Canada’s largest prairie province will remain part of the country, as voters in Alberta overwhelmingly denied an independence referendum that would have started the province on a path to separation. The ripple effect of the defeated referendum now appears set to echo across Canada.

What did the commentators say?
Most Albertans have no desire to break away. With 93% of the votes reported, nearly 76% of respondents chose to remain part of Canada, according to the preliminary referendum results. The vote “marks a major win for Prime Minister Mark Carney, who’s facing a trade and political war with the United States amid President Donald Trump’s higher tariffs and repeated suggestions of annexing the country,” said Al Jazeera. While the vote is clear, it may “not spell the end for a movement that has spent decades pushing for greater autonomy from the federal government.”

Many Albertans are “expressing frustration that their views aren’t sufficiently represented by the Liberal government,” said Time. Still, many in the Canadian Parliament have been reluctant to support an independence push because Alberta is an “oil-rich province; mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction made up about a quarter of the province’s GDP in 2025.” Some in the province feel that “central Canada is taking advantage of Alberta” and that the “central government has, at times, through environmental regulations, for example, hindered the development of the oil resources,” said Andrew McDougall, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto Scarborough, to Time.

The vote will precipitate further questions about “whether Alberta Premier Danielle Smith can maintain control of her party and the province,” said The Globe and Mail. Smith has consistently said she wants Alberta to be part of a “united Canada” but also has a “contentious relationship with the pro-Canada crowd, who have accused her of pandering to separatists.” The vote’s outcome is “unlikely to position Ms. Smith as an ally to the movement.”

What next?
Carney waxed poetic about the referendum’s defeat. Albertans “made a clear choice. They chose unity, to build together and to take care of each other,” he said on X. The results “mean that Albertans and all Canadians will move forward together with renewed purpose.”

In France, hackers recently set their sights on an unusual target: supermarkets. After hundreds of French grocers had their refrigerators breached and taken offline, many are worried that attacks like these could become commonplace, including in the U.S.

How do hackers do it?
With the French grocery stores, criminals “remotely connected to refrigeration equipment” and “switched on defrost cycles that led to the loss of large quantities of fresh and frozen goods,” said CNN. Most shop fridges are connected to online controllers, allowing “maintenance firms to adjust the temperature remotely,” but this also makes the fridges vulnerable to hackers who can disable certain settings.

This isn’t the first instance of a widespread supermarket hack. In 2025, United Natural Foods, which supplies frozen foods to grocers in the U.S. and Canada, “discovered a cyberattack that forced it to take its systems offline,” said Al Jazeera. And last year, conglomerate Ahold Delhaize USA, which owns grocery chains like Food Lion and Stop & Shop, was the “victim of a cyberattack that disrupted operations at more than 2,000 stores.” Also, British chain Marks & Spencer suffered a 2025 hacking incident that reportedly cost $397 million.

How can this be prevented?
Most experts say consumers don’t have to be worried for now. But it’s a different story for businesses. “Smart appliances connected to the internet will always be vulnerable as hackers seize on security lapses to log in to the systems remotely and trigger malicious features,” said cybersecurity analyst Steven Lachance to Al Jazeera. These breaches also highlight “vulnerabilities in global food supplies that can be quickly and dangerously exploited,” said CNET. 

To protect businesses, experts typically recommend “changing default passwords, enabling two-factor authentication where ⁠available and regularly ​installing software updates,” said Reuters. The “simplest rule is often the most ​effective: The fewer connected devices you have, the fewer potential entry points exist for attackers.”

Despite precautions, incidents like this remain the “next frontier for sabotage attacks,” said Muhammad Yahya Patel, the virtual chief information security officer at cybersecurity firm Huntress, to Bloomberg. Technology has now been “weaponized against food retail infrastructure,” and the “immediate financial consequences are significant and visible.”

Saudi-backed Yemeni government fighters fire a truck-mounted recoilless rifle during battle against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis at the Jabal Han front west of Taiz. The attack has “cut humanitarian supplies” to the city, according to the U.N., leaving “many of its inhabitants without food and other essentials,” said Al Jazeera.

Ahmad Al-Basha / AFP / Getty Images

A new “Carrie” adaptation has introduced this month another generation to the storytelling prowess of horror icon Stephen King. These are the best of the hundreds of novels King fans have devoured for decades.

‘The Shining’ (1977)
Literary critics and fans often say “The Shining” is “one of King’s most important novels” and “with good reason,” said Forbes. The book follows writer Jack Torrance and his family to the haunted Overlook Hotel in the isolated Colorado mountains. It’s a good read for fans who enjoy “psychological thrillers that merge with horror.” ($20, Penguin Random House)

‘The Stand’ (1978)
King’s eerie postapocalyptic novel “The Stand,” set in a “world ravaged by a ruthless pandemic,” follows an ensemble of characters across the “new, dangerous country.” The story builds to a “climactic battle between heaven and hell,” said Reader’s Digest. It’s a tale of “spiritual and sinister wonders” told with King’s “distinct wit and writing style.” ($22, Penguin Random House)

‘The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger’ (1982)
The seven-book “Dark Tower” series is King’s “truest Tolkien analogue,” said The New York Times. It’s an epic in “multiple modes (horror, sci-fi, fantasy, Western)” about a “gunslinger-knight” trying to save the world from “complete destruction by his foe, the Man in Black.” ($29, Simon & Schuster)

‘It’ (1986)
King’s “treatise on everything he has learned about his dark craft" is “poured into the story of Pennywise,” a fear-eating shapeshifting entity, and the “gaggle of outcast children who choose to fight” the creature, said Esquire. The book’s eccentricity balances perfectly with the “romanticized myth of childhood summers” during 1960s Maine. ($25, Simon & Schuster)