Weekly News Recap: May 22, 2026

Weekly News Recap: May 22, 2026

Mark Pathy displays a custom hoodie made for him at an event to announce a $15-million donation to Concordia University to create the Mark Pathy Space Institute, on Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (Allen McInnis / Montreal Gazette)

The light at the end of the tunnel isn’t an illusion. The tunnel is. — Sam Harris.

SOME GOOD NEWS

  • VIDEO: YouTube taught a Japanese teen how to kick field goals. Now he’s in the NFL. (NBC) Welcome to the new world. "Kansei Matsuzawa, 27, became the first Japanese-born player ever signed by an NFL team when he agreed to a deal as an undrafted free agent with the Raiders."

  • VIDEO: #TheMoment 250 college graduates got their student loans covered (CBC) #Wow "Wilson College of Textiles graduate Alyssa Eva D'Costa tells The National about the moment philanthropist Anil Kochhar announced he would cover the final year of student loans for the entire class during their graduation ceremony in North Carolina."

  • VIDEO #TheMoment A dog was rescued from a 6-metre crevice (CBC) "Rescuer Roger Hartley tells The National about the moment he and about 20 others helped rescue a Labrador cross that was stuck down a six-metre crevice in North York Moors National Park, England."

  • How a kindergarten teacher became the accidental guardian of 200 king penguins (The Guardian) Love this. Thanks to recap contributor and retired ViTreo team member Mick Mulloy for sharing this story. "Early explorers named it Useless Bay because those same shores made landing boats, including industrial fishing vessels, nearly impossible. Still, humans remained such a threat that no permanent colony of king penguins formed here until 2010. Then, as a colony started to develop, a local landowner and former kindergarten teacher Cecilia Durán Gafo, now 72, decided she would protect them."

TOP TEN STORIES OF THE WEEK

  1. City of Edmonton recommends decommissioning High Level and Low Level bridges (CBC) EDMONTON STORY I have mixed feelings about this. Is it worth $13 million per year to preserve an iconic architectural feature of Alberta's capital city? I think so, but... "The City of Edmonton says the time to decommission the High Level and Low Level bridges might be sooner rather than later. A report from city administration found the bridges 'are nearing the end of their service life.' The report states that maintaining the High Level Bridge for the next 75 years could require an investment of $1 billion or more. "

  2. Alberta changing slogan on border-crossing signs to ‘Strong and Free’ (CBC) ALBERTA STORY Thoughts? In a time where we have separatist sentiments, I wonder if this is a bit on the nose. "People driving or cycling into Alberta will soon no longer be greeted by signs saying, 'Welcome to Wild Rose Country.' Starting this fall, the new greeting will be, 'Welcome to Alberta. Strong and Free.' In a news release [...] the Alberta government announced it’ll be putting up the new welcome signs at 22 border-crossing points with B.C., Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories and Montana this fall."

  3. VIDEO: Flight disruptions and rising costs are upending summer travel plans. Here's what Canadians can do (CBC) CANADIAN STORY "From the rising cost of fuel to flight cancellations and even ongoing boycotts of U.S. travel, some Canadians are rethinking their summer travel plans — or preparing for the worst. The situation, largely driven by the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, even prompted Global Affairs Canada to issue a travel warning ahead of the busy season. 'Summer is fast approaching, and many Canadians are planning to travel abroad. The situation in the Middle East is presenting challenges that travellers around the world need to be aware of,' the advisory says."

  4. VIDEO: 'Anybody can be a dancer': Sask. wheelchair dance competitor passes her passion along to students (CBC) SASKATOON STORY I heart this. "Sheri-Lynn Turgeon's very first dance student showed her how she has inspired others. 'She came in, and I guess she had watched some of my YouTube videos, and she looked at her dad and she's like, 'Daddy, it's her!' ' Turgeon said. Like Turgeon, the girl uses a wheelchair. The eight-year-old student was there to learn wheelchair dance, an artform where Turgeon has made a name for herself."

  5. Archaeologists Find Egyptian Mummy Buried With the ‘Iliad’ (New York Times) This is pretty cool. "Archaeologists working in Egypt have discovered a remarkable combination of Homeric epic and Egyptian ritual: a 2,000-year-old mummy with a papyrus fragment of the 'Iliad' sealed in a clay packet outside its wrappings. It is the first time a literary work has been found playing a functional, spiritual role in the mummification process. And it suggests that for a Roman-era Egyptian, the 'Iliad' — specifically some lines from Book 2’s 'Catalogue of Ships' — was perhaps as crucial for navigating the afterlife as a magical spell."

