Good morning. Elon Musk and Donald Trump have embarked on a cosmic partnership – more on that below, along with Canada Soccer’s drone-spying scandal and some very furry fellows at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. But first:
Today’s headlines
- Ottawa invokes national security to refuse disclosure in the foreign interference case against an ex-Mountie
- Trump vows there’s ‘no price tag’ on his plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants
- Indian officials scuttle a series of consular events in Ontario amid heightened tensions
Elon Musk at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally.ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images
U.S. Politics
A high-stakes billionaire bromance
These aren’t exactly banner times for planet Earth. A European climate agency said it’s virtually certain that 2024 will be the hottest year on record. Wars, famines and catastrophic floods are happening around the globe. Democracy feels very precarious at the moment. Also, University of Toronto scientists put vampire bats on a tiny treadmill and found they could beat us in a foot race, so there’s that.
I’d understand if it all makes you gaze up at the cosmos and think: “Maybe I could just go… there instead?” That does mean spending more time in the orbit of Elon Musk. The world’s richest person shelled out an estimated US$130-million to help get Donald Trump back to the White House, and Musk’s investment has already paid off – a postelection jump in the share price of his EV company Tesla added US$26-billion to his personal fortune. But Musk’s ambitions for space in particular are astronomical. And his cozy relationship with the president-elect, including a potential spot in Trump’s administration, could have serious implications for this planet and beyond.
Cutting to the bone
Leading up to the U.S. election, Trump promised Musk a role as the head of a commission to cut federal waste, something Musk has taken to calling the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, in a nod to a dumb internet meme that – you know what, never mind. Musk promised to cut at least US$2-trillion from the federal budget, which is probably impossible but would certainly mean decimating vital government services such as health care and Social Security. It’d also mean vastly weakening the agencies meant to regulate Musk’s companies, such as his satellite business Starlink and its parent company, SpaceX.
Musk has tussled with these agencies before. After the Federal Aviation Administration fined SpaceX for ignoring launch requirements last year, he complained it was overreach – and then he sued. He mocked the environmental agencies that found SpaceX’s launches disrupted natural habitats and violated the Clean Water Act. He bashed the Federal Communications Commission for excluding Starlink from its US$42-billion program to bring broadband internet across America. (The FCC said Starlink’s service speed was too slow.) Federal regulators might not be so inclined to quarrel with those companies once their founder is enmeshed in the White House.
Dark MAGA stare, Occupy Mars shirt.JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images
SpaceX has made a mint off its ties to the government: Last year, it notched US$3-billion in new federal commitments, bringing its total over the past half decade to US$11-billion. During Trump’s first administration, Starlink received the go-ahead to launch nearly 4,500 internet satellites, and last month it filed a request with the FCC to add another 30,000 to the skies. The company has also moved into the business of building military and spy satellites for the Pentagon – where billions of dollars are up for grabs – despite Musk’s significant ties to China through Tesla, as well as what the Wall Street Journal reported were frequent chats with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In fact, according to that same report, Putin asked Musk not to activate Starlink in Taiwan as a favour to Chinese leader Xi Jinping. SpaceX denies this, but it does not currently operate on the island – so Taiwan’s Digital Affairs Minister is now looking to partner with Canadian satellite operator Telesat. Two years ago, Musk refused to allow Ukraine to use Starlink to launch a surprise attack on Russian forces in Crimea. It’s all made some U.S. politicians wary of depending so heavily on Musk’s private company for matters of national security. “The idea that battlefield decisions are contingent upon his goodwill, that’s not a great position to be in,” Virginia Senator Mark Warner, chair of the intelligence committee, told The Washington Post late last year.
Mars or bust
The real space race, however, might not be for the moon – that’s so 1969 – but for Mars, which has long been Musk’s personal and professional dream. When he leapt around the stage at Trump’s October rally in Butler, Penn., he did so in an “Occupy Mars” T-shirt. That planet is not a place I’d much like to occupy: barely any air, no signs of life, no magnetic field, plenty of radiation. It’d also take at least two years to get there and back. The journey isn’t even on NASA’s radar, but Musk says he can get a crewed mission there in 2028 – just in time for the end of Trump’s second term. (Though he did pledge a million driverless taxis on the road by 2020.)
The quest to conquer Mars is turbo-boosted if Musk avoids regulatory struggles with the FAA, which oversees commercial space flight. Trump seems to be on board with the mission. “We will land an American astronaut on Mars – get ready, Elon,” he said at another Pennsylvania rally. And in his victory speech in West Palm Beach early Wednesday morning, Trump once again singled out Musk for praise: “He’s a character. He’s a special guy. He’s a super genius. We have to protect our geniuses.”
The Shot
Here’s looking at you, kid
This Nubian goat is the prize of Port Perry, Ont.Christopher Wahl/The Globe and Mail
It’s been a week – can I interest you in some comically adorable animals? Photographer Christopher Wahl captured a few of the finest, furriest faces at Toronto’s Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, which is celebrating 102 years of horsemanship and farming know-how.
The Wrap
What else we’re following
At home: A year before the Paris Olympics – when Canada’s women’s soccer team was caught using a drone to observe their opponents’ practice – a staffer told Canada Soccer’s then-top executive about the spying scheme.
Abroad: Anxieties about inflation helped fuel Donald Trump’s return to the White House, but economists say the president-elect’s proposed policies could send inflation higher still.
In the dark: The whole island of Cuba was left without power for the second time in two weeks after Hurricane Rafael knocked out the power grid.
Cast of characters: Ancient DNA has revealed surprising information about Pompeii’s most famous victims – seems like some of the folks once identified as mothers or sisters were just random dudes.