Interesting
Canadian Geographic Explorer Podcast »
Podcast host David McGuffin sits down with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to discuss his passion and history with canoeing, including childhood trips and being taught to paddle by canoeing legend Bill Mason
CBC » The ongoing fight between Meta, the owner of Facebook, and Canada’s federal government over who should pay for news has made it harder to spread life-saving information about the wildfires in the Northwest Territories.
2023 Global Peace Index
On June 28, the 17th edition of the Global Peace Index from international think-tank, the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) was released, and things are not looking great.
The analysis showed that conflict deaths are at their highest level this century causing world peacefulness to decline.
Some key findings in the report »
Social media giant Meta’s [Facebook/Instagram/Messenger/WhatsApp/Threads…] ban on news access on its platforms in Canada is an “epic miscalculation” that could damage journalism and promote the spread of misinformation and fake news, experts are warning.
The company announced the move on Tuesday, saying they had begun the process to end access to news on Facebook and Instagram for users in Canada.
The policy came in retaliation for a new law, the Online News Act, created in an effort to help shore up revenue at Canadian journalism outlets by forcing intermediaries such as Meta and Google’s parent company Alphabet to chip in.
NY Times »
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the country’s public broadcaster, accused Meta of “an abuse of their market power” that would especially affect communities that rely on Facebook to access news articles, including those in northern Canada, rural areas and users from Francophone or multilingual backgrounds. Some of those communities have limited access to print publications.
“It’s another blow to democracy and to the opportunity for us to access fair and balanced, well-sourced journalism,” said Megan Boler, a professor of media and communication studies at the University of Toronto.
According to the much respected Henley Passport Index, which ranks the world’s passports based on official data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), 🇨🇦 Canadians can claim the world’s 7th-most valuable passport this year – up from 8th last year. Canada had been ranked 8th since 2021.
In a bit of a shakeup, 🇯🇵 Japan has been knocked off the top spot on the Henley Passport Index for the first time in five years and bumped into 3rd place. 🇸🇬 Singapore is now officially the most powerful passport in the world, with its citizens able to visit 192 travel destinations out of 227 around the world visa-free. 🇩🇪 Germany, 🇮🇹 Italy, and 🇪🇸 Spain all move up into 2nd place with visa-free access to 190 destinations, and Japanese passport holders join those of six other nations — 🇦🇹 Austria, 🇫🇮 Finland, 🇫🇷 France, 🇱🇺 Luxembourg, 🇰🇷 South Korea, and 🇸🇪 Sweden — in 3rd place with access to189 destinations without a prior visa.
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Story in The Toronto Star »
Designed in France by rolling stock manufacturer Alstom, the zero-emissions train runs on electricity produced by mixing hydrogen with oxygen, meaning that moisture its only waste product. Alstom said Europe has already placed an order for 41 hydrogen trains.
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