Grocery shoplifting mounting across Canada amid inflation, labour shortages: experts – National | Globalnews.ca:

Shoplifting has surged to an alarming level across Canada, industry
insiders say, with inflation and labour shortages cited as major factors
behind the increase.

The uptick has triggered concern among Canadian grocers even as the rise in food prices helps pad their bottom lines. Grocery prices
were up 11 per cent year-over-year in October and they’re not expected
to ease any time soon. The total cost of groceries for a family of four
is expected to be $1,065 more than it was this year, according to the
most recent edition of Canada’s Food Price Report.

Inflation in
food prices is one of the main drivers pushing more people to steal,
says Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab
at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

“There is a correlation between the two, absolutely. Theft is an
ongoing issue. But the intensity actually does increase when food prices
go up,” he said, noting that meat and dairy products are the top two
stolen items.

He warned the problem may grow if the economy slows down next year as some economists suggest.

“If you see both food prices go up and … the economy slows down, jointly that is when you basically see even more stuff.”

Financial intelligence agency tracking signs of homegrown terrorism financing:

Those three main themes emerge from the Financial Transactions and
Reports Analysis Centre of Canada’s review of its intelligence
disclosures to police and security agencies from January 2019 to October
2022 related to the funding of terrorist activity.

The federal centre, known as Fintrac, is drawing on the analysis to
help banks and others that handle large sums to better spot shady
transactions linked to terrorism.

For instance, Fintrac says in a newly published operational alert,
transaction details might include references to words, phrases or
numbers linked to violent extremist groups or symbols.

The centre zeroes in on cash linked to terrorism, money laundering
and other crimes by sifting through data from banks, insurance
companies, securities dealers, money service businesses, real estate
brokers, casinos and others.

No fungi? No forests, no food, no future!: If you’re celebrating the festive season with cheese, bread and a
glass of wine, beer or kombucha followed by chocolate, it might be a
good time to think about fungi. It’s what makes all those tasty items
possible!

In fact, almost all food production relies on fungi. Most plants need
it to obtain nutrients and water. Trees and other plants in a forest connect through intricate fungal, or mycorrhizal, networks
of tiny mycelium threads that transfer nutrients, water and information
between them, and that facilitate decomposition, without which life
couldn’t go on.

All fermented foods
— including beer, wine, chocolate, cheese, bread, soy sauce and tofu —
require yeasts, a single-celled fungus. Fungi have also been
indispensable in preserving foods. And cows and other ruminants need gut
fungi to break down grass.

“They are also to be thanked for many of the important medical
breakthroughs in human history that treat both physical and mental
ailments, for naturally sequestering and slowly releasing carbon, for
optimizing industrial processes, and so much more,” a Guardian article reports.

Biggest Spill in Keystone’s History Dumps Oil into Kansas Creek:

The Keystone pipeline spill raised questions
for environmentalists and safety advocates about whether Calgary-based
pipeliner TC Energy should keep a federal government permit that has
allowed the pressure inside parts of the system—including the stretch
through Kansas—to exceed the typical maximum permitted levels, The
Associated Press reports.

The spill in a creek running through rural pastureland in Washington
County, Kansas, about 150 miles (240 kilometres) northwest of Kansas
City, also was the biggest in Keystone’s history, according to citing
U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) data. TC Energy said the
pipeline lost about 14,000 barrels, or 588,000 gallons.

As of Sunday afternoon, the cause of the spill was still unknown, Reuters says.

Environmentalists
said the heavier tar sands oil is not only more toxic than lighter
crude but can sink in water instead of floating on top. Bill Caram,
executive director of the advocacy Pipeline Safety Trust, said cleanup
can sometimes include scrubbing individual rocks in a creek bed.

“This
is going to be months, maybe even years before we get the full handle
on this disaster and know the extent of the damage and get it all
cleaned up,” said Zack Pistora, a Kansas state house lobbyist for the
U.S. Sierra Club.