It would be foolish to underestimate what Trump is capable of, says author Louise Penny

It would be foolish to underestimate what Trump is capable of, says author Louise Penny
New book explores plot to make Canada 51st state, written before Trump's re-election


Padraig Moran · CBC Radio · Posted: Nov 21, 2025 8:37 AM PST | Last Updated: November 21, 2025


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Bestselling author Louise Penny told Matt Galloway it was 'a bit of a shock' to hear U.S. President Donald Trump talk about Canada becoming the 51st state, especially as it was the plot of her already-written new book (Andrea Stanford/CBC)

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LISTEN | Two countries, one community:


The Current1:14:23Live at the Haskell Free Library, right on the U.S. border

Bestselling author Louise Penny says it would be foolish to dismiss the 51st state rhetoric that U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly leveled at Canada.

“I think that there is not a country that's been invaded, a peoples who have been targeted … who hasn't looked back and thought, what did I miss?” Penny told The Current’s Matt Galloway in a special show with a live audience.

“Where was the moment when it could have been stopped? And I think we're living through that moment right now,” she said.
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Penny was speaking on stage at the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, a unique venue that is split by the U.S.-Canada border. Part of the building is in Stanstead, Que.; part is in Derby Line, Vt.

The venue has become embroiled in the simmering tensions between the two countries over the past year, as Trump started a trade war and threatened to use "economic force" to annex Canada and make it the 51st state. Earlier this year, the U.S. government limited access on the U.S. side, forcing the library to renovate and create access on the Canadian side. Penny contributed to that renovation fund, which raised more than $140,000.

A black border line runs along the floor of the Haskell Free Library, which straddles the boundary between Canada and the United States. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

Her latest novel, The Black Wolf, explores a sinister plot to make Canada the 51st state — though she’s keen to point out she wrote the novel before Trump was re-elected. She spoke to Galloway about her surprise as the plot became real-world politics, here is part of their conversation.

You gave $50,000 for a new door for the Canadian side that some of our Canadian guests may have come through.

I do just want to say that the reason I could afford to do that is because of [my readers’] support. Because financially, I've been so fortunate over the course of a 20-year career. And so it just seemed natural, absolutely natural to say thank you and give some — not all of it — give some of it back.

You also said, creating the new door, these are your words, it's like giving the finger to the current administration. You close one door, we'll open another.

Well, and how symbolic are doors? Doors. They closed a door. And how elegant is the solution on the Canadian side, totally supported by the American part of the organization here, to just say, 'Well, that's all right. We'll just open our own.' And that's what happened.

You're good friends with Hillary Rodham Clinton, you wrote a book with her.

Yes.
WATCH | Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny on writing together:




Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny on their political thriller, State of Terror
October 15, 2021|
Duration
2:43Good friends Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny talk about their first novel together, State of Terror, which follows newly appointed U.S. secretary of state Ellen Adams and her race to stop a series of international terrorist attacks.

Have you had any conversations with her about what's going on right now?
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A few.

Would you care to share the tenor and the tone of those conversations?

I do want to say she loves the Eastern Townships. She loves coming up. She was here this past summer and she said that it's the first time since the inauguration that she's felt safe. I've never heard her say that before. I think she's afraid for the first time physically, but she is certainly afraid for the American democracy and the American republic.

You started this book before Trump was re-elected, right?

I started this because it's two halves of a whole, starting with the Grey Wolf and then the Black Wolf is the second half of it. So in fact, it was designed three years ago.
WATCH | How a Quebec town pushed back against new rules for library:




Quebec town pushes back as U.S. tightens access to iconic border-straddling library
March 21, 2025|
Duration
2:29Once a symbol of partnership between two friendly nations, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House in Stanstead, Que., has become a point of tension lately, with American authorities now deciding the way it functioned for decades posed too much of a border security risk.

And so how do you, at that point, start thinking about 51st state, long before those words have come out of the current president's mouth? You said to me that you worried that you'd gone too far. Now you worry whether you didn't go far enough.

It was a bit of a shock to hear Trump talk about the 51st state.

If you read the book you'll see that it just seems, I hope, like a natural progression.

And then when it actually happened in the real world, obviously as a Canadian I was appalled. And unsure how seriously to take it. I think we're still trying to parse that. The other part was obviously thinking more personally, if this is in my book, are people going to think that I've simply ripped it from the headlines and ripped it off and taken advantage of what is a very shattering experience?

How seriously should we take it?
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That is a really interesting question. I think it would be foolish to underestimate what he's capable of. I think that there is not a country that's been invaded, a peoples who have been targeted or an individual who's been rounded up, who hasn't looked back and thought, what did I miss? Where was the moment when it could have been stopped? And I think we're living through that moment right now.

Americans don’t recognize the damage Trump is doing, says novelist John Irving


Margaret Atwood on reading palms, getting older — and holding grudges

And it behooves all of us, certainly behooves me because I'm 67. I am 20 years into a career that has so overshot any of my expectations. If I don't stand up, and I am in a position where I can, then shame on me. I think it's time that we stood up, those of us who can.


Audio produced by Julie Crysler and Susan McKenzie. Q&A edited for length and clarity.

Multiverse teachers say AI surveillance is costing them sleep

 

Multiverse teachers say AI surveillance is costing them sleep

Teachers at Multiverse, the £1.6 billion tech training company co-founded by Euan Blair, are reporting severe stress, sleepless nights, and a need for therapy after the company introduced an AI surveillance system that monitors, transcribes, and scores their online classroom sessions. The system tags each instructor with a risk status, calculates a confidence score, and flags potential problems for human managers to review, ranging from using too many filler phrases like "sort of" and "kind of" to failing to resolve a connectivity disruption within roughly a minute. Several instructors who spoke anonymously described the experience as "remorseless" and "unnerving," with one saying they had never before woken in the middle of the night from work-related stress.

The AI is trained to identify patterns across entire session transcripts rather than isolated moments, and instructs managers to apply negative marks even when a teacher self-corrects an unclear explanation. Teachers say the system has caused managers to flag them for alleged digressions when they were simply answering a student's question, and that the constant scrutiny shifts their attention away from learners and toward self-monitoring. Multiverse says the tool does not replace human judgment but directs managerial attention where it is most needed, and insists that only human managers write formal performance reviews. Pressure on Multiverse is likely to mount given that Ofsted earlier this year praised its instructors as skilled and effective even as it found the company fell short in other areas.

Over 26,000 US Public Parks Border a Toxic Superfund Site

Over 26,000 US Public Parks Border a Toxic Superfund Site—But It’s Worse Than That
Tens of thousands of U.S. parks—everything from national forests to local hiking trails—sit precariously close to EPA-designated toxic sites, researchers found.
BY MATTHEW PHELANPUBLISHED AUGUST 7, 2026, 7:30 AM ET

READING TIME 3 MINUTES

The Gold King Mine leached orange-brown, toxic mine water that crossed state lines into Utah’s Glen Canyon national recreation area in 2015. Credit: Mor via Flickr, CC 2.0 license
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We hear a lot of rhetoric about strong border protection these days, but not much has been said about preserving the sanctity of the boundaries protecting America’s public parks. That’s a real shame, given new research that has mapped an alarming proximity between toxic waste sites across the U.S. and our nation’s otherwise scenic and beautiful public parks.

