Forecasters warn of a ‘potentially catastrophic’ storm from Texas to the Carolinas

ATLANTA (AP) — With many Americans still recovering from multiple blasts of snow and unrelenting freezing temperatures in the nation’s northern tier, a new storm is set to emerge this weekend that could coat roads, trees and power lines with devastating ice across a wide expanse of the South.

The storm arriving late this week and into the weekend is shaping up to be a “widespread potentially catastrophic event from Texas to the Carolinas,” said Ryan Maue, a former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“I don’t know how people are going to deal with it,” he said.

Forecasters on Tuesday warned that the ice could weigh down trees and power lines, triggering widespread outages.

Floods in Mozambique displace more than 300,000 people in one province, governor says

MAPUTO, Mozambique (AP) — More than 300,000 people have been displaced by flooding in a province in Mozambique, its governor said Monday. Authorities had already announced that around 40% of the Gaza province has been submerged by floodwater following weeks of torrential rain in parts of southern Africa.

Mozambican President Daniel Chapo has canceled his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, because of the severe flooding impacting central and southern parts of the country, according to the state-run daily newspaper Noticias.

Gaza governor Margarida Mapandzene Chongo said around 327,000 people were being housed in dozens of temporary shelters like schools and churches. They had fled or been evacuated from flooded or flood-threatened areas of the southern province that has a population of about 1.4 million.

Humanitarian organizations said earlier this month they feared around 200,000 people would be impacted by the extreme weather in Mozambique, but it appears that number has been exceeded. Inocencio Impissa, a Cabinet minister and spokesperson for the government, said nearly 600,000 people had been affected in the two provinces of Gaza and neighboring Maputo.

Tribunal upholds $10K fine for B.C. ostrich farm over failure to report sick birds

The Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal has upheld a $10,000 fine handed to the British Columbia ostrich farm whose flock of more than 300 birds was culled last fall, nearly 11 months after the confirmation of an avian influenza outbreak.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued the fine alleging Universal Ostrich Farms violated the Health of Animals Act by failing to report sick and dying birds on the property in southeastern B.C. in December 2024.

The tribunal's decision says the CFIA was instead alerted by an anonymous caller saying they believed the ostriches were sick with avian flu on Dec. 28 that year.

The decision posted online and dated Dec. 11, 2025, says the farm requested the tribunal review the CFIA's violation notice, arguing it "did its best" given the owners thought the ostriches had a non-reportable disease and they had attempted to reach at least two veterinarians who were not available at the time.

B.C. teen dies after falling from chairlift at Cypress Mountain ski resort

WEST VANCOUVER - An 18-year-old has died after falling from a chairlift at the Cypress Mountain Resort northwest of Vancouver, in what police are calling a "tragic accident."

A statement from West Vancouver Police says emergency services were called around 7:30 p.m. on Thursday but the young man from Maple Ridge, B.C., was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police spokeswoman Suzanne Birch says in a statement that "all available evidence points to this being a tragic accident” and there are no obvious indications of technical or mechanical issues with the chairlift. 

She says the investigation is now with the coroner’s office.

Judge allows a third offshore wind project to resume construction as the industry challenges Trump

A federal judge ruled Friday that work on a Virginia offshore wind project could resume, the third project this week to successfully challenge the Trump administration in court.

The administration announced last month it was suspending leases for at least 90 days on five East Coast offshore wind projects because of national security concerns. Its announcement did not reveal specifics about those concerns.

Developers and states sued in an effort to block the order. Dominion Energy Virginia, which is developing Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, was the first.

In federal court in Virginia on Friday, a judge said he was granting the Richmond-based company's request for a preliminary injunction, according to the record from the hearing. This allows construction to resume while Dominion Energy’s lawsuit challenging the government's order proceeds.

Canada losing momentum on climate action as economic worries grow: RBC

TORONTO - Efforts in Canada to address climate change are losing momentum amid wider concerns about the economy, according to a report out Tuesday from the RBC Climate Action Institute.

The report said the country has made progress since 2019, but the institute's climate action barometer — which it uses to try to quantify efforts — fell in 2025 for the first time since it began measuring six years ago.

The end of the consumer carbon tax, removal of electric vehicle incentives, Alberta's restrictions on new renewables and flatlining government funding were pointed to as some examples of stalled progress or retreat.

The pullback comes as U.S. President Donald Trump's destabilizing actions in trade and other areas create tremendous uncertainty, pushing down climate as a key concern. 

Judge upholds cat custody ruling, saying parenthood and pet ownership aren’t same

An Alberta judge has divided up a group of cats between two feuding former spouses, saying neither gets to keep all of them because — in Alberta at least — pets aren’t the same as kids and legally shouldn’t be treated as such.

‘Damn excited’: Calgary lifts water-use restrictions after broken pipe repaired

CALGARY - Calgary’s 1.6 million residents and those in surrounding municipalities are once again free to flush and take longer showers, as water restrictions imposed due to a broken water main were lifted Friday.

"I'm damn excited," Mayor Jeromy Farkas told reporters at a news conference.

He said while it's a relief the Bearspaw South Feeder Main has returned to service, the real hard work is just beginning.

The pipe — which has now broken twice in less than two years — has been deemed terminally defective and needs replacing.

EPA says it will stop calculating health care savings from key air pollution rules

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency says it will stop calculating how much money is saved in health care costs avoided and deaths prevented from air pollution rules that curb two deadly pollutants.

The change means the EPA will focus rules for fine particulate matter and ozone only on the cost to industry, part of a broader realignment under President Donald Trump toward a business-friendly approach that has included the rollback of multiple policies meant to safeguard human health and the environment and slow climate change.

