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A Lululemon store is pictured in Toronto, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Laura Proctor

Chip Wilson pushing for leadership change on Lululemon board

The Canadian Press 3 minute read Updated: 3:19 PM CST

VANCOUVER - Chip Wilson has launched a proxy fight at Lululemon Athletica Inc. as he seeks changes in leadership and strategy at the company he founded.

Wilson said in a statement Monday that he has nominated three director candidates for Lululemon's board who will help redefine the company and begin its next chapter.

"Lululemon needs visionary creative leadership to thrive. The simple truth is that the current board lacks these skills."

His nominations come after the company announced on Dec. 11 that current CEO Calvin McDonald would step down from his role effective Jan. 31, with the search for a new leader underway.

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Cold War bomb shelter in Nova Scotia being converted into high-end doomsday condos

Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Preview

Cold War bomb shelter in Nova Scotia being converted into high-end doomsday condos

Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Updated: 7:22 AM CST

DEBERT - A former Cold War fallout shelter in rural Nova Scotia is being transformed into luxury condominiums for elite clients seeking refuge from global crises.

Project co-owner Paul Mansfield says renovation of the two-storey, underground bunker started less than a year ago, but the project has already attracted attention from several well-heeled buyers. The price range for the 50 condos is a secret — unless the vetting process determines you can afford one.

“To be honest, the bunker business is booming globally,” the Halifax-based entrepreneur said during a recent interview inside the slightly creepy, 64,000-square-foot concrete structure built in 1964.

"The climate is a big concern and …. there's been more conflicts in the last few years than there has been in the last 25 years," Mansfield says in a windowless room as the bunker’s ventilation systems hum in the background.

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Updated: 7:22 AM CST

A rendering from the sales brochure for The Diefenbaker, a luxury condo development being built inside a Cold War-era nuclear fallout shelter in rural Nova Scotia, is shown in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - The Diefenbaker (Mandatory Credit)
A rendering from the sales brochure for The Diefenbaker, a luxury condo development being built inside a Cold War-era nuclear fallout shelter in rural Nova Scotia, is shown in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - The Diefenbaker (Mandatory Credit)

Bottling essence of cognitive stimulation

Gabrielle Piché 5 minute read Preview

Bottling essence of cognitive stimulation

Gabrielle Piché 5 minute read Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025

Lemon, clove, eucalyptus and rose.

A pair of Winnipeg entrepreneurs have bottled the four scents and are selling packs, touting the vials as tools to boost memory health.

Memorease’s launch comes as researchers increasingly explore the connection between olfactory training — or smell training — and the brain.

“We just kind of got on this mission to get the word out,” said Jon Askholm, Memorease’s co-founder.

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Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025

Ruth Bonneville / Free Press

Dominika Dratwa and Jon Askholm, co-founders of Memorease, have included four scents in the olfactory training kit that lasts eight to 12 months.
Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Dominika Dratwa and Jon Askholm, co-founders of Memorease, have included four scents in the olfactory training kit that lasts eight to 12 months.

Protests erupt in Iran over currency’s plunge to record low

The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Protests erupt in Iran over currency’s plunge to record low

The Associated Press 3 minute read Updated: 12:39 PM CST

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's largest protests in three years erupted Monday after the country’s currency plummeted to a record low against the U.S. dollar, and the head of the Central Bank resigned.

State TV reported the resignation of Mohammad Reza Farzin, while traders and shopkeepers rallied in Saadi Street in downtown Tehran as well as in the Shush neighborhood near Tehran's main Grand Bazaar. Merchants at the market played a crucial role in the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted the monarchy and brought Islamists to power.

The official IRNA news agency confirmed the protests. Witnesses reported similar rallies in other major cities including Isfahan in central Iran, Shiraz in the south and Mashhad in the northeast. In some places in Tehran, police fired tear gas to disperse protesters.

Monday's protests were the biggest since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini in police custody triggered nationwide demonstrations. She was arrested by the country’s morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.

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Updated: 12:39 PM CST

FILE — A currency exchange bureau worker counts U.S. dollars at Ferdowsi square, Tehran's go-to venue for foreign currency exchange, in downtown Tehran, Iran, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
FILE — A currency exchange bureau worker counts U.S. dollars at Ferdowsi square, Tehran's go-to venue for foreign currency exchange, in downtown Tehran, Iran, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

Reflection or resolution: what hard lesson keeps repeating in your life because you refuse to learn it?

Tory McNally 6 minute read Preview

Reflection or resolution: what hard lesson keeps repeating in your life because you refuse to learn it?

Tory McNally 6 minute read Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025

As the year winds down, there is a quiet pause that sneaks in between the rush of deadlines, parties and holidays. It is the moment when you finally exhale and ask yourself how you really feel about the year you just lived.

Not the highlight reel version — the honest one. This is the perfect time to offer yourself a little help, the kind that comes from reflection rather than resolution.

There is one question worth sitting with as you look back and ahead at the same time: what hard lesson keeps repeating itself in your life because you refuse to learn it?

It sounds a little blunt, but stay with me. This is not about self-criticism or beating yourself up for past choices.

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Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025
Reflection or resolution: what hard lesson keeps repeating in your life because you refuse to learn it?

