Archives — October 2026

Joel was previously an editor at Autoblog for nearly a decade, covering cars from humble economy hatchbacks to high-end sports cars. He has extensive driving experience with plenty of track time, and even dabbles in motorcycling. Joel has shared his experiences in the car world not just in text, but also on podcasts and web videos.

British ColumbiaA municipal leader in northeastern B. C. says he’s "looking for a change of government” as the snap provincial election draws near. Veteran municipal leader Rob Fraser says NDP government unresponsive to local concerns in northeastern B. C. Matt Preprost · CBC News · Posted: Oct 18, 2026 4:10 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results. Northern Rockies Regional Municipality Mayor Rob Fraser stands in front of the area affected by the Parker Lake wildfire in Fort Nelson, B. C., on May 29, 2024. (Benoit Ferradini/Radio-Canada)A municipal leader in northeastern B. C. says he’s "looking for a change of government” as the snap provincial election draws near. Rob Fraser was acclaimed for a second term as mayor of the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality, which includes the town of Fort Nelson. The veteran municipal leader previously served for 20 years as a mayor and councillor in the District of Taylor, near Fort St. John.

More than a decade after Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was first identified, the world still has a limited view of where it is circulating. Two studies published this month in the CDC’s Emerging Infectious Diseases look at why. One audits the public genomic record. The other tests whether COVID-19 exposure can make antibody tests give misleading results. MERS-CoV is carried by dromedary camels and spills over into people intermittently. As of September 29, 2026, health authorities worldwide had reported 2,649 cases, including 960 deaths, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control’s running tally of WHO and national data, a fatality rate of about 36%. Saudi Arabia accounts for about 84% of cases. Reports have declined sharply in recent years, and ECDC noted earlier this year that newly reported cases are at their lowest level since 2014. No licensed vaccine or therapeutic exists.

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Kenya's Leonard Langat successfully defended his title while Andrew Davies of Vancouver made Canadian history on Sunday at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. Leah Jeruto, also of Kenya, won the women's race. Vancouver native finishes 9th in 2:08:48 for fastest-ever marathon debut by a CanadianThe Canadian Press · Posted: Oct 18, 2026 4:04 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 2 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results. Leonard Langat of Kenya wins the men's division in last year's Toronto Waterfront Marathon. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press)Kenya's Leonard Langat successfully defended his title while Andrew Davies of Vancouver made Canadian history on Sunday at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. Langat won the men's race in two hours six minutes 51 seconds. Langat finished ahead of compatriots Fanny Kiprotich (2:07:21), Noah Kipkemboi (2:09:25), Asbel Rutto (2:07:32) and Elvis Cheboi (2:07:37) in the 42.2-kilometre race.

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Published: October 18, 2026 at 4:01p.m. EDTThe Ebola outbreak in Congo has spread to an eighth province in the country’s north, authorities said on Sunday. The Health Ministry has recorded two cases, including one death, in Nord-Ubangi province, bordering the Central African Republic. The ministry said both patients were men in their 20s living in the Wapinda health zone, which borders Bas-Uele province, where Ebola cases have been reported previously. Authorities have recorded at least 9,400 cases, including over 4,500 deaths, in the outbreak declared in mid-May, making it the deadliest in Congo’s history. The virus has spilled over into other countries including neighbouring Uganda, which has since declared itself free of the disease, and Kenya, which recorded a seventh case on Saturday. The Central African Republic has not recorded any confirmed cases. “We see pockets of Ebola generally going down, but unfortunately geographically it’s spreading out,” World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa Mohamed Yakub Janabi told The Associated Press in an interview in Beni, eastern Congo, on Friday.

Austin Manchester is a writer and editor living in New York City. At Polygon, he covers gaming and entertainment news, reviews new video games, interviews behind-the-scenes talent, and more. He enjoys discovering hidden gems and sharing them with Polygon's audience. Previously, he was the gaming editor for AIPT Comics and has written for other outlets like XDA, How-To Geek, and The List. He enjoys soulslikes, character-driven RPGs, and third-person shooters plucked straight out of the Xbox 360 era. He also likes to flex his non-video game nerdy knowledge sometimes, whether that's explaining who's who in the new Wolverine game or recommending a comic book series about a sentient sword.

Here’s your NYT Strands hint for today, plus the spangram and all of today’s Strands answers for puzzle No. 960 on Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. Today’s Strands theme has some very tough answers to unscramble. Think back to your high school or college English classes. Read on for all the answers.

Canadian foods ChaatGPTPublished on: 18 Oct 2026, 8:00 pmLoading content, please wait... Related Stories

It's all dashboard lights and touchscreen warnings these days For decades, the vast majority of cars had a very simple tool to help owners properly maintain their car. That tool was a dipstick, and it enabled a quick, objective look at whether or not an engine or transmission had enough fluid inside for safe operation. Today, many cars don't offer that same simple tool to their owners. Instead, they offer digital displays that are often hidden deep in touchscreen menus. That can feel like a real step backward for DIY drivers. There is, however, a reason behind the change.

Silent Hill developer Bloober Team wants to make physical versions of its games "for as long as possible. "Studio CEO Piotr Babieno opened up about the company's appreciation for physical media and collectibles during an interview with GamesRadar. He started his thoughts by touching on how the gaming landscape and player desires have changed as technology has advanced over the years, explaining that "we have reached a moment where you can't really do much more" in terms of visual and auditory fidelity. "Like, OK, the game can have a slightly higher resolution and maybe better lighting and whatever, but will it make it a more engaging game? I don't think so," Babieno said. The CEO for the studio behind the Silent Hill 2 remake and its in-development original Silent Hill remake also talked about how stats show "the majority of players are playing on hardware which is five, seven years old, if not older. " He continued, saying, "But are they less interested in games because of that? I don't think so. "As AI shapes a new, controversial future in the gaming industry, the Bloober executive seems to be more interested in "thinking about other senses.

