Feds lease 10 new firefighting aircraft as wildfire season gets underway

 Feds lease 10 new firefighting aircraft as wildfire season gets underway

CBC
Mon, May 25, 2026 at 8:32 a.m. PDT
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A water bomber assists crews on the ground at the Paddy's Pond wildfire just outside St. John's on Aug. 14. (Paul Daly/The Canadian Press - image credit)


Firefighting agencies across Canada have 10 new aircraft they can use as the 2026 wildfire season gets underway.

Eleanor Olszewski, the federal minister of emergency management, announced in Ottawa on Monday that provincial and territorial wildfire agencies can now request the aircraft through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC).

"These additional aircraft will strengthen Canada’s wildfire response, protect front-line personnel and protect communities across the country," she said.

The 10 aircraft include four firefighting air tankers, one birddog plane and five heavy lift helicopters, along with two "support assets."


The aircraft will be pre-positioned across the country based on where expected need will arise, the government said.

Olszewski said the federal government decided to lease the aircraft rather than buy them because doing so meant getting the helicopters and planes into service now rather than waiting three to five years for delivery.

"In terms of timing, which is the most fundamentally important thing, we wanted to make sure that we had aerial firefighting assets in place for this wildfire season," she said.

She also said that the leased aircraft come with pilots and a maintenance program already established.

In the 2025 budget, the federal government announced $316 million in funding over five years to create a national aerial firefighting surge capacity.

CIFFC used money from that funding envelope to lease the 10 new aircraft and two undefined support assets through contracts with Conair Group Inc., Coldstream Helicopters and VIH Helicopters.


CIFFC acts as a hub that co-ordinates the sharing of wildfire resources like personnel, equipment, aircraft, information and expertise across the country's federal, provincial and territorial governments.

New temporary assets

CIFFC will be getting four Dash 8-400 AT airtankers with 10,000-litre tanks that can hold water or foam/gel retardant.

It will also be getting three Airbus AS332 L and L1 helicopters that have 4,000-litre drop buckets and a cruising speed of 270 km/h.

Both the Airbus helicopters and the airtankers are being leased from May 1 until Sept. 27.

CIFFC will also be leasing two Sikorsky S-92A helicopters with tanks that can hold up to 5,000 litres of water or fire retardant.

The Sikorsky helicopters are on lease from May 22 until Oct. 18.

The two support assets are mobile forward-attack tanker bases. These bases can be set up quickly at airports near wildfires to allow for the rapid refuelling, loading and dispatching of aerial support aircraft.

NDP MP Gord Johns, who represents the B.C. riding of Courtenay-Alberni and has long advocated for the federal government to establish an aerial firefighting fleet, welcomed the news.

"With another dangerous wildfire season already underway, leasing aircraft is an important step, but Canada also needs a long-term strategy that builds permanent domestic capacity," Johns said in a statement.

What’s up with home insurance nonpayment rates?

  What’s up with home insurance nonpayment rates?

If the arrival of the Summer House reunion special didn’t already tip you off, the US is entering disaster season. But, according to the Wall Street Journal, “many Americans face a near flip-of-the-coin chance” that they’ll get relief from home insurance carriers when weather damages their house. Insurance, not assurance In the outlet’s analysis, the five biggest home insurance groups—Allstate, Farmers Insurance, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, and United Services Automobile Association (USAA)—didn’t pay out on more than 44% of claims resolved last year. That’s up from 36% in 2015. Some of the reasons why include: New risk-assessment methods. Traditionally, insurers based underwriting on historical data—what has happened—but are increasingly using predictive models—what they believe will happen—to set premiums. The use of drone footage to calculate a home’s “risk score” is also driving up costs for some customers. Reinsurance costs. The term essentially refers to insurance for insurance companies, and those prices have increased, too. The rise of extreme weather. A report produced by the Treasury Department last year found that the number of weather and climate disasters causing more than $1 billion in damage increased 5x from 2018 through 2022. Covid-19. Yes, really. Experts say that pandemic-era supply chain snarls and insurance companies’ losses from them continue to be a hidden driver of price hikes. But insurance companies want you to know…that people aren’t super good at filling out claim submissions. Several insurers said that the rise in claims filed by text or through an app has led to more submittals that aren’t up to snuff. A USAA spokesperson said that the WSJ’s number-crunching did not account for “losses below a deductible, claims not pursued by customers, or claims later reopened and paid.” With those accounted for, he said, fewer than 6% of USAA claims were denied. Zoom out: In a Pew Research Center survey of homeowners conducted in March, 42% of respondents said that home insurance premiums have increased by “a lot” over the past few years. Since homeowners insurance is required to secure a mortgage, the ramifications impact consumer spending, the housing market, and more

Trump Mobile’ s T1 Phone

 

Trump Mobile’ s T1 Phone is just a golden rebadge of an old HTC smartphone?

