Planet Seattle

Plan ahead: November 21–28, Seattle and nearby cities will host concerts, theatrical performances, hockey games, and holiday events. The lineup includes performances by Polyrhythmics, Jai Wolf, Gwar, and Steve Lacy; The Nutcracker ballet; The Wizard of Oz musical; a Christmas market; and a tree-lighting ceremony. You can also catch a comedy show, visit the Wild Lanterns light festival, or go ice skating. Details and tickets are available at the event links: November 21, November 22, November...

Vancouver is preparing for changes in city leadership: Robert Weeks will head the fire department, while mayor-elect Pete Fry is assembling a transition team and appointing a deputy mayor. Meanwhile, a woman was fatally struck by a cement truck near the airport, renewing questions about pedestrian safety. Robert Weeks to lead Vancouver Fire Rescue Services, bringing experience and continuity The City of Vancouver has announced the appointment of a new fire chief. Robert Weeks will officially...

In this edition: a scandal at a Vancouver school, where a teacher crossed professional boundaries with a seventh-grade student and was suspended; a cooling housing market in British Columbia, where sales are falling, prices are sliding and construction is rising amid economic uncertainty that could last until 2027; and a roundup of family-friendly Halloween events across Greater Vancouver from immigrant services organization ISSofBC, with six ideas ranging from a “pumpkin train” and a glowing...

A political conflict is heating up in British Columbia over the repeal of DRIPA, the law on Indigenous rights. Meanwhile, two pedestrian collisions have occurred in Vancouver within days of each other, one of them fatal, and a humpback whale has collided with a BC Ferries vessel in Howe Sound. British Columbia changes course: what lies behind the promise to repeal DRIPA British Columbia’s incoming Conservative government is reaffirming its intention to repeal the Declaration on the Rights of...

News roundup: Uniqlo will open in downtown Vancouver in the former Nordstrom space, the B.C. Greens held on to two seats in the legislature, and Vancouver rock bands raised money to protect bats. Uniqlo heads to downtown Vancouver: Japanese retailer to take Nordstrom’s place at Pacific Centre The opening of the first Uniqlo store in downtown Vancouver is more than just another expansion by the chain. It signals tectonic shifts in Canada’s urban retail landscape, where Asian brands are moving in...

The British Columbia election ended in a crushing victory for Lorne Doerkson’s Conservative Party, which is forming a provincial government for the first time since 1928. The Conservatives won 48.1% of the vote and 64 seats, taking 15 Metro Vancouver ridings from the NDP. David Eby held on to Vancouver-Point Grey but resigned as NDP leader, accepting full responsibility for the failure of the snap election. Bowinn Ma was re-elected in North Vancouver, but her party is heading into...

British Columbia has drawn attention on several fronts at once: the province’s resorts dominated a prestigious Condé Nast Traveller ranking, with eleven of Canada’s top fifteen located there, while a tense campaign is underway ahead of the snap election on October 24. Voters will have to navigate 93 electoral districts, and five on Vancouver Island could change political colors. The NDP’s traditional stronghold may swing to the Conservatives, making the coming vote especially...

Residents of key regions in British Columbia gave their communities an average C+ for quality of life: nature and parks scored highly, while housing policy received the lowest marks. Sixteen-year-old musician Richard Lee raised more than $22,000 for BC Children’s Hospital, and Vancouver’s First Christian Reformed Church is marking its centennial as it stands on the brink of leaving its denomination. British Columbia gives its cities a C+: housing falls short, parks save the day Residents of...

A poll found that eight in 10 British Columbians have cut spending because of rising prices, with young people and low-income families hit hardest and groceries accounting for the largest share of cutbacks. Meanwhile, businesses in the province are rethinking what they expect from employees: AI agents are taking on routine tasks, and companies increasingly value “generalists” who can set goals and make decisions. In another alarming incident, a rabid skunk in downtown Vancouver bit several...

This digest covers three stories from British Columbia. In Pender Harbour, the nearly century-old Sundowner Inn is on the market for $2.6 million. The former St. Mary’s Hospital on the water is priced at roughly the same level as a benchmark house in Vancouver. A column in The Tyee takes an ironic look at whether “Green” Pete Fry’s victory in the Vancouver mayoral election foreshadows the provincial election; the author points to the differing political contexts and the absence of a single...

Two of the three articles describe the same dangerous moment: the United States and Iran are signaling that they are open to negotiations while preparing for a possible resumption of hostilities. US Vice President JD Vance’s letter and the visit to Tehran by representatives of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey show that diplomatic channels remain open. But they have yet to resolve the key disagreements or remove the threat of a new strike. The third article, about the dwarf planet candidate...

Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, the political landscape in the United States looks both favorable to Democrats and uncertain. Their advantage in the race for the House of Representatives is bolstered by dissatisfaction with the Donald Trump administration and concerns about the cost of living, but the Senate map gives Republicans a chance to hold on. Meanwhile, the information environment is also changing: Samsung is shutting down its own news feed, which failed to compete with Google...