The agency said in a statement late Monday that it “absolutely remains committed to our core mission of protecting human health and the environment" but “will not be monetizing the impacts at this time.” The EPA will continue to estimate costs to businesses to comply with the rules and will continue “ongoing work to refine its economic methodologies” of pollution rules, spokeswoman Brigit Hirsch said.

Environmental and public health advocates called the agency's action a dangerous abdication of one of its core missions.

In a warming world, freshwater production is moving deep beneath the sea

CARLSBAD, Calif. (AP) — Some four miles off the Southern California coast, a company is betting it can solve one of desalination’s biggest problems by moving the technology deep below the ocean’s surface.

OceanWell’s planned Water Farm 1 would use natural ocean pressure to power reverse osmosis — a process that forces seawater through membranes to filter out salt and impurities — and produce up to 60 million gallons (nearly 225 million liters) of freshwater daily. Desalination is energy intensive, with plants worldwide producing between 500 and 850 million tons of carbon emissions annually — approaching the roughly 880 million tons emitted by the entire global aviation industry.

OceanWell claims its deep sea approach — 1,300 feet (400 meters) below the water's surface — would cut energy use by about 40% compared to conventional plants while also tackling the other major environmental problems plaguing traditional desalination: the highly concentrated brine discharged back into the ocean, where it can harm seafloor habitats, including coral reefs, and the intake systems that trap and kill fish larvae, plankton and other organisms at the base of the marine food web.

“The freshwater future of the world is going to come from the ocean,” said OceanWell CEO Robert Bergstrom. “And we’re not going to ask the ocean to pay for it.”

B.C.’s balmy January brings out blossoms, but a cold snap could put plants in peril

VANCOUVER - A couple weeks ago, North Vancouver resident Larry Sewell looked down a street in his neighbourhood and did a double take.

"I said, 'God — (that) looks like a cherry blossom,'" said Sewell.

"I just walked up there and went underneath and took some pictures. I mean, I've seen blossoms come out in February before and stay out. But then I don't think this early. I can't ever remember seeing them this early."

An unseasonably mild winter is coaxing blossoms to bloom early in some Metro Vancouver neighbourhoods, as it experiences one of the warmest Januaries on record.

Netanyahu says the announced start of Gaza ceasefire’s next phase is a ‘declarative move’

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes in Gaza on Thursday killed nine people, including three women, a day after the U.S. announced that the fragile ceasefire would advance to its second phase.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the ceasefire announcement largely symbolic, raising questions about how its more challenging elements will be carried out.

Speaking with the parents of the last Israeli hostage whose remains are still in Gaza, Netanyahu late Wednesday said the governing committee of Palestinians announced as part of the second phase was merely a “declarative move,” rather than the sign of progress described by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff.

Israeli police officer Ran Gvili's parents had earlier pressed Netanyahu not to advance the ceasefire until their son's remains were returned, Israel’s Hostage and Missing Families Forum said Wednesday.

EPA proposes limiting power of states and tribes to block major projects over water concerns

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday proposed limiting states’ and Native American tribes’ power to wield the Clean Water Act to block major projects like natural gas pipelines, advancing the Trump administration's goal of accelerating the construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure and data centers.

The agency said new constraints on local water quality reviews for federally regulated projects will still allow states to protect their environment while preventing unnecessary delays. Successive administrations have seesawed on the scope of states' power. President Donald Trump's first administration reduced it, the Biden administration restored it and now the Trump administration is once again adding constraints to what's called Section 401 of the Clean Water Act.

“When finalized, the proposed rule will increase transparency, efficiency and predictability for certifying authorities and the regulated community," said Jess Kramer, EPA's assistant administrator for water. “It will also ensure states and authorized tribes adhere to their Section 401 role.”

The Clean Water Act allows states and some authorized tribes to review what effect pipelines, dams and other federally regulated projects have on water quality within their borders. Pipelines, for example, might cross rivers, streams and wetlands — disruptions that states can scrutinize and that have caused holdups before. In 2017, for example, New York regulators rejected a permit for a pipeline, saying there weren't sufficient protections for hundreds of streams and wetlands.

Philippines discovers new gas deposit near disputed South China Sea

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced Monday the discovery of a new natural gas deposit near the disputed South China Sea, which could shield his country from a potential power crisis.

The “significant discovery" northwest off Palawan province, close to an existing gas field in waters adjacent to the critical waterway, could eventually supply power to more than 5.7 million households or nearly 200,000 schools for a year, Marcos said, adding further tests and another drilling in the area would be done “to pursue more potential gas resources."

The undersea reservoir is estimated to contain about 98 billion cubic feet (2.7 billion cubic meters) of gas. Initial tests showed 60 million cubic feet (1.6 million cubic meters) of gas could be extracted daily from the well, Marcos said, without providing further details, including when commercial production could start.

“This helps Malampaya’s contribution and strengthens our domestic gas supply for many years to come,” Marcos said. “Aside from the natural gas, the discovery also includes condensate, which is a high-value liquid fuel.”

From climate change to Inuit culture: Five things shared by Greenland and Canada

OTTAWA - As Greenland and Canada both feel the threat of American expansion, the two have deep ties they are hoping to build on.

In February 2024, the Danish territory launched an Arctic strategy that promised a representation office for Greenland in Ottawa. Ten months later, Canada pledged to open a consulate in Nuuk, which is set to take place early next month.

Here are five things Canada and the Danish territory share:

A land border