The Conversation global network added a new edition this week – The Conversation Brazil launched on Monday. There are now editions of The Conversation publishing from 10 countries in five languages on six continents. The Conversation Canada – publishing in both English and French – is proud to be part of this growing media organization that is the world’ No. 1 source of research-based explanatory journalism.

Our global expansion comes at a time when the media sector in Canada is under tremendous stress. As most of our readers know, The Conversation Canada and La Conversation Canada have been impacted by the ongoing dispute between the federal government and tech giants Meta and Google over Bill C-18, the Online News Act. Canadians can no longer view or share our information on Facebook or Instagram fter the platform’s parent company, Meta, decided it will be “ending news availability in Canada.”

The Online News Act’s intention was to help some Canadian news organizations by legislating Meta and Google to pay outlets for the right to link to their content. But since the act was passed earlier this summer, Ottawa and Big Tech have been squaring off on how and when the provisions of the act will be implemented. The country is now in a bizarre situation where the viability of many news organizations will be determined by the actions of two multinational companies whose main responsibility is to their shareholders and not the Canadian public.

Regardless of how those ongoing negotiations play out, there will be little financial impact on The Conversation Canada. We don’t receive any funding from Meta or Google, but we would like the public to be able to access our content – for free – via their platforms. Sharing fact-based news as widely as possible is an important antidote to the plague of disinformation that is infecting our society.

We’re fortunate and proud to be part of The Conversation global network and so I wanted to use this weekend’s newsletter to highlight the breadth of coverage we provide to readers around the world. Below you will find some of the most popular articles from Canada’s English and French newsrooms (the latter which we’ve translated), as well as stories from our sister editions in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, South Africa, Indonesia, Australia/New Zealand – and the story our new colleagues in Brazil have written about their launch. (If you can’t read Portuguese, you can use the auto-translate function of your internet browser.)

Great content. Based on research. Written by experts. Edited by journalists. Free for the reading.

One way you could help us get around the ongoing dispute between Big Tech and Ottawa is to share this with friends and families who might be interested in signing up to receive our newsletter on a regular basis.

Have a great weekend. We’ll be back in your Inbox on Monday.