 

Remember the T1 Phone? Yes, the one that suffered long delays at Trump Mobile, then got a redesign mid-way through the advertisement cycle, and got the number of stripes on the US flag wrong? Yeah, that T1 Phone. Well, this is not a truly Made In America phone, and neither is it an original device. The folks over at iFixit tore it down and found that it’s essentially a rebadge of an old HTC smartphone. “Sourcing ICs from multiple suppliers between production runs isn’t uncommon, so I can confidently say that this is the same phone as the HTC U24 Pro,” says the outlet. If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, well, the T1 Phone got a measly reparability score of just 3 out of 10 points.

Pope delivers major AI warning

  Pope delivers major AI warning

Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images

Despite his Chicago roots, the pope didn’t spend yesterday grilling by the lake. Pope Leo XIV issued his first encyclical yesterday, and spent most of the 83-page document offering a warning to Silicon Valley and policy makers about artificial intelligence. The encyclical—a pastoral letter outlining the church’s position on a topic—is titled “Maginifica Humanitas,” which translates to Magnificent Humanity. Leo cautioned that AI could be the “new Tower of Babel”: The document warned that AI power shouldn’t be concentrated among just a few private companies and that people’s jobs should be protected. Leo wrote that “the pursuit of greater profits cannot justify choices that systematically sacrifice jobs.” Leo also urged more independent oversight and AI regulation, saying “a more moral AI is not enough if that morality is determined by a few.” Without calling out any specific conflict, the pope criticized AI’s role in normalizing war and demanded developers build a chain of command that doesn’t allow AI to use weapons without human input. It’s no surprise Leo spent so much time discussing AI When he was elected last May, Leo said AI posed “challenges to human dignity, justice, and labor,” equating the technology to advancements during the Industrial Revolution. The AI-themed encyclical was not only the first major theological doctrine of Leo’s pontificate, it was also the first papal encyclical publicly presented by the pope himself. Leo delivered his declaration while standing next to Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah, a gesture to the dialogue between Silicon Valley and the Vatican. Tech leaders traveled to Rome to discuss AI and make their case to Leo amid growing public backlash ahead of the document’s release. A timely treatise: Pope Leo signed the encyclical on May 15, the 135th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s “Rerum Novarum,” a pivotal encyclical that highlighted the need for workers’ protections and addressed the limits of capitalism. But he didn’t just look to the past: The meditation on AI apologized for the Vatican’s role in legitimizing slavery, a first for any pope.

 

Meta’s AI chatbot let hackers compromise over 34,000 Instagram accounts

 

Meta found itself at the center of another embarrassing privacy storm after bad actors tricked its Meta AI chatbot into account takeover. Even the former White House social media account for President Barack Obama and one belonging to a senior official in the Space Force department were breached to post controversial messages. The attack was embarrassingly easy, but devastating. As per internal documents seen by The New York Times, more than 34,000 Instagram accounts were affected. For nearly 20,000 of those accounts, hackers were able to extract sensitive details such as email addresses, phone numbers, and birth dates, among others. “More than 3,500 of the accounts had their user names taken over and changed from the hack,” says the report. Earlier this week, a dormant face scan system was discovered in the software of Meta’s uber-popular smartglasses.

 

Move over, MAGA — it’s time to take America back 

by William S. Becker, opinion contributor   - 06/08/26 8:00 AM ET

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Sixty years ago, after several women were attacked while walking alone after dark, Americans launched the “Take Back the Night” movement, drawing attention to the fact that rapists and thieves had stolen women’s right to feel safe in the simple act of walking home.    

Today, we need a broader “Take Back America” movement because thieves have stolen our ideals, standards, symbols and words. 

