Good morning. When we were three years, eight months, and 20 days old, we were likely watching Blue’s Clues and feeling pretty proud of ourselves for figuring out the day’s clues.
Meanwhile, India’s Sarwagya Singh Kushwaha was busy becoming the youngest person ever to receive an official rating from FIDE, the global governing chess body. The prodigy of the board defeated multiple adult players to earn his rating.
If a toddler beat us at chess, we don’t think our self-esteem would ever recover.
—Taylor Scollon, Quinn Henderson, Lucas Arender
CONVERSATION STARTERS
🎶 Go deeper than Spotify Wrapped. Spotify shared your top song of the year this week, but did you know you can find out your top song of all time? Just go to the account privacy page and request your extended streaming data. After a few days, you’ll get the raw data, which you can read using this site.
🐺 Canadian wolves (maybe) know how to use tools. A female wolf in B.C.’s central coast was caught on camera pulling a crab trap out of the ocean that was set by Indigenous fishers. This type of deliberate action has never been seen before in wolf behaviour, and by some definitions, constitutes tool use.
🏒 A gay hockey romance is a big Canadian hit. Crave’s Heated Rivalry, a drama about two hockey players on rival teams having a secret fling, is perhaps the most talked-about Canadian TV show since Schitt’s Creek went off the air, even making waves stateside. Smutty romance remains undefeated.
➗ Ontario math scores are concerning. According to new standardized test results, only 58% of Grade 9 students and 50% of Grade 6 students at English schools in Ontario met provincial standards for math in the 2024-25 school year. We know standardized testing isn’t always the best metric, but that’s not great.
🎨 Pantone catches flak for its colour of the year. For its much-anticipated colour of 2026, Pantone picked a shade of white called Cloud Dancer. Besides the fact this is a really boring colour, some critics called it tone-deaf in the current political climate, likening it to the Sydney Sweeney genes/jeans ad.
BUSINESS
Sports franchises are turning into real estate businesses
Rendering of the planned New York casino.
It used to be that a humble sports team could get by selling tickets, beer, and a few boxes of Cracker Jack. Those days are long gone.
What happened: New York Mets owner Steve Cohen was awarded a licence to build a casino next to the team’s stadium, and he plans to make the most of it. Cohen’s new Hard Rock entertainment complex will reportedly cost US$8.1 billion to build and include 5,000 slot machines, 375 dealer tables, a 1,000-room luxury hotel, and a performance venue as big as Radio City Music Hall.
The New York State Gaming Commission predicts that the development will generate $3.9 billion in annual revenue, making it one of the largest casinos in the U.S.
Catch up: Cohen’s project may be unusually ambitious, but sports franchises getting into the real estate game is becoming de rigueur.
The NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers’ SoFi Stadium development included 500,000 square feet of retail space, luxury apartments, and an artificial lake.
Chase Center, where the Golden State Warriors hoop, was built next to a project called “Thrive City,” spanning 600,000 square feet of office space and 100,000 square feet of retail.
In Ottawa, plans for the new Senators arena at Lebreton Flats include hotels, restaurants, and condos.
Why it’s happening: Franchise owners are looking to squeeze every dollar they can out of their asset. Turning stadium parking lots that are empty most of the time into lux developments that generate cash 365 days a year is a good way to do that.
Why it matters: This trend is part of the reason why, across all major leagues, sports franchises valuations are soaring — a stake in the New York Giants was recently sold at a US$10.3 billion valuation, breaking a record for most valuable franchise set by the Los Angeles Lakers just months earlier.—TS
IN THE LAB
Source: Konstanttin / Shutterstock.
Who doesn’t love nature? Well, more people than you might think. A new study in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment details how biophobia — fear, disgust, or anxiety toward nature — is a real issue. It calls into question research that has long assumed that human beings like nature and details how increasingly urbanized life is heightening biophobia.
Why it matters: It’s hard to motivate people to try to save nature when they don’t feel all that warm and fuzzy toward it.—QH
DROP THE PIN
🌎 Hint: This fisherman village, located above the Arctic Circle, gets 24 hours of daylight in the summertime. From September to April, it’s one of the world’s best places to watch the aurora borealis. You can enjoy the views with a plate of the region's famous delicacy: Arctic cod.
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