Last time, we looked at how metal has fractured into a million different genres, sub-genres, and sub-sub-genres.
For example, have you heard of “blackened crust?” This is a combination of an intense form of punk that’s been mated to black metal. Not for the timid. Drone doom is slow, low, and scary, occasionally punctuated by blood-curdling screams. I love this label: Heavy negative wizard metal. This brings together old-school British metal from the early 80s, power metal, black metal, and fantasy sci-fi.
There’s jazz metal, which is just like it sounds. Imagine lots of improvisation featuring heavy guitars, saxophones, and trumpets. Kawaii metal is a Japanese invention that brings together J-pop with aggressive guitar riffs. And if you’re looking to go back in time, there’s medieval metal, which not only features big guitars but also ancient instruments like a hurdy-gurdy, frame drums, and dudelsacks.
Relief could be on the way for drivers filling up with diesel, as U.S. President Donald Trump puts pressure on Europe to release diesel reserves to help bring down prices.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order late Monday which allows for a wider use of dyed diesel on regular roads and highways across America, as consumers and businesses grapple with record-high fuel prices.
Trump signed the executive order from a rally stage in Nebraska. The high cost of diesel and other fuels is a risk to Republicans ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections in which control of Congress is at stake.
Dyed diesel is essentially regular diesel fuel that is dyed a reddish colour to identify it for exclusive off-road applications, like with tractors and farming equipment, and it’s comparably cheaper than regular diesel because it is exempt from most road and highway taxes.
Trump’s executive order allows for Americans to use dyed diesel to fill up trucks and other road vehicles that would normally have to fill up for a higher cost at truck stops.
The directive orders secretaries of the U.S. Treasury as well as the departments of transportation and agriculture to waive the off-road requirement for tax-free diesel and allow anyone to buy the red dye diesel fuel that is used by the agriculture industry and by some off-road vehicles.
The order also defers federal taxes normally required to clear dyed diesel for use on roads and highways for the remainder of the year without interest or penalties. It also states the measure will be used “to explore pathways to eliminate the obligation to pay the deferred taxes.”
It also directs the U.S. agriculture secretary to “ensure farmers’ access to dyed diesel in high-demand areas” while asking the transportation secretary to coordinate with states, industry leadership, and labour organizations on access to dyed diesel.
“We are not going to need it long, I hope,” Trump said of the waiver.
Easing restrictions on dyed diesel doesn’t lower diesel prices directly, but it is, generally, a cheaper version of the same fuel, and allowing for a wider use of it means businesses won’t have to pay some of the higher prices at pumps.
Diesel prices reached a record of roughly US$6.50 per gallon last month.
In Canada, the national average for diesel is about CA$2.50 per litre as of publication. Dan McTeague, president of Canadians for Affordable Energy, says the prices seen over the past few months are roughly double where they were last year, and could climb even higher unless various geopolitical tensions ease fast.
Prices for the fuel integral to trucking goods have risen in response to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with the conflicts having led to attacks on refineries in the Middle East and Russia.
In Canada, the federal and some provincial governments have moved to ease some taxes on fuel in order to provide quick relief for consumers and businesses.
The federal government recently extended a pause on the fuel excise tax until the end of January 2027, which brought immediate relief at the pumps for both regular and diesel fuels as well as jet fuels when it was introduced earlier this year. The tax will then return at a 50 per cent rate from Feb. 1 through March 31, 2027.
What started in Calgary, is now here in Edmonton!
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The St. Peters Police Department told Variety and Deadline that they responded to a report of an unconscious male who was not breathing.
Police said that he had reportedly complained of chest pain shortly before becoming unresponsive and the circumstances appeared consistent with a medical event, according to the outlets.
Authorities reportedly attempted life-saving measures at the scene but they were unsuccessful, TMZ reports.
Kelker-Kelly was best known for playing Bo Brady on Days of Our Lives from 1992 to 1995, replacing actor Peter Reckell.
He made his acting debut in 1987 playing Sam Fowler in Another World.
“At the time I got cast on Another World I was homeless, sleeping in my Jeep, or on anyone’s floor that I could, and working as a secretary for a headhunter’s office in L.A.,” Kelker-Kelly told We Love Soaps in 2013.
After leaving the soap opera in 1990, he returned as Dr. Shane Roberts in 1996 and appeared on more than 400 episodes of Another World.
Kelker-Kelly also played Stavros Cassadine on Port Charles and General Hospital from 1997 until 2003. He later reprised the role on General Hospital from 2013-2014, which was his final onscreen role, according to IMDb.
In 1995, Kelker-Kelly shared the Hottest Soap Couple award at the Soap Opera Digest Awards with former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Lisa Rinna, who played Billie Reed on Days of Our Lives from 1992-1995, before reprising the role several times.
