The Lyrid meteor shower is visible now and peaking soon. Here’s how to spot it

NEW YORK (AP) — This year’s Lyrid meteor shower is getting a boost thanks to a dim crescent moon. Skywatchers could see 10 to 20 shooting stars per hour soar across the spring sky, according to NASA, when the fiery display peaks Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

The show will be visible across the globe, but views will be best in the Northern Hemisphere. And there’s no risk of the crescent moon photobombing the Lyrid shower. It’ll set before the fun starts.

Meteor showers happen when the Earth plows through debris trails left behind by space rocks. Those stray bits get hot as they enter the atmosphere, producing fiery streaks that are also known as shooting stars.

Contrary to the name, most meteor showers are actually debris from comets. The Lyrids are the leftovers from an icy ball called comet Thatcher.

White House chief of staff meets with Anthropic CEO over its new AI technology

WASHINGTON (AP) — White House chief of staff Susie Wiles on Friday sounded out Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei about the artificial intelligence company's new Mythos model, which has attracted attention from the federal government for how it could transform national security and the economy.

A White House official, who requested anonymity to discuss the meeting ahead of time, said the administration is engaging with advanced AI labs about their models and the security of software. The official stressed that any new technology that might be used by the federal government would require a technical period for evaluation.

The White House said afterward that the meeting was productive and constructive, as opportunities for collaboration were discussed as well as the goal of balancing innovation and safety.

Anthropic said in a statement that Amodei's meeting included senior administration officials and explored how the San Francisco-based company and the “U.S. government can work together on key shared priorities such as cybersecurity, America’s lead in the AI race, and AI safety.” The company said it was “looking forward to continuing these discussions.”

Wildfires used to ‘go to sleep’ at night. Climate change has them burning overtime

WASHINGTON (AP) — Burning time for North American wildfires is going into overtime. Flames are lasting later into the night and starting earlier in the morning because human-caused climate change is extending the hotter and drier conditions that feed fires, a new study found.

Fires used to die down or even die out at night as temperatures dropped and humidity increased, but that's happening less often. The number of hours in North America when the weather is favorable for wildfires is 36% higher than 50 years ago, according to a study Friday in Science Advances.

Places such as California have 550 more potential burning hours than the mid-1970s. Parts of southwestern New Mexico and central Arizona are seeing as much as 2,000 more hours a year when the weather is prone to burning fires, the highest increase seen in the study, which looked at Canada and the United States. The research looked at times when conditions were ripe for fire, but that didn't mean fires occurred during all that time.

Recent big fires in LA and Hawaii burned at night

‘Extraordinary’: Back on Earth, Jeremy Hansen describes his long journey in space

HOUSTON - When Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen first floated to the window after the Orion capsule's bone-rattling launch into space early this month, what he saw and felt left him grasping for words.

He saw the sweep of the ocean first, and then, drifting into view, the rich, dusty red of Australia. And behind it all was the vastness of space, with the edge of Earth's atmosphere shining like a bubble of blue glass in the black.

"It was pretty extraordinary," Hansen told The Canadian Press at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston Thursday.

The enormity of what Hansen and his Artemis II crewmates experienced is still settling in a week after they returned to Earth, splashing into the Pacific Ocean following a 10-day lunar fly-around.

Wyoming communities want time to consider embracing nuclear energy, as feds rush to expand industry

With one nuclear power plant already under construction, Wyoming will soon be home to high-level nuclear waste storage unless the federal government builds a centralized facility.

When TerraPower proposed building its first advanced, liquid sodium-cooled Natrium power plant outside Kemmerer, lawmakers quickly carved out an exception in the state’s otherwise blanket storage ban to allow spent nuclear fuel that comes from any in-state nuclear power plant.

But the conversation about nuclear waste storage in the Cowboy State is far from over.

The industry is gearing up for what advocates say is a global nuclear energy revival, and some in Wyoming — including Gov. Mark Gordon, the Wyoming Energy Authority and Wyoming Business Council — are actively recruiting developers. TerraPower, backed by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, is considering more Natrium power plants in the state. Other players have considered setting up nuclear microreactor manufacturing facilities here, which could include storing spent fuel from portable units deployed around the world and returned to the state.

Ford government to bypass public hearings on freedom-of-information clampdown

TORONTO - Ontario Premier Doug Ford's government is planning to skip public hearings to pass its omnibus budget bill that contains a retroactive clampdown on access to his cellphone records.

The usual legislative process sees bills go to committee, where affected groups and members of the public have a chance to weigh in, and committee members from the government and opposition can propose and debate amendments.

But government house leader Steve Clark is now proposing to bypass all of that for a budget bill that merges the province's conservation authorities, paves the way for redevelopment of a lot outside the Rogers Centre in downtown Toronto, caps resale ticket prices, and most controversially, changes freedom-of-information laws.

The retroactive FOI law would shield Ford and cabinet members — along with their offices — from public access to documents, with Ford admitting that part of the rationale is to kill a request from Global News to obtain his cellphone records.

Polish leader Tusk claims Russia-linked crypto firm backed Nawrocki’s presidential bid

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said a cryptocurrency firm built with “Russian money” had sponsored Polish politicians from the former national-conservative government as well as a CPAC ( Conservative Political Action Conference ) event in Poland last year, where Kristi Noem, the former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary, openly backed nationalist Karol Nawrocki to win the Polish presidency.

Tusk was speaking on Friday in the Polish parliament, before a parliamentary vote to overrule Nawrocki who had rejected regulations of the Polish crypto-asset market. Nawrocki has vetoed two separate attempts by the liberal government to regulate this market in the past six months.