Researchers with the University of Michigan (U-M) cross-referenced a dataset of 151,366 public parks—including everything from national and state parks to local hiking trails and dual-use school playgrounds—with two categories of pollution sites catalogued by the EPA. The results were stark: Nearly 18% of America’s public parks—26,886 of these recreational areas to be precise—are located within two miles of an EPA-designated Superfund Site. And over 2,000 of these parks physically overlap with a Superfund Site, according to the team’s new study, released as a pre-print Thursday by the Nature journal Scientific Reports.

But the scope of the problem is even worse when viewed in the context of the EPA’s broader category of Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) sites. Over half of all U.S. parks, researchers found, are positioned within 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) of a TRI site. And at least 63 of these parks currently share property with one of these toxic sites.

“[Our] results highlight that neighborhood features cannot be fully understood in isolation from each other,” the team, which is composed of epidemiologists, biologists, and data scientists, wrote in its new study.

“Research that considers parks as a monolithic public health benefit fails to consider the significant overlap between green space and polluting sites in the U.S. and the implications for communities that utilize these parks,” the team wrote in the new study.
Parks and dreck

The EPA has labelled over 21,000 industrial and federal facilities as TRI sites as of 2022, a designation requiring the sites’ owners to track and report activities involving any of over 800 chemicals that the EPA regulates as potential threats to the environment and human health. The general goal is exactly projects like U-M’s research, which utilized EPA databases on these facilities.

Epidemiologist Grace Noppert at U-M’s Institute for Social Research and her coauthors noted that some of these sites, particularly near America’s largest state and national parks, have long been a well-known problem.

“National parks in the Mountain West are often near mining sites,” Noppert and her colleagues wrote, citing research dating back to the early 1980s.

“Colorado had the largest amount of total park area that overlapped with SFS [Superfund Sites],” they noted, roughly 430,610 square miles (over 1.1 million square kilometers). This would include the infamous orange-brown, toxic mine water that crossed state lines into Utah’s Glen Canyon national recreation area in 2015.

But their data, sourced from the nonprofit Trust for Public Land’s 2024 ParkServe dataset, helped map more granular consequences for these myriad smaller parks that dot heavily polluted areas across the U.S., from major cities to rustbelt coal towns.

“[The] greening of post-industrial landscapes, and the creation of recreational areas across time results in the layering of different types of space at a given location,” Noppert’s team wrote.

“There were only five states that had no park land that overlapped with any SFS (Arkansas, Maine, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Wyoming),” the researchers stated.
Parallel park things

Noppert and her colleagues noted that there were some significant omissions within their current analysis. For one thing, they have not yet broken down the data by the specific pollutants present within these parks, much less how local details like wind patterns or topography might hasten or hinder any given pollutant’s spread.

They expressed hope that future research will not only incorporate these factors but also data that could help map all the other neighborhood amenities and local health risks that should be considered in parallel to separate benefits and risks that cancel each other out.

“These places require localized attention, analysis, and advocacy to support both human and environmental health,” Noppert’s team said.

Surely, some of y’all are ‘Choosin’ Texas’

 Surely, some of y’all are ‘Choosin’ Texas’

Jason Kempin/Getty Images

If you haven’t been “Choosin’ Texas,” well, someone has. Country Singer Ella Langley’s two-steppin’ song recently set a new record for most weeks at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100. The hit, currently in its 24th week at the top of the chart, unseated previous record holder Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You”—despite everyone online claiming they’ve never heard Langley’s song.

“Choosin’ Texas” was more of a slow burn. The song debuted last November at No. 39, and didn’t break the top 10 until January, eventually reaching No. 1 in February. It dropped from the top spot in May, but clawed its way back up in July, and has remained there ever since.

That’s a pretty big feat for a country artist: Between 2000 and 2023, only four country songs occupied the top spot. Two of them were Taylor Swift songs.

Is this a psyop? If you have no idea who or what is doing the song’s choosing, you’re not alone. Folks are developing a slew of theories as to how a song can get so popular despite so many people having never heard it. Unquestionably, the song is all over TikTok (though it’s not attached to a distinct trend). It’s also inspiring think pieces: Rolling Stone says if you’re unaware of it, it’s because of your anti-country bubble, CNN says it means the monoculture is for real dead this time, and Garbage Day considers that maybe the whole system is made up and the points don’t matter.

Overwhelming Majorities in Canada, U.S. Say No to Local Data Centre Development

Overwhelming Majorities in Canada, U.S. Say No to Local Data Centre Development

August 19, 2026
Reading time: 4 minutes

Author: The Energy Mix staff
Full Story: The Energy Mix



mikemacmarketing/wikimedia commons

Public opposition to artificial intelligence (AI) data centre projects is surging across Canada and the United States, as outrage over the projects’ energy and water use, noise pollution, carbon footprint—and their proponents’ habit of often ignoring or flouting community opposition—unites voters across the political spectrum.

The latest news showed up this week in an exclusive poll for Heatmap that showed public support for data centres collapsing over the last year, with 75% of respondents now saying they oppose development in their communities. The poll results arrived hot on the heels of a decision this week by the Alberta Utility Commission (AUC) to disallow a $1-billion, 1,400-megawatt gas power plant that would have powered a data centre in the rural community of Olds, where 900 people out of a population of about 9,500 were given standing to speaking out on the project.

The data centre and gas plant. proposed by Synapse Real Estate Corp., would have been a “threat to our health, to our financial health, to our children’s future, to the future of Olds as a community,” Olds resident Carol Edwards, a retired finance professor at Simon Fraser University, told The Energy Mix. “There was absolutely no doubt in our minds that this would be the death of our town, that nobody would want to live here, no one would want to buy our houses, and this place would become a ghost town.”

The Heatmap poll by Embold Research found that three-quarters of Americans would oppose a local data centre project, with 60% saying they would strongly oppose it. Those numbers reflect a steady increase from 42% last August, to 51% in February, to 70% in May.

“The shift against the facilities is represented across age, gender, income, partisan ID, and the rural-urban divide,” Heatmap writes. “Data centres are 43 points underwater with Republicans, 65 points underwater with independents, and 75 points underwater with Democrats.”

The trend is particularly powerful among rural voters who’ve “skewed more Republican over the past decade,” with whom local data centres are now 63 points underwater—meaning that number of respondents who oppose them is now 63 percentage points h

Overwhelming Majorities in Canada, U.S. Say No to Local Data Centre Development

August 19, 2026

Reading time: 4 minutes

Author: The Energy Mix staff

Full Story: The Energy Mix

mikemacmarketing/wikimedia commons

Public opposition to artificial intelligence (AI) data centre projects is surging across Canada and the United States, as outrage over the projects’ energy and water use, noise pollution, carbon footprint—and their proponents’ habit of often ignoring or flouting community opposition—unites voters across the political spectrum.

The latest news showed up this week in an exclusive poll for Heatmap that showed public support for data centres collapsing over the last year, with 75% of respondents now saying they oppose development in their communities. The poll results arrived hot on the heels of a decision this week by the Alberta Utility Commission (AUC) to disallow a $1-billion, 1,400-megawatt gas power plant that would have powered a data centre in the rural community of Olds, where 900 people out of a population of about 9,500 were given standing to speaking out on the project.

