Beer is back on the menu, boys

 Beer is back on the menu, boys

Niv Bavarsky

A proverbial ladybug just landed on the cracking-a-cold-one business: The number of drinks sold by Anheuser-Busch, the world’s largest brewer, increased last quarter for the first time in three years, the company reported yesterday, surprising analysts and suggesting that a broader chill in the beer industry may be thawing. “Cheers to beer,” AB InBev CEO Michel Doukeris said of the promising results, which also included better-than-expected 12% revenue growth. Major gains in Latin American markets drove the beer beat: The brewer’s Brazil unit notched record growth in sales volumes, sending shares of the Sao Paulo-listed subsidiary soaring by their most in almost 27 years. AB InBev, which owns Corona and Modelo (except in the US), also exceeded expectations in Mexico, overtaking rival Heineken in the region. But…that wasn’t enough to turn beer sales positive for the whole continent. In what could be interpreted by Big Ten students as a challenge, overall North American beer sales continued to fall, as persistent inflation and shifting health trends kept US shoppers away from the alcohol aisle. Good thing AB InBev has expanded into beer that doesn’t get you drunk—revenue from its non-alcohol beverages jumped 27% in the quarter. Sign of the imbibing times? Along with AB InBev… The Danish brewer Carlsberg recently reported that its beer volumes turned positive after rolling downhill last year. Heineken’s total volumes also grew last quarter after falling in 2025, but the breakthrough was buoyed by sales of mixers and ciders. Heineken’s beer volumes actually fell from the same time last year. Looking ahead…AB InBev said it’ll beat out both of those rivals this year. Much like other brewers, the company that slings Budweiser, Bud Light, Stella Artois, and Michelob Ultra—now the best-selling beer in the US—expects a significant summertime boost from World Cup festivities.

Snowbirds to be grounded following 2026 season until new aircraft arrive

Snowbirds to be grounded following the 2026 season until new aircraft arrive
Replacement planes are expected to arrive in the early 2030s, but no precise date or numbers have been given.


Murray Brewster · CBC News · Posted: May 19, 2026 8:19 AM PDT | Last Updated: 7 hours ago


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Estimated 6 minutes

The Canadian Snowbirds fly during the Fleet Week Air Show in San Francisco on Oct. 10, 2025. (Godofredo A. VásquezAP)

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Canada’s iconic Snowbirds demonstration squadron will be grounded following the 2026 flying season until new aircraft arrive, the country’s defence minister said Tuesday.

Speaking to the media at the home of 431 Squadron in Moose Jaw, Sask., David McGuinty did not say precisely how long it will take to replace the outdated CT-114 Tutor jets, which have been part of the Royal Canadian Air Force inventory since the 1960s.

Nor did the minister say how many new aircraft will be ordered.

The Swiss-made, turbo-prop CT-157 Siskin II has been chosen to replace the Snowbird squadron. The planes are already on order and are being delivered for use as the air force’s initial pilot training aircraft.

McGuinty said a contract for the Snowbird replacement has yet to be negotiated.

"Negotiations are underway with the manufacturer and we intend to procure those aircraft as quickly as we possibly can," he said.

The intention appears to be to tack on extra aircraft to the existing order, which means it could be the early 2030s before the Snowbirds are reformed and back performing at air shows.
WATCH | Carney says he 'inherited' aging Snowbirds:




Carney says he 'inherited' aging Snowbirds as Ottawa moves to sideline fleet after 2026 season
May 19|
Duration1:13Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada's iconic Snowbirds demonstration squadron will be grounded after the 2026 flying season for safety purposes until new aircraft arrive. 'I inherited a situation where the planes literally had come to the end of their lives,' Carney said.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, speaking at a separate event in Quebec on Tuesday, said he understood the place the squadron occcupies in the hearts of most Canadian, but added the aircraft should have been replaced a long time ago.

"They're extraordinary, but I inherited this situation where the planes are literally at the end of their lives," Carney said. "The Snowbirds will continue and new planes are being commissioned and will arrive. Sometimes you inherit things that, you know — you move as fast as you can."

Lt.-Gen. Jamie Speiser-Blanchet, commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force, acknowledged that temporarily standing down the squadron was a tough call to make.

"This is a significant moment, and it is an emotional one because of the extraordinary connection that this team has built with Canadians over more than five and a half decades," Speiser-Blanchet said. "This decision was not taken lightly."

The lull in operations coincides with the introduction of the F-35 fighter fleet, and comes as the air forces also faces a major pilot shortage.
Federal defence minister says Snowbirds' future secure, Canadians can 'rest assured'

McGuinty said that during the downtime, the air force will continue to support air shows across the country, but will likely have to draw from operational fleets.

An association representing former Snowbird pilots said that while it understood the federal government's decision, it was still "profoundly disappointing," and members worried how the gap will affect the unique expertise required to perform the demonstration flights.

After a few years' hiatus, the air force could be forced to start from scratch to rebuild the team, said retired colonel Dan Dempsey, a former commander of the squadron.

"While the [Snowbirds Alumni] Association acknowledges the government's commitment to equip the Snowbirds with the new aircraft platform in the future, concerns remain regarding the loss of operational expertise and the prolonged interruption of one of Canada's most important military outreach programs during the transition," Dempsey sa

Dempsey also praised the technicians and contractors who've kept the CT-114 Tutor jets flying throughout the decades.

The association is also unhappy that a turbo-prop plane has been selected rather than a jet. Other G7 countries maintain air demonstration teams, but they fly jet aircraft.
'Engineering challenges' prevent extension

Two years ago, former defence minister Bill Blair ordered a review of military ships, aircraft and other items that have become difficult and costly to maintain — including the Snowbird squadron.

