Ottawa tabs $10.2M for AI development, use in Manitoba

Drones will replace books in Manitoba’s newest government-funded library. Ottawa has slated $1.14 million for the Manitoba Construction Sector Council, who will oversee the project.

German aerospace company signs 10-year deal to use Nova Scotia rocket launch pad

HALIFAX - The company vying to build Canada’s first commercial rocket launch pad in Nova Scotia has signed a deal with a German aerospace firm that could see orbital launches by 2028.

Halifax-based Maritime Launch Services Ltd. says Germany’s Isar Aerospace plans to build a dedicated complex for its Spectrum rocket at the Nova Scotia company's site near Canso, N.S., on the eastern shore.

The two-stage rocket is designed to carry small- and medium-sized satellites into space. The German company, which has already established its first launch site in Norway, has created a new Canadian subsidiary, Isar Aerospace Canada Inc.

"While every nation needs data from space, almost no nation has the end-to-end capability to access it independently,” Alexandre Dalloneau, Isar’s vice-president of mission and launch operations, said in a statement.

US airlines are redesigning travel around their highest-paying passengers

They may arrive at the same destination, but two passengers on the same flight can have strikingly different travel experiences.

One traveler breezes through a priority security lane and heads straight to an invite-only lounge for craft cocktails and a chef-prepared meal before boarding early. A flight attendant offering a glass of champagne and a warm hand towel welcomes the passenger to a spacious seat at the front of the plane.

The other traveler stands in a line at every step — security screening, a café selling $16 sandwiches, a crowded gate — then boards with one of the final groups, hoping there’s still room for a carry-on in the overhead bin before folding into a cramped middle seat. After the cabin lights dim, sleep comes in fragments, and a travel pillow does little to ease a stiff neck.

The contrasting journeys are no accident. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the largest U.S. airlines have pulled out all the stops to court premium passengers who are willing to pay for comfort, convenience and exclusivity. Budget-conscious travelers may notice a widening gap between the back of the plane and up front as the carriers increasingly build their businesses around selling first-class, business-class and premium-economy seats.

Struggling retailer Toys ‘R’ Us to shutter Transcona store

Playtime is almost over at the Toys “R” Us store in Winnipeg’s Transcona neighbourhood.

Signs hanging in the front windows indicate the longtime big-box chain outlet is closing. “All stock reduced” and “Everything must go” at the store, which has stood at 1560 Regent Ave. W. for more than 36 years. Even the fixtures are for sale.

An employee at the store declined to comment on Monday, directing the Free Press to Toys “R” Us Canada Ltd.’s head office. The company did not respond to interview requests.

Signage at the store does not specify when it will close for good.

Teen urges premier to reject data centre, ‘put people and the environment first’

A 17-year-old who started a petition against the construction of an AI data centre northwest of Winnipeg has made a personal appeal to the premier to stop it.

Leona Gollub emailed Premier Wab Kinew to voice her concern about the environmental impact of a 5.5-megawatt AI data centre that’s being built on Brookside Boulevard in the Centreport industrial area in the Rural Municipality of Rosser, northwest of Winnipeg.

She said she worries about the noise and light pollution that would be emitted by the facility, and the massive amount of electricity it will require that could instead power people’s homes.

The premier, who recently rejected a data centre in Île dês Chênes, southeast of Winnipeg, thanked her for her concern in an email but did not go beyond that.

Roughing it (less): Handy items for novice campers to make the great outdoors tolerable

I hate camping.

I loathe the very idea of leaving the comfort and safety of home to sleep in a random field, where not only will I be exposed to the elements, but will also be at the mercy of all manner of creatures, from ursine to canine to insectan.

I do not want to hike up a hill just to share one outdoor tap with 12 others, standing alongside them as I brush my teeth.

I do not want to queue for 15 minutes, then part with a $2 coin to wedge myself into a shower stall just to stand under a piddly stream of lukewarm water while trying my best to swiftly soap up and sponge off lest I irk the rapidly growing line of campers outside.

Environnement et communauté

“Il y en a plusieurs des entreprises qui font du greenwashing, ils se peinturent dans le développement durable, l’affichent sur le site web: Écologique! Nous, on l’est pour vrai,” c’est ce qu’affirme Éric Gosselin, directeur général de Sun Certified. La Liberté l’a rencontré dans l’atelier de sa compagnie, un vaste espace de travail garni de matériaux en bois, de maquettes et de murs de maisons.

Cette société de construction de logements a des méthodes bien particulières, notamment pour l’isolation des maisons. Les travailleurs utilisent des matériaux organiques pour créer une épaisse couche d’isolation à base de papier et de carton. “La première chose qu’on fait, c’est utiliser des matières organiques, alors du bois et de la fibre cellulosique. Et il y en a beaucoup dans l’enveloppe du bâtiment, pour renforcer l’isolation,” explique Éric Gosselin.