'Days of Our Lives', from left: Kristian Alfonso, Robert Kelker Kelly, Lisa Rinna.
WATCH ABOVE: 'Buy Canadian' movement remains strong according to new poll
The cost of living is squeezing Canadians ahead of the holiday shopping season, but many say they’d be willing to spend more under one condition – if they’re buying Canadian.
The ‘Buy Canadian’ sentiment seems on track to withstand the holiday spending squeeze, a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers found on Tuesday.
Nearly three out of four (72 per cent) say they are seeking alternatives to U.S.-made goods, with more than half (54 per cent) saying they will be willing to pay more for goods made in Canada, PwC’s 2026 Canadian holiday outlook said.
This is despite budget pressures, which have meant Canadians plan to spend 11 per cent less on holiday shopping overall, it added.
Canadians plan to spend an average of $1,487 this holiday season, the report said.
“Canadians are cutting back, but they’re drawing a hard line on where their money goes,” said Adam Boutros, partner and national consumer markets leader at PwC Canada.
This year’s budget squeeze is coming primarily from older Canadians. Gen X Canadians are planning to spend 21 per cent less, while baby boomers are cutting back by 18 per cent.
In contrast, Gen Z Canadians are planning to spend eight per cent more this year than they did last year.
Households with children continue to be the main driver of holiday spending, with those households planning to spend twice as much over the holidays compared to child-free households.
Canadians are also changing where they look for deals, with more than a quarter (28 per cent) planning to use AI tools to shop for the holidays. This is up sharply from 17 per cent in 2025.
Shoppers are planning to use AI tools to research products, compare items, discover gift ideas and, in some cases, make purchases.
However, stores remain the top way to shop, with 40 per cent saying they plan to use both physical and online stores.
WATCH: Business Matters: Home sales fall in Calgary and climb in Toronto, while prices decline
Home sales in the Greater Toronto Area were down in September from a year ago, while average prices continued to decline.
The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board said on Tuesday sales totalled 5,040 in September, down nine per cent year-over-year.
The result came as the average selling price for the month was $1,006,409, down from $1,060,036 a year earlier.
The composite benchmark price, meant to represent the typical home, was down 4.7 per cent year-over-year in September.
The board says homebuyers were in a holding pattern in September, as uncertainty surrounding the economy, inflation and borrowing costs weighed on sales.
Renewed tensions with the United States and a surge in gas prices amid an ongoing war in the Middle East have kept potential buyers on the sidelines in recent months.
Slowing home sales come as municipalities across Ontario, including the GTA, hold a ballot on Oct. 26.
“Housing is one of the biggest issues on voters’ minds, and the upcoming municipal election will help shape housing policy across the GTA and Simcoe County for the next four years,” said Daniel Steinfeld, TRREB president, in a statement.
“The decisions our next mayors and councillors make on affordability, housing supply and the costs associated with buying a home can also influence buyer demand and confidence in the market.”
New listings in September totalled 16,500, down 14.4 per cent year-over-year.
Global News has reached out to Liu’s representatives for further comment, but has not received a response.
Liu began dating Hsu in late 2022, making their red carpet debut at the Violent Night premiere in Los Angeles wearing holiday sweaters.
Simu Liu and Allison Hsu at the premiere of 'Violent Night' held at TCL Chinese Theatre on November 29, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images
In August 2023, Liu shared a birthday message to Hsu on Instagram, writing, “Happy birthday to the girl who truly does it all. She inspires me in her passion for music (well… one musician specifically), teaches me how to balance a busy and chaotic schedule with grace, and touches me in how she cares for each and every person in her life. Most importantly, she shows me that the people we love are always worth fighting for.”
Liu also shared an Instagram post from his engagement with the caption, “From weekends in Paris, day trips to Palm Springs, long nights on set, afternoons vegging on the couch and everything in between, I choose you forever and always.”
During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon later that year, Liu said that he asked Taylor Swift to surprise Hsu with a message because “she grew up a Swiftie.”
“I’ll preface this by saying my fiancée works in music, so she’s a digital marketing executive, and she grew up a Swiftie. She loves Taylor Swift,” the 37-year-old actor said.
“Taylor Swift’s songs and her music, that was a big part of the beginning of our relationship, was getting to know her through those songs, and why they meant so much to her,” he continued.
“I was like, ‘Well, there’s one person that would make this engagement so special,’ and I reached out — as if we’re BFFs, no I mean I met her a couple of times, she’s fantastic,” Liu said.
The Barbie actor revealed that he reached out to Swift through her publicist.
“I said, ‘Hey, is there any way that I could convince you to make like a two-second video just to say congrats?’ And she literally two days later sent it over, and I was able to play it for her. And so Taylor Swift was the cherry on top,” Liu shared.
