Extreme Alberta cold expected to shatter more temperature records - CBC.ca

A polar vortex that has plunged Alberta into a deep freeze with record-breaking cold is tightening its grip on the province.  

Dangerously cold Arctic air began spreading across the province this week. As of Friday, temperatures across much of the province were hovering around the –40s with biting winds that made it feel more like –50.

Edmonton's skyline is draped with ice fog. Roads and highways across the province remain slick and many flights scheduled to depart Edmonton International Airport are being delayed.

WestJet said Friday the extreme cold weather and intermittent precipitation are affecting its operations, leading to the cancellations of 87 flights across its network Thursday and 104 more as of 12:45 p.m. MT Friday.

Temperatures have dropped "below the threshold at which de-icing fluid is effective," and other equipment is "inoperable," the airline said.

It thanked travellers for their patience and advised them to check the status of their flight before leaving for the airport.

Passengers mill about at Edmonton International Airport on Friday, January 12, 2024. (Sam Samson/CBC)

On Friday, the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton was diverting patients to other facilities after its emergency department and waiting room lost heat due to a problem caused by the freezing temperatures.

Just before sunrise in Edmonton, temperatures hit lows of –37 C, breaking a daily record of –32 set in 1998. 

Calgary saw a Friday morning low of –38, shattering a record of –29 set in 2005.

"We are talking about a cold we have not seen in certain parts of the province in decades," Environment Canada meteorologist Justin Shelley said in an interview.

"We've already seen temperatures in Alberta well into the –40s and there's an outside chance of seeing an air temperature of –50 in the province at some point during the weekend."

The polar vortex, a large area of low pressure at the poles with very cold air swirling from west to east, is causing the extended dip in temperatures, Shelley said. 

"We have a very cold Arctic air mass that has descended south and is sitting over Alberta today and will continue to do so through the weekend." 

An extreme cold warning remains in place for the entire province.

Temperatures are expected to continue falling over the weekend.

Environment Canada says Saturday morning and Sunday morning will be the coldest, with temperatures ranging from –40 to –48 C, and wind chill values near –55. Wind chills could even be colder in open and exposed areas.  

Overnight temperatures in Edmonton Friday into Saturday morning are expected to reach a low of –40 , or –45 in communities on the outskirts of the city.

Watch: What is wind chill?

The truth about wind chill

2 years ago

Duration 2:17

Meteorologist Christy Climenhaga debunks some of the common misconceptions about this divisive weather measurement.

The daytime high in Edmonton Saturday will climb to a high of –33. But the wind chill will make it feel as cold as –47 in the morning and –39 in the afternoon. 

For Calgary, the forecast calls for an overnight of low of –37 on Friday and a high of –30 for Saturday.

52 years since Edmonton saw –40

Edmonton hasn't reached an overnight low of –40 since 1972. For daytime highs, the last time Edmonton saw a maximum temperature of –32 or below was in 1966. 

Calgary, meanwhile, is expected shatter an overnight cold record set in 1997 and record for the coldest daytime temperature set in 1968. 

The weather has put major strains on Alberta's infrastructure.

On Thursday, demand for electricity in Alberta hit a new hourly peak of 12,384 megawatts as extreme cold weather blanketed the province, the Alberta Electric System Operator said.

Between Tuesday and Thursday evening, the Alberta Motor Association received more than 10,000 requests for roadside assistance across the province.

In some communities, the call volume has been up to nine times higher than normal, with dead batteries the most common trouble.

Environment Canada is encouraging people to take caution with the extreme temperatures. Frostbite can develop within minutes on exposed skin.

Young children, older adults, people with chronic illnesses, those working or exercising outdoors and people without proper shelter are at the greatest risk. People are also encouraged to keep their pets inside. 

If Albertans must travel this weekend, they should ensure their vehicles are equipped with emergency supplies and warm clothing, Shelley said. 

The long-term forecast does offer a modicum of hope. 

The weather is expected to warm up, somewhat. Temperatures are expected to rise around the –20 mark for the remainder of next week, Shelley said. 

"We could be stuck in the cold in a little while yet," he said.

