Canada assesses risks to imports

Canada assesses risks to imports after India raid finds fake labels on food products
By Maria Cheng and Aditya KalraSeptember 3, 202612:04 AM PDTUpdated 7 hours ago

Item 1 of 2 A Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official displays two packets of Kurkure chips, one (left) with the original nutrition information and another (right) with a modified nutrition information sticker, during a raid at a warehouse in Turbhe, India, August 25, 2026. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas/File Photo
[1/2]A Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official displays two packets of Kurkure chips, one (left) with the original nutrition information and another (right) with a modified nutrition information sticker, during a raid at a warehouse in Turbhe, India, August 25, 2026. REUTERS/Francis... Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab Read more

Summary
Companies
Canada says monitoring reports of mislabelled food exports from India
No sign products from the operation entered Canada, agency says
PepsiCo chips packet found in raid had Canadian-format bilingual label
PepsiCo, Nestle, Coca-Cola, Unilever products among those seized
OTTAWA/NEW DELHI, Sept 3 (Reuters) - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is ‌looking into whether an illegal operation in India that labelled chips and other food products with fake nutrition information and expiry dates represents a risk to the country's imports.
Indian authorities raided a Mumbai warehouse last week, seizing products worth nearly $80,000 as well as chemicals and printing ​machines used to replace old dates and nutritional information on PepsiCo (PEP.O), opens new tab, Nestle (NESN.S), opens new tab, Coca-Cola (KO.N), opens new tab and Unilever (ULVR.L), opens new tab products to make them ​suitable for export. The companies have not been accused of any wrongdoing, and the investigation ⁠is focusing on rogue exporters.

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The Canadian agency "is monitoring the situation to determine whether it presents any risk to imports ​into Canada. At this time, the CFIA has no information indicating that products associated with this operation entered Canada," it said ​in a statement to Reuters.
"The Canadian Food Inspection Agency takes food fraud, including false date markings, inaccurate nutrition information, and misleading origin claims seriously," it added.
It is the first foreign agency to react to the incident.
The crackdown in Mumbai is part of an unprecedented food ​safety drive in India, where both federal and state authorities are aggressively checking for poor hygiene standards or breaches of food ​safety laws, and have at times even issued instant suspension orders.
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ENGLISH-FRENCH LABEL FOUND
One packet of PepsiCo's Indian brand Kurkure puffed chips found ‌by a ⁠Reuters photographer inside the warehouse during the raid had a fake label with nutrition information in English and French, similar to the format prescribed in Canada.
Canada's food labelling rules require such information be shown in both languages.
Indian officials have said products relabelled at the warehouse were expired or nearing expiry. The Mumbai warehouse owners carried out activities on behalf of ​19 little-known exporters, officials have ​also said, but it ⁠is not clear which countries the goods were destined for.
PepsiCo in a statement to Reuters said it has no commercial engagement with the export companies referenced in recent media reports ​and does not endorse or support any unauthorised export of its products.




































































































"Our snack food products ​manufactured in ⁠India are meant for sale in India, unless otherwise specifically authorised by us to be exported," the company said.
India's commerce ministry, which oversees exports, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"We have written to concerned authorities about our findings, who ⁠will investigate ​details of the exporters involved," Maharashtra FDA Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe, who led ​the operation, told Reuters on Thursday.
In its statement to Reuters, the CFIA said when non‑compliant foods are identified, it takes appropriate action to protect consumers, ​which may include product removal, licence suspension and monetary penalties.
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Reporting by Maria Cheng and Aditya Kalra; Editing by Edwina Gibbs

Canadian 'banking' company linked to sanctioned money-laundering network

Canadian 'banking' company linked to sanctioned money-laundering network
Visual investigation reveals 'red flags' experts say should prompt review of secretive firm
Ivan Angelovski, Eric Szeto · CBC News · Posted: Sep 04, 2026 9:00 AM PDT | Last Updated: 36 minutes ago

Latvians Andrejs Carenoks and Janis Zvigulis are behind a B.C. company linked to a Russian money-laundering operation. Carenoks was sanctioned in 2024 by the U.S. for his role in the TGR network. (Illustration: Froilan Untalasco/CBC, LinkedIn, Instagram, Maple Finance, CBC)

Maple Digital Financial Solutions describes itself as a "revolutionary banking" company, with an address in a skyscraper in the heart of Vancouver's financial district.

On paper, the company is registered with Canada’s financial intelligence agency, and offers "fast and easy" global currency transfers and "convenient banking" with the click of a button.

In practice, however, it’s a shell company. Its website offers no option to open an account and provides no employee names, while phone calls go straight to voicemail and emails go unanswered.


A CBC News visual investigation, in collaboration with the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), reveals this shell company is closely linked to the TGR network, accused by international law enforcement of laundering billions of dollars for ransomware gangs, drug cartels and wealthy Russians.

"Red lights are flashing, there are a number of red flags here," said Denis Meunier, former deputy director at the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), who reviewed the findings.

Maple Finance’s web site markets a 'revolutionary approach to banking solutions.' (Maple Finance)

A report by CIR, a U.K.-based research organization, used digital clues to connect Maple Digital Financial Solutions with a series of companies called The OneGate and the TGR network.

CBC shared its findings with multiple legal and financial experts, and each had a similar takeaway: Maple Digital Financial Solutions, also known as Maple Finance, is at "high risk" for suspicious activity.

Unlike traditional banks, money services businesses (MSB) such as Maple Finance already pose a threat of laundering illicit funds due to a lack of transparency and the fact that they don’t require an operating licence in many provinces.

This, coupled with ties to a sanctioned network and individuals known for money laundering, should put authorities in Canada on alert, said Meunier.

This graphic shows the connections between Carenoks, Zvigulis, Maple Finance, The OneGate and TGR. (Illustration: Froilan Untalasco/CBC)
TGR network: transnational money-laundering

The CIR report and the experts CBC News spoke to acknowledge there's no definitive proof of money laundering. But there are substantial digital clues that connect Maple to TGR — primarily Andrejs Carenoks, a Latvian sanctioned by the U.S. in 2024 for his role in a sophisticated money-laundering operation allegedly led by Yury Maksakov, a Ukrainian national born in Russia.

Carenoks, according to corporate records, was a director at Maple Finance in 2021.

The current director is Janis Zvigulis. He is also director of The OneGate and a registered director of TGR Wealth Solutions in the U.K., which was sanctioned in 2024.

Zvigulis has not been sanctioned.

Andrejs Carenoks's name appears in BC Registry records for Maple Finance. Carenoks was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2024. (Illustration: Froilan Untalasco/Daniel Rofusz/CBC; LinkedIn)

Authorities in the U.S. and U.K. described TGR as a full-service shadow financial hub, offering unregistered crypto exchanges, prepaid credit cards and sanctions evasion services, helping cybercriminals and drug traffickers.

