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.

A passenger jet reported hitting a drone approaching NY. A helicopter had a near miss hours later

A passenger jet reported striking a drone while approaching JFK International Airport on Monday, and just hours later, a helicopter pilot alerted a close call with a remote-control airplane near the same airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the first incident that happened as a JetBlue plane passed through 3,000 feet (914 meters) Monday morning whit it was crossing the coastline. The plane landed safely in New York without any additional help, and no damage was found when the plane was inspected afterwards.

“We collided with a drone back there in the turn,” the pilot told an air traffic controller, according to ATC.com. “It hit us right above the cockpit.”

The airline said all the passengers deplaned normally, and then the plane was removed from service so it could be inspected. JetBlue said the airline “found no damage or evidence of a collision.” The Airbus A321 plane was flying overnight into New York from Las Vegas.

Teen charged after Winnipeg teacher bombarded with disturbing images

A Grade 12 student has been charged after a police investigation into harassment against a teacher who was bombarded with sexually explicit messages — including intimate images of her generated by artificial intelligence.

The Winnipeg Police Service arrested a 17-year-old male on June 20 and charged him with one count each of criminal harassment, cybercrime-related mischief and the non-consensual distribution of intimate images.

He is also accused of making, printing, publishing, circulating and possessing explicit material.

“The emotional toll of this has been so huge,” said a newly certified teacher as she described the “sickening” messages she started receiving during her final practicum in the River East Transcona School Division.

Berry farms brave storms, eye opening days

Despite the unprecedented downpour, berry season is on in Manitoba.

Bright red strawberries have begun sprouting at Boonstra Farms — just two weeks after the Stonewall-area patch was hit by 11 inches of rain during a storm.

“Hopefully, it’ll still be an OK season,” said co-owner Danielle Boonstra. “We’re still hoping to open, probably after Canada Day.”

Torrential rain and cold temperatures have pushed strawberry picking season back to, likely, the first week of July. Haskap picking may start this weekend.

This old house is perfect

I’ve long maintained that the outside of my house is none of my business.

When it comes to the interior, my 102-year-old girl is very cute. When it comes to the exterior, her style is best described as “teardowncore.” The only look she’s serving is “haunted.”

My house did recently get a facelift in the form of new windows — she barely looks a day over 80 now — but I will admit I sometimes feel self-conscious about the peeling paint and crumbling stairs and … actually, I don’t have the word count to spare for the list. Especially as fancy-pants new builds pop up around it, replacing houses that looked a lot like mine. It’s hard not to internalize the subtext there.

I can usually counteract this with gratitude. It’s an immense privilege to own a home at all, especially one my husband and I have been able to pay for with words and creativity. It is, and has been, very good to us and I am proud of it.

Summer school for RESPs

If you’ve been saving for years for your child’s post-secondary education, and they are now ready to pursue higher learning in the fall, it’s not unusual to feel a little lost regarding how best to use that money.

That’s because the main savings vehicle for post-secondary learning, the Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP), is often complicated to unwind.

“There are definitely some unique aspects to taking out money from a RESP,” says Anthony Maros, senior private banker at BMO Private Wealth in Winnipeg.

Unlike a RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan) where every withdrawal is taxable because all contributions are made with after tax money (hence the deduction on contributions), RESPs involve taxable and non-taxable withdrawals.

Winnipeg Habitat home brings tears to the eye of single dad from Africa

Suleman Gado’s eyes filled with tears when the keys to his first house in Canada were placed in his hands Friday morning.

Beside him, his two sons, Gado and Mohammed, watched quietly as years of sacrifice and perseverance paid off.

“Very exciting day to me,” Suleman said. “And very emotional because I do not believe what I’m seeing today. A lot of amazing people who came out.”

Originally from Ghana, Suleman left his home country in 2015 to seek safety and a brighter future.

A large, harmless asteroid will zip past Earth this weekend

NEW YORK (AP) — A large asteroid will zip past Earth this weekend, but don't worry: It poses no danger.

The space rock — 1997 NC1 — makes its closest approach Saturday morning, coming within 1.6 million miles (2.6 million kilometers), according to the European Space Agency.

Discovered nearly three decades ago by an asteroid-tracking system in Hawaii, the asteroid is between 2,461 feet (0.75 kilometer) to 5,413 feet (1.65 kilometers) wide — roughly the size of two to four Empire State Buildings.

Skygazers with binoculars and small telescopes may be able to spot the asteroid as a small point of light passing harmlessly through the sky. It won't greet Earth from such a distance again until 2133, according to NASA.

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.

Bruce Oake Recovery Centre staff lead participants from darkness, despair of addiction

The Bruce Oake Recovery Centre is awash in summer light. Sun streams through the tall windows at the end of each hallway; through the glass walls of the group rooms, where the men here to recover from addiction are meeting; and through the entry atrium, where an urn holding the ashes of the centre’s namesake rests inside a glass case.

PM Carney says 24 Sussex to be restored with fundraising campaign, design competition

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled plans Friday to restore the prime minister's residence at 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa through a national design competition and fundraising campaign.

The prime minister said the winning design proposal will be announced by Canada Day of next year.

Carney said the heritage building is a "symbol of the nation" but has fallen into a "critical state" after decades of neglect, and he does not want to see it crumble.

“It has not been cared for with the respect it deserves," Carney said at a news conference outside the building on Friday.

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.

Staff shortages threaten defence-related projects, construction industry warns

Construction industry leaders are flagging potential staff shortages as the sector prepares for a surge of defence-related projects.

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.

Bible stories are approved as required reading in Texas public schools

DALLAS (AP) — Texas' education board on Friday approved a required reading list for more than 5 million public school students that includes Bible stories, widening conservative efforts to bring Christian teachings into U.S. classrooms.

The state-mandated list of assigned reading — which includes Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations” and excerpts from the New Testament — appeared to be among the first of its kind of the nation and will take effect starting in 2030.

The State Board of Education, which is controlled by Republicans, approved the list on a 9-5 vote following weeks of contentious debate that again put Texas at the center of wrangling over the role of religion in public schools. Last year, Texas became the largest state to require teachers to hang the Ten Commandments in every classroom.

The board this week was also considering new social studies curriculum that draws lines between Bible stories and American history.

Researchers put hail under microscope, take stock of June 9 storm

Jack Hamilton, a researcher with the Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory, and his team have been gathering evidence and data from the June 9 storm that brought record rainfall to Winnipeg and surrounding communities

One Extraordinary Photo: Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa’s special moment

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Silvia Izquierdo is a staff photojournalist with The Associated Press and is based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. During her 20-plus year career she has covered World Cup tournaments, the Olympics, breaking news, social issues and political developments.

Why this photo?

During halftime of Wednesday's match between Mexico and Czechia, the stadium lights went dark and thousands of fans illuminated the stands with their cellphone flashlights. When I spotted Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa warming up with his teammates on the field, I knew the moment carried special meaning. This is his sixth and final World Cup after saying he will retire from professional soccer after the tournament. When that happens it will bring to a close an impressive international career.

How I made this photo