Edmonton AM5:17The polar vortex is back in Edmonton

Edmonton is in the midst of an extreme cold snap with temperatures plunging deep into the negative this week, and no indication of relief over the weekend. To learn more about what causes this Arctic blast and what we can expect in the days ahead, Edmonton AM is joined by Matthew Grinter, a meteorologist at The Weather Network.

Ukranian newcomer Kyrylo Turchenko thought the legend of Canadian winters was just a myth but now he knows better. And just like fellow Edmontonians — he knows what to do.

"I'm just staying at home. I think it's the best decision to stay warm and like it's freezing."

Ukrainian newcomer Kyrylo Turchenko heard the rumours but he was still surprised to find out just how cold a Canadian winter can get. (Travis McEwan/CBC News)

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Why landing on the moon is proving more difficult today than 50 years ago - The Guardian

It was a flawless launch. In the early hours of Monday morning, the Vulcan Centaur rocket rattled into the darkness over Cape Canaveral, shed its solid rocket boosters and released the Peregrine spacecraft on the perfect trajectory for its landmark mission to the moon.

The success prompted a “Yee-haw!” from Tory Bruno, the chief executive of United Launch Alliance, which built the rocket: this was the Vulcan’s maiden flight, after all. But it wasn’t long before the mood shifted. Astrobotic, the company behind Peregrine, found the spacecraft was leaking propellant. And without sufficient fuel, the chances of landing softly on the moon rapidly fell to zero.

It is more than half a century since Nasa landed astronauts on the moon and brought them all home safely. Shouldn’t landing on the lunar surface today be, if not quite trivial, then at least straightforward? Hasn’t the rocket science of the mid-20th century become the basic knowledge of the 21st?

Peregrine isn’t the only recent failure. While China and India have both placed robotic landers on the moon, Russia’s Luna 25 crash-landed last year, nearly 60 years after the Soviet Union’s Luna 9 nailed the first gentle touchdown. Landers built by private companies have a 100% failure record on the moon: the Israeli Beresheet lander crashed in 2019, while a Japanese lander built by ispace crashed last year. Peregrine makes it three out of three losses.

One fundamental challenge, says Jan Wörner, a former director general of the European Space Agency (Esa), is weight. “You are always close to failure because you have to be light or the spacecraft will not fly. You cannot have a big safety margin.”

Added to that, almost every spacecraft is a prototype. Apart from rare cases, such as the Galileo communications satellites, spacecraft are bespoke machines. They are not mass produced with the same tried and tested systems and designs. And once they are deployed in space, they are on their own. “If you have trouble with your car, you can have it repaired, but in space there’s no opportunity,” says Wörner. “Space is a different dimension.”

The moon itself presents its own problems. There is gravity – one-sixth as strong as on Earth – but no atmosphere. Unlike Mars, where spacecraft can fly to their destination and brake with parachutes, moon landings depend entirely on engines. If you have a single engine, as smaller probes tend to, it must be steerable, because there is no other way to control the descent.

To complicate matters, the engine must have a throttle, allowing the thrust to be dialled up and down. “Usually you ignite them and they provide a steady state thrust,” says Nico Dettmann, Esa’s lunar exploration group leader. “To change the thrust during operations adds a lot more complexity.”

And yet, with the first lunar landings back in the 60s, it can be hard to grasp why the moon remains such a tough destination.

Moon mission records provide a clue: soon after the Apollo programme, lunar landers fell out of favour. When China’s Chang’e 3 spacecraft touched down in 2013, it chalked up the first soft landing on the moon since the Soviet’s Luna 24 in 1976.

“There were decades when people were not developing landers,” says Dettmann. “The technology is not that common that you can easily learn from others.”

Testing, then, is critical. But while rockets can be bolted down and put through their paces, the options are more limited for spacecraft. Tests can check whether power and propulsion, navigation, communications and instruments work, and spacecraft are shaken to ensure they can endure the intense vibrations of launch, but there is no good way to simulate a moon landing. “It is much harder to qualify and validate a lunar lander than many other space systems,” says Dettmann.

During the space race, Nasa spent a staggering $25bn on Apollo. It still clocked up failure after failure before it reached the moon. It now has 70 years of institutional knowledge and a culture geared towards designing, building and testing spacecraft. Under its new Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) scheme, however, the agency is looking to slash costs and stimulate the US space industry by paying private companies, such as Astrobotic and the Houston-based Intuitive Machines, to deliver its instruments to the moon.

