A total lunar eclipse will turn the moon blood red on Tuesday across several continents

NEW YORK (AP) — A blood-red moon will soon grace the skies for a total lunar eclipse — and there won't be another until late 2028.

The spectacle will be visible Tuesday morning from North America, Central America and the western part of South America. Australia and eastern Asia can catch it Tuesday night. Partial stages of the eclipse with small bites taken out of the moon can be seen from Central Asia and much of South America. Africa and Europe will be shut out.

Solar and lunar eclipses happen due to a precise alignment of the sun, moon and Earth. There are between four and seven a year, according to NASA.

The eclipses tend to follow each other, taking advantage of the sweet spot in the celestial bodies' orbits. Tuesday's total eclipse of the moon comes two weeks after a ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse that dazzled people and penguins in Antarctica.

New football chinstrap designed to lessen force of blows to facemask

Erin Hanson wants to make taking it on the chin in football much safer in Canada.

Guardian Sports officially launched the Guardian Flex chinstrap on Thursday for individual and team sale, with the CFL being among the leagues to have reviewed the item. The product has been engineered to reduce the impact of blows to the facemask.

According to the company, the chinstrap reduces Head Acceleration Response Metric (HARM) scores by up to 35 per cent and targets facemask impacts, which research suggests account for about half of all hits and are an area where traditional helmets underperform.

The chinstrap will be far less noticeable to fans than the Atlanta-based company’s Guardian Cap. Introduced 14 years ago, the soft padded shell fits over a football helmet and is secured by elastic straps attached to the facemask.

The surprising complexity behind the squeak of basketball shoes on hardwood floors

NEW YORK (AP) — As he watched the Boston Celtics play from the stands of TD Garden, one noise kept catching Adel Djellouli's ear.

“This squeaking sound when players are sliding on the floor is omnipresent,” he said. “It’s always there, right?”

Squeaky shoes are part of the symphony of a basketball game, when rubber soles rasp against the hardwood floors as players jab step, cut and pivot and defenders move their feet to stay in front of their assignment.

Returning home from the game, Djellouli wondered how that sound was produced. And as a materials scientist at Harvard University, he had a way to find out.

First Nations awaiting Hydro consults

With licences for two major Manitoba Hydro projects set to expire later this year, affected First Nations await consultation — and want to see change.

Licences for the Churchill River Diversion and Lake Winnipeg Regulation projects, first issued in the 1970s, expire Sept. 1 and Aug. 1, respectively.

The diversion directs water to five stations accounting for roughly 75 per cent of Manitoba’s power generation. The latter project allows Hydro to generate power by manipulating Lake Winnipeg’s water levels.

There is no timeline for the licence renewals, said Environment Minister Mike Moyes. He said that would be dependent on consultations with impacted First Nations.

First Nations hopeful as Hydro’s first Indigenous chair eyes reversing years of enmity

Manitoba Hydro’s first Indigenous board chair says he has reconciliation on his mind as First Nations-driven lawsuits pile up against the Crown corporation and two of its major project licences are set to expire.

“I think there’s a lot of opportunity on the reconciliation side in Manitoba,” said Jamie Wilson, 58, a former treaty commissioner. “The more you understand the history, the more you understand the opportunity.”

Wilson, a member of Opaskwayak Cree Nation, grew up on a farm in The Pas. He remembered neighbours worked at Hydro but didn’t think much about the public utility — just enough to know it kept the house warm in the winter.

Opaskwayak recently took Ottawa to court over a Grand Rapids hydro dam and its impact on band members, CBC reported.

Manitoba urges court to throw out First Nation’s moose-hunt lawsuit

The Manitoba government is arguing a northern First Nation’s lawsuit over moose hunting on its traditional territory should be tossed out of court.

Misipawistik Cree Nation filed its statement of claim in the Court of King’s Bench in September, arguing licensed moose hunting on its traditional lands northwest of Lake Winnipeg infringes on the community’s treaty rights to hunt moose for food amid dwindling populations of the big game animal.

But in a recently filed statement of defence, the province argues it has upheld its duties.

“Manitoba denies that there have been any unjustified infringements of Treaty No. 5, that it has failed to act honourably toward the plaintiff, or that any court intervention or other remedy is required,” reads the government court filing.

Family embraces challenges, rewards of launching a fruit orchard

Growing up on a farm near Boissevain taught Kelvin Hildebrandt many things. But becoming an orchardist has meant taking a comprehensive and strategic approach to acquiring a whole new set of skills.