The far right cloaked itself in the American flag and made it a symbol of hatred, intolerance, racism and insurrection. We need to take it back. 

Seditionists and militant groups also rewrote the very concept of patriotism, despite trying to overthrow the Constitution and wanting America to become a far different country than the one described in the Declaration of Independence. We need to take back the title of “patriot.” 

Thugs wearing masks and badges have stolen the tranquility of life in American cities and neighborhoods. God bless the people of Minneapolis for showing us how to take it back. 

The MAGA movement and Donald Trump have stolen one of the nation’s two great political parties. Honorable and loyal Republicans need to take it back. 

Trump has stolen and defaced America’s reputation in the world. We are no longer proof that a free people can be trusted to govern themselves. We need to take back democracy and restore the nation’s mission as a global beacon of hope. 

Trump has stolen the prestige and honor of the presidency.  Past presidents have been far from perfect, but we expected them to obey the law, remain faithful to the Constitution, and have high standards for the moral use of power. Trump serves himself rather than the country. He is conducting the most blatant, outrageous, and corrupt presidency in the nation’s history. 

The White House is, and has always been, the people’s house. Trump has stolen it, remodeled it, paved over its garden, and gilded it like a sheik’s palace. We need to take it back. 

Trump is presently trying to steal the most basic and necessary right in a democracy — the right to vote and trust that it is counted. Republicans in several states are helping him by passing voter-restriction laws and manipulating election districts to favor their party. We need to take back the integrity of the vote. 

Trump sold out the government to corporations and special interests that “pay to play.”  We need to take it back. 

Conservatives are stealing our history. They are removing or rewriting the history of slavery and racism in textbooks and exhibits, arguing that these topics result in “white guilt.” This is like Germany redacting the Holocaust. To paraphrase Santayana, the only way to avoid repeating past travesties is to study them. We need to take back our history, own it and learn from it. 

Conservatives have even stolen the concept of manhood.  

Trump, who depicts himself as a superhero, has become the titular leader of America’s “manosphere.” One of his key advisers, Stephen Miller, counsels that the use of force and the drive for absolute power are “the iron laws of the world.” But they are the laws of the jungle, not human civilization. They are the laws of totalitarianism, not democracy.   

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is a parody of male virility, advocating “maximum lethality, not tepid legality” in the military. That standard produced American atrocities such as the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War, the No Gun Ri Massacre during the Korean War, and the Haditha Massacre of Iraqi civilians in 2005. 

Trump has ordered military attacks in at least 10 countries, more than any other president in the modern era. He’s signaled the desire to do more in Greenland, Cuba, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Oman. He has “threatened, left open the possibility of attacking, or actually attacked … roughly one out of every 13 countries in the world.” We need to take back America’s role as a stabilizing force in the world. 

Hypermasculinity has even crept into religion. Many evangelical Christians reportedly feel that Jesus is too liberal. In 2021, the editor of Christianity Today, Russell Moore, told of parishioners who believed that “turn the other cheek” was a weak liberal talking point. “When we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we’re in a crisis,” Moore said. 

We need to take back the expectations of manhood. Real men find balance between the classic qualities of their gender — strength, bravery, assertiveness, and so on — and soft power like empathy, openness, intuition, nurturing and collaboration. 

We have allowed thieves, vandals, ideologues and power brokers to steal our country. It’s time to take it all back. 

William S. Becker is co-editor of and a contributor to “Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government for the People,” and a contributor to Democracy in a Hotter Time, named by the journal Nature as one of 2023’s five best science books. He previously served as a senior official in the Wisconsin Department of Justice. He is currently executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP), a nonpartisan climate policy think tank unaffiliated with the White House.

Trust in news hits a new low, research suggests

Trust in news hits a new low, research suggests
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Paul GlynnCulture reporter

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Trust in the news has fallen to an all-time low globally - the lowest since annual reports by the Reuters Institute began more than a decade ago (2015).


The research published on Tuesday suggests that public trust worldwide is at 37%, three points down on this time last year. In the UK, it has fallen by five points to 30% - 20 points lower than 10 years ago.


More than half of respondents said they now get their news from third-party platforms like social media and video networks, although a similar number still use news websites and TV news as well. Traditional sources are still more popular in the UK.