He said that Hsu was “really emotional before” he played the video but once he shared Swift’s congratulatory message Hsu “completely lost it.”
Alexander says he decided to drop out after a recent poll showed he doesn’t have a clear path to victory.
The veteran politician and diplomat says he is not endorsing any other mayoral candidate.
Recent polls have placed Alexander as a distant third in the race, behind current council member Brad Bradford and current mayor Olivia Chow, who has been the front-runner since the start of the campaign.
Alexander was elected as MP for Ajax–Pickering in 2011 and was the federal immigration minister from 2013 to 2015.
He previously worked as a diplomat and served in the Canadian Embassy in Moscow before he was selected to be the first resident Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan in 2003.
A turkey dinner for Thanksgiving is going to cost you a lot more this year, a report by the the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University found on Tuesday.
The cost of cooking your family a Thanksgiving meal has been rising steadily since 2024, with a small increase of 0.6 per cent for a turkey dinner in 2025, compared to 2024.
This year, however, the cost went up 10 per cent from $32.48 in 2025 to $35.72 in 2026 for a Thanksgiving meal for four with turkey as your main meat.
The menu includes potatoes, carrots, dinner rolls, pumpkin pie, cranberries, stuffing, and gravy as sides, but the rise in the cost is mainly due to the cost of turkey rising from $10.43 to $12.53.
Side dishes got more expensive too.
There was a slight $0.74 rise in the cost of a pound of carrots from $0.91 in 2025 to $1.65 in 2026.
The price of a 10-pound sack of potatoes remained the same at $6.99.
The combined price of the five other sides – dinner rolls, pumpkin pie, cranberries, stuffing, and gravy – went up by 2.8 per cent, the report said.
Overall, it will cost $23.19 to put together the whole array of sides. In 2025, the same side dishes cost $22.05 and in 2024, they cost $20.61.
While the cost of turkey has seen the sharpest rise, you’ll be paying more this year regardless of what meat you use as your main course.
The rise in the price of turkeys has meant that the cost of a ham dinner would be in the same ballpark range.
The price of a ham Thanksgiving dinner went up 4.3 per cent from $34.87 in 2025 to $36.37 this year.
The cost of lamb and lobster meals will depend on the cut of the meat, but the report estimates that both those proteins also went up in price.
A lamb meal for four has gone up 3.5 per cent from $77.77 in 2025 to $80.47 in 2026.
Lobster meals have seen the smallest increase in price but remain the most expensive protein in a Thanksgiving meal for four. It went up 3.4 per cent from $85.23 in 2025 to $80.47.
World leaders did their best to avoid riling up U.S. President Donald Trump during the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. Mackenzie Gray reports on how Trump dominated the meeting, and how Prime Minister Mark Carney talked up Canada's defence to allies.
Canada will need “substantial and sustained” defence spending increases to meet its NATO obligations by 2035, a new report from the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) states.
The Liberal government has not yet revealed how it intends to reach the target of spending five per cent of GDP on defence within the next decade — a significant jump that would see core defence spending increase from $95.7 billion in 2030 to $163.7 billion in 2035-36.
Pulling that off, the PBO report suggests, will depend on how well the federal government handles complex procurement projects in a relatively short timeline — historically, a challenge for Ottawa.
The promised increase in defence spending would have significant implications on the federal budgetary picture, the PBO report noted.
“The PBO estimated that the additional core defence spending would increase the budgetary deficit by $63.7 billion, or 1.4 per cent of GDP, in 2035-36 relative to the (status quo scenario, and) federal debt would be 5.7 percentage points of GDP higher,” the report says.
But the budget watchdog also noted that the massive boost in military spending would have implications for Canada’s “economic activity, industrial capacity” and the domestic defence industry.
“While many aspects of the government’s defence expenditure strategy remain in development, current defence spending already supports economic activity across a range of industries and regions and can inform potential forward dynamics for the Canadian defence industrial base and wider economy,” the report noted.
Canada has for years been a laggard in NATO spending commitments. The military alliance set a target of countries spending two per cent of GDP on defence in 2006 — and Canada consistently failed to meet that target.
Prime Minister Mark Carney promised to change that, and Canada is expected to hit that longstanding two per cent NATO spending target for the first time this year. But the Carney government has been less clear about how it intends to reach the new benchmark of spending five per cent of GDP on defence— or how Ottawa will pay for it.
Asked recently about the lack of transparency around defence spending plans, Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said more details are expected in the government’s 2026 budget.
“Obviously when we’re going to present Budget 2026 … we’ll be looking at measures to make the Canadian economy strong and make sure that, you know, the systems and procurement we’re doing to meet the NATO requirement, but at the same time that the Canadian economy can finance these big investments,” Champagne told reporters in July.
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