At the time, he said the six-decade-old CT-114 Tutor jets had been in service too long.

In 2020, work began to extend the life of the Tutor jets until 2030, but Speiser-Blanchet said that while most of the upgrades were delivered, it simply wasn't possible to carry on beyond this year.
WATCH | Snowbirds to be grounded for years after 2026:




Iconic Snowbirds to be grounded after 2026 season
10 hours ago|
Duration2:47Canada’s iconic Snowbirds will be grounded after the 2026 season until their outdated jets get replaced, possibly by the early 2030s, marking a turning point for Canada's iconic aerial ambassadors after more than five decades.

"Some of the airframe, engine and escape system program feasibility studies [that] were done ... [revealed] some engineering challenges because of the age of the aircraft that have changed that situation, and this is why it will be retiring in 2027 instead of 2030."

Military officials and aviation experts have warned for decades that the Tutors were operating far beyond their intended lifespan.

The jets were first ordered by the military in 1961 as training aircraft, a role from which they were retired in the early 2000s. Of the 191 planes originally ordered, roughly 26 are thought to remain in inventory or in storage.

The CT-114s began their demonstration career in 1967. They adopted the name Snowbirds in 1972 after a national competition among school children to name the squadron, and were formally designated as an aerobatics team in 1975.

In 2003, the air force was told that it needed to quickly replace the Tutors, which were considered well-maintained but ancient.

A study by the Defence Department's director of major service delivery procurement warned at the time that their lifespan would expire in 2010, but could be extended for another decade if absolutely necessary. Keeping the Tutor would pose "significant" risks, the 2003 report warned.

The Snowbirds kept flying, however.

A DND report in the fall of 2014 cleared the fleet as "technically airworthy," but noted significant concerns including some caused by financial restraints. That same evaluation said the Tutors could have had their lives extended to 2025.

Dave Perry, a defence analyst, said the decision to suspend the Snowbirds isn't surprising given the mutiple pressures the air force in facing, including introducing a wide range of new aircraft, and doing so with a shortage of personnel.

"You have to make some tough calls," said Perry, president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. "And I think this is probably one of those things, if they're really knuckle down, you could have kept that fleet going. But does it really make that much sense?"

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Murray Brewster

Senior reporter, defence and security

Murray Brewster is senior defence writer for CBC News, based in Ottawa. He has covered the Canadian military and foreign policy from Parliament Hill for over a decade. Among other assignments, he spent a total of 15 months on the ground covering the Afghan war for The Canadian Press. Prior to that, he covered defence issues and politics for CP in Nova Scotia for 11 years and was bureau chief for Standard Broadcast News in Ottawa.

Canada Should Be Leading a Geothermal Power Boom

Canada Should Be Leading a Geothermal Power Boom
We have all it takes to wake a sleeping giant of clean energy. What’s in the way?

Rebecca Pearce TodayThe Tyee

Canadian geophysicist Rebecca Pearce is the science lead with the Cascade Institute’s Ultradeep Geothermal program at Royal Roads University.Our journalism is supported by readers like you. Click here to support The Tyee.

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11
Oregon’s Newberry project uses Canadian expertise to show geothermal energy is far more doable than before. Photo via Newberry project.


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A day’s drive south of Vancouver, on the slopes of the Newberry Volcano in Oregon, a groundbreaking geothermal project has demonstrated the commercial viability of generating clean, secure electricity from hot dry rock.

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And this was achieved in subsurface conditions that occur here in Canada, with Canadian experts, using a drilling rig brought in from Grande Prairie, Alberta.

The Newberry project, led by Mazama Energy with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, has successfully created an enhanced geothermal system that circulates water through hard rock at record-breaking temperatures of 331 C.

This project represents a major milestone towards producing geothermal energy from water hotter than 375 C, where water changes to a supercritical state that carries five times more energy than the subcritical water typically circulated in geothermal projects.

Enhanced geothermal systems generate electricity by using a pair of wells to circulate water through deep, hard rock, where it absorbs heat and then flows back to the surface to drive a turbine. These systems artificially create a geothermal reservoir several kilometres underground, making geothermal possible all over the world, rather than in select regions where geothermal reservoirs naturally occur.

Newberry is a successful proof of concept that this technology works, made possible by Canadian firms such as Pro-Pipe Service, Ensign Energy Services, Hephae and others. Yet none of these breakthroughs are occurring in Canada.

How is it that, despite our world-class expertise and abundant heat resources, Canada still does not have a single stand-alone geothermal power plant anywhere in the country? This is a classic example of how Canadian expertise is outsourced to other countries, aiding in major technological breakthroughs and economic development abroad, while our own domestic energy strategies stagnate.

Canadians are world-renowned for their drilling and subsurface development expertise, including for geothermal projects. One of the two lead researchers on Utah’s groundbreaking research initiative, the Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy, John McLennan, is a Canadian engineer. And the Calgary-based geothermal firm Eavor just brought its flagship closed-loop heat and electricity project online — in Geretsried, Germany.

Clearly, we have the skills to unlock geothermal energy. And we have the heat, too.

The United States is the largest producer of geothermal electricity in the world, and most of those 3.9 gigawatts are produced in the Cascade Volcanic Arc that spans the western states — California, Idaho, Utah and Washington (think Mount St. Helens). Geology doesn’t stop at the border: these volcanic mountain ranges run all the way through B.C., Yukon and Alaska.