"Our data points to a mix of anxiety, disengagement and cynicism from audiences, many of whom don't like the way publishers are covering long-running news stories such as immigration, inflation and international conflict," the institute said.

AI chatbots


"But the report also finds openness to new sources and formats, and a belief in what news at its best can offer."


Despite more people accessing news via social media, confidence in that format is much lower than in news overall, at 22%.


And just 10% of those who took part said most of their news needs were met by creators and influencers, suggesting they are complementing rather than replacing traditional media.


Meanwhile, faith in answers from AI chatbots from respondents around the world is at 20%, although weekly use of these has grown from 7% to 10% (and to 16% among people under 35).


And support for impartial news remains high, appearing largely unaffected by changes in news consumption, with support falling by 3% since 2020.


In the US, trust in news stands at 25%, and is even lower (15%) among politically right-leaning Americans.


Some major news outlets have seen big drops, with trust in both CBS News and Fox News down 10 points from 2025, and CNN falling by six.


Online news video is now mainstream everywhere: 77% globally consume online news video each week, and a majority now watch online news video in every market covered by the report. It's now ahead of broadcast TV news in every market apart from Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands.


"The popularity of creators and online video is not evidence that people no longer want news, but it suggests they want news to feel more accessible, more understandable, and more relevant to their lives," the report said.


The findings are based on an online survey of almost 100,000 people in 48 markets.

Why do Americans call it soccer? Thank the Brits

 Why do Americans call it soccer? Thank the Brits

The Football Association’s original 1863 minute book. Jan Kruger/Getty Images

The origins of the word “soccer” aren’t as black and white as the ball might suggest. For starters, it’s not even an American invention. Per Britannica: England’s Football Association formalized the rules for modern-day soccer back in 1863. But rugby football was also a thing back then. To distinguish between the two, some Brits called rugby football “rugger” and the Football Association sport “assoccer,” which got shortened to soccer. Rugby football eventually joined Madonna territory and became simply rugby, while the no-hands sport exclusively became known as football. Things played out differently on our side of the pond, where a new sport, gridiron football, got abbreviated to just football, and the soccer moniker caught on for the other sport. In fact, the word soccer is also used in other countries besides the US, like Canada and Australia, where multiple versions of football are still played

Find a playlist that goes a little lower

 Find a playlist that goes a little lower

Niv Bavarsky

On Tuesdays, the Brew’s Matty Merritt brings you the news you need to make life a little easier during your 9-5, 5-9, or OOO. Need to lock in and send 70 emails? Some people are swearing by music tuned to 432 hertz, a slightly different frequency than the more common 440 hertz (or how many cycles a sound wave completes per second). To the standard listener, a song in the nontraditional tuning might just sound a little lower, but some people think it feels more grounding and can help them relax. Be warned: searching for a 432 hertz compilation on YouTube can lead you down a conspiratorial rabbit hole claiming that 440 hertz was created as a form of mind control. Plus, there’s no real scientific evidence that listening to music at 432 hertz helps with focus or has healing properties—it’s more likely that some people just prefer it. Still, if you want to try it out for yourself, here’s a fun mix.

Gym rats beware: A protein powder shortage is here

 Gym rats beware: A protein powder shortage is here

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We protein-maxxed too close to the sun. You may soon notice higher prices on foods containing whey powder as suppliers struggle to handle the rush to add it to everything from Doritos to Starbucks cold foam, Bloomberg reported yesterday. A major squeeze is underwhey: Whey powder’s wholesale prices jumped to the highest levels on record in April, according to market data reported by The Atlantic. Some whey suppliers are sold out for the rest of the year, according to the USDA, as companies scramble to buy out inventories. Straight-up protein powder has already been affected: A whey powder tub that cost ~$40 on Amazon roughly six months ago hit $54 last month, per The Atlantic. A different supplement company recently paused sales of their tubs of whey after their costs jumped more than 300% from 2023, Bloomberg reported. Now, food companies that planned to counter slowing snack sales by appealing to gains-obsessed Americans and the GLP-1 crowd are considering alternatives like soy powder or milk protein concentrate, which could change the flavors and textures of whey-boosted foods. This shortage may be just a blip. The North American dairy industry is undergoing a $12 billion expansion that’s projected to close the current supply-demand gap in “the near future,” per The Atlantic, since whey protein is a byproduct of cheese making.

