Collective encourages BIPOC networking

It’s a warm weekday morning and Saintuary Café is filled with strangers chatting about their work and passion projects over lattes and croissants.

This has become a regular scene for the co-working café club hosted by the Value Able, a growing grassroots community designed to help BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of colour) creatives in Winnipeg meet and collaborate.

The idea started percolating when founders Star Tactay and Daezerae Gil met at a networking event in February.

Tactay — a marketing professional and software development student from the Philippines — had recently moved to the city from Texas and was looking to meet other people of colour working in creative fields. Gil, a Winnipeg-born photographer, realized she was looking for the same thing.

Gather ’round, folks… it’s bail-reform story time again

By now, it’s a ritual as predictable as a pothole in spring: a high-profile crime occurs, public outrage builds and politicians rush to microphones to demand “bail reform.”

YouTube using creators to enhance broadcast of the NFL game between the Chiefs and the Chargers

Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Andy Reid’s Kansas City Chiefs face Justin Herbert and Jim Harbaugh’s Los Angeles Chargers in the most accessible game to viewers on Friday night in Brazil.

It’s the first NFL game streamed on YouTube and there will be plenty of unique elements surrounding the broadcast.

The league and YouTube have assembled a lineup of content creators to enhance the viewing experience.

Cam Newton, Brandon Marshall, Derek Carr and Tyrann Mathieu will be part of a pre-game and post-game shows hosted by Kay Adams.

Anthropic to pay authors $1.5 billion to settle lawsuit over pirated books used to train AI chatbots

NEW YORK (AP) — Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit by book authors who say the company took pirated copies of their works to train its chatbot.

The landmark settlement, if approved by a judge as soon as Monday, could mark a turning point in legal battles between AI companies and the writers, visual artists and other creative professionals who accuse them of copyright infringement.

The company has agreed to pay authors or publishers about $3,000 for each of an estimated 500,000 books covered by the settlement.

“As best as we can tell, it’s the largest copyright recovery ever,” said Justin Nelson, a lawyer for the authors. “It is the first of its kind in the AI era.”

Hydro rejects generator option for evacuated community

The chief of an evacuated northern First Nation that is still without electricity has demanded the provincial and federal governments spend $8 million on a generator so residents can return home, however Manitoba Hydro says the proposal is unrealistic.

Worse-for-wear riverwalk a victim of total neglect

Partway down my well-beaten path from West Broadway to The Forks, I feel a bit like Dorothy navigating Oz. The path ahead is lined with Winnipeg’s version of dancing poppies and flying monkeys: hazards, confrontations and ghostly spectres to which we’ve become perhaps far too accustomed.

First Nations call on Ottawa to crack down on drug traffickers in their communities

OTTAWA - First Nations chiefs voted Friday to call on Ottawa to crack down on the people selling drugs that are claiming lives in their communities.

They're also calling for the Assembly of First Nations to declare a state of emergency spanning all First Nations, and to call for more support from the federal government for treatment and prevention.

Chief Angela Levasseur of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation said she brought the resolution forward for a vote at the Assembly of First Nations annual general meeting in Winnipeg because the opioid epidemic is killing members of her community.

"In Manitoba and across Canada, fentanyl poisonings are taking lives daily. Our front-line workers and families are doing all they can, but support from federal and provincial governments remains fragmented, underfunded and reactive," Levasseur said.

Attorneys general warn OpenAI and other tech companies to improve chatbot safety

The attorneys general of California and Delaware on Friday warned OpenAI they have “serious concerns” about the safety of its flagship chatbot, ChatGPT, especially for children and teens.

The two state officials, who have unique powers to regulate nonprofits such as OpenAI, sent the letter to the company after a meeting with its legal team earlier this week in Wilmington, Delaware.

California AG Rob Bonta and Delaware AG Kathleen Jennings have spent months reviewing OpenAI's plans to restructure its business, with an eye on “ensuring rigorous and robust oversight of OpenAI’s safety mission.”

But they said they were concerned by “deeply troubling reports of dangerous interactions between" chatbots and their users, including the "heartbreaking death by suicide of one young Californian after he had prolonged interactions with an OpenAI chatbot, as well as a similarly disturbing murder-suicide in Connecticut. Whatever safeguards were in place did not work.”

Carney calls for ‘maximum pressure’ on Russia as Putin issues threat to allies

OTTAWA - Canada and other allies need to maintain "maximum pressure" on Moscow, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday after Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to target foreign troops if they are deployed to Ukraine.

Putin "has not yet come to terms with the need for peace," the prime minister said in response to a question from a reporter at a news conference in Mississauga, Ont.

"Mr. Putin is the cause of this war, he's the reason for the killing," he said. "He is not going to dictate the terms of the peace."

Carney said allied pressure on Russia would include imposing new sanctions, ensuring Ukrainian forces are armed and that Ukraine is supported "when there is a cessation of hostility." He said the next round of sanctions is now being prepared by Ukraine's allies.

Carney announces supports for sectors affected by U.S. tariffs

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Friday a suite of new measures to support sectors of the economy hit hardest by U.S. tariffs.

