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Report finds 7,000 Canadian restaurants closed last year amid rising costs, softening demand and declining alcohol sales

Already a notoriously tough industry, Canadian restaurants are expected to be under pressure in 2026. After a "bloodbath" saw 7,000 restaurants shutter in 2025, a forecast from Dalhousie University's Agri-Food Analytics Lab (AAL) predicts that Canada will lose 4,000 restaurants on a net basis this year, with closures outpacing openings due to rising costs, reduced demand and falling alcohol sales. Read More
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J.D. Tuccille: Alberta has more economic freedom than any province, but lags behind 29 U.S. states

Freedom is the right to make your own decisions and guide your life as you please (for good or ill) in the absence of outside interference — in particular, without government meddling. Freedom applies in different areas of life, and we know that economic freedom leads to better outcomes including higher income, lower unemployment, reduced poverty, and greater overall wellbeing. So, Albertans should be proud that their province was recently ranked as the economically freest in Canada. Unfortunately, that only puts it in 30th place among the provinces and states of Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. Read More
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Michael Bonner: Ayatollah Khamenei’s end is coming soon

We’ve seen it before: mass demonstrations, demands for the fall of the Iranian regime, burning flags, falling statues. Protesters fill the streets, appearing to shake the foundation of the regime, but thugs loyal to the mullahs react with obscene violence, vague promises of reform are heard, and the incipient revolution fizzles out. But it is different this time. Read More
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Kelly McParland: How water corruption is bringing down the Iranian regime

In King of Kings, his recounting of events leading to the 1979 fall of Iran's Pahlavi dynasty, author Scott Anderson depicts the crisis as a catastrophic mix of  failures: on the U.S. side hubris, ignorance, incompetence, and a fierce determination to ignore the obvious; on the Iranian side corruption, inequality, megalomania and a leader catastrophically blind to the impending storm. Read More
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What Venezuelans say about Trump’s incursion isn’t what we’ve been told: Full Comment podcast

Emilio Figueredo and Freddy Guevara understand better than any western analyst the Venezuelan reality, the regime of dictator Nicolás Maduro and the aftermath of his capture by U.S. President Donald Trump. Figueredo, editor of independent Venezuelan news outlet Analitica, talks to Brian Lilley from Caracas and explains what it’s like there now, why Maduro was foiled by his reliance on Cuba and why Trump needed to leave the Bolivarian regime in power — for now. Guevara, an exiled opposition politician once imprisoned by Maduro, tells Lilley about support among Venezuelans for the military operation and why foreign complaints about Trump violating international law carry little weight there. Both describe Venezuelans’ hopes as higher than they’ve been in a long time, although freedom hasn’t come yet. (Recorded Jan. 8, 2026.) Read More
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