The trade-off is a greater risk of failure, so more lost missions should be expected. “These companies are all relatively new. And comparatively, they are doing these missions on pocket change,” says Dr Joshua Rasera, a research associate at Imperial College London. But the strategy should pay off, he says, because companies learn from their failures. “It still ends up being cheaper over the total number of missions,” he says, “even if the first few maybe crash.”

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Car rental giant Hertz dumps EVs in U.S. in favour of gasoline engines - CBC.ca

Rental firm Hertz Global Holdings said on Thursday it would sell about 20,000 electric vehicles, including Teslas, from its U.S. fleet due to higher expenses related to collision and damage, and will opt for gas-powered vehicles.

Shares of the rental company, which also operates vehicles from Swedish EV maker Polestar among others, fell about four per cent. Tesla's stock was down about three per cent.

Hertz also expects to record about $245 million US in costs related to depreciation expenses from the proposed sale of the electric vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2023.

CBC News has reached out to Hertz for clarification on whether Canadian vehicle fleets will be affected or included in these fleet changes.

Hertz's decision underscores the bumpy road EVs have hit as the growth rate on sales of those vehicles has slowed. This has also resulted in carmakers such as General Motors or Ford to scale back production plans of those vehicles.

Tesla stocks dropped after the Hertz announcement. ((Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman/The Associated Press)

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas in a note said the car rental firm's move was a warning across the EV space and it was another sign that EV expectations need to be "reset downward across the market."

"While consumers enjoy the driving experience and fuel savings (per mile) of an EV, there are other 'hidden' costs to EV ownership," Jonas added.

Hertz had said it would order 100,000 Tesla vehicles by the end of 2022 and followed that with a decision to buy up to 65,000 units over five years from Polestar.

"Expenses related to collision and damage, primarily associated with EVs, remained high in the quarter," Hertz said in a regulatory filing on Thursday.

Hertz not only player cutting back on EVs

German rental car company Sixt said in December that it had not purchased Tesla vehicles since 2022 and is selling its fleet of Teslas "as part of our regular de-fleeting process."

Sixt said on Thursday it still plans to offer a range of electrified vehicles and "stick to our goal to electrify 70 to 90 per cent of our rental fleet in Europe by 2030."

Hertz said it would continue to focus on improving profitability for the remainder of its EV fleet.

Hertz plans to sell about 20,000 electric vehicles, which one analyst says will likely be at a loss. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Wholesale used-EV prices fell for most of 2023 as prices for new EVs fell and inventories of unsold electric vehicles rose, according to Cox Automotive data.

Cox forecast before Hertz's announcement that used EV prices would decline more than overall used vehicle prices during 2024.

Analyst says Hertz 'taking a major loss'

The car rental firm is selling some Tesla Model 3s for as low as about $20,000 US, nearly half the purchase price for the cheapest variant of the compact sedan.

"While 20,000 cars isn't a large number in the total used vehicle market, it does mean Hertz will be taking a major loss on each of these sales while further contributing to the trend of falling used EV values," iSeeCars.com analyst Karl Brauer said.

It's unclear how Hertz's Canadian fleet will be affected by the decision to sell off EVs. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)

Hertz previously set a target for 25 per cent of its fleet to be electric by the end of 2024.

The company's used car website lists more than 700 EVs on sale including BMW's i3, Chevrolet's Bolt and Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y SUVs.

Polestar did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

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US inflation picks up more than expected in December - BBC.com

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Consumer prices in the US rose again in December, driven by higher costs for housing, dining out and car insurance.

Inflation - which measures the rate at which prices are increasing - hit 3.4% over the year, the Labor Department said.

It was up from 3.1% in November, accelerating more over the month than many analysts had expected.

The figure is likely to keep the US central bank cautious about declaring victory in its fight against inflation.

The US Federal Reserve has an inflation target of 2% and, until last summer, had been raising interest rates to cool price rises.

Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, said the latest inflation figures are "not bad numbers, but they do show that disinflation progress is still slow and unlikely to be a straight line down".

Inflation in the world's largest economy has dropped sharply since peaking at 9.1% in June 2022, when the war in Ukraine sent energy costs soaring.