The data centre and gas plant. proposed by Synapse Real Estate Corp., would have been a “threat to our health, to our financial health, to our children’s future, to the future of Olds as a community,” Olds resident Carol Edwards, a retired finance professor at Simon Fraser University, told The Energy Mix. “There was absolutely no doubt in our minds that this would be the death of our town, that nobody would want to live here, no one would want to buy our houses, and this place would become a ghost town.”

The Heatmap poll by Embold Research found that three-quarters of Americans would oppose a local data centre project, with 60% saying they would strongly oppose it. Those numbers reflect a steady increase from 42% last August, to 51% in February, to 70% in May.

“The shift against the facilities is represented across age, gender, income, partisan ID, and the rural-urban divide,” Heatmap writes. “Data centres are 43 points underwater with Republicans, 65 points underwater with independents, and 75 points underwater with Democrats.”

The trend is particularly powerful among rural voters who’ve “skewed more Republican over the past decade,” with whom local data centres are now 63 points underwater—meaning that number of respondents who oppose them is now 63 percentage points higher than those who support them. The projects are only doing marginally better with urban and suburban voters.

The shift has U.S. politicians either embracing the public rage or scrambling to catch up with it. In Democratic Party primaries earlier this month, Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and House of Representatives nominee Will Lawrence, a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, both won their races with campaigns that emphasized their opposition to local data centre development, Politico reported at the time. Kansas gubernatorial nominee Cindy Holscher won her campaign after shifting her position and calling for a statewide data centre moratorium, while Tennessee House nominee Justin Pearson has been a sharp opponent all along.

“People really effing hate data centres,” El-Sayed told an event last month.

This week, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro “enacted new rules that effectively halt any new data centres that face opposition from local officials,” Politico reports. That’s a big pivot for Shapiro, who’s considered a possible presidential nominee in 2028 and “has gone from wooing tech companies a year ago to calling for action against “greedy developers.” His Republican opponent for governor, state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, is calling for an outright ban.

Other Republicans are calling for “guardrails” on data centre development “protect skeptical communities from unchecked AI growth, as well as the rollback of industry tax breaks,” Semafor writes. Donald Trump said Wednesday the industry “could use a little public relations help,” after introducing a ratepayer protection pledge in March that would have developers paying for the hundreds or thousands of megawatts of electricity the centres demand.

Earlier this month, Allie Rosenbluth, campaign manager at Oil Change Action, said rising energy costs due to U.S. liquefied natural gas exports and data centre development are shifting the dynamics in the midterm campaign.

“People are really starting to connect the dots that energy affordability and climate are major issues,” Rosenbluth told The Mix. “They’re experiencing it in their energy bills, and they’re also experiencing it if they live next to a data centre or an LNG export terminal. So these things are top of mind to voters.”

Recent polling in Canada suggest the fierce opposition to the Synapse project in Olds is the leading edge of a bigger trend. In a Nanos Research survey for the Globe and Mail, released this week, 64% of respondents said they would oppose or somewhat oppose financial incentives for data centre development.

Opposition was a bit stronger—43.1% against, and 24% somewhat opposed—among Canadians aged 18 to 34. “If you’re a 20-something Canadian, and you’re hearing that the government wants to promote AI data centres, you might be wondering whether the government is investing in something that will put you out of a job,” Nanos founder Nik Nanos told the Globe.

Last month, 81% of participants in a Leger poll said they were worried that data centres would lead to higher power bills, while 79% were concerned about their energy consumption, water use, and greenhouse gas emissions, The Canadian Press reported at the time. At the same time, 46% said domestic data centres would give Canada more control over its digital footprint, and 44% said they would support data centre development in their provinces, compared to 42% opposed.

In June, 68% of respondents told the Angus Reid Institute that AI and tech companies should be subject to heavy regulation, even if it slowed down development, although 74% said they doubted governments could keep up with the technology.

This story is part of The Energy Mix’s partnership with Small Change Fund.igher than those who support them. The projects are only doing marginally better with urban and suburban voters.

The shift has U.S. politicians either embracing the public rage or scrambling to catch up with it. In Democratic Party primaries earlier this month, Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and House of Representatives nominee Will Lawrence, a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, both won their races with campaigns that emphasized their opposition to local data centre development, Politico reported at the time. Kansas gubernatorial nominee Cindy Holscher won her campaign after shifting her position and calling for a statewide data centre moratorium, while Tennessee House nominee Justin Pearson has been a sharp opponent all along.

“People really effing hate data centres,” El-Sayed told an event last month.

This week, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro “enacted new rules that effectively halt any new data centres that face opposition from local officials,” Politico reports. That’s a big pivot for Shapiro, who’s considered a possible presidential nominee in 2028 and “has gone from wooing tech companies a year ago to calling for action against “greedy developers.” His Republican opponent for governor, state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, is calling for an outright ban.

Other Republicans are calling for “guardrails” on data centre development “protect skeptical communities from unchecked AI growth, as well as the rollback of industry tax breaks,” Semafor writes. Donald Trump said Wednesday the industry “could use a little public relations help,” after introducing a ratepayer protection pledge in March that would have developers paying for the hundreds or thousands of megawatts of electricity the centres demand.

Earlier this month, Allie Rosenbluth, campaign manager at Oil Change Action, said rising energy costs due to U.S. liquefied natural gas exports and data centre development are shifting the dynamics in the midterm campaign.

“People are really starting to connect the dots that energy affordability and climate are major issues,” Rosenbluth told The Mix. “They’re experiencing it in their energy bills, and they’re also experiencing it if they live next to a data centre or an LNG export terminal. So these things are top of mind to voters.”

Recent polling in Canada suggest the fierce opposition to the Synapse project in Olds is the leading edge of a bigger trend. In a Nanos Research survey for the Globe and Mail, released this week, 64% of respondents said they would oppose or somewhat oppose financial incentives for data centre development.

Opposition was a bit stronger—43.1% against, and 24% somewhat opposed—among Canadians aged 18 to 34. “If you’re a 20-something Canadian, and you’re hearing that the government wants to promote AI data centres, you might be wondering whether the government is investing in something that will put you out of a job,” Nanos founder Nik Nanos told the Globe.

Last month, 81% of participants in a Leger poll said they were worried that data centres would lead to higher power bills, while 79% were concerned about their energy consumption, water use, and greenhouse gas emissions, The Canadian Press reported at the time. At the same time, 46% said domestic data centres would give Canada more control over its digital footprint, and 44% said they would support data centre development in their provinces, compared to 42% opposed.

In June, 68% of respondents told the Angus Reid Institute that AI and tech companies should be subject to heavy regulation, even if it slowed down development, although 74% said they doubted governments could keep up with the technology.
This story is part of The Energy Mix’s partnership with Small Change Fund.