The Federal Reserve faces a difficult combination of risks: the investment boom surrounding artificial intelligence is supporting economic growth and markets, while also intensifying inflationary pressures and resource shortages. Market participants are divided over whether high interest rates can cool the boom. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh believes borrowing costs affect AI investment, while those taking a more radical view argue that the technology’s enormous potential returns could weaken the usual...

Amazon’s latest announcements point to a common strategy: Alexa is becoming not just a voice assistant, but a hub for everyday digital services and home controls. The company is bringing the assistant to a photo frame, moving its tablets to a more familiar version of Android, and introducing a 3D map of the smart home. In all three cases, the goal is the same: to make Amazon’s technology more accessible and intuitive, so people can interact with it in familiar ways—by voice, touch, or through a...

The Donald Trump administration is seeking to have Washington state set aside more than 400 ballots cast by voters whom federal officials consider potentially ineligible to vote. The move echoes a similar request to California and puts a broader dispute in the spotlight: how to identify possible violations of election rules without jeopardizing citizens’ right to vote and trust in elections. According to The Washington Post, the US Department of Justice asked Washington state officials to set...

The Ebola outbreak that began in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has become the largest and deadliest in the country’s history. The virus is spreading faster than health officials can trace chains of transmission, while staff shortages, mistrust and dangerous working conditions are hampering efforts to contain it where it began. At the same time, lessons from previous outbreaks are helping hospitals outside Africa prepare for a possible imported case—even though experts consider the risk...

Three reports show how military escalation, economic pressure and efforts by regional countries to contain the crisis are unfolding at the same time amid the US-Iran confrontation. Talks in Tehran between Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey do not yet signal a breakthrough: the parties remain divided on key issues, and the threat of further strikes persists. Against this backdrop, high oil and gasoline prices are not a secondary consequence of the war but part of Washington’s political...

Three articles reveal different sides of the same story: Apple has entered the foldable smartphone market with a device that can rival Samsung in performance, cameras, and battery life, yet has also sparked debate over its display, weight, and software limitations. This contrast matters beyond a comparison of two phones: it shows that in a mature category where Samsung has been building experience for nearly a decade, an impressive debut alone does not guarantee superiority. Amid the heated...

Israel’s election has become a test not only for Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, but also for a society transformed by trauma, prolonged war and international isolation since October 7, 2023. The campaign’s central question is whether war fatigue and anger over the security failure can bring about a change of government, or whether voters will prefer to continue the course of military deterrence. Challenger Gadi Eisenkot is offering a more pragmatic approach and a restoration of ties with...

For the past two days, attention in Venezuela has focused on a knot of contradictions: the country whose president, Nicolás Maduro, was flown out by U.S. special forces in January 2026 is now governed by Delcy Rodríguez’s interim government, receiving oil concessions from Washington—and at the same time hearing Donald Trump say it should become the United States’ “51st state.” The return of opposition leader María Corina Machado after ten months in exile has sharpened the central domestic...

Syria’s Foreign Ministry summoned Jordanian Ambassador Sufyan al-Qudah and handed him a protest note over Jordanian airstrikes on civilian sites in Daraa province in the country’s south. The Syrian news agency SANA reported the move on Wednesday. According to the Foreign Ministry, civilians, including children, were killed in the strikes, and several others were injured. Jordan says its aircraft struck Islamic State militant positions in the countryside of Daraa on Monday. Syrian authorities...

The criminal case against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has officially been reassigned to Judge Analisa Torres following the death of 92-year-old Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein. The reassignment was recorded in documents from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Hellerstein had overseen the case since March 2020 and handled subsequent filings after Maduro was brought to the United States in January 2026. Torres, who was born in New York and is of Puerto Rican...

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has donated $10 million from his personal funds to the Umayyad Mosque and the mausoleum of Sayyida Zaynab in Damascus—$5 million for each site. According to the prime minister’s press office, the decision was announced after he visited both shrines with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa met him at Damascus airport. This is al-Zaidi’s first official visit to Syria since he took office in mid-May. The visit follows...

María Corina Machado’s return to Venezuela after ten months in exile, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s remarks about a “timeline” for reforms, have shaken Caracas. The focus is on who is really running the transition, who is paying for the oil, and who will end up in power. Officials, analysts and opposition figures are arguing over who is using whom: Washington using Delcy Rodríguez’s government, or the other way around. Dispute Over Machado’s Return and Washington’s Role Delcy...