Despite the uptick in December, many analysts said they expected inflation to improve in the coming months.

"This is another [Consumer Price Index] report that shows inflation has moderated and will likely continue to decelerate," said Ronald Temple, chief market strategist at Lazard.

But while price increases for goods have cooled, as supply bottlenecks from the pandemic clear, the report suggests that progress in other areas is proving more difficult, said Brian Coulton, chief economist at Fitch Ratings.

Prices for car insurance were up 20% compared with December 2022 while rents climbed 6.5%, according to the US Labor Department.

It said that grocery prices gained a modest 1.3%, which compares to a 5.2% rise in prices for people choosing to dine out.

The cost of some food to eat at home soared, with steak up 11% over the year.

Mr Coulton said the report suggested that hopes that the Federal Reserve will move quickly to begin cutting interest rates could prove premature.

"This will give the Fed grounds for caution and they are unlikely to cut rates as quickly as the markets currently expect," Mr Coulton said.

For now, the improvement in the situation has largely failed to persuade the American public, which continues to report glum economic sentiment.

Last year, high petrol prices prompted 28-year-old Harish Kunchala to halt his regular car journeys to see his brother.

Mr Kunchala, who is pursuing a graduate degree in computer science in California, said he has since resumed visits to his sibling but still felt budgetary stress in other areas. , He and his roommates keep lists in their apartment trying to keep track of where to find the best prices for meat and other items.

Harish Kunchala

Harish Kunchala said he is still feeling hit by higher prices despite inflation easing from highs

"If it's not one thing, it's the other," he said.

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Why are 1,500 Americans still dying from COVID every week? - ABC News

More than three years into the pandemic, hundreds of Americans are still dying from COVID-19 every week.

For the week ending Dec. 9, the last week of complete data, there were 1,614 deaths from COVID, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The last four weeks of complete data show an average of 1,488 weekly deaths.

By comparison, there were 163 weekly deaths from the flu for the week ending Dec. 9, according to CDC data.

While high, these COVID death figures are still lower than the high of 25,974 deaths recorded the week ending Jan. 9, 2021, as well as weekly deaths seen in previous winters, CDC data shows.

The current "weekly rate of COVID mortality is similar to what we were getting per day at [the worst] parts of the pandemic. So, proportionally, we're in a completely different place than where we were, thankfully," Dr. Cameron Wolfe, a professor of infectious diseases at Duke University in North Carolina, told ABC News. "But there's still a pretty significant mortality; 1,500 patients dying every week is unacceptable, frankly."

Experts said there are several reasons why people might still be dying from the virus, including not enough people accessing treatments or getting vaccinated as well as waning immunity.

Provisional Weekly COVID-19 Deaths in the United States- Jan. 7, 2023 – Dec. 30, 2023

National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics Surveillance

Additionally, if more people get sick, even if in lesser numbers than in previous waves, it will naturally lead to more people becoming hospitalized and, in turn, dying.

"We do have very good vaccines that [researchers] have been able to adjust as the variants have changed and very good treatment options that have been shown to decrease the risk of hospitalization as well as deaths," Dr. Shivanjali Shankaran, an associate professor of infectious diseases at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, told ABC News.

"However, if we're not accessing those particular tools, then having them doesn't sort of make any difference," Shankaran added.

Too few people getting vaccinated

As of Jan. 5, just 19.4% of adults aged 18 and older and 8% of children have received the updated COVID vaccine, CDC data shows. Additionally, just 38% of adults aged 65 and older, who are at higher risk of severe illness, have been vaccinated.

The updated vaccine is targeted against variants that are related to XBB, an offshoot of the omicron variant.

Currently, JN.1, a descendant of BA.2.86 -- which is itself descended from XBB -- makes up an estimated 61.6% of U.S. COVID cases, CDC data shows.

Although the CDC has suggested JN.1 may be more transmissible or better at evading the immune system than other variants, there is no evidence that available vaccines don't work.

"The longer someone has gone since their last vaccine, or their most recent infection for that matter, the more likely their COVID breakthrough would occur and the more likely it's going to be severe enough that they land in hospital" and potentially die, Wolfe said.

Experts said there may a level of vaccine fatigue and complacency in the population with people not getting the updated vaccine because they don't feel like they need it after getting the original vaccine and then subsequent boosters. This, however, doesn't account for waning immunity.