Carney announces $1.2B in funding to protect oceans

Carney announces $1.2B in funding to protect oceans as major projects loom
Funding aims to reduce effects of underwater noise on marine life and boost fisheries enforcement

Brenna Owen · The Canadian Press · Posted: Sep 29, 2026 6:19 PM PDT | Last Updated: September 29

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Estimated 5 minutes The Wilderness Committee advocacy group pushed back against Prime Minister Mark Carney's announced investment in ocean protection on Tuesday, saying it was "pennies" compared to Ottawa's $10-billion contribution to the proposed Roberts Bank port expansion. (Nav Rahi/CBC)
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Prime Minister Mark Carney announced $1.2 billion in federal funding for ocean protections Tuesday, as the country moves toward decisions on a new pipeline to the West Coast and the expansion of a major port in Metro Vancouver.

The major projects would mean "more ships on the water and more pressure on the habitats that we are all working to protect," Carney said.

"We must scale up our systems to protect marine life in the event that something goes wrong," he said.

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The funds have been earmarked for several new measures, including expanding the Canadian Coast Guard's capacity to monitor marine traffic, a national near-shore weather forecasting system and a marine mammal oil spill response plan.

Carney said the work will also involve upgrading search and rescue stations and improving seabed mapping and fisheries conservation efforts. Carney is seen making the announcement Tuesday in North Vancouver. (Nav Rahi/CBC)

The announcement in North Vancouver came ahead of a Thursday deadline for Ottawa to decide whether to designate a proposed pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia's south coast as a project of national interest.

"This project would diversify our economy, create almost 150,000 new jobs right across Canada, and make us much less dependent on the United States," Carney said.

"But we know it's not just what we build, it's how we build. And this government is taking a protect-while-we-build approach to new investments." The Panagia Thalassini oil tanker is seen on the harbour behind Prime Minister Mark Carney and Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson as he speaks on Tuesday. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

Carney said the proposed pipeline would avoid "highly sensitive areas" and its route would be similar to the existing Trans Mountain pipeline, while the tanker ban along B.C.'s north coast will remain in effect.

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Albertans head to the polls in a matter of weeks to vote in a referendum on separating from Canada.

Earlier in the day, LNG Canada confirmed it will proceed with a Phase 2 expansion of its facility in Kitimat, B.C., a project that would double its capacity.
Port expansion

Carney has also previously backed the proposed expansion of the Port of Vancouver's Roberts Bank terminal, telling reporters during a visit to the facility in July that his government was looking to provide about $10 billion for the project, part of Ottawa's effort to "grow our exports away from the United States."

The port was "already at such tight capacity," Carney said Tuesday, and the expansion would help Canada "trade more with different partners, to diversify, to reinforce our sovereignty."
Facing criticism, Carney says he has a 'very clear mandate' to push through major economic changes
Diana Fox Carney appointed Canada's 1st ocean envoy, chair of Our Ocean Conference

As more ships dock at the Port of Vancouver, he said the government must bolster measures for protecting the ocean and marine life, including the endangered southern resident killer whales that depend on waters off B.C.'s south coast.

Carney highlighted plans to address underwater noise that affects whales, saying Ottawa is providing $100 million to build long-term capacity to monitor, assess and mitigate the noise along all three coasts, Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic.
As Carney advances Metro Vancouver port expansion, environmentalists raise concern for at-risk species
Why expansion of Delta, B.C., container port is going hand-in-hand with Alberta pipeline

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In waters off Vancouver, he said Ottawa was setting a goal to hold underwater noise to 2023 levels, even as vessel traffic increases.

There will be "rigorous conditions" around construction, he said.

"To put it simply, if a killer whale gets too close to the site, work must stop," Carney said of the proposed Roberts Bank expansion.

WATCH | Alberta's new pipeline route ends at Roberts Bank:

The crowded, muddy reality of Alberta’s new pipeline route

July 24|

Duration

5:40

The terminal is located near the mouth of the Fraser River in Delta, B.C., and Carney said there will be funding for Indigenous-led stewardship and restoration in the Lower Fraser River Estuary.

Another $90 million will be used to boost front-line fisheries enforcement and equip fisheries officers with modernized tools, including drones, Carney said.

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The new funding also includes $186 million for the Northern Shelf Bioregion Reconciliation Framework Agreement — to advance what Carney's office described as collaborative governance, conservation, waterway management, emergency preparedness and cumulative effects work in the Great Bear Sea region.

WATCH | How the North Coast tanker ban works:

What politicians get wrong about the B.C. oil tanker ban

January 11|

Duration

10:32

Coastal First Nations welcomed the funding, with the group's president, Samuel Schooner, saying it marked a step toward advancing collaborative efforts to prepare for the expected surge in vessel traffic that would stem from major projects.

"This brings increased risks of accidents as well as impacts on sensitive coastal ecosystems," Schooner said in a statement. "Our communities have consistently advocated for investments in safe and responsible shipping to keep pace with increased economic development."

The Wilderness Committee, meanwhile, said $1.2 billion for oceans protection was "pennies" compared with Ottawa's $10-billion contribution to the proposed Roberts Bank expansion.

The advocacy group says the federal government's newly proposed Bill C-39, aimed at strengthening the economy, undermines protections for species at risk.

Newsom signs 13 AI bills, including a ban on AI-only firings

Newsom signs 13 AI bills, including a ban on AI-only firings

Newsom signed the No Robo Bosses Act among 13 AI bills, a day after saying what he heard at Trump’s AI lunch was ‘bullsht’. He also vetoed a smart glasses privacy bill.

October 2, 2026 - 11:53 am




Gavin Newsom speaking at the California Economic Summit in Fresno, November 2019
Credit: Government of California (public domain) via Wikimedia Commons


In California, an AI system will no longer be able to fire or discipline a worker on its own. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the No Robo Bosses Act on Wednesday, his office said. It was one of 13 AI bills he signed that day.

The law, SB 947, bars employers from relying solely on an automated decision system to discipline or fire staff. A human must check the system’s output against other evidence, such as manager evaluations or peer reviews. Simply approving it is not enough. Employers must also tell workers when they used such a system. The law takes effect on 1 July 2027.


“No worker should ever be fired or disciplined by a robo boss,” State Senator Jerry McNerney, who wrote the bill, said in a statement.

The state labour commissioner, the attorney general and local prosecutors can enforce it. McNerney’s office called it the first such law in the US.
Surveillance, deepfakes and health care

The other bills cover workplace surveillance, AI in health care, deepfakes and digital replicas. Others deal with notice when technology displaces workers, AI transparency, gene synthesis equipment, and AI use by lawyers and schools. AB 1883 bans workplace tools that use AI to read a worker’s emotional state or collect neural data. AB 1331 bans monitoring staff in bathrooms with audio, video or AI tools.


“AI should expand opportunity, not come at the expense of workers and families,” Newsom said in the announcement.

Lorena Gonzalez leads the California Federation of Labor Unions. She said the governor had shown how to put human oversight over AI at work.
A swipe at Washington

The signings came a day after President Donald Trump hosted tech chiefs at the White House. Several AI companies signed a voluntary AI safety accord there. Newsom criticised that meeting in a video posted on X.


“What I heard in Washington DC yesterday is bullsh*t, and that should scare the hell out of everybody,” Newsom said.

He also signed an executive order telling state agencies to keep calling the technology “artificial intelligence”, Gizmodo reported. Trump had ordered federal agencies to call it “super intelligence” the day before. Earlier in September, Newsom pitched an AI kill switch for California.
A veto on smart glasses

Newsom also vetoed SB 1130, the Associated Press reported. It would have penalised people who use smart glasses to secretly record others. That covered changing rooms, doctors’ offices and other private spaces. It would also have required wearables to show a light when recording from 2028.

