Business booms as lobbyists push 'priorities' in EU capital - France 24

Fears of AI-driven job loss loom over the professional services industry, but at EY, depending on where you work, you needn't worry. The Big Four consulting and accounting firm reported on Thursday that it added nearly 10,000 jobs globally in its 2026 financial year, as revenue from AI-related services surged almost 50%. The rise in head count brings EY's workforce to 415,000. Much of that rise was concentrated in a category that EY calls its global entities, which added more than 10,000 staff. The group, also known as EY's global delivery services, includes its offshoring centers. In the firm's Americas division, the workforce decreased by roughly 4,500, or 5%. Workforce shifts come as EY and its global boss Janet Truncale have bet big on AI under its "All-In" strategy. The firm has invested billions to transform its operating model and evolve the services it offers clients. The 50% surge in AI-related sales, up from a 30% rise for the year before, suggests the AI bet is paying off.

Both Toronto mayoral candidate Brad Bradford and B. C. Premier David Eby’s campaigns are being staffed by former Airbnb and real estate lobbyists, an investigation by Ricochet has revealed. Using On the Trail’s database of lobbyists from every jurisdiction across the country, Ricochet found that Bradford and Eby’s campaign staff hold long-term connections with both Airbnb and the real estate industry at large, and bring into question how serious both campaigns are with their claims of making housing more affordable. The two of them even worked together at certain points in their careers.

The Maple has published several articles about the Israel lobby in Canada in the past, examining and critiquing its activities. This one will be a bit different, in that we’ll share the names of the people and groups who make it up. The conception of the Israel lobby generally used in past articles drew from Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer’s 2007 book The Israel Lobby and U. S. Foreign Policy, seeing it as a “loose coalition of individuals and organizations that actively works to move [Canadian] foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction” and promote pro-Israel domestic policies. Importantly, Walt and Mearsheimer add that “it is not a single, unified movement with a central leadership,” though the groups in it often do work together. In this article we’ll narrow the conception of the lobby down to actual registered lobby groups in Canada that spend at least some of their efforts on the aforementioned activities. These groups are required to publish reports on who they lobbied, when they did it and a general idea of what they discussed. They’re also required to publish the names of all of their registered lobbyists.