Denise Fractious, 68, of Pasadena, receives her COVID vaccine during a flu and COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Kaiser Permanente Pasadena on Oct. 12, 2023, in Pasadena, Calif.

Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

"[Vaccines] don't retain their memory as effectively as we might like, so if you were vaccinated short of more than 12 months ago, your chances of maintaining really good memory again from that vaccine is probably pretty poor at this point," Wolfe said.

For a high-risk person, this increases their chance of severe illness if they get infected. For lower risk people, this increases the risk of them spreading the virus to more at-risk groups, he added.

Americans not accessing treatments

COVID-19 treatments have evolved since the early days of the pandemic with antiviral pills available, particularly Paxlovid from Pfizer.

Paxlovid is three pills given twice daily for five days for those at high risk of severe illness. Initial clinical trial data showed Pfizer's pill reduced the risk of hospitalization and death for unvaccinated patients at risk of severe illness who began treatment within three days of symptoms by nearly 90%. More recent studies including omicron strains of the virus and vaccinated patients have upheld similar results showing the treatment cut the risk of hospitalization and death in half.

It's been a relatively underused treatment with some reports suggesting that in some states it's prescribed in less than 25% of cases -- and it may be another reason why deaths have increased.

Experts said there may be several factors at play.

"It's a combination of misunderstanding about who's eligible for Paxlovid, a misunderstanding about whether Paxlovid works and then sometimes trouble getting prescriptions," Dr. Megan Ranney, dean of the Yale School of Public Health, told ABC News. "Because we know, for example, that Paxlovid use is much lower in rural areas, as well as among those who have lower educational levels, so I suspect for Paxlovid that there is this kind of element of access as well."

Physicians may also feel hesitant to prescribe Paxlovid due to concerns about how the medication interacts with other prescription drugs or even due to instance of people experiencing a Paxlovid rebound, which is a recurrence of COVID symptoms.

In this photo illustration, Pfizer's Paxlovid is displayed on July 07, 2022 in Pembroke Pines, Fla.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images, FILE

"The data on rebound is still being figured out, but what's clear is that whether or not you get a rebound with Paxlovid, it absolutely decreases risk of hospitalization and death," Ranney said.

More infections mean more severe illnesses

Another reason for the increase is the sheer fact that more people getting sick naturally means more hospitalizations and more deaths, according to experts.

"It's nothing obviously like the omicron wave where we had just millions and millions of people getting sick, and because of that many more people going to the hospital and dying, but yeah, as the total number of people who are infected increases, then you are going to have a similar increase in the number of people who need hospitalization," Shankaran said.

For those who may be elderly or immunocompromised, even a case of mild COVID-19 can result in severe illness and even death.

Experts said the messaging to the public is the same as in earlier phases of the pandemic and advise that Americans remain diligent.

"The message is to be aware of your own risk factors, be aware of your own symptoms, recognize that vaccines provide protection, not only against getting sick but severity of sickness," Wolfe said. "That's the same message that we try and send for flu and RSV each year, it's no different."

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Deadly storms across the US deliver tornadoes, snow and flooding - BBC.com

By Nadine YousifBBC News

Watch: Extreme weather wreaks havoc across the US

At least four people have died and over half a million homes are without power after a series of powerful winter storms swept through parts of the eastern US and Canada.

Strong winds flipped cars and knocked over homes in Florida, where several tornadoes were reported.

More than 1,300 flights in or out of the US were cancelled on Tuesday, according to data from FlightAware.

Vice-President Kamala Harris' plane had to be diverted due to weather.

A spokesperson for Mrs Harris said that "inclement weather" required her plane from Atlanta to land in Virginia rather than neighbouring Maryland on her way back to Washington DC.

As of Tuesday evening, more than 630,000 households in the eastern US, from Florida to New York State were without electricity.

Gov Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 49 Florida counties, where storms have blown roofs off homes and knocked down power lines.

Twelve tornadoes were reported across Florida, Alabama and Georgia by early Tuesday, causing significant damage and, in some areas, prompting search and rescue operations.

More than 22 million people were under tornado watches.

In Houston County, Alabama, an 81-year-old woman was reportedly killed after a tornado ripped through the area, destroying mobile homes and RVs.