For example, if a Russian cybercrime group held $1 million US in cryptocurrency paid by the victim of a ransomware attack and a drug gang in the U.K. had a similar amount in cash that needed to be laundered, TGR would arrange for the U.K. drug gang to be paid in crypto in exchange for their cash. The cash would then be laundered through a network of international business accounts.

Investigators at the U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA) have seen similar exchanges where cash handovers were followed almost immediately by the movement of a similar denomination of crypto.

Both Carenoks and Maksakov are accused of playing major roles in the TGR network, according to authorities in the U.K. and U.S.

"TGR is massive. It's really, really huge," said Elise Thomas, senior open-source investigator at CIR and author of the OneGate report. "To have Carenoks’s name on the actual company documents [for Maple Digital Financial Solutions], I think it's some really strong connections to TGR."

Janis Zvigulis is the current director of Maple Finance and TGR Wealth Solutions in the U.K. TGR Wealth Solutions was sanctioned in 2024. (Instagram)

CBC tried reaching out to Maple Finance and The OneGate through email and phone but did not receive a response.

The registered Vancouver address on the Maple Finance website led to Canadian business law firm Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP.

In a call, Osler lawyer and partner Matthew Burgoyne said, "the Law Society code of conduct doesn't let us disclose who our clients are and who they're not. So, unfortunately, I wouldn't even be able to tell you if we acted for them or not."

CBC followed up via email requesting that the lawyer ask Maple Finance for comment on this story. The firm wrote in an email, "we cannot help with your story."

"I think it sort of underscores that this is not a normal business. Because normally, when you call the business, they answer," said Thomas. "And when you try to contact them through the channels that they've given to be contacted by customers, they would respond."
'Silent director'

CBC News reached out to Careneks, Zvigulis and Maksakov but did not receive a response.

Attempts were also made to reach former directors of Maple Digital Financial Solutions.

One of those former directors, Elen Kazarian, is based in Ontario. In an email, she told CBC News she was appointed as a "silent director" because the “owner and CEO of this company are foreigners I was told by my cousin — who knew these owners to help them to register this Corporation."

She said she didn’t do anything during her tenure as a director and wasn't paid.

Maple Digital Financial Solutions is part of a group of companies connected to The OneGate.

The financial network offers products such as virtual and physical payment cards, and services such as cryptocurrency trading through shell companies spread across at least seven jurisdictions, from the U.S. to Switzerland to Hong Kong.

"OneGate seems to be presenting [itself as a] payments service company that provides a number of different financial products and services," Thomas said. "Under the hood, there are all these deep historical connections to TGR, which obviously is accused of being a transnational money-laundering ring."

The TGR network was disrupted in 2024 after a three-year international probe led by the NCA codenamed Operation Destabilise. It was a global effort to dismantle a multibillion-dollar shadow banking and cryptocurrency network that laundered proceeds for violent drug cartels, ransomware gangs and Russian intelligence operations.

It resulted in 128 arrests worldwide and the seizure of more than $44 million Cdn in cash and digital assets.

A screen cap from a web page promoting Operation Destablise on the website of the U.K.'s National Crime Agency. (U.K. National Crime Agency)

The OneGate network was operating in parallel to TGR and started with a virtual office in Vancouver when Maple Finance was still called Fexcool Payments.

The CIR report further detailed the digital forensic connections. When it changed its name to Maple Digital Financial Solutions, it registered a website: maplefinance.ca.

Andrejs Carenoks was the one who registered that domain.

CIR found website registration records for maplefinance.ca showing Andrejs Carenoks’s name. (Illustration: Froilan Untalasco/CBC)

At the same time, Carenoks was the director of a TGR entity later sanctioned by the U.S.

The overlap between Maple Finance and TGR went beyond Carenoks. Archived records of that website show that Maple Finance listed a Toronto-area phone number also used by TGR Partners.

CIR used digital clues to discover Maple Finance had the same number as TGR Partners, a sanctioned entity. (Illustration: Froilan Untalasco/CBC)

Maple Finance provided clients with a branded payment card issued by OneCard — a service in part operated by TGR at the time.

Maple Digital Financial Solutions is named in TGR-connected OneCard and The OneGate. TGR is sanctioned by the U.S. and accused of being a money-laundering network by the U.K.’s National Crime Agency. (Illustration: Froilan Untalasco/CBC)

In 2023, Maple Finance became the acting primary legal entity behind The OneGate. Its customer portal was fully merged into the main OneGate domain a short time after.

TGR Partners also actively recruited staff for Maple Finance online, including posting job listings for an IT project manager to work out of TGR's physical office in Podgorica, Montenegro, under a TGR human resources manager.

Job postings for Maple Digital Financial Solutions request applicants to contact someone on the social media site Telegram with TGR in its username. (Illustration: Froilan Untalasco/CBC)

PDF files created for Maple’s privacy agreements contained metadata listing the author as "Max Travel," a likely digital trace left by TGR leader Yury Maksakov, who uses the username "Max Traveller" on Facebook.

The digital clues and overlaps between Maple Finance and TGR are consistent with "illicit financial activities," said Peter Dent, a former forensic services lead for global professional services firm Deloitte who is also part of the Vancouver Anti-Corruption Institute.

"I'm certainly concerned," said Dent. "They share a common directorship, they share a phone number with another entity that has been alleged to be involved in illicit financial activity. They don't even have a phone number in Canada."

Metadata for OneGate, OneCard and OneRemit showed the author as Max Travel, a likely digital trace left by TGR leader Yury Maksakov, who uses the username "Max Traveller" on Facebook. (Illustration: Froilan Untalasco/CBC)
FINTRAC registration

Following the global crackdown on the TGR Network in December 2024, Maple Finance was scrubbed from the active provider list on The OneGate website, as its FINTRAC registration expired.

The FINTRAC registration has since been renewed and Maple Finance now advertises itself as an "innovative financial ecosystem for modern business owners to manage their finances on their own terms."

FINTRAC shows Maple Digital Financial Solutions registration. The address links to the law firm Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. (FINTRAC)

FINTRAC wrote in an email to CBC News that it is "prohibited from disclosing information on the compliance history of individual entities... except in the case of a public notice of an administrative monetary penalty imposed."

"If I was the government authority in charge of money-laundering enforcement, like FINTRAC here in Canada, I think I'd be looking at this report," said William Pellerin, international trade lawyer at McMillan LLP, who also reviewed the report and CBC’s findings.

"You have known actors that have been under investigation in other jurisdictions … in conjunction with everything else, maybe this is something we ought to dig into."

