Wealthy Canadians hiding up to $240B abroad, CRA says

Well-heeled Canadians have hidden up to $240.5 billion in foreign accounts and are dodging up to $3 billion a year in federal tax on those funds, according to the CRA's first ever attempt to estimate how much government revenue is lost from individuals stashing money abroad. The Canada Revenue Agency arrived at the figure as part of its effort to calculate the country's "tax gap" — the difference between how much the government would collect if everyone paid what they owe, and how much the government actually takes in.
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cra-tax-gap-foreign-holdings-1.4726983?source=Snapzu

Comcast Blames Nationwide Outage on ‘Fiber Cut’

If you’re a Comcast customer, you might have already realized your internet is borked today. That wave of sadness and despair you’re presumably experiencing seems to be the result of a few cut fiber cables, according to a tweet from Comcast. If it makes you feel any better, the company says it’s trying to fix it. Earlier today, various internet services seemingly went down, reflected in a spike of outage reports on sites like Down Detector.
Read more: https://gizmodo.com/comcast-blames-nationwide-outage-on-fiber-cut-1827244074?source=Snapzu

Amazon claims it doesn’t want to take on UPS and FedEx. So why is it introducing tons of its own Amazon delivery vans?

For years, Amazon has been laying more and more groundwork for its own logistics and delivery network — one that today only ships and delivers Amazon orders, but could someday do much more in a direct challenge to UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service. Today, it is taking another big step toward that potential reality — even if it won’t say so for now.
Read more: https://www.recode.net/2018/6/28/17507430/amazon-logistics-delivery-vans-uniforms-ups-fedex-usps?source=Snapzu

What happened at Theranos is a dazzling story of deception

The new book "Bad Blood" by John Carreyrou (and an expected movie) will show how Elizabeth Holmes duped Silicon Valley and some of the nation's top investors into believing in Theranos, a giant scam.
Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-theranos-elizabeth-holmes-silicon-valley-scam-0627-20180626-story.html?source=Snapzu

Trump 'surprised' by Harley-Davidson move to shift work out of US

US President Donald Trump has hit back at the American motorcycle manufacturer after it announced that it will move some of its production out of the Unites...
Read more: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/trump-surprised-by-harley-davidson-move-to-shift-work-out-of-us?source=Snapzu

Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

What happens when your personal information gets sucked into an endless marketing vortex?
Read more: https://thehustle.co/why-nobody-ever-wins-the-mall-car-giveaway?source=Snapzu

China will partly lift internet censorship for one of its provinces to promote tourism

China plans to lift some internet censorship on the southern tropical island of Hainan to promote tourism. Visitors to select areas of Hainan will be able to access Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, according to a new plan authorities have put together to turn the province into a free trade port by 2020. It’s not clear if other banned platforms will be uncensored. The three-year action plan was published on Thursday, but removed from the local government website by Friday, as spotted by the South China Morning Post.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/22/17493202/china-internet-censorship-lift-tourism-hainan?source=Snapzu

Uber crash driver was 'watching TV'

The police report suggests the safety operator was streaming The Voice just before a fatal collision.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44574290?source=Snapzu

Millennials are the worst tippers in the US, new survey finds

Millennials might be the driving force behind avocado toast and poke bowls, but don’t count on the younger generation to throw in a few extra bucks to the servers delivering those culinary innovations. Young adults age 18-37 are much less keen on tipping than their older counterparts, according to a new survey by CreditCards.com. The survey shows that millennials’ attitudes and behavior on tipping tend to be stingier across the board:
Read more: https://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/worst-tippers-survey.php?source=Snapzu

Scientists genetically engineer pigs immune to costly disease

Gene-editing technology could be propelled into commercial farms within five years
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jun/20/scientists-genetically-engineer-pigs-immune-to-costly-disease?source=Snapzu

The Tragic Roots of America's Favorite Cherry.

The Chinese Exclusion Act likely exiled the man, Bing, who first cultivated it.
Read more: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/bing-cherry?source=Snapzu

Fox Accepts $71 Billion Disney Bid, Dealing Blow to Comcast

Walt Disney Co. raised its offer for 21st Century Fox Inc.’s entertainment assets to $71.3 billion, outbidding Comcast Corp. in a battle for one of the media industry’s biggest prizes. The $38-a-share price is about $10 a share higher than what Disney proposed in December -- and $3 above Comcast’s bid from last week. Fox has accepted the offer, saying it provides more flexibility and other enhancements than the $65 billion Comcast deal. Still, the opportunity remains for the cable giant to return with sweetened terms.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-20/fox-agrees-to-sweetened-bid-from-disney-dealing-blow-to-comcast?source=Snapzu

The UN's top free speech expert just denounced the new EU copyright plan as a "potential violation of international human rights law"

David Kaye (previously) is the UN's Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression; he just released a detailed report on the catastrophic free speech implications of Article 13, the EU's proposed copyright rule that would make sites filter everything their users post to check for copyright violations.
Read more: https://boingboing.net/2018/06/15/contact-your-mep-3.html?source=Snapzu