The announcement includes $5 billion for a fund to help companies pivot to new products and markets and keep skills and production in Canada, and to make them more competitive globally.

At a press conference at an aerospace plant in Mississauga, Ont. Friday morning, Carney said that the fund would be open to "all sectors, given the fact that the tariff impacts are wide-ranging across Canadian industries." He said that heavily affected sectors like steel, automobile, lumber and aluminum would have priority.

Carney also announced a “Buy Canadian” policy for the federal government.

Alberta government postpones release of revised school library book ban

EDMONTON - The Alberta government has postponed the release of its revised school library book ban to Monday.

The government had promised the new ministerial order for Friday afternoon, with a technical briefing for reporters set earlier in the day.

After the briefing was supposed to start, media were informed by email that it had been rescheduled.

“We are taking the time needed to ensure that the revised ministerial order is clear for all school boards," Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides later said in an email in response to questions about the postponement.

Carney delays electric vehicle sales mandate by one year, launches review

OTTAWA - The federal electric vehicle sales mandate will not be implemented in 2026 as planned, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday, pushing back by at least a year a policy that would have set minimum sales targets for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Introduced by the Liberals under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, the mandate would have required 20 per cent of all new vehicles sold in Canada next year to be electric.

The standard as written is to rise steadily each year until 2035, by which point all new light-duty vehicles sold in Canada were to be fully electric or plug-in hybrids.

But at a press conference in Mississauga, Ont., Carney said he is suspending the mandate for 2026 and launching a 60-day review of the program to help find "future flexibilities and ways to reduce costs."

G7 speakers, officials gathering in capital region today

OTTAWA - Canada is hosting U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and other officials from G7 countries and Ukraine in the Ottawa area today.

Speaker of the House of Commons Francis Scarpaleggia will be in meetings with his counterparts until Saturday as part of Canada's G7 presidency.

Canada has invited the chair of Ukraine's parliament and major parliamentary officials from G7 countries, although Japan's House Speaker Fukushiro Nukaga won't be present.

Scarpaleggia's office says officials are gathering to discuss the challenges facing legislators worldwide and the importance of parliamentary diplomacy.

Unemployment rate climbed to 7.1 per cent in August as economy lost 66,000 jobs

OTTAWA - The Canadian economy lost jobs for the second month in a row and the unemployment rate climbed to its highest level since May 2016, excluding the pandemic period, Statistics Canada reported on Friday.

The weaker-than-expected reading of the labour market prompted financial markets to increase the odds the Bank of Canada will cut its key interest rate target later this month.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 7.1 per cent in August as the economy lost 66,000 jobs for the month. The monthly jobs report comes after the July labour force survey that showed a loss of 41,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 6.9 per cent.

A poll of economists heading into the release had expected August to show a gain of 10,000 jobs and the unemployment rate to rise to seven per cent for the month, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.

Girls fell behind boys in math during the pandemic. Schools are trying to make up lost ground

IRVING, Texas (AP) — Crowded around a workshop table, four girls at de Zavala Middle School puzzled over a Lego machine they had built. As they flashed a purple card in front of a light sensor, nothing happened.

The teacher at the Dallas-area school had emphasized that in the building process, there is no such thing as mistakes. Only iterations. So the girls dug back into the box of blocks and pulled out an orange card. They held it over the sensor and the machine kicked into motion.

“Oh! Oh, it reacts differently to different colors,” said sixth grader Sofia Cruz.

In de Zavala’s first year as a choice school focused on science, technology, engineering and math, the school recruited a sixth grade class that’s half girls. School leaders are hoping the girls will stick with STEM fields. In de Zavala’s higher grades — whose students joined before it was a STEM school — some elective STEM classes have just one girl enrolled.

American Eagle counts new customers after Sydney Sweeney ad frenzy and shares soar

Shares of American Eagle Outfitters spiked 34% Thursday after the teen clothing retailer said the frenzy surrounding its Sydney Sweeney ad campaign drew new customers during its most recent quarter.

American Eagle rolled out its new new ad campaign starring 27-year-old actor over the summer. The fall denim campaign sparked a debate about race, Western beauty standards, and the backlash to “woke” American politics and culture.

Negative reactions centered on ads that used the word “genes” instead of “jeans” featuring the blonde-haired, blue-eyed actor known for the HBO series “Euphoria” and “White Lotus.”

But American Eagle did get noticed, executives said late Wednesday in a call after the Pittsburgh retailer posted second quarter earnings.

Report calls on NATO to counter authoritarian manipulation, disinformation

OTTAWA - A resurgent North Atlantic Treaty Organization should play a leading role in fighting the growing aggression of authoritarian states in the online battlespace, says a new report from civil society groups.

The report, released by the Montreal Institute for Global Security and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Canada, warns that China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are working to expand their strategic influence and reshape global norms.

Their shared objectives include undermining U.S. leadership, discrediting western alliances — NATO in particular — and framing the West as hypocritical and neocolonial, the report says.

"Recognizing the scope of the threat is no longer enough," says the report Wired for War: How Authoritarian States are Weaponizing AI Against the West. "The authoritarian playbook is clear, and so too must be the democratic response."