Do you have any tips on this story? Email at VI@cbc.ca


With files from Matthew Pierce

Australian airline will charge for overhead bin use

 

Australian airline will charge for overhead bin use

Unsplash

Aussies might soon want to buy their vacation outfits at their destination. The Australian budget airline Jetstar said yesterday that it will charge flyers for carry-on luggage stowed in overhead compartments.

Starting next year, an overhead item will cost at least $18 one way—with one Melbourne–Tokyo round-trip flight charging $194. Small personal items that can fit under the seat will still fly free.

Bag bargain

The airline said its surveys showed that customers view weighing their bags at check-in and finding space in overhead bins as the most stressful parts of flying. It thinks the change will reduce hassle for everyone:

• There will be no more stuffing your pockets to cut weight, as Jetstar won’t weigh bags and said it’ll nix its 15-pound limit for personal items.
• It says less jostling for suitcase space will speed up boarding and reduce delays.

But only 20% of people polled by the Australian site news.com.au said that they were happy with the move.

It’s controversial. Budget airlines worldwide, including Europe’s Ryanair and stateside Frontier, have similar carry-on charges, which they say help subsidize low base fares. But critics argue that the bag fees make it harder to compare the final ticket prices across airlines. The EU recently mandated that carriers display charges for carry-ons on flight booking sites.

Why sailors look to the red sky?

 Why sailors look to the red sky?

You don’t need to be a meteorologist to have heard, “Red skies in the morning, sailors take warning. Red skies at night, a sailor's delight.” The idea behind the red sky is fully based on the scattering of particles that comes from a cloud, or in this case, a low-pressure system.

Since the sun rises in the east, and storms in the mid latitudes move from west to east due to wind patterns, sunlight ends up hitting a storm that is out west which creates a red sky. Translated - a storm is en route.

Conversely, as the sun sets in the west, the scattering light from the sun hits storm clouds to the east. Since they are moving from west to east, this indicates a storm is moving away from you. Sailors delight!

While there are few absolutes with weather, this old folklore is rooted in truth.

Huawei made an utterly sleek laptop that’s 35% lighter than MacBook Air

Huawei made an utterly sleek laptop that’s 35% lighter than MacBook Air. Too bad you don’t need it.
The MateBook Pro S weighs less than 800 grams but runs HarmonyOS instead of Windows
By Sudhanshu Kumar Mangalam Published August 5, 2026 7:32 AM

Huawei

Huawei has made one of the most tempting ultralight laptops most people will probably never consider buying. The new MateBook Pro S weighs just 798 grams in its lightest configuration, making it around 35% lighter than the 13-inch MacBook Air. It is slightly thicker at 11.9mm, but Huawei still managed to fit a larger display and a 54Wh battery inside its magnesium-alloy chassis.

Its color options are pure eye candy, too. The soft pastel finishes immediately reminded me of the MacBook Neo and give the laptop far more personality than the usual sea of silver, gray, and black ultrabooks.Huawei
It looks excellent on paper

The 14.2-inch OLED touchscreen uses a productivity-friendly 3:2 aspect ratio, giving documents and websites more vertical space. Its 3120 x 2080 panel runs at 120Hz, reaches a claimed 1,600 nits during HDR playback, and covers the P3 color gamut.

Huawei also sells a Privacy Screen Edition using technology similar to what Samsung recently introduced on the Galaxy S26 Ultra. A dedicated button activates the privacy mode, which narrows the screen’s viewing angle, keeping it clear for the person sitting directly in front while making text and images much harder to see from either side. The laptop also has an AI feature onboard that can notify the user when it detects someone peeking at the screen.Huawei

Performance comes from Huawei’s in-house Kirin XE90 processor, supported by up to 32GB of memory and 1TB of storage. The cooling system can sustain up to 20 watts, while Huawei claims up to 18 hours of 1080p video playback and supports 66W USB-C charging. The biggest hardware compromise is connectivity. There are only two 5Gbps USB-C ports, and just one can drive a 4K display at 60Hz. Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, four speakers, six microphones, and front and rear 1080p cameras help round things out.
HarmonyOS is the deal-breaker

The MateBook Pro S runs HarmonyOS 6.1 instead of Windows. Huawei offers its own AI assistant, meeting transcription, cross-device controls, and software ecosystem, but anyone tied to Windows applications would need to rethink their workflow. It is also limited to China for now. Huawei sells Windows laptops across Europe and other regions, but it has not confirmed whether the MateBook Pro S will travel overseas.

Prices start at 7,999 yuan, or roughly $1,185, while higher-end and collector configurations reach 14,999 yuan, or about $2,220. As a piece of laptop design, it is difficult not to want one, although HarmonyOS makes it a highly impractical choice for most buyers outside China for now.














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Zillow settles FTC claims it paid Redfin to stop competing on apartment listings

 Zillow settles FTC claims it paid Redfin to stop competing on apartment listings

Published Mon, Aug 24 202611:35 AM EDT

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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and a group of states settled with Zillow ahead of trial on Monday, ending claims the online real estate platform illegally paid Rocket Companies’ Redfin $100 million to stop competing in apartment rental listings.

The FTC and five states were ready to argue at trial scheduled to start Monday that the Zillow-Redfin partnership drove up costs for landlords and decreased listing quality for renters. More than 30% of Americans rent their homes, according to census data.


Under the settlement, Redfin can continue to display Zillow ads on its sites but will resume its rental advertising business within six months, the FTC and states said.

While Democratic state attorneys general have clashed with the Trump administration on other matters, both the FTC and the states called the settlement a win.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said the lawsuit restored competition in online listing platforms, “critical tools that New Yorkers rely on to find affordable homes.”

Virginia, Arizona, Connecticut and Washington were also plaintiffs.

FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said the settlement will provide competition in rental markets that is “an integral component of President Donald Trump’s domestic housing agenda.”


A Redfin spokesperson said the settlement allows the company to maintain its partnership with Zillow through at least 2030 while building its own rentals business.

Zillow rentals executive Michael Sherman said the settlement is positive and “enables us to keep our energy on innovating for renters and property managers.”
Zillow-Redfin partnership allegedly raised ad prices


Zillow and Redfin made a deal in February 2025: Redfin would wind down its rental listing business, refer its customers to Zillow, and display copies of Zillow’s listings on its site. Redfin agreed to stay out of the business for up to nine years.

In return, Zillow agreed to pay Redfin $100 million, plus fees for each renter who signalled interest in a property.

The FTC sued the companies, as did New York, Virginia, Arizona, Connecticut and Washington. They said that before the deal, Zillow and Redfin were competing to list vacancies in buildings with more than 25 units.

After Redfin stopped competing, Zillow customers paid an average of 14.5% more per listing, an expert for the FTC and states estimated, while some property managers stopped buying online listings.