Will BC Electrify Its Economy? BC Hydro Doubts Itread more

B.C. is particularly blessed with near-surface geothermal resources like those found at the Newberry project. Since the 1970s, a series of studies by the Geological Survey of Canada has identified optimal locations for geothermal all across the province. One such site is Mount Meager, near Pemberton, where temperatures of 290 C were measured only three kilometres below the surface. In geothermal terms, that is like striking gold.

B.C. is primed to be a hotbed of geothermal innovation. To kick-start that innovation, we need a network of federal/provincial research facilities, with industry buy-in, to ultimately supply the province with clean, baseload power with minimal surface footprint. And the return on investment would be immense.

The Clean Air Task Force estimates that one per cent of the world’s superhot rock energy within eight kilometres of the surface would provide 68 terawatts of energy, eight times today’s total global electricity consumption. By pairing B.C.’s rich geothermal resources with Canadian subsurface engineering, Canada could unleash this novel energy supply at a critical moment of global energy insecurity.



How Can Canada Help Workers Through a Green Transition?read more

And the opportunity isn’t limited to superhot rock. As the Cascade Institute’s recent report “The Deep Heat Advantage” reveals, continued innovation in harnessing geothermal from the mid-range temperatures found in Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories could make geothermal competitive with solar and combined-cycle gas power. Canadian-led advancements in drilling, well design and reservoir creation technologies in our diverse range of geologies will bring us closer to the Earthshot of clean, secure baseload power, anywhere.

Canada has a competitive edge in geothermal energy — one that can truly make us an energy superpower. By deploying our own expertise towards geothermal innovation across our broad spectrum of geological settings, we can unlock vast resources of clean, firm, renewable heat and power. Canadians are already doing this around the world. It’s time to turn this expertise towards our own resources.

It’s time to wake the sleeping giant of Canadian geothermal.


Read more: Energy, Environment

Harvard deciding whether to give fewer A’s

  Harvard deciding whether to give fewer A’s

Brooks Kraft LLC/Getty Images

A type of inflation unrelated to the price of a Dunkin’ coffee is on the ballot at that one school “in Boston.” A Harvard faculty committee began a weeklong vote yesterday on whether to cap the number of A’s allowed per course in a bid to combat grade inflation. The measure would limit professors to giving A grades to just a fifth of the class, plus four extra students. A rule that would tie honors to class rank instead of GPA is also on the ballot. Make A’s great again The proposed changes come as some faculty and external critics—including the Trump administration—say that A’s becoming more common than nepo babies on Ivy League campuses eroded the grade’s value as a marker of excellence. A’s accounted for 60% of grades awarded to Harvard undergrads last year, compared with 25% in 2005. Last year, 55 Harvard students tied for the school’s top GPA award, an honor that used to be clinched by one or two students per year. Proponents of A austerity say it’ll motivate students to work harder, while making it easier for employers and grad schools to gauge their performance. But many undergrads and some faculty oppose mandated A scarcity, claiming it’ll pit classmates against each other and hurt Harvard students’ competitiveness. Big picture: Supporters hope a grading overhaul at Harvard will spur other top schools to curb grade inflation.

Ten Commandments of Beercan Racing

 Ten Commandments of Beercan Racing

Rob Moore was only 58 years old when he succumbed to lung cancer on January 6, 2012. He was among the 20% of lung cancer victims with no history of smoking. During Rob's short tenure on the planet, he covered a lot of ground, and was both active in the sport and a popular contributor at the Latitude 38 publication.

Rob believed strongly that sailboat racing should be competitive and fun, and to encourage participation at all levels. To facilitate this desire, he penned the “Ten Commandments of Beercan Racing" which we annually share in his honor:

I) Thou shalt not take anything other than safety too seriously. If you can only remember one commandment, this is the one. Relax, have fun, and keep it light. Late to the start? So what. Over early? Big deal. No instructions? Improvise. Too windy? Quit. Not enough wind? Break out the beer. The point is to have fun, but stay safe. Like the ad says, "Safe boating is no accident." - Full report

It's crunch time for Canada's trade deal with the U.S. and Mexico

It's crunch time for Canada's trade deal with the U.S. and Mexico
Signs of life appear in talks on renewing CUSMA despite Trump administration's hard line on tariffs


Mike Crawley · CBC News · Posted: May 28, 2026 1:00 AM PDT | Last Updated: 5 hours ago


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Estimated 7 minutes

The Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement is up for a joint review on July 1 that will determine whether the deal is renewed or renegotiated. While the U.S. and Mexico are currently in talks and have two more rounds of meetings scheduled in the coming weeks, Canada and the U.S. have yet to begin formal negotiations. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

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Sluggish trade negotiations between Canada and the U.S. are finally showing faint signs of life as a milestone looms for renewal of their three-way trade deal with Mexico.

The minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade, Dominic LeBlanc, is planning to travel to Washington, D.C., for trade talks, although his spokespeople haven't confirmed a date.

Although the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) is due for its first-ever joint review on July 1, LeBlanc has held just one day of in-person talks over the past seven months with his Trump administration counterpart, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

The slow pace of negotiations, along with the way U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff regime has punched holes in the free-trade deal, have combined to raise doubts about the fate of an agreement that is crucial to the Canadian economy.
CUSMA talks may run past July 1 deadline, U.S. trade envoy saysJuly 1 date for CUSMA review a 'checkpoint ... not a cliff,' Canada's chief negotiator says

CUSMA covers roughly $1.3 trillion in annual Canada-U.S. trade in goods and services and currently shields a large swathe of Canadian exports from Trump's tariffs.

