Monday morning news drop
Debt-Strapped Canadians Brace for a Risky Rate-Hiking Cycle Borrowing costs could begin steady climb as soon as next week Moves will test central bank and free-spending Trudeau team (Bloomberg)
Microsoft’s Purchase of Activision Blizzard Encapsulates an Industry in a Single Deal The deal, announced Tuesday and expected to close in 2023, touches on every hot-button gaming-industry issue, from consolidation to workplace reform to Netflix-style libraries to speculation around the “metaverse” (The Ringer)
The true cost of Amazon’s low prices Critics say the “everything store” does too much. Is 2022 the year antitrust hawks come for Amazon? (Vox)
Maple syrup meltdown: in a changing climate, what’s to become of Canada’s sweetest commodity? A global maple syrup shortage has led to a massive withdrawal from Quebec’s reserves — but an even greater threat to the supply is looming (Narwhal)
How Shohei Ohtani Made Baseball Fun Again Not since the days of Babe Ruth has one of baseball’s greatest hitters also been one of its finest pitchers. Now, the reigning MVP is opening up for the first time about his singular place in modern baseball. (GQ)
How to kill a god: The myth of Captain Cook shows how the heroes of empire will fall In the 18th century, the naval explorer was worshipped as a deity. Now his statues are being defaced across the lands he visited. (The Guardian)
What happens when the world’s most populous country starts to shrink? Chinese officials hoped for a baby boom, but China experienced only a baby blip. That could pose major challenges for the government. (Grid)
The forgotten medieval habit of ‘two sleeps’: For millennia, people slept in two shifts – once in the evening, and once in the morning. But why? And how did the habit disappear? (BBC)
The excruciatingly long, slow ‘death’ of coal The dirtiest power source surged in 2021. Even in the U.S., where economics makes it is essentially impossible to build new coal power infrastructure, easing off the fossil fuel is hard. (Grid)
Solar power will account for nearly half of new U.S. electric generating capacity in 2022 In 2022, we expect 46.1 gigawatts (GW) of new utility-scale electric generating capacity to be added to the U.S. power grid, according to our Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory. Almost half of the planned 2022 capacity additions are solar, followed by natural gas at 21% and wind at 17%. (US Energy Information Administration)