  6. IN PHOTOS | See inside the core of the CN Tower and other off-limit areas (CBC) TORONTO STORY Super interesting. "The CN Tower is getting ready to give the public rare access to areas of the engineering marvel that are normally closed. Later this month the 553-metre-tall landmark is participating for the first time in Doors Open Toronto, where members of the public gain entrance for free to the city’s architecturally significant buildings and sites. [M]embers of the media got a preview of the guided tour of the tower, which explores operational and architectural spaces of Canada's tallest structure that have never before been open to visitors."

  7. Travel to the U.S. is down even more dramatically than we thought, data shows (CBC) CANADIAN STORY "The boycott by Canadians of travel to the U.S., driven largely by an aversion to President Donald Trump, his industry-wrecking tariffs and 51st state taunts, has actually been more effective than previously thought, according to new data. While official Statistics Canada figures show a roughly 25 per cent decline in Canadian residents returning from the U.S. last year, cellphone data compiled by researchers at the University of Toronto's School of Cities found that the year-over-year drop in cross-border trips was closer to 42 per cent. The researchers analyzed data from Canadian mobile devices travelling to U.S. metro areas between April 1, 2025 — the day Trump famously dubbed 'liberation day' as he imposed global tariffs — and March 31, 2026."

  8. VIDEO: Here's why you don’t need to worry about a 'super' El Niño — yet (CBC) "Although it's still early in terms of forecasting, there's been a lot of talk about the potential development of a 'super' El Niño in the months to come, which will likely push the annual global temperature higher and exacerbate extreme weather. On top of that, several climate models are anticipating a particularly strong El Niño that is expected to begin in June or July and peak in November, with ocean temperatures in one key region of the Pacific potentially reaching 2 C above the average. Some models are forecasting even higher anomalies."

  9. How much damage have Canada's booze bans done to the U.S. wine industry? (CBC) CANADIAN STORY "When Canadian liquor stores pulled American products from shelves in early 2025, it delivered a bruising to the U.S. wine industry, and data shows just how much of a headache the booze ban has been for the U.S. as the two countries are set to begin free trade talks later this year. According to trade data from the U.S. Census Bureau, wine exports from the U.S. to Canada dropped by $343 million US between 2024 and 2025, a devastating blow to the American wine industry. That represents a 77 per cent year-over-year drop in wine exports to Canada, which was previously the largest buyer of U.S. wine."

  10. VIDEO: IWK nurse marks fulfilment of lifelong dream (CBC) HALIFAX STORY #FullCircle "Tori Sabean spent years at the Halifax hospital after being diagnosed with leukemia as a child. Now she's working on the same floor where she was once a patient."

SEVEN LIFE AND CAREER HACKS

  1. The surprisingly strong case for feeling great about your coffee habit (Vox) I have never doubted it.

  2. The Closing Slide: The McKinsey Approach to Ending Every Presentation on a Decision (Marybeth Hazeldine) Arguably, the most important slide.

  3. I Am Never Disappointed by Honeysuckle (The Memoirist) Whenever I see a honeysuckle, I stop and take a sip. #ChildhoodMemories

  4. How Many Times Do You Actually Need to Shuffle a Deck of Cards? (Science Spectrum) A big discussion in our family of card players.

  5. 20 of My Favorite Quotes (John Egelkrout) You're welcome.

  6. VIDEO: As social habits evolve, we sought to learn how people are making friends (CBC) It really is as simple as the quote says: 'Friendship mostly comes down to 'repetition and proximity'

  7. Typography Travel Poster (superhuman) Here is what happened when I used the Typography Travel Poster prompt from this newsletter for Calgary. Overall, not bad...images are a little odd. #DoWeHaveAGondola

TOP THREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

  1. One giant leap for Concordia: Mark Pathy’s $15M donation launches space institute (Montreal Gazette) "Concordia University has announced the launch of the Mark Pathy Space Institute at the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science, made possible by a $15-million gift from the 56-year-old Montreal entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist and astronaut."

  2. Church of Jesus Christ makes $25M donation to UNICEF to support children's nutrition (KSL) "Poor nutrition is a significant factor in over half of children's deaths around the world. About 150 million children suffer from stunted growth and another 43 million face life-threatening malnutrition. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is hoping to reach many of these children by donating $25 million to UNICEF's Child Nutrition Fund to support mothers and children's nutrition around the world."

  3. Art museum benefits from ‘incredible’ £91m donation (Third Sector) "An art museum in Norfolk has received a major £91.2m donation, described as 'one of the largest donations ever made to a UK museum'. The gift was donated to the Sainsbury Centre, at the University of East Anglia campus in Norwich, by Lord David Sainsbury via his charitable foundation Gatsby."

LAST WEEK'S MOST POPULAR STORIES

Welcome to our recap of the week's news, articles, and information of note. ViTreo Group Inc. provides this information for the benefit of our clients, associates, staff, partners, and stakeholders. The content is collected and curated by ViTreo President & CEO Vincent Duckworth. If you would like to submit a link for consideration, please send an email to info@vitreogroup.ca.

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