According to the text of the agreement, the three countries are to notify each other of changes they want made by next Monday, one month ahead of the formal review, which comes six years after the sweeping trade deal took effect.
WATCH | Top U.S. negotiator criticizes Canada's approach to trade talks:




Trump's trade rep calls out Canada for retaliating against tariffs
11 hours ago|
Duration0:54U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, the top trade official in the Trump administration, told an audience in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday that Canada is 'in a different spot' from other countries when it comes to negotiating trade deals. Greer said only two countries in the world chose to retaliate against the U.S. over tariffs: Canada and the People's Republic of China.

The U.S. and Mexico are holding two days of bilateral talks on CUSMA starting today and have scheduled two further rounds of negotiations in June and July.

Meanwhile, Greer is portraying Canada as far more recalcitrant in coming to the table — at least on terms acceptable to the Trump administration.
Greer criticizes Canada's retaliation on tariffs

"Canada's approach has been different," Greer told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington on Tuesday.

"We've spent the past year and a half going to countries telling them we have to have some level of tariffs.

"Two countries in the world retaliated against us: the People's Republic of China and Canada. So they're just in a different spot, and it's hard to see necessarily where that ends."
AnalysisU.S. businesses love CUSMA. Why is Donald Trump threatening to pull out?FRONT BURNERWhy aren’t Canada and the U.S. officially talking trade?

The Carney government has looked to the CUSMA renewal talks as an opportunity to negotiate relief from Trump's tariffs.

In contrast, Greer and other Trump administration officials have repeatedly insisted that tariffs will be a fact of life for Canada, regardless of the free-trade deal.

Prime Minister Mark Carney and his minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade, Dominic LeBlanc, leave a Liberal caucus meeting on Parliament Hill on Wednesday. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)

The U.S. has also indicated it wants concessions from Canada — described by multiple sources as an "entry fee" — before it will begin substantive negotiations on CUSMA, Radio-Canada reported in April.

Those concessions include ending provincial boycotts of U.S. alcohol sales and scrapping the federal Online Streaming Act, which requires large providers like Netflix and Disney+ to contribute a share of their revenue to support the production of Canadian content.

"We have been clear and consistent with the United States that we are ready to launch the joint review the moment they are," LeBlanc's press secretary, Gabriel Brunet, said Wednesday in an email to CBC News.
Ottawa seeking 'real relief' from tariffs

Canada has put forward proposals with "the potential to generate hundreds of billions of dollars in economic value for American industries and workers in exchange for real relief from the unfair tariffs imposed on Canadian products," Brunet said.

So far, the only tariff relief the Trump administration is offering to Canada would apply only to steel and aluminum companies that commit to move production to the U.S.
Washington demanding 'entry fee' from Ottawa before trade talks: sourcesAnalysisHere are Canada's biggest points of leverage in tariff and trade talks with the U.S.

Eric Miller, a Canada-U.S. trade expert based in Washington, says the two countries have "some pretty fundamental areas of disagreement" before they can get down to the nitty-gritty of negotiating specific trade-offs.

"I think it's important that Canada move as quickly as possible to try to get a deal, but not in such a way that it is willing to take any deal," Miller told CBC News.
WATCH | Trump's envoy in Ottawa says Canada shouldn't expect freedom from tariffs:




Canada should expect tariffs to continue, U.S. ambassador says
May 24|
Duration2:41U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra said the president has imposed tariffs on the whole world and Canada shouldn't expect to be an exception. The comments come as renewed discussion of Canada's Online Streaming Act adds to ongoing cross-border tension.

"Anybody can negotiate a bad deal quickly. But what Canada needs is a good deal," said Miller, president of Rideau Potomac Strategy Group, a consulting firm.

Miller does not believe it's particularly significant that Mexico is currently further ahead in its CUSMA renewal talks than Canada. However, he says the significance ramps up if Mexico reaches its own separate deal with the U.S., without Canada soon doing the same.

Mexico and Canada have been communicating directly about trade, although their annual two-way commerce in goods is around $56 billion, a mere fraction of each country's trade with the U.S.
Which Trump tariffs affect Canada now?Trump's man in Ottawa doesn't understand why Canadians are so frustrated right now

Any country can withdraw from CUSMA by giving six months' notice. Such a withdrawal by the U.S. would end the tariff exemption currently granted to most Canadian exports.

"President Trump is notoriously fickle and he could wake up and decide, 'You know what? I don't want to do this [tariff exemption] anymore', " Miller said.

Trump was in his first term as president when the U.S., Canada and Mexico negotiated CUSMA as a successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement. At the time, Trump hailed it as "the largest, most significant, modern, and balanced trade agreement in history."


Christopher Sands, director of the Center for Canadian Studies at Johns Hopkins University, says that when Trump has threatened to withdraw from CUSMA, something he first floated last fall, it's a bargaining tactic to try to win more concessions.

"Canada can play it cool, I think, as long as no one is actually withdrawing," Sands said in an interview.

"I think the U.S. is just going to keep trying to heap pressure on everyone to get as many concessions as possible before it says, 'Yes, we'll renew'," he said.
Canada must 'hold its ground': former negotiator

Steve Verheul, who was Canada's chief negotiator in the talks that led to the creation of CUSMA, says the review will have a profound impact on the country's economic future. He's urging the federal government to resist U.S. pressure for concessions.

"The U.S. is blaming Canada for the lack of movement, but the U.S. is putting Canada in a position where it has little room to move," Verheul said Wednesday on Parliament Hill, where he testified before the Senate committee on foreign affairs and international trade.

Verheul said there is broad support among Republicans in Congress, U.S. businesses and the American public for renewing the agreement.