Zillow had said in court papers that the deal put more listings on both sites and helped it compete with market leader CoStar Group. Exclusive deals are common in the industry, Zillow had said.

China builds a rival satellite constellation

China builds a rival satellite constellation as SpaceX goes public

A Chinese state-backed satellite company is signing the partners and governments Starlink has pushed aside, days before SpaceX’s record listing.

Rest of World/iStock
By INDRANIL GHOSH
+
11 JUNE 2026
TRANSLATE





Chinese upstart Spacesail is trying to steal SpaceX’s thunder.

State-backed Spacesail launched two satellites on a reusable rocket on June 1, just days before SpaceX’s $1.8 trillion listing on June 12, the largest public offering to date. Much of SpaceX’s valuation rests on Starlink, the satellite internet service, which has over 10 million customers across 100 countries.


Spacesail appears to be deliberately targeting countries where Starlink has faced issues.”Blaine Curcio, founder of Orbital Gateway Consulting

Starlink’s 7,000 satellites dominate internet service in virtually every market where they are present. User growth slowed in the first quarter of this year as sign-ups tapered in established markets, and rapid expansion left a trail of disgruntled partners and regulators.

Meanwhile, Spacesail launched three batches of satellites in five days, reaching 200 in orbit on June 5. The company has moved into markets where Starlink’s complacency had created openings.

“Spacesail appears to be deliberately targeting countries where Starlink has faced political or regulatory issues, or other market issues,” Blaine Curcio, founder of Orbital Gateway Consulting, a Hong Kong-based firm tracking the Chinese space industry, told Rest of World.

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SpaceX and Spacesail had not responded to Rest of World’s queries by the time of publication.
Going head-to-head

For governments that previously had no alternative to Starlink, Spacesail’s arrival changed the negotiating dynamic. A second provider, backed by Chinese state financing and willing to work on their terms, gave them the leverage they did not have before.

Starlink had signed a reseller agreement with satellite operator Measat in Malaysia years before Spacesail arrived. Measat then undercut its own partner by bringing in competing resellers, Curcio said. Spacesail signed its first international partnership with Measat early last year.

Starlink’s dominance led to similar friction in Africa, where users in several cities had no alternative provider as service quality declined. Spacesail last year registered trademarks in South Africa.

Governments across Africa have welcomed the prospect of a new entrant, Temidayo Oniosun, CEO of Space in Africa, a Lagos-based firm tracking Africa’s satellite industry, told Rest of World.

“After gaining market share, Starlink has done several price increases because the competition isn’t there,” Oniosun said. “People in those cities may be looking for alternatives.”

In 2024, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk refused to comply with a Brazilian court’s orders to moderate content on his social media platform X — leading to a five-week ban, and an opening for Spacesail. After Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Brazil for the G20 summit in November that year, a Spacesail deal with Brazil’s state telecom followed, and the telecom regulator granted Spacesail an operating licence in February, Curcio said.

In Kazakhstan, Starlink’s project to connect 2,000 schools stalled in 2024 after the company refused to meet the government’s data security requirements, he said. Spacesail registered a subsidiary in the country in January 2025.

Airbus agreed in December to include Spacesail’s network on its in-flight Wi-Fi platform, a deal that took Spacesail’s reach beyond individual country markets. Thailand’s state telecom signed a partnership in April, and Spacesail is reportedly negotiating with roughly 30 other countries.

Spacesail raised over $1 billion in 2024, and is seeking fresh capital to expand its constellation to 15,000 satellites by 2030. The June 1 launch used a new Chinese reusable rocket, similar to the technology that had allowed SpaceX to build Starlink affordably.

With 200 satellites now in orbit, Spacesail said it has enough capacity to support its first commercial application: tracking maritime vessels at sea. The company aims to begin broader commercial services by the end of 2026.
The U.S. is watching

Spacesail’s expansion into Starlink’s growth markets carries direct implications for U.S. companies that rely on satellite connectivity abroad, and for investors in the SpaceX IPO.

The growing dependence of countries on Chinese space infrastructure should alarm U.S. policymakers, said Ellis Scherer, a space policy analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington-based think tank that tracks Chinese space capabilities.


China still lacks a mission-ready, fully reusable rocket like SpaceX’s Falcon 9.” Ellis Scherer, space policy analyst, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

“China still lacks a mission-ready, fully reusable rocket like SpaceX’s Falcon 9,” Scherer told Rest of World. “Until such a rocket is successfully developed by a Chinese company, Spacesail’s launch cadence will continue to lag significantly behind SpaceX’s, limiting Spacesail’s competitive edge.”

Even where Spacesail gains a foothold, replacing Starlink will take time, Oniosun said. Users who have invested in Starlink may be reluctant to pay again for Spacesail hardware — although in cities where Starlink’s quality has dropped because of overloaded capacity, users may be more open to a new provider, he said.

The IPO also reflects SpaceX’s expansion into AI computing. After merging with Musk’s company xAI in February, SpaceX now operates data centers in Memphis, Tennessee. In its regulatory filing, the company has disclosed a deal under which Google will pay approximately $920 million a month for computing capacity at those facilities through June 2029.

Spacesail’s playbook of state backing, non-Western markets, and government-level deals resembles that of BYD, the Chinese electric car maker that grew with billions in subsidies and overtook Tesla in global sales, Curcio said.

The parallel holds in strategy, but satellite internet has a grim track record: Iridium, Spacesail’s best-known predecessor, had failed before it found a viable business, Curcio said. Spacesail also has a rival at home in China — state-owned company SatNet — with which it competes for rockets and government support, he said.

“Other than Starlink, effectively no other satellite constellations have been very successful, at least before declaring bankruptcy first,” Curcio said.


Correction: This article has been updated to accurately reflect that Measat is a private entity.

Democratic socialists are done being on the fringe. But are they Democrats?

 Democratic socialists are done being on the fringe. But are they Democrats?

MS NOW · 4 hours ago
by Eugene Daniels · Elections


CHICAGO — In the halls of a Hyatt, serviced by unionized employees of course, hundreds of young, mostly college educated democratic socialists are milling about. It’s a bit too corporate for what is happening in the rooms: conversations on how they can expand, grow and fight back more.

The session names are the tell: “Winning Socialism in the South,” “Legislating as Socialists,” “Power Shift Opportunities.”

What you won’t find are the stars of the movement. No Mamdani. No AOC. No Bernie.

Instead, it’s the door knockers, the city council types, the local stewards who have gotten disillusioned with American politics and have taken their energy elsewhere. And in a lot of cases, that fight is aimed as much at the Democratic Party as at President Donald Trump.

Which raises the question that hung over the entire weekend, which nobody answered the same way twice: Are these people Democrats, or not?