How to build an emergency fund, pay off debt and make a plan for your money in 2026

Adriana Morga, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

How to build an emergency fund, pay off debt and make a plan for your money in 2026

Adriana Morga, The Associated Press 6 minute read Updated: 11:02 AM CST

NEW YORK (AP) — Find inspiration for achieving your financial resolutions and money goals in 2026

The start of a new year usually brings new motivation to achieve goals like eating healthier or finally cleaning your basement. Many resolutions also focus on financial goals, such as paying off credit card debt, saving for a new house, or simply getting more educated about money.

“New Year’s is a really good time to review and realign your financial goals overall,” said Erica Grundza, certified financial planner at Betterment, an investing and savings app.

When building your goals for 2026, Grundza recommends focusing less on the past and more on an optimistic, yet realistic, vision for the future. She recommends that you focus on reestablishing the “why” behind your approach to money and how you want to make it work for your life. This can be as simple as saving $10 each week in a savings account, or a bigger goal like saving to buy a house in the coming years. It’s all about your own journey.

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Updated: 11:02 AM CST

FILE - A canning jar filled with money sits on a shelf in East Derry, N.H., June 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
FILE - A canning jar filled with money sits on a shelf in East Derry, N.H., June 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

Acclimatizing to new normal

Joel Schlesinger 5 minute read Preview

Acclimatizing to new normal

Joel Schlesinger 5 minute read Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025

The start of 2025 was a Rorschach test for investors. Some saw the return of U.S. President Donald Trump to the White House as beneficial; others expressed concern he’d tear up trade deals, impose tariffs and spark more inflation.

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Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025

Antoni Shkraba Studio / Pexels
Antoni Shkraba Studio / Pexels

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South Korea’s climate pledge to cut coal, lower emissions clash with US push for LNG purchases

Anton L. Delgado And Kim Tong-hyung, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

South Korea’s climate pledge to cut coal, lower emissions clash with US push for LNG purchases

Anton L. Delgado And Kim Tong-hyung, The Associated Press 6 minute read Yesterday at 11:11 PM CST

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea is promising to shrink its reliance on coal power as part of its pledge to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to climate change, but that ambition is at odds with the Trump administration’s push for more U.S. natural gas exports.

At recent United Nations climate talks, South Korea's new Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment announced plans to retire most of the country’s coal-fired power plants by 2040 and to at least halve its carbon emissions by 2035.

Experts say this shows that South Korea, a major coal importer with one of the world’s largest fleets of coal plants, wants to speed up its renewable energy transition, which lags behind its neighbors and global averages.

But as part of trade deals with President Donald Trump, Seoul is raising imports of U.S. liquefied natural gas, or LNG. Climate activists contend such plans may conflict with the country’s pledges to help curb climate change and could lock South Korea into a fossil fuel-dependent future.

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Yesterday at 11:11 PM CST

Kim Sung-hwan, center, the inaugural head of South Korea's new Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, applauds after he made the announcement of South Korea joining the Powering Past Coal Alliance, during U.N. climate talks in Belem, Brazil, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Anton L. Delgado)
Kim Sung-hwan, center, the inaugural head of South Korea's new Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, applauds after he made the announcement of South Korea joining the Powering Past Coal Alliance, during U.N. climate talks in Belem, Brazil, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Anton L. Delgado)

Hungary’s ‘water guardian’ farmers fight back against desertification

Justin Spike, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

Hungary’s ‘water guardian’ farmers fight back against desertification

Justin Spike, The Associated Press 6 minute read Yesterday at 9:12 PM CST

KISKUNMAJSA, Hungary (AP) — Oszkár Nagyapáti climbed to the bottom of a sandy pit on his land on the Great Hungarian Plain and dug into the soil with his hand, looking for a sign of groundwater that in recent years has been in accelerating retreat.

“It’s much worse, and it’s getting worse year after year,” he said as cloudy liquid slowly seeped into the hole. ”Where did so much water go? It’s unbelievable.”

Nagyapáti has watched with distress as the region in southern Hungary, once an important site for agriculture, has become increasingly parched and dry. Where a variety of crops and grasses once filled the fields, today there are wide cracks in the soil and growing sand dunes more reminiscent of the Sahara Desert than Central Europe.

Semiarid region

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Yesterday at 9:12 PM CST

Oszkár Nagyapáti, farmer and member of the volunteer water guardians, stands in a hole in Kiskunmajsa, Hungary, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
Oszkár Nagyapáti, farmer and member of the volunteer water guardians, stands in a hole in Kiskunmajsa, Hungary, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

What music and television to stream: A New Year’s Eve tradition

The Associated Press 1 minute read Preview

What music and television to stream: A New Year’s Eve tradition

The Associated Press 1 minute read Yesterday at 11:06 PM CST

It's the end of the year and there are fewer new streaming options headed to a device near you.

But it's a great time to catch up on some of best movies, television, music and video games of 2025. The Associated Press has comprehensive guides on the best releases of the year on its Year in Review page.

One of the new offerings this week doubles as a music and television option, just in time for New Year's Eve.

New Year's Eve entertainment streaming Dec. 31

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Yesterday at 11:06 PM CST

FILE - Ryan Seacrest hosts "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" during the Times Square New Year's Eve celebration on Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Ryan Seacrest hosts

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