In his veto letter, Newsom said the bill’s definition of a wearable recording device was too broad. It could cover some smartwatches, he wrote. California already bars recording people without consent in private spaces, he noted. TechNet, a group whose members include Meta, Google and Amazon, opposed the bill.

Google, OpenAI and Anthropic will own AI safety standards body without government oversight-terrifying

Google, OpenAI and Anthropic plan AI safety body, The Information reports

Google, OpenAI and Anthropic want to launch the Standards Authority for Frontier AI by early 2027, The Information reports. The labs had first wanted a body with federal oversight.

September 28, 2026 - 9:44 am


Credit: Aerps.com on Unsplash


Google, OpenAI and Anthropic plan to set up their own AI safety standards body, without government oversight, The Information reported on Thursday. The three companies hope to launch it by the end of the year or early in 2027.

They tentatively plan to call it the Standards Authority for Frontier AI, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Information’s Leo Schwartz and Stephanie Palazzolo. Members of the working group have considered several well-known figures for the chief executive role. TNW has not independently verified the report.
A self-regulator on the FINRA model

The labs based the plan on FINRA, the self-regulatory organisation for US brokerage firms. Reports that followed The Information’s story say it would set standards for testing models before release, for reporting safety incidents and for certifying outside auditors. Its enforcement powers have not been set out.

The labs first wanted a body with federal oversight, according to the report. That plan stalled when a draft White House executive order failed to win enough support inside the Trump administration.
A week of calls for standards

The plan follows a busy week for AI governance. On 22 September, 21 countries and the EU called for international oversight of frontier AI. A day later, Sam Altman told the UN Security Council that OpenAI would slow down, and called for national and international standards for frontier AI.

OpenAI has also asked Washington to lead a global standards push for AI systems that improve themselves.
Critics of self-regulation

Industry self-policing has drawn criticism in recent days. Bill Gates said last week that self-regulation is not enough for AI. Former Meta executive Nick Clegg said at HumanX in Amsterdam that AI labs cannot keep regulating themselves.

The new body would cover only the three frontier labs at the start. The reports do not name Microsoft, Meta or xAI as members.

America posts a job market slowdown

 America posts a surprise job market slowdown

Illustration: Morning Brew Inc., Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Relatively few Americans had to come up with a fun fact to share with their new coworkers last month. The US added an underwhelming 29,000 jobs in September, the government said yesterday—below the 84,000 that economists surveyed by Dow Jones expected.

Government data released yesterday shows that last month:Even healthcare, typically the all-star job-creating industry, disappointed, gaining just 17,000 workers, compared with the 33,000 jobs it added in an average month over the past year.
Construction and manufacturing added a modest 11,000 and 9,000 jobs, respectively.
AI-exposed industries like business services and the information sector shed jobs.

The summer’s strong job creation may have been a mirage: Government statisticians revised down July and August jobs numbers by a combined 60,000.
The job market is still chugging along

Though the unemployment rate notched up from 4.1% to 4.2% last month, that’s still low by historical standards. That uptick is largely due to the labor pool growing (the unemployment gauge only includes people working or looking for a job). Economists say fewer new jobs have been needed lately to keep employment stable since the labor pool is stagnating amid President Trump’s immigration crackdown and baby boomers retiring.

But…pay isn’t keeping up with inflation. Yearly wage growth slowed to 3% last month, the lowest rate since the pandemic.
What does this tell the Fed?

It might strengthen the case not to hike rates. Wall Street is betting the anemic hiring numbers will compel Warsh and co. to prioritize employment stability over inflation this month.

The trading odds of another rate hike in October dropped to 20% yesterday, from 24% the day before, per FedWatch. Last month, the Fed hiked interest rates for the first time in three years, citing the need to fight inflation amid a strong labor market.

Looking ahead…this is the last monthly jobs report before the midterm elections in November, in which economic woes are expected to be a major issue.

Starbucks to close 250 stores this week

Starbucks to close 250 stores this week

Brooke DiPalma · Senior Reporter
Fri, September 25, 2026 at 2:29 AM PDT 2 min read

Starbucks (SBUX) plans to close more unprofitable locations as its turnaround under CEO Brian Niccol continues.

In a letter posted to Starbucks' blog and sent to employees on Thursday, COO Mike Grams shared plans to close 250 stores in the US and Canada this week, reducing its store count by roughly 1%.


"We have carefully reviewed our North America coffeehouse portfolio and identified locations where we do not believe we can consistently deliver the experience we want for customers and partners or where we don't see a path to acceptable financial performance," Grams wrote to staff.

Almost exactly a year ago, the company made the same move to reduce its locations by 1%. Starbucks had 18,371 locations in North America last quarter, compared to 18,734 stores a year ago.
Starbucks in Punta Norte, Mexico City. (Courtesy: Starbucks)

While Starbucks closes some stores, it's remodelling others. On Wednesday, the company announced plans to accelerate coffeehouse redesigns that bring back chairs and a cozier vibe to cafés. Starbucks said it will complete at least 1,500 "uplifts" by the end of fiscal year 2026 and ramp up further in fiscal 2027.

The company also said it plans to open a technology hub in India next year.

The news followed a strong third quarter, indicating that Niccol's turnaround plan was making progress.

Starbucks posted same-store sales growth of 7.9%, more than the 5.7% growth Wall Street expected, according to Bloomberg data, and above the 6.2% jump seen in Q2. Last year, the company saw a 2% decline in overall same-store sales growth in the third quarter.

William Blair analyst Sharon Zackfia said the store closures could be "modestly beneficial" to same-store sales growth and maintained her Outperform rating on the shares.

Starbucks stock is up 10% over the past year, underperforming the S&P 500's (^GSPC) 15% gain.

BC Is Quietly Planning to Split Forest Lands

BC Is Quietly Planning to Split Forest Lands into Three Use Zones
The policy shift, revealed in a government email obtained by The Tyee, takes First Nations by surprise.

Ben Parfitt Today The Tyee

Ben Parfitt is a reporter at The Tyee covering forestry and related issues.Our journalism is supported by readers like you. Click here to support The Tyee.


Details are lacking on which BC forests will be zoned for ‘commercial forestry, multiple-use’ or ‘conservation and protection.’ Photo via Olam Films.


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British Columbia’s government is contemplating carving the province into three zones to “provide greater clarity” to the timber industry, and discussions have so far left out First Nations.

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The zoning plan is outlined in an email sent in early July to public servants in the Ministry of Forests and the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, a copy of which was provided to The Tyee by a source who requested anonymity.

“The concept will consider three zones: commercial forestry, multiple-use and conservation and protection,” the leaked email reads, adding the zones will “provide greater clarity to achieve both investment stability and community economic benefits, and biodiversity and ecosystem stewardship goals for the land base.”

The email provides no detail on how much forest might ultimately be placed in each of the zones, leaving open questions about just what impact the proposed plan would have on everything from at-risk species to rural and First Nations communities, and a logging industry that has been on a sharp downward spiral for years.