Ask plainly and a half-dozen answers from people wearing the same label will give you the same answer.

“I think if the Democratic Party was actually delivering on the things that they say they care about and what is listed in their platform, I would feel comfortable saying yes to that,” said Hayley Banyai-Becker, a Democratic Socialists of America leader based in Portland, Oregon, who helped plan the summit told MS NOW. “The answer is no.”

Washington state Representative Shaun Scott, sitting next to her and running unopposed, wouldn’t take the yes-or-no. “I think that DSA is at the mainstream of American politics right now,” he said, then flipped it. “If we were to be considered part of the left wing of the Democratic Party, I would wonder what happened to the right or the center of the Democratic Party.”

Robert Levertis Bell, a public school teacher running for the Kentucky state house with Sen. Bernie Sanders’ endorsement, went further.

“I see many elements of the Democratic Party as absolutely being my enemy because I stand with the working class, and if you don’t represent the interests of the working class, if you’re not trying to build political power for the working class, and you actually are trying to build power for the capitalist class, then you are my enemy,” Bell said. “And the capitalist class runs the Democratic Party.”

Enemies or opponents? He split it. “Some of my enemies, some of my opponents, some of my friends.”

National co-chair Ashik Siddique explains the strategy rather than the sentiment. For him, the only way to gain electoral power is through the Democratic door. “All it takes to run in a Democratic primary is to be a registered Democrat, so that’s what we’re doing for the most part.”

Why not run outside it, like the Green Party: “There’s a clear ceiling to that strategy.”

Not exactly on the fringes anymore

The Democratic Socialists of America are in the midst of a year that has fundamentally begun to change their place in the country. The idea of it being a fringe is fading. By now the shock of the movement’s insurgent victories against tenured congressional incumbents in New York and Colorado has worn off and one of their own could soon win a competitive primary for governor in the presidential battleground of Wisconsin.

Asked why now, and they point you to 2016.

“Bernie Sanders’s campaign in 2016 showed how much space there really was in American politics for democratic socialist politics,” Siddique said. “I don’t think I was aware of what socialism really was, other than something in the history books, until he ran for president.”

Membership went from roughly 5,000 before 2015 to more than 120,000. Siddique rejects the lightning-strike version of that.

“Now is the moment where seeds that we started to plant a decade ago or even earlier are now bearing fruit,” he said. “In 2017, the year after Bernie had run for president, so many of us who had been motivated by his campaign just thought, okay, now what? It feels like we’re in the wilderness here with Trump as president, and we don’t know what to do.”

But those seeds can’t grow in bad soil. The conditions matter, and the conditions right now are a Democratic Party with approval ratings in the tank,, a base that keeps telling pollsters it wants someone willing to fight, and a summer of liberal self-loathing that has left an unusual amount of room to the left.

Insurgencies don’t happen when the establishment is delivering. There is no Zohran Mamdani, no Darializa Avila Chevalier, no runaway primary in Wisconsin, if Democratic leadership is fighting the way its own voters want it to.

Others in Chicago were blunter about the vacuum created by Democratic missteps.

“There is so much inconsistency with how the Democrats operate, and for a while I think they’ve been able to get away with ‘we’re not Trump’ but we’re in the second Trump presidency,” said Chanpreet Singh with the Seattle DSA. “…The absence of a positive political vision is going to continue to be a crisis for the Democratic Party, and, I think, an opportunity for us as an organization.”

Even with possibly ripe conditions, what the DSA is now grappling with in public is its own platform — abolish the Senate, abolish police and prisons, get rid of the Defense Department — and no DSA candidate is running on any of it, and everyone in Chicago says so freely. It is also opposition research that writes itself, and Republicans are enjoying it.

But the pamphlet being handed out in the halls of the convention center is missing some of the language that has created the caricature of the DSA and caused them to be pilloried after interviews. It shows they are still very far away from overtaking the Democratic party establishment.

“The language that we have in there is abolishing the police and prison system that protects capital over people,” Siddique said. Told it doesn’t roll off the tongue: “It doesn’t. You know, it’s not a great slogan. I’ll admit that.”

Asked whether murder and sexual assault would still be prosecuted: “To us, those are crimes. We want to limit that. I personally have no problem with having something called a prison be the place where people like that are kept.”

The great 2028 hope

A card circulating in one session urged members to line up behind a 2028 presidential run by a candidate who hasn’t said she’s running. Walking into one meeting, attendees were welcomed with that card featuring the face of New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, the heir apparent to what Bernie’s been able to build in American politics.

She’s not running for anything other than another term in her current job right now. But a push is afoot to align behind her quickly if she decides to go after the biggest job American politics has to offer.

“The 2028 Presidential Election is an unprecedented opportunity for the Left in the United States,” the card read before urging the DSA rank and file “to seize the moment, unite Labor and the Left, and elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as our Democratic Socialist President.”

The real version is less fun. A bloc of democratic socialists is set to arrive in Congress next year, and a movement built on refusing to compromise is about to be represented by people who will have to.

Siddique says the flexibility was always there. He points to the DSA bloc in the New York state legislature, “very agitational when it mattered” and still willing to work with anyone who’d move a bill. Data centers are his example, an issue where the anger crosses party lines and socialists in office “will work with whoever” to stop them.

Banyai-Becker explained how the organization plans to police its own once they’re sworn in. They “are still accountable to the working class, and we are able to talk to them.”

The test starts on Jan. 3, 2027.

The post Democratic socialists are done being on the fringe. But are they Democrats? appeared first on MS NOW.

Stripe and Advent reportedly drop $50+ billion bid for PayPal

 Stripe and Advent reportedly drop $50+ billion bid for PayPal. What might have been the largest fintech acquisition ever looks like it won’t be getting processed after all. Bloomberg reports that PE firm Advent and payment processor Stripe are walking away from their efforts to acquire PayPal, an OG in the payments space. They had reportedly offered more than $50 billion for PayPal. An earlier Wall Street Journal report said PayPal—which has a new CEO, and saw its stock rise amid news of the deal talk and a solid second quarter—had been seeking more money.

Ask ChatGPT to write a short story in the voice

 

Ask ChatGPT to write a short story in the voice of Ernest Hemingway, and you may not get one anymore.

Just a few months ago, Grammarly started writing in the style of famous personalities, both dead and alive, without any authorization. It resulted in a furor, and the company had to kill the “expert” writing feature. ChatGPT is now taking a safer path, as well.