Man charged with making $1.3 million in fraudulent returns to Walmart

Police in Arizona thought they were busting an ordinary case of a fraudulent return this week until some digging discovered the same 23-year-old man has perpetrated the scheme at thousands of Walmart stores across the country. Police in Yuma, Arizona, said they responded to a case of a fraudulent return on Wednesday afternoon in which a person bringing a computer back to Walmart had allegedly removed parts of the computer before putting it back in the box and taking it back to the store.
Read more: http://abc7chicago.com/man-charged-with-making-$13-million-in-fraudulent-returns-to-walmart/3612024/?source=Snapzu

The Untold Good News Story of America Today

A grassroots movement getting few headlines could yet herald a new American age of change.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44349211?source=Snapzu

AT&T completes acquisition of Time Warner

AT&T announced Thursday evening that it has completed the acquisition of Time Warner. The announcement comes two days after a judge ruled that the deal does not violate antitrust laws. "The content and creative talent at Warner Bros., HBO and Turner are first-rate. Combine all that with AT&T's strengths in direct-to-consumer distribution, and we offer customers a differentiated, high-quality, mobile-first entertainment experience," Randall Stephenson, chairman and CEO of AT&T, said in a statement.
Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/14/media/att-time-warner-deal/index.html?source=Snapzu

Amazon, Microsoft, and Uber are paying big money to kill a California privacy initiative

As data-sharing scandals continue to mount, a new proposal in California offers a potential solution: the California Consumer Privacy Act would require companies to disclose the types of information they collect, like data used to target ads, and allow the public to opt out of having their information sold. Now, some of tech’s most prominent companies are pouring millions of dollars into an effort to to kill the proposal.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/15/17468292/amazon-microsoft-uber-california-consumer-privacy-act?source=Snapzu

Copyleft Terms May Become Unenforceable in 11 Countries under CPTPP | Linux Journal

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is an enormous (roughly 6,000-page) treaty between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam that was signed in Chile on March 8, 2018. So far, only Mexico and Japan have ratified it. CPTPP is almost identical to the original TPP, which included those 11 countries plus the United States. In early 2017, the US withdrew from the treaty, which its President had previously described as a "terrible deal".
Read more: https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/copyleft-terms-may-become-unenforceable-11-countries-under-cptpp?source=Snapzu

'No flamingos around here': Meet one of the world's only croquet ball manufacturers

It's a sport that conjures up royals and manicured English gardens, but Australia's only croquet ball maker works his magic a world away in a Humpty Doo shed near a croc-infested river in the Top End.
Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-15/australias-only-croquet-ball-manufacturer-shed-humpty-doo/9871568?source=Snapzu

People are paying insane amounts of real money for "virtual real estate"

The question at the heart of this gamble is: are people really going to hang out in virtual reality?
Read more: https://futurism.com/virtual-real-estate/?src=featured?source=Snapzu

Trump Threatens to End All Trade With Allies

He also suggested that there be no trade barriers of any kind among the G7.
Read more: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/06/trump-threatens-to-end-all-trade-with-allies.html?source=Snapzu

Tourism Is Much Worse for the Environment Than We Thought, and It's Not Just About Your Plane's Carbon Emissions

It’s been known for years that air travel is one of the worst things a person can do for the environment. In fact, just one round-trip flight from New York to California emits 20 percent of the greenhouse gases produced by the typical passenger vehicle over the course of an entire year. However, in even worse news for travel-lovers, a recent study found that tourism accounts for a full 8 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. This includes not only plane transit, but food production for tourists; hotel construction, maintenance and cleaning; and the manufacture and sale of souvenirs.
Read more: https://secondnexus.com/environment/tourism-bad-for-environment/?source=Snapzu

Amazon Warehouse Workers Say They Have Been Working Without Air Conditioning, Experiencing Exhaustion and Dehydration

A group of East African employees is asking retail giant Amazon to improve working conditions at an eastern Minnesota warehouse. Employees at the Eagan facility made the request at a Monday news conference called by the Awood Center, which defends the rights of East African workers, Minnesota Public Radio reported . The employees allege they have experienced exhaustion, dehydration and injuries while working without air conditioning. Workers said the conditions are particularly difficult for Muslim workers who are celebrating Ramadan and observing a strict fast.
Read more: http://time.com/money/5303482/amazon-minnesota-workplace/?source=Snapzu

A&W Canada to eliminate plastic straws from all restaurants

A&W restaurants in Canada will eliminate plastic straws from its locations by January 2019. The burger shack will become the first fast-food chain in North America to eliminate plastic straws in favour of biodegradable paper straws, according to representatives from A&W Canada. "We're on a waste reduction journey," said director of packaging Tyler Pronyk at an announcement on Friday. "By the end of the year, there will be no plastic straws in our restaurants."
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/a-w-canada-to-eliminate-plastic-straws-from-all-restaurants-1.4698272?source=Snapzu

