- Elon Musk is threatening unspecified retribution if the Democrats win control of Congress and open investigations into his activities (such as the recent throttling of Starlink in Ukraine and the actions of DOGE). In a recent tweet he declared, "Those who pick fights with me should understand that I will find out who is really pulling the strings and come for them, not just their puppets".
- Environmentalist David Suzuki is joining Olivia Chow and 15 incumbent councillors to condemn Brad Bradford's plan for Toronto Water. Bradford, for his part, denies that the plan will lead to privatization, but CUPE local 416, which represents most of Toronto's municipal staff, has a legal opinion that separating it from city operations could enable a future provincial government to privatize it, and there are fears that since the utility will be allowed to use debt to finance its operations, this will lead to higher bills in the long run. There is also some speculation on Reddit that this could be tied to Bradford's support of building AI data centres in the city; even if the utility isn't actually privatized, removing it from the direct control of council could potentially make it easier for water to be diverted to them for cooling. Disturbingly, recent polls have Bradford within striking distance of winning.
- Google has been ordered to stop work on the construction of two data centres in Finland following revelations that they cut down 330 hectares of forest without getting the required environmental assessment. Silicon Valley people definitely still like to "move fast and break things", even if "don't be evil" is now passé.
- Police suspect arson in a series of fires at construction sites in Winnipeg. Builder Rupinder Brar, whose company was working at one of these sites is hiring extra security to prevent recurrence. It's unclear whether these fires were set by squatters trying to keep warm, or if they were cases of true arson (i.e. intentional destruction of property). Notably, these fires have occurred in parts of town where there has been a great deal of agitation against infill housing, and at least one of the sites destroyed was a sixplex under construction; I do hope this is properly investigated.