Pizza Hut is turning back the clock to the ’90s

 Pizza Hut is turning back the clock to the ’90s

Tim Leedy/Getty Images, Brett Coomer/Getty Images

Pizza Hut is on a mission to inject 1990s nostalgia straight into the veins of Gen X and millennials. Hundreds of locations are being remodeled with red cups, stained-glass lamps, old-school salad bars, and Pac-Man games in an effort to make them look the way they did when your crush wore JNCO jeans. In all, 144 dine-in eateries have been converted into “Pizza Hut Classics” since 2019, when the company partnered with franchisees to turn back time. Tim Sparks, the president of Daland Corporation, which operates 93 Pizza Hut locations, has already put 38 spots through a time machine. CBS reported last week that those eateries are among Daland’s top performers. with some customers making three-hour trips to visit them. The Hut has been getting outpizza’d: Pizza Hut announced in February that it was closing 250 locations due to lagging sales. Contrast that with Domino’s, which is expanding, despite being decades late to stuffed-crust pizza. In true commitment to the bit, Pizza Hut is reheating its “BOOK IT!” summer reading program that dates back to the 1980s and incentivizes kids to pick up a book in exchange for pizza. Enrollment is underway for children in pre-K through sixth grade, and the program starts on June 1.

Record 274 climbers summit Everest from Nepalese side

  

Record 274 climbers summit Everest from Nepalese side in single day

Climbers take advantage of clear weather after threat of ice fall on normal route delayed start of spring season

Peter Beaumont

Thu 21 May 2026 12.06 BST

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A record 274 climbers have reached the summit of Mount Everest from the Nepalese side in a single day after a spring season that started late because of the threat of ice fall on the normal tourist route.

The climbers took advantage of the clear weather on Wednesday, said Rishi Ram Bhandari, of the Expedition Operators Association Nepal.

“This is the highest ​number of climbers in a single day so far,” Bhandari told Reuters, referring to the Nepali record, adding that the number could rise as some climbers who had summited might not have informed the base camp yet.

Members of an expedition team at Khumbu icefall last month. Photograph: Purnima Shrestha/Reuters

All but one of the climbers reached the summit assisted by Sherpa guides and using supplementary bottled oxygen. The Ecuadorian climber Marcelo Segovia summited while climbing independently and without oxygen.

Mountaineering experts often criticise Nepal for allowing large numbers ​of climbers on the mountain, ​which sometimes leads to risky jams or long queues in the “death zone” area below the summit, where the level of natural oxygen is below what is required for human survival.

The large convergence on a single day appears to have occurred as climbers who had been waiting in higher camps for better wind conditions were joined by climbers from lower camps, with some reporting queues and a slow pace of ascent.

The 8,849-metre (29,032ft) peak can be scaled from either the southern side in Nepal or the northern face in China’s Tibet. On 22 May 2019, Nepal’s side had 223 and the Chinese side had 113 climbers on the summit. Chinese authorities, however, have closed the route this year.

Kami Rita Sherpa scaled the peak for the 32nd time this week. Photograph: Purnima Shrestha/Reuters

This week, the veteran mountain guide Kami Rita Sherpa scaled the peak for the 32nd time, breaking his own record for the most summits of Everest. His closest rival, Pasang Dawa Sherpa, scaled the peak for the 30th time this week. Also, Lhakpa Sherpa scaled Everest for the 11th time, topping her own record for the most summits by a female climber.

This year’s Everest climbing season began late because of the risk from a huge serac, glacial ice cliff, hanging over the key route to the summit.

There are 494 climbers and an equal number of Sherpa guides expected to attempt to scale the mountain by the end of May, when the climbing season on the peak ends.

Thousands of people have climbed Everest since it was first scaled on 29 May 1953 by Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and the New Zealander Edmund Hillary.

A Department of Tourism official, Himal Gautam, said he had ‌received preliminary ⁠information that more than 250 people climbed the peak on Wednesday.

Members of an expedition team head to Everest’s Camp 2. Photograph: Purnima Shrestha/Reuters

“We wait for climbers to return, give us photographs and other evidence to prove their ascents and provide them with climbing certificates,” Gautam told Reuters. “Only then we will be able to confirm the numbers.”

Nepal has issued 494 permits to climb Everest this year, each costing $15,000.