The Peak Daily

Global birth rates are on the decline, but one Japanese town has cracked the baby-making code. Lawyers for the plastics industry are fighting to make sure your kitchen cupboard stuffed with plastic bags stays well-stocked. Even as it deals with that pesky little issue of a potential ban in North America and the EU , TikTok is keeping on and looking for new ways to bolster its domination of Gen Z's...

Waiting on a promotion? Well, there are two big names you’ll likely have to impress first: Myers and Briggs . Everything must go: Prices on some Teslas are down ~20% since January. From trading hiccups to stablecoin woes , the world’s largest crypto platform has had a rough 2023. And now, after a new report, regulators are circling like sharks before a feeding frenzy. Celebrating something? Let us...

As the global  semiconductors arms race  gets hotter than a ten-year-old laptop trying to run a browser with multiple tabs open, one Canadian chip leader just got a lot less Canadian. Now might be a good time to buy Planet Fitness stock, because over half the world’s population will be either overweight or obese by 2035 if trends hold, according to a  new report  by the World Obesity Federation. T...

A parliamentary committee voted to call on the Prime Minister to open an independent public inquiry into foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections. The Chief Science Advisor of Canada wants to get to the bottom of this UFO business. If you’ve been waiting to order a copy of Prince Harry’s memoir or various home goods of questionable usefulness from Indigo, you’re gonna have to keep waiti...

GoerTek, a major Apple supplier, invested millions into a new production plant in Vietnam and is weighing an Indian expansion as it looks to [leave China]( https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/apple-suppliers-are-racing-to-exit-china-airpods-maker-says-1.1889086#:~:text=(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc.,US company's most important partners.) . Netflix’s first stage play will premiere later this year in London’s fa...

We have some terrible, no-good news: rewards programs are getting less rewarding. A new paper in Frontiers in Science details one research group’s case for organoid intelligence —the practice of using tiny clumps of human stem cells to power computers. Provincial budget season is in full swing after Alberta and BC unveiled their #spendinggoals. In case you weren’t watching with popcorn in hand lik...

Venture capitalist (VC) money might be drying up—dropping by a third globally last year—but startups are still fetching billion-dollar valuations by tapping into something that never goes out of style: Matters of national security. Twitter laid off another 200 employees—or about 10% of its remaining workforce—bringing the company’s headcount to less than 2,000 from about 7,500 when Elon Musk offic...

Air Canada is piloting (and not the in-the-air kind)  facial recognition tech for passengers boarding certain flights from Vancouver to Winnipeg. Canada’s inflation rate is  cooling , but might prove to be sticky. You may have never heard of Tobias Jesso Jr., but he’s a shining, homegrown example of just how lucrative being a songwriter can be in the age of music royalty sales. Celebrating somethi...

The head of the Royal Norwegian Air Force has a vision for Arctic security that involves Canada, the US, Finland, Sweden, and ( of course ) 250 ultra-modern fighter jets. Google is testing ways to block Canadian users from  seeing news content  on Search, as part of a spat with the feds over the idea that tech giants should pay up for linking articles. JPMorgan has told ChatGPT to clear its desk a...

Canada plans to bring 1.5 million newcomers aboard over the next three years, over 50% of whom will be economic immigrants . But they will face an uphill battle to reach their full potential. A federal agency has very quietly decided that the government shouldn’t be using TikTok. Celebrating something? Let us know here: https://thepeak.typeform.com/to/MNdYA3TO

Despite a lacklustre earnings report marred by  slowing sales , Home Depot will commit US$1 billion towards  wage increases  for its hourly workers in Canada and the US, with handy hardware helpers set to receive pay bumps later this month. Canada will deploy two naval vessels to  the coasts of Haiti  that will be tasked with monitoring the waters around the capital city of Port-au-Prince. Data fr...

Portugal will stop offering so-called  golden visas —which grant non-EU nationals residency permits in exchange for investments into the country starting at ~$500,000—in an attempt to tackle a lack of affordable housing. You can now add electoral influence to your list of “things the West and China are fighting about” along with  spy balloons ,  research funding , and  real estate investing . If y...

