has also stopped accepting an "X" gender marker on Nexus applications, instead forcing Canadians to choose either "M" or "F."

"Requiring Canadians who are trans, non-binary or two-spirit to get a Nexus card to use the good line is clearly discriminatory. It's clearly a violation of their Charter rights," Simons said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Darren Major

Senior writer

Darren Major is a senior writer for CBC's parliamentary bureau in Ottawa. He previously worked as a digital reporter for CBC Ottawa and a producer for CBC's Power & Politics. He holds a master's degree in journalism and a bachelor's degree in public affairs and policy management, both from Carleton University. He also holds master's degree in arts from Queen's University. He can be reached at darren.major@cbc.ca.

 

That sports ticket you own might not be yours to sell

Perry Knotts/Getty Images

People sold 126 million tickets on the secondary market in 2024, and 42% of those tickets got you into sporting events, according to Industry Research. But due to strict rules around resale, that ticket you’re looking to turn into some extra cash (or cut your losses if it’s a ticket to, say, a New York Giants game) may not be yours to sell—at least not without some strings attached. For example, the Seattle Seahawks, who are on their way to Super Bowl LX next weekend after two playoff wins at home, sent a stern warning friendly reminder to season ticket holders before the team’s first postseason game, cautioning them against selling passes to the biggest games of the season. There was particular concern about selling to fans of opposing teams and losing a coveted home-field advantage (read: loud crowd noise that can make life difficult for the visiting team): Seattle isn’t alone: The Seahawks were also one of five teams to send this warning before the regular season started. And the NFL’s terms and conditions for resale don’t just apply to fans—the league fined more than 100 players and team employees for reselling Super Bowl tickets at a profit last year, and said the fines would increase if it happens again for this year’s Super Bowl. There are no limits to the limits It’s more than just fines and threats of expulsion from your season ticket plan that limit what you can do with your tickets on the secondary market. Other methods to thwart reselling include: Digital instead of paper: Digital tickets—as opposed to allowing the printing out of tickets at home—are more difficult, or even impossible, to resell. Price floors: Leagues can force sellers to use an exclusive resale platform and meet a price minimum rather than letting the market decide a ticket’s value. That means tickets to lesser events that aren’t worth that minimum price (again, NY Giants games) can go unsold. Teams playing tight coverage: If your credit card info shows you don’t live near where a game is being played, teams may prevent you from buying a ticket in the first place, in part to keep you from selling it to someone else. Teams from every major sports league have tried some version of this, including the New York Yankees (MLB), the Oklahoma City Thunder (NBA), and the Washington Capitals (NHL).

Advocate for women receives honours

 Advocate for women receives honours

Irene Y. McNeill, who’s an avid sailor and advocate for women in the sport, is one of 80 Order of Canada appointees. The Order of Canada is how the country honors people who make extraordinary contributions to Canada.

McNeill has not only helped develop the sport of sailing throughout the country and around the world, but has actively increased the number of women participating in the sport. One way she has accomplished this was by co-founding the LEAP program, which encourages girls to take up sailing.

In addition to participating in the sport, McNeill has been particularly instrumental in the leadership side of sailing and the advancement of women in race management. She has supported many initiatives to encourage women to participate in race management and improve skills development.

In 2012, McNeill was the first Canadian woman to earn the title of international race officer by World Sailing. – Full report

CCA Guides Offer Levels of Canada Cruising Challenges

 CCA Guides Offer Levels of Canada Cruising Challenges

Winter is the time to start planning for a summer of cruising the Canadian Maritimes. To help, the Cruising Club of America publishes individual cruising guides for the provinces of Atlantic Canada that offer three levels of challenge to the experienced cruiser.

Level One: Nova Scotia is the closest to the U.S. coast, an area of scenic beauty and friendly, welcoming people, sheltered harbors, quaint towns and excellent services.

Level Two: Farther east, Newfoundland is bigger and bolder and the people as friendly as can be. The challenges are manageable with a little care and planning.  Harbors are breathtakingly beautiful with rugged, high-sided cliffs and great hiking. Consider a stop at Saint Pierre, a small, charming French island where bistros, patisseries, and wine shops abound.

Level Three: Labrador is the farthest north, where challenges and rewards are greater still — real adventure cruising. The land is stupendous in its raw beauty. Navigation can be demanding, but with today’s electronic tools, the tasks are manageable.

All three guides and how to obtain them are described at the CCA website: cruisingclub.org/book/ccaguides.

Proton is Working on European Alternative to Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet

  Proton is Working on European Alternative to Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet - ITdaily.

Proton is Working on European Alternative to Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet.software
10.09.'25 14:46
2 minKatrien Duchène



Proton is working on its own meeting software to offer a European alternative to Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom.

Proton is known for its privacy-friendly services including Proton Mail, Proton VPN, and Proton Pass. The Swiss company recently launched its own authenticator app. Proton is currently working on a new service, Proton Meet, which is intended to be a European alternative to Google Meet, Teams, and Zoom. The company confirmed this to Tweakers a few days ago. Proton Meet is currently in a closed beta testing phase.
Proton Meet

More and more companies are focusing on data sovereignty and are turning to local or European partners more quickly, to the detriment of American technology players. The Swiss company Proton now seems to want to capitalize on this. Proton is currently working on Proton Meet, its own meeting software that aims to offer a European alternative. The company has already added a new page to their product offerings on the website with ‘Proton Meet’.

Milan mayor: 'ICE's image is terrible'

Milan mayor: 'ICE's image is terrible'

Milan mayor: ‘ICE’s image is terrible’by Ashleigh Fields - 01/29/26 10:32 AM ET

Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala on Wednesday condemned the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Olympic Winter Games after weeks of violent incidents with U.S. citizens in Minnesota.

“ICE’s image is terrible,” Sala told The Washington Post.

His words echo those of other officials in Italy who have rejected ICE’s involvement at the international event, including lawmakers who have requested guarantees that immigration enforcement will not be conducted at the sporting events.

“The Democratic Party has submitted a parliamentary question to [Italy’s interior minister Matteo] Piantedosi, requesting immediate clarification and the exclusion of any operational presence of ICE on Italian soil,” Matteo Mauri, a member of Parliament and the party’s lead on security, said in a statement to the Post.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which houses ICE, has sought to quell concerns by confirming that ICE will not be conducting immigration activities at the Games.

“Obviously, ICE does not conduct immigration enforcement operations in foreign countries,” the DHS wrote in a Tuesday post on the social platform X.

“At the Olympics, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations is supporting the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and host nation to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organizations,” it added.