Each week, BIV staff will share with you some of the interesting stories we have found from around the web.
Glen Korstrom, reporter:
The volatile U.S. dollar has caught my attention.
With Canadian inflation in part impacted by the high U.S. dollar, it is good news that the greenback in November had its worst month against a basket of foreign currencies since September 2010.
This followed what had been a huge 16 percentage point gain against that basket of currencies in the first 10 months of the year. This piece offers economist predictions for where the U.S. dollar goes from here. – Barron’s
https://www.barrons.com/articles/dollar-gains-losses-whats-next-51669844569?mod=hp_columnists
I hadn’t realized how conservative Qatar is culturally until FIFA pivoted and banned alcohol sales in stadia two days before the World Cup began. This piece written by a former U.S. expat in Qatar illuminates what it is like to live in the emirate, and how ex-pats are able to drink if they get employers to authorize that they are eligible to get state-issued liquor licences for their homes. – New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/drinking-beers-in-qatar
Timothy Renshaw, managing editor:
Believe it or not, the global environmental file is not all red alerts, five-alarm fires and end of the world as we know it hysteria. Here is a roundup of reasons to be cheerful – or at least less depressed – courtesy of Euronews.green.
And to keep that faith in humanity ball rolling for a bit longer before we head back down the mineshaft of bad news, here is an inventory of top tech, science and other innovations from the past year. – Popular Science
https://www.popsci.com/technology/best-of-whats-new-2022/
But never mind all of that. What you really want to know is: What is the word of the year for 2022? Here it is, according to the University of Cambridge.
https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/cambridge-dictionary-names-homer-word-of-the-year-2022?
Nelson Bennett, reporter:
Even God doesn’t like Donald Trump anymore. Or at least some of his most ardent devotees in the U.S. – evangelicals – may be losing faith in The Donald. Evangelical Christians in the U.S. make up an estimated one-third of Republicans in the U.S., and constituted one of the former president’s most important bases. But now even some evangelical Christians are having second thoughts about Donald Trump returning to the White House. David Lane, an influential pastor in the U.S., recently told his 70,000 followers that Trump’s “penchant for settling political scores and his compulsion to keep the spotlight upon himself have both become threadbare and trite.” – Religion News
While the Inflation Reduction Act in the U.S. could benefit some Canadian clean-tech companies, other sectors worry the lavish subsidies for decarbonization could put Canadian industries at a disadvantage – oil and gas companies wanting to invest in carbon capture and storage, for example. So far, Canadian politicians haven’t said much about the U.S. subsidy plan, but French President Emmanuel Macron is now raising concerns about the impact the IRA’s lavish subsidies for American businesses may have on European companies. He warns the IRA “will fragment the west.” – The Financial Post