World Bank chief David Malpass will step down over a year before his tenure ends, giving the Biden administration a coveted opening to fill by June of next year. Nestlé, the world’s biggest food maker, saw its real internal growth (a measure of sales and consumer product choices) fall by 2.6% last quarter as the company raised prices by 10.1%, its steepest price hikes in decades per Financial Time...

Tired of having needless arguments that don’t go anywhere with your friends, family, and co-workers? Now you can have them with your search engine instead! If there was a list of groups hoping the Bank of Canada keeps its promise to stop hiking interest rates this year, housing developers would be at the very top. Last year, over 40,000 migrants crossed into Canada through an unofficial border cro...

The EU has effectively banned the sale of new gas-powered vehicles after 2035, after approving a law that will force carmakers to achieve a 100% cut in emissions by that time. Lab-grown diamonds are pretty darn close to the real deal. Complete global dominance of the maple syrup market isn’t enough. Canada wants to be a leader in artificial intelligence (AI) too. Celebrating something? Let us know...

After 15 years of Bed Bath & Beyond (BB&B), Canadians will have to start looking elsewhere for avocado slicers , onion choppers , and any other bizarre kitchen gadgets under the sun. Real estate developers say new rules aimed at boosting the housing supply may actually have the reverse effect. Technology has come a long way since the phrase catfish entered the cultural lexicon over a decad...

Fox is expected to rake in ~US$600 million after selling out of its  Super Bowl ad slots . The average cost of a 30-second spot was pegged at US$6.5 million, and some ended up going for over $7 million. Canada  added 150,000 jobs in Januar y, obliterating analyst expectations which projected a measly gain of only 15,000 jobs. Delivery apps and financial tech are out. For some investors, daycare is...

Layoffs. They’re not just plaguing Big Tech anymore. Disney plans to lay off 7,000 workers and restructure its organization as it looks to boost profits and cut costs by US$5.5 billion. Tech companies are making their phones and computers a lil’ bit easier to fix, but consumer advocates want lawmakers to push them further. Thousands of travellers probably wished they owned a private jet after a di...

Leafs vs. Habs. Pepsi vs. Coke. Dudes who wear shorts year-round vs. Canadian winters. Then, there’s Google vs. Microsoft . And a new front has opened up in their ongoing war. Canada’s ready to add some more green to its energy mix. While most of the tech industry saw quarterly earnings reports that ranged from “disappointing” to “AHHH!!!”, Uber is looking at its latest numbers with a big, toothy...

Justin Trudeau met yesterday with the nation’s premiers, offering them  $196.1 billion in healthcare funding  to put towards healthcare over the next decade, including $46.2 billion in completely new funding. In exchange, provinces and territories must improve how they collect and share health data and report on how they spend the money they receive. The Bank of Canada (BoC) is trying to open up....

Switzerland is going to have a referendum about whether the country should be allowed to go completely cashless. As workers hang on to work-from-home for dear life, employers are turning to tracking software (aka bossware or tattleware) to ensure workers aren’t busy napping or doing laundry. Tripadvisor took down the listing for Le Nouveau Duluth, the platform’s top-ranked Montréal restaurant, aft...

The triple A of Big Tech—Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet—all dropped earnings reports for the final quarter of 2022, each with its own  specific points of concern . Arguing on social media: It’s not just for cranky relatives you only see once a year. Major Canadian grocery chains can get in on the fun, too. Magic mushroom shops are springing up  across the country , not unlike the spree of black marke...

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani was the world’s third-richest person just a week ago. He’s now (as of writing) down at 17th place… Grocery bills are set to get even higher as grocers begin to process a backlog of requests from suppliers to increase prices. Tim Hortons has reached a half-baked settlement under some pretty stale privacy laws. Celebrating something? Let us know here: https://thepeak....

Recent earnings reports give us a glimpse into how old-world social media platforms are adapting to a scary new world where ad revenue continues to fall. Stop me if you’ve heard this before: A central bank chair walks into a conference hall and delivers an interest rate hike… Inflation is coming down, and the reason may lie in what’s happening in housing. Celebrating something? Let us know here: h...

As Canada’s aviation industry continues to do damage control after a disastrous holiday season, one airline is looking to assert itself as a major player amidst the turmoil. A rule change decriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine in British Columbia this week, and the government will be watching carefully to see how it all plays out. Toronto-Dominion Bank...