It also makes no mention of whether any parties with a stake in a reshuffled forestry deck received advance notice of the government’s plans. In response to questions, the Ministry of Forests said only that consultations “will begin shortly.”

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The Tyee has learned that the email circulated widely to staff in both ministries and was sent by three senior political appointees — Makenzie Leine and Ian Meier, deputy and associate deputy ministers of the Ministry of Forests, and Lori Halls, deputy minister of the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship.

Its contents drew a sharp rebuke from Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, who told The Tyee that the organization’s 140-plus First Nations members received no notice of the government’s intentions.

“I find it highly offensive that the provincial government would consider such a momentous shift... without even giving the First Nations, the title holders in this province, a heads-up to say we’re well into the planning of this,” Phillip told The Tyee.

“It’s a complete breach of DRIPA [the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act] and the responsibilities that B.C. has under DRIPA to closely consult with First Nations.”

The Council of Forest Industries meanwhile welcomed the initiative, linking it to a Ministry of Forests objective to increase logging rates in the province’s forests to 45 million cubic metres per year — a target Premier David Eby set out in his mandate letter to Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar.

“We support the government’s commitment to achieving a minimum annual harvest of 45 million cubic metres and are prepared to work with government, First Nations and other partners and stakeholders to explore practical policy approaches that help deliver that target,” Michael Armstrong, the Council of Forest Industries’ senior vice-president and chief forester, told The Tyee.

Aim is ‘greater clarity,’ says ministry

The Tyee reached out to both ministries for comment, hearing back only from the Ministry of Forests.

“B.C.’s forest sector is under significant pressure,” the ministry said in a prepared response to questions, noting those challenges include “volatile markets, low pulp prices, increasing transportation costs, limited fibre supply due to challenges including the end of the beetle kill and wildfires, climate-driven wildfires, and punishing duties and tariffs imposed by the United States.”

The ministry added that a zoning effort would result in more stability for an embattled industry.

“By providing greater clarity on where forestry activities will occur and where conservation will occur, we can support jobs, communities, and sustainable forest management, and also enhance biodiversity and ecosystem health outcomes,” the ministry said.

Zoning approach was floated before

The idea of zoning B.C.’s lands is not new. The Tyee has previously reported that calls to delineate areas of the province where logging and resource developments would be allowed, and areas where they would not, go back decades. But successive governments didn’t act — until now.

Almost 30 years ago, Clark Binkley, a former dean at the University of British Columbia’s faculty of forestry, was a notable zoning proponent.

As environmental groups battled organized labour and the forest industry over proposed protected areas during the so-called “war in the woods” in the 1990s, Binkley argued that there was ample opportunity to vastly expand parkland while also increasing timber production.

Binkley’s proposed solution was effectively a two-zone system where logging companies were permitted to intensively manage a portion of B.C.’s lands to grow trees and there was a corresponding increase in the number of protected forests.

“Such a policy could lead to substantially higher, sustainable timber harvests as well as a system of parks that covers more than half the province,” Binkley wrote in 1997.Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs: ‘There’s a mindset within the provincial NDP government of fast-tracking everything.’ Photo by David P. Ball.

More recently, the provincial government received a report it commissioned from two professional foresters on the future of old-growth forests in B.C. Authored by Al Gorley and Garry Merkel and released in 2020, the report called for a three-zone system for the province.

Gorley and Merkel’s zones included protected forests and ecosystems that would be “largely left alone,” converted forests where logging had continued and would likely continue to occur, and what they called “consistent” forests that would be managed to keep their ecosystems and biological diversity in a healthy state. The Tyee reached out to both Merkel and Gorley to ask their thoughts on the government’s proposed zones but did not hear back.

Test phase to be unveiled in the fall

The zoning email notes that the initiative will be led by two assistant deputy ministers — Jessica Coster from the Ministry of Forests and David Muter from the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship.

It goes on to say that the “project team is in the exploration and assessment phase and will bring together teams from both ministries to examine options and identify how the model could be applied in practice to selected candidate areas.”

The email makes no mention of potential candidate sites or regions but says an initial report to the provincial cabinet on how such a zoning system might work could come as early as this fall.

“We will have more to say in the fall about the next steps in this process, specifically around a test phase,” the ministry said in response to The Tyee’s questions, adding:

“The test phase will include continued partnership and engagement with First Nations along with focused engagement with industry, local governments, environmental non-government organizations (ENGOs), and other interested parties, as well as ongoing public updates.”

The ministry went on to say that “engagement” with various parties will begin shortly, and that those parties include industry, First Nations and local governments. It also said it would have more to say publicly on its plans in the next couple of weeks.

Worries about how lines are drawn

Mike Morris, a former provincial cabinet minister and thrice-elected MLA for Prince George-Mackenzie, expressed alarm at the initiative’s timing, which he noted comes on the heels of decades of heightened and unsustainable logging that has caused wildlife populations to tumble.

He went on to say that, to be credible, any rezoning effort must consider watershed boundaries or valleys, given the demonstrated damage that has been done as a result of extensive clearcut logging and road-building in many watersheds.

“There’s 30 years of science that says that clearcutting causes increased frequency, magnitude and duration of floods and droughts, which leads to increased wildfires and landslides and all that other kind of stuff,” Morris saic. “If they don’t have science at the forefront [of this zoning effort], they will fail miserably.”BC Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar. Consultations on the forest lands zoning plan will ‘begin shortly,’ says his ministry. Photo via BC government Flickr.

Peachland resident Taryn Skalbania agrees with Morris, saying that any new zoning exercise must recognize the importance of watersheds. She is the founder of the Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance, an organization that came into being after landslides in the heavily logged local watershed so contaminated the community’s drinking water with sediment that local residents were forced to boil their water for months on end.

Skalbania said that in the past year she and other Okanagan residents have met directly or been on conference calls with 11 MLAs in the Okanagan, Kootenay and central Interior regions as well as with Ravi Parmar and Randene Neill, minister of water, land and resource stewardship.

In every meeting, Skalbania said, the MLAs and cabinet ministers were told that more must be done to safeguard watersheds and that areas of unlogged forests in watersheds, in particular, should be considered as priorities for protection.

Skalbania said she favours a rezoned land base in the province that begins with conserving remaining unlogged natural forests and protecting community watersheds. She also advocates for a second “restoration zone” where lands damaged by previous industrial activities are treated with an eye to bringing back wildlife, stabilizing soils and safeguarding water supplies. And she favours a third zone where logging is permitted, but only on a portion of the land where logging has already taken place.



As Forests Burn Again, BC Is Changing Tactics ‘On the Fly’read more

Old-growth forests should be absolute “no-go zones,” Skalbania said, adding that restored lands should be off limits as well. “We’re not restoring them just to cut them down again, but restoring them on the landscape to provide shade, water storage and biodiversity,” she said.

‘We’re in a biodiversity crisis,’ says conservationist

Anthony Britneff, who worked in several senior positions for the provincial Ministry of Forests over four decades, told The Tyee that it is hard to envision a rezoning exercise led by his former employer that places any restrictions on where logging companies may go.

Hitting the logging target of 45 million cubic metres would, he predicted, see all unlogged valley bottoms outside of existing parks placed into the proposed commercial forestry zone.

Lands designated multiple-use would almost certainly remain open to logging as well, Britneff predicted, noting that multiple-use has been a cornerstone of provincial forest policy for decades.

