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French Police Arrest Two in $100 Million Louvre Jewel Heist

                                                     T he Louvre Museum French authorities have arrested two suspects in connection with last week’s audacious jewel heist at the Louvre Museum in Paris, where thieves made off with crown jewels valued at more than $100 million. According to Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau, the arrests took place on Saturday evening. One suspect was detained at Charles de Gaulle Airport as he attempted to board a flight out of the country, while the second was apprehended later that night in the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb north of Paris. The daring robbery occurred on October 19, when thieves used a crane to smash an upstairs window of the world’s most-visited museum before escaping on motorbikes. The stolen collection included priceless Napoleonic-era jewels, sparking outrage and raising questions...

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Canada’s Population Growth and the National Bank of Canada’s Report

 

According to a report by the National Bank of Canada, Canada is caught in a “population trap” for the first time in modern history and needs to limit immigration to escape it. A population trap is when the population is growing so fast that all available savings are needed to maintain the existing capital-labour ratio, making any increase in living standards impossible. 

National Bank’s report joins the growing chorus of concern that the influx of newcomers over the past two years, many of whom are temporary workers or students, is too much for the economy to handle.

Canada’s population grew by 1.2 million in 2023, a “staggering” amount when you consider that the next biggest surge was when Newfoundland joined the nation in 1949. From a global perspective, Canada’s population growth of 3.2% last year was five times higher than the average of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nations. 

The economists say that Canada currently lacks the infrastructure and capital stock to adequately absorb current population growth and improve its standard of living. The strain is most evident in housing, with National saying the shortfall has reached a record of only one housing start for every 4.2 people entering the working-age population. Government programs are underway to address this, but to meet demand and reduce housing inflation, Canada would need to double its housing construction capacity to about 700,000 starts a year.

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