"Over time, I believe pressures on the U.S. to come to a resolution will increase," Verheul told the Senate committee. "As uncomfortable as it may be, Canada needs to hold its ground."
Carney says U.S. trade talks will 'take some time,' vows Trump won't dictate the termsCarney names advisory committee on Canada-U.S. economic relations as CUSMA review nears

It's not precisely clear how the Canada-U.S. trade talks will proceed.

LeBlanc's press secretary declined to give any details of the minister's upcoming trip to Washington, including dates, who he'll be meeting with or the scope of any scheduled talks.

A spokesperson for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative did not respond to a CBC News query on Wednesday about Greer's plans for negotiating with Canada.

CorrectionsA previous version of this story said that Dominic LeBlanc will travel to Washington next week. In fact, LeBlanc's spokesperson did not specify when the minister's trip will take place.
May 28, 2026 5:14 AM PDT

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Mike Crawley

Correspondent

Mike Crawley is a correspondent for CBC News, based in Washington. He began his career as a newspaper reporter in B.C., spent six years as a freelance journalist in various parts of Africa, then joined the CBC in 2005. Mike reported on Ontario politics for 15 years. He was born and raised in Saint John, N.B.

Who is John Ternus, the new CEO of Apple?

  Who is John Ternus, the new CEO of Apple?

Christoph Dernbach/Getty Images

Apple’s incoming CEO John Ternus likely won’t harness the rockstar innovation vibes of Steve Jobs, slinging sleek new devices to an auditorium of fans. But he probably won’t take the quieter style of Tim Cook, who revolutionized the company’s supply chain and boosted its market cap from $300 billion to $4 trillion in 15 years, either. So…what will the Ternus era at Apple look like when he takes over for Cook in September? There are some hints in his already decades-long Apple tenure. Ternus, a mechanical engineer, has worked at the company since 2001 and served as the Senior VP for hardware engineering. Employees at the company reportedly really seem to like him: He’s decisive, focused, a good collaborator, and has been known to rise above the internal drama that plagued Apple’s early years. He’s also overseen a number of iconic products and hardware revamps at the company: Ternus was one of the execs that helped develop AirPods and facilitated Mac computers’ switch to using Apple’s own chips. He pushed for the MacBook Neo—the cheaper, colorful laptop—that Apple rolled out last month (which sold out almost immediately). But what can a hardware nerd do in the AI race? Critics argue Apple has been slow to make AI advancements, falling behind competitors. Fans, however, credit the tech giant for letting other companies dump hundreds of billions into data centers and LLMs that Apple can just run on its devices. Some AI truthers think the tech will transform the industry, potentially wiping out the need for iPhones altogether. In that case, it may be a good idea to have the hardware guy at the helm. Ternus reportedly reorganized the company’s hardware engineering department earlier this month to prepare it for faster AI product development. Looking ahead…after a handful of product flops, like the Vision Pro and the autonomous car, Apple has its sights set on big AI-powered launches: a more chatbot-like Siri, wearables, and smart home devices. And don’t forget the company is going to fold the iPhone in half.

An Amendment to our Agreement!

OpenAI shakes up partnership with Microsoft, capping revenue share payments
Published Mon, Apr 27 20269:03 AM EDTUpdated 2 Min Ago

Ashley Capoot@/in/ashley-capoot/WATCH LIVE
Key Points
OpenAI and Microsoft announced major changes to their working relationship.
Microsoft’s license to OpenAI intellectual property will no longer be exclusive.
OpenAI will keep paying a revenue share to Microsoft, but Microsoft will stop paying one to OpenAI.

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CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman speaks during the 2026 Infrastructure Summit of government officials, corporate executives, and labor leaders, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 11, 2026.
Kylie Cooper | Reuters


OpenAI and Microsoft on Monday announced a revamped partnership agreement that will allow the artificial intelligence company to cap revenue share payments and serve customers across any cloud provider.

As part of the new agreement, the companies said revenue share payments from OpenAI to Microsoft will be “subject to a total cap,” but they will continue through 2030, “independent of OpenAI’s technology progress.” Microsoft no longer needs to determine its response if OpenAI finds that it has reached artificial general intelligence, or AGI, which is a term for an AI system that rivals or exceeds human intelligence.


The revenue sharing agreement between the two companies has existed for years. OpenAI will pay Microsoft at the same percentage, which is 20%, as part of the new deal, according to a source familiar with agreement who asked not to be named because the details are confidential. Microsoft will no longer pay a revenue share to OpenAI, according to a blog post.

The two companies said Microsoft remains OpenAI’s primary cloud provider, and that OpenAI products will ship first on Azure unless Microsoft decides otherwise. However, OpenAI can now serve “all of its products” to customers across any provider, including Microsoft rivals Amazon and Google.

Microsoft has been one of OpenAI’s longtime backers, investing more than $13 billion in the company since 2019. The companies have continued to tout their relationship as core and strategic, but it’s shown signs of strain in recent months as the partners move onto the other’s turf. In a memo earlier this month, Denise Dresser, OpenAI’s revenue chief, said the partnership has “limited our ability to meet enterprises where they are.”

“Today, we are announcing an amended agreement to simplify our partnership and the way we work together, grounded in flexibility, certainty, and a focus on delivering the benefits of AI broadly,” OpenAI said.

Microsoft will continue to have a license to OpenAI’s intellectual property on AI models through 2032, although the license will no longer be exclusive, the two companies said.


Shares of Microsoft are down roughly 1% on Monday.

