A four-week jury trial in a historical Catholic sexual abuse case was supposed to begin yesterday at B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, but an “11th-hour” bankruptcy declaration by one of the defendants has delayed the proceeding, CBC.ca reported.

The Laurentian University Faculty Association is filing a challenge under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms against the Ontario government, CBC.ca reported. The union says a $35-million loan the province gave Laurentian in 2022, to help the university during its insolvency, came with too many strings attached. The loan agreement includes a clause which says Laurentian would need prior consent from the province to “establish, sponsor, administer or otherwise participate in any defined benefit pension plan” until the loan is fully repaid in 2038.

Japan’s economy contracted at a 1.8% annual pace in July-September as President Donald Trump’s tariffs hit exports and private residential investment plunged, the Associated Press reported. Data released by the government Monday showed that on a quarter-by-quarter basis, Japan’s gross domestic product, the sum value of its goods and services, slipped 0.4%, the first contraction in six quarters. The annualized rate shows what the economy would have done if the same rate were to continue for a year.

In the months before the collapse of auto-parts conglomerate First Brands, founder Patrick James was busy creating a new business group in Europe. The entrepreneur spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a large plastic-components provider in France, an interiors business in Austria, and a sealings specialist in Germany, according to people familiar with the deals, even as cash was running out at First Brands, the Wall Street Journal reported. The idea: to replicate the U.S. company’s rapid growth through acquisitions in Europe.

The United States and Switzerland announced a framework trade agreement on Friday that includes Washington slashing its tariffs on imported Swiss products to 15% from 39% and a pledge by Swiss companies to invest $200 billion in the U.S. by the end of 2028, Reuters reported. The United States and Switzerland, joined by Liechtenstein, aim to conclude negotiations to finalize their trade deal by the first quarter of 2026, the White House said in a statement. U.S.

The United States said on Thursday that it will remove tariffs on some foods and other imports from Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala and El Salvador under framework agreements that will give U.S. firms greater access to those markets, Reuters reported. The agreements are expected to help lower prices for coffee, bananas and other foodstuffs, a senior Trump administration official told reporters, adding the administration expected U.S. retailers to pass on the positive effects to American consumers.

A Chinese-born businessman that the United States and China say ran one of Southeast Asia’s largest scam compounds was extradited to China to face charges of money laundering and other crimes, three years after he was arrested in Thailand, the New York Times reported. The businessman, She Zhijiang, arrived in the Chinese city of Nanjing from Thailand on Wednesday. He would be one of the highest ranking figures linked to the scam industry to face charges in China, which launched a mass crackdown this year to rescue people trafficked to work as scammers in Southeast Asia.

Canada’s latest insolvency data shows household financial strain continuing to climb, WealthProfessional.ca reported. New figures from the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy report a 4.8% year-over-year increase in consumer insolvencies in Q3 2025, reaching 36,256 filings and marking the highest quarterly total since 2009 and the third-largest since tracking began in 1987. Filings also rose 3.3% from the previous quarter. Wesley Cowan, licensed insolvency trustee and vice chair of CAIRP says these numbers reflect real financial pain affecting Canadian households.

A proposed $3-million settlement has been reached against several former “directors and officers” at Laurentian University for the “alleged misuse and depletion” of the university’s retiree health benefit funds, leading to their cancellation during Laurentian’s insolvency, Sudbury.com reported. The directors and officers in question include several former presidents and senior administrators at Laurentian, including several who weren’t even around during Laurentian’s 2021-2022 insolvency restructuring, as well as some former board of governors members.

Two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korea's Lee Jae Myung met and announced they had resolved months of negotiations over tariffs and security issues, the two sides have yet to release any agreement on paper, Reuters reported. South Korean officials say the delay appears to centre on discussions over their request for Washington's blessing to build a nuclear-powered submarine, which Lee raised publicly when he met Trump on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific forum in South Korea last month.