As per user reports, it is now refusing to imitate the writing style of famous personalities such as Charles Dickens and Ernest Hemingway. For example, when the folks over at ArsTechnica asked the chatbot to write like Hemingway, this was the response:

“I can definitely write with the hallmarks of atmospheric, character-driven horror and small-town dread, but I can’t write in Stephen King’s exact style or closely imitate his distinctive voice. Here’s an original opening that captures a similar feeling while remaining its own”

It looks like OpenAI is playing it safe with all those lawsuits piling up, alleging the company of wholesale piracy and unauthorized use of material lifted from books, magazines, newspapers, and websites, among other resources. The likes of Anthropic are no stranger to similar claims, and the linked lawsuits, of course.

India's automobile brands are outranking Tesla and BYD in EV efficiency

 In an unexpected twist, India's automobile brands are outranking Tesla and BYD in EV efficiency

Indian automakers Tata Motors and Mahindra have claimed the top two spots in a global electric vehicle efficiency ranking, beating out household names like Tesla and BYD. According to the International Council on Clean Transportation's 2025 report, which evaluated 22 of the world's largest EV manufacturers, Tata Motors led the field with an average energy consumption of just 106 watt-hours per kilometer, followed by Mahindra at 113 Wh/km. Tesla and BYD came in third and fourth respectively, while the overall industry average held nearly flat year on year at 131 Wh/km.

The results arrive at a significant moment for India's auto industry. EVs currently account for less than 5% of new passenger vehicle sales in the country, well below the global average of 25%, but the Indian government has set an ambitious target of electrifying 30% by 2030, a goal framed around cutting emissions, reducing oil imports, and expanding domestic manufacturing. India is the world's fourth-largest petroleum consumer, and officials are already shaping the third phase of tightened standards for automakers covering 2027 to 2032.

Efficiency gains alone, however, will not be enough to drive mass adoption. The ICCT ranking also revealed that Tata Motors ranked last among the evaluated manufacturers for charging speed and sixth from the bottom for driving range, two factors that weigh heavily on consumer decisions and will need to improve significantly if India is to meet its electrification ambitions.

Jersey Mike’s gets that bread from its IPO

 

Jersey Mike’s gets that bread from its IPO

Kevin Carter/Getty Images

Jersey Mike’s debuted on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, the culmination of a relatively quick turnaround from its sale to private equity firm Blackstone last year.

The purveyors of the Big Kahuna Cheese Steak priced its IPO at $23 per share to raise ~$1 billion, making it the largest IPO in the restaurant sector since Krispy Kreme raised $500 million with its 2021 IPO. The newly dubbed JMKE opened lower, at $21, and closed the day down ~6% from its IPO price.

Fast food: PE companies tend to hold for years, but Blackstone fast-tracked the sandwich chain for public trading in 18 months. Blackstone moved so quickly because of Jersey Mike’s rapid growth in recent years and the public’s current voracious appetite for IPOs:

• Since 2019, Jersey Mike’s has tripled sales while smoking rival Subway. Per the Wall Street Journal, the average Jersey Mike’s location made $1.36 million in sales last year while Subway averaged $510,000 (although Subway has many more locations).
• This year is shaping up to be a record one for IPOs—there has been $146.1 billion of common stock offered in the first six months of 2026 (more than half from SpaceX), which is already more than the combined totals between 2022 and 2025.

Up next: Inspire Brands, the owner of chains that include Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Dunkin’, could be the next restaurant operator to go public. It filed confidentially for an IPO in May with the intent to raise $2 billion, per Bloomberg.

Life came at this AI whiz kid fast

 

Life came at this AI whiz kid fast

Situational Awareness

It’s times like these when it’s very important to have a company name that doesn’t dunk on itself if something goes wrong. AI hedge fund Situational Awareness put out an emergency call to unload more than $10 billion from its public portfolio this week after absorbing massive losses. Billionaire Ken Griffin’s fund Citadel promised to buy a majority of the stock at a heavy discount yesterday.

Situational Awareness was founded two years ago by 25-year-old Leopold Aschenbrenner, a former OpenAI staffer who wrote the popular essay “Situational Awareness” in 2024 about how he expected AI to change everything. The fund invested huge amounts of leveraged cash in the software and hardware companies that it believed the AI revolution would depend on:

• The hedge fund grew its portfolio to $45 billion in early July.
• But recent investor jitters about the sustainability of the industry have cratered many of the fund’s biggest holdings, like Nebius, Micron, and Sandisk. (All three rebounded yesterday, but Aschenbrenner had already sold them 🫠.)

Looking ahead…Per some reports, Situational Awareness was also floating the sale of its stake in Anthropic, but the fund denied that. With the cash influx from Citadel, it’s possible that the fund is simply trying to keep its head above water until Anthropic’s expected IPO later this year. But the rest of Wall Street is on edge because large hedge funds crashing out have been early signs of crises

Apple wants to be the company you rent your gadgets.

 

Apple wants to be the company you rent your gadgets from, not just buy them from.

Apple has officially launched Apple Upgrade, a leasing program that lets customers pay monthly for an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch rather than purchasing the device outright. Built in partnership with Klarna, the program replaces the iPhone Upgrade Program that Apple has offered since 2015 and expands the concept across nearly the full current hardware lineup. Lease terms run 12 or 24 months for phones and watches, and 24 or 36 months for iPads and Macs. Pricing starts at $31.99 a month for a 256GB iPhone 17 Pro on a 24-month term, $24.99 a month for a 256GB iPad Pro over 36 months, and $38.99 a month for a 16GB MacBook Pro over the same stretch. Notably, the iPhone 16, base iPad, and MacBook Neo are not eligible, and iPhone lessees must be on a postpaid plan with AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon.

The structure of the program carries some meaningful fine print. Apple requires no security deposit and performs only a soft credit check through Klarna, but Klarna owns the billing relationship for the life of the lease and handles payments through its own app. Early upgrades are permitted but come with a fee that scales with how many payments remain. Devices must be returned in good condition, or damage charges apply, and unlike the old iPhone Upgrade Program, AppleCare is not bundled into the lease price. Customers have 14 days to cancel without penalty, but missing that window triggers an early termination fee. At the end of a full term, customers can upgrade, return the device, or pay a one-time fee to buy it outright, though waiting more than six months after the term ends triggers an automatic purchase charge.

The launch marks a meaningful shift in how Apple positions its hardware business, moving from a model centered on ownership toward one where monthly payments are the norm and keeping a device is an extra step rather than the default outcome.

TCL built a 22-speaker soundbar for turning living rooms into movie theaters

 TCL built a 22-speaker soundbar for turning living rooms into movie theaters, but it’s skipping the US

Here's everything inside TCL's new flagship Q95K soundbar, from its Bang & Olufsen tuning to its 360-degree sound tech.
By Shikhar Mehrotra Published July 27, 2026 11:45 AM

TCL

I’ve used enough soundbars to know most “360-degree audio” claims are marketing fluff dressed up as innovation. TCL’s new flagship might actually have the hardware to back that claim up for once.