The revamped partnership comes after Microsoft and OpenAI announced a series of changes to their agreement in October, when OpenAI completed a recapitalization and committed to spending $250 billion on Microsoft Azure cloud services. As part of that announcement, Microsoft said its investment for-profit arm was valued at $135 billion, or roughly 27% of the company on an as-converted diluted basis.

But in the months since, OpenAI has been looking to diversify its reach, striking multi-billion dollar deals with Microsoft competitors like Amazon. Model developers are seeing customers run AI agents that carry out tasks over several hours. In recent weeks Meta committed to spending $48 billion with cloud providers CoreWeave and Nebius to supplement its own computing power.

Amazon and OpenAI formed a major strategic partnership in February, and Amazon agreed to invest up to $50 billion in the company as part of that agreement. OpenAI said it would expand its existing $38 billion agreement with Amazon Web Services by $100 billion over the next eight years. AWS will also serve as the exclusive third-party cloud distribution provider for OpenAI’s enterprise platform Frontier, which it unveiled earlier this month.

Following that announcement, Microsoft and OpenAI released a joint statement that said their partnership remained “strong and central.”

— CNBC’s Jordan Novet contributed to this report.

The tweet sending JetBlue to court

 The tweet sending JetBlue to court

Austin DeSisto/Getty Images

Yet another reminder to be careful what you post online, since anyone can see your tweets: hiring managers, lawyers accusing you of surveillance pricing, your parents. Andrew Phillips lodged a class-action lawsuit on Wednesday, claiming JetBlue uses personal data to raise ticket prices—which the airline appeared to admit to in an X post. How’d it get from tweeting to suing? The suit cites an interaction between a customer and the official JetBlue account on X last week. The customer lamented a rapid ticket price hike, saying, “I love flying @JetBlue but a $230 increase on a ticket after one day is crazy, I’m just trying to make it to a funeral.” The JetBlue account responded, suggesting they try clearing their cookies and booking the flight in incognito mode. The response was quickly deleted, and JetBlue has since said the social media post was incorrect, denying that it uses cached data or personal data to set ticket prices. The airline said prices can change quickly based on availability. But…other X users quickly piled on, accusing the company of using surveillance pricing, or adjusting ticket prices based on available data about a customer. And amid the uproar, even members of Congress demanded more information from the CEO of JetBlue about the reply. Pay-what-you-can afford JetBlue is not the first company to face similar allegations. And whether you call it dynamic pricing, surveillance pricing, or we-know-you’ll-pay-3x-the-price-because-it’s-an-emergency, people are mad about it: Last year, Delta faced significant pushback for introducing plans to roll out AI-powered dynamic pricing. Uber has been accused of charging higher prices when your phone is dying (the company has denied this). Looking ahead…your summer travel might still be a mess, but maybe the groceries can be saved. Maryland is set to become the first state to ban price changes based on customer data in grocery stores. A bill passed earlier this month by the state legislature targets digital price tags in stores and online shopping.

Half of Gen Z Would Rather Live in the Past

Half of Gen Z Would Rather Live in the Past: Survey
48% of Gen Z is concerned or anxious about AI.
BY MATT NOVAKUPDATED APRIL 24, 2026, 2:24 PM ET

READING TIME 2 MINUTES

© Shutterstock / Prostock-studio
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Gen Z doesn’t feel great about the state of the country right now.

Among 18 to 29-year-olds, 80% say the U.S. is on the wrong track, 76% disapprove of how President Donald Trump is handling the job of president, and just 25% expect life for Gen Z to be better than for previous generations, according to a new survey from NBC News.


Gen Z’s attitudes toward technology and history might be among the most interesting insights from the new survey, with nearly half of respondents (47%) saying they’d like to live in the past. That response was more popular than the number of people from that generation who said they’d like to live in the present (38%) and dwarfed those who wanted to live in the future (15%).

It appears that at least some of this longing for the past is rooted in apprehension about emerging technology. 48 percent of respondents said they were either concerned or anxious about AI, either because it would require new skills to keep up or because it could force them to change careers.

Twenty-seven percent said they’re not worried about AI and believe it won’t really affect their jobs. Just 25% said they’re optimistic about AI, believing it will allow them to do their job better.

You see the nostalgia for a previous era in trends emerging, like the retro-style landline phone called the Tin Can, which has gone viral in the past year. And as Bloomberg noted in a recent article about the Tin Can, retro tech is almost being thrust upon Gen Z, as countries like Australia ban social media for kids under 16.

Nostalgia for a previous era obviously isn’t that weird. In fact, by the late 2000s, there were articles being written about how Millennials were pining for the world that existed before the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. And when boomers flocked to see the film American Graffiti in 1973, set in the early 1960s, they were romanticizing an era that they were either too young to appreciate in the same way or didn’t remember at all. Likewise, in 1993, the movie Dazed and Confused was set in 1976 and, for Gen X, represented a way of life many in that generation wanted to “return” to.

There were also some surprising responses in the new survey when it came to Gen Z’s familiarity with so-called prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket. Just 7% said they were currently “investing” in prediction markets. Sixty-seven percent said they were not participating in prediction markets, while 26% had not even heard of them.

Nostalgia isn’t uniform across Gen Z, as you can imagine. Just 33% of young Black adults in the generation said they wanted to live in the past, compared to 52% of whites, according to NBC. That likely has something to do with the prolific and systematic racial discrimination of the 20th century (especially before the Civil Rights Act of 1964) and the existence of chattel slavery in the 19th century.

The survey didn’t drill down specifically on that question. But it seems like a safe bet.

Bosses Are Blowing More Money on AI Agents Than It’d Cost Them

 Bosses Are Blowing More Money on AI Agents Than It’d Cost Them to Just Pay Human Workers

"The cost of compute is far beyond the costs of the employees."