La compagnie privilégie les matériaux renouvelables, ce qui la démarque des autres sociétés dans le domaine. “Pour l’isolation, quand on utilise du bois, c’est renouvelable. On pourra toujours planter d’autres arbres et ça va repousser. Chez les constructeurs standards, c’est de la mousse ou du rockwool, fait à base de pétrole ou de minéraux.”

Cette volonté d’accorder plus d’importance à l’environnement dans le domaine de l’habitation, c’est ce qui a mené à la création de Sun Certified.

Gem Studio puts new shine on handmade experience

Gem Studio's first franchise location in Western Canada offers an interactive retail concept in which customers design and create personalized jewelry with the help of one of its 14 employees.

Green light for Greenlight: Pembina, partners go ahead with gas plant for data centre

CALGARY - Pembina Pipeline Corp. and two partners have given the go-ahead to the Greenlight Electricity Centre, a natural gas plant serving a data centre customer.

Pembina, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and Kineticor Asset Management expect the cost of the project to come in at $4.6 billion. The 932-megawatt plant would be built in Sturgeon County, part of Alberta's Industrial Heartland region north of Edmonton, with startup targeted for the second half of 2030. The companies have permits that would allow them to double capacity down the line.

Data centres house the computer hardware required to power various tech applications, and their scale has ballooned with the boom in artificial intelligence and cloud computing. The province and companies did not identify the data centre customer they're serving.

Alberta has been actively trying to court so-called hyperscale developers, like Meta and Google, to set up shop in the province, but its electricity grid currently does not have enough capacity to accommodate several such projects. So Alberta is prioritizing projects that build or contract their own power generation.

Shipping rates soar as retailers race to beat looming Trump tariffs

MONTREAL - Christmas is coming early this year. And it’s pushing up shipping rates.

A glut of early wholesale orders for everything from holiday decorations to home furniture has propelled maritime shipping costs to four-year highs as a result of tariff uncertainty and the Iran war, with potential repercussions for consumers.

Industry specialists say retailers and importers — especially in the United States — are rushing to book shipments to get ahead of a potential fresh round of U.S. tariffs on scores of countries that's expected near the end of July.

The surge in demand is boosting seaborne transport prices across the globe.

Do online influencer posts count as news? Younger Canadians more likely to say yes

OTTAWA - Younger Canadians are more likely to say posts from influencers and online memes count as news, while the amount of news content on social media has dropped, a new report says.

"News organizations have long acted as information gatekeepers, determining which information reaches the public," says the report from McGill University’s Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, released Tuesday.

"However, Canadians are now exposed to a wide variety of content producers, from influencers to citizen journalists, memes, and AI-generated posts, blurring the boundaries of what counts as ‘news’ and making perceptions of newsworthiness increasingly subjective."

Respondents were asked to rate different types of content that described a major political event on a scale from "definitely not news" (zero points) to "definitely news" (10 points).

CRTC launches review into whether Big Three violated new ban on administrative fees

Canada's telecommunications regulator is launching a review to determine if the Big Three providers have violated its new rules banning so-called junk fees.

The CRTC announced the consultation Tuesday, saying it will require Bell Canada, Telus Corp. and Rogers Communications Inc. to demonstrate their fees do not contravene its policy.

The new regulations came into effect June 12 prohibiting activation, modification and cancellation fees in a bid to make it easier for customers to switch internet and cellphone plans without having to worry about unexpected costs.

If the commission determines the companies have violated the rules, they could face monetary penalties of up to $10 million while relevant managers could be penalized up to $25,000. The regulator could also order the providers to comply with the policy within 60 days.

OpenAI and Anthropic limit new AI models to Trump-approved customers during cybersecurity review

ChatGPT maker OpenAI said Friday it is restricting the release of its new artificial intelligence model at the request of President Donald Trump’s administration, the latest in an unprecedented government vetting of AI products for cybersecurity risks.

Its chief rival, Anthropic, announced hours later that the Trump administration has approved a limited release of its strongest cybersecurity model, two weeks after the U.S. Commerce Department effectively banned it.

Both companies said their newest models would be available to small groups of trusted partners. OpenAI said its new AI product, called GPT-5.6 Sol, would be accessible only to customers approved by the Trump administration.

“We don’t believe this kind of government access process should become the long-term default,” OpenAI said in a statement. The company said it viewed the testing period as a temporary step on the “path to broader availability in the coming weeks.”

Most Canadian teens have seen violence, gore online: survey

As Canada edges toward legislation meant to protect youths online, a new survey suggests most teens in the country have encountered real violence or gore on the internet.

Eighty-five per cent of the 1,007 teens who participated in an online survey in January commissioned by scholarly organization DIY: Digital Safety and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, reported seeing either form of brutality online.