After a series of Jordanian airstrikes on southern Syria, which Amman called “Operation Jordanian Deterrence — Hamoud,” relatives of those killed demanded an explanation for why civilian homes and farms had been targeted. The son of a 72-year-old man said his father was a schoolteacher and a driver on a route to the Gulf, had no security-related history, and was well known to local residents. Another witness said his neighbor had been in an olive grove when his home was bombed, and that there...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has upheld the validity of the PDVSA 2020 bonds. The securities were issued in October 2016 as part of an exchange in which bonds due in 2017 were swapped for new bonds maturing in 2020. A 50.1% stake in Citgo Holding, the parent company of oil refiner Citgo Petroleum, was pledged as collateral for the issue. Bondholders representing 39.4% of the total issue agreed to the exchange; in October 2019, PDVSA stopped making payments on the bonds. The...

Following a sharp escalation in southern Syria, the Jordanian government announced on Tuesday that it was forming a joint committee with Damascus to monitor the fallout from Jordanian strikes. Government spokesperson Mohammed al-Momani said the operation was based on field intelligence about confirmed threats and terrorist activity directed against Jordan’s national security. He said Jordanian authorities were in contact with their Syrian counterparts and coordinating next steps. Al-Momani said...

The return of María Corina Machado after ten months in exile, Washington’s publication of a detailed “road map” for the transition, and Donald Trump’s joke about making Venezuela the 51st state all came together over the course of two days. Caracas and Washington are disputing the timeline, the opposition is arguing over its place at the negotiating table, and oil contracts have prompted a debate over who really runs the country. Machado’s “Show” and the Authorities’ Nervous Response The...

Imagine a big hill right in the middle of a city. Now imagine that adults decided to get rid of it not with shovels or explosives, but with... water! That’s what happened in Seattle more than a hundred years ago. A hill called Denny Hill literally dissolved under powerful jets of water and washed into the bay. This story is about boldness, ingenious engineering, stubborn residents, and how even the smartest ideas can sometimes come at too high a cost to nature. Why the City Needed to Remove the...

Imagine enormous rusty towers, pipes and strange metal structures that look like sets from a science-fiction movie. Nearby, children are flying colorful kites on a green hill. This isn’t a movie set: it’s Gasworks Park in Seattle, America. This was once a dirty, unhealthy site, but now it’s a favorite place for local residents. How did that happen? It all began with one bold architect and the people who believed in his unusual idea. When the Gas Plant Was Here More than a century ago, in 1906,...

Imagine that your school suddenly banned the sale of ice cream. Would anyone want ice cream less? Probably not: someone would start selling it secretly out of a backpack. That’s what happened in Seattle a hundred years ago—except that instead of ice cream, the product was a strong drink for adults, and instead of a backpack, there was an entire sea route through foggy straits. A Ban That Came Early Many people think that Prohibition began everywhere in America at once, in 1920. But Washington...

Imagine a quiet autumn stream in the middle of a big city. Cars rush past, while in the water, after a long journey from the ocean, red coho salmon swim upstream. They are returning home to spawn. But when it rains, the fish suddenly start circling, surfacing and gasping for air as if they can’t breathe. Within a few hours, many of them die. For more than 20 years, no one could figure out why. The answer turned out to be closer than anyone thought: it was right beneath car tires. The Mystery of...

Imagine a dark night in Seattle almost a hundred years ago. Thick fog drifts over the water as a fast, unlit boat glides silently through the strait. Its crates conceal a drink that the law forbids transporting. And the man running this entire secret network spends his days walking around town in a police uniform. It sounds like an adventure story, but it’s a true tale from the Prohibition era. And it ended with an important decision that people still debate today. When alcohol was banned In...

In late November 1999, representatives of more than a hundred countries gathered in Seattle. They had come for a conference of the World Trade Organization—the club of countries that negotiate the rules of trade. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets to make their views on those rules heard. Those days went down in history as the “Battle of Seattle.” But alongside the dramatic events, a quiet invention also took shape: people figured out how to report the news without waiting for...

Imagine a city where water needs to flow from the taps in thousands of homes all by itself. To make that happen, it’s pumped high up a hill, then runs downhill through pipes, like water going down a slide. That’s what Seattle did: it built a huge drinking-water reservoir on Capitol Hill and put up a brick tower beside it. Today, the tower no longer stores water. Instead, people go there to enjoy the views, and it has become part of the beautiful Volunteer Park. A Slide for Water In the early...

Imagine building the biggest ships, only to find that they can leave port through a high threshold. That was roughly the situation in Seattle a little over a hundred years ago. During World War I, the city’s shipyards were working at full capacity, and ships needed a reliable route between the sea and the lakes. To create one, engineers built a “ship elevator”—and radically changed the surrounding landscape in the process. At first, many people weren’t happy about it. Today, though, both locals...

If you find yourself in downtown Seattle on a Sunday in the fall, you’ll hear thousands of people shouting so loudly the air seems to shake. They’re Seahawks fans at their stadium. Few people think about the fact that the stadium might never have been built. In 1997, Washington state residents voted on it, and “yes” won by about one percentage point. And even earlier, the team had already started packing up to move to California. The Old Dome That Started “Dropping” Its Ceiling At first, the...