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Timekeeping has officially entered its nuclear age. Two independent teams, one in Vienna, Austria and another in Beijing, China have built working thorium-229 nuclear clock prototypes. Rather than track changes in an atom’s electrons the way that current atomic clocks do, these nuclear versions use a laser that’s tuned to the frequency where a thorium nucleus flips between two energy states for potentially even more accurate time keeping. Scientists believe this new approach could one day make the clocks far more reliable than any existing atomic timekeeper. To put that in perspective, current atomic clocks can  keep time with an uncertainty of 1 second every 300 million years. Scientists predict that more advanced nuclear clocks could move that metric into the billions of years. That could open the door to probing some of the universe’s hardest-to-measure phenomena, like notoriously elusive dark matter. The Chinese clock and Austrian clock were detailed in a pair of studies published this week in the journal Nature.

Speaking in the UK at an AI and Human Rights Summit in Oxford on Monday, Mr. Türk said the technology could deliver dazzling advances in science, health, education – and even human rights work. But its tools are being built and controlled by a select few, without public oversight, and are already doing things their creators cannot fully predict or manage. Dystopia-creepHe warned that AI could undermine equality, freedom, privacy and public debate in subtle ways, “letting dystopia creep in unnoticed”. Entire populations could be cut off from communication, clean water, heating and financial services “at the click of a button”. He called for urgent action to prohibit machines from deciding who lives and who dies, noting that AI is already changing the face of warfare. He also cited studies showing students who rely on AI retain less and think less independently, and asked whether the world is heading for a future in which no one can understand, question or even guide the technology.

TorontoPublished: October 17, 2026 at 2:31p.m. EDTThe next Lotto Max draw is on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. The largest lottery prize ever offered in Canada is still up for grabs after there were no winners for Friday’s Lotto Max draw. The winning numbers were 01, 11, 13, 36, 41, 43, 51. The next draw for the $90 million Lotto Max will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 20. The jackpot is unchanged, as $90 million is the cap. While no one claimed the jackpot on Friday, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation said four Maxmillion tickets worth $1 million each were sold in Ontario. Fourteen other tickets won $100,000 each, including seven in the Greater Toronto Area. Tuesday’s draw will also feature 20 Maxmillions prizes worth $1 million each and at least 90 Maxplus prizes worth $100,000 each. How to set CP24 as your preferred source on GoogleHow to set CTV News as your preferred source on Google

Browse this and many other websites without banner ads, personalized tracking and video ads. Mercedes-AMG is bringing its sports car DNA to the full-size electric SUV segment. The new GT SUV is officially here with up to 1,153 horsepower, a 0-60 mile-per-hour time of 2.4 seconds, and DC fast charging at up to 710 kilowatts.

The Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador has certified a class action on behalf of passengers on board Air Canada Flight AC 2259 which landed hard at Halifax in December of 2025 after the plane’s landing gear collapsed. The flight had taken off from St. John’s International earlier that evening, and officials at YYT later confirmed that debris was found on one of its runways after the flight took off. They wouldn’t say at the time whether the discovery was related to the incident at Halifax. The class action names Air Canada, Provincial Aerospace Ltd, St. John’s International Airport Authority and the Halifax International Airport Authority, all of whom have consented to certification. Stephen Barnes of Bob Buckingham Law says they want to understand what went wrong that night and make sure that passengers have an opportunity to be fairly compensated for what they went through. The case will examine whether the defendants met their responsibilities for aircraft safety, runway safety and emergency response, and whether any failures caused injury or loss to passengers.