Event: Canada

Alpinists walk near the Aiguille du Midi during a heat wave in Chamonix, France, on Thursday. | REUTERS Geneva – Swiss glaciers are set to lose an enormous amount of ice due to the heat wave battering Europe, the head of Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS) said.The snow and ice accumulated last winter by Switzerland’s glaciers is expected to have all melted away by Monday, marking the alarming second-earliest arrival on record of the tipping point known as glacier loss day.All further melting between now and October will see the size of glaciers in the Swiss Alps shrink. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing, you can help us get the story right. SUBSCRIBE NOW

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.Canada’s White House Is a Dump. Mark Carney Wants It Fixed Up.The prime minister’s official residence in Ottawa, in disrepair and vacant for more than a decade, has become the country’s most prominent home renovation project.24 Sussex Drive, the official residence of Canada’s prime ministers.Credit...Ian Austen/The New York TimesJune 26, 2026No one has called the official residence of Canada’s prime minister home for over a decade, and it shows. A recent peek through its gates and fences revealed unkept flower beds and dandelions on the front lawn.While President Trump oversees a new ballroom at the gilded White House, 24 Sussex Drive sits empty — unfit for a political leader, or anyone else.When Justin Trudeau became prime minister in 2015, the government put him in temporary official quarters a short drive away. His successor, Prime Minister Mark Carney, is still there.Now, after nearly 20 years of successive governments dithering about the building, Mr. Carney announced on Friday that the federal government is launching a national design and build competition to restore 24 Sussex Drive. The restoration will be mostly paid for through a national fund-raising effort.“We will not let it crumble,” Mr. Carney said. “We will set it right.” He added: “We’ll do this in a manner that reflects the very best of Canada.”While not on the scale of his plans to swiftly build nuclear reactors, pipelines and other major infrastructure, Mr. Carney’s willingness to tackle the fixer-upper fits his broader agenda: pushing the machinery of government to rapidly reshape and rebuild Canada to bolster its economy and sovereignty in the face of Mr. Trump’s annexation talk and tariffs that are hobbling key Canadian industries.Thank you…

10 Downing Street has two things: mice and a chief mouser. For more than a decade, an officially recognized feline has kept rodent infestation in the British prime minister’s residence to a minimum.Over a similar period, the official residence of Canada’s prime minister has seen an unchecked explosion of rodents.Nests and vast quantities of feces were found throughout 24 Sussex, the 35-room mansion overlooking Ottawa. They took over the attic, basement and crawl spaces. Decomposing carcasses filled the walls of the decrepit building.Now, the prime minister, Mark Carney, has announced a competition for the country’s leading architecture firms to revive the storied building “to a standard worthy of the country that it serves”.The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada will design the framework and bring together an independent jury of experts in architecture, heritage conservation and design, which will recommend the winning design to cabinet.“24 Sussex Drive will be built by Canadians for Canadians,” Carney said on Friday, telling reporters that the winning design would be announced on 1 July 2027: Canada Day.“At a time when much of the world is buffeted by crisis, Canada’s history, our institutions and our traditions matter more than ever,” he said, standing outside the uninhabitable building. The prime minister said that while foundations of identity largely take the form of language, culture and laws, buildings can stand as testaments “made of timber and stone … in which we recognize ourselves”.Originally named Gorffwysfa (Welsh for “the place of peace”), the sprawling estate has housed 11 prime ministers since the government took it over in 1951. But its shortcomings have long plagued heads of government.Jean Chrétien, prime minister from 1993 to 2003, brought reporters to witness the need for buckets to catch rainwater from a leaky roof. Only after a storm blew off sections of the roof…

When countries from around the world take to the stage to participate in Eurovision next year, they could see a new competitor.Canada is now eligible to take part in the song contest after CBC/Radio-Canada became a full member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), a requirement to compete. Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has been seeking closer political and economic ties with Europe since taking office last year, raised the idea of Canada joining the song contest in his 2025 budget.Canada would not be the first non-European country to join the contest; Israel and Australia regularly compete, and Morocco competed in 1980.The Carney government said in November that it was working with the CBC, Canada's public broadcaster, "to explore participation in Eurovision". His government's budget included C$150m (£80m) in funding for the broadcaster.Eurovision's rules state that participation in the contest is open to countries with broadcasting organisations that are members of the EBU. Before Thursday, the CBC had been an "associate member". "Canada's voice in this community makes us stronger," Noel Curran, director general of the EBU, said.Even though Canada has not formally competed in Eurovision, Canadians have, and they have even won. In 1988, Céline Dion, a Canadian from the province of Quebec, won the contest competing for Switzerland. The victory helped jumpstart Dion's storied career.Other Canadians have since competed, including Natasha St-Pier, an Acadian New Brunswicker who represented France in 2001, and La Zarra, a singer from Montreal who represented France in 2023.