The Q95K is TCL’s new flagship soundbar. It’s built around an 11.1.4 channel Hi-Fi architecture and tuned in collaboration with Bang & Olufsen. To me, it sounds like a serious attempt to compete with premium home theater setups.TCL
So what’s actually inside this thing?

The system spreads 1420W of peak power across 22 independent speaker units. The exceptional output is split between a main bar handling seven horizontal channels, two overhead channels, and a subwoofer channel, along with wireless surround speakers covering rear, rear-side, and rear-overhead audio.

This is the kind of speaker layout that doesn’t only make things louder, but also excels at creating a convincing sense of sound moving around you, especially while watching movies.

A three-way acoustic design covers a wide 30Hz to 20kHz frequency range while still keeping distortion under 1%. The device uses neodymium magnets and aluminum diaphragms for clarity in the mids and highs.

Bass comes from a dual-engine subwoofer with opposing 7-inch drivers designed to cancel out cabinet resonance, while 12 separate amplifier chips drive individual speakers to cut down on crosstalk. These additions address the biggest problems with high-powered soundbars: muddy bass and messy audio separation.TCL
What about the rest of the lineup, and can you buy it yet?

TCL’s 360-degree sound field tech leans on software, adapting via the TCL app regardless of your wall layout. Connectivity covers HDMI 2.1 with eARC, Wi-Fi 6, and AirPlay 2, and the floating base design works for both desktop and wall-mounted setups.

TCL also launched two smaller siblings: the Q85K (16 units, 1180W) and Q75K (14 units, 580W). Unfortunately, none of the soundbars are available in the United States right now. The company already sells its flagship TVs and other audio products in the region.

All three are currently China-only, priced at 7,999 yuan (~$1,181), 5,999 yuan (~$886), and 4,699 yuan (~$694) respectively, with no confirmed global release yet.



Shikhar Mehrotra
News Writer
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For more than five years, Shikhar has consistently simplified developments in the field of consumer tech and presented them…

Musk Leaves Room For a Potential SpaceX-Tesla Merger

Musk Leaves Room For a Potential SpaceX-Tesla Merger
First came xAI-SpaceX. Now brace yourselves for SpaceXAI-Tesla.
BY ECE YILDIRIMPUBLISHED JULY 22, 2026, 11:39 PM ET

READING TIME 2 MINUTES

Elon Musk © FotoField / Shutterstock
READ LATER COMMENTS (31)



Elon Musk has a lot of companies, and lately his hobby has been mergers.

Earlier this year, the billionaire’s space company SpaceX acquired his artificial intelligence company xAI (now SpaceXAI) in a $1.25 trillion deal. The joint entity, known just as SpaceX, went public in a record $75 billion IPO earlier this summer (though its stock has been trending down since).


On the heels of that financial success, people are largely expecting Musk to further capitalize on that hype and merge his electric vehicle company Tesla with SpaceX. The two companies already work together on a lot, including the integration of SpaceXAI’s Grok chatbot into Tesla’s vehicles and a giant join-venture chip factory in Texas called the Terafab.

When asked about it by analysts in Tesla’s earnings call on Wednesday, Musk avoided answering the question.

“Well, I mean, as you can tell from all the many collaborations on so many fronts with SpaceX, there’s more and more overlap, especially with the Terafab, that’s really going to be a gigantic project,” Musk answered. “But obviously, you know, we can’t talk about combining companies, that kind of thing, on earnings calls.”

Then Musk went on what sounded like a sales pitch for how he thinks SpaceX can further Tesla’s mission. He said SpaceX’s Starlink can ensure better and more expansive connectivity for Tesla’s autonomous vehicles like the Cybercab, even in any “Bermuda triangles with lack of cellular connectivity,” and promised the merits of integrating SpaceXAI’s Grok into Tesla’s Optimus robots, a plan that he debuted earlier this year in a project called “Digital Optimus.”

Following Musk’s answer, analysts seem to have upped their bets that a merger is indeed on the horizon.

“Going into the call, I thought there was an 80% chance the two companies come together in the next few years,” investment company Deepwater’s co-founder and managing partner Gene Munster said in a post on X. “I’m raising that to 90%.”

This latest earnings report left investors with more questions than answers. The company’s stock was down after the report dropped, as the company’s increasing expenses poured into AI have started to weigh on its financials. Even though revenue came above expectations, the company’s earnings per share (a metric that shows how much profit a company makes per share of its stock) was down way below market expectations.

Tesla is expecting to spend more than $25 billion this year, largely due to AI. That financial commitment helped drive the company’s free cash flow negative this past quarter.

“This is a massive capex year, but I’m confident that all the things that we’re investing in will yield incredible returns,” Musk said at the call, in an effort to justify the numbers.

Musk said he specifically asked his team to spend money “as fast as we can without it being too wasteful,” because aiming for “extremely high efficiency” spending would allegedly only slow down the amount of innovation and production that the company has been aiming for.

“We’re bringing an incredible amount of construction and production growth in so many different arenas simultaneously,” Musk claimed. “I think probably this is the fastest industrial scale up since World War II in America.”

Anthropic's $1.5B copyright settlement pays Harry Potter publisher $19M

 

Anthropic's $1.5B copyright settlement pays Harry Potter publisher $19M

Anthropic has reached a $1.5 billion copyright settlement with thousands of authors over the use of their protected work to train its Claude AI chatbots, with Bloomsbury Publishing set to receive roughly $19 million of that total. The London-based publisher, home to J.K. Rowling, Sarah J. Maas, and Susanna Clarke, had 14,087 titles listed in the settlement at a proposed compensation of about $3,000 per title. After attorney fees and other expenses are deducted, that sum will be split between Bloomsbury and the affected authors, with payments expected to begin arriving in instalments as early as the second half of this fiscal year.

The case, which began when novelist Andrea Bartz and two other authors filed suit in 2024, has been described by the authors' lead lawyer as the largest known copyright recovery in history. A US district judge approved the deal on Monday, calling it meaningful relief for those affected. About 91 percent of the 482,000 works covered in the lawsuit have been claimed by rights holders, a figure Anthropic itself highlighted as a sign of broad acceptance.

The settlement is the first major resolution to emerge from the dozens of AI copyright lawsuits working their way through US courts on behalf of authors and news organizations, making it a significant marker for how the industry might reckon with its use of protected creative work going forward.

Read More →

Judge approves a $1.5B Anthropic settlement over pirated books

Judge approves a $1.5B Anthropic settlement over pirated books used to train the Claude chatbot




Thriller novelist Andrea Bartz is photographed in her home, in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Sept. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
Updated 11:01 AM GMT-7, July 21, 2026
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge has approved a $1.5 billion copyright settlement in which artificial intelligence company Anthropic will pay thousands of authors about $3,000 per book after using pirated copies of their works to train its Claude chatbot.

