Forget champagne fountains or a private DJ set from David Guetta. Your office holiday party this year is more likely to be a not-so-boozy potluck, a pickleball match, or some virtual trivia.

Driving the news: Corporate party planners have noticed a shift this year in holiday parties. Out are the bashes where the entire office and their significant others rage into the night. In are quieter events, with only team members, featuring group activities like guac making. 

Like each and every one of us who got used to working in our pyjamas, Zoom has had a rude post-COVID awakening.

What happened: Zoom has been dropped from the Nasdaq after failing to meet the technology-focused index’s listing criteria, as return-to-office mandates and increased competition quell the company’s growth prospects, according to Bloomberg.

In recent days, the Red Sea has become like the mall during the holidays: a place better kept at a safe distance.

What happened: British oil and gas giant BP has paused all of its shipments through the Red Sea as Yemen’s Houthi rebels continue to attack cargo ships. The move comes after 5 of the 6 world’s largest shipping companies have stopped sailing in the Red Sea altogether.

Like us trying to figure out what to wear to the company holiday party, H&M is having a bit of a fashion identity crisis.

Driving the news: With their budget garments undercut by China-based fast-fashion sellers like Shein and Temu, H&M is making a push into the higher-end retail tier with new collections of pricier apparel, per Reuters.

The end of the road for gas-powered vehicles in Canada is fast approaching.

What happened: The Canadian government will require that all new cars sold are zero-emission vehicles by 2035, according to a report from The Toronto Star.

Ontario's Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation, and Trade, Vic Fedeli sits down with us to chat industrial policy, EV battery plants, and how to attract business development. 

Our picks for what to eat, read, watch, and listen to this weekend.

Since January 2022, Ukraine has been able to keep the fight against Russia going thanks to nearly US$350 billion in aid that’s been sent over mostly by Western nations. But as money runs out, securing the next $115 billion has become complicated.

What happened: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban blocked a European Union aid package for Ukraine worth $54 billion, a situation that underscores how new, complex political dynamics are casting uncertainty around the funding of Ukraine’s war efforts. 

The conflict between Israel and Hamas is spreading to other parts of the Middle East. In Yemen, that could start to muck up global trade routes.  

Driving the news: Yemen’s Houthi rebels — an Iran-backed insurgent group that aims to govern Yemen and supports any actions against Israel, its sworn enemy — have intensified attacks on cargo ships passing through the Red Sea in an act of support for Hamas. 

What are push notifications?

Unlike regular notifications that pop up when an app is open, push notifications are only sent when an app is closed. When an “event” — something the app wants to tell you about — happens, it sends data to Google and Apple’s servers, which then sends it to your phone to wake the app up.

Why are they a security issue?

It’s up to developers whether or not they encrypt push notification data, which is left behind on Google and Apple servers. Last week, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said he got a tip that foreign governments had been pushing the companies to share that data, suggesting it was for surveillance purposes.

Threads might not be the first app you open in the morning, but Meta is still plugging away at its attempt at a Twitter replacement.

What happened: Threads had a busy week, which started by debuting its version of hashtags and kept rolling from there:

A building block of the global advertising industry is about to crumble.

What happened: Google set January 4th as the day it will turn off third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome users, or about 30 million people, with a full phase-out coming in the second half of next year.

Team Canada announced its roster for the 2024 World Junior Championship. But the biggest names joining the team this year aren’t the new players, but returning advertisers. 

What happened: Tim Hortons, Esso, and Telus have all reinstated their partnerships with Hockey Canada ahead of this year’s World Juniors. Last year, ads for the brands — which are part of Hockey Canada’s highest sponsorship tier — were absent from the tournament. 

The ringleader of the largest art fraud operation in Canadian history — and, per one investigating officer, in world history — was sentenced to 5 years in prison yesterday. 

Catch-up: For three decades, Gary Lamont spearheaded a ring of three separate but connected groups creating fakes of art by Norval Morrisseau — the acclaimed Anishinaabe artist who founded the Woodlands School movement and was dubbed the “Picasso of the North.” 

What goes up must go down. After a record maple syrup harvest last year, Canada’s crop of the brown stuff has come crashing down like a stack of flapjacks that was piled too high. 

Driving the news: Canadian maple syrup output fell to a five-year low, dropping 40.1% from last year due to sudden temperature swings and intense storms which killed sap flow. 

As if renewing your real passport wasn’t a big enough pain, you may soon need an internet passport to get into your favourite Reddit thread. 

Driving the news: Per TechCrunch, Worldcoin — a crypto project co-founded by Sam Altman — has created integrations for World ID, its iris-scanning identity verification tool, for some major digital platforms, including Shopify, Reddit, Telegram, and Minecraft.

Forget a Justin Bieber collab — as Tim Hortons expands into its newest locale, it should be looking for a stamp of approval from Blackpink or BTS.  

What happened: Tim Hortons opened its first-ever location in Seoul today and plans to open 150 more locations in South Korea within the next five years. It’s the seventh Asian country to get a Tims after China, India, Pakistan, Thailand, the Philippines, and Singapore.

The problem: One way scientists have tried to avoid cutting people open for surgery is by injecting a photo-sensitive ink that can harden into replacement tissues, but light can’t penetrate very far through skin and organs.

The solution: Researchers at Duke University and Harvard Medical School have developed an ink that hardens when vibrated by sound waves

Governments often play catch-up on regulating new technologies, but when it comes to AI, they are beginning to make up some ground.

What happened: The EU passed its Artificial Intelligence Act, only the second set of AI laws passed by a governing body. China implemented rules for generative AI in August, but the EU’s rules are more far-reaching.