By Frank Landymore

Published Apr 27, 2026 4:14 PM EDT
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Mindlessly unleashing AI agents to take over employees’ jobs can be pretty costly, it turns out. Some companies are learning the hard way that paying for the incredible volume of AI agent requests is costing more than what they’d pay their human employees, Axios reports.

AIs can perform all sorts of tasks, ranging from the rote to the complex. But one of the most popular ways it’s being used in the workplace is to generate mountains of code at a pace far greater than a human could achieve. Sometimes, software engineers will even run multiple AI agents at the same time, all working on different tasks in the background without supervision. Each of these tasks costs tokens, and the bill can quickly add up.

“For my team, the cost of compute is far beyond the costs of the employees,” Bryan Catanzaro, vice president of applied deep learning at Nvidia, told Axios.

The problem has become harder to ignore as organizations are increasingly reliant on using AI tools and agents — including the organizations building them. “Pretty much 100 percent” of Anthropic’s code is now AI-generated, the company’s head of Claude Code Boris Cherny claimed earlier this year. Google and Microsoft’s bosses claim that this share is around a quarter of their companies’ code. Meta employees performance reviews are now partly based on how much AI they use, showing that a lot of the push towards using AI is coming from the top.

It probably doesn’t help that many tech workers are treating their token bills as member-measuring contests, using millions of tokens in a single day. The slang for this, we regret to inform you, is “tokenmaxxing,” with some power users racking up monthly token bills north of $150,000. “I probably spend more than my salary on Claude,” Max Linder, a software engineer in Stockholm, told The New York Times last month. Uber engineers using Claude Code have already blown through the company’s entire 2026 AI budget, The Information reported.

Tech leaders’ attempts to grapple with the situation can sound nearly as comical as the dilemma itself. In March, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang proposed giving software engineers AI tokens equal to roughly half their base salary, something he said could be used as a recruiting tool. Why be wooed by a signing bonus, when if you work for us, you get to use more AI?

At the same time, it’s a clear money-making opportunity for AI providers. One OpenAI investor told Axios that the concern over token costs could benefit them, since they believe Codex uses tokens more efficiently than Anthropic’s Claude Code. Anthropic, meanwhile, has cashed in by raising its pricing.

In all, the token costs are just one of many major question marks over AI automation. The jury’s still out on whether using error-prone AIs is more efficient and worth the potential havoc they can wreak internally — as evidenced by incidents at Meta and Amazon, among others — while numerous studies suggest that forcing workers to use AI tools could actually be making their jobs harder.

More on AI: Devious New AI Tool “Clones” Software So That the Original Creator Doesn’t Hold a Copyright Over the New Version



Frank Landymore
Contributing Writer


I’m a tech and science correspondent for Futurism, where I’m particularly interested in astrophysics, the business and ethics of artificial intelligence and automation, and the environment.

UAE leaves OPEC in a big blow to the oil cartel

 UAE leaves OPEC in a big blow to the oil cartel

Fadel Senna/Getty Images

The UAE is like the friend who just announced in the group chat that they’re taking their own car on the road trip. The Gulf nation announced yesterday that it’s leaving OPEC, the 12-nation oil cartel that accounts for half of global oil exports. The oil-flush nation’s abrupt departure—which it said will happen on Friday—is a huge blow to the organization that coordinates countries’ oil outputs in order to control prices. The UAE is the third largest oil producer in OPEC, after Saudi Arabia and Iraq. UAE-shaped hole OPEC has already been losing its grip on the world’s oil supply in recent years, as the US fracking revolution floods global markets with American oil. But now, its sway will be even more limited. The UAE said it’s leaving OPEC to have more freedom to decide how much oil to sell, and that it plans to gradually grow oil production as the world demands more of it: Before the closure of the Strait of Hormuz forced the country to reduce oil shipments, it produced 3.6 million barrels of oil daily, maxing out its quota. It seeks to boost production to 5 million barrels daily by 2027 by building pipelines or maximizing shipments once the strait reopens. There are likely geopolitical reasons, too: The UAE is engaged in a regional rivalry with Saudi Arabia, which is the de facto leader of OPEC. The two countries have the most oil sloshing around beyond what OPEC allows to be exported. Why now? The UAE says it made the decision to bid OPEC adieu now, amid the Iran war, when it would have the least disruptive impact, since oil prices are at multi-year highs. Looking ahead: Experts say that while OPEC losing the UAE might not suppress oil prices in the near future it might make them more volatile in the long term.

 

Carney points to Brexit, warns Alberta separation push could be 'dangerous bluff'

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney said Monday the Alberta referendum on separation is a "dangerous bluff" if anyone thinks its results could be used as leverage in future negotiations.

David Baxter, The Canadian Pressabout an hour ago

Prime Minister Mark Carney shakes hands with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in Calgary, Friday, May 15, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney said Monday the Alberta referendum on separation is a "dangerous bluff" if anyone thinks its results could be used as leverage in future negotiations.

Carney said he saw those effects first-hand when he was the governor of the Bank of England after the Brexit vote. He warned that people in the United Kingdom are still trying to undo the damage caused by that decision a decade later.

"In these separation issues, it is often advanced that, 'Vote for this and it's a free option. Vote for this and we will strengthen our hand in a future negotiation.' That is a very dangerous bluff," Carney told a news conference in Ottawa on Monday.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said last week her government will pose a question in the referendum planned for October asking Albertans whether they think the province should remain part of Canada or should begin the legal process for a separation referendum.

