Author: David Reyes

When you first arrive in Sault Ste. The steel plant announces itself before the city does, according to Marie from the south. The slow moan of industry, scaffolding, and smoke. Located a few kilometers away, Algoma University is a smaller, more subdued institution that has spent years attempting to face its past as a residential school. Students still know their professors by first name on this type of campus. which contributes to the uncomfortable feeling of the present. The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation vigorously opposed Algoma’s presentation of its operating budget for 2026–2027 as a “fiscal reality for a…

The definition of “arms race” subtly shifted somewhere between the hush of a Pentagon briefing room and the excitement of a Silicon Valley keynote. It used to refer to submarines floating beneath polar ice and missiles in silos. These days, more electricity is consumed by rows of humming servers in rural Oregon, Virginia, and Inner Mongolia than by entire cities. There are no bunkers containing the weapons. They are seated in data centers. As this develops, it seems as though those in charge haven’t decided how concerned to be. The way American officials discuss AI is similar to how their…

I was at a loss for words when a friend first revealed that she had been “talking” to her deceased father via an app. We were seated at an old-fashioned café with chipped marble tables and a ceiling fan that swayed every few minutes. Almost shyly, she slid her phone over to me. The speaker’s voice was thin and had a slightly irregular cadence, but its phrasing was unmistakable. She grinned. She then shed a few tears. She then placed another coffee order. Every time the topic of AI therapists and griefbots comes up, which is increasingly common these days,…

In a short, seemingly unremarkable moment, the whole thing is revealed. You find that everyone else in the room is doing exactly what you were just doing when you look up from your phone while sitting in a café with mismatched chairs and a slow espresso machine. Nobody is talking. Indeed, no one seems to be unhappy. But in reality, nobody is there either. It’s hard to deny that this scene, which appears frequently in places like Brooklyn and Karachi, has somehow become the standard in public life. Ignoring the evidence that supports that observation is becoming more difficult. A…

When people know something is about to happen but no one wants to say it aloud, a certain kind of silence descends upon a corporate tower. You can practically feel it when you walk past the elevators at Rio Tinto’s St Georges Terrace office in Perth these days. Discussions stall. Coffee runs take more time. According to most accounts, the atmosphere is somewhere between rattled and resigned. There are a lot of numbers floating around the building. Up to 20% of Perth’s white-collar workforce may be let go before the new fiscal year starts, according to people close to the…

The way the news arrived has an almost ordinary quality. A brief article on Crain’s Cleveland Business, a few posts on LinkedIn from people who had rewritten and clearly written their words, and then the more subdued echo throughout Solon, Ohio, where MRI Software has long occupied its glass-and-steel campus. In a single announcement, about 200 jobs were lost. It was referred to as a workforce reorganization by the company. Outside the building, very few people used that expression. The reasoning behind the MRI Software layoffs is more intriguing than the number, which is low by 2026 standards. The company…

On a weekday afternoon, the parking lot at Blackbaud’s Daniel Island campus reveals information that the press releases do not. It’s not as loud as it once was. There are fewer cars, fewer people getting coffee at the local cafés, and fewer of those little lunchtime crowds that used to spill out into the Charleston sun. Of course, the business hasn’t disappeared. Walking around, however, gives the impression that something has changed, and not in a way that most workers seem to be happy about. Blackbaud’s 2026 layoffs have developed in a slow, deliberate manner that makes them more difficult…

Nothing really reveals the Medtronic campus in Northridge when you stroll by it on a weekday morning. The cafeteria continues to hum with the same low chatter as it did a year ago, the parking lot continues to fill up, and the badges continue to beep at the turnstiles. However, those within are aware of what is about to happen and have been since the beginning of February. By April 7, eighty-one of them will be gone, and the others are silently attempting to determine if they will be the next. It is a small number in and of itself.…

In Eden Prairie, the morning of May 6th seemed like any other. Around 250 people at Arctic Wolf were packing up by late afternoon after the calendar invitations were sent out. The business referred to it as a restructuring. Scrolling through LinkedIn in the hours that followed, the majority of those who were let go described it as something more sudden. These announcements now have a rhythm. When a spokesperson uses phrases like “long-term strategy” and “operate more efficiently,” we are left to interpret their words. The cuts, according to Arctic Wolf, a privately held cybersecurity company best known for…

The Reddit threads were already packed by Wednesday morning after the calendar invites were sent out late on a Tuesday afternoon. They stated, “Business Update,” but they did not include an agenda. Anyone who has spent more than a year inside a Big Four or mid-tier firm knows what that two-word phrase usually means, and at RSM US this past May, it meant exactly what people feared. Hundreds of employees were informed that their jobs were being eliminated; many of them were auditors who had only begun work the summer or fall before. The fact that the company hasn’t released…