Tusk claimed that the blocking of regulations by some Polish politicians indicated they were serving the interests of a specific company, Zondacrypto, which had in the past provided them with financial support and which had links with Russia.

“The source of this company’s financial success is not only Russian money linked to the so-called Bratva, one of the most important mafia groups in Russia, but also to Russian secret services,” Tusk said in his parliament speech.

Wanna bet? Washington steps up scrutiny of prediction markets

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the United States was preparing a daring mission to rescue an airman whose fighter jet was shot down by Iran, there was money to be made.

Users on Polymarket, the world's largest prediction market, could place bets on when the airman would be rescued. When Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., shared a screenshot of the activity on social media, an April 3 rescue was trading at 15% compared with 63% who were betting on April 4.

After Moulton posted the screenshot and blasted this “dystopian death market,” Polymarket stopped the betting, saying the market “does not meet our integrity standards.”

A former Marine who served four tours in Iraq, Moulton said he was “absolutely not satisfied with Polymarket's response” and blamed the site for being “completely unwilling to self-regulate when it comes to betting on the lives of our service members.”

Lawmakers gathered quietly to talk about AI. Angst and fears of ‘destruction’ followed

WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional subcommittee on Thursday held a roundtable discussion on the potential of artificial intelligence, which took a turn toward the existential as each lawmaker aired their anxieties about the rapidly evolving technology.

Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., expressed alarm that federal workers may be using AI chatbots to handle sensitive government data. Rep. William Timmons, R-S.C., asked whether it should be illegal for AI systems to use someone’s likeness to create pornographic images.

Rep. John McGuire, R-Va., expressed concerns that AI systems could deny U.S. military forces from taking lethal actions due to a model's conclusion for “moral” behavior. And Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., raised concerns about the Trump administration’s use of AI in the war with Iran, the technology’s intensive energy usage and its potential effects on the climate.

While members of Congress elsewhere debated other major topics — the scope of the federal government’s surveillance powers, the war with Iran and funding the Department of Homeland Security — the House Oversight Committee’s subcommittee roundtable on “Artificial Intelligence and American Power” brought executives of AI firms, academics and those implementing AI at major companies together with lawmakers.

False information, misleading images rife in Manitoba-based AI-driven 'news' service

In a rapidly evolving media landscape, the rise of Boring News, an AI-generated news outlet, highlights the growing tension between technology and journalism. While it aims to fill local news gaps across Canada, the outlet is plagued by inaccuracies and ethical concerns, prompting debate on the future of credible reporting.

Artemis II astronauts praise their moonship’s performance, especially the heat shield

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The Artemis II astronauts who ignited a lunar renaissance gave high marks Thursday to their moonship, especially the heat shield, for its performance during reentry.

In their first news conference since returning to Earth, the three Americans and one Canadian said their lunar flyby puts NASA in a much better position for a moon landing by a crew in two years and an eventual moon base. They spoke from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, their home base.

Commander Reid Wiseman later told The Associated Press that he’s been so busy since getting back that he hasn’t had time to gaze up at the moon, let alone Carroll Crater, the name suggested by the crew for a bright lunar crater in honor of his late wife. They shared two daughters whose anxieties and fears over their father’s journey ended with his safe splashdown late last week.

“Being 252,000 miles away from home was the most majestic, gorgeous thing that human eyes will ever witness,” he said in an interview with the AP. But hurtling back through the atmosphere at 39 times the speed of sound, “that is scary and that is risky.” That’s why he yearned for home midway through his flight. “You just want to hold your kids and you just want them to know that you’re safe.”

AI content should be labelled, heritage committee says

OTTAWA - The government should require that content generated by artificial intelligence be clearly labelled, a House of Commons committee said in a new report.

The members of Parliament on the committee are calling for standardized labels for AI content that are visible and that the public can understand. They say the requirement should apply to all relevant sectors, including digital platforms and broadcasters.

This would "promote transparency, maintain public trust and preserve the integrity of Canada’s information and cultural ecosystem," the report said.

It called on the government to establish "a framework governing the systematic and easily identifiable labelling of content created with the assistance of artificial intelligence, including through the use of metadata, digital watermarks or other robust technical solutions."

ChatGPT maker OpenAI shifts its focus to business users amid Anthropic pressure

The same ChatGPT chatbot that gave OpenAI’s chief financial officer Sarah Friar a tilapia recipe for a recent Sunday night dinner at home is also now doing her most mundane tasks at work like summarizing her emails and Slack messages.

Friar and other company executives are banking OpenAI's future on more of the latter as it shifts its focus to business-oriented products while shedding some of its consumer offerings as a pathway to profitability.

OpenAI says it will introduce a new artificial intelligence model for “high-value professional work” as the company faces heightened competition with rival Anthropic in attracting corporate customers to adopt AI assistants in their workplaces.

“You’ll see a new model coming from us in short order. We feel very excited about it,” Friar said in an interview with The Associated Press.

In a B.C. industrial zone, a new link forged in Canada’s crucial lithium supply chain

DELTA -  

Nestled in a series of unassuming industrial buildings in Delta, B.C., among companies specializing in plumbing supplies, ladders and fitness equipment, sits North America's first electrochemical lithium refining facility.

It's an unlikely location for Canada to challenge China's hegemonic control of the refining of lithium, a critical mineral whose supply chains have emerged as a key concern from the White House to Ottawa and beyond.

Mangrove Lithium CEO and founder Saad Dara joked that the facility is like a "clown building," as he conducted a private tour.