In the process, Hildebrandt has consulted with local orchardists, including well-known growers like Betty Kehler and Bob Pizey who ran Plum Ridge Farm, a popular u-pick orchard located in the Interlake region near Teulon.

“They taught me a great deal,” says Hildebrandt.

Hildebrandt has also been influenced by Jean Spencer who owned a 150-tree apple orchard near Miami. “Jean was very welcoming and let me take care of her trees for a while,” he says.

Norway House files suit against Hydro, governments over Lake Winnipeg

Norway House Cree Nation is suing Manitoba Hydro and the provincial and federal governments over how the public utility manipulates the level of Lake Winnipeg.

It’s the latest litigation launched by a First Nation in relation to Hydro’s regulation of the outflow of the lake into the Nelson River, which it has done since the mid-1970s.

Norway House filed its claim in the Court of King’s Bench on Thursday. It alleges Hydro and the Manitoba government have misrepresented the severity and scope of the adverse effects to the community caused by the regulation operation and the construction of a channel from Lake Winnipeg to Playgreen Lake.

The community, which is about 460 kilometres north of Winnipeg, near the northern shore of Lake Winnipeg, hired engineering firm DHI Water and Environments Inc. to conduct a scientific assessment of the effects of the regulation project.

Galápagos park releases 158 juvenile hybrid tortoises on Floreana to restore the ecosystem

FLOREANA ISLAND, Ecuador (AP) — Nearly 150 years after the last giant tortoises were removed from Floreana Island in Ecuador’s Galápagos archipelago, the species made a comeback Friday, when dozens of juvenile hybrids were released to begin restoring the island’s depleted ecosystem.

The 158 newcomers, aged 8 to 13, have begun exploring the habitat they are destined to reshape over the coming years. Their release was perfectly timed with the arrival of the season’s first winter rains.

“They are large enough to be released and can defend themselves against introduced animals such as rats and cats,” said Fredy Villalba, director of the Galápagos National Park breeding center on Santa Cruz Island, noting that the best specimens with the strongest lineage were selected specifically for Floreana.

These released juvenile specimens, out of a total of 700 planned for Floreana, will be introduced gradually. According to Christian Sevilla, director of ecosystems of the Galapagos National Park, they carry between 40% and 80% of the genetic makeup of the Chelonoidis niger —a species that has been extinct for 150 years.

Data centres and infrastructure: an expensive pairing

Governments around the world — India being the latest — have been falling over themselves trying to lure power-hungry, water-thirsty data centre operations to build in their backyards.

Social media companies face legal reckoning over mental health harms to children

For years, social media companies have disputed allegations that they harm children’s mental health through deliberate design choices that addict kids to their platforms and fail to protect them from sexual predators and dangerous content. Now, these tech giants are getting a chance to make their case in courtrooms around the country, including before a jury for the first time.

Some of the biggest players from Meta to TikTok are facing federal and state trials that seek to hold them responsible for harming children's mental health. The lawsuits have come from school districts, local, state and the federal government as well as thousands of families.

Two trials are now underway in Los Angeles and in New Mexico, with more to come. The courtroom showdowns are the culmination of years of scrutiny of the platforms over child safety, and whether deliberate design choices make them addictive and serve up content that leads to depression, eating disorders or suicide.

Experts see the reckoning as reminiscent of cases against tobacco and opioid markets, and the plaintiffs hope that social media platforms will see similar outcomes as cigarette makers and drug companies, pharmacies and distributors.

Fossilized vomit provides insight on predator that lived 290 million years ago

BRANDON — A Brandon University paleontologist has helped identify prehistoric barf that’s nearly 290 million years old — and could be the oldest known example of fossilized vomit from a land-dwelling predator.

Mark MacDougall, an assistant biology professor, was part of a research team that identified 41 bones from at least three animals inside the regurgitated cluster by using CT scans and chemical analysis, the university said in a news release.

Signs point to the vomit coming from a top predator — likely an early relative of mammals — that gulped down a mixed meal that included a small reptile, a fast-moving lizard-like animal and part of a much larger plant-eater, and later coughed it back up.

“It’s rare to get such direct evidence of who was eating whom nearly 300 million years ago,” said MacDougall, co-author of the international study published last month in the journal Scientific Reports.

Manitoba to screen infants for defect that causes sight, hearing problems

Manitoba has become the third jurisdiction in Canada to implement universal newborn screening for congenital cytomegalovirus, which can lead to complications as a child grows up, including hearing loss, vision problems and developmental disabilities.