An Elections Alberta voting location sign at a mock demonstration of a referendum polling station. WS: Will VasseurPublished on:18 Oct 2026, 7:52 pmLoading content, please wait... AbpoliElections AlbertaAlberta referendum 2026

On Sunday, friendship took centre stage as families, volunteers and community members gathered to celebrate inclusion and support people of all abilities. The Friendship Circle of Montreal’s annual Walk4Friendship, brought the community together for a cause that organizers say extends far beyond a single day.

Published: October 18, 2026 at 3:51p.m. EDTPolice are searching for a male suspect who allegedly intentionally set a business on fire in Toronto’s Danforth Village neighbourhood on Saturday. The suspected arson happened near Danforth and Sibley avenues, west of Victoria Park Avenue. Toronto police say they were called to that area at around 6 p.m. that evening day for a fire call. Investigators say the suspect attended the entrance of a business, briefly stayed by the door before leaving. “Shortly after a fire starts from where the suspect leaves, causing extensive damage,” police said in a news release. Arson suspect Danforth Village Oct. 17 A photo of a suspect wanted in an Oct. 17 arson in Toronto's Danforth Village neighbourhood. (TPS photo) How to set CP24 as your preferred source on GoogleHow to set CTV News as your preferred source on GoogleThe suspect is wanted for arson. He is described as a male with a light complexion, 60 to 70 years old, and standing five-foot-eight to five-foot-nine with an average build, and bald, short grey facial hair. The suspect was last seen wearing a grey winter jacket, dark pants, white shoes, and a black and white toque.

A lot of British slang doesn't seem to make a lot of sense at face value, but there is always a reason for it. Terms like 'Chelsea tractor' or 'sleeping policeman' are examples that no Brit would blink an eye at, and alongside them sits the 'jam sandwich.' Among the many key differences between American and European police cars, or in this instance, specifically British ones, is that police vehicles from a very specific era in Britain picked up the nickname 'jam sandwiches.' The reason is simple.

While his politics and bigotry have long been part of the parsing, Lovecraftian scholars benefit a great deal by the fact that the namesake died before 1939. Tales of unfathomable beings, the reaches of sanity and proto-steampunk sensibilities are ultimately parceled with race science sentiments and colonial expeditions. A new game from Umurangi Generation creator Naphtali Faulkner seeks to wield the horror genre without excusing its many sins. And how does he accomplish this? Adorable penguins. In Penguin Colony, you play as Antarctic birds. A great deal of them. Big emperor penguins. Little baby penguins. Rockhoppers. Chinstraps. By nuzzling up against another penguin, the player can transfer their essence in an instant. Each has alternating characteristics. Speed. Swimming. Jumping. A photo mode. And while it’d be dandy enough to belly slide around the tundra, their harsh but uncomplicated lives are upended. With dabs of alternative history, the game retells Lovecraft’s At The Mountain of Madness, this time with Nazis unlocking the ice sheets instead of well funded New Englanders. Learning of an ancient god, captured in frost, their research team attempts to uncover the deity.

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We’re sharing this article early to provide faster access to peer-reviewed, accepted research. It is citable and carries a permanent DOI. This version is subject to further edits and will be replaced automatically by the final Version of Record. All legal disclaimers apply. AbstractLiver tumors are life-threatening diseases that occur due to the rapid growth of liver cells and even result in a chronic condition. Nevertheless, conventional liver tumor detection struggled with the limitations of poor robustness, difficulties in identifying the complex boundaries, and inconsistent segmentation. Hence, the research introduced a hybrid dual attention-based pyramidal deep convolutional network and deep belief network (HDPCBN) for accurate liver tumor detection. Significantly, the HDPCBN approach deployed a pyramidal architecture to learn deep hierarchical features and intricate patterns of the tumor effectively. Moreover, the integration of the dual attention technique gathers the long-range relationships of both spatial and channel dimensions for accurate liver tumor detection.

Three AI chatbot apps now sit on almost every Australian’s phone by default: Microsoft Copilot inside Windows and Microsoft 365, Google Gemini inside Android and Workspace, and Meta AI inside WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger. None of them need a download decision the way ChatGPT or Claude do — they are already pinned to a taskbar, a side panel or a chat thread. That default placement is exactly why the comparison matters: most people are not choosing a free AI chat app so much as discovering which one they already have.

We’re sharing this article early to provide faster access to peer-reviewed, accepted research. It is citable and carries a permanent DOI. This version is subject to further edits and will be replaced automatically by the final Version of Record. All legal disclaimers apply. AbstractSodium-salt-based physical inhibitors reduce coal–oxygen interactions through moisture absorption and retention in the prevention of coal spontaneous combustion, but their wetting and spreading performance on coal surfaces can be further improved. To enhance the overall inhibition performance of sodium-salt-based inhibitors, the anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) was introduced to modify the sodium chloride (NaCl) inhibition system, and the optimal composite inhibitor formulation was selected through experimental characterization and comprehensive evaluation using the entropy weight method. The results showed that SDS further enhanced the moisture-regulation capacity of the NaCl system.