One person was killed and two others were critically injured in Claremont, North Carolina, officials said, after a powerful storm moved through a mobile home park.

A motorist died in Clayton County, Georgia, officials said, after a tree fell across a highway and crushed the driver's car.

And one man was also crushed to death by a toppled tree in Birmingham, Alabama, on Tuesday morning, the local station WVTM reported, citing local officials.

CBS

A resident of Panama City, Florida, who lives across from a home that was toppled by the wind said it sounded like a "freight train hitting a brick wall".

"That's how loud it was," he told CBS News, the BBC's US partner.

The storms also left roadways impassable in Panama City, ripped roofs off of buildings and brought hail the size of baseballs.

A curfew has been declared for the city's downtown area until 06:00EST (11:00GMT) on Wednesday morning.

"No one should be moving around in this area after dark," the Bay County Sheriff's Office posted on Facebook.

The National Weather Service (NWS) warned that more powerful storms are in store for the region and elsewhere in the eastern US.

• Parts of Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina may see further strong tornadoes, bringing damaging wind gusts and hail
• Along with winds of up to 50 mph (80 kph), heavy rain across other parts of the eastern US could bring flooding from the Florida Panhandle all the way north to southern Maine.
• In South Carolina, four to five inches of rain had already fallen before sunset on Tuesday, causing several areas to flood.
• More than 1ft of snow fell in the US interior, stranding motorists and interrupting presidential campaigning in Iowa
• In Canada, a winter storm warning has stretched from southern Ontario, near Windsor, up to central Quebec, where more than 1ft of snow is also forecast
• A powerful rare blizzard in the Pacific Northwest region toppled trees and knocked out electricity for over 25,000 customers in Washington state, according to Poweroutages.us, as well as for thousands more people further north in Canada's British Columbia province. Snow and high winds closed mountain passages, shut down ferries and triggered avalanche warnings

In New Jersey, a coastal flood advisory is in effect until Wednesday. The state's governor Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency and warned residents not to "underestimate" the storm.

In New York State, Governor Kathy Hochul warned the storm could be "life threatening", especially as the expected rainfall would combine with the snow already blanketing the ground, bringing about potential flash-flooding.

Getty Images

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has warned that the storms could be "life threatening"

Around 2,000 migrants living in a city tent shelter on an airfield in Brooklyn were evacuated by authorities to high school gymnasiums until the storms pass.

A ground stop was briefly issued at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport - one of the country's busiest - due to excessive snow and ice, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said. A stop was also issued for Florida's Tampa International Airport due to a tornado warning.

Severe weather has also disrupted road travel in states like Nebraska and Kansas, where state patrol has responded to hundreds of weather-related incidents.

"Please stay home," a Kansas state trooper wrote on social media. "It's getting to the point where we will not be able to rescue you if you get stuck because we are having trouble getting around."

The NWS said it expects the extreme weather to slightly ease going into Wednesday, though snow showers are still possible in some of the already affected areas in the central US and the northeast.

Flood warnings issued by the NWS remained in effect on Wednesday morning from Louisiana to Maine, encompassing at least 15 states along the US Atlantic coast.

This is the weather forecast for North America.

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The Weeknd makes donation to help more than 1,000 homeless students in L.A. - CBC.ca

Abel Tesfaye, a.k.a. the Weeknd, is making a "large donation" to School on Wheels, according to the Los Angeles-based non-profit, where his money will be used to support more than 1,000 school-aged children.

The amount is so far unspecified, but School on Wheels detailed that the money would be used to help fund literacy and bus programs, as well as to buy laptops, software and provide internet to the students. School on Wheels was founded in 1993, with a mission to "enhance educational opportunities for children who are experiencing homelessness from kindergarten through 12th grade," according to its website.

This announcement comes one month after Tesfaye donated $2.5 million to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) for its humanitarian efforts in Gaza, which would equate to four million emergency meals to feed more than 173,000 Palestinians for two weeks. Tesfaye has been a WFP goodwill ambassador since 2021, and established his XO Humanitarian Fund in 2022 to provide food and global support to people experiencing hunger and starvation.

Tesfaye also just teased on social media that he may be releasing a third album in his After Hours/Dawn FM trilogy, though there are no details.

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