The delicate art of pressing flowers

When early explorers travelled the four corners of the world in search of botanical treasures and plant knowledge, they faced many challenges collecting and transporting live plant material. In the 19th century, the development of the Wardian case — a glazed box that held soil and water — enhanced the survival rate of live plants on long sea journeys.

But highly detailed botanical illustrations also served as a visual record for early botanists and scientists to study plants from distant parts of the world. The technique of pressing and drying all the parts of individual plants on paper made it possible to preserve plant specimens.

Today, herbariums around the world, including those at Manitoba Museum and the University of Manitoba, house extensive collections of pressed, dried plants stored in specialized, climate-controlled conditions. Scientists use these specimens to determine the rarity of species and understand environmental changes.

Enduring art form

U of M partners with firm behind proposed sand mine to study Manitoba groundwater

University of Manitoba researchers will soon have a new, non-invasive tool to study the province’s vast groundwater resources after inking a partnership with Alberta-based mining company Sio Silica.

“If the technology works … it’s going to provide a mechanism to do real-time monitoring of changes in groundwater,” Ricardo Mantilla, an associate professor in the university’s civil engineering department and lead researcher for the project, said in an interview.

The emerging technology — called absolute quantum gravimetry — can measure changes in gravity caused by changes in groundwater levels, allowing researchers to better understand the flow and storage of underground water resources without the need for “expensive and disruptive” drilling, he said.

“That obviously has applications for (Sio Silica), but it can have very important implications for how we understand groundwater in aquifers in our province.”

Province warns of measles exposure at Jets game as cases surge

Manitoba public health officials are warning attendees of a Winnipeg Jets game they may have been exposed to measles, as the province continues to grapple with outbreaks.

More Canadian athletes powered by artificial intelligence at Winter Games

Just for fun, Xavier McKeever and his cross-country ski teammates once tasked ChatGPT to design a training plan for them.

"It was the craziest training plan we've ever seen," said the 22-year-old from Canmore, Alta.

"It basically said you should do intensity every single day. You should do three hours of skiing and then an hour of intensity, and repeat that a few times -- and then you should take a week off completely. We know you can't do that.

"It was pretty funny to see and do, to see Chat GPT can't write a training plan, and that we need our coaching to help us with that."

What to know about EPA decision to revoke a scientific finding that helped fight climate change

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday revoked its own 2009 “endangerment finding,” a scientific conclusion that for 16 years has been the central basis for regulating planet-warming emissions from power plants, vehicles and other sources.

The finding itself is straightforward: Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases — caused by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas — endanger public health and welfare.

It was adopted after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that greenhouse gases are air pollutants that can be regulated under the Clean Air Act.

The Trump administration says the finding hurts industry and the economy and that the Obama and Biden administrations twisted science to determine that greenhouse gases are a public health risk.

Get vaccinated for flu, COVID-19, measles to protect crowded hospitals: top doc

The province’s top doctor is asking Manitobans to get vaccinated as respiratory virus season threatens to strain hospitals and measles outbreaks tear though parts of Manitoba.

City sewage plant megaproject progresses amid need for more funding

The finishing touches are being put on four massive fibreglass sewage pipes inside a two-and-a-half metre thick concrete tunnel 20 metres underground.

When the work is done, they’ll start pumping out millions of litres of raw sewage per day.

The building that houses them may look modest, but it was made with as much concrete as half of the Canada Life Centre, with still some to go.

“We’ve got at least double that in the balance of the facility in other areas,” said Rob Black, the project director for the upgrade of the North End sewage treatment plant on Main Street North.

Clear Lake group withdraws review against Parks Canada

Fairness for Clear Lake has decided to withdraw its judicial review against Parks Canada following a court delay that pushed the 2025 boat ban hearing to May.

Agricultural innovation takes hit in federal cuts

Everyone knew cuts to federal programs and jobs were coming.

Something must give if elected officials are to make good on promises to address what many characterized as Canada’s bloated bureaucracy and ballooning deficits, while boosting its military defence systems and protecting the economy from a neighbour gone rogue.

And while the Canadian effort to shrink the cost of governing is a little less dramatic than that in the U.S. a year ago, the application of across-the-board cuts has been anything but surgical.

Farmers and unions, who rarely agree on anything, are united in opposition to news Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is closing three research facilities and four research farms, and cutting around 650 positions. The cuts include a host of programs, including those focused on organic farming, regenerative agriculture and climate adaptation.