Finally, he said it is not out of the question that lands zoned for conservation and protection might be subject to periodic logging as well on the grounds that it would prevent wildfires or insects from allegedly damaging or destroying such forests.

Britneff warned that the cumulative effect of all that would likely be the logging of all remnant old-growth forests, leading to “the complete ruination of the province’s rivers and biodiversity.” Any rezoning of provincial lands, Britneff added, should occur only after a “public inquiry and widespread consultation.”Michelle Connolly of Conservation North: ‘The only way’ zoning forests can ‘avert calamity’ is by protecting ‘all primary forest.’ Photo supplied.

In response to questions, the ministry said that its proposed commercial forestry zone would “provide the greatest certainty for forestry operations.”



Logging Companies Are Pushing into High-Elevation Forestsread more

It added that logging and other industrial activities would also be permitted in the second proposed multiple-use zone, although in that zone more of a priority would be placed on “biodiversity, restoration, and ecosystem health.”

In the third proposed conservation and protection zone, the ministry said “commercial forestry would not be permitted.” But it did not rule out that such zones might require “active stewardship” to “improve biodiversity, ecosystem health, habitat, and ecological function over time.”

It did not define what such active stewardship might involve.

Michelle Connolly, director of Prince George-based Conservation North, says “the only zonation system that works for biodiversity and ecosystem health” is one that protects so-far unlogged primary or natural forests from chainsaws.

She said her organization rejects any suggestion that some logging may be necessary in such old-growth forests to restore their health and make them more “resilient” in the face of disturbances such as wildfires and insect attacks.

“We’re in a biodiversity crisis and the only way to avert calamity is to build a three-zone system that protects all primary forest (Zone 1), allocates degraded land to restoration in a permanent way (Zone 2), and dedicates some previously logged areas to responsible forestry,” Connolly said in an email.



The Forest Quietly Removed from BC’s Old-Growth Deferral Listread more

In addition to the Forests Ministry pushing to find more timber for the logging industry, Chief Phillip noted that the provincial government also recently pushed through passage of bills 14 and 15 — the Renewable Energy Projects (Streamlined Permitting) Act and the Infrastructure Projects Act. Both are intended to expedite major projects in the province, including new pipelines, liquified natural gas plants and mines, Phillip said.

“There’s a mindset within the provincial NDP government of fast-tracking everything,” Phillip said, adding that he worries the zoning exercise could be fast-tracked as well.

Rather than that, Phillip said, the government should approach any rezoning exercise as it did when it pursued creating new parks and land-use plans in the 1990s.

Phillip noted that when land and resource management plans, or LRMPs, were pursued in the 1990s, “there was intensive consultation with ranchers, the timber community, municipalities, regional districts and First Nations.”

“That process was very robust from the outset,” Phillip said.


Read more: Indigenous, Labour + Industry, Environment

U.S. economy pulled back in September, adding a disappointing 29,000 jobs

U.S. economy pulled back in September, adding a disappointing 29,000 jobs

MS NOW · 41 minutes ago
by Charlie Herman · News

After an unexpectedly strong jobs report in August, employers created fewer jobs in September than economists had forecast. The Labor Department said Friday that the economy added 29,000 jobs last month, lower than the 90,000 expected. Revisions to the previous two months found 60,000 fewer jobs than were created than previously reported.

The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.2% from 4.1%.

“The US labor market delivered more of the same in September,” wrote Cory Stahle, senior economist at Indeed. “Steadiness without a spark.”

The slowdown in hiring last month gives the Federal Reserve room to wait and see how the economy is faring as interest rates rise.

“A report like this may make some committee members hesitant to rasie rates again in October,” said Stahle “The labor market is still aloft, but it’s unclear how long it can keep circling while it waits for inflation to clear the runway.”

Friday’s release is the last jobs report before the midterm elections, as Republicans fight to maintain their majorities in the House and Senate. Voters are citing higher gas and grocery prices driven by President Donald Trump’s tariffs and war with Iran.

Nationwide, the average gallon of gasoline is nearly $4.4 nearly 40% higher compared to a year ago, according to AAA. The pain is exacerbated by wage increases that have not kept up with inflation. Compared to a year ago, average hourly earnings for private sector employees rose by 3%.

For the past several months, unemployment has been consistently low, but that’s because more people are leaving the labor force than finding a job. It’s a subject that has some economists scratching their head asking why? Are more people retiring? Is it a shortage of immigrant workers as many are being denied visas to work in the U.S.? Are people giving up on finding a job and simply leaving the workforce? Is it a statistical issue?

Friday’s jobs numbers come a day after the Commerce Department reported the economy grew 2.2% in the second quarter of this year, more than previously reported, but slower than the 2.5% growth in the first part of the year.

As for who is finding work, many jobs are in lower-paying industries like health care, where 17,000 new jobs were created overall.

The September unemployment numbers support the Federal Reserve’s recent decision to prioritize lowering inflation over stimulating job growth by raising interest rates.

In its statement announcing the rate hike at its last meeting, the central bank wrote, “Economic activity is expanding at a solid pace” and that “job gains have kept pace with the workforce, and the unemployment rate has changed little.”

Friday’s report still clears the way for the Fed to raise rates again. The question is when: at its next meeting, less than a week before the midterm elections, or when the bank holds its last meeting of the year in December?

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

The post U.S. economy pulled back in September, adding disappointing 29,000 jobs appeared first on MS NOW.

NASA Telescope Careening Down to Earth After Failed Rescue Mission

NASA Telescope Careening Down to Earth After Failed Rescue Mission
It's not dead quite yet, but its days are counted.

By Victor Tangermann

Published Oct 1, 2026 1:06 PM EDT
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It was an extremely ambitious mission with the best of intentions.

With the help of contractor Katalyst Space Technologies, NASA launched a specialized robotic spacecraft in July in a bid to give the agency’s aging Swift observatory a desperately-needed nudge.

But it didn’t take long for the unprecedented rescue attempt to spiral into a crisis — literally. The robot started spinning uncontrollably, causing it to tumble back towards the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere.

And now, Swift — which has been circling our planet for over two decades, providing scientists with invaluable observations of the cosmos — is about to succumb to a similar fate. The space telescope’s orbit is rapidly decaying, which will soon force NASA to wrap up the mission for good.

According to an update from the agency, Swift is currently orbiting the Earth at around 200 miles. By early to mid-October, it could dip below 185 miles, a threshold below which “spacecraft operations become more difficult and science observations will likely cease.”

But that hasn’t stopped scientists from eking out every bit of life out of the observatory. The team at NASA turned back on one of its three scientific instruments, the Burst Alert Telescope, which had to be shut off in April to conserve power while repositioning the spacecraft’s solar panels.

They’ve also allowed the observatory to once again automatically point its telescopes at new gamma ray bursts, the extremely high-energy flashes in the sky it was primarily designed to study.

However, that “return to science has caused Swift to resume its rapid sinking,” NASA notes, which doesn’t bode well for its imminent future.

Reentry through the atmosphere could prove fatal, not just for the aging observatory, but potentially for anything in its path as well. Fortunately, the risks of its remains falling on anyone’s head remain incredibly slim.