More than 70 per cent had seen videos of physical fights, 65 per cent had viewed police violence, and 52 per cent watched someone being injured or killed in a war. Ten per cent reported seeing child sexual abuse material.

Half of respondents said they had watched footage of late right-wing activist Charlie Kirk being assassinated on stage at Utah Valley University last September, while 33 per cent had viewed mass or school shooting videos.

Australia plans to strengthen laws banning children from social media

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Australian government plans to strengthen laws that ban children younger than 16 from social media platforms, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

Observers said on Friday the government was responding to evidence that the ban on young children holding accounts on platforms including Facebook, Instagram and YouTube had failed since it came into force on Dec. 10 last year. Australia was the first country in the world to pass legislation keeping youth off social media, but others have since followed.

Albanese told Parliament on Thursday this government was considering options to strengthen the ban.

“We’re working on that as a priority because this is something that other generations didn’t have to deal with, which is why it’s complex,” Albanese told Parliament.

Winnipeg co-ops among models examined in film

We see theatre artist Debbie Patterson making her way toward the Old Grace Housing Co-operative’s entrance in her wheelchair, then settling inside for a steaming cup of tea. The co-op is her home.

“Well, I’ve always loved this neighbourhood and wanted to stay in this neighbourhood. I lived in a big, three-storey Wolseley house and then got MS and couldn’t do the stairs,” she says in a voiceover.

“Having a place I could move into that was completely accessible was just a godsend at a perfect time when I needed to stop living in my house, so I could stay in my neighbourhood and continue to be in a safe place.”

It’s one of the opening scenes of Meeting a Moment: The Art of Social Architecture, directed by Danielle Sturk and produced by Leslie Stafford, which appears on CBC Gem today and airs on CBC TV Saturday.

Heat catches Europe’s fashion industry unprepared as models face the sun in fur and wool

PARIS (AP) — The most coveted accessory at the Paris Fashion Week shows this week was not a bag, a sneaker or a watch. It was an ice pack.

As a historic heat wave gripped the French capital, fashion houses fought to keep guests cool with mist machines, chilled towels, parasols and iced Evian on silver platters.

It wasn’t enough. Historic venues sweltered, guests were packed in tight, air conditioning was absent or inadequate and water ran short — at one house, organizers weighed serving none at all, having found only plastic bottles to hand out.

That mattered because Paris Fashion Week is not a minor cultural event.

Greece bets on space technology to contain wildfires in a global first

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — In the searing Mediterranean summer, wildfires turn dangerous in minutes.

Greece has learned that at a terrible cost. In 2018, a blaze east of Athens moved with ferocious speed, killing more than 100 people. Five years later, a massive fire tore through a remote nature reserve; it was the largest wildfire ever recorded in the European Union.

Greece is looking to the heavens for help, with a dedicated satellite constellation that monitors for fires. It's a model for the continent as Europe races toward broader independence in space technology.

Four satellites, each smaller than a piece of carry-on luggage, were launched into low orbit in May. That made Greece the first nation in the world to integrate a dedicated satellite array into its national firefighting system.

National pride meets breathable mesh: A look at the design of World Cup uniforms

BEAVERTON, Ore. (AP) — Heat. Moisture. National pride.

These were top of mind as Nike designed its uniform kits for this year’s World Cup, including for football powerhouses France and Brazil as well as the U.S. and Canada in their role as host nations.

In a tournament that has seen storm delays and temperatures hovering around 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius) in some locations, the first step was to ensure players' performance and comfort.

Phil McCartney, chief innovation, design and product officer for Nike, said the company worked with athletes, coaches and football federations to understand how uniforms affect the game.

What to know about earthquake early warning systems

As earthquakes struck from California to Venezuela to Japan, millions of people received warnings on their mobile phones, providing critical seconds to seek protection.

Venezuela was struck with a pair of deadly earthquakes Wednesday evening and Thursday morning that brought significant shaking to the northern coast of Japan. Earlier in the week residents in the U.S. state of California experienced a moderate earthquake, and at the start of June, 37 people in the Philippines died in a quake near Mindanao.

Many nations have developed systems for alerting people seconds before shaking begins. Even in countries like Venezuela that do not have such systems, Google Android Earthquake Alerts can send warnings.

Here's what to know:

Data centres top Ottawa’s big power requests, placing pressure on local utility

Hydro Ottawa's CEO says the utility is under "extraordinary pressures" as energy-hungry data centres lead a historic surge in large-scale customers seeking to connect to the power grid.

Bryce Conrad says he expects by the end of the year total grid connection requests from large-scale projects in Ottawa will exceed the average power use of the entire city's homes and businesses.

As it stands, he says 34 large projects in the connection queue have cumulative demands equivalent to about 86 per cent of the utility's average load, or just over 1,000 MW.

About 60 per cent of that comes from data centres, the infrastructure backbone of the artificial intelligence boom.