What is a 'halal mortgage'? Does it make housing more accessible?
The 2024 federal budget announced on April 16 included plans to introduce “halal mortgages” as a way to increase access to home ownership.
Bitcoin tanked again on Tuesday and briefly fell below US$30,000 for the first time since late January as China escalated its crackdown on cryptocurrencies.
China further curbed mining activity and told major payments platforms and lenders that crypto trading won't be tolerated.
Bitcoin plunged more than 9 per cent over the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency has lost roughly half its value since it hit an all-time high in April. Other cryptos were also caught up the big sell-off: Ethereum fell about 10% while Dogecoin dove 25 per cent, erasing all of its gains since April.
Cryptocurrencies have had a rough couple of months for a few reasons, including concerns about the environmental impact of mining coins and increasing government scrutiny.
Crypto continues to catch a lot of heat from China, which has for months been signaling a more aggressive push to curtail use of such currencies.
The People's Bank of China on Monday said it summoned Alipay, the widely popular online payments platform run by Jack Ma's Ant Group, along with five big lenders and told them to "comprehensively investigate and identify" cryptocurrency exchanges and dealers so they could cut off any crypto trading.
"Cryptocurrency trading and speculative activities ... breed the risks of illegal cross-border transfers of assets and money laundering," the central bank said.
The lenders included the Industrial and Commercial Bank, the Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank, the Postal Savings Bank of China and the Industrial Bank.
All six companies said in statements issued after the central bank announcement that no institutions or individuals are allowed to use their platforms for any crypto-related activity. In addition to those remarks, Alipay also pledged to step up investigations against crypto transactions on its platform.
The announcement isn't a new policy for Beijing, but it does reinforce how far the country is willing to go to restrict the usage of bitcoin and other digital coins.
Over the weekend, Chinese state media reported that the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan ordered a halt to all crypto mining operations and cut off the power supply to many mining facilities. The province is a major hub for mining, the process of using powerful computers to run and solve algorithms that generate new cryptocurrency coins and verify transactions.
While China doesn't completely ban cryptos, regulators in 2013 declared that bitcoin was not a real currency and forbade financial and payment institutions from transacting with it. At the time, they cited the risk that bitcoin could be used for money laundering, as well as the need to "maintain financial stability" and "protect the yuan's status as a fiat currency."
The growing crackdown is also in part to boost China's state-backed digital yuan initiative, which authorities want to implement so they can keep money flows in check.
The 2024 federal budget announced on April 16 included plans to introduce “halal mortgages” as a way to increase access to home ownership.
A recent report sheds light on Canadians living abroad--estimated at around four million people in 2016—and the public policies that impact them.
One person was killed in a six-vehicle crash on Highway 400 in Innisfil Friday evening.
An election-year roast of U.S. President Joe Biden before journalists, celebrities and politicians at the annual White House correspondents' dinner Saturday.
It's one thing to say you like Taylor Swift and her music, but don't blame CNN's AJ Willingham's when she says she just 'doesn't get' the global phenomenon.
Ontario is now home to an invasive and toxic worm species that can grow up to three feet long and can be dangerous to small animals and pets.
Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer said Saturday that the onetime movie mogul has been hospitalized for a battery of tests after his return to New York City following an appeals court ruling nullifying his 2020 rape conviction.
Polish President Andrzej Duda says while no decision has been made around whether Poland will host nuclear weapons as part of an expansion of the NATO alliance’s nuclear sharing program, his country is willing and prepared to do so.
A number of LGBQT+2s groups in Central Alberta are pushing back against a request from the Red Deer South UCP constituency to reinstate MLA Jennifer Johnson into the UCP caucus.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”