Apple warns suppliers that iPhone demand is falling - report

Apple may be worried that its next iPhones won't be as popular as its last. The company told suppliers to to manufacture 20% fewer components for its upcoming iPhones, according to Nikkei. That could signal it expects waning enthusiasm for its flagship smartphone. Apple's (AAPL) stock price fell as much as nearly 2% in Friday's trading, pulling the Nasdaq lower by 0.6%.
Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/08/technology/apple-iphone-demand-falling/index.html?source=Snapzu

Amazon destroys massive quantities of returned and as-new goods

German national weekly WirtschaftsWoche and German public national broadcaster ZDF's program on current affairs, Frontal 21, report that online retailer Amazon is destroying massive amounts of as-new and returned goods in Germany.Internal product lists, photos and interviews with employees confirm that a wide range of products including refrigerators, dishwashers, washing machines, mobile phones, tablets, mattresses and furniture are being disposed of. One Amazon employee revealed she had destroyed goods worth tens of thousands of Euros on a daily basis.
Read more: https://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen/handel/online-retailer-amazon-destroys-massive-quantities-of-returned-and-as-new-goods/22662746.html?source=Snapzu

Why Ethiopia could be on the verge of a new dawn

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed also announces the liberalisation of parts of the economy.
Read more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-44381701?source=Snapzu

There are more jobs than people out of work, something the American economy has never experienced before

The jobs market has reached what should be some kind of inflection point: there are now more openings than there are workers. April marked the second month in a row this historic event has occurred, and the gap is growing. According to the monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey released Tuesday, there were just shy of 6.7 million open positions in April, the most recent month for which data are available. That represented an increase of 65,000 from March and is a record.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/05/there-are-more-jobs-than-people-out-of-work.html?source=Snapzu

Bayer and Monsanto merge into a new company called "Bayer" because Nazis have a better reputation than Big Ag

What to call the new company? "Bayer," despite the name's longtime association with Nazi slave labor camps, fatal human subjects experiments conducted on prisoners supplied by the Nazis, and complicity in the production of Zyklon B, the lethal poison used in concentration camp gas-chambers.
Read more: https://boingboing.net/2018/06/05/roundup-ready.html?source=Snapzu

Start-up is selling lab-grown diamond rings at a 30% discount—jewelers couldn't tell the difference

When Jason Payne set out to find his girlfriend the perfect engagement ring, he was already facing more pressure than most men looking to take the plunge. His girlfriend had ethical concerns and didn't want to risk sporting a "blood diamond," one mined in a conflict-riddled region of Africa where the sale of the stone helps fuel violence. So instead, Payne proposed with a sapphire ring and felt good about his decision.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/04/ada-diamonds-sells-lab-grown-diamonds-and-jewelers-cant-tell.html?source=Snapzu

Frustration at Google Fiber Delays Grow in Numerous Cities

Do a Google news search for Google Fiber and you'll find that the hope and hype of a few years ago has largely been replaced by user frustration and annoyance. That annoyance stems from the company's late 2016 revelation that company executives had grown bored of the high cost and slow pace of fiber deployments, and would be laying off numerous employees as the company pondered a shift to less expensive wireless alternatives. Most new deployments would be paused, though the company promised that existing builds wouldn't be impacted.
Read more: https://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Frustration-at-Google-Fiber-Delays-Grow-in-Numerous-Cities-141938?source=Snapzu

Report: Microsoft has acquired GitHub

Bloomberg is reporting that Microsoft has acquired GitHub, and will announce the deal on Monday. Github is an online service that allows developers to host their code in the cloud using the popular Git source management system, invented by Linux founder Linus Torvalds in 2005. In addition to being home to the overwhelming majority of open source projects, it’s also used by developers within companies to privately collaborate on software.
Read more: https://thenextweb.com/dd/2018/06/03/bloomberg-reports-microsoft-has-acquired-github/?source=Snapzu

Vertical Garden Towers Can Grow Plants Three Times Faster Than Normal

In a humid greenhouse on a rooftop in the Bronx, Electra Jarvis is showing off her oasis cubes. Tucked away from direct sunlight, a cabinet full of small, spongey squares are arranged neatly, each one the home to a sprouting seedling. In a few months, the seedlings will become lettuce, bok choy, and mustard greens. For now they are tiny stems, fed by an automated system of nutrient-rich water and regulated light.
Read more: https://www.inverse.com/article/45464-rooftop-garden-technology-vertical-garden?source=Snapzu

Microsoft reportedly wants to acquire GitHub

Microsoft has reportedly been in talks to acquire code repository GitHub, according to Business Insider. GitHub received a valuation of $2 billion following the closure of a $250 million funding ro…
Read more: https://venturebeat.com/2018/06/01/microsoft-reportedly-wants-to-acquire-github/?source=Snapzu

Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth

Biggest analysis to date reveals huge footprint of livestock - it provides just 18% of calories but takes up 83% of farmland
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding-meat-and-dairy-is-single-biggest-way-to-reduce-your-impact-on-earth?source=Snapzu