District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín said in a Monday ruling that the class-action settlement provides “meaningful relief” to affected authors and publishers.

About 91% of the more than 482,000 books covered by the ruling have been claimed by authors or publishers who are now due payment.

Plaintiff attorney Justin Nelson said in a statement that the settlement was “the largest known copyright recovery in history. We look forward to making distributions to the Class as promptly as possible.”

U.S. District Judge William Alsup issued the preliminary approval in San Francisco federal court last September and has since retired. Alsup had dealt the case a mixed ruling last summer, finding that training AI chatbots on copyrighted books wasn’t illegal but that Anthropic wrongfully acquired millions of books through pirate websites.

Anthropic’s deputy general counsel, Aparna Sridhar, highlighted that ruling Friday as a landmark showing “that training AI on books is fair use under copyright law.”

“We are pleased that more than 91% of authors and publishers covered by the settlement have claimed their share of the payment, and we’re looking forward to bringing this matter to a close,” Sridhar said in a written statement.


Bestselling thriller novelist Andrea Bartz first brought the suit with two other authors in 2024. It’s the first major settlement in dozens of AI copyright lawsuits that are still working their way through courts.

Lake Mead expected to drop nearly 33 feet by June 2028

 Lake Mead expected to drop nearly 33 feet by June 2028, and that’s not even the worst-case scenario by Greg Haas - 07/18/26 10:47 AM ET

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – A critical year is ahead for the nation’s two largest reservoirs, with no relief after a record-low snowpack and a continuing drought.

A comment posted on the Colorado River Basin’s Facebook page Wednesday morning might have said it best: “Not enough water in the Monsoons to help. There’s only 2 things that can save Mead and Powell right now: 150 percent Colorado Rockies snow pack for 5 consecutive years, or God himself.”

Projections released earlier this week show Lake Mead dropping to the lowest levels seen since Hoover Dam was built in the 1930s, falling to 1,035.86 feet in November. That’s about 6.5 feet lower than Lake Mead’s level Friday at noon — 1,042.52 feet. Lake Mead is the nation’s largest reservoir, but it’s currently at 27 percent capacity.
The latest projections

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s 24-month study, which is updated monthly, published “most probable” lake levels through June 2028, when Lake Mead is expected to be at 1,009.69 feet. That represents a drop of nearly 33 feet over the next two years. When the lake is at “full pool,” the lake’s surface is at 1,229 feet.

Lake Powell, the second largest reservoir, is currently at 24 percent capacity. The federal government has consistently prioritized keeping Powell at levels that protect Glen Canyon Dam’s ability to produce hydroelectricity. To do so, the reservoir’s target level has been established as 3,525 feet. But Lake Powell is currently at 3,524.03 feet right now.

To keep Powell at its current level, the federal government has increased releases from Flaming Gorge Reservoir on the Utah-Wyoming border, bolstering flow in the Green River, the Colorado River’s largest tributary.

The government has also reduced releases from Lake Powell. Lower releases will have an impact on Lake Mead.

Water shortage levels that determine Colorado River allocations are based on Lake Mead’s level. And even under the most optimistic forecasts, that will mean less water for Arizona and Nevada in 2027. Those decisions are based on projections that come out in August, looking ahead at the lake’s projected level at the end of the year.
Water for the Las Vegas valley

Officials from the Southern Nevada Water Authority aren’t worried about the water supply to Las Vegas. Despite continuing growth in the valley, SNWA says Nevada is using far less than its allocation. That’s the result of water recycling and reduced use of water outdoors. SNWA receives credits for water that is recycled and returned to Lake Mead.

About 90 percent of the Las Vegas valley’s water comes from Lake Mead, with the remaining 10% from wells.

Total consumptive use of Colorado River water in Nevada is estimated to be 198,001 acre-feet in 2026 out of its 287,000-acre-foot allocation under current water shortage conditions. (An acre-foot is equal to 325,851 gallons — literally, the amount of water it takes to cover an acre in water a foot deep.)

The federal government is expected to establish new rules that will take effect in 2027 regarding river water allocations. Those rules might be released around the same time that Reclamation releases its next 24-month study in the middle of August. Current rules expire at the end of the year.
Worst-case scenario

Reclamation also released projections that show the best- and worst-case scenarios, shown in the graphic below. The red dashed line shows that under “Probable Minimum” projections, Lake Mead would drop below 1,000 feet by June 2028.

Some scientists say the “Probable Minimum” has been a more accurate reflection of actual reality during the drought that began in 2000.
Lake Powell’s place in the projections

Continued efforts to maintain Lake Powell’s elevation at 3,525 feet are not reflected in the projections released on Wednesday. Reclamation shows Lake Powell going far below that immediately in its projections with 10 consecutive months of declines that would put Powell at 3,491.75 feet.

If the federal government continues to prioritize Lake Powell, that’s water that won’t be sent downstream to Lake Mead, possibly amplifying the effects on Lake Mead.

The graphs in the slideshow below show levels at Lake Mead (the first slide) and Lake Powell compared to levels over the past five years.

The Colorado River supplies water to 40 million people, but scientists have said that climate change has reduced the amount of water in the basin by about 20%.

The result: More water is promised to users than the amount that actually exists.

The federal government — the Interior Department and the Bureau of Reclamation — are now shaping future agreements on how to manage the Colorado River after the seven states in the river basin failed to come to a consensus.

How big is the federal deficit?

How big is the federal deficit?

Last month, we covered the federal debt. Now it’s time to cover what adds to it each year: the deficit. That's the gap between the money the government brings in and what it spends in a given period. If the country is running a deficit at the end of the fiscal year, that amount gets added to the national debt. Here’s how the current deficit compares with historical data.

The deficit for fiscal year 2026 (which will run from October 2025 to the end of September 2026) reached $1.37 trillion by June. That’s $29.1 billion higher, or up 2.2%, from the same point last fiscal year.

The government has run a budget surplus in 12 nonconsecutive fiscal years since 1933. The most recent surplus year was FY 2001.





The deficit more than tripled from $983.6 billion in FY 2019 to $3.1 trillion in FY 2020, largely due to pandemic-related spending on unemployment insurance, stimulus checks, and small business support.

The deficit reached 5.8% of GDP in FY 2025.

The deficit has topped 5% of GDP in 10 of the last 19 years, starting in 2007 during the Great Recession. It crossed that threshold only once in the 50 fiscal years between 1947 and 2007, in FY 1983. The all-time high was 26.9% of GDP in FY 1943.