Skip to main content

Featured

Churchill Falls: A 15% Power Bill Rebate, $10 Billion From Ottawa — What It Means for Your Wallet

  Thursday, August 20, 2026 Last Monday, Prime Minister Mark Carney stood on a pier in St. John's alongside Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Tony Wakeham and Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette to announce what Ottawa is calling the largest clean energy investment in North American history. Buried in the headline numbers — $273 billion in nominal contract value, $10 billion in federal financing, 14,000 megawatts of new hydro capacity — is a much simpler story for ordinary Canadians: who pays what for electricity, for the next 50 years. Here's what actually changed, and what it means for your bills whether you live in St. John's, Montreal, or Ajax, Ontario. The deal it's replacing was historically lopsided To understand why this is a big deal, you need the old one. Under the original 1969 Churchill Falls contract, Quebec locked in the right to buy the vast majority of the plant's power from Newfoundland and Labrador at roughly 0.2 cents per kilowatt-hour — a price th...

article

Yemen’s Houthi Rebels Shoot Down US Reaper Drone: Aerial Clash Escalates Tensions

 

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for shooting down another of the U.S. military’s MQ-9 Reaper drones. The rebels released footage showing wreckage that corresponds to known pieces of the unmanned aircraft. According to the Houthis, they used a surface-to-air missile to down the Predator drone over their stronghold in the country’s Saada province. The video includes close-ups of parts with the logo of General Atomics, the manufacturer of the drone, and serial numbers matching known components made by the company.

This incident is part of a renewed series of assaults by the Houthis following a relative lull in their pressure campaign over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. While U.S. officials have not immediately commented on the Houthi footage, CBS News previously reported an anonymous U.S. military official acknowledging a drone crash in Yemen.

The MQ-9 Reaper drone, which costs around $30 million each, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet and has an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land. Since the Houthis seized Yemen’s north and its capital of Sanaa in 2014, the U.S. military has lost at least five drones to the rebels, including this recent shootdown. The ongoing conflict in Yemen continues to escalate tensions in the region, with the Houthis also launching attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, demanding an end to the war in Gaza.

As the situation unfolds, both sides remain on high alert, and the international community closely monitors developments in this volatile region. The downing of the U.S. Reaper drone adds another layer of complexity to an already fraught conflict landscape.

Comments