Smith said in a televised address last week that not asking the question in a referendum would amount to "muzzling the voices of hundreds of thousands of Albertans," something she said would be "unjustifiable" in a democracy.

A petition to trigger a referendum on Alberta separation was thrown out earlier this month by a judge, who cited the provincial government's failure to consult Indigenous communities on the effect separation would have on their treaty rights. The Alberta government is appealing that ruling.

Smith said last week that waiting for the court to complete that appeal process would prolong a "very emotional and important debate."

Carney said the government is reviewing the proposed referendum question to ensure it complies with the Clarity Act, the federal secession law which passed after the 1995 Quebec referendum.

The prime minister said he plans to campaign for national unity and to show that co-operative federalism can work.

He pointed to a deal he signed with Smith earlier this month which commits the two levels of government to working toward building a new oil pipeline to the Pacific coast, so long as industrial carbon price targets are met and carbon capture projects move ahead.

When asked if he tried to dissuade Smith from posing a separation question during those pipeline negotiations, Carney did not answer directly.

"The premier doesn't always take my advice," he said.

The prime minister said such a referendum campaign isn't helpful when the province is trying to woo investors for a pipeline. He pointed out that voters did not give Smith's government a mandate to take this step.

"Is it the democratic will of Albertans? Did they vote for this in the last provincial election? No, they didn't. It wasn't on the ballot paper, it wasn't in the mandates or platforms of the governing party and the Official Opposition," Carney said. "It is what it is."

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who represents an Alberta riding, said last week that he and the rest of his caucus will campaign for the province to remain in Canada.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on May 25, 2026.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press

Apple has a happy Mac problem

 Apple has a happy Mac problem, and it’s bad news for shoppers out there

 

For weeks, the Mac mini has been in utterly short supply, with shipments even stretching into months for certain configurations. Why though? AI, and more especially, the rush to run AI agents such as OpenClaw. The situation with the $599 MacBook Neo has been no different. During its earnings calls, Apple confirmed that customer uptake of the cheap laptop has been off the charts. The situation is no different for the desktop Macs. “Realistically, on the Mac mini and the Mac Studio, I believe it will take several months to reach supply-demand balance,” outgoing chief Tim Cook told journalists on the call. The AI demand is not waning, so expect supplies to remain tight in the coming months. Samsung, one of the biggest memory chipmakers, says the supply issue will further worsen heading into 2027.

Graduating Students Cheer as Steve Wozniak Tell Them Human Intelligence Still Matter

Graduating Students Cheer as Steve Wozniak Tell Them Human Intelligence Still Matters

Futurism · an hour ago
by Frank Landymore · Artificial Intelligence


Steve Wozniak did what overpaid commencement speakers across the country have been failing to do: read the room.

While giving a speech at Grand Valley State University’s graduation ceremony earlier this month, the beloved Apple cofounder offered some uplifting remarks to the youngsters entering the job market, amid heaps of anxiety over how AI will upend the economy.

“We got AI today? You all have AI — actual intelligence,” Wozniak said, prompting the audience to erupt in cheers and laughter.

Wozniak went on to compare building AI to replicating the human brain — only this, too, was a subtle dig.

“I was at a company where the engineers figured out how to make a brain,” he continued, “Yeah, takes nine months.”

The Woz was striking a refreshingly different tone to other commencement speakers across the country, who’ve been learning the hard way that today’s youths don’t really like AI, and like being lectured about it even less.

When businesswoman Gloria Caulfield tried to extoll the technology last week, the boos from the University of Central Florida students were so overwhelming that she stopped her speech and helplessly remarked, “What happened?” Caulfield tried to segue with, “only a few years ago, AI was not a factor in our lives,” but then she was interrupted again — by vociferous cheers.

Unsurprisingly, Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta won few hearts and minds when he scolded students at Middle Tennessee State University for not mindlessly embracing AI.

“Deal with it. Like I said, it’s a tool,” he proclaimed. When the boos grew louder, he taunted: “Then do something about it. It’s a tool. Make it work for you.”

Probably the most ruthless backlash was faced by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. When he highlighted how Time magazine chose the “architects of AI” as its “Person of the Year,” he was immediately met with a roar of jeers during his commencement address at the University of Arizona, and it only got worse from there.

AI “will touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person and every relationship you have,” Schmidt said, as more boos rang out. They grew even louder when Schmidt claimed he understood how the students were feeling, forcing him to pause.

Seriously, what was wrong with warming words or simple platitudes? Maybe these trend-obsessed dullards hopping on the AI bandwagon could learn a few things from the Woz.

“Your importance to the world,” he told the graduating students, “is really yourself. You should always try to think different.”

More on AI: Marc Andreessen Sputters Incomprehensibly at Question About How AI Will Actually Benefit Humankind

The post Graduating Students Cheer as Steve Wozniak Tell Them Human Intelligence Still Matters appeared first on Futurism.

AI is already interviewing job candidates

 

AI is already interviewing job candidates, and it’s an utter humiliation for them

 

A disturbingly high number of companies are now using AI tools to sift through resumes of job seekers. And if that was not enough, there’s a new trend where an AI also conducts interviews based on the queries fed to it by the hiring team. It’s already brutal out there in the job market, but the AI interviews are just worsening it. A new survey published in The Guardian says nearly half of applicants have been interviewed by AI, and the experience has been agonizing for multiple reasons. “I’m not even sure anybody watched the interview,” remarked one candidate, who was interviewed by an AI software and received a rejection email a week later. Some say it’s a humiliating ordeal. “I spoke in bullet points and keywords,” said another applicant, adding that they never talk like that in real life.

 

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