RCMP arrest 16, including ‘Queen of Canada,’ at conspiracy compound in Saskatchewan

REGINA - RCMP say 16 people, including self-proclaimed "Queen of Canada" Romana Didulo, were arrested Wednesday in southwestern Saskatchewan.

Followers of Didulo, who has promoted various conspiracy theories, set up a "Kingdom of Canada" compound in an old school in Richmound, west of Regina, in 2023.

Insp. Ashley St. Germaine said Mounties learned last week that a person was in possession of a firearm at the property and a police operations team was organized.

A search warrant was executed and the 16 were arrested in the building, in some of the eight recreational vehicles parked at the site, and at a home in the village.

C-SPAN announces deal for its service to be carried on YouTube TV, Hulu

NEW YORK (AP) — C-SPAN said Wednesday that it had reached a deal to have its three channels air on YouTube TV and Hulu's live television feed, ending a dispute that had led to a revenue squeeze for the public affairs network in the cord-cutting era.

The network said the streaming services would pay the same fee as cable and satellite companies, roughly 87 cents a year per subscriber, and that C-SPAN would continue its no-advertising policy on television.

Congress involved itself in the issue, passing a resolution this spring calling on the services' parent companies — Alphabet for YouTube and Disney for Hulu — to add C-SPAN to their programming mix. Because congressional sessions and hearings represent a big portion of C-SPAN's programming, the politicians faced diminished airtime without a deal.

At its peak a decade ago, C-SPAN was seen in some 100 million homes with television. The number of homes paying for TV has since dropped to some 70 million, with roughly 20 million of those consumers now getting television through services like YouTube and Hulu, and they weren't showing C-SPAN.

Los Angeles school district settles with parents who sued over distance learning

Parents have agreed to settle a lawsuit that alleged the distance learning program used by the Los Angeles Unified School District during the COVID-19 pandemic failed to meet state educational standards and disproportionately harmed Black and Latino students, a lawyer for the families said.

Attorneys for parents who filed the class-action lawsuit in 2020 said the agreement would require the nation's second-largest school district to offer at least 45 hours of significant tutoring services a year to more than 100,000 of its most vulnerable students over the next three years in addition to teacher training and mandatory assessments. The goal is to help the district's most disadvantaged students, the lawyers said.

The deal must be approved by the court to take effect.

"For nearly five years, we have fought tirelessly on behalf of LAUSD students and their families to enforce students’ constitutional right to basic educational equality,” Edward Hillenbrand, one of the plaintiffs' pro bono attorneys, said in a statement on Wednesday.

AI chatbots changing online threat landscape as Ottawa reviews legislation

OTTAWA - Wrongful death lawsuits citing the activities of artificial intelligence chatbots are underway in the United States, as reports emerge of mental health issues and delusions induced by AI systems.

These incidents are drawing attention to the changing nature of the online threat landscape — just weeks after the Liberal government said it would review its online harms bill before reintroducing it in Parliament.

"Since the legislation was introduced, I think it's become all the more clear that tremendous harm can be facilitated by AI, and we're seeing that in particular in the space of chatbots and some of the tragedies," said Emily Laidlaw, Canada research chair in cybersecurity law at the University of Calgary.

The Online Harms Act, which died on the order paper when the election was called, would have required social media companies to outline how they plan to reduce the risks their platforms pose to users, and would have imposed on them a duty to protect children.

The defunded Corporation for Public Broadcasting will get one of TV’s biggest prizes

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting will be honored with one of the television's top prizes even as it winds down its nearly 60-year work after the U.S. government withdrew funding.

The organization, which has helped pay for PBS, NPR, 1,500 local radio and TV stations as well as programs like “Sesame Street” and “Finding Your Roots,” will be awarded the Television Academy's Governors Award, which honors those who have "made a profound, transformational and long-lasting contribution to the arts and/or science of television.”

It will be handed to Patricia de Stacy Harrison, the longest-serving president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony on Sept. 7.

“For more than half a century, CPB has been a steadfast champion of storytelling that informs, educates and unites us and ensures public media remains a vital space where diverse voices are heard and communities are served,” Television Academy Chair Cris Abrego said in a statement Tuesday.

Coming price cuts at McDonald’s may signal a broader fast food price war

McDonald’s is cutting prices on some combo meals to woo back customers who’ve been turned off by the rising costs of grabbing a fast food meal.

The price drop may induce its rivals, who have run into some of the same pricing issues, to follow.

Starting Sept. 8, McDonald’s will offer Extra Value Meals, which combine select entrées like a Big Mac, an Egg McMuffin or a McCrispy sandwich with medium fries or hash browns and a drink. Prices will vary by location, but McDonald’s said Extra Value Meals will cost 15% less than ordering each of those items separately.

To kick off the promotion, McDonald’s will offer an $8 Big Mac meal or a $5 Sausage McMuffin meal for a limited time in most of the country. Customers in California, Alaska, Hawaii and Guam will have to pay $1 more for those meals.

The RCMP and TikTok

A trend on TikTok has Canadians “challenging” RCMP officers to fake foot pursuits.