“While it’s possible some hardware from the Swift spacecraft may survive re-entry due to its size, the probability of debris causing significant property damage or physical harm to anyone is very small,” space tracking company LeoLabs wrote in a statement to CNN. “More likely, as is the case with most debris that survives re-entry, it will fall into the ocean or on land that’s uninhabited.”

NASA’s daring, but ultimately ill-fated, rescue mission proved too little too late. But contractor Katalyst is optimistic that future spacecraft aren’t necessarily doomed to meet their demise like Swift.

“While we did not accomplish every objective we set out to achieve, in less than a year we went from mission concept to launching and operating the first commercial space robot. This is a foundation we can build on,” Katalyst Space CEO Ghonhee Lee in an official statement.

“The future of space will require spacecraft that can do more once they get there,” he added. “We’re building toward that future.”

More on the telescope: NASA Rescue Mission Spirals Into Crisis


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Victor Tangermann
Senior Editor


I’m a senior editor at Futurism, where I edit and write about NASA and the private space sector, as well as topics ranging from SETI and artificial intelligence to tech and medical policy.

America’s Cup: Revealing ARC Team USA

 America’s Cup: Revealing ARC Team USA

The American Racing Challenger Team USA (USA), a late entry for the 38th America's Cup, took another step toward the 2027 Match. Now referred to as ARC Team USA (thank you for shortening!), a crew list has been revealed.

With five crew needed for the AC75, the founding sailing squad includes a blend of Olympic success, America’s Cup experience, and emerging talent. The initial lineup comprises Lucas Calabrese, Riley Gibbs, Hans Henken, Harry Melges IV, Michael Menninger, and Louisa Nordstrom.

“This group represents exactly what we’re trying to build," noted Ken Read, ARC Team USA CEO. "They bring world-class experience, proven performance at the highest levels of our sport, and the potential to help shape the future of American sailing.

"As we continue to build our challenge, we’re committed to creating opportunities for the next generation of talent and establishing a program that can compete at the highest level for years to come. Each of these sailors has demonstrated not only exceptional ability on the water, but also the versatility, work ethic and mindset required to help build something bigger than a single campaign.” - Full report

LNG Canada to go ahead with Phase 2 expansion project in Kitimat, B.C.

LNG Canada to go ahead with Phase 2 expansion project in Kitimat, B.C.
VANCOUVER — LNG Canada says it will go ahead with the Phase 2 expansion project at its liquefied natural gas export terminal in Kitimat, B.C. The expansion will double LNG Canada's capacity to 28 million tonnes a year.

Wudang, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker, fills up at an LNG Canada facility, in an aerial view, in Kitimat, B.C., on Thursday, November 13, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

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VANCOUVER — LNG Canada says it will go ahead with the Phase 2 expansion project at its liquefied natural gas export terminal in Kitimat, B.C.

The expansion will double LNG Canada's capacity to 28 million tonnes a year.

It is one of the five initial projects that were referred to Ottawa's major projects office last year.

LNG Canada CEO Chris Cooper says the project will create thousands of jobs and further strengthen Canada's role as a trusted energy partner.

"LNG Canada Phase 2 is another nation-building investment that demonstrates Canada can build big things when governments, First Nations partners, local communities, skilled trades, contractors and investors work together with shared purpose," Cooper said in statement.

LNG Canada is a joint venture between Shell and Malaysia’s Petronas, PetroChina, Japan's Mitsubishi Corp. and South Korea's KOGAS.

The company exports natural gas that is piped from northwestern Alberta and northeastern British Columbia to the plant in Kitimat, where it is chilled into a liquid state and then loaded onto specialized tankers bound for Asian markets.

The expansion will build on the footprint and infrastructure of the first phase of the project, which began shipping liquefied natural gas last year.

It will add two additional LNG processing units, known as trains, as well as an additional LNG storage tank, condensate tank, loading berth, and expanded utility and process systems.

LNG Canada also said it is working with Coastal GasLink to expand the capacity of the existing 670-kilometre pipeline, which is operated by TC Energy Corp.

In a separate announcement following the LNG Canada decision, TC Energy said it would nearly double the existing capacity of Coastal GasLink by adding new compressor stations and upgrading facilities along the route from Dawson Creek to the LNG Canada liquefaction facility in Kitimat.

"Phase 2 will strengthen Canada’s role in supplying reliable, affordable and secure energy to global markets while creating long-term value for Indigenous and local communities, customers and shareholders," TC Energy CEO François Poirier said in a statement.

LNG Canada will lead the expansion project construction, while Coastal GasLink will remain the owner, operator and permit holder of the pipeline and associated facilities.

The first phase of LNG Canada has been beset by equipment issues that have resulted in flaring in excess of what's allowed under its permits. Flaring is the controlled burning of natural gas for safety reasons.

The LNG Canada partners have said it's a normal part of project startup, but environmental and community groups have raised concerns about the health and safety impacts.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2026.

Companies in this story: (TSX:TRP)

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Anthropic ‘warns of existential AI risks to humanity’ in IPO document

 Anthropic ‘warns of existential AI risks to humanity’ in IPO document

Reported admission to investors of AI’s ‘self-preserving behaviours’ comes as company prepares for a potential $2tn flotation

Dan Milmo, Global technology editor Tue 29 Sep 2026 11.17 BST
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Anthropic is telling investors that advanced AI could pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity”, according to reports, as it prepares for a potential $2tn (£1.5tn) flotation.

The warning inside the startup’s IPO prospectus, which has yet to be made public, was reported by Reuters and the Financial Times. It follows the company’s call for a slowdown in breakneck development of the technology – a warning echoed by rivals.

The prospectus – a document outlining a company’s finances, growth plans and risk profile ahead of a share listing – is said to warn that AI models could exhibit “self-preserving behaviours”, including attempts to “resist shutdown”, to “conceal or manipulate information” and behaviour “resembling blackmail”.

“Our development of highly advanced models, platforms, and applications and expansion of use cases could further ⁠increase the risk that our models cause harm,” the developer of the Claude chatbot reportedly said, adding that the potential for a model to be aware it was being tested created a “significant limitation” on Anthropic’s ability to assess model safety.

Anthropic declined to comment.

Companies preparing to go public routinely report on risks ranging from safety issues to regulatory concerns, but warnings about a product causing human extinction reflect heightened concern about such a consequential technology.

The reported prospectus admission follows a surge in debate about the existential risk question, triggered this month when an Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, resigned warning that people building AI “earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade”.

A senior safety researcher at Anthropic then posted their agreement on X, claiming there was a more than 10% chance it “could kill all humans” within the next decade. Days later, Anthropic’s chief executive, Dario Amodei, said the industry “must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models”.

Some experts have criticized the existential risk warnings, saying they are unverifiable and unscientific. However, there are growing examples of unsanctioned behaviour by the technology, including OpenAI agents – autonomous systems that carry out sequences of tasks without human intervention – hacking dozens of third-party organizations, including the AI startup Hugging Face and Australia’s universal healthcare system.

OpenAI announced on Monday it had cancelled the release of its newest model because of safety concerns. It said the GPT-6.1 Astra model showed higher levels of deception and performed poorly on tests for